The 3rd Party Balance Sheet of Terror

[amirnetz]

Several comments above questioned why we count as 360 exclusives titles that also show on the PC (or Wii or another platform).

This is a very valid question, so let me explain. 

The question this is thread is really addressing is not which platform has more exclusives, but which platform is denied titles. Another way to rephrase it is: "Our goal is not to determine a winner, but to identify a loser".

The key point to remember is that an exclusivity for one of the HD consoles, really means that the other one does not get the title. If this denial happens often enough to the same platform it will start to become apparent in the marketplace that "that platform doesn't get many of the titles that are out there".

Similarly, we treat timed-exclusives as exclusives as the market shown great bias against a late release. It appears that it is just as damaging for a platform to be the one known as "the console where many games show up much later if they show up at all".

When such a perception is propagated in the market, then "that platform with the fewer titles" becomes a risky purchase to new buyers because the buyers will lack the confidence that all of the future titles will be available on the console. This lack of confidence will cause changes in buying decisions and the platform with the fewer titles will lose share. This lose of share in turn will accelerate the 3rd parties decision to drop support for the platform. And this vicious cycle is called "the death spiral". 

So again, this thread is not a pissing contest between the platform, but an attempt to identify an situation where one of the platform is getting itself into a dangerous situation by singnificantly losing 3rd party support.