Dust 514 is one of the most interesting prospects of 2012. Besides its bold attempt to extend a nine-year old MMORPG's world into a new genre, allowing that experience to both be played on console and handheld is perhaps even more daring. But not everyone will be able to play Dust 514, and its developer CCP Games recently explained why it's only coming to Sony's platforms.
David Reid, Chief Marking Officer at CCP Games, spoke about why Dust 514 won't be coming to the Xbox 360 or Wii U in a recent interview with DigitalSpy. He explained:
"Think about the impact of virtual goods policies. People at CCP and Sony have sat in rooms to work this out. It's not been this 'Here's this virtual goods policy. You must adhere to it or else you can't be on our platform,"
Based on news in the past, Reid appears to be referring to Microsoft's stringent rules. They have been known to make it extremely difficult for developers to release their game on Xbox, going as far as to make absolutely no exceptions no matter what it means for their customer base.
He continued:
"So we had the issue of enabling thousands of EVE players to chat with millions of PlayStation users. We worked with Sony to find a solution to this, and that solution is not something we could have discovered with Xbox."
Microsoft's unwillingness to work with developers to release games have costed their platform several titles in the past. After plenty of negative light on the matter last year you'd think Microsoft would change their policies. More games is better for everyone involved, and given that Dust 514 is a first-person shooter by heart it'd make sense on Xbox. How disappointing.
Dust 514 will be releasing this Summer for the PlayStation 3 along with a Vita app which will have a variety of implications for the game. Stay tuned for more on this game as it nears its release.
