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darkknightkryta on 23 August 2012
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Kresnik said:
darkknightkryta said:

Why does everyone say that?  I mean with the PSX it's true, but that's because Nintendo screwed up with cartridges, but in the PS2 era the majority of third party games from NA devs were multi platform.  There were exclusives from Japanese studios yes, but the majority of them were niche titles and you can easily say there's an equal amount of niche exclusives on the original X-box.  Though the GameCube wasn't as lucky.


There were exclusives from Japanese Studios, but they were really important exclusives that help shift a lot of hardware.  They weren't niche at all.  Things like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Devil May Cry, Tekken were (and still are) big franchises.  I don't know how Sony got them to stay exclusive, but it's unlikely they'll be able to get them to do the same in the future.

You're right about the North American games being multi-plat, but again there were a few key ones that weren't.  GTA seemed to have some timed exclusivity deal with PS2.  There were many games that either PS2 + Xbox or PS2 + Gamecube got which the third system didn't, meaning the PS2 was often the most rounded choice.  Throw in a sprinkling of Sony's own highly successful franchises (Gran Turismo, Twisted Metal, Ratchet etc.) combined with all the other factors at play and they ran away with the generation.

I just can't see this kind of situation happening again, at least not for the next generation.  Consoles will probably be too close while they each go after their respective regional markets.  

Metal Gear Solid 2 was ported to PC and Xbox.  Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, yes.  Devil May Cry didn't move hardware.  Tekken might have.  Devil May Cry and Tekken aren't big franchises anymore.  Square games were exclusive most likely because Sony had to bail them when the movie bankrupted them.  GTA had a time exclusive deal with Sony because Sony paid quite a bit of money for time exclusivity.  Doesn't change the fact that you could have gotten them on PC day and date.  And I don't know of any game other than RE4 that was PS2/GC exclusive, and that's a different story.  The PS2 sold what it did soley due to hype, nothing more.  Doesn't change the fact that the majority of the games could be played on the X-Box.