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[64bitmodels]

Yeah this is a spicy one.

It seems that as time passes, with Nintendo being the sole exception (officially) that console exclusivity seems to be waning on most fronts

Third parties need million dollar deals to even consider making games exclusive to one platform when back in the day PS2, PS1 and SNES got everything and the other systems had to fight for scraps.

Xbox is now taking their catalogue and spreading it to other platforms with little hope in the platform left.

PC keeps getting more and more games when just 14 years ago the platform continually missed out on 7th gen classics.

does exclusivity still have a future in the console space or is it just a lost cause?
If you think it's dead in the water, list the reasons you think it's not doing so hot.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Be honest, you just wanted your own +5 pages thread right?

 

[64bitmodels]

Be honest, you just wanted your own +5 pages thread right?

Talks about this kind of stuff usually gain the pages so yeah you caught me red handed

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Yeah this is a spicy one.

no is not.

look at PS´s first quarter published games.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Sony may decide to increase margins on hardware sold like Nintendo, in which case there’s more incentive for exclusivity

 

[feynoob]

Aside of nintendo, none.

Sony exclusives are on PC.

Xbox exclusives are everywhere.

You can say exclusives sell your platform, but in reality its a risky move. Its a great when you have the budget like nintendo games. But when your budget is spiderman 2 or gow2, or last of us2, then you have some serious thinking to do. You wont see big return on those games, and future games would cost even more money.

Either sacrifice your exclusives or face the risk of losing money due to your big budget games.

 

[FinalBossWithTheMostPower]

Exclusives are the only thing that makes owning any of one these consoles worthwhile.

MS has acquired enough IP to entertain this foolishness, but they'd be making a mistake to put their biggest games on other platforms aside from PC, unless they just want to go full-on publisher.

Stuff like Fallout, Doom, and Final Fantasy should always be available on every platform.

Nintendo has the sauce.

 

[feynoob]

Exclusives are the only thing that makes owning any of one these consoles worthwhile.

MS has acquired enough IP to entertain this foolishness, but they'd be making a mistake to put their biggest games on other platforms aside from PC, unless they just want to go full-on publisher.

Stuff like Fallout, Doom, and Final Fantasy should always be available on every platform.

Nintendo has the sauce.

MS only cares about owning those IPs.
If they cared about exclusives, they would have built their own IPs. They dont care about it.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Sure does, to anyone who actually wants to maintain a platform.

 

[FinalBossWithTheMostPower]

MS only cares about owning those IPs.
If they cared about exclusives, they would have built their own IPs. They dont care about it.

Agreed.

But I've always had an Xbox, and unless they change something with their output I won't buy another.

We're 4 years into this gen and there's zero reason to own an Xbox, save for gamepass.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

Exclusives will always be important if you want to move hardware. Microsoft are the only ones stumbling this gen and it’s no surprise they own the platform with the least exclusives. Sony may share some of its exclusives with PC but they are timed. MS made the mistake of releasing their games on PC day and date and since then their hardware has become irrelevant in my eyes and in the eyes of many who value consoles for their exclusive games.

 

[lh032]

Exclusives are the only thing that makes owning any of one these consoles worthwhile.

MS has acquired enough IP to entertain this foolishness, but they'd be making a mistake to put their biggest games on other platforms aside from PC, unless they just want to go full-on publisher.

Stuff like Fallout, Doom, and Final Fantasy should always be available on every platform.

Nintendo has the sauce.

no its not. This is somekind of fanboy narrative on social media.

I have been a PS owner for more than 20 years, exclusivity is a bonus for me but i will stick with console as long as i can even without exclusivity.

I just prefer the console simplicity and i owned a gaming PC.

If you game on console because of exclusivity, you game at the wrong platform in the first place.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Talks about this kind of stuff usually gain the pages so yeah you caught me red handed

Fine, i'll help you on your quest

To start with, consoles are mostly a legacy market and only survive because there are big companies still interested in making sure they keep on existing. Biggest proof of this is the fact no one would be able to break through the industry with a new console of their own, even if Sony and Nintendo were to blow up tomorrow. Yes, i excluded MS as a dig.

