Season 3 PS4

[Espy]

From The Pinball Arcade Facebook page in response to someone asking the other day when season is coming to the PS 4.

The Pinball Arcade Because due to our contract with microsoft, the xbox one version must have season 2 for 30 days before we release it on PS4, we're already ready to go with them.

Seems strange that this applies to Season 2 but not Season 3...

 

[Biff]

Have Farsight ever made any official statement on this policy? As far as I have seen it has all been fan speculation which at some point has morphed into fact.

For example... how come everyone is convinced Season 2 will come out on Xbox One first, when PS4 is getting Season 3 tables already? Surely it would apply to them too.

Happy to be proven wrong on this, of course. But I haven't seen any real information on the subject.

This thread, previous page.

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/7813-Season-3-PS4?p=155483&viewfull=1#post155483

 

[thefly0810]

Seems strange that this applies to Season 2 but not Season 3...

They probably knew they were pushing the envelope with doing this with Season 2, so they probably wanted to avoid the pitchforks and torches from PS 4 community by not doing the same with Season 3. Of course, as slow as the pace is that they're at releasing the tables on the PS 4, we may inadvertently see the release of the rest of the Season 3 for the PS 4 30 days after the Xbox One anyways.

 

[smbhax]

Yesterday on their FB, in response to someone asking if PS3 had so far only gotten Black Rose and Fish Tales in Season 3, FS said "Unfortunately, this is true, however we're trying to get that fixed asap, which is why the next release has every table up to junkyard." I wonder if that will happen for the PS4 as well. Pretty sure they haven't mentioned the next release date for either platform yet, though.

 

[brakel]

Seems strange that this applies to Season 2 but not Season 3...

There was a grandfather clause. Any game that had been announced before MS announced the indy game program could get a pass on the exclusivity part of the deal. FarSight had announced the PS4 version with season one and monthly updates of season three with season two to be released at a later date. So FarSight got a pass on season one and season three updates but since they didn't announce a date for season two it gave MS a window to slam down the exclusivity hammer.

 

[rehtroboi40]

At this point, I no longer believe much of anything FarSight says about their relationship with Sony... Seven months without a patch for the crappy sound is 100% on FarSight. It's easy to point the finger at Sony for delays; obviously Sony won't respond publicly to the accusations. What's certain, however, is that virtually all of the other indie games on my PS4 receive patches seemingly without drama, with some patches coming just days after release. I can't imagine what Sony would gain by artificially delaying only FarSight's submissions. IMHO, the one-sided deal with MS and the constant delays with Sony both suggest that FarSight needs more competent personnel working on console relations.

Agreed, and welcome to the boards!

 

[Espy]

Man... do Microsoft not realise how much this hinders indie development? I thought they were trying to win them over. I'm surprised they haven't been forced to backtrack on their policy by now.

 

[thefly0810]

At this point, I no longer believe much of anything FarSight says about their relationship with Sony... Seven months without a patch for the crappy sound is 100% on FarSight. It's easy to point the finger at Sony for delays; obviously Sony won't respond publicly to the accusations. What's certain, however, is that virtually all of the other indie games on my PS4 receive patches seemingly without drama, with some patches coming just days after release. I can't imagine what Sony would gain by artificially delaying only FarSight's submissions. IMHO, the one-sided deal with MS and the constant delays with Sony both suggest that FarSight needs more competent personnel working on console relations.

I agree as well. I love their product, but it's hard to take what FarSight says at face value anymore. They say that they removed the Season 3 Pass in order to remain fair across the board with the Apple situation, yet it's still available to buy on Steam. Season 2 has been listed as "coming Soon" in the PS 4 menus since almost launch. It went from FarSight saying "We're reworking the tables now, you'll see season 3 tables first," to "Because due to our contract with microsoft, the xbox one version must have season 2 for 30 days before we release it on PS4, we're already ready to go with them". I don't know what it is. Do they need new PR staff? Did they spread themselves out too thin trying to meet the demand of multi-platform releases? Something just seems to be off there. I'll still continue to support them by buying the PS4 season 2 and 3 passes when they become available. But at this stage it appears that FarSight has attended the Team ICO's - The Last Guardian School for Console Game Development and Delays. (Just kidding. It's not that bad yet)

 

[thefly0810]

Man... do Microsoft not realise how much this hinders indie development? I thought they were trying to win them over. I'm surprised they haven't been forced to backtrack on their policy by now.

I know what you mean. It seems some indie developers are winning the battle but not all. It will be interesting to see what happens with Zen with the release of Pinball FX 2 on the XBOX One. Are there only only going to be a limited amount of tables available at launch, as was the case with the PS 4 release. Or (to quote Brakel) did MS slam down the "exclusivity hammer" and all the PB FX 2 tables will available at launch.

