Sony disses 360's first-party support

The Xbox 360 may have strong third-party support with Mass Effect and Alan Wake and Left 4 Dead, but Sony America bigwig Rob Dyer reckons the rival console's first-party line-up doesn't hold a candle to what Sony's offering on PS3.

"They have very few first-party studios at Microsoft. Bungie's next Halo is the last one, Rare rarely puts out anything, you've got Peter Molyneux with his Fable stuff... but they don't have first-party development studios inside at Redmond or anywhere for that matter," Dyer told IndustryGamers, (via GamesIndustry.biz). "We do."

"So rather than putting their money behind that, they've been going to Epic or Valve or BioWare to do what they did with Mass Effect, and that's where they throw their dollars."

"We're not going to compete with Microsoft on that front," he added. "But what we have is a global business here. Our global business is bigger than 360's and will continue to get bigger than 360, and people are seeing that. We passed them in Europe and they don't even exist in Japan, and we're going to catch them and pass them here in the US as well."

Dyer said third-party console exclusives aren't going to happen "nearly as often" in the future, but that extra game content and strong advertising campaigns will swing buyers one way or the other - he used Batman: Arkham Asylum, which on PS3 included a playable Joker character, as an example.

"The PS3 version outsold the 360 version, and what we've said to [developers] is, 'if you take advantage of what the PS3 can deliver – more content on the Blu-ray disc, better graphics, being able to get more of what the player wants onto the disc – you're going to see those sales translate'."