Consoles were a product from a time when hardware was extremely limited in power and had to be designed for specific case usages, in this case home games. Exclusives were a byproduct of that since you had to design games for specific hardware. Naturally there was a lot of interest in securing the best games for your own console, or making them yourself.

Times have changed, most machines have very similar architechtures and have generally similar capabilities. Even consoles becames glorified budget PCs, most of its advantages relying on less critical things like smaller conveniences or subtly better price-for-power value. Similarly, exclusives remain as nothing more than marketing ploys rather than fundamental, unavoidable aspects of the industry like in the 90s. Any dev with a minimally decent publisher behind them can make their games multiplatform.

To make matters worse, the market is oversaturated with games and people are gradually finding their own niches. There's already far less exclusives nowadays and among the few that are there, even fewer can turn people's heads. No one makes queues to buy a ps5 because of Demon Souls remake, even bigger names like God of War don't tend to move the needle much these days.

TL;DR: No, i don't think they have much of a future. At least not when it comes to hardware exclusive games.

 

[FinalBossWithTheMostPower]

no its not. This is somekind of fanboy narrative on social media.

I have been a PS owner for more than 20 years, exclusivity is a bonus for me but i will stick with console as long as i can even without exclusivity.

I just prefer the console simplicity and i owned a gaming PC.

If you game on console because of exclusivity, you game at the wrong platform in the first place.

Good for you.

I'm not paying 500+ for hardware that doesn't promise me something unique or exclusive from the other platforms.

 

[gothmog]

It has a future on successful console brands.

 

[64bitmodels]

no its not. This is somekind of fanboy narrative on social media.

I have been a PS owner for more than 20 years, exclusivity is a bonus for me but i will stick with console as long as i can even without exclusivity.

I just prefer the console simplicity and i owned a gaming PC.

If you game on console because of exclusivity, you game at the wrong platform in the first place.

Yeah another reason for the slow death of exclusivity is the fact that most people who are gaming are doing it for the multiplats- they just want an easy box to play the big 6 on. Fortnite, Fifa, GTA, COD, Minecraft and Roblox bring in more bux than any exclusives. I feel like the existence of those games (and crossplay) are the things that really equalized the console industry.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

Console time exclusivity is a thing, Sony will continue to launch older games for PC, but no Xbox, Nintendo will have their exclusives and Microsoft will have none. Peace.

 

[64bitmodels]

To start with, consoles are mostly a legacy market and only survive because there are big companies still interested in making sure they keep on existing. Biggest proof of this is the fact no one would be able to break through the industry with a new console of their own, even if Sony and Nintendo were to blow up tomorrow. Yes, i excluded MS as a dig.

I've always wanted to put in to words how consoles are sort of held up by those 2 and you basically did it for me. Another way of looking at it is how every competitor's console is some unusual way of doing things. Outside of the big 3, none of the competitors offer a physical box console that accepts physical games. It's all cloud (Google, amazon) or digital (valve, android, apple)

The full cost of running an ecosystem where you mass produce physical discs compatible with your console, mass produce powerful hardware meant to run games, peripherals and all that other jazz is a money pit most companies do not want to take on, and the only reason Sony and Nintendo do it in the modern day is simply because they're holdovers from the 80s and 90s when you needed all that stuff to properly break into the gaming industry as a platform holder

I am getting sidetracked though, I don't think consoles are fucked or anything so long as Sony and Nintendo are in business

 

[Bernardougf]

Yes. Nintendo and Sony says hello... next topic

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

I almost said "just Nintendo" but they're not in to traditional consoles anymore, so nope, traditional console exclusives are a thing of the past.

 

[64bitmodels]

Yes. Nintendo and Sony says hello... next topic

Sony really is not a good example here.

