Heavy Rain was turned down by Microsoft due to its portrayal of child kidnapping, Quantic Dream development boss David Cage has revealed.
Speaking at the BAFTA annual games lecture earlier today in London (as attended by Digital Spy) Cage said the studio pitched the 2010 title to several publishers before an agreement with Sony was made.
ZoomCage said Microsoft was impressed by the studio's 2005 title Fahrenheit, but had issues with the content of Heavy Rain.
"They got scared by the fact that Heavy Rain was about kids being kidnapped, and they said, 'This is an issue, we want to change it'. Well, we could have kidnapped cats, it would be a different experience!
"For me, that was a very interesting signal. It was like, you know what, I don't think we can work together, because you don't understand what I [want] to achieve here."
Cage said Microsoft was afraid to court controversy. "They were scared of the scandal and scared of what people may write and what people may think. 'Oh, this is a developer and the publisher making games about a child getting kidnapped'."
Heavy Rain released exclusively for PlayStation 3 in 2010 to widespread critical acclaim. The studio's next project, Beyond: Two Souls, will release in October, again exclusively for PS3.
Quantic Dream co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere said in March that the studio has no interest in ending its Sony exclusivity. "This isn't a partnership where we are forced by a big company into giving immediate results," he said.
In our hands-on Beyond: Two Souls preview, we described it as "the studio's most ambitious yet".
