• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Exclusivity sucks as a gaming practice

I’m gonna be bold here and say that the only scenario when people are genuinely okay with exclusivity is when they aren’t personally affected by it. Every other scenario people will complain and say it sucks, rightfully so.

And for the IP growth and sales figures it’s always bad. Minecraft exclusive to Xbox would not be a great move, neither would Destiny exclusive to Playstation or Elden Ring exclusive to PC.

For platform warriors exclusives are awesome though. And a lost exclusive is like a lost bullet for their gun. All they have left when exclusives go multiplat is a possible DF Face-Off win. If they lose then the IP was never good anyway.

No one is personally affected by it, you buy the console or platform that gets the games you like on it, even if it means missing one or two games you really want, its not the end of the world. We live in a weird time where everyone thinks they’re entitled to play every game now, especially on day 1 for a low price. Thats never been how gaming has worked.

Because of exclusives platform holders are forced to invest big money into games and try and push for them to be way bigger than 3rd party games because they are meant to sell consoles not games. Without exclusives there’d be far less investment in AAA gaming
 
Last edited:

RoboFu

One of the green rats
I feel it doesn’t matter… at some point sooner than later gaming will just be services on every device. The only problem we will have then is will Nintendo, Sony, and ms exist as platform services or will all first and third publishers have their own service/apps?
 
Last edited:

Dreamin

Member
I like exclusives, it helps to get the best of the platform. Well, except with Microsoft since the Xbox One. I miss the X360 era truely.
Xbox 360 Death GIF by Xbox

Well, please ignore the RROD era.
I think it's very rare that an exclusive gets the best out of a platform, most 'exclusives' are brand exclusives not console exclusives, so much gross gen etc. and the architecture for most hardware is so similar these days anyway,
 
Last edited:

Daytonabot

Banned
I completely understand why exclusives exist. I also understand my power as a consumer. If they want a penny from me, they'll put their games where I want to buy them. I'm fine waiting a year or two, if need be, but I expect to pay year or two-year-old prices unless significant modernization effort is put in.
 

Kilau

Gold Member
Exclusives are great because the console manufacturer is usually footing some of the bill. This means these games can usually take their time. This can help third parties because they get a money hat to keep their stock holders happy. If a third party game isn’t exclusive, it may be rushed because stockholders want to recoup the cost asap. In general it seems most exclusives score higher in reviews.
If the money hat is making the game actually possible where otherwise it couldn't be made then yes its good. If it's just a 3rd party publisher looking to make extra money at the expense of their customer base then that is crappy. First party exclusives I am totally fine with and are usually my favorite games in a generation.
 

Nickolaidas

Banned
Hilarious to see people arguing in favor of less competition thinking that is going to result in better outcomes for the industry...
The consoles can compete with each other as much as they want - PC should be above that.

FF7 remake coming to PC doesn't hurt PS sales, when the majority of PS5 owners do not care about PC gaming due to price, compatibility headaches, etc.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Absolutely, they need to stop making games like Halo, Forza, Mario, God of War etc.
It's just bad the industry
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
If the money hat is making the game actually possible where otherwise it couldn't be made then yes its good. If it's just a 3rd party publisher looking to make extra money at the expense of their customer base then that is crappy. First party exclusives I am totally fine with and are usually my favorite games in a generation.
That part I kind of agree, I mean did SE really need help from Sony to make FFXVI? The only reason Sony money hat to SE was in order keep SE’s big game exclusive to PS5.
 

NahaNago

Member
So another pc port begging thread. There are probably hundred of games on pc that will never come to consoles and you never hear console owners moan so much about those games coming to their platform but as soon as the 2 dozen exclusive games that come only to console each year folks on pc cry about it for years and talk about pirating and emulating it.

I do agree that the majority of third party exclusives don't really need to happen anymore unless they are paying for the whole thing.
 

Dreamin

Member
Absolutely, they need to stop making games like Halo, Forza, Mario, God of War etc.
It's just bad the industry
Why would they stop making them, console sales might suffer but they'd sell more without exclusivity, they'd be throwing money away for nothing by not doing anything with those ips.
 

Fredrik

Member
No one is personally affected by it, you buy the console or platform that gets the games you like on it, even if it means missing one or two games you really want, its not the end of the world. We live in a weird time where everyone thinks they’re entitled to play every game now, especially on day 1 for a low price. Thats never been how gaming has worked.

Because of exclusives platform holders are forced to invest big money into games and try and push for the to be way bigger than 3rd party games because they are meant to sell consoles not games. Without exclusives there’d be far less investment in AAA gaming
Most people here are enthusiasts and buy all platforms but that’s not how it is for regular mainstream gamers. Of course people are affected. Almost all my friends are missing one or several platforms and always get sad when I start talking about an exclusive they can’t play without investing in another platform.
 
