MS has enough money to spent on exclusive deals. Sony just can't mess with MS moneywise. MS could buy Square Enix, just because they feel like to. I mean 45 billion USD for yahoo. Square Enix would be a smaller fish :D

I know they won't buy SE, but they could if they wanted to.

*edit* there is just no company that could convince a 3rd party developer just with the money. MS pays just too good.

Sony's decision to concentrate on internal development is a good choice, but no strategy is a good strategy without flexibility.

If sony can't produce enough AAA titles to satisfy their customers, attracting other potential gamers in the same time, they need to shop around to cover all the holes in their library

Yes, true... but I don't see a way to prevent it save for making them all first party games.

 SE going to Sony was a completely logical move profit wise due to the cartridge vs. CD issue.  This move isn't.  Now because FFXIII is going to the 360, PS3 owners have to wait until the 360 version is done before they can play it; which doesn't make sense from a profit standpoint because the PS3 version is already/almost done.  

Edit:Meaning, if SE releases it sooner for the PS3 version, they will get more profit due to the game just being OUT there sooner.

The Last Remnant is a timed exclusive for the 360.  The 360 version was easier for SE to make, so they're going to release it first since it seems to be done.  This is actually a smart decision profit wise.     

 Look at these two incidents and see what an actual backstabbing is.  Both of these incidents hurt Sony and help MS.  The first not making any sense from a profit standpoint which hurts Sony, the second which obviously does make sense and hurts Sony. 

If both of these didn't make any sense, it might imply that SE was making poor decisions.  If both of them made perfect sense, there would be no fault whatsoever.  But now that there is a definite split for favoritism, it's obvious.

The only constant in these two events is that both hurt Sony and help MS.  SE won't even get the maximum amount of profit from doing this.  This implies that MS did indeed help SE in some manner to favor them over Sony. 

There was no such thing evident like this during 1996.  SE would've been screwed if they stuck with Nintendo, FF7 would have cost an enormous amount and they would be out of business. "What goes around comes around"?  It has to go around first 

i am glad sony is upset with square-enix bringing ff13 to the xb360. why, because sony is so arrogant in thinking that they cant be touched or hurt this gen and they are losing exclusive games/series and potential ppl to other platforms. ff13 will sell around 2 million- 3million ww on the xb 360 i think, the reason is simple now all the potential ppl who where gonna buy a ps3 for ff13, can save that money and buy other games on the xb 360. i do agree ms should build a better internal profile of games, but untill that happens i am happy that they are willing to spend some money in bringing games to the xb brand, that otherwise wouldnt see the light of day on that platform. i think sony should stop bitching about losing games to ms and either match them in price for the game or just accept the fact the devs want to make more money this gen to cover the cost of games.

@swyggi I will respectfully disagree.

He's saying MS paid Square, but that's just pandering to fanboys and he knows it's probably not true. Even if it were, he wouldn't know about it.

Microsoft wants success in Japan badly. If they paid Square, don't you think they would have gotten Japan? More likely, they didn't pay Square and Square is just disappointed in the PS3's sales figures and made a savvy business decision.

Here is the difference between MS buying this and winning it: primary Final Fantasy games will all likely come out on the 360 in the future and future MS consoles, and may even become 360-first.  If Final Fantasy 13 sells better than the 360, what if it becomes 360 first?  Then will MS accuse Sony of buying into it?

Whatever, it's just fanboy fodder.  Something for them to believe and something completely irrelevant which is intended to increase hatred of Microsoft rather than disappointment in Sony.

Sony fans should be disappointed in Sony if they care about this issue, not angry at Microsoft.  It's Sony who lost exclusivity of the franchise.

You guys put too much stock in the cartridge vs. cd issue.

The problem was N64 bombed in Japan, not that it had cartridges. In 1999-2001 you saw publishers complain about PS2 development alot...but once it was clear how well it would sell in Japan and worldwide everybody shut up.

DS has a slightly updated version of the N64 cartridges at a small size with much of the same limitations but the difference is it was a smash in Japan. Thats why it has so many S-E games, even though PSP is disc based and doing well in Japan too and initially looked like a safe bet to knock Nintendo off in Japan with portables.

There were also 6 million more 360s sold when GTA4 released lol. Look at attach rates, you lose.

Sorry but attach rates are only used as a last resort. Nintendo had quite good attach rate on their first party titles on the Gamecube, but in the end not like it made any difference.

Companies gets paid for each game sold, not by how high attach rate it gets. And I think its quite common knowledge that the attach rate normally decrease as the system increase its sales and amount og games avaible :)