And what do you think MS did in the 360 generation? They did exactly that. There were years where they had an exclusive game practicality every month. Sony didnt do anything MS hasn't already done on 360. If they dont have enough right now and rely on Halo, Gears, etc, they wont launch those AAA games in April.
1. The only period during the X360 where MS had a substantial amount of exclusives was in the early years, namely in the first year before the PS3 was out and they therefore received a bunch of defecto exclusives as the only next generation platform.
2. They used to have enough first party presence to fill out a calendar. During the middle years of the X360 generation they cut almost all of them and several of the survivors from that period have since been axed as well.
3. Regardless of how many total AAA games they're releasing in a year they'd be better off moving Halo, Gears, etc. to the spring. Third party AAA games dominate the holiday window. Releasing a Halo or Gears within the same window as Battlefield, COD, Destiny, etc. is just bad strategy. Halo releases used to be an event, now they're just another big AAA release in a period stuffed with big AAA releases.
Well for one, MS came out of the gate this generation with two broken legs and a neck brace. Is it really that surprising that they are struggling, especially compared to the system with far more global appeal? I for one am shocked I tell ya.
MS had multiple third parties behind them with their DMR bullshit and even turned it into meaningful exclusive content and games (FIFA Ultimate Team exclusives and Titanfall, both from EA, to name a few).
Their hardware design kneecapped them, sure, but so did Sony's with the PS3 and Sony's move to a full year release calendar was a huge part of rallying back and ending in an effective tie with the X360 despite the 360 having an entire extra year of sales.
MS could have attempted the same strategy.
Also, Sony has the luxury of a Japanese market that will eat those games up, and a stable of old japanese IP's they can fall back on dating back to the PS1 before the OG xbox existed.
Such as? What Sony first party title is a big seller in Japan? What PS1 Japanese IP are they banking on so hard?
It's not surprising and not necessarily this brilliant strategy lol. With the exception of maybe Bloodborne, MS could release the same line up of games and sales would be pretty poor.
And Uncharted, Horizon, Ratchet and Clank, Infamous, Killzone, Driveclub, God of War, MLB: The Show, etc.. Turns out most of Sony's big first party IPs are actually very western focused. Shocking, I tell ya.
And by having so many Japanese games Sony can ultimately stagger their releases more frequently throughout the year. Without all the extra niche games I'm not sure Sony would gamble on releasing their big hitters outside of Q3 and Q4 either.
They traditionally release God of War outside of the holiday season. They released Uncharted 4 outside of the holiday season. The Last of Us, Bloodborne, Horizon, and their big Spider-Man exclusive next year were also Q1/Q2 titles.
The only big first party IP Sony still releases in the holiday window is Gran Turismo, but that's likely because third parties don't service the driving sim audience at all so there isn't market competition to schedule away from.
For Sony, Bloodbourne was a fantastic exclusive for the PS4. At the same time though, Fromsoftware would never have been willing to make the same game or something similar as an exclusive for the Xbox One. And the excitement for the game was largely because Fromsoftware is behind the Dark Souls series. So kudos to Sony I guess.
From made two Otogi games and Metal Wolf Chaos exclusively for the original Xbox. They made Ninja Blade in a partnership with MS at the same time they were making Demon's Souls and it was the higher profile title in-house.
So what's that about From never being willing to make the same game or something similar as an exclusive for Xbox?
Persona was already a successful game series dating back to the Playstation 1. Persona 5 was supposed to come out in 2014 and was instead delayed 2 more years. Not exactly a brilliant strategy but yes it worked. Sony has a much larger store of old IP's to go