Limbo on PS3, Steam: why now?

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 12 July, 2011

End of Xbox 360 exclusivity opens door.

Limbo developer Playdead has explained why it has taken a year for superb downloadable game Limbo to launch on the PlayStation Network and Steam.

Limbo began life as a PC game, but Danish developer Playdead decided to make the abstract puzzle platformer multiplatform. It was through this process that Microsoft secured Xbox 360 exclusivity in exchange for its support.

Limbo was then released as an Xbox Live Arcade title in July 2010 as part of Microsoft's Summer of Arcade promotion.

Now, a year later, Limbo is coming to the PlayStation 3 and the PC.

"Initially, Arnt Jensen, my partner and game director for Playdead, was interested in releasing Limbo as a PC title," Playdead CEO and co-founder Dino Patti told Eurogamer.

"During production, however, we decided to bring it to all platforms, which would offer the full experience to the gamers.

"When it came to the actual coordination with the specific platforms holders, Microsoft provided us with an excellent opportunity, which included a lot of support for the title which in the end would mean a better visibility for Limbo.

"That deal also included exclusivity. So that and production/QA are the things which has been keeping us [from releasing Limbo on PS3, PC]."

The PSN and Steam versions of Limbo contain a "little extra secret" but Patti refused to reveal what it is, or discuss pricing.

He did say, however, that Limbo's success - a whopping two million people played the Xbox Live demo - will help Playdead make games the way it wants to.

"We love that the the game has been seen and played by so many people," he continued. "Over two million people have played the demo. Besides that Limbo has gotten a lot of positive attention by the fans, people and magazines we respect.

"We hope that this foundation will make it easier for us in the future to get our games created as Arnt and the team would want them to be."

So what's next?

"Arnt will be directing our next title as well, and the team has undertaken many new challenges, so I can't wait to show it, though there will probably be a while before we are ready."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 11 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • TonyCB #1 11 months ago

    Eurogamer investigative journalism states the obvious once more....

  • Saxo #2 11 months ago

    gonna buy it for pc

  • ChunKyPiglets #3 11 months ago

    I hope the secret is the soundtrack!!

    Imagine a numb crowd of souls rocking back and forth, in a nightclub, listening to the dull echoes of Limbo....

  • cheeky_BILLY #4 11 months ago

    Can't wait to try this on PS3. Had a quick play on mates 360 and loved it.

  • ChunKyPiglets #5 11 months ago

    Me.

    Well that's 1....

  • AnotherIdiot #6 11 months ago

    I didn't buy it because unlike some other platforms the 360 actually allows you to try the non-refundable games before paying for them. After trying the game I thought that aside from the novel art style there was nothing really special about.

    Oh yeah then I went back to playing Gears of war 4 because i'm a boneheaded xbox owner who can't appreciate games like this.

  • captain_Carl #7 11 months ago

    Bloody hell who'd have guessed?

    Thanks for letting us know, EG. Whoah. I'm shocked.

  • Jolly_Armadillo #8 11 months ago

    Played on xbox, was good got the annoyingly tedious; complete game without dieing achievement. Was on par with braid I thought

  • AdamAsunder #9 11 months ago

    Deserves as big a market as possible. It's a game that won't age badly either so a year delay isn't too bad at all.

  • customfirmware #10 11 months ago

    subliminal marketing..

  • HyperTails #11 11 months ago

    Looking forward to this, hope its as brilliant as i'm lead to believe.

    Question is though, i'm playing through Outland at the moment, and think its fantastic. Is Limbo on par with, or better than, Outland (directed at those who own both)?

  • greenfanguy #12 11 months ago

    Bought it on xbla, loved it, will probably buy it again on Steam. I've had games stir up a variety of emotions for me, but Limbo was the first to make me actually feel something akin to depression while playing. In a good way. :|

  • alcides #13 11 months ago

    It was through this process that Microsoft secured Xbox 360 exclusivity in exchange for its money .

    Am I the only one who finds this habit of Microsoft to stall games on other platforms rather than making their own pathetic, annoying and feckless?

  • Subdominator #14 11 months ago

    @spacedelete: Average game purchases : demo downloadss ratio for downloadable games is 1:4, with the added marketing campaign it should be well over 500.000 by now.

  • azic #15 11 months ago

    Too late... I now don't buy secured (not first party) exclusives anymore. It's greedy and false.
    Started as a PC game uh? Too fucking little to fucking late IMHO.

  • TheNinkyNonk #16 11 months ago

    INTERESTING ARTICLE INSIDE!
    Strapline negates further reading.

  • higgins78 #17 11 months ago

    I can finally admit it...I had always been jealous this game was exclusive for Microsoft's 360. I played the demo at a mates house some time back and enjoyed it, now its safe to say I will definitely purchase it when it arrives via PSN. Now if only we could open the door for other 360 exclusives such as Trials HD, Shadow Complex, Super Meat Boy, 'Splosion Man, Perfect Dark and Rez HD to make their way via PSN I will be truly fulfilled. XBLA has for sure been a success story compared with the slightly lacking PSN.

  • IneptPercy #18 11 months ago

    Well after playing this from start to end on my 360 I really can say everybody should buy it.

    This is only a good thing for gamers.

  • Lexx87 #19 11 months ago

    Why on earth are you guys even here, reading this, and then commenting on it...if it's of no interest to you. Just to make a pithy comment? It's the same people every time as well, spouting the same little comments. I don't get the point of it all.

