ConsoleGaming: The Future of Exclusives

Joseph A, of CosoleGaming writes:

Exclusives have always represented valuable assets to companies like Sony and Microsoft, often stepping forward as flagship titles and driving hardware sales. It's understandable then that such precious commodities can become fiercely contested over, morphing their status to merely pawns in the world of the videogame industry. In modern times, it has become even harder to orchestrate a catalogue full of exclusives, since expensive development on the PS3 and 360 often makes it necessary to opt for a multiplatform release. Furthermore, Microsoft's deep pockets have also persuaded several developers to break exclusivity on former Playstation-only franchises. So, are exclusives going to go extinct?

[DiLeCtioN]

one thing is for sure, 1st party are the only securable exclusives unlike the money companies *cough* SquareEnix :P

[Genesis5]

Well share holders want companies to bring in the bucks. That is what they are suppose to do. Seen as Sony owns a big chunk of SE They'll be making money off any FF games MS sells. They are trying to get back some of their loses. They took a bit of a hit in the wallet getting the PS3 off the ground.

Sony first party exclusives though. Who can beat them?

[StephanieBBB]

Why you might ask?

Well, they took a ps3 exclusive and made it multiplatform. They said that they did it because they felt that they could reach out to more fans that way. This is an unselfish act of justice you might think, but oh so wrong you are.

Square Enix is still the developer of many other JRPG's that are strictly exclusive to the 360. So what about the beloved fans that want to play those AAA JRPG titles?

Square Enix awnsers that question with the middle finger. So are they, Bought out? yes. Selfish? Yes. Brings justice? No. Talks alot of BS? yes. In conclusion they are infact the devil.

Not rly.. but they ARE a bunch of lying sons of *******.

[sack_boi]

as much as I hate the Wii, I have to agree that Nintendo has the best first party exclusives.

[Genesis5]

I don't think they can in quality, quantity and variety.

[darthv72]

I like how on the Sony 1st party side, they break out each SCE studio instead of simply saying Sony Computer Entertainment "Studios" implying all of them in one shot.

Plus they left off the obvious one on the MS 1st party side. Microsoft themselves!

[beavis4play]

to lump all of sonys sce studios into one group wouldn't make any sense. they all aren't working on the same games. they make different games and all are very successful. and they did list the few ms 1st party studios seperately, so.......?
i don't pretend to know absolutely everything so you'll have to enlighten me. what does "microsoft, themself" have in the works right now - game development wise? maybe that's why they weren't mentioned. (no insult intended, i just don't think theres much going on there)

[darthv72]

Even if M$ is making a game or not they are still exclusive to the 360. Get it? So that is why I thought it was funny to leave off the obvious #1 1st party company on the M$ side...Micro$oft.

The various studios of SCE are all still part of the single company known as Sony Computer Entertainment. Being that they are in various parts of the world doesnt change that. If it does then Microsoft Game Studios Redmond and MGS UK and MGS Euro and MGS (insert other part of the world here) needs to added and expanded like SCE.

If this author is going to break it all out for one then he should do it for the other. Perspective is a wicked thing to fool with.

[Shaka2K6]

Its all about the 1st party exclusive which Sony destroys both nintendo microsoft 1st parties combined.

not to mention a AAAA third party game from Konami only playable on Sony PS3 no PC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

[Zerodin]

Riiiiiiiight!
Name one Sony franchise that's sold more then the Mario franchise, go ahead I'll wait! Also DMC4 is on the PC you retard!

[ThatCanadianGuy]

Gran turismo?

Im 100% sure he is talking about MGS4...you know..That AAAA game thats only on PS3 and not on PC.........

....

[silverchode]

grand turismo=50mill
halo=20 mill

[zo6_lover27]

"Name one Sony franchise that's sold more then the Mario franchise"

Gran Turismo.

DMC4 was Capcom you idiot, not Konami.

[zapass]

don't be too hard on him, he's already on prozac

[sentai]

Gran Turismo.

