Developer CCP surprised many when it revealed that not only would Dust 514 be a free-to-play shooter, but it would be exclusive to the PS3. Producer Thomas Farrer defended the decision not to release the game on PC, saying they didn’t want to cannibalize their user-base, and said that PSN was ultimately the best choice over Xbox Live.
“Most of Dust is running on our own technology, it’s running on our own super-computer,” said Farrer. “And Sony is a lot more… open, shall we say, to allowing you to do those things.”
Farrer also noted the necessity of player anonymity given the skullduggery of sister title Eve Online. “It may seem silly, but on Xbox Live your identity is your Xbox Live identity. In the Eve universe, having people not know who you are is quite important.”
He didn’t say, however,that they never considered an Xbox Live version. “I don’t think it’s about saying we ‘couldn’t’ do it. I think some of the challenges we’d meet would be tricky. It’s nice to work on one platform rather than two, because it means you don’t have to make any awkward compromises, technically.”
Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun
