I personally do not think that going multiplatform is hurting franchises, when there are so many factors that could influence the difference in sales (e.g., different install base sizes, changes in entries for each franchise, shifting trends in gamer interests, growing apppeal from competition (such as the shift of Western RPGs from PCs to consoles in the past two generations), etc.).

Well, I never really postulated that the franchises became shit because of going multiplat. Rather, I'm making the argument that going multiplat hurts the brand through loss of exclusivity hype, loss of exclusivity impulse buy, and perceived drop in sales.

When you then add costs of porting through time and energy (when they could be spending those 4-6 months creating more content), they really are taking away from the game and well, not getting a whole lot out of it. Plus, it must surely be a headache for them. Need better engines to port, more developers, etc, and then have to deal with hardware discrepancy limitations, and fans criticizing your ports and programming efficiency, coupled with 4-6 months of lost content....it must be stressful. I believe most if not all of these titles could have earned just as much staying exclusive.

Someone said it earlier, that somehow devs became convinced that by staying exclusive they would lose customers on top of potential customers, where in actuality they would be saving themselves quite a bit of effort and resources and come up with similar profit margins (on top of possible financial and development assistance by the console manufacturer).

I just think that there are too many factors that are influencing the difference in sales that you can't really pinpoint it on one factor. Could going multiplatform be a factor in the difference of sales? Possibly. But at minimum, it is working in tandem with some of the factors I mentioned, as well as probably others that I haven't.

Your saying developers should give in to what is essentially terrorism, aka buckling to demands out of fear.

Thanks for the clarification

Well it seems reading between the lines is just as difficult for you as reading the thread.

I read your origional response, and I aint buying it. Multiplats get way more hype in general, most recently with Bioshock. Nah....I am sticking to the simple argument that Sony gamers are spiteful when they loose an exclusive that belonged to them in the glory days.

Itll get better, as gens pass and new child gamers enter the market, they wont even be aware that certain franchises used to be exclusive to one console. Right now, we are simply in a transition period where 3rd party exclusives are a dying breed.

Infinite got great hype because it's being called an amazing game... not because it's multiplat. Overlooking really obvious detail there.. >_>

Yeah you can pigeonhole Sony gamers however you want, as fanboys or whatever else you're implying here.

Sony already showed this gen how important exclusives are, and the history of this gen has shown that past exclusives do not do so well on competing systems. Why? Because people who like traditional exclusives tend to buy the next console in expectation that it will have the sequel or similar library.

Why do you think ps3 is crushing 360 every week? Because of multiplats? It's the exclusives bro, and those exclusives are doing pretty well (well, not the first party ones)....at least not yet until the big 4-5 games release soon. Oh it's going to be epic.

I don't know why you guys always argue so intensely with me. I usually end up right in the end. It'll be the same here. Companies will go back to being exclusives because they've seen just how much it costs them. 5-6 months of additional coding that could have been used to add content, additional costs, sales splitting, bigger staff, more managers, negative publicity. You'll see. You don't need to take my word. But I'll be sure to throw it in your face when the time comes :D (and I'll be sure to have your own words handy too)

PS3 is outselling 360 every week because they have Europe and Japan in their pocket, and PS3 has had more price drops in the last 3 years where 360 has had none since Fall 2008. Halo 4 at least outshipped every PS3 exclusive in 2012. Most PS3 exclusive franchises have dropped off in sales with every sequel release.

You think that devs will go back to exclusives....lol. Next gen costs will be even higher. All they need is more marketing, multiplat or not, and itll do fine, whatever it is. Offcoruse its reviews have to be good as well.

They have those regions because of their exclusives, just as xbox has uk and america for its own exclusives.

According to some devs, next gen costs will be roughly the same on ps4 thanks to the new tools and engines provided and the simplicity of the system design along with the raw power.

Sony already has all the indies on board, and they're foaming at the mouth to make exclusive games after they've seen the kind of exposure they get and creative assistance, like thatgamecompany got from santamonica to make games like flower and journey.

Cannot really think of much because most of Sonys exclusives came from Sony studios and you know Sony studios jump Ips for some reason. Depends how you look at it. Halo 3> Halo 2. GT5+ prologue>GT4 + prologue. Mainline MGS 4> Mainline MGS 3 will pass 2 at some point. God of war 3> God of war 2 or 1. There is porbably more but I am too lazy to look them up.