I will most likely be called a fanboy for this article, but let me tell you that those who normally use those kind of words are actually taking sides with the opposing system – you freakin’ fanboys! Okay, now that I got that off my shoulder let me begin my Sony praise.

Sony has been under a lot of fire with third party developers recently; “Your console is too expensive”, “your architecture is too complicated”, “omfg! ps3 sux0rs! l0lz!” etc, etc. Even through all this pressure Sony has shown a lot of confidence in their hardware and are marching through the fire with heads held high. On the other hand, Microsoft seem to think that we are in the dying days of the PlayStation 3 – PlayPocalypse, if you will.

Sony have lost a hand full of AAA exclusives to the Xbox 360, most recent franchise being Metal Gear Solid, but has it really, truly, effected progress of the PlayStation? Lets take a look. At last year’s E3 expo Microsoft´s biggest announcement was the exclusive content to the former PlayStation exclusive franchise, Grand Theft Auto. This time around, their biggest announcement seemed to be another former PlayStation exclusive franchise – Metal Gear Solid. Although this may seem like devastating blows to Sony’s console, they’ve definitely made recovery – and how? By introducing fresh, and new exclusive franchises to their consoles. So, Sony may have lost a few titles but they are definitely showing motivation by introducing something excitingly new.

In recent news Activision´s big cheese, Bobby Kotick, threatened Sony with discontinuing the support for all their system because he believed that the PlayStation 3 was far too expensive. Expensive? Really, Mr. Kotick? That extra cash is easily worth the unlimited online gaming and customer support – something that I otherwise I´d have to fork out a load for. Maybe his only problem is that the developers are not making the extra buck from PSN content. Part of the Xbox LIVE subscription fee goes into paying  for bandwidth, whereas Sony provide their content for free making developers pay for their own bandwidth. Seems fair to me. If you expect gamers to buy your products and extra content, why not pay for the distribution of the demos yourself? I know money is wonderful, but sometimes you got to spend it to make it.

Microsoft have definitely done a good job in keeping the developers happy. Sony may still be stuck in last generation in terms of game developer´s politics, but they are still focused on the main element of the industry, the gamers.

So, Mr. Activision. If you do decide to pack your bags and leave let me remind you that you are doing damage to yourself. You will be shunning an entire community of hardcore gamers and media/tech buffs. The gamers have already seen what the PlayStation 3 is capable of and for any developer or publisher that decides to threaten to abandon a console only to raise revenue in their software is a sign of corporate money-mongering. Game development is a form of art – it should be done for passion and not for the quick buck.