Diablo 3 + Xbox One; Possible reason for no release date.
Was reading this article and I have a suspicion on what may be the cause of the holdup on an Xbox One announcement. May also explain the lack of a PS4 release date.
Both consoles, PS4 and Xbox One have evolved their console stores and apps in this last generation. And probably the biggest change for the better has been that (at least so far), every game released has been available digitally.
I know I had my beef with the PS3 because I'd often want to try something new or something I had read about and it wasn't in the online store. Often, these were titles that may not be the newest (though even those some times didn't appear online either) or the most popular titles and so they wouldn't even have them in physical stores. I'm not a dedicated gamer. I'm not ordering discs online, trudging through second hand stores or going through Kijiji. If I can't buy it straight on the console or in a Best Buy/Wal-Mart type store at the exact moment I want it, then I simply won't get it. Since some of those times are when I'm at home on a couch anyway, not having it in a digital format probably killed plenty of potential sales of PS3 games for me.
So, why does this matter? Well, I haven't heard any solid evidence on the topic, but for both Sony and Microsoft to be so successful with their digital stores and getting titles in, there must be some sort of mandatory terms or contract defining how that relationship works. How much the store owner gets per copy sold, etc...
This, I believe, is the heart of the matter. Remember when Windows 8 was announced? The 2 companies who cried loudest over Microsoft's new Windows Store were 2 of the biggest companies in the Windows ecosystem making their money from digital sales. Valve (Steam) and Blizzard.
While most companies and individuals would and should be fine with someone like Microsoft hosting their games, even if it means sacrificing a cut of the profits, a small number of companies have actually been successful enough on their own, that surrendering the cut of the profits Microsoft wants would be a cut too deep. For most people, using Microsoft's Store means far more exposure than you would be able to guarantee on your own, and the cut they take pays for itself easily enough.
I speculate both Microsoft and Sony have similar infrastructure in place for their online game stores, and I doubt Blizzard's stance has changed since the Windows Store fiasco.
So, why announce it is coming to PS4 already and not Xbox One yet?
This is more speculative than the rest; But, Sony has generally been more willing to make concessions to get things moving. I'll wager that Sony has promised to address Blizzard's concerns to a sufficient degree, but they simply aren't sure when the changes will take effect yet (likely means code level changes to their store, special billing arrangements, etc...). Microsoft on the other hand, generally seems to be more rigid with their policies. They can be willing to make exceptions, but not always, and not for everyone. Since they are at least talking about Xbox One, it sounds like there is probably some positive momentum, but I'm guessing that they likely don't even have an agreement in place yet.
I think this theory makes sense. Reading the article, it sounds like they are developing for both systems in parallel. The game has been ported to the 360 and PS3 in addition to the PC and Mac so cranking out a new port is nothing new for this team, and I doubt there is any reason why an Xbox One port would be substantially far behind a PS4 one. It also explains why, while the PS4 announcement has been made, it doesn't have a date.
Also, the theory that both Sony and Microsoft have some policy and contracts around the stores makes sense. It costs them money to host all of that content and for bandwidth to upload the games to consumers. They either need to eat that loss, charge the game companies up front, or take a slice of the download cost. And today in the industry, the percentage cut of the downloads seems to be lowest common denominator.
And lastly, we already know that Blizzard has a problem with this business model. So we would expect it to be a point of contention here as well and cause delays at the least. The fact that they really haven't come straight out and said "Yes" to delivering it on Xbox One seems to imply to me that they are still at a point where they would consider scrapping the project on that console.
Both consoles, PS4 and Xbox One have evolved their console stores and apps in this last generation. And probably the biggest change for the better has been that (at least so far), every game released has been available digitally.
I know I had my beef with the PS3 because I'd often want to try something new or something I had read about and it wasn't in the online store. Often, these were titles that may not be the newest (though even those some times didn't appear online either) or the most popular titles and so they wouldn't even have them in physical stores. I'm not a dedicated gamer. I'm not ordering discs online, trudging through second hand stores or going through Kijiji. If I can't buy it straight on the console or in a Best Buy/Wal-Mart type store at the exact moment I want it, then I simply won't get it. Since some of those times are when I'm at home on a couch anyway, not having it in a digital format probably killed plenty of potential sales of PS3 games for me.
So, why does this matter? Well, I haven't heard any solid evidence on the topic, but for both Sony and Microsoft to be so successful with their digital stores and getting titles in, there must be some sort of mandatory terms or contract defining how that relationship works. How much the store owner gets per copy sold, etc...
This, I believe, is the heart of the matter. Remember when Windows 8 was announced? The 2 companies who cried loudest over Microsoft's new Windows Store were 2 of the biggest companies in the Windows ecosystem making their money from digital sales. Valve (Steam) and Blizzard.
While most companies and individuals would and should be fine with someone like Microsoft hosting their games, even if it means sacrificing a cut of the profits, a small number of companies have actually been successful enough on their own, that surrendering the cut of the profits Microsoft wants would be a cut too deep. For most people, using Microsoft's Store means far more exposure than you would be able to guarantee on your own, and the cut they take pays for itself easily enough.
I speculate both Microsoft and Sony have similar infrastructure in place for their online game stores, and I doubt Blizzard's stance has changed since the Windows Store fiasco.
So, why announce it is coming to PS4 already and not Xbox One yet?
This is more speculative than the rest; But, Sony has generally been more willing to make concessions to get things moving. I'll wager that Sony has promised to address Blizzard's concerns to a sufficient degree, but they simply aren't sure when the changes will take effect yet (likely means code level changes to their store, special billing arrangements, etc...). Microsoft on the other hand, generally seems to be more rigid with their policies. They can be willing to make exceptions, but not always, and not for everyone. Since they are at least talking about Xbox One, it sounds like there is probably some positive momentum, but I'm guessing that they likely don't even have an agreement in place yet.
I think this theory makes sense. Reading the article, it sounds like they are developing for both systems in parallel. The game has been ported to the 360 and PS3 in addition to the PC and Mac so cranking out a new port is nothing new for this team, and I doubt there is any reason why an Xbox One port would be substantially far behind a PS4 one. It also explains why, while the PS4 announcement has been made, it doesn't have a date.
Also, the theory that both Sony and Microsoft have some policy and contracts around the stores makes sense. It costs them money to host all of that content and for bandwidth to upload the games to consumers. They either need to eat that loss, charge the game companies up front, or take a slice of the download cost. And today in the industry, the percentage cut of the downloads seems to be lowest common denominator.
And lastly, we already know that Blizzard has a problem with this business model. So we would expect it to be a point of contention here as well and cause delays at the least. The fact that they really haven't come straight out and said "Yes" to delivering it on Xbox One seems to imply to me that they are still at a point where they would consider scrapping the project on that console.
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