 

[Beechos]

Dead in the water these companies want to squeeze every last drop of blood from consumers. Consoles will still be around though for the convience no matter how many titles pc gets. Can nintendo even be considered exclusive since pc players can run switch games better than the switch itself via emulators.

 

[Guilty_AI]

I've always wanted to put in to words how consoles are sort of held up by those 2 and you basically did it for me. Another way of looking at it is how every competitor's console is some unusual way of doing things. Outside of the big 3, none of the competitors offer a physical box console that accepts physical games. It's all cloud (Google, amazon) or digital (valve, android, apple)

The full cost of running an ecosystem where you mass produce physical discs compatible with your console, mass produce powerful hardware meant to run games, peripherals and all that other jazz is a money pit most companies do not want to take on, and the only reason Sony and Nintendo do it in the modern day is simply because they're holdovers from the 80s and 90s when you needed all that stuff to properly break into the gaming industry as a platform holder

I am getting sidetracked though, I don't think consoles are fucked or anything so long as Sony and Nintendo are in business

It's still important context because as i said exclusives were a byproduct from that era.

To complement this point, i doubt even companies with the infrastructure and money to make a console would succeed in such venture, even without Sony or ND around. Because who would buy them? And who would make games for them? People buy Playstations because they've been buying them for decades, and devs make games for playstation to reach those people. No one has any attachment to "Lunaboxstation 3000" and there's a vast library of games on the dozens of PC formats out there for people to enjoy.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

guys can I watch the Fallout TV show on Netflix?

 

[March Climber]

To start with, consoles are mostly a legacy market and only survive because there are big companies still interested in making sure they keep on existing. Biggest proof of this is the fact no one would be able to break through the industry with a new console of their own, even if Sony and Nintendo were to blow up tomorrow. Yes, i excluded MS as a dig.

Consoles were a product from a time when hardware was extremely limited in power and had to be designed for specific case usages, in this case home games. Exclusives were a byproduct of that since you had to design games for specific hardware. Naturally there was a lot of interest in securing the best games for your own console, or making them yourself.

Times have changed, most machines have very similar architechtures and have generally similar capabilities. Even consoles becames glorified budget PCs, most of its advantages relying on less critical things like smaller conveniences or subtly better price-for-power value. Similarly, exclusives remain as nothing more than marketing ploys rather than fundamental, unavoidable aspects of the industry like in the 90s. Any dev with a minimally decent publisher behind them can make their games multiplatform.

To make matters worse, the market is oversaturated with games and people are gradually finding their own niches. There's already far less exclusives nowadays and among the few that are there, even fewer can turn people's heads. No one makes queues to buy a ps5 because of Demon Souls remake, even bigger names like God of War don't tend to move the needle much these days.

TL;DR: No, i don't think they have much of a future. At least not when it comes to hardware exclusive games.

You can say all of this, but I don't think Nintendo will bend the knee to anyone, they will consistently release first party games only on their platforms(and for a limited time), and I think all of gaming will have to cope with this until there finally comes a day where Mario is a blip in history(most likely long after everyone here has passed away).

 

[Ozzie666]

Colt is that you?

Of course console exclusives will remain for the successful companies. PC gaming is different and doesn't really change anything. Nintendo and Sony have a model an it's working. Could that change in the future? who nows.

But It's a reason to own a plastic box for sure and it sells alot of people on that box.

 

[rapid32.5]

Yes, exclusivity will always sell hardware, only Ms thinks otherwise and you know what will happen to them next gen.

 

[drganon]

Just what this forum needed, another pcmr circle jerk thread.

 

[Bernardougf]

Sony really is not a good example here.

And why not exactly?

 

[64bitmodels]

Just what this forum needed, another pcmr circle jerk thread.

More posts for you to lol react at the very least

 

[mrqs]

No. If video game budgets don't stop increasing each generation cycle, those studios can't be exclusive to anything. There aren't enough gamers on the planet to buy stuff, so they have to go multiplatform.

 

[64bitmodels]

And why not exactly?

