Yes and your topic makes me sad, i loved the xbox before, Xbox One is really far from all previous xbox's.

People buy consoles for 3rd party games. Exclusives are the games that make you pick one over the other though. For me, the PS4 exclusive library is far better than the X1 in every aspect with the exception of holiday 2014 (even then Bloodborne was right around the corner on PS4 while the X1 went 3/4 of the year with nothing but screamride).

Lets look at what the X1 had exclusive wise in depth for a sec. Titanfall was the first game this gen to launch at retail price of 60 dollars with only a fraction of the content of CoD (think SW Battlefront essentially). RotTR is coming to PS4, so the patient will wait. Halo 5 had a lackluster campaign with limited multiplayer modes at launch. Forza 6 was a copy and paste of 5. Screamride was...well...screamride. And now they are closing studios left and right (even those who had games almost ready to launch).

Meanwhile on the PS4 side of things we had Infamous SS, which was a great game even if it did not bring much to the table. I personally got more time platting it than I played in Titanfall. Bloodborne was fantastic in every aspect. Final Fantasy 14 is one of the best mmos out, and cross plays with PC and PS3. Tales of Zesteria was a great jrpg. Dragon Age Heros was a very fun dynasty Warriors style action RPG. I mean the list goes on and that is not even looking into 2016.

The X1 is failing due to lack of innovation, slightly weaker hardware, and a sloppy launch. However that is only why it started slow. The reason why it has not picked up is due to lack of exclusives in quantity and while the quality is there, they are all generic at best. The PS4 has most of the 3rd party support, more diverse line up of exclusives, and is basically a more powerful X1 all together (though X1 gets nod in multimedia).

So in short, yes exclusives matter. It is foolish to think otherwise. You know when X1 sales really went off the deep end? Compare PS4 exclusives to X1 exclusives in 2015 from the start all the way to fall. This is when the X1 sales took a nose dive, and the reason why is right in front of you.

You might as well be asking what color is the sky during the day. Yes, they are vital to the big 3 because people buy consoles to play games and exclusives make each of the big 3 distinctive from each other. Nintendo only has it's exclusives to rely on. So right there, the idea that exclusives aren't needed is beaten. To further add to it...

Both the PS4 and xbox one have 3rd party support. Most of their software sales come from 3rd party games but what gets a person choose one console brand over the other?

That thread asking what reasons do people have to buy a xbox one. The main two answers were exclusives and halo. So what would happen if the xbox one didn't have it's exclusives?

Playstation consoles are as popular as they are thanks to exclusives. People took interest in their games and they couldn't play 'em anywhere else.

Consoles definitely need exclusives. Certain exclusives don't cause spikes in hardware as a coincidence..

most of these people who buy Call of Duty, GTA and Fifa dont buy anything else per year, they are worthless in total spending and they flip flop. Too sad Sony isnt realizing it yet

To a much smaller degree when answering the question of "Which console should I get?"

Online games will require you get the version your friends play on. Then there is which console plays it better. At the end of the day, though, it's the same experience. I would never base my purchase more off of "Can it run this better" than I would "is this available on this".

Why are there people who actually believe that the PC and console market have a significant overlap? XBO isn't losing console sales to PC. It's losing them to PS4. Nobody who cares about playing games on consoles considers PC a relevant platform. The target demographic for the XBO, PS4, and Wii UNX aren't the people insecurely screaming about the superiority of the "PC master race."

Naw I'm saying in order to be succseful you will need both.

PS4's success can be attributed to exclusives as well.

I bought a 360 for Halo 3.

I bought a PS3 for Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

Difference is I bought one in anticipation for games to come, not games that were already out. Of course when that game didn't come out it backfired, but I found plenty of other games to make up for it.

I bought a PS4 for many more reasons than the games that have already released. XB1 simply isn't getting those exclusives that I want.