Sony Admits Missing Out On Limbo Because of IP Issues

At last week’s Develop Conference, Sony admitted that they missed out on the chance to release the immensely popular platformer Limbo as a PlayStation Network exclusive.

According to EDGE, at the Develop Conference, Sony’s Executive Producer Pete Smith admitted why talks with PlayDead studios fell through.

“I maybe shouldn’t say this, but we had issues when we were trying to sign Limbo because of the IP,” Smith said. “There are obvious benefits to keeping it, but also to giving it up: you’re way more likely to get the deal. Remember: 100% of nothing is nothing. A publisher is much more likely to commit to marketing and merchandising if they own the IP.”

Smith went on to try to explain the reasoning behind wanting to take over the intellectual property PlayDead worked so hard to create.

“Sometimes all we want is protection so [devs] don’t make a game, finish it then go to one of our rivals. We look at IP on a case by case basis. With a bit of common sense you can find common ground.”

It seems as if Sony just did not use enough common sense because PlayDead saw no common ground. They took their IP to Xbox Live and sold over 300,00 copies in the first month. By the end of 2010, it had sold over 500,000 copies.

Limbo eventually made its way to the PSN, and even became the best selling third party game in 2011. Currently, over 1,000,000 copies of Limbo have been sold. If Sony had got there first, the lucrative dark platformer would have undoubtedly been a serious source of revenue.