maybe im wrong

but seeing how xbox 360 exclusives are now coming to the ps3 (ex:eternal sonata , bioshock, and many more), isnt it more likely to see these kind of titles go straight to multiplat?

ofcourse we would have never known which games they were bcuz of that, but we will juss notice less exclusives for the 360.

Too bad I heard that Microsoft opened their cheque book in a REALLY big way this year.

It's very possible, but to us console owners, it shouldn't matter. I say share the wealth. Hopefully some of that wealth comes back this way also. BlazBlue and Disgaea 3 I'm looking at you.

Microsoft will still be strong in acquiring PC games that won't come to PS3, because of the development similarities between 360 and PC. I expect at least another 30-40 next year. There's already over 20 announced. I expect Microsoft to make a stronger internal studio division, and proof of that may be the breaking apart of Ensemble Studios. XBLA will continue to be primarily exclusive offerings I would bet, outside of Capcom and some shared releases with PC. As Squill aleady mentioned, Microsoft has a big checkbook to open the minute they need a third party exclusive though. Expect Namco to provide more next year and possibly more upcoming from Square.

Overall, the writing is finally on the wall with third party developers that going exclusive simply isn't worth the financial risk without a payout. So unless MS and Sony decide to publish an otherwise third party effort(making it second party essentially) or open up the wallet, neither are going to get much of anything exclusive handed to them anymore.

So essentially the reasoning for keeping third party exclusives is because multiplats don't take advantage of each console's hardware? Fair enough. So then can all the third party exclusives that don't take advantage of hardware in the first place be ported over? You didn't give a second argument, so I assume it would be ok. Let's face it, Disgaea 3 wouldn't max out the PS2 hardware, let alone the PS3, so I guess that can come over. Ninja Gaiden II isn't any more hardware taxing than Ninja Gaiden Sigma was, so PS3 can grab that one. In fact, very few third party exclusives take advantage of much of anything. Virtua Fighter 5 ported perfectly from being a PS3 exclusive over to being a 360 game, and it looks to be vice versa for Eternal Sonata. Your argument, in at least 80% of cases, doesn't really hold much weight.

More than likely. Its simple economics.

Wall of text burns mine eyes.

Also at OP, I think you're incorrect, there has to be some differentiation between the consoles, and games seems the biggest one, and since Microsoft have zero in-house stuff and now chopping their limbs off (Bungie and Ensemble) I'd say they'll be buying more exclusives these days (or at least I would assume so).

They need some sort of competitive advantage over the other two, and since XBL is being caught up to by PSN, they'll need something that no amount of development could achieve, a brand-name game series.

Should add: I'd prefer more multiplatform then more exclusives, I just don't see the amount of exclusives being released decreasing over a long term.

We will indeed see less of them I think. Capcom stated in their latest release that they were not interested in exclusives. MS can pay for them and Sony has its own development studios - but you will see less of them as 2008 YTD clearly shows their is zero upside in being exclusive without a very good reason.

You might see more timed exclusives - but on most forums they get negative response so I think over time they may be affected too as no company in such a consumer focused industry wants negative responses to business moves.

Even if they spend zero on any 3rd party exlcusives they still have all the pc developer support and xbla people making exclusive offering. Hell they still have rare, lion head etc. They'll have plenty of exclusives.

As a reminder, PC games ported on the 360 can be considered as console exclusivities as well because they are less available on the PS3. But for those reason, it is always omited by the Sony fan club.

Another factor about the fact that Sony seems to have more exclusivities is the relative perpetual delay in the release calendar of the PS3. Since so many games are constantly delayed or take longer to develop, the total number of exclusivities keep pilling up in the list.

considering the ease of porting PC to 360 and the lower develloping cost and time, I think there will be plenty of timed 360 exclusive at the very least.