Sony wanted full exclusivity of LIMBO, lost deal

Sony has said they lost the chance to have LIMBO released exclusively on the PlayStation Network due to wanting the IP itself from developer Playdead.

The Danish studio wished to maintain their rights to the IP but Sony were adamant that they wanted the IP for itself. Consequently, the firm lost out on one of the best indie titles in recent times to Microsoft, who allowed Playdead to keep the rights and sell the game on Xbox LIVE. SCE executive producer Pete Smith explained at the Develop Conference:

"I maybe shouldn't say this, but we had issues when we were trying to sign Limbo because of the IP. [Playdead] pitched a good game, and wanted to keep the IP, have a massive development spend, bigger royalties, and guaranteed unit sales and marketing spend. They'd have got one of those.

"There are obvious benefits to keeping [the IP], but also to giving it up: you're way more likely to get the deal. Remember: 100 per cent of nothing is nothing. A publisher is much more likely to commit to marketing and merchandising if they own the IP. 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."

Following its release on the Xbox 360, LIMBO, which has sold over a million units, launched on the PC and PlayStation 3 due to the 1-year exclusivity period with Microsoft coming to an end.