After GTA IV & FF XIII, will PS3 & Xbox 360 get more joint releases?
By Dave Parrack
This console generation is in a very healthy state right now, and us gamers are benefiting immensely. With Grand Theft Auto IV and Final Fantasy XIII appearing on both the PS3 and Xbox 360, and released on the same day, is the idea of third-party exclusives now over?
Grand Theft Auto 3 was a timed exclusive on the PS2, and consequently, the game sold phenomenally well on the Sony console. The Xbox only really managed to soak up the dregs in terms of sales as the game was considered old by the time it arrived on the original Microsoft console. The many last generation GTA sequels, including Vice City and San Andreas, were also released on the Playstation 2 well in advance of appearing on the Xbox.
This had two effects: the Rockstar GTA series was regarded by many as a Playstation franchise, and Sony shifted millions of extra PS2 consoles as a result of the games. fast forward to this generation, and we saw Grand Theft Auto 4 released simultaneously on both the PS3 and Xbox 360. The game has sold phenomenally well so far, with 4.23 million units going to the PS3 and 5.74 million being snapped up by Xbox 360 owners.
That collective total of 10 million is a great result, and one that was only possible due to the multi-platform nature of the title. However, it did mean that neither console saw a real boost in sales figures after the game came out. It was only after the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 that the PS3 saw a sales spike. MGS4 is obviously a third-party PS3 exclusive.
Then the big news from E3 was that Square Enix had decided to make the Final Fantasy series multi-platform with Final Fantasy XIII being released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 simultaneously in America and Europe. The company obviously saw the logic of giving as many gamers the chance to buy the game it has spent years developing. So the question is: will other developers follow suit?
It could be that the idea of third-party exclusives for one particular home console could go the way of the dodo. The Bitbag certainly thinks so, and explains what it calls The GTA IV Effect. It’s certainly good business sense for developers to make their games accessible by as many people as possible, especially in this generation where even two years in, a definite victor hasn’t yet emerged. In fact it’s highly likely that all consoles will end having sold enough to justify their release, and have made enough for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to walk away happy.
The only thing stopping all third-party titles going multi-platform is those behind the scenes deals which sees Microsoft or Sony paying vast sums of money for the privilege of having an exclusive. If we could get rid of those, then us as gamers would benefit from having the full range of titles available to us, even though the oft-discussed universal console has no chance of becoming reality.
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Tips N4G
August 3rd, 2008
Fanboy wars would end…or at least reduce dramatically because we wouldnt have to argue about who has what…. people would still argue about the pixel counts and framerate of each console, but thats just plain sad isn’t it
August 3rd, 2008
I disagree Bourne, I think fanboys live so that they can continue to be fanboys tomorrow. That’s their ultimate goal in life. And if they can’t brag and boast about one thing, they’ll turn to another.
Beyond that, I agree, I think the days of 3rd Party Exclusive deals are pretty much over. And that most consoles this generation and next, will be defined by the in-house first/2nd party studios that each company has at hand.
It doesn’t necessarily bother me, per se, with production/dev costs getting as high as they are now, it was only a matter of time before developers realized that just having it on one machine wasn’t going to hit the market like a multi-platform launch would.
The question is, will this become a moot point in 2 or 3 years when the PS3 and 360 have 20+ million units shipped, and the launch of one great title will reap several hundred million in revenue? At that point, I’ll bet that devs and publishers alike will be more prone to accepting an exclusive deal vs. now, where they kinda need the increased penetration in order to just recoup costs.
But, I think it’ll probably stay multi-plat for 3rd party’s, just so they can get more bang for their buck, straight out of the gates.
What I would like to see though, is more developers making games specifically for Console A, to maximize what that console can do. Everyone knows the 360 has it’s benefits over the PS3, and that the PS3 has it’s benefits over the 360. I’d just like to see some games come out that actually show these benefits vs. having the same game on both systems…but they’re both in some way dumbed down, so that the other can maintain performance standards.
Morne
August 3rd, 2008
nicely put Morne lol
I think they will become a thing of the past, and it will all come down to first party exclusives as the deciding factor.
At the moment I think Sony have the better first party lineup but with the amount of money Microsoft and the way they have been throwing it around lately leads me to think that they could end up with the better lineup. Microsoft buying Epic anyone? They might aswell have. And Valve.
August 3rd, 2008
Microsoft buying Sony. That is when the seas begin to boil and the world collapses under their wallet.
August 3rd, 2008
As long as Microsoft keeps giving out huge pay check to exclusives it not end. They love losing money. Fanboyism will never end no matter what and the only reason why Xbox 360 is getting FFXIII is because Microsoft paid Square-Enix in Japan FFXIII will remain a PS3 lifetime exclusive. Sony makes better exclusive while Microsoft doesn’t even make games. In the end Sony will destroy Microsoft because Sony makes top notch highly exclusives.
August 3rd, 2008
There will be no destruction.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
T.S. Elliot
Console wars have never had the venue they have now. The market is many many times larger than ever before (recent study showed average age of Canadian gamer at about 40 for one small example)
There is too much invested in each console by their makers to ever have one of them go out with a bang. No fanbois will stand victorious over their opponents corpses. Like the PS2 and the Xbox, their replacements slowly phase them out to continue the revenue stream, and to phase in the gamers to the next generation. This is a relatively new trend in the world of gaming. The tired fanbois rhetoric is based on ignorance and a dated impression of the market, of how consoles used to sell themselves.
August 3rd, 2008
Somebody block Sega? If i wanted idiotic swearing i’d visit other gaming sites.
August 3rd, 2008
Post deleted*
@The future of Sega,
whats up with you lately man with all the vulgar swearing. Keep it clean guys.
August 4th, 2008
Lately? He’s been doing it since day one!
August 4th, 2008
Thanks Mike , it gets a bit ridiculous round here when these kids get too much sugar.
Although yeah, Hairys right he’s been doing it forever.
August 4th, 2008
Actually, I was “privileged” enough to actually WITNESS Future Sega Boy’s transformation from Mild-Mannered Forum Poster to The Troll We All Know And Hate.
It wasn’t even at Blorge here, but on another gaming site. Someone had written an article about being “decent” and not cursing people out for disagreeing with you and keeping posts intelligent, etc etc. And Future Sega Boy (who had previously just had normal posts) was one of the first to comment, and in the style we are all used to. This was a few months ago. He got alot of laughs from it, but he seems to still be under the impression that it is still funny all the time. He does it for attention, and it works.
-Arvis
August 4th, 2008
LOL my post was deleted. What a bummer
Hey by the way the Teen Choice Awards sucked seriously #*! this evening! Miley Cyrus was the host! Hulllllll!!!!
August 4th, 2008
Miley Cyrus = hot…i saw a girl who looked like her at this resturaunt…anyways i don’t feel comfortable discussing my personal life with complete strangers…Especially Kev, rumor has it he gets off on these kinds of things… just joking.
Future of Sega, you need to chill with the pointless swearing.
August 4th, 2008
Yeah I guess I can….ok. For the time being Future of Sega will be a good guy :)….Just like Tommy when he lost his Sword of Darkness and became the good Green Ranger.
August 5th, 2008
Hey you guys know that Arvis is right. I only do that for attention and making other people laugh. Life is boring doing the same things over and over. Sometimes you just need to act like a jackass
heehaaww!!! lol.
But um…..I’ll transform back to the normal state….Maybe next year or 2, I’ll go back to my wild ways