It really depends entirely on how you view it. Remember MGS4? 360 rumors were all over the place. PS3 sales were "bad". "It just makes sense to go multiplatform. You're missing out on sales and money".

What did MGS4 do? Oh, nothing big. Just outsell MGS3 on a 19M userbase. They have to meet somewhere in the middle, in terms of return of investment. You can't just look at the raw numbers, when looking at multiple platforms. It costs money to make the game for those platforms too, you know. Your total sales may go up going multiplatform, but so do your development costs. If your profit margins are gonna be the same (or at least similar) between the two options....and one company greases your palm a little bit, then going exclusive isn't so wrong from a business standpoint.

The suggestion that Titanfall would not have been made without Microsoft's support is naive. The game was being made. It's not like it was in pre-production and they were looking for funding to get it off the ground. In an environment where venture capital firms are actively looking for games to back, I'm supposed to believe that the people who made CoD big can't get enough money to finish a game?

No, what Titanfall shows is the negative side of playing it safe. EA bounced back and forth between Sony and Microsoft looking for the best deal. Convincing Microsoft to back Titanfall took the risk out of publishing the game but it also cut their eventual profits in half. Just imagine how pretty EA would be sitting if they'd had enough faith in Titanfall to fund it themselves. The return would have been staggering.

I believe the OP is reaching by using Titanfall. We all know the situation with that game so trying to use it as a comparison between Watch Dogs isn't a good example.

I believe one of the biggest thing gamers tend to forget is that games cost money. The second biggest thing to remember is that making a game that cost millions of dollars is a huge risk. In the games industry nothing is a lock. Just because a publisher or developer spend the AAA type of money does not mean the game in the end will cash in on that development. The balance of funding an expensive project and the risk associated with it is something that is done all the time between developers and publishers. A lot of decisions are not made based on how games think but more on how to reduce the cost of risk for these projects.

Just think about how Titanfall was in the red so much that Even EA, a billion dollar publisher did not want to accept all the risk on the project. Some gamers probably think that its a no brainier that Titanfall would be a hit but that probably did not happen until very late in the project and the well accepted E3.

I believe gamers just should enjoy games and not worry about exclusive this or that. Those decisions are made based on money and Risk which gamers care nothing about but developers and publishers definitely have to because taking to much risk or losing to much money can have a very bad effect.

I think you just wanted Titanfall on your console. In which case, boohoo.

Projects get shelved all the time and development studios also close all the time due to no money.  No on really know how Respawn would have turned out without MS support.  No one knows how Titanfall would have turned out without that extra money.  You are right that the project might have still be done but without funding, it probably would be in a state and quality level well below what EA and Respawn wanted to deliver.

As a new company, Respawn have no choice but to play it safe.  A new IP does not mean instance success and Titanfall could have easily bombed.  Risk is a very much conditition to most game development and with EA swimming in the red finiacially with a game thats not theirs well they went for the safe bet.

pretty much this. why couldnt EA back titanfall? they could. its just that they prefered not to, played it safe, and basically wanted to be money hatted. 

Didn't watch the Titanfall production video, but why didn't EA fund everything for Titanfall.  I realize that Titanfall was in the red, but EA isn't necessarily an indie company.  EA has money.  

OP forgets that sometimes it's either Titanfall exclusive or no Titanfall at all.


On the general point I couldn't agree more. Exclusivity deals might be good for the industry, but not for gamers.

Omg you all of you forget what happened behind the scenes


Yes Microsoft helped Respawn Entertainement with money(all they can do)
But Titanfall wasn't Exclusive to Xbox at that point.
Doesn't anyone remember how Zampella tweeted "Just found out EA signed an exclusive deal with Microsoft for Titanfall 1"
This wasn't part of the plan of Respawn Entertainment - This went behind their back.
Directly after that we could read "Future games won't be exclusive" - IT WAS NEVER THE PLAN OF RESPAWN ENTERTAINMENT TO GO EXCLUSIVE!
Microsoft as everyone else could see how the PS4 is destroying them and they needed a safe bet which should have been CoD 2.0
EA admitted themself they didn't see this Gen turn that way out.They probably would have NEVER ever taken the money and acted like that behind the back of Respawn Entertainment if they would have guessed the PS4 is making such a joke out of the X1 even in the USA.
In the end it didn't do much damage - Even with giving away the game for free they couldn't hurt the PS4.The gap instead widened cause Sony is in a position where they can react.

Without EA being so greedy im pretty sure Titanfall would have been on the PS4 at least later in this year of 2014.
At least they got served wrong - The PS4 Version would have outsold the X1 Version easily
WatchDogs and soon Destiny are probably something like heavy hits to the faces of those people at EA.

What i really hate is following
Microsoft is dead last place and will have to put out a fight to even threaten the WiiU
Now they are wounded like a cornered animal...If they wouldn't be Microsoft they would drop out of the industry and we could enjoy gaming a little bit more than we currently do.
But sadly they are Microsoft - Releasing shiity OS and PC stuff here and there makes them billions and sadly true gamers will get hurt by it

What do we read everywhere on the Internet?
Microsoft secured tons of big > 3rd party exclusives" for E3 - Of course we don't know if this is true and if what those games are.
The first rumor we heard of was Resident Evil - WHy would Capcom do that?The PS4 Version will outsell a X1 version by at least 4:1 easily especially in this Gen.What is MS offering?1 Billion $?
Fallout 4?Personally i wouldn't care as long as it is on PC cause of the mods but pretty sure the PS4 version would run better.

Sadly Microsoft has unlimited resources and is now just looking for ways to destroy the joy of true gamers.
They don't fund every game they secure(Sunset Overdrive is completely ok) but making these shady deals with offering more money than those games are worth is just disgusting.
Rather exclusive marketing like Sony is doing it - It works.
WatchDogs and PS4 destroyed the X1 and their version.Destiny will do the same.

And i hope Publishers make it really expensive in the future for Microsoft even if it doesn't hurt them.
The money through sales is on the PS4 cause it is the platform of choice by gamers.WatchDogs shows it perfectly.
We don't care anymore if FF15 and other things are multiplat - They won't help Microsoft at all and make the fun even bigger in forums when we can say "HAHAHAHA outsold it by 2389273908247359825 units"
But it is annoying if they bribe publishers to exclude the biggest part of gamers.
At this point it generates probably even more hate against Microsoft anyway - People have accepted the PS4 is the way to go...BÄM 1 Billion on random 3rd Party Exclusive > People are angry they either don't get the game to play in its best console version or they have to buy a useless overpriced 720p(the X1 should cost around 200$) paperweight with tons of secret fairy tale souces even McDonalds would be jelly :D

This is a response.