I was actualy thinking about this alot the other day, and would love your guys opinon on it. Do you think Exclusives matter that much anymore. Ill use 360 for example. Honestly, I cant re4call theyre last AAA big exclusive relase that wasnt 6 months or so ago. However, they are still number 1 in NPDs and sales are as strong as ever. This begs the question of do exclusives really matter anymore, because IMO PS3 has had some great exclusives this yeat, but are still third in NPDs (although recent price cut might change this)
Im genuinely curious if 360 not having really any new AAA exclusives is really hurting them? or have they devulved into a Multiplatform box at this point?
I think it is just that exclusives aren't the smartest or safest business ventures now. If a company is going to pump millions of dollars into developing a game then they want that game to be available to as many people as possible, so limiting it to just one console doesn't really help them on that front.
Why the 360 is selling so much this year I honestly don't know. Maybe old 360 owners wanting the new xbox? I think in the long run it will hurt them especially jumping to the next generation. I really wanted to seem some new IP's from them this year or at least announced but I pretty much got nothing. Xbox has Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable, Crackdown but I honestly cant think of any others franchise wise anyways. I guess what I am saying is in the long run when people are making the next gen jump I think it will matter more because people will look at the exclusives to pull them over. Then again I might be giving people too much credit.
How can a platform that has sold millions upon millions, essentially dominated an entire console lifecycle and made god knows how many once-exclusive franchises available on it be "hurt" by lack of exclusives?
I mean I like Gears of War a lot and Halo is still ok I guess but I never bought my 360 for the games that are only available on it. My ps3 however, definitely bought that for the exclusives.
Doesnt really matter to me considering most of the best games are multi-platform anyway, and Im not really interested in Ps3s exclusives except for God of War 3, Ratchet and Clank, and MGS4.
xbox is the 3rd party machine, and devs know that a majority of sales will be on 360. Why? I don't know. People would rather spend their dollars on the 360 copy of a game for reasons unknown to me. Personally most of my friends are on it and I like achievements, but that can't be the reason for everyone else. So no, it's not hurting them, sales are the proof.
Also the XBLA has plenty of great timed exclusives
what the 360 lacks in boxed exlusives it makes up in timed DLa and xbla.
just look at summer of arcade, lots of good stuff. also how many times have we heard that first DLC for games is xbox only for a few months. mircroft has been the 3rd party king for a while now
I only use my 360 for platform-exclusive games (XBLA titles, Halo, Gears, Alan Wake, Fable II, etc.), console-exclusive games (plastic instruments games, The Darkness, Brütal Legend, Bayonetta, RDR, Mortal Kombat, etc.) or games that I know I won't be playing on PC (the Assassin's Creed franchise, GTA IV, etc.). That leaves me with a huge amount of games on PC: the few PC exclusives that remain so, most FPSes, most RPGs, all strategy games, MMOs, etc.
I really don't feel I'm missing anything I care for by not having a PS3.
Because it's a lot better in a lot of ways than the PS3, to the average consumer. For one, it's being marketed WAYYYYY better. On top of that, it has a lot more features to encourage people to pick the 360 over the PS3. The media stuff is pretty awesome, XBL is amazing, and having access to Zune content is really cool too. On top of that, They have XBLA, which is full of loads of awesome exclusives. And they have more than enough exclusive titles. Plus games like CoD which will be pushed way more on 360 than PS3, and 360 players will get perks the PS3 players won't get, like early maps and stuff.
Kinect is certainly not hurting one bit.
And it tends to be the prefered console fro Multiplatform games, so I'd say that's a pretty significant list of reasons that the 360 doesn't need big exclusive titles.
I'm not smack talking the PS3 by the way, it's just my opinion. I also love my PS3, and all of it's games.
I enjoy 360 exclusives such as the Halo, Gears and Forza series. Also love the exclusive XBLA stuff. 360 is still selling well and LIVE is still super active.
360's got me by the balls just by having all my friends on the platform too - and these aren't people I met ON Xbox Live. Doesn't matter what games are available if you don't have friends to play with or talk about em with.
Multiplatform games still look, perform, and sound better on the Xbox 360. Plus tthere's that whole Xbox Live thing that is insanely popular. You can definitely say that Call of Duty or Mass Effect are multiplatform titles, but honestly, look at a Call of Duty or Mass Effect game and tell me that you don't immediately think of an Xbox 360 first.