 

[Rafie]

I know what you mean. It seems some indie developers are winning the battle but not all. It will be interesting to see what happens with Zen with the release of Pinball FX 2 on the XBOX One. Are there only only going to be a limited amount of tables available at launch, as was the case with the PS 4 release. Or (to quote Brakel) did MS slam down the "exclusivity hammer" and all the PB FX 2 tables will available at launch.

I doubt that. Will referring to slamming down the exclusivity hammer. Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma wasn't released on PS4 and a host of other tables. To make it fair, I see Zen doing the same for Xbox. I mean taking one of the exclusive tables like Ms. Splosion Man away to keep the masses (PS fans) from overheating. Zen had enough shade thrown at them when they seemed to play favorites with MS versus Sony. Xbox has 11 more exclusive tables over Sony with Zen. Add to the fact that Zen released Zen Pinball's Core tables that was exclusive to PS fans for a bit, on the 360...Zen caught a LOT of heat! Rightfully so as much as I love Zen. So I believe those 4 tables that weren't available on PS4 won't be available on Xbox either. Ever since that time with the ZP core table fiasco to the 360, Zen really doesn't want exclusives on platforms anymore. They want their tables available on ALL platforms. That's why I said we won't be seeing Ms. Splosion Man, Rocky & Bullwinkle, etc on the XBox One.

Now for FarSight, I'm surprised that they were able to speak about the parity clause. At least they admitted it. To be fair though, FarSight did say that Season 2 would come much later than Season 3 anyway. Don't know if it was due to this clause, or if the tables just weren't ready yet.

 

[Kratos3]

I doubt that. Will referring to slamming down the exclusivity hammer. Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma wasn't released on PS4 and a host of other tables. To make it fair, I see Zen doing the same for Xbox. I mean taking one of the exclusive tables like Ms. Splosion Man away to keep the masses (PS fans) from overheating. Zen had enough shade thrown at them when they seemed to play favorites with MS versus Sony. Xbox has 11 more exclusive tables over Sony with Zen. Add to the fact that Zen released Zen Pinball's Core tables that was exclusive to PS fans for a bit, on the 360...Zen caught a LOT of heat! Rightfully so as much as I love Zen. So I believe those 4 tables that weren't available on PS4 won't be available on Xbox either. Ever since that time with the ZP core table fiasco to the 360, Zen really doesn't want exclusives on platforms anymore. They want their tables available on ALL platforms. That's why I said we won't be seeing Ms. Splosion Man, Rocky & Bullwinkle, etc on the XBox One.

Now for FarSight, I'm surprised that they were able to speak about the parity clause. At least they admitted it. To be fair though, FarSight did say that Season 2 would come much later than Season 3 anyway. Don't know if it was due to this clause, or if the tables just weren't ready yet.

Rocky and Bullwinkle?

 

[rehtroboi40]

Rocky and Bullwinkle?

The 1993 Data East table was far better than the Zen (Pinball FX2) version.

 

[Espy]

I know what you mean. It seems some indie developers are winning the battle but not all. It will be interesting to see what happens with Zen with the release of Pinball FX 2 on the XBOX One. Are there only only going to be a limited amount of tables available at launch, as was the case with the PS 4 release. Or (to quote Brakel) did MS slam down the "exclusivity hammer" and all the PB FX 2 tables will available at launch.

Do Zen count as indie? They're a pretty sizeable software house with a lot of big games and big brands under their belt.

 

[thefly0810]

Do Zen count as indie? They're a pretty sizeable software house with a lot of big games and big brands under their belt.

Zen Pinball 2 is listed underneath the indie section for both the PS3 and Vita on the Playstation Store. I think they're just a well run, successful indie company.

 

[thefly0810]

I doubt that. Will referring to slamming down the exclusivity hammer. Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma wasn't released on PS4 and a host of other tables. To make it fair, I see Zen doing the same for Xbox. I mean taking one of the exclusive tables like Ms. Splosion Man away to keep the masses (PS fans) from overheating. Zen had enough shade thrown at them when they seemed to play favorites with MS versus Sony. Xbox has 11 more exclusive tables over Sony with Zen. Add to the fact that Zen released Zen Pinball's Core tables that was exclusive to PS fans for a bit, on the 360...Zen caught a LOT of heat! Rightfully so as much as I love Zen. So I believe those 4 tables that weren't available on PS4 won't be available on Xbox either. Ever since that time with the ZP core table fiasco to the 360, Zen really doesn't want exclusives on platforms anymore. They want their tables available on ALL platforms. That's why I said we won't be seeing Ms. Splosion Man, Rocky & Bullwinkle, etc on the XBox One.

Now for FarSight, I'm surprised that they were able to speak about the parity clause. At least they admitted it. To be fair though, FarSight did say that Season 2 would come much later than Season 3 anyway. Don't know if it was due to this clause, or if the tables just weren't ready yet.