  • Jamiesan #20 11 months ago

    Similarly to Mass Effect 2, I'm glad I'll soon be able to talk about this game with my PS3-owning mates.

  • A_Nonny #21 11 months ago

    Aside from being a 2D platformer, Limbo is nothing like Outland, although they're both great. Limbo is shorter, and it's all about the puzzles. Just oodles of puzzles. And fear and dread and giant spiders and big sticks with spikes in them and drowning and dying and dying and dying a lot.

    As for the exclusivity, it's not like the game was finished and Microsoft just paid to have it delayed for other platforms. They helped with the production costs.
    Edited by A_Nonny at 13/07/11 @ 00:25

  • orangpelupa #22 11 months ago

    played limbo on disc on xbox live triple pack (before it i didnt know this game exist...). Very interesting and unique game (in play, feel, and art), glad to see more people able to enjoy it

    @junky
    actually you can do that, just connect the xbox HDD to PC using microsoft transfer cable. THen you just need a program to copy the datato PC and voila, you get the sounds.

  • drumbaby #23 11 months ago

    So the reason I didn't play it on my PS3 was because it was an Xbox exclusive....hmmmmm.

    You're kidding me, right EG?

  • Murton #24 11 months ago

    "During production, however, we decided to bring it to all platforms, which would offer the full experience to the gamers."

    If I were in his position I'd have kept this fact to myself. While many will know and understand why some indies sign exclusivity arrangements (the support offered by MS and Sony is great) admitting that your game was intended for everyone and then tied to a single platform for a whole year isn't going to fill many with confidence regarding your future titles.

    Looking forward to finally having the chance to play Limbo though, I just hope that with freedom of pricing they don't try to put a markup on it, there was heavy criticism for the game costing 1200 MSP (PlayDead wanted to charge 800 MSP but MS set the XBLA prices), don't really fancy the idea of paying in excess of a tenner for what really should be sold at the £6.29 price point given the amount of content on offer.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #25 11 months ago

    Sony used to request an additional 20% content if a game was being ported to there console at a later date. So the little secret ain't to surprising.

  • dr_zoidthrob #26 11 months ago

    I really must get round to finishing it (or attempting to) at some point. It's a lovely game.

  • NorUraeus #27 11 months ago

    I can't help but feel this new story in an exercise in the obvious. Almost waiting for stories like 'Sony reveals that the reason the red PS3 controller is red instead of black is because they mix red colour into the plastic' to come next :)

  • HL706 #28 11 months ago

    Limbo was fresh, new and different. I presonally didn't like it (although I still bought it!) but I'm really glad it did well :)

  • mukki #29 11 months ago

    good news for all non-360 owners!

    and if the little secret is BIG enough might even get this on ps3...

    lovely game

  • mukki #30 11 months ago

    good news for all non-360 owners!

    and if the little secret is BIG enough might even get this on ps3...

    lovely game

  • 00.00.01 #31 11 months ago

    @GamesProgrammer 13/07/11 @ 08:22
    That's the way the industry (unfortunately) is. A similar fact is that (bigger) Dev's/Publ's hand out 'exclusive' content to bypass critical submission failures.

  • JayKwon #32 11 months ago

    Limbo is one of the best games I downloaded on XBLA, if not one of the best games I've played on xbox, if not one of the best games I've played of all time. Limbo grows on you. It leaves things in a subtile way to the imagination and delivers other things right in your face with you expecting this but still throroughly enjoying it and licking it of your face, because it is that good.

    Everybody should play Limbo. And, although totally different in their own artistic genre, Braid for that matter.

    @ Playdead, no worries, even a lot of non-gamer friends who come to my house really enjoy playing your game although they couldn't buy it. Maybe they now will :).

  • Murton #33 11 months ago

    "That's the way the industry (unfortunately) is. A similar fact is that (bigger) Dev's/Publ's hand out 'exclusive' content to bypass critical submission failures."

    In my experience that's something that the middle ground guys have to do, the big boys will get a free pass because neither platform holder will risk giving the other a big exclusive by failing it. Take Fallout 3 as a perfect example, there's a 100% hit rate progress halting bug (GOAT bug) all of fifteen minutes into the game, an instant fail on both platforms yet the game was not only released but the bug is still there, another version of the same bug exists in Operation Anchorage as well. (Chinese General bug) Then there's the memory leak of course. Had that game been made by anyone other than Bethesda it would have been failed and pushed back until Christmas or even the New Year to be brought up to release standard.

  • MakeYourself #34 11 months ago

    @HyperTails, Limbo and Outland are both fantastic games, two of the best XBLA games I've ever played, but both for completely different reasons. Outland is quite substantial with upgrades and trekking back and forth etc. and I played through the entire thing on co-op which just made it so much fun.

    Limbo on the other hand is really quite short but pure genius with intelligent puzzles and a quirky and numbing sensation to it which completely sucks you in. You will sit there for a few hours working your way through the puzzles, dying a lot, but always with a smile on your face!

    I highly recommend both titles, they are completely different and awesome games in their own right and they both have great art directions. Enjoy!

  • Antaios #35 11 months ago

    @alcides: no, annoys the hell out of me too. Same thing's going on with From Dust this year, easily the (downloadable) game I am/was looking forward too most.