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S.T.A.G.E. on 06 February 2011
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Darth Tigris said:
Reasonable said:
Darth Tigris said:
Reasonable said:

I know, but what it means is that MS is often exposed to the risk of loss of exclusives, particularly now when globally, most popular titles sell roughly the same on each console.  For most developers this means multi is the safest route to go.  I don't mean MS has to own the studios outright, but it should engage in deals where it owns the IP fully and the developer is just developing it.  That way they keep control.

The whole 'sorta exclusive' is just a weak position to be in IMHO.

Your average 360 owner, though, doesn't really care about if a game is exclusive or not.  They just want to know if they can play it on the 360.

As for the ip/dev situation you mentioned, I'd really be suprised if the really talented independent studios out there would agree to a work-for-hire situation like that.  Most really want to retain the rights more than anything.

I particularly agree on the bolded, and that's why I'd like to see MS invest directly more as per my posts.  That's my point really.  MS only actually controls a fairly small set of IPs.  I believe to truly dominate - a'la PS1 / PS2 or Wii for most of this gen - you need more control and more differential exclusives than that.  MS has done very well leveraging a few key IP, but I just don't see them ever achieving what the others have done without more IPs that they fully control that have high demand.

When I look at the huge success of the PS and PS2, though, I don't see SCE IP's being the reason.  I think Resident Evil, FF, Tekken and MGS for the PS.  I think GTA, MGS and FF for the PS2.  SCE had great games for sure (some even selling really good numbers), but 3rd party exclusives pretty much made the PS and PS2 as far as sales.  MS approached this gen that same way, but it was 3rd parties that came to see that its better business FOR THEM to go multi or maybe timed.

SCE has maybe more exclusive IP's this gen than ever before, but ironically that hasn't propelled them to the top either.

Nintendo?  Well they're Nintendo.  They have a list of legacy IP's that SCE and MGS won't be able to compete with ... maybe ever.

With this gen, the rules are being rewritten and MGS and SCE will have to look at this and see where things are trending and try to steer the ship.  Not saying I'm a huge fan of MGS's approach, but I can say that I'm sure not hurting for games to play on my 360.


Sony's first party are enjoying upward spikes in sales every year. As the names become more known the fanbases are growing. Sony has great relationships with third parties, beyond even that of Microsoft. Microsoft exposed them and capitalized on that this gen, but Sony exploited Microsofts weak spot now.