I understand what you're saying about Zen and I agree with you. I was making more of a reference to Microsoft's parity policies than I was to Zen. I agree with what you're saying about what Zen wants to do in order to be fair, but what MS may demand to meet it's parity clause is another thing. Is it going to be the same limited tables as the PS 4, or will PBFX 2 for the Xbox One going to have those tables, along with Street Fighter, Excalibur, Mars, Zen Originals pack, the PBFX2 Core Pack, Captain America, Marvel Civil War, Fantastic Four, and the Marvel Vengeance & Virtue pack as well? They have the Season 2 30 day contract with The Pinball Arcade, so I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar with Zen where some or all of those tables are released for PBFX 2 first, and then released for ZP 2 30 days later. It will be interesting to see. As long as more tables come to both games for the PS 4, I don't care what demands MS has about being the 1st for everything, just release the games on the XBOX One already so you stop slowing down progress for everyone else.

 

[ER777]

I thought I read a while back that the reason they limited the offerings for PS4 was because Sony would only allow them to retroactively install cross-buy on a certain number of DLC items. So Zen held off on the other tables until they figured out how to handle that. I thought the plan was that eventually all of the tables would be on Zen 2 for PS4 as well once they sorted that out, has that intention changed at some point? (Looking for a response from someone like Shogun or Rafie that are still active on Zen's forum)

Edit: Thankfully we know that all of the TPA tables will be on every platform in time and we don't have to worry partial releases in the long run. I can be patient as long as its rewarded in the end.

 

[Rafie]

I understand what you're saying about Zen and I agree with you. I was making more of a reference to Microsoft's parity policies than I was to Zen. I agree with what you're saying about what Zen wants to do in order to be fair, but what MS may demand to meet it's parity clause is another thing. Is it going to be the same limited tables as the PS 4, or will PBFX 2 for the Xbox One going to have those tables, along with Street Fighter, Excalibur, Mars, Zen Originals pack, the PBFX2 Core Pack, Captain America, Marvel Civil War, Fantastic Four, and the Marvel Vengeance & Virtue pack as well? They have the Season 2 30 day contract with The Pinball Arcade, so I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar with Zen where some or all of those tables are released for PBFX 2 first, and then released for ZP 2 30 days later. It will be interesting to see. As long as more tables come to both games for the PS 4, I don't care what demands MS has about being the 1st for everything, just release the games on the XBOX One already so you stop slowing down progress for everyone else.

For the reasons I stated above, I doubt we'll be seeing that on the Xbox One if the PS4 doesn't have it. Zen has been really good with keeping content across all platforms consistent and the same (except with the Wii U and 3DS). Zen hasn't really done that before with giving Xbox tables first, then giving it to PlayStation. They release at the same time. The only time that has ever happened is Zen Original 4 pack table dropped for the Xbox. I mean if it does happen that Xbox One gets all of those tables first and then PS....there is going to be some turmoil. I don't have a problem with it as long as it comes to PlayStation. So we definitely agree there. I don't know the exact specifics on MS's parity clause, so I'll stop blind speculating. Just going by what I've seen and heard.

 

[Rafie]

I thought I read a while back that the reason they limited the offerings for PS4 was because Sony would only allow them to retroactively install cross-buy on a certain number of DLC items. So Zen held off on the other tables until they figured out how to handle that. I thought the plan was that eventually all of the tables would be on Zen 2 for PS4 as well once they sorted that out, has that intention changed at some point? (Looking for a response from someone like Shogun or Rafie that are still active on Zen's forum)

Edit: Thankfully we know that all of the TPA tables will be on every platform in time and we don't have to worry partial releases in the long run. I can be patient as long as its rewarded in the end.

Hmmm...I honestly don't know. I've heard of that reasoning for the absent tables for PS4. I just haven't heard about it in a long time. Barbie said that if enough demand for those tables are voiced, then she'll let the team know about it. That's all I got from that. Shogun probably knows more about that situation than anyone. Or....I can just ask Barbie myself.

 

[Metalzoic]

I've been hoping they will eventually put the older tables up for sale. They don't need to give them to us free as cross-buy.

 

[ER777]

Hmmm...I honestly don't know. I've heard of that reasoning for the absent tables for PS4. I just haven't heard about it in a long time. Barbie said that if enough demand for those tables are voiced, then she'll let the team know about it. That's all I got from that. Shogun probably knows more about that situation than anyone. Or....I can just ask Barbie myself.

Yeah I haven't heard anything about it in a while either but I don't keep up over there like I used to.

I've been hoping they will eventually put the older tables up for sale. They don't need to give them to us free as cross-buy.

I feel exactly the same way. This might be one time where they could follow TPA's lead and just offer a discounted bundle to people that owned it before. I wouldn't even blink at paying full price again though.