Limbo PS3 exclusivity deal unraveled over Sony wanting rights

News by Patrick Garratt Founder & Publisher (Former)

Published on July 16, 2012

A potential PS3 exclusivity deal for Limbo, which would have kept the creepy platformer from Xbox 360 and PC, fell apart because Sony wanted Playdead to give up its IP rights, Edge is reporting.

Sony Computer Entertainment executive producer Pete Smith dropped the news at UK conference Develop last week.

He said Sony was in talks with Danish studio Playdead about releasing the game exclusively on PSN, but that talks broke down as Sony insisted on retaining IP rights. Playdead refused.

"I maybe shouldn't say this, but we had issues when we were trying to sign Limbo because of the IP," Smith said.

He added: "There are obvious benefits to keeping [your IP], but also to giving it up: you're way more likely to get the deal. Remember: 100 percent 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."

Limbo released exclusively on XBLA in 2010, and was followed later by PSN and PC releases. It had sold more than 1 million units by the end of 2011.