Brand awareness, marketing. Microsoft has been on the ball in bringing the big PC developers to consoles this generation. If I had to guess on where it started, I'd say Epic Game with their Unreal engine.
Yes. Aside from Gears 3 and a Halo remake, the 360 lineup is looking considerably worse and worse with each passing year. The Kinect crap doesnt help either. There's a reason why I have 51 PS3 games and only 17 360 ones. At least the XBLA stuff is still good.
Speaking of multiplatform games, more and more of them are starting to ship on 2 disks and there is no fucking way in hell I'd go with 2 DVD's when I can get the same thing on a single bluray (except ME because I wanted to carry over my save).
Anyways I think the lack of big exclusives is really going to hurt MS in the long run.
I think in the long run it will hurt them especially jumping to the next generation. I really wanted to seem some new IP's from them this year or at least announced but I pretty much got nothing [edit] I guess what I am saying is in the long run when people are making the next gen jump I think it will matter more because people will look at the exclusives to pull them over.
This could be true, and now that the PS3's price has been cut to $249 some 360 owners might now pick up a PS3 as a stop gap console. And if they like what they have missed it could make them decide to return/stick with Sony next generation.
Then again the PS4 will probably end up being $900 or it will be released a year after the new Xbox so most Americans will stick with Microsoft.
It does matter, but not any way near as much as it used to, if MS suddenly had no exclusives then they wold be in trouble. Exclusives aren't as critical as they used to be in the PS2 era or before. The sales of consoles this gen has really proved that, there isn't nearly the divide that there used to be.
It depends on what kind of gamer you are. If you'r constantly looking for a unique, fresh, and stylized experience that you can't get anywhere else(MGS4 is one that come to mind), it does hurt when the 360 gets more multiplatform games compared to PC and PS3, but if you are that kind of gamer, you probably own every platform, so that you can try out every new game. For me, as long as there are cool games coming out, it doesn't matter if they are exclusive, but as long as they have good replayibility and gameplay.
i think early on in a consoles lifespan they are very important because consoles are so expensive out of the gate, companies to get a big fan base from the off to establish their platform as the powerhouse,
however at this point, i think everyone has made up their mind on what it is they want to play games on, and consoles are cheap enough to be an impulse buy if a really important exclusive game does come out, but iv been X360 since the start of this generation and the lack of exclusives in the last few years hasn't bothered me in the slightest, the only playstation exclusive iv been really bothered about has been Demon Souls, and oh look! we get the spiritual sequel on this side of the divide too, if i was on the PS side though, id have shelled out for and xbox and Mass Effect, so i definitely feel i made the right choice this time out
xbox DOES have sum of da bes exclusives. to tink diferently is jus silly. dat doesnt mean there rnt gud ps3 games (theyr great) and de have sum of da best too! de also have shitty ones. like xbox. gos both ways!
but basilly games r fun nd it dosnt mattr wut u play dem on!
exclusives are only good if it's the platform dev that's publishing them. i mean that in a business sense. third parties get nothing out of cutting down the number of people who can play their game were as sony or ms published games can be the deciding factor in a console purchase. that said i'm of the mind that if you're buying a console cause the games you will eventually have both systems.
as to why most multiplatform games sell more on the 360, the short answer is more people have 360s the long answer gets into the debates that are the stuff of forum legend ie. sega vs nintendo, mac vs pc, quiznos vs subway... cats and dogs living together mass hysteria!
It matters for those who don't own the system yet/still. It's a weird dichotomy between the Xbox and the Playstation. Microsoft has the greatest-selling 1st party exclusive in Halo and not much else (Forza and Gears, really), while Sony has a healthy half-dozen or so, high quality franchises in Uncharted, inFAMOUS, Killzone, LittleBigPlanet, Gran Turismo, Motorstorm and Resistance but none of which on their own sell even remotely the number which Halo draws in, but together probably eclipse it. They're two very different approaches which at the end of the day are leading to similar results in terms of console sales, as last I checked the Xbox was out ahead of the Playstation but not by figures anyone would consider decisive.