Last edited:
Look how hard it is for Microsoft to beat the Playstation with there exclusives (Yeah yeah no exclusives this year.) If all games were on both systems, Xbox itself wouldn't compete at all with the Playstation. The Playstation brand is just too big.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Most people here are enthusiasts and buy all platforms but that’s not how it is for regular mainstream gamers. Of course people are affected. Almost all my friends are missing one or several platforms and always get sad when I start talking about an exclusive they can’t play without investing in another platform.
In life there thing we just miss out, like some people cant experience OLED TVs because they just cant effort it or some cant have expensive vacation because they super expensive. At end of the day gaming systems are luxury items, most cant have multiple of so they bound to miss something but its not really end of the world.
 

Fredrik

Member
In life there thing we just miss out, like some people cant experience OLED TVs because they just cant effort it or some cant have expensive vacation because they super expensive. At end of the day gaming systems are luxury items, most cant have multiple of so they bound to miss something but its not really end of the world.
It’s not the end of the world but people are still affected, that’s why exclusives, timed exclusivity deals and studio acquisitions are such hot topics. I mean try go into the Activision Blizzard acquisition thread and post exactly that post. Like I said, when people aren’t affected by it it’s fine but otherwise it’s the cancer of the industry.
 
That part I kind of agree, I mean did SE really need help from Sony to make FFXVI? The only reason Sony money hat to SE was in order keep SE’s big game exclusive to PS5.

FF16 represents a large risk for Square Enix. If the game underperforms, they'd almost certainly need to have layoffs. Sony's investment help cover and mitigate some of that risk and they know their sales would have been limited on the Xbox platform anyways.
 
NO. I want my pc exclusive gems to not be accessible to the console peasants. Suck it.

And I want my marios to be always on team red
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
FF16 represents a large risk for Square Enix. If the game underperforms, they'd almost certainly need to have layoffs. Sony's investment help cover and mitigate some of that risk and they know their sales would have been limited on the Xbox platform anyways.
FF series is super popular game that guarantees sell, what risk? SE has been successfully making FF for years they don’t need help. It’s like saying saying Capcom needs Sony help to make Resident Evil series.
 

ungalo

Member
These guys have to smarten up, see reason in broader reach, UNSHACKLE exclusives for the sake of game preservation; & focus on making good games. Games don't need to be exclusive to be a quality standard. Elden Ring, Witcher3, RDR2, Skyrim, Minecraft, Tetris, GTA are proof! non-exclusive, acclaimed, among the best-selling & greatest games ever.. Give me more platform agnostic, top-tier, competitive games! Why's competition stuck to being about boxes and exclusives? Should've always just been about striving to make quality games!
This is not a grounded argument, just some utopia that doesn't exist. Everybody would want an industry where there is no garbage monetization just "quality games" that everybody can play.

In pratice, most of the big games that managed to escape the worst economic models to focus only on quality are basically produced to be the flagship of a specific hardware or service. Giving counter-example does not eraze that fact.
 

AmuroChan

Member
Exclusivity isn't unique to gaming. It's a general business practice. Does Disney allow their Disney+ shows to stream on HBO Max or Netflix? Does Burger King allow Wendy's to sell Whoppers? Does Tesla share their blueprints with other car manufacturers so that they can all make Tesla's?
 
I understand where you are coming from, but they do it to sell consoles and make their platforms more desirable and diverse. They are a business. There’s a reason why Microsoft is spending exorbitant amounts of cash to build up their first party offerings with exclusive content. This isn’t exclusive to video games. Look at phones, cars and movie streaming services for example. If there are no exclusives, what’s the point in multiple consoles then? Exclusives can bring out the best in hardware as well. If all games were everywhere, then I feel we only need a single platform and any new competitors would be pointless. Less competition would most likely destroy the gaming industry imho.
 
Last edited:

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Just get a PC and whatever console has the games you want to play.

Of course it kinda sucks to do so, but what else could console sellers do to boost interest on their systems?
 

Neofire

Member
I'm not sure why it's hard to understand why console makers make exclusive games for their console.
For some it's incomprehensible. No different than the iPhone only running the IOS and not android or a Nvidia card having features an AMD card doesn't. So on and so forth but people seem to get simple when it comes to gaming companies.

And I already know why the usual suspects are making whole threads asking these crazy questions.........
 

HTK

Banned
Exclusivity sucks but if there weren’t any what would really differentiate any of these companies?

Best thing you can hope for is timed exclusives.
 
FF series is super popular game that guarantees sell, what risk? SE has been successfully making FF for years they don’t need help. It’s like saying saying Capcom needs Sony help to make Resident Evil series.
popular doesn't mean it can't underperform. AAA games have high budgets and they continue to get more expensive. By mitigating risks, they can assure themselves stability and security in case the game doesn't sell as well as hoped.
 

PeteBull

Member
OP, especially first party exclusives are crazy important, dev studios on those(at least in theory) get funded more, focus on single device and work their hardest to make sure they get out in the open best quality product, product of quality superb enough that its a must have title, and with that it forces undecided consumers(us, players), to buy console with said exclusive title.
Think of exclusive game as hot sexy momma tempting us with her curves and saying- look how good i look/how nice i play, u want me, take me, buy me and own me ;D
 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
pc just gets everything now. i have a ps5 but i'd rather just wait 2 years for ragnarok because i prefer having everything in one place and mods. sucks that some games are seemingly just lost in the shuffle like MGS4, bloodborne, lost odyssey, ninja gaiden black.... but emulation will get there eventually.
 
It's not an issue, really. When I was a kid I couldn't ask my parents multiple platforms so I had to make choices.
Right now, as a gaming enthusiast, I can't believe that spending few hundreds bucks more for a couple of systems is an issue. If the interest is there, what's the problem in purchase a system every 2-3 years?
It's ok to have a favourite platform but c'mon, there's nothing that actually prevents enthusiasts to play what they want.
 
Last edited:
The consoles can compete with each other as much as they want - PC should be above that.

FF7 remake coming to PC doesn't hurt PS sales, when the majority of PS5 owners do not care about PC gaming due to price, compatibility headaches, etc.

Of course, PC competes with consoles. Always has and always will.

PC is doing so well because it is getting a large number of 3rd party games when back in the day, there wasn't as much consistent support.
 

CamHostage

Member
Elden Ring, Witcher3, RDR2, Skyrim, Minecraft, Tetris, GTA are proof! non-exclusive, acclaimed, among the best-selling & greatest games ever..

Funny list there, if you go through the history of those franchises...
  • Elden Ring: new game built for the audience into Dark Souls, which caught its first momentum with Demons Souls, a PS3 exclusive.
  • Witcher 3: third game in a series that started on PC and built momentum with Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 as well as PC again.
  • RDR2, third game in a series that started as a PS2 exclusive.
  • Skyrim, part of a series that lived on PC until it expanded and shot for mainstream appeal with two exclusive games on Xbox hardware (later Oblivion was ported to PS3, Morrowind you can still play today on any Xbox.) That franchise is now potentially going back into exclusivity with the Xbox/Bethesda purchase.
  • Minecraft, that's was first brought to consoles (after gaining popularity on PC and mobile) through an Xbox 360 version which important to the increasing presence of Xbox Live Arcade; the series was later bought by Microsoft (although they have kept non-exclusivity as the business model.)
  • Tetris, of course, began life on Nintendo platforms... which is not true, it was originally an Arcade game and a series of PC releases, but once Nintendo got involved they were so rabid about exclusivity that there was a huge lawsuit which killed the Tengen NES version and also scared SEGA off from releasing a Genesis version.
  • GTA, we are I assume not talking about GTA1 being among the greatest games ever (although on consoles those first games were exclusive to PlayStation beyond the PC release,) but then the GTA3 series that launched this franchise big of course came home first as a PS2 exclusive.
In all of these cases, being exclusive on certain consoles (if you don't mind me being picky about "console exclusives" when there were often also PC versions out there,) helped these franchises gain a solid foundation to build upon for bigger franchise plans. Maybe, probably they would have been hits without having started in one gaming tent or the other, but this is how things worked out.

Exclusivity is a brand strategy that, in the past, has been very, very, very successful for game publishers and the console manufacturers who do business with these publishers. Whether or not it's the best route to take for today's gaming audience, that's a complex equation that I haven't seen the math on, but obviously publishers are still doing it so there must be money in it.

...Whether I like it or not as a gamer, that's a different question, but when I look at my gaming shelf, I've got a whole lot of games made (or originally made) exclusively for the box those carts/discs play on, and those tend to be among my favorite games, so the equation tends to work on me.

Revolver was on Xbox, too. (you still got a point though)

Dagnabbit, you're right!
I forgot that RDRevolver was also on Xbox... but I think I've still got an ace up my sleeve: Revolver originally was only spoken of as a PS2 game when it was being made for Capcom; then when T2 acquired Angel and recued the game from cancelation, that's when an Xbox version joined the caravan.
(Rockstar had by that time expanded from being primarily PS2-exclusive to putting games like the GTAs and MC2 on Xbox, although they still launched first on PS and shortly after on XB; Revolver appears to have been their first simultaneous launch?)

