Y'know, I do think it is smart of Sony not to buy exclusives.
Sony really doesn't understand Nintendo's business model, which isn't dependant on third parties, but is obviously proving to be more profitable.
But in turn, Microsoft really doesn't understand Sony's business model. By buying so many exclusives/exclusive content and doing so much co-marketing, they are turning Sony's PS model on it's ear. If you're going to sell hardware at a loss, you have to make it up with third party game sales. You can't lose money on hardware, and then pay third parties to help sell that hardware. In a way, Microsoft are literally paying other companies to help them lose money on XBox.
Sony of course isn't executing on it's traditional strategy right now, but I think they know they only have the luxery of buying exclusives when they really don't need to. Their primary goal has to be to move more hardware, which will result in more software support than they could buy... As Nintendo is starting to prove!
"[Our former customers] are unable to find software which they WANT to play."
"The way to solve this problem lies in how to communicate what kind of games [they CAN play]."
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President. Only slightly paraphrased.
