The Argument for Exclusives

[Chezlyn]

Lets hear your thoughts on platform exclusivity.
As a corporation, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony will immediately tell you that video game exclusives is good to ensure the life span of their hardware.
"Want to play our exclusive title? Buy our hardware."
But as a customer do you agree that such a thing is necessary?
Are you willing to invest in another machine because you wish to play a video game that's exclusive to that specific platform and nothing else?
From a consumer's point of view, it just doesn't make sense to invest into a expensive box to enjoy two or three titles.
I don't exactly have an issue with companies acquiring devs to claim rights or ownership over IPs or future IPs but restricting media to a specific platform is catering to a minority of customers.
The world is bigger than the number of Nintendo, Microsoft or Sony fans.
Feel free to express your thoughts and opinions on platform exclusives, good or bad, lets have back and forth banter.

 

[Spike's iconSpike]

Artificial scarcity is their game.
As consoles become nothing more than PC's inside a custom case.
The only reason to get one over a PC is locking games into their ecosystem.
Nintendo has a good ecosystem with their IP's but I wonder how PS and Xbox can do the same in the long run, I don't think third party developers will like the revenue hit of locking their games into their systems.

 

[Gorse]

Lets hear your thoughts on platform exclusivity.

Is this even a problem, anymore? Aside from Nintendo, which has always been its own thing, doesn't every game of note get released across PS5/XBox/PC simultaneously, these days? The PS5 is a half-decade old and has like, 10 exclusives! And even Nintendo consoles are pretty easy to emulate, now... haven't we "arrived"?

 

[chrismas]

Yeah, proper exclusives went out of fashion during X360~PS3 era, even for first-party fare. Every now and then you'll get "timed exclusives" i.e. FF XVI, but they'll still be published on other platforms the moment the exclusivity deal ends. It's such that PlayStation, once known for an extensive library of first-party exclusives, is now mocked for having "no games" as nearly all of them can now be bought and played on PC.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I hated the artificial divide that that horrendous practice created. It was actually worst than the technological gap of the nineties and early aughts, because at least then you could upgrade your PC and try the hottest new games. But having to buy three systems just to be in the conversations? Seemed like a huge step backwards.

 

[burnout2]

Exclusivity most certainly does still exist. It's a six-letter word that starts with D.

 

[chrismas]

Exclusivity most certainly does still exist. It's a six-letter word that starts with D.

Dimes?
Diarrhea?
Drank?
Donathan?
...You'll need to spit it out, I've got nothing.

 

[Gorse]

...You'll need to spit it out, I've got nothing.

Denuvo. It took me a second, too.

 

[Stookymalarkey]

I understand the timed exclusives, since they need a good incentive to draw people to their console versus the competitions. Otherwise, the only draw is being a cheaper and much simpler solution for couch gaming that PCs can't always accomplish.

 

[Cu-Neo]

Exclusives used to be something that defined the sales and the image a console would have to the eyes of the consumer. But now exclusives not only limits the ways of someone playing a probably excelent game years later of release. But also now that exclusive maybe ends on pc or on another console. Making exclusives mostly useless

 

[fmsynthetic]

Consoles used to have not only exclusives, but unique identities before the days of engine standardization. I'm thinking the texture warping on the PSX, or the gross filtered textures on the N64. Now they're just gimped PCs. I think the Switch is probably the last console I'll ever buy.

