Early in this generation, those who disliked Sony and had little to no faith in the PlayStation 3, derided the company for losing third-party exclusives. Along with complaints of an exorbitant price and a typically mediocre launch software lineup, this was one of those legitimate complaints that most avid PlayStation followers simply didn't want to acknowledge. It was true: Sony lost Grand Theft Auto, Devil May Cry, and most recently, Final Fantasy. ...and yet, here we sit, less than two and a half years later, and it seems as if the PS3 has - by far and away - the best and most promising exclusive lineup of software.
Third-party exclusivity is just about dead and buried (even timed exclusivity will soon die out as the gap between the PS3 and 360 continues to narrow), so it really all comes down to first- and second-party projects. Now, we all have to remember that top exclusive titles often are system sellers; it's a matter of simple logic, right? If you want to play Killzone 2, you need a PS3. If you want to play Gears of War 2, you need a Xbox 360. When MGS4 launched, there was a huge PS3 sales spike. When Gears 2 launched, there was a huge 360 sales spike. Therefore, there's no doubt that exclusives will continue to play a very large role in the hardware sales success of both competing companies. And as far as I can tell, Sony may have this one sewn up already:
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
- God of War III
- Killzone 2
- LittleBigPlanet
- Resistance: Fall of Man
- Resistance 2
- Warhawk
- Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
- Heavenly Sword
- Folklore
- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
- Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Gran Turismo 5: Prologue
- Gran Turismo 5
- InFamous
- Heavy Rain
- Final Fantasy Versus XIII
- MotorStorm
- MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
- White Knight Chronicles
- Valkyria Chronicles
- MAG
- Wipeout HD
- Flower
And I just took them all off the top of my head; I'm sure there are more.
As far as I can tell, the Xbox 360 has the Gears series and that's about it. There are a few IPs I'm looking forward to this year (like Alan Wake), and I'm picking up Star Ocean: The Last Hope tomorrow, but comparing these to the exclusive lineup on the PS3 seems a little silly. Now, just to clarify, I am not saying the PS3 is the superior machine; this topic only focuses on exclusive titles. Secondly, as I do own a 360, I'd be very interested to learn of more 360 exclusives coming up that look good; I want to play good games. And I kinda like the idea of exclusives. I like the idea that I have to own a particular console to play a certain game; it may sound ridiculous, but it's true to some extent. So if anybody wants to enlighten me as to the 360 exclusives coming up that will act as competition to the PS3's lineup - games mentioned above - I'm all ears. Obviously, raving fanboy rants won't be tolerated and we'll get rid of you super crazy fast.
The point is, I just find it a little ironic that everyone was laughing at how Sony was losing exclusives left and right and two years later, it's crystal clear they now have the significant edge in the exclusive battle.
http://www.psxextreme.com/feature/386.html