And it's a very popular racing franchise.

[The Wood]

To be fair, why wouldn't 'some' 3rd party guys like square or capcom want to go multi when sony are trying to cut them out of the deal with their own games. Some of which are in the same genre and are direct competitors.

With so many 1st/2np party studios its easier to ride off the relative flops because there will always be 2 or 3 other titles to cushion the blow. At the moment MS cant do the numbers game because they don't have enough studios to play that game. Their method, as we all know, is to buy and in the short term there's nothing wrong with that.

[psgamer]

Since when is the next Ico game coming out in 2010? They released SotC in 2005 soo....

[beavis4play]

with a little luck, we'll get some info at TGS.

[Cajun Chicken]

That's why a good collection of in house first party developers is good for a consoles blood.

Other consoles will never get Uncharted, Jak games, Wipeout series, Ratchet and Clank,(Sony own IP, not Insomniac but they seem more than happy to be on PS3) Resistance, Motorstorm, Ape Escape, Warhawk, Killzone because Sony own the developers of them!
the list goes on.

Microsoft's first party devs are a joke. They closed half of them down last gen and contracted devs are sensibly jumping ship to multiplatform publishers.

Rare, Lionhead and about three others that make average games.
Great, well done MS; thanks for disolving Digital Anvil creators of 'Freelancer' because of ONE bad game, 'Brute Force' and closed down FASA of 'Crimson Skies: Road to Revenge' for the failure of 'Shadowrun'.

You sure know how to handle first party developers, have a pat on the back; MS, oh and thanks for leaving Oddworld Inhabitants without a place to thrive.

[juuken]

Heh, heh.

People thought Sony was being stupid, but now their hard work is starting to pay off.

[radio0o]

excellent article. very informative.

[kittoo]

Sony invests a lot more money in games, actually making great first party games. Microsoft, on the other hand, tried to buy times exclusivity.....
I am quite sure Sony can rival MS in money department, its just that they put their money in making better things.

[sentai]

Microsoft tries to employ the same tactics that they use in the computer industry for the gaming industry. Sooner or later, they will realize that buying out games will not work out in the end. In order to gain competitive ground with Sony, they'll have to work on first party games.

[BubblesDAVERAGE]

It takes them too long to make games....but this gen games are okay with there time schedule but by the time we will see the best games its toward the end of a systems life which is 6ayyyyyyyyy

[Aclay]

Well, the days of 3rd party exclusives are almost pretty much over, but in my opinion, as the PS3's installbase grows and as developers continue to utilze the PS3 more and more, I think that the PS3 is a prime candidate for future 3rd party exclusives because games that totally exploit the PS3's strengths can't be done on the Xbox 360 unless the game is dubbed down and compressed to fit on DVD-9 and to run on the 360's hardware. Even the developers making the Ghostbusters game said that the PS3 was capable of having 2 times the amount of enemies on screen than the 360 version of Ghostbusters and that's just an example of what I'm talking about.

Kojima's next game will more than likely be a PS3 exclusive not because he's a Playstation fanboy, but because he can do more in his games with the PS3 with less restrictions than he can on the 360 and that's another example of why I think the PS3 is a good potential candidate for 3rd party exclusives.

For the majority of 3rd party developers their games will be multiplatform from now on, but I think that you'll always have a few 3rd party developers here and there wanting to develop a game exclusively for one platform simply because some developers may just have a personal preference to a particular console, or because a developer knows that they can do more on one console than any other console.

[ScratchMarks]

"For the majority of 3rd party developers their games will be multiplatform from now on"

"Well, the days of 3rd party exclusives are almost pretty much over"

LOL! No...

Every damn console generation the same silly claims are made.

[zypher]

they might as well consider Level-5 as a Sony second party. yeah, i know Level-5 makes games for the DS, but they abhor Microsoft, and give pretty much all of their home-console love to Sony. if Microsoft gets credit for Epic, it's only fair that Sony gets credit for Level-5.