PS3 definitely has the more eclectic lineup of exclusives and that may appeal to a certain segment of users, but the fact is the 2-3 exclusives Microsoft has anymore are incredible sales beasts. Gears and Halo are guaranteed sales in the 5m range and while Forza might not have the sales of GT, it certainly is no slouch either. Secondly, while core gamers want little or nothing to do with Kinect, it clearly has won over some of the casual crowd that the Wii had with those stupefying sales figures. That, and people go where their friends are. It's the same reason anybody joining the world of social networking these days flocks to Facebook. Whatever reason people had for joining Facebook 5 years ago is irrelevant. It's popular today because that's where everybody is. Same with the 360 I'd imagine. If you're going to buy a console today, unless you're replacing a broken one which you've already invested in, chances are the majority of your friends are on 360 and so that's what you'll buy. It's not going to be true in all cases, but clearly the majority.
The bewildering fact of the matter is that when it was Xbox vs. PS2 and Xbox was pretty clearly more powerful and had the more unified platform where every system came standard with HDD and Ethernet and clearly the better online, it didn't matter because PS2 was first, had more games and was cheaper. This time it's the PS3 that's more powerful, has free online for everyone and all systems have a hard drive, but it still doesn't matter because 360 was first , is and has always been cheaper, and now just has the majority of mindshare. If there is one thing to take away from the last two generations of consoles, it would appear the way to more sales is to find the sweet spot in the price/performance ratio and to have the jump on the competition. The vast majority of people that have and are willing to speed a lot of money for the best graphics are still on PC and will probably stay there.
Personally I would have loved to see some new great exclusives from Microsoft this year that weren't Kinect crapware, but I honestly don't think it's going to put them at a disadvantage in the next generation. Sony had the better exclusives going into this generation and look where that got them and their high price tag. No, clearly with the Vita Sony has learned that lesson and I'd be willing to bet the PS4 will be much more competitive price-wise than the PS3 ever was and if their online is a more solid experience with cross-game chat and all the little things that make Xbox Live superior in the majorities eyes', the pendulum might swing their way next round.
the better question would be does the PS3 survive without it's few top line exclusives.
my answer is no, 360 has better live features, layout, achievement system, multi player and better game price points over time.
the only reason i even have my ps3 still is for ratchet and clank, MGS and most importantly Uncharted, i suppose killzone is good but not good enough to warrant a console buy.
xbox DOES have sum of da bes exclusives. to tink diferently is jus silly. dat doesnt mean there rnt gud ps3 games (theyr great) and de have sum of da best too! de also have shitty ones. like xbox. gos both ways! but basilly games r fun nd it dosnt mattr wut u play dem on!
360 is for shootan an drivan gaems, ps3 is for jumpan gaems.
The 360 has some of the best hardware and the best software this generation. It also has the largest wealth of multiplatform titles (if a game is multiplatform, it's 360/PS3, 360/PC, or 360/PS3/PC--seldom do you see a PS3/PC title).
Multiplatform games still look, perform, and sound better on the Xbox 360. Plus tthere's that whole Xbox Live thing that is insanely popular. You can definitely say that Call of Duty or Mass Effect are multiplatform titles, but honestly, look at a Call of Duty or Mass Effect game and tell me that you don't immediately think of an Xbox 360 first. Brand awareness, marketing. Microsoft has been on the ball in bringing the big PC developers to consoles this generation. If I had to guess on where it started, I'd say Epic Game with their Unreal engine.
COD is kinda like how GTA was PS2 despite not being exclusive.I'd Say Mass Effect is a special case considering MS published the first one, and the whole series is about importing your save across the series, so they'll always be invested in it and have the best version.
Microsoft has a bunch of exclusives this year, but their all for Kinect and the hardcore could care less. The answer to your question is no, exclusives don't really matter these days. The main stream only care about Madden in Call of Duty. Us, the minority, are the only ones who acutally care about exclusives.
what 360 is lacking in retail exclusives it makes up for with downloadable games. XBLA's content is far superior to PSN's (dont get me wrong though, PSN has some great stuff)
It doesn't matter to Microsoft because they're still rolling in Kinect money. It matters to people who actually play games since there's nothing to play on 360 anymore with the exception of XBLA games.
As a primarily PC gamer, who likes both consoles about equally (not fanboying is what I'm saying)...it wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft kills off Sony next generation.
