I would guess this has been discussed before but I haven't seen it discussed by the current VGChartz users.

Several of us thoroughly derailed someone else's thread earlier debating what exclusive means when it comes to video games.  Personally I feel like a game is only exclusive if there is only one LEGAL system to play it on.  By legal system I'm excluding emulation.  That means you can't say Breath of the Wild isn't exclusive even to Nintendo because I play it on my PC.  Sure you can do that but it isn't legal to the best of my knowledge.

If we wanted to exclude PC I would then use the term Console Exclusive.

If a game was cross gen (like BOTW) or cross buy then I would say it's a Nintendo Exclusive.

Just because a system is excluded (i.e no version of the game exists for that system) I would not say that the platforms that have it are exclusive.  This was the root of the argument for the person i was debating with earlier.

Some people call an X-box game exclusive if it isn't on any other consoles but it is on PC.

What do you think? How do you define EXCLUSIVE? Are there exeptions to your rules?

If isn't bound to a single machine(console/PC), it isn't exclusive.

The one meaning of video game exclusivity is to stand out from the competition. If you're in the process of purchasing a home console and want to decide which is best for you than it's important for "console exclusives" to be well defined because they will influence which way you lean.

I see it as, it's exclusive if you can get it on only one console, including PC, though there is the technical 'console' exclusive.

Exclusive: it can only be played in one specific platform. I've always said that if a game is available in more than one platform, then it's not exclusive to any of the platforms it can be played on. I also like to point out that I'm referring to the platforms the game was published onto, not the fact that you can reproduce certain games on other platforms through emulation or backward compatibility.

Quick examples:

· Metroid Prime isn't exclusive to the Gamecube.

· The Last of Us isn't exclusive to the Ps3.

· Alan Wake isn't exclusive to the Xbox 360.

From here on, you have to add "nuances" to the meaning if you want them to fit any specific criteria you wish to add up to the exclusivity word.

Example:

· Animal Crossing is exclusive to Nintendo platforms.

· Uncharted is exclusive to Playstation systems.

· Vanquish is exclusive to seventh gen consoles.

I do consider HD remasters and the likes to be part of the same game (since it's generally the same experience than the original game). In this case, as an example, Metal Gear Solid 3 isn't exclusive to the Playstation 2.

Not sure what stance to have over remakes that aren't the same experience, so I reserve judgment here. I do think The Twin Snakes is exclusive to the Gamecube whereas Metal Gear Solid 1 isn't exclusive to the Playstation (since it was released on PC), as I see them as two experiences that share the same story but have some fundamental changes (cutscenes makeovers, gameplay changes, ost changes and so on).

How else or would you define an exclusive? An exclusive game is something only on one machine. Games like UC4, Splatoon. A console exclusive is a game exclusive to one console but can be on PC/mobile. Games like Nier, Forza Horizon 3, Gears 4. A platform exclusive games are games exclusive to a certain brand but are on different machines games like Zelda BOTW, Persona 5, titanfall, Smash 4.

I exclude PC. For me console gaming is different to pc gaming, so I'd consider games like Nier as console exclusives since you can only get it for one console and not the others, even tho is available for PC.

I follow a similar system, but i do think "Only on [platform/s]" is a better. It's clear, self managing (people can't create complex new qualifiers since properly writing out "Only on PS4, X1, and PC" or "On everything except the PSVita" etc just looks silly), and by extension there's little room for debate. Unfortunately the term 'exclusive' is heavily ingrained in gaming culture, so i expect i and most others will continue to use it.

If it's on a single platform, I call it an exclusive

Otherwise, it's not an exclusive in my books. Could be a console exclusive tho

It really depends on who I'm arguing with at the time.