So, I'm still all-in with my theory that exclusivity helped these game series get attention on their way to being named the greatest games ever.
 
Last edited:

kyussman

Member
I don't know man....gaming is a business,what better business can you do than to have games on your system that people can't play on other systems.
 

Nickolaidas

Banned
Of course, PC competes with consoles. Always has and always will.

PC is doing so well because it is getting a large number of 3rd party games when back in the day, there wasn't as much consistent support.
And yet consoles sell more than ever.

Kinda beats your argument a few posts above, doesn't it?
 

Irobot82

Member
Why on earth am I being pulled into this thread?

Edit: On topic, it sucks. It's nice both MS and Sony are putting 1st party titles on PC. I was a patient man for FFVII.
 
Last edited:

Robb

Gold Member
season 6 friends GIF


Gives you more of a reason to buy the consoles and makes sure the games actually make use of the systems features. The games are usually also way better optimized since devs can focus on a single platform instead of splitting dev time over multiple versions.

There’s so much to play these days anyway. If you can’t afford all consoles one gen you can just get another one next gen and you’ll have a set backlog of loads of great titles to play right from the get-go.
 
Last edited:

Reizo Ryuu

Member
I don't really care, I go where the games are, I'll buy an entire system just to play that one game I really want to play; however, it does suck that the only way to replay MGS4, is to get my ps3 out of storage, and then when my ps3 dies, that's it, no more MGS4 or folklore or any other locked to that system.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
I'm not sure why it's hard to understand why console makers make exclusive games for their console.

This.

Why would Nintendo port their exclusive games on Xbox and PS? Would the Switch be as successful if Nintendo games were available on another console? Doubtful.
 

Keihart

Member
I’m gonna be bold here and say that the only scenario when people are genuinely okay with exclusivity is when they aren’t personally affected by it. Every other scenario people will complain and say it sucks, rightfully so.

And for the IP growth and sales figures it’s always bad. Minecraft exclusive to Xbox would not be a great move, neither would Destiny exclusive to Playstation or Elden Ring exclusive to PC.

For platform warriors exclusives are awesome though. And a lost exclusive is like a lost bullet for their gun. All they have left when exclusives go multiplat is a possible DF Face-Off win. If they lose then the IP was never good anyway.
Waited years to play Sunset overdrive because i couldnt bother to get an xbox, didn't shed 1 tear despite being pretty interested on the game.
 

Amiga

Member
The rate of quality in exclusives is much higher than in 3rd part games.
Exclusives focus on quality over monetization in order to impress gamers. they are the most important category and we need them now more then ever in the face of the GaaS model.
 

RCU005

Member
Complaining about exclusivity is the most stupid and nonsensical thing that I hate the most!

I completely understand why though: You buy your console of choice and the game you want is not available for it. Well, guess what? That’s exactly the point! PlayStation business is about selling PlayStations! They want you to choose their console (same thing apply to Xbox, Nintendo, etc). One of the most important way they can “force” you to do that is by limiting the game you want to their console. A business is not a charity case!

But then you’ll say: but third party games! They should all be in every platform? Why? It’s the same thing! Sony wants a game to on their console so you buy their console, why should it matter if it’s third party? The end goal is, again, to make people buy their console!

And finally you’ll say, but time exclusivity and timed-DLC! Well, again if there is a game that cannot be exclusive to a console, then Sony or Xbox or Nintendo will find a way to make you buy their version so you get their console.

But then I’ll miss that content, I’ll get punished if I don’t buy that console! Well, that’s the point!! You don’t want to get punished, then buy the console that has all that content.

The best practice is not for a game to be in all consoles, but for you to have all consoles. If you can’t have them all, then it’s about choosing the best choice for your taste and of course sometimes you’ll get screwed and sometimes you’ll be rewarded. You can’t have everything all the time!

In short, it’s a business! They want you to buy their console because if you had a business you’d want people to buy your product/service.

Oh, but then you’ll say: but developers will earn more if they could sell the game on all consoles instead of just one! Maybe, but that depends of the business deal they make. Sometimes it’s just about design choices or other things, but not all exclusive deals mean they won’t sell as much. There are first party games like Mario Kart 8 that have sold like 40 million, so as you can tell not always is about being on every console.
 

Akuji

Member
its always funny to see how far people can be in their own bubble.
Thanks op for giving me 30 sec of joy. Now go learn about reality.

Sales arent everything for exclusives.
 
Top Bottom