I suspect the Vita will fail, and I expect the Playstation 4 will most likely release after the Ybox 40,000, and at double the price. Sony don't have the same sense of corporate ruthlessness as Microsoft, and are slow to react.
I hope it's not the case. Loss of competition is a bad, bad thing.
I think it matters for people who don't have a console and are buying them now. If you were to stand them side by side if you were someone who didn't own a console and you saw that you get all the same stuff on both machines but on the ps3 you also get this and that and this, you'd probably want the one with more games. Granted it's late in their lifecycle which is why I think Microsoft isn't really bothering with exclusives, I believe that they think that anyone who was going to buy a 360 already has. I hope that if they aren't developing anything for this console that they have their studios developing exclusive games for their next system.
no, not really, everyone has a xbox 360. it's just something with the marketing that microsoft did to get them to think xbox first. microsoft also pays companies to get exclusive DLC first. microsoft doesn't have a lot of exclusives in their list.
In my personal opinion, I think that the PS3 exclusives are never really that exciting. There are a few great ones in the mix, but it seems like exclusivity is just a way for companies to think they are getting the 1-up on the competiton, when really they are just making the same game with a different title.
I personally believe that the 360 had significantly better exclusives coming into the race in 2006--years later, they have hardly any exclusive titles worth checking out (especially since ME is now on PS3 as well). Conversely, I feel that the PS3 has tons of great AAA exclusive games that have come out over the past few years.
I personally believe that the 360 had significantly better exclusives coming into the race in 2006--years later, they have hardly any exclusive titles worth checking out (especially since ME is now on PS3 as well). Conversely, I feel that the PS3 has tons of great AAA exclusive games that have come out over the past few years.
and you just summed up the console wars since 2006
I do find it odd that some people actualy think theyres a chance that SONY might drop out of the console race. Why? They had one bad gen and even that bad gen was still rather good. Nintendo had like 2 not so great gens in a row with N64 and gamecube. He'll, I would argue wii wasn't a good gen for them from a content perspective. I look forward to buying a ps4 in addition to the xbox 720 next gen.
Considering the major line that Microsoft was smashing into our heads for the past few years was "EXCLUSIVES" and how they went to great efforts to obtain timed-exclusivity or whole exclusivity.... yes.
Exclusives weren't really a huge deal in the past. There were First Party titles for generations, but Mircosoft seemed to -at least in my opinion, more than any other company including Sega- spout how they had the dopest, funky-fresh games that you could only get with Larry Hyrb's stamp of approval, things have become a bit different. Since 2009 came and went, it looked like we only had more Gears and Halo games to look forward to. For XBLA, we had another Twisted Pixel game to come (which is a massive "whatever" for me). So how things have shifted from critical mass of exclusives to a minimal effort, there is a possible indication that things have changed a lot in gaming and nobody has really noticed.
Some games run better on Xbox 360... but for the most part, that has become more balanced for PS3 players (and sometimes reversed). That exclusive content is now going away or coming sooner to other platforms, so that doesn't seem to be a major bulletpoint either. Maybe the gaming industry (at least from the major publisher standpoint) are starting to realize that they can reach more people not with exclusivity and more investment, but with smarter platform choices and focused design.
Ladies and gentlemen: Microsoft has realized that mobile and free-to-play games are the future (for the time being) and it isn't worth investing in exclusives.
THAT or they don't want to invest in the harsher economic climate. Either way, there is a significant change in the economic landscape that MS doesn't want to buy everything that moves. Just things that Kinect... and with that, I just found their marketing strategy.
Personally I find the value of Sony's exclusives to be overblown. Sure they have their Uncharteds and Metal Gears, but it seems like every good to mediocre title (ModNation Racers, Motorstorm, MAG, Sly Cooper, the list goes on and on) gets heralded as some to-die-for, system-selling, game-changing AAA purely because of it's exclusivity. People also talk about their upcoming exclusives the same way they all talked about games like Haze, Lair or the Agency before it was discovered that they sucked or got cancelled.
...but hey, it's a free internet so feel free to give The Last Guardian a perfect 10 out of 10 despite seeing little and knowing nothing. :)
Regardless, most of my favourite games are multiplatform and the few exclusives I've really liked were a mix of both consoles.
Anyway, I'm totally ready for new hardware. More and more 360 games are multidisc and I can think of a small laundry list of stuff Sony can improve for their new box.
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