LIMBO is the perfect indie game story: Small studio (PlayDead) makes innovative and interesting game, said game is published on a major platform, player buy game by the millions. By the end of its first month on Xbox Live Arcade, LIMBO had moved over 300,000 copies. However, Xbox Live wasn’t PlayDead’s first choice—they initially took the game to Sony.

Unfortunately for PlayDead, Sony seemed to be far more concerned about its own financial future than that of its developers. Apparently, the studio and publisher hit an impasse when Sony refused to offer LIMBO on PSN unless PlayDead transferred the IP rights—in other words, Sony wouldn’t publish the game unless it owned the LIMBO property completely.

PlayDead naturally balked at the offer, and instead brought the game to Xbox Live. You know the story from there; huge sales and an eventual migration to PSN anyway, this time with IP rights intact. Said SCE executive producer Pete Smith:

“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.”

Common sense, huh? How’d that work out for you guys?

[Edge]

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