 

[Bonkers225]

I'm for it. Exclusives does make something very special. Nintendo wouldn't be as special/successful if they had every new Mario, Zelda, Super Smash Bros, etc games on every console+PC. They get it. It's also better for survival. I can see Nintendo lasting another 100 years, probably Sony too, not sure about XBox. But it can't be just exclusive for a console, just for the sake of it, it has to be, first and foremost, something the people WANT. PS5 or XBox could have sold more of their consoles if they could have locked down games like Elden Ring exclusively imo.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

No one is gonna get this reference but the thread title is accidental verbatim of a line Vanitas says in kingdom hearts but reversed; “what’s yours is mine”

 

[Tronky.it]

Lets hear your thoughts on platform exclusivity.
As a corporation, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony will immediately tell you that video game exclusives is good to ensure the life span of their hardware.
"Want to play our exclusive title? Buy our hardware."
But as a customer do you agree that such a thing is necessary?
Are you willing to invest in another machine because you wish to play a video game that's exclusive to that specific platform and nothing else?
From a consumer's point of view, it just doesn't make sense to invest into a expensive box to enjoy two or three titles.
I don't exactly have an issue with companies acquiring devs to claim rights or ownership over IPs or future IPs but restricting media to a specific platform is catering to a minority of customers.
The world is bigger than the number of Nintendo, Microsoft or Sony fans.
Feel free to express your thoughts and opinions on platform exclusives, good or bad, lets have back and forth banter.

I think like this: depending on the offer a console gives me, I buy it.
I now have the PS5 at home as a Christmas present last year, but if it had been up to me I would have bought the Xbox. There are two elements that I consider fundamental for a console: games and backwards compatibility.

- PS5 has exclusives, but not backwards compatibility, and replaces old titles with remakes (a choice that I consider obscene, not having RE2 and RE3 to have remakes instead makes me tremble);
- Xbox doesn't have numerous exclusives, but it boasts a library of 4 generations of video games and many interesting indies.

I exclude it completely from Nintendo, given that it has games and many iconic exclusives, but it is an Uncle Scrooge of video games (you don't see an advantageous discount on the store even if you pray to any kind of God) and it is too aggressive against anyone who exploits it even for fun or projects without its securities for profit.

 

[Yousef Slimani]

I hated the artificial divide that that horrendous practice created. It was actually worst than the technological gap of the nineties and early aughts, because at least then you could upgrade your PC and try the hottest new games. But having to buy three systems just to be in the conversations? Seemed like a huge step backwards.

Well the 90’s seems to be a difficult era when it comes to build your own PC and install more setups for more performance. I believe PC’s in the 90’s aren’t powerful enough to handle the 3D experience and it took them decades to finally handle the 3D visuals. Well I’m not a 90’s kid but I found it an interesting era for computers back then

Post automatically merged: Dec 9, 2024

I hated the artificial divide that that horrendous practice created. It was actually worst than the technological gap of the nineties and early aughts, because at least then you could upgrade your PC and try the hottest new games. But having to buy three systems just to be in the conversations? Seemed like a huge step backwards.

I hated the artificial divide that that horrendous practice created. It was actually worst than the technological gap of the nineties and early aughts, because at least then you could upgrade your PC and try the hottest new games. But having to buy three systems just to be in the conversations? Seemed like a huge step backwards.

Well the 90’s seems to be a difficult era when it comes to build your own PC and install more setups for more performance. I believe PC’s in the 90’s aren’t powerful enough to handle the 3D experience and it took them decades to finally

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Well the 90’s seems to be a difficult era when it comes to build your own PC and install more setups for more performance. I believe PC’s in the 90’s aren’t powerful enough to handle the 3D experience and it took them decades to finally handle the 3D visuals. Well I’m not a 90’s kid but I found it an interesting era for computers back then

Oh wow fancy seeing you here again! :D
Yes you’re right there’s even forum posts in 1994 where people thought emulating the snes would be impossible. Now look where are now.

 

[Yousef Slimani]

Oh wow fancy seeing you here again! :D
Yes you’re right there’s even forum posts in 1994 where people thought emulating the snes would be impossible. Now look where are now.

