Why PS3 and Xbox 360 should keep their exclusives
Since the beginning of time.. okay not quite that long, but for many years there have been speculation that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will in fact come to the Xbox 360. Even EGM had several issues where this was speculated in their infamous rumors section of the magazine. There have also been speculation by famed video game analysts N’Gai Croal and Michael Pachter that Gears of War 3 will be coming to the PS3.
Personally, I have mixed feelings about exclusives jumping consoles, because on one hand I feel its better for a game to have the widest exposure possible and shouldn’t be caged within a single platform. However, on the other hand I’ve lived through the video game industry crash way back in the day with Atari and ColecoVision, which got me thinking differently.
Many analyst have speculated for over 25 years why the US video market crashed. Of course everyone is in agreement that Nintendo single handedly rescued and resurrected a dying industry here in the US. Many have speculated the crash was due to movie makers and toy manufactures mainly using video games as a source to market their products.
Hence, the slew of shovelware we had on the old school systems. This brings to mind E.T. a horrible game that went down as the worst game ever made and a prime example of abusing the video game market.
What is the reason for this little trip down memory lane you may ask? Well, the other reason that’s been speculated as causing the video game crash was due to Atari and ColecoVision making the exact same games on both platforms.
At one point every game Atari had ColecoVision had and vice versa, basically there were no platform exclusive games. The consoles even had an adapter which you could attach onto the side to make it so you could play one console games on another console, of course this would be unheard of today.
Ultimately every single game released would be readily available on both platforms ensuring successful sales figures. We can even see some evidence of this today, for example lets look at SpongBob games.
SpongBob games are absolute crap, and they really don’t sell all that well on a single particular platform but yet cumulatively on the: PS2, Xbox, Gameboy Advance, DS, Wii and Gamecube, have sold a whopping 9 million units.
Some developers or publishers may push mediocre games multiformat just to ensure profitability (cough cough EA). However, if each platform focuses on exclusives it would only ensure that the highest level of competition is achievable.
Not only will this force platform manufacturers to tighten the quality control of the games they approve for their platforms but also ensures the sole survival of each platform hinges on their ability to produce either first party AAA titles or acquire them via third party developers.
This console race started out the way I mention above, but looking into my glass ball I can foresee where the normal policy will quickly become: “due to cost of development this generation we must develop multiplatform” PR talk from 99% of third party developers.
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22 Responses to “Why PS3 and Xbox 360 should keep their exclusives”
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June 30th, 2008
i only have one thing to say…..
PS3 OWNS BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 30th, 2008
did I miss something?? did someone say that we should not have exclusive games??
meh.. exclusives push the companies to do better… they work harder… they lose profits… I buy the pirated version.. its the circle of life….
June 30th, 2008
which means more cash and console sales
and soon i’ll make my own console. not sure
when but i’ll make one right now i’m still in collage
so i’d wait a few years from now.
here are some console spec’s for you lot to see
1)20x the power of the ps3
2)new disc format able to go online out of the box
3)max resolution 1080px4
4)audio channels 17
5)motion control 30x more senitive then ps3
6)in-game main hub
7)disc space 450GB to 2,370GB(possible)
8)video, audio, image and game downloads
9)30 1st party studios, 20 movie studios and 25
music studios
and that is all i’m giving away right now. bye
June 30th, 2008
hello? any one there read my last comment now
it is very importent and it could beat ninty mighty Wii and out date the ps3 as true gen and could have greater online services then the 360 with more excusives then any other console ever.
June 30th, 2008
ok why won’t people air their views on my comments it not like it is going to be the end of the world as we know it (and someone from japan turns
on the t.v to hear the end the world is nigh)
come on you lot bore me? Why can’t i hear what
you lot think about my of a console? Is it wrong to
think up our own consoles? Well is it? say something
please it is not much to ask for is it?
June 30th, 2008
jeez… and kevin says I need attention…
dear ps3rules… is your “console” by any chance related to the awesome console Phantom??
June 30th, 2008
no darkwhitehair(supid name but still cool) it is a
new type of console that i thought of 2 years back
going through differant names and apperances and i’m down to two names either KJC or Gamers Eye not some phantom console (p.s i’ve didn’t about that one) and anyway i have other names in the works as well and i’ve settled down with one name
which i won’t tell any one because they just copy me. bye and people tell me what you think of my
idea for a console. is it good or does it sound carp.
June 30th, 2008
are you ten years old, designing consoles with crayons?
June 30th, 2008
I reckon ps3rules is Kevin, playing with our minds.
June 30th, 2008
SOOOOOoooo Funny Bourne…. xD… I didnt know 30 million dollar US soldiers had a sense of humor…
lets see here “(p.s i’ve didn’t about that one)” umm… what the hell are you talkin about dude…
and the “specifications”
1)20x the power of the ps3 REAL SPECIFIC!!!
dont go away… you will be our new play thing…
ohh Ive come up with a new invention.. its a retard repellent… its 1000X more effective than mace… able to repel idiots from the net and a 5 mile radius… Il lcall it… “Ew de Kevin”
Million dollar Idea baby…
June 30th, 2008
DWH i’m English not American lol if this was aimed at me “I didnt know 30 million dollar US soldiers had a sense of humor…” although could be aimed at ps3rules.
ps3rules -
Great ambitions, if you do honestly work for a college (note the correct spelling as opposed to your “collage”) but forgive me for not believing you are actually a console designer, you seem immature, and driven by fantasy rather than reality… as well as frequent spelling errors and grammatical pot holes.
June 30th, 2008
dwh – it’s “eau-de”, genius. “million dollar idea”?… try 10 cents.
June 30th, 2008
Maybe he meant ‘Ew’ as in ‘ewwww, get the hell away from me’.
June 30th, 2008
xD… got it right there Royzy…
Im sorry that Im not as “articulate” as you kevvo… it was sarcasm… it doesnt have to be funny or be politically correct… get over it…
also… if youre making a new console ps3rules… shouldnt your nick be… “My console rulz sony M$ sukz my ballz”
damn.. I pulled a CAD over there…
June 30th, 2008
dwh – you SHOULD be sorry. it wasn’t funny….
June 30th, 2008
Oh boy, now Kev gets to decide what is funny and what is not. He will probly find a site and post it – All The Reasons That’s Not Funny. It will somehow be fact driven and will end with how the PS2 was defective and Sony did nothing about it!
June 30th, 2008
Rofl Wylie.
June 30th, 2008
wylie – you are one pathetic fanboy, dude. get a life. is that REALLY the best you could come up with? geez…
June 30th, 2008
That didn’t sound like a joke to me, I was actually looking for that post.
July 1st, 2008
Kev calling someone else a fanboy……now that is a joke ??
July 2nd, 2008
spidey – just name ONE untruth i’ve ever posted. so far, you sony fanboys are the only ones who like to do that. it must be killing you the 360 is kicking the crap out of the ps3 in sales. why else would you call me a fanboy for using facts?
July 2nd, 2008
Kevin,
Saying that the 360 is “kicking the crap out of the ps3 in sales” may be perceived as an untruth…
-Arvis