The Great Xbox Exclusive Renaissance!

[Azuren]

vivster said:

Bandorr said:

This argument is very flawed.

Why would a company put in effort and money into developing games.. then put them on other systems?

Games are the life blood of a system. The more (along with quality) the better.

That is like arguing that every restaurant should sell the same food. Every clothing store the same clothes. Every car dealership the same car.

I could also imagine a game store that sells games across all platforms. Oh wait, that already exists. Weird.

Why would I as a consumer care what is best for the company? People supporting exclusives treat it as if there were no games anymore. That's stupid. We have plenty companies that develop for multiple platforms.

The problem is actually that there are closed platforms at all. If there were no proprietary consoles but merely self configurable white boxes, games would run on every platform anyway. Exclusive games are self manufactured problems that exist because problematic platforms exist. Those platforms are only designed to generate more money and force people into ecosystems to make even more money. That's as consumer unfriendly as it gets.

Proprietary things are never good for the consumer. That's why common standards are developed so that everyone benefits. Imagine if every mobile provider had only a propritary selection of phones or if you needed a different operating system to display different websites. You don't because those things use standardized protocols and everyone benefits from it.

But not with gaming consoles. Those HAVE to be proprietary because of reasons.

Yes, let's just all be happy that certain games can only be played on certain platforms which only difference is a brand name on top. Let's celebrate that we have to pay more for the same service. Let's celebrate that there is no true choice other than which choiceless platform to bind yourself to forever.

It occurs to me that you don't know how Consoles work.

 

Most of the money on a console is made from games- and not the exclusives. Games like Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, etc. Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo take a cut from the profits of those games for "being on their platform", and higher sales figures on their platforms mean higher profits. 

 

So the question becomes "How do we get people on our platform over the others?" The answer is to have something on their own platforms that you can't get elsewhere. That means exclusive games and content. 

 

While the sales for said exclusive content isn't enough by itself, it does also lend to the "my friend has ____, so I'll get one, too." A single person can cause up to a dozen others to purchase the same console if he is the first one to buy. Deciding factors for what the first person buys includes exclusive content on the game he plans to play, and whether or not the game itself is exclusive.

 

Another thing that secures loyalty is what the player had last generation. Until the 40GB PS3, Sony had a lockdown on backwards compatibility,  and now XB1 has it with XB360-BC. Then there's Trophies/Achievements, which lock a number of players in by trapping their scores on those platforms. These are all things designed to keep players on a certain platform so they buy games on those platforms.

 

Recently, Microsoft's olive branch to play online with PS4 appeared as a wonderful idea to the public, but there's a sneakier reason it was suggested; Microsoft was trying to take away one of Sony's edges. The move would have only been beneficial to MS, but potentially harmful to Sony, which is why nothing ever came of it.

 

So let's recap:

 

Step One: Exclusive Content, Games, Features keep existing players and draw new players to platform.

Step Two: Games sold on said platform make profit for the company.

Step Three: ???

Step Four: PROFIT!