Fighting games aren't that popular. Moreover, according to total sales, Teken is the most popular fighting franchise and Mortal Kombat has also sold much more than SF. Smash Bros. isn't that far behind SF either. 

SFIV alone sold over 8 million... it is popular.

I think even Tekken 3 couldn't reach that sales.

Sony would never have gained Mass Effect had EA not purchased Bioware like Microsoft should've in the first place. Thats is the only reason why Sony got it. EA does not really like exclusivity because it hinders them from getting the most out of their profits.

Exactly. Tekken 4 soured fighting game fans love for the series and the continued growth eventually faded out never to return. Thankfully we are getting one last Tekken.

I wouldn't be so sure of that. If Micro would have had Mass Effect so under their grasp Sony would have never had a piece of ME pie.

Take Gears of War for example, Micro really wanted the franchise for themselves so they bought the rights out of Epic Games. There is no "is Gears coming to PS3" arguments anymore thanks to that certainty.

If they don't own the IP anything can happen unless a contract is involved. Capcom is the owner of SF. What makes the discussion on what can happen with SF or not is the contract and what it stipulates and since we don't know what it says or not we can't help but wonder:

1) Does the contract say that Street Fighter V can't appear in Xbone?

OR

2) Does it say that it can't appear in other platforms during X amount of years.

No one knows for certain, not even you S.T.A.G.E., and so I say "wait and see" cuz they ain't showing that filthy contract.

Breh...

http://www.tombnews.com/news/1997/09/1801/

Hope that helps.

I am pretty sure one of the 20 version of sf 5

So, given that Adrian Smith of Core Design says that technical limitations prevented a Saturn version of TR, you link to an article in which another employee (the COO, no less) says that it went exclusive partly because the PS1 had better hardware? 

"Given the worldwide domination of the PlayStation system, it's a natural for Eidos to partner with Sony Computer Entertainment America and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe" and "We want our best-selling franchise to reach the greatest number of consumers and the PlayStation and its powerful CD-ROM software format satisfies this demand. The fact that the PlayStation will be the only game console on which you can enjoy the Tomb Raider franchise is a great statement for the platform."  

Sounds a lot like "we want this franchise to reach the widest audience and it's not possible to do that on other platforms, both in terms of hardware and marketshare". Doesn't sound at all like Sony tossed them a bunch of money. Like I said in a prior post: it's the same reason FF7 went PS1 exclusive. Or, for example, why Arkham Knight isn't on WiiU.

Maybe I'm wrong in how I'm analyzing that article, but let's just say the situation is dubious, at best, for this particular game (they didn't just say "Sony struck up a deal" and left it at that i.e. just giving money. A deal arose because of other factors, it seems like). So, again I ask, do you have another example? If buying up 3rd parties was as rampant as some say, surely you could find something other than Tomb Raider. If not, it's not looking good for the original point you addressed about the "who started it" for buying 3rd party exclusivity. And like I said, I'll happily admit being incorrect on this, but I really can't think of any scenarios from gens prior to gen 7 where 3rd party games were exclusive simply because one company shelled out dough to prevent the compeitition from having it, instead of being exclusive for hardware reasons, marketshare reasons, or dispute reasons (like EA and Dreamcast).

I meant it's not a loss for me. Apparen't you aren't able to grasp the meaning of "in my opinion."

Also, I wouldn't really be comparing it to GT if your goal is to argue for its relevancy, lol.

I can't stand SF IV, and I'm sure I won't be able to stand SF V. Nevertheless, like some masochist, I'm sure I'll pick up one of the 19 revisions that CapCom will inevitably release on PC at some point in the game's 7 year lifespan between IV and VI.

Why are we talking about Smash bros?

I'm joking lol