This.  Looks like Phil is slipping back into old MS habits.  The fact is, the higher an install base is compared to its competition, the easier it is for the higher selling console to get 3rd party exclusives.  For larger companies, it could just mean helping them pay for advertising, or paying to include their game in a bundle.  For smaller/medium sized companies, it could mean giving them nothing more than a little promotion on their stage and/or Youtube page.  The reason being if your console is at 15m+ over the competition and quickly growing the gap, they can make all their money back just by selling to your base, while getting extra hype/interest by being an exclusive.  They also don't have to worry about spending extra money and time porting their game to a different system with different specs, then dealing with the requirements to launch on that system, too.

I find it hard to believe that money is the "only" factor. A publisher would have to be pretty silly to not consider the number of lost potential sales when considering the worth of an exclusivity deal. That won't always directly correlate to market share, games frequently sell at different ratios to the consoles they're on, but having a market share advantage (especially one as significant as Sony's right now) will certainly work in your general favor.

That said, i expect there are some exceptions, such as when Sony, MS, or Nintendo offer to help fund/develop a game that might not otherwise exist (either at all or in the desired form). Their willingness to go through with the deal is likely more relevant than market share in situations like that.

well you can make alot worse games if you doesnt have to care about sales... say hello to titanfall...

So when do we start raising our pitchforks against him ?

1. Youre talking potential sales, Phillip is talking WW market share. They are not the same thing, nor are they as black and white as you make it seem to be. If MS makes a deal for a game that sells a bulk of its units in the US, why would that games publisher care about the Xbone getting crushed in Japan?

2. Even ignoring that common sense in point 1, there is still good reason for a publisher to take money from the smaller market. Its not going to affect sales of the PS4 version much, if at all, and it can increase the sales they'd see on Xbone, and they get monies from MS. Thats more common sense.

This thread is a joke already though with all the insults, Im out

Of course they do.  Why else would SE be kicking themselves in the ass over the TR deal.  I'm pretty sure this is the only time I have EVER heard of a company announcing when the exclusivity ends before the "exclusive" game has even launched.  And this isn't just a few days/weeks before launch, either, but over 3 months from the XBO release.

He's ridiculous.

This is why it comes over as a stupid comment. The real reason for this comment is more important to MS than what it appears to be about. This is grade 'A' manipulation of a narrative. Let's see if it works.

Of course he's wrong.

I don't think that's necessarily because SE are "kicking themselves". I'd assume, based on the fact the bolded is indeed somewhat rare, that it's something normally discussed in the initial deal. That SE were able to make such an announcement when they did would imply that they actively chose not to include a block against such things in the deal (or at least only a short term block). They were obviously happy enough with the deal when they made it, so i don't think that announcement has anything to do with their present feelings.

My guess would be that they knew they'd be upsetting a lot of people with the deal (PlayStation presently being the brand best associated with TR), so thought an early announcement of the deal's length might help negate some of the inevitable long-term negativity that would surround the game.