Ghost of Tsushima just arrived on PC. We also just got Horizon FW before that and Rift Apart, Spiderman Miles Morales and Returnal in the years prior. This isn't even mentioning the cross gen strategy they upheld for 3 years

Exclusivity on their side is waning

 

[64bitmodels]

You can say all of this, but I don't think Nintendo will bend the knee to anyone, they will consistently release first party games only on their platforms(and for a limited time), and I think all of gaming will have to cope with this until there finally comes a day where Mario is a blip in history(most likely long after everyone here has passed away).

Nintendo... they do their own thing. Hence why they were excluded in the OP. They will probably still be around 200 years from now making big games purely because of the studios and their love and dedication to the medium.

 

[Guilty_AI]

You can say all of this, but I don't think Nintendo will bend the knee to anyone, they will consistently release first party games only on their platforms(and for a limited time), and I think all of gaming will have to cope with this until there finally comes a day where Mario is a blip in history(most likely long after everyone here has passed away).

The thing you must remember about Nintendo is that their position in the home console market has been rather volatile historically speaking. Don't forget they walked away from one of their largest successes right into one of their largest flops, and that they spent 2 critical generations playing second or even third fiddle among the main consoles.

The position where they did found solid ground on was the handheld market, and probably why the Switch blew up since it unified 2 userbases. But others are already eyeing that, and we already have very capable handheld PCs carrying vast libraries of their own finding their way into mainstream. Not to mention mobile had already done some damage previously, to the point where they did end up investing on smartphone games.

If their next console doesn't fall into the graces of the public like the Switch did, i guarantee they'll start eyeing the pc market

 

[twilo99]

It's an archiac model .. should be ded soon

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

For Nintendo, yes. For the other two, no.

 

[Bernardougf]

Ghost of Tsushima just arrived on PC. We also just got Horizon FW before that and Rift Apart, Spiderman Miles Morales and Returnal in the years prior. This isn't even mentioning the cross gen strategy they upheld for 3 years

Exclusivity on their side is waning

First party single player Games are arriving several months to years later on PC ...without any guarantees that the next one will launch.. if this for you is not being exclusive thats fine.. is semantics and we can agree on disagree... to me until all Sony first party arrives on PC day one just like xbox does.. Sony has exclusives. They are announced and launched as exclusives.. and later ported to PC on a case by case basis.

This may well change... until then... it is what it is.

 

[Bernardougf]

It's an archiac model .. should be ded soon

Yeah.. nintendo is suffering greatly with their exclusives... changing is coming.. it came for Xbox sure enough all will follow

 

[Danjin44]

I dont care anymore, this gen I had waaaaaaaaaay more fun 3rd party games compare to first party games.

 

[64bitmodels]

First party single player Games are arriving several months to years later on PC ...without any guarantees that the next one will launch.. if this for you is not being exclusive thats fine.. is semantics and we can agree on disagree... to me until all Sony first party arrives on PC day one just like xbox does.. Sony has exclusives. They are announced and launched as exclusives.. and later ported to PC on a case by case basis.

This may well change... until then... it is what it is.

It's not just that. It's the PC ports on top of the lack of third party exclusives too. Look at the insane vice grip they had over Japanese developers in the ps2 era where devs would make ps2 exclusives even without Sony's involvement or monetary incentives. DMC, GTA, kingdom hearts, ratchet and clank, street fighter, silent Hill, final fantasy, etc. Now only 2 titles out of those 7 are still a timed exclusive, one of the companies they had to acquire, and for the other, it's costing the parent company sales that they needed to to multiplat to recoup.

 

[Bernardougf]

It's not just that. It's the PC ports on top of the lack of third party exclusives too. Look at the insane vice grip they had over Japanese developers in the ps2 era where devs would make ps2 exclusives even without Sony's involvement or monetary incentives. DMC, GTA, ico, street fighter, silent Hill, final fantasy, etc. Now only one title out of those 5 are still a timed exclusive and it's costing the parent company sales that they needed to to multiplat to recoup.

