Do You Think timed Exclusivity is Worst???

[loves2splooge]

Not happy with this practice but it is what it is. Gaming companies are in the business of making money. So they are going to accept money from Microsoft or Sony if needed. In the end it probably doesn't matter too much if they keep 'exclusives' exclusive or not. There is a very high probability that Splinter Cell Conviction is gonna get ported (and with extras to boot) given that the previous Splinter Cell games were ported. But that's not stopping people from getting the 360 or PC version (just look at the pre-orders for that game). Gamers are generally an impatient bunch after all. They want to play the game as early as possible.

You do see some people still begging for a PS3 localization of Tales of Vesperia but I'm assuming most of these people don't own a 360 (or they have already played the 360 version and want to double-dip for the extras). If you own a 360 and you want to play Tales of Vesperia in English (if you haven't already), for gosh sakes, just buy the game already and stop holding out for the PS3 localization like a OCD maniac. It's almost been 2 years already since the game debuted on the 360. Just get it if you want to play it so badly.

Btw Kilz, Star Ocean: The Last Hope and Eternal Sonata sold more on the 360 than on the PS3. The late port hurt the sales of those games on the PS3. You're thinking about Tales of Vesperia, which indeed sold better on the PS3 in Japan. Star Ocean: The Last Hope sold less on the PS3 not only in the west but in Japan. SO4 on the 360 sold about as much in its first week in North America as SO4 Int (PS3) did in it's first five weeks in NA. The 360 version made a lot more revenue than the PS3 version so it was pretty much mission accomplished for Microsoft (if indeed they moneyhatted the game). If the PS3 version manages to catch up to the 360 version in sales, it will be due to the bargain bin boost (low revenue compared to buying the game at $60. Seeing as how the 360 version's sales are pretty front-loaded, most who bought it for the 360 got the game at $60).

That all said, Microsoft's investments in Japan lost them a lot of money. It wasn't really wise for them to pump all this money. Star Ocean and Tales have their followings sure but they're no Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. Only the hardcore would buy a console for Star Ocean and Tales. But the mainstream may very well buy a console for FF and DQ. Just look at FF13's monster attach rate in Japan. The Xbox 360 can't go very far without securing exclusivity for big-gun third-party IPs. And they didn't do that. It would have made more sense to pay Square-Enix 1 year exclusivity for Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. If you are going to moneyhat at all, go big or go home. Investing in Splinter Cell Conviction? Wise move. Star Ocean and Tales? Not so much.