Well maybe the 90’s is a difficult era for emulating and playing 3D games back then, but in the 2000’s everything was changed, computers starts to get more powerful and retro games can be easily emulated thanks to modern technology

 

[DunkeyKong]

These exclusives…I used to like it or I kinda…still did? Because as time goes on, as we have a better technology and capabilities, I don't think it matters as much anymore since

1. Most exclusives (other than Nintendo) will eventually make it's way to PC or other devices, if you can wait for awhile

2. You can buy and build something that's equal or even better than some or most of the consoles with a much, much cheaper prices

3. Again…other than Nintendo, these exclusives on the other platforms seems to be slowing down (sorry if that doesn't sound right), like they are taking their time for something else…(I wonder what that could be)

It got me thinking though, why exclusives?i
Well back in the day, since the Sega and Nintendo era of console wars, they aren't just creating consoles and games. They are trying to build their own empire…their own brand, and starting from that…they went all out

Classics after classics, bangers after bangers, masterpiece after masterpiece, all of these things happening back to back in just a few years

This is one of the reasons why exclusives used to be such a really great thing because there's actually many difference and twists…unlike now

After the era that is PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii era, there's this "trend" where if you make something for the consoles, why not make the same thing for other platforms

At first it was just something casual and wasn't something like half baked port of home consoles games since they couldn't handle it yet…but now it's 2024 (just a few weeks more before 2025), a lot has changed

Now we can't even tell which one is supposed to be a port or which one is supposed to be the original (they are if not the same, then almost identical)

 

[OnTarget]

Exclusives are my primary motivator for getting a console. I probably wouldn't have a Switch if it weren't for the fact that all of Nintendo's games are exclusive to it.

That said, I won't buy a system for a single game. I didn't get a PS4 until late 2016 because until then there wasn't enough impetus for me to get one; but with Last Guardian coming out in December of that year (which I unfortunately wound up hating) and NieR: Automata, Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, Yakuza 0, and Nioh all coming out in the first few months of 2017 (and all were PS4 exclusives at the time), I felt like there was enough reason to get one to justify the purchase.

Similarly, I haven't gotten a PS5 for the same reason: lack of exclusives. The only PS5 game of interest to me that hasn't either been ported to Windows or been announced to have a port is the remake of Demon's Souls, and one game isn't enough reason for me to plunk down $400+.

All this said, I also have a high-end gaming PC. I can understand why someone who doesn't want to spend the money for one of those would buy a PS5 or XBox-whatever for multiplat games.

 

[ATenderLad]

No one is gonna get this reference but the thread title is accidental verbatim of a line Vanitas says in kingdom hearts but reversed; “what’s yours is mine”

I read it as What's Yours is Mine and got so excited that this was a thread about the game Monaco, the greatest Pac-Man ever made.

Edit: Uh, on topic, yeah I don't think exclusivity counts for much now, Square seems to be chalking up their sales numbers recently to artificially limiting the audience. Nintendo would never open that box, but if it has to be this way, please, PLEASE, make a console whose storefront navigation isn't a crime worthy of The Hague. Damn, but I hate shopping on the Switch.

 

[Yousef Slimani]

Exclusives are my primary motivator for getting a console. I probably wouldn't have a Switch if it weren't for the fact that all of Nintendo's games are exclusive to it.

That said, I won't buy a system for a single game. I didn't get a PS4 until late 2016 because until then there wasn't enough impetus for me to get one; but with Last Guardian coming out in December of that year (which I unfortunately wound up hating) and NieR: Automata, Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, Yakuza 0, and Nioh all coming out in the first few months of 2017 (and all were PS4 exclusives at the time), I felt like there was enough reason to get one to justify the purchase.

Similarly, I haven't gotten a PS5 for the same reason: lack of exclusives. The only PS5 game of interest to me that hasn't either been ported to Windows or been announced to have a port is the remake of Demon's Souls, and one game isn't enough reason for me to plunk down $400+.

All this said, I also have a high-end gaming PC. I can understand why someone who doesn't want to spend the money for one of those would buy a PS5 or XBox-whatever for multiplat games.

