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Due to just having returned from 7 months of travelling, my gaming knowledge is quite outdated.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?

Ye they do, because the exclusives is what set one console apart from all other gaming plataforms out there, so it is a very effective form of marketing and builds a library that gets ppl interested in buying a console.

Do you think that XB1 sharing all of its exclusives with PC will make its sales dive? Or would the people buying the games on PC never have bought an XB1 anyway?

Yes consoles need exclusive. End of.

yes, just that maybe not for XB platform...

Need a good mix of both 3rd party and 1st party like Nintendos situation.

I am going to say that third party games play an even important role than 1st party games.

So you don't think sharing its exclusives with simultaneous PC release will make XB1 sales dive?

You could be right. No one knows. I just got home to read 7 months of "[insert game] will launch on both XB1 and PC day 1" and Xbox fans(?) raging about it.

I'd just hope that Microsoft would release more permanent exclusives because for me personally exclusives do matter. I've been close to buying an XB1 3 times (Dead Rising 3, PvZ Garden Ware and Rise of the Tomb Raider) but every time the game ends up on my PC. I think Xbox One sales will dive and I don't want to see them stop making hardware. 360 was a great console and competition is the only thing that keeps console gaming alive.

Maybe it wouldn't even matter if Xbox became a service with no fixed hardware. Maybe it would be good for the brand.

Personally I think sales would dive as well but there are also some who think it doesn't matter because console and PC gamers are 2 different crowds and because a PS fan buying Quantum Break on the PC, never would've bought an XB1 anyway.

Some day I'll probably buy an XB1 but as long as the exclusives end up on PC, I just can't justify the purchase given the already limited time I have for gaming.

Forza Motorsport 6: Apex is PC only and its not really the same as Forza Motorsports 6 since its basically a free to play enhanced demo of the real game since it only has 66 cars and five tracks.