(edit)

and while we're on the subject, Microsoft's second-party list can be beefed by Valve, who loathe PS3.

[psgamer]

why does level 5 hate microsoft?

[zypher]

because of True Fantasy Live Online, apparently.

from the wikipedia article:

"In the months following, Level-5 President and CEO Akihiro Hino stated in a Japanese interview that the poor relations between his company and Microsoft, partially due to the latter's inexperience in dealing with Japanese developers, was one of the major reasons behind True Fantasy Live Online's cancellation. He also heavily implied that the two companies did not part amicably, and it stands to reason that the two companies most likely will never work together again."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[heyheyhey]

yeah except that Level-5 games are not coming to the 360 EVER

while the PS3 gets games from both Valve and Epic anyways (even timed exclusives in the case of Epic and UT3)

Sony should also get credit for Insomniac, Quantic Dream and Eat Sleep Play

[pow3r of t3h c3ll]

I cant believe the article tries to make it seem as if M$ and Sony first party devs are somehow equal, WRONG!!!

Sony have more and more importantly have more good devs not complete jokes like Rare!!! (banjo kazooie LOL)

[heyheyhey]

if 3rd party exclusives die out (and they are dying out) then with them goes the Xbox since it relies on them

this 3rd party strategy is starting to bite MS in the ass- BioShock, Lost Planet, Overlord and others have already bit the dust

L4D and Dead Rising are looking like they're going to follow suit

and all the other stuff is on PC anyway- Halo 3 will come to PC eventually

while all of PS3's exclusives are actually exclusive and will stay exclusive

mostly thanks to Sony's excellent 1st party armada which will continue to pump out stunning AAA exclusives every year

[ScratchMarks]

"and they are dying out"

Except for the massive number of non-first party exclusives coming to the PS3 over the next five years...

[Zerodin]

I was talking about Nintendo, outhouse boy!

[Zerodin]

Wow, so grand turismo sold more then the entire Mario franchise.
I'd be impressed if that were true, but I live on planet Earth.

[Cajun Chicken]

I don't see Mario on the XBOX 360 either, your point?
Or were you just posting under the wrong comment?

[sentai]

No you live on planet Microsoft, where you can never admit they've made mistakes.

[Zerodin]

Ah the droid's time tested; "Sh!t, he's got me...I'll shift the subject!", play.

[Cajun Chicken]

Ah, the xbots tried and tested;
"Point out the truth and all revealed that is logical and xbot continues pointless comment he bought up that didn't apply because they can't counteract the harsh truth posted a few comments up" play.

[PoSTedUP]

ps3 exclusives shown me the light, their are no games that can compare man. i am having the greatest gaming experience right now, i suggest for yall to go out and buy more ps3 exclusives cause after i did i am in heaven, sorry but ps3 exclusives is where its at. GO GET EM.

MLB 08 the show
resistance
uncharted
Warhawk
Heavenly Sword
Metal Gear Solid 4
Mororstorm

these are the games i own as of right now. i just bought a few recently. and i traded in COD4 and GTA4 plus a bunch of ps2 games for UNCHARTED and MLB 08 the show and i still have like 30$ left on my card. it was an awesome deal.

i am soon to get R&C and socom and a bunch of other ones, but if you want the best gaming experience man ps3 is the way to go. oh and get gears for the PC ; ) but yea the game i have now are top of the line high quality games that you cant get anywhere else. only quality nex gen game make it to my collection : )

[sentai]

3rd party exclusives are dead now. Sony are doing the right thing by supporting 1st party titles. Their first party games always draw a huge crowd.

[gumgum99]

Its almost as if Sony saw it coming ahead of time. There is always the possibility oof a return to the PS3 exclusively during the later years as we see the platform grow. This will get them fired up to make bigger, better games than what's found today(and by then the 360's life span could be just about over).

assuming the 360 lasts a good 7 years time, we should start seeing this kind of support during the last 3 yrs of the PS3's life.

[sentai]

That's why they'll bypass the 360 eventually.