Agreed, home consoles, handhelds and mobile devices don’t seems to impress me that much, Well I know they gave you best performance as possible to enjoy playing games in there but playing it without friends or someone else is kinda boring and meh to me. I found PC gaming might be the best way to experience video games like PC games, emulations, fan games etc. heck PC’s can literally let you do anything rather than playing games instead. And I’m doing my best to get a better high end PC as possible

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

It is something I have been thinking for a while, now that Sony and Xbox are selling most of their games in each other platforms and on PC, besides Nintendo, exclusives are dead. And this is a bad thing.

Yeah in the narrow view of things exclusives are an abuse for the gamers because you need to get all systems to enjoy all the best games of a generation, but if you widen you analysis you will see that even if thats true, gamers ultimately win by getting better games in this competition of "My platform has better games".

I will elaborate

When Halo launched on the original Xbox it put this new comer in the spotlight and forced the other companies to also have some kind of "mature" FPS in their systems, by starting projects or just booting with finance already developed ideas. I will focus on Metroid Prime for the Gamecube and Killzone for the PlayStation, both systems has some other FPS, but they needed their own, something that you cant play on Xbox after finishing Halo.

Metroid Prime was a success (at least critically) having a gritty FPS on the GameCube, but Killzone was just "Meh". Anyone that played it knows it. It is not bad, but nothing spectacular either, you could live without it. It probably didnt deserve a sequel but Sony needed something to go against the hypothetically Halo 3 of the new 360, so Killzone 2 was born... and it is really REALLY good, even being played to this day.

Companies will fund and develop exclusives because even if they are not that profitable they will allow them to sell consoles, and they can make it up with license there. Of course it is just cheaper to just release games on all platforms, specially on these days with even the game engines being standardized.

And I know, it sucked to have a PlayStation because you wanted Devil May Cry and missed Halo, but in a world without exclusive you would have Halo on the PS2, but you would not have Metroid Prime or Killzone (or at very best, a not that very good one, since companies would have spent less).

In a more modern example: if CoD would have become an Xbox PC exclusive, Sony would have been in panic and would be developing their own fast phased FPS CoD competitor, maybe resurrect Killzone. Maybe in order to get more players just ditch down the crazy monetization trying to get the people tired of this... but we get nothing because why would they just do it, if they can spent less money on just a "PS Plus package" of CoD? The game is anywhere regardless.

Like the title says: now that exclusives are dead, all gamers lose

 

[PhaseJump]

Metroid Prime wasn't even considered an FPS, even when it launched. It was a 3D conversion of the old action platformer, and people coming from Halo used to laugh at it being so slow and cumbersome. You couldn't run and gun in it, you had to stop to aim. All that is beside the point.

Exclusives are stupid. A byproduct of a bygone era where hardware differences mattered.

Developing software and limiting it to the established customer base on a specific locked down platform kills potential sales returns on the up-front marketing, and it's largely a death sentence when development budgets are too high.

Multi-platform game studios have been targeting portable middleware or game engines and making a lot of money pleasing everybody they can, but they have had failures when being time limited exclusives. Late-ports to other platforms lose the immediate launch buzz, have weaker sales potential.

Customized hardware that went into consoles used to require specialized expertise at the low level, decades later and development is a different ball game. The hardware is largely the same and standardized. Platforms are just store fronts you're locked into that should be running on top of the open PC market so that anybody can do what they want.


If Nintendo were to "sell" half of the shit that people are decompiling and porting to PC, they would annihilate their own sales records by remaining locked to crappy toy hardware. Their quality would speak for itself. They would probably triple lifetime sales of their games like Zelda and Mario overnight.

 

[VidiyaGaemer]

I'm inclined to agree. There's less reasons to go after specific consoles with exclusives being reduced. And in a sense the "magic" is gone too.....I feel like there was more hype for console exclusives like midnight launches and the like

 

[Bakuma1997]

On one hand, that will mean no more having to buy software for a single game

On another hand exclusives being gone means we are hozed since no more competence will be practiced