Stellar blade, rise of the ronin, final fantasy xvI and remake .. launched day 1 on pc ? 6 months later ? ... welp... third and second party exclusivity is still strong ... things have changed a little I give you that .. I dont expect to change more... If sony still wishes to remain relevant in the hardware market... if not ? Nintendo should be getting the biggest free pass in the history of gaming.

 

[Pop]

Not for Xbox

But being serious, if Sony and Nintendo want to keep a platform then yes

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

It's not just that. It's the PC ports on top of the lack of third party exclusives too. Look at the insane vice grip they had over Japanese developers in the ps2 era where devs would make ps2 exclusives even without Sony's involvement or monetary incentives. DMC, GTA, kingdom hearts, ratchet and clank, street fighter, silent Hill, final fantasy, etc. Now only 2 titles out of those 7 are still a timed exclusive, one of the companies they had to acquire, and for the other, it's costing the parent company sales that they needed to to multiplat to recoup.

Games are talking longer to make

and GTAVI is not going to release on PC.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

The less console exclusives there are, the closer we are to a monopoly where there will literally be no reason to invest into other platforms because the one main platform will get practically everything. Competition is needed to keep things in check in the gaming industry.

 

[64bitmodels]

Games are talking longer to make

and GTAVI is not going to release on PC.

Fair point that was a mistake. That being said the GTAVI situation is a result of Rockstar in particular being special when it comes to PC ports, with or without incentive they will delay the PC port.

Even if Playstation and Xbox didn't exist they would sooner release the game on Nintendo before foing a day 1 PC release. It's how they get the double dippers

 

[IAmRei]

There are devaluation happening everywhere than before, aside from what You said earlier, Nintendo, i think the answer is yes.

It's not like before, for each what we want, we need to buy the console and made an investment. But nowadays, you can buy one, and got almost all. Its the matter of preference nowadays. Console for easy to play, PC for more options.

And the AAA/AAAA budget restrain and burden aint helping as well. they are more burden than advantages these days. Bigger bugdet doesnt mean safe, instead, it burdening responsibility for studios to make sure at minimum break event. This could make games will remains stagnant in innovation if this still being trend.

The only work around is either making greater games or release it to all possible platform. And this could trigger new issue such as games are not limited to one platform and made their platform holder might face possibility of devaluation vs another.

The good point is, might reduce console wars, as everyone got almost the same. But at some point, there is almost no need to buy console for exclusives as they will released somewhere else in which You might already own the platform.

But again, this trend is not worked for Nintendo, different case and different situation each.

(No, recent console emulator, is not considered as one platform inside PC, i.e. Yuzu)

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

It's how they get the double dippers

you just answered your own question

 

[Fbh]

Not if you count Nintendo. They seem happy with their business model and I don't see them releasing games on other systems anytime soon unless they have multiple WiiU tier blunders in a row.
For Sony and MS, they probably are. Sony will probably keep the current timed exclusivity model going for the time being but I wouldn't be surprised if we see them releasing more day 1 multiplatform games in the future.

Traditional AAA games are making increasingly less sense as exclusives.
On the one hand you have GAAS which requiere a big and active player base, so limiting them to a single system doesn't make that much sense.
On the other hand IMO a lot of AAA devs screwed themselves over by getting customers used to increasingly bigger and longer games with increasingly better graphics for nearly the same price, on top of constant sales and broken games that only get better after several months thus basically begging you to wait before buying them. When console makers see increasingly smaller returns on their investments I imagine they'll be tempted to sell more units, which they'll only be able to do by releasing on more platforms.

 

[bitbydeath]

Is this thread because of Doom?

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Exclusives are the only thing that makes owning any of one these consoles worthwhile.

If you accept the premise that exclusive software keeps a platform alive, as a platform holder, you should to anything in your power to make sure your product keeps getting exclusives. If that means lowering (or simply not further increasing) development time and budget, then so be it. Actions speak louder than words, and it seems Nintendo has been doing exactly this. For some reason, MS and Sony seem to think otherwise.