Console Exclusives - Big deal or who cares?

[Braen]

I am bringing this up because of the rash of former exclusive titles becoming multi-platform.

It used to be, during the PS2/X-Box/GC days, that if you had an exclusive, it would last. Mostly because of a large installed playerbase with the different systems.

But it seems (at least with Sony exclusives) that those days are either ending, or the old days are changing in favor of Microsoft and the 360. Microsoft continues to hold on to exclusives, while Sony continues to lose them. Just today, Capcom confirmed that Lost Planet and Dead Rising will NOT be made cross-platform and will stay 360 exclusive, while it almost seems daily that Sony loses an exclusive title. Another example is Final Fantasy's exclusivity under question. Something that would have never been considered in anyones dreams during PS2 hayday.

The question is this... Is this a big deal? Or does it matter? Is this a sign that developers either see a better future with multi-platforms/360-exclusives and not in the PS3 on it's own? Or will we also be seing 360 exclusives moving multiplatform as PS3 gets older?

My opinion is that this is a bad time for Sony as developers see less of a future in PS3 and more money in the already installed playerbase of the 360. The Capcom news just adds to it as they hold fast to 360 exclusives while making many of their Sony exclusives multi-platform (Devil May Cry 4).

Just look at Guitar Hero. That sold PS2s when it was released originally and over the Christmas break it sold PS2s (even when the PS2 was "Last gen") when the sequel was released. Now it is about to be released for the 360 with no news or rumors that there will be a PS3 version. Add to the fact that GH2 will not run on the newer PS3 without the Emotion chips.

Let me know what you think.

[Cybsled]

Of course exclusives are important...to a degree They essentially "force" the consumer to buy the system to play a game. Look at the selling power of Zelda or Metal Gear. Now that applies to "big name" exclusives, but obviously for smaller or "bad" exclusives, no one really cares.

In a nutshell:

Killer app exclusives: Critical to the system
Games that no one gives a shit about: A perk for the system, usually not so great for the developer

[Slick Willey]

Its simple economics really. Development costs are getting very, very high, which really forces developers to sell their product to biggest market possible to hedge the risk of loss, which basically is a multi-platform market. Also, to make as much money as possible, if you are a third-party developer, you are asking yourself "Hmmmm, why should I limit the sale of my product to a market of 10 million when I can be selling it to 20 or 30 million?"

I have never understood why any third-party developer would allow their titles to be exclusive, unless one of the console makers was paying them a fee to keep it exclusive that was more than the projected sales from other platforms.

I'm not surprised we are seeing less and less exclusives -- in fact, in some thread in this forum I predicted as much before the "next-gen" war started. I am surprised, however, that the 360 continues to have high-profile exclusives (e.g., Mass Effect, Bioshock -- yes, I know its coming to the PC but it aint coming to the PS3!, Blue Dragon, etc.)

[Braen]

Do you consider the PC in the Console wars? Usually if something comes out for PC/360 or PC/PS3 then I still call it exclusive as the PC gamer market and console gamer market are different.

[Lorrac]

In the foreseable future only the DS and the WII will have large numbers of exclusives, mostly due to their uniqueness.

Who knows, maybe in the future gamers will be hyped for Cooking Mama XIII Infinitum Ketchup just like they do now with the latest Final Fantasy installment.

[Soygen]

Pretty much what Slick Willey said. Games are just getting way too expensive to make for 3rd party developers to ignore the other consoles. I don't really put PC into the equation as it's not a console. I personally don't care about exclusives one way or the other, as long as the quality of the games don't suffer because they are being developed for multiple platforms.

[Slick Willey]

Originally Posted by Braen

Do you consider the PC in the Console wars? Usually if something comes out for PC/360 or PC/PS3 then I still call it exclusive as the PC gamer market and console gamer market are different.

I do Braen, that's why I consider Bioshock an "exclusive" even though it will be on the PC. I'm just aware of the forum I'm posting in and was hedging knowing some PC purist would pop in with "Lolz Bioshock is on the PCtoo !!!!"

Despite what many people that frequent FOH boards may think, the PC gaming market and the console gaming markets are, in a lot of respects, different markets, although admittedly there is some overlap between the two.

I'll get flamed for sure in saying this, but basically there are four platforms (excluding the hand-helds): (1) 360, (2) PS3, (3) Wii, and (4) World of Warcraft/The Sims Seriously, of all the gamers I know, easily 90% are exclusively console gamers, and the other 10% play WoW hehehe.

P.S. I agree with Lorrac -- the Wii/DS is where you will see exclusives in the future, simply because of the unique control schemes.

[chaos]

Honestly, good. No exclusives is good for me, as a gamer. I won't lie and say I don't want Sony to fail, I do. But I want to play some PS3 games, yet already have a 360 and am not buying a PS3 unless Nights 2 comes out for it or something ridiculous. Less exclusives means I have the power as the consumer, as it should be. Console success should not be dictated in some board room meeting with shady deals amongst greedy game corporations, it should be on the merits of the system itself and in the future it's online capabilities.

[RiskyChris]

I get the impression that in general, games designed with one console in mind will tend to have a higher quality than those which will see many platforms.

[Himeo]

Exclusives are a selling point for systems. I bought a Playstation for FF7, a PS2 for FFX, a Dreamcast for Phantasy Star: Online, a Gamecube for SSB, a DS for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and even a Gameboy Color for Pokemon Red.

Exclusives increase market share. Increased market share produces more exclusives. With the PS1 and PS2 Sony created a positive spiral. This generation, Sony is in a negative spiral where they are losing market share and exclusives. There are many reasons for this, as has been rehashed over and over again in other threads.

In my mind the only real exclusive that matters is the Final Fantasy series. My FF Fanboism is worth $250 for FFXIII, FFXIV, and FFXV combined. My interest in the PS3 is worth around $125. So Sony, if you want me to buy a PS3 you'll need to drop the price to ~$375.

Not going to happen? Well Sir, I believe you lost another exclusive.

[RiskyChris]

Originally Posted by Himeo

Exclusives are a selling point for systems. I bought a Playstation for FF7, a PS2 for FFX, a Dreamcast for Phantasy Star: Online, a Gamecube for SSB, a DS for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and even a Gameboy Color for Pokemon Red.

Exclusives increase market share. Increased market share produces more exclusives. With the PS1 and PS2 Sony created a positive spiral. This generation, Sony is in a negative spiral where they are losing market share and exclusives. There are many reasons for this, as has been rehashed over and over again in other threads.

In my mind the only real exclusive that matters is the Final Fantasy series. My FF Fanboism is worth $250 for FFXIII, FFXIV, and FFXV combined. My interest in the PS3 is worth around $125. So Sony, if you want me to buy a PS3 you'll need to drop the price to ~$375.

Not going to happen? Well Sir, I believe you lost another exclusive.

Heh, I'll put money that FF14 goes to Wii. Better hope PS3 drops to $292, eh?

[Lyenae]

A solid exclusive can sell a ~$250 system, but you'll need more than 1 title to sell someone an Xbox360/PS3. The PS3's time as a game system will come, I just don't see it happening for at least a year, maybe 2.

As for the PC market, it's a fucking shit heap atm that is still trying to rebound from quite possibly the worst PC gaming year this decade.

[Akileese]

Well, I think the interesting plot here is why the fuck does MS keep getting these exclusives? Are they paying off third parties? Doubtful. It's quite simple. The PS3 is too fucking expensive to develop for. The reasons games like Assassin's Creed started as PS3 and went to 360 has everything to do with development costs for the 360. Companies are developing their games for the 360, then porting them over to the PS3. My friend, if he read this boards, would fucking gut me for saying this, but THQ is doing the same exact thing for PS3. Here's to hoping I didn't just say something I'm not suppose to, but I feel it's fairly common industry knowledge.

Nintendo will have a huge leg up because they'll always have their exclusives. As to why Capcom is keeping their titles exclusive? Fuck if I know. Probably the user base being too small and the ends don't justify the means. Whereas if it were the opposite, you have a user base that's about 3x as large and the development costs would be minimal in comparison.

The Wii is downright dirt cheap to develop for. It's a more powerful version of the gamecube so there's no real trick to learning it. It's one of the big pros to the system.

[Daerath]

Console exclusives are the sole reason that I refuse to buy a game console.

$599.99 - PS3
$393.00 - Wii
$399.00 - Xbox 360

So if I want to play the dozen or so games that interest me, and are inconveniently split across all three systems, I'll have to spend approximately $1391.99 for the game consoles. Then I'll have to fork over at least $500 more for new games plus the cost of games that these can play via backwards compatibility.

Fuck spending over $2,000 on game consoles.

[Slick Willey]

Originally Posted by Akileese

Well, I think the interesting plot here is why the fuck does MS keep getting these exclusives? Are they paying off third parties? Doubtful. It's quite simple. The PS3 is too fucking expensive to develop for.

There is something to be said about Microsoft's "XNA" system (or whatever the hell it is) which basically makes programming for both the PC and the 360 pretty painless. That makes programming for 2 platforms relatively easy. PS3, however, gets left out and I guess developers have to make adjustments for for the PS3 hardware/set up. All I know is that John Carmack loved XNA and how easy it was for him to program for the 360/PC, and bitched incessantly about programming for the PS3.