The only game you mentioned that was a true Sony exclusive is Crash Bandicoot all the other games are developed by third parties and for the most part where never Sony exclusive since the started out on different consoles FF, started out in the arcade Tekken, or also had PC ports Tomb Raider.

Yes but the comparisons aren't so bad actually. 7 years in ps2 had 102m vs 73m. Not huge, considering ps2's broke every 2 years. Install base is likely very similar.

So basically all the series that declined in quality sold less, what a surprise. The one that didn't decline as much retained its sales.

I think compairing the 'big hitter' Ps2 exclusives to how their sequels faired in the next generation is a bit unfair. The reality is the PS2 was such a behemoth that exclusivity didn't lose you a lot of sales, whereas cutting out the 360 market this gen would lose you a lot of sales. I think the lower overall sales of games like Tekken, Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy etc is just part of how certain genres and games go through peaks and troughs of popularity, and those franchises declined this gen.

I think Dead Rising, Mass Effect, Demon Souls, Saints Row, GTA, Lost Planet are all examples of games which benefitted from going multiplat. And I think you'd be insane if you think any game like COD, AC, FIFA, Madden, Battlefield would sell better as an exclusive, and equally if you think Uncharted, Halo, Gears, InFamous, Resistance, God of War wouldn't sell better on a bigger userbase.

I think the confusion comes in simlpy because Microsoft and Sony are just really good publishers who are good at making the games they publish successful. I guess it's a lot easier when you're a platform owner.

Sony had a lot of issues all by themselves, but isn't one of the key reasons it didn't sell like the PS2 did was because many of it's key franchises turned MP? Its a self fullfilling profecy. MS told Devs in order to make back dev costs(which had greatly risen from 6th gen) they would need to go multi. They didn't really but because they started to do it, it split userbases and fanbases alike. You would have gotten a PS3 for FFXIII, but now you no longer HAD to, same for GTA, DMC, Tekken, etc. People buy consoles because of Exclusives. When you make every game for everything, this generation is what you get.

Now the truth is finally coming to light, proving that going MP and making every title Multiplatform is really part of the problem.

RE 3 - 3,72
RE 4 - 7,45

Well then maybe not always comparable, but closer than you think.

I do think you have a point, I'm just pointing out some of the inconsistencies that are present. Heavenly Sword/Enslaved is another comparison that works in your favor, though it's not the same franchise.

Metal gear solid is not Rising. Everyone knew it was a spin-off and it sold less. Wait till the next MGS comes out and see how well that sells.

Spin-offs never sell as well as the main series like MGS4 to MGS Rising. Also the PS2 user-base was very fragmented going to either 360 or Wii or PS3 and also look at the PS2 number of consoles over 150 million so of course a lot of those games will have sold better than the sequels.

i don't think the point is that staying exclusive increases sales. It is more that either way, the sales are not increasing due to being available on more consoles, it just ends up meaning making an over all less profit on sales you would have anyway.

Myth of going Multiplatform Dictates...

-Exclusive Game:3million

-Exclusive turn Multiplatform: 4.5million

-If remained Exclusive in this climate: 2million

Reality Dictates...

-Exclusive Game: 3million

-Exclusive turn Multiplatform:3-3.5million

-if remained Exclusive in this climate:3-3.2million

-Dev cost to port: loss of 0.3-0.5million