Braid Dev: New Xbox 'Not Strictly About Games'

joshuaboy · March 2013

Jonathan Blow explains why The Witness will come to PlayStation 4 first.

Jonathan Blow, the independent game developer behind Braid, revealed his new game The Witness at Sony’s PlayStation 4 reveal. And while it’s not a PlayStation 4 exclusive, it will be on Sony’s platform first.

Speaking with Edge Online, Blow notes that the new, still-unknown Xbox 360 successor is “not strictly about games,” leading him to PlayStation 4 as a result.

“To me they talk about a console that is not strictly about games. It’s trying to be the center of the living room device, which is fine and maybe it’s the right thing for Microsoft to do, business-wise. I don’t know; I actually don’t think it is, but they’ve certainly thought about it more than me!”

Blow then goes into his previous working relationship with Microsoft. “I’ve had a bad time working with Microsoft in the past. Maybe not super bad, but a moderately bad time in terms of business relationships. Other developers who are friends of mine have had a horrible time, so the idea of signing up again with Microsoft isn’t something I’d have ruled out, but there’s a certain amount of dread I have about doing that again.”

He notes that he doesn’t “have that feeling with Sony.” But he goes on to say, “Who knows, maybe it’ll turn out to be just as bad at the end! But I don’t think so.”

This isn’t the first time Blow has made his unhappiness with Microsoft known. He noted back in February that he doesn’t “have good communication with anyone at Microsoft right now,” while echoing the same general sentiment from the Edge interview, noting that his studio “likes the positioning of the PS4 more than what we perceive Microsoft’s positioning is going to be.”