Hi again vgc :D
Due to just having returned from 7 months of travelling, my gaming knowledge is quite outdated. I don’t know if this has been discussed to death (sorry if it has) but in this slow time while we’re waiting for Quantum Break, Uncharted 4 and Zelda U news, I allow myself to put my ear to the ground and listen to the general consensus. Sorry for the wall of text. I have to make up for the last 7 months. :p
November 15th 2016 the Xbox brand will be able to celebrate its 15th anniversary and since entering the console market Microsoft has done an outstanding job in building a popular and strong gaming brand.
The Xbox 360 launched in November 2005 and became very successful. It was a lot cheaper than the PS3 turned out to be and many people felt it was better designed than its HD competitor. That is quite a feat considering the 360 launched a year before the PS3.
The 360 was my favorite console for the first 4 years of the 7th gen. In my opinion its controller and OS were superior to what the PS3 offered. Bus most importantly, the 360 received many great exclusives including Kameo, Dead or Alive, Project Gotham Racing, Dead Rising, Saints Row, Gears of War, Viva Piñata, Crackdown, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Ninja Gaiden, Fable 2 and The Last Remnant.
But then in 2008 when Xbox 360 had been established as the "core" console, the great flow of varied exclusives stopped and suddenly all we got were sequels of Halo, Gears of War and Forza. And of course Kinect games a little later.
Ironically, PS3 really started to shine in 2008 and 2009 with exclusives like Metal Gear Solid 4, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, Valkyria Chronicles, Killzone 2, inFamous, Demon's Souls, Uncharted 2 and Ratchet & Clank: ACiT.
While Microsoft initially bought exclusive rights to a lot of 3rd party games and only added 1 prominent developer (recently closed Lionhead) to their first party family of 4 (Bungie, Turn 10, Rare and Ensemble) during 7th gen, Sony did somewhat the exact opposite by adding 5 prominent developers (Guerrilla, Media Molecule, Sucker Punch, Evolution and Zipper Interactive) to their first party family of 11 (Naughty Dog, Polyphony Digital, Santa Monica, Bend, Incognito, Japan, San Diego, London, Cambridge, Liverpool and SOE).
So even though the 360 still had the upper hand regarding controller and OS, PS3 slowly began taking the spot as my favorite 7th gen console. Simply because of its quality and varied exclusives.
We are now in 2016 and well into the 8th home console gen. Though Microsoft have lost 3 of its most important developers last gen (Bungie, Epic Games and Lionhead Studios), they’ve done a great job securing 3rd party exclusives and the XB1 still has a lead over the 360 in aligned launches. But things could be better sales wise and when we often blame XB1’s failed launch I think the history of Xbox exclusives plays a large role as well. Do you?
Personally, I would’ve been forced to buy an XB1 at this time if Dead Rising 3, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and Rise of the Tomb Raider all 3 had remained exclusive. Just like I was persuaded to buy a 360 in 2006. While the lackluster exclusives on PS4 could’ve made me buy an XB1, I ended up playing all of the 3 abovementioned games on other platforms (PC, PS4 and 360 respectively). And now with PS4’s 2016 lineup, I don’t have to worry about the lack of quality exclusives.
My aim with this thread is not to predict that the lack of true exclusives will kill or doom the Xbox brand because Xbox may very well stay successful as a service that runs on different hardware platforms like Steam and their Steam Machines.
My aim is to hear if you think home consoles need permanent exclusives and if so to hear if you think Microsoft needs to establish more 1st party developers making games for Xbox that won't be shared with PC. Or do you think Microsoft just need to wait 6 or 12 months before releasing XB1 exclusives on PC? Sony is quite strict regarding funding exclusives in that they rarely let them end up on other platforms but is that some times paying off?
Short version:
Would the 360 and XB1 have sold any better if more of the games below had stayed exclusive? Will the XB1 sales dive now that all future "exclusives" will release on PC and XB1 simultaneously? Are exclusive experiences important for the success of a platform?
Game | Duration of exclusivity | New platform |
Halo: Combat Evolved | 22.5 months | PC |
Ninja Gaiden | 39.5 months | PS3 |
Fable | 12 months | PC |
Halo 2 | 30 months | PC |
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath | 71/83 months | PC/PS3 |
Enchanted Arms | 12.5 months | PS3 |
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion | 12 months | PS3 |
Gears of War | 7 months | PC |
Eternal Sonata | 13 months | PS3 |
Bioshock | 14 months | PS3 |
Mass Effect | 6/60 months | PC/PS3 |
Ninja Gaiden 2 | 16 months | PS3 |
Braid | 8/15 months | PC/PS3 |
Tales of Vesperia | 13 months | PS3 |
Castle Crashers | 24 months | PS3 |
Left 4 Dead | Simultaneous release | PC |
The Last Remnant | 4 months | PC |
Star Ocean: The Last Hope | 11.5 months | PS3 |
Trials HD | 43 months | PC |
Shadow Complex | 75/84 months | PC/PS4 |
Left 4 Dead 2 | Simultaneous release | PC |
Mass Effect 2 | 12 months | PS3 |
Metro 2033 | 53 months | PS4 |
Splinter Cell: Conviction | 0.5 months | PC |
Alan Wake | 21 months | PC |
Limbo | 12.5 months | PC/PS3 |
Super Meat Boy | 1/60 months | PC/PS4 |
Fable 3 | 6.5 months | PC |
Bastion | 5/44.5 months | PC/PS4 |
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet | 8 months | PC |
Alan Wake's American Nightmare | 3 months | PC |
Fez | 12.5/23.5 months | PC/PS3 |
Trials Evolution | 11 months | PC |
Spelunky | 14 months | PS3 |
State of Decay | 5 months | PC |
Halo Online | N/A | PC |
Killer Instinct | 28 months | PC |
Ryse: Son of Rome | 10.5 months | PC |
Dead Rising 3 | 9.5 months | PC |
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood | 5 months | PC |
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare | 4/6 months | PC/PS4 |
Project Spark | Simultaneous release | PC |
Titanfall | Simultaneous release | PC |
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die | 9 months | PC |
Ori and the Blind Forest | Simultaneous release | PC |
Minecraft: Story Mode | Simultaneous release | PC/PS4 |
Rise of the Tomb Raider | 2.5/12 months | PC/PS4 |
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition | 6 months | PC |
Quantum Break | Simultaneous release | PC |
Forza Motorsport 6: Apex | Simultaneous release | PC |
Halo Wars 2 | Simultaneous release | PC |
ReCore | Simultaneous release | PC |
Gears of War 4 | Simultaneous release | PC |
Scalebound | Simultaneous release | PC |
Dead Rising 4 | 3/12 months | Steam/PS4 |