so we have holidays coming up. exciting time every year, right? i most certainly think so. but you have companies like Sony and Microsoft who instead of coming up with their own games decide that the best way to push sales for the holiday are to partner up with random third parties so they can have exclusive limited edition console bundles. again, the strategy isnt to invest on solid titles only available to your platform, the strategy is to throw money at a third party so you can have either exclusive content from their game or a special console that the competition isnt going to have. yeah, that is a giagantic step forward for the industry right?

as a console manufacturer, youre literally putting money into something that is limiting options for the consumer instead of putting into something that expands options for the consumer. and wait, here is the kicker! you are going to have people who fight to the death arguing for how this is somehow a great thing. im sick of seeing companies spend resources that involve taking things away rather than contributing something unique to the marketplace. 

i know many of you will bring up Nintendo's policies in the 8 and 16 bit era as if i automatically agree with them because i like Nintendo products. that is something i can definitely address.

That's because the sales battle is won over third-parties, not first-parties. Microsoft has Halo, for example, which always gives it a nice boost; but something that really put up the numbers high on the 360 era were the Call of Duty market deals. It's not how we push sales now; it's something that has been going on for a while, and yes, it moves far more units than coming up with their own games and marketing them. It's probably much more profitable, too.

From a bussiness perspective, it makes sense. People do want it. The "limiting options for the consumer" perspective is kind of skewed if you ask me, because it's not like the core content is exclusively locked to that console manufacturer.

The topic itself is fine. I wouldn't even question it if you wouldn't have basically said, "I just know I'm going to get banned for this. I'm totally not trying to troll or anything and definitely not click baiting but I know I'm going to get banned for this, come and get me mods!" I mean, seriously, get rid of that part of your OP and not many will bat an eye.

Anyway, I agree with what Wright said above

StarOcean said: The topic itself is fine. I wouldn't even question it if you wouldn't have basically said, "I just know I'm going to get banned for this. I'm totally not trying to troll or anything and definitely not click baiting but I know I'm going to get banned for this, come and get me mods!" I mean, seriously, get rid of that part of your OP and not many will bat an eye. Anyway, I agree with what Wright said above

lol seriously? 

not all mods are the same though.. and i have gotten banned for threads that were way more mild than this. but ill trust you on this one.

So you're completely ignoring that both manufacturers have a steady output of 1st party games for which they also do bundles?
I doubt the cost of all the exclusive deals put together would save enough money for a single AAA experience.

Yes, chopped up games that deliberately hide content from a specific group of consumers is not very nice but that's not really a fresh point to make thread about. This has been lamented over and over by the gaming press in editorials.

Also, if you would take your time actually reading the rules instead of talking about being banned you would know that there was no bannable offence in your opening post.

well i have to go to work right now, and i cant really participate here much while im there. but if anybody cares to leave their thoughts about my post here, ill be back (if my account is still in tact, that is) to discuss the situation here.

What it really boils down too is investing in "safe bets" rather than taking a risk. Which makes sense when you think about it. Why should Sony or Microsoft invest heavily in a first-party IP that has yet to prove itself when you can just get the advertising rights to the next CoD game or the Star Wars game that's going to ride the success of the new movie?

This idea kind of ties in with another that makes me loathe the current state of the gaming industry. And that is that budgets have gotten so big in this industry that it makes people not want to take risks. You spend millions on creating a unique game only to not have it sell well, then of course you're not going to want to do such a thing again. That's why we get yearly releases and so on. So really what you are saying in the OP is par for the course at this point in time. It won't be until the industry is able to take a step back and make some changes until things get better in this regard.

RubberWhistleHistle said: StarOcean said: The topic itself is fine. I wouldn't even question it if you wouldn't have basically said, "I just know I'm going to get banned for this. I'm totally not trying to troll or anything and definitely not click baiting but I know I'm going to get banned for this, come and get me mods!" I mean, seriously, get rid of that part of your OP and not many will bat an eye. Anyway, I agree with what Wright said above lol seriously?  not all mods are the same though.. and i have gotten banned for threads that were way more mild than this. but ill trust you on this one.

It looks a lot better now that you've gotten rid of that part. Hopefully you'll be able to have a nice discussion with people now. Anyway, good luck!

A chuck of your OP is taking about being banned, but nothing banned worthy happened. Relax.

This has been happening since the SNES/SEGA days.

im just so used to getting banned that i think everything i do is a bannable offense. 

and also, you have to think about this, me and you can do the same thing, but because of my history, i could actually get banned whereas you would get away unbanned. that was actually explained to me a couple bans ago. :P

anyways, im running really short on time here but just because things like this arent fresh points doesnt mean that they shouldnt be brought up. ill stop bringing it up once these companies start acting like they want to give us something that is works and is complete on the day of purchase. it seems to have gotten A LITTLE bit better this year.. but it is still a huge problem obviously. 

this year in particular, i hate how sony is really just trying to win this holiday with exclusive bundles. i mean, for me that is just a giant facepalm, SMH, etc. i just want to shake them and say DO SOMETHING!! two ps3 ports and exclusive third party bundles is your idea of a great second half of 2015??