This article caught my attention. So I thought I'll share it. This is just one third of the article.

While neither Sony or Microsoft seem to be overtly pursuing huge exclusives, in that they're continually approaching developers to create system-selling software...I almost think they should. Microsoft has been known to do this more in the past, but the idea of keeping a big title on only one console seems counterproductive from most every angle. This is a little frustrating from a gamer standpoint, too, just because exclusive titles tend to be the best games available for that particular platform. But look what a huge exclusive can do concerning hardware sales: FFXIII has caused PS3 sales in Japan to go through the roof and although FF is always big over there, we must also consider that FFXIII is not available for the Xbox 360 in that region. When the game launches here March, you can bet you won't see the same drastic PS3 sales spike. Sales may increase, of course, but nothing like a 216% surge.

This is why I'd like to think we'll see more PS3 exclusives in the future. The user base is to the point now where developers can still turn a healthy profit (plenty of potential consumers) and besides, they may wish to harness the power of the PS3. Uncharted 2 is a good example of something that must be on Sony's console and still manages to be a big success. As big as it would've been if it was multiplatform? Maybe not. But it might not be considered the best game of 2009, either, and PS3 sales would not have benefited as much. So yeah, if FFXIII has remained exclusive, Sony would be in a better position come March. That's all I'm saying.

http://www.psxextreme.com/feature/499.html

Of course exclusives still matter.... just not for the reason he listed

Exclusivity is what made lots of PS3 and XBOX360 owners to eventually get a Wii.

exclusives have always been important, it is just that a growing number of people who think highly of their own common sense think that developers would make more money if the game(s) were multiplat, not paying attention to things like money saved on advertising, inflated sales, and dev costs.

this makes no sense.... unless you mean that people love exclusives so much that they went with the most heavily exclusive console? Haha, that's actually very clever

And yet neither the PS3 nor the 360 really have enough of a userbase to justify many 3rd party exclusives. 3rd party devs dont care about pushing hardware. If you want to get lots of exclusives, like the Wii and DS have, you need to offer devs something, such as low development costs and tools that allow the devs to make better games

I think that a lot of that incentive is going to change next gen. Companies will emulate Nintendo as they differentiate themselves. I can see 360 sticking with Natal, ps3 going with 3d headtracking, and Nintendo, hmmm, not really sure yet what their strategy will be. Despite their talk of always being different, I can't see them abandoning the wiimote.

EXCLUSIVITY is important!

I remember back in the day when Nintendo suddenly without any notice grabbed all main RESIDENT EVIL games as gamecube exclusives,, THAT BROKE my heart,,, but i somehow resisted buying a cube even though i am a diehard RE fan (thank god RE4 made the shift to PS2), but i missed on 2 great games RE remake and RE0,,, i'm still planning to play them somehow ! Almost 99 % of RE diegards bought a Cube for those games so i am a minority !

It's the other way around...

I may be wrong, but I think it goes both ways.