Can exclusivity help a game's sales?

[Kasz216]

Kenryoku_Maxis said:

Kasz216 said:

Legend11 said:

Solid_Snake4RD said:

Legend11 said:
Do you think Modern Warfare 2 would have sold more than 14-15 million copies at this point if it was a PS3 or 360 exclusive? I don't...

I think the number of console owners that won't buy a game simply because it's on another console is small (Modern Warfare 2 pretty much says that). So it all boils down to raw numbers, the more gamers attracted to a game and have a console that can play it the more that will likely buy it.

MW2 sales have nothing to do with being multiplat.MW2 was kind of a cool thing to get this season kind of thing,the hype was what propeled the sales

 

So you're saying that exclusives don't get hyped or are never the cool thing to get in the season they're released?  That doesn't make any sense to me as exclusives do get hyped and there are exclusives like Gears of War for example that were the cool thing to get at the time it their release.

Which is actually why people think exclusivity helps.

It's because to get exclusivity they usually pay to have ads all over the airwaves.

So you're saying a game taking the funds they otherwise would have put into creating a second version of the game and instead putting it into marketing is a bad idea?  Sorry...in certain circumstances, that actually can be a smart thing.  Especially in the current marketplace, where the HD consoles are fighting for bigger chunk of a smaller market.  Not every game is a GTAIV or Modern Warfare and are guaranteed over 10 million in sales.  Some of them need to push tons of marketing just to guarantee their sales.  And if they can guarantee 3 million sales on one platform with a solid ad campaign vs 'possibly' getting a split amount of sales on two different platforms that will either be less or more than that 3 million target, they'll choose exclusivity in a heartbeat.

Most people think some developers are scaling back on 'multiplats' because they prefer one console or another.  More often than not its because they just can use their development costs and marketing way more efficiently for one system.  Its been this way ever since the SNES/Genesis 'wars'.  And on into the N64/PSX days.  And etc. etc. down into today.  Why spend double the money and time when you can focus it all on one console and potentially double it from advertising?  Because, what drives the American market?  Advertising and hype.

The same thing happened past the mid point of the last gen.  'Multiplatform' games started to become less and less.

It's not the money they'd put into a second version.

It's the money they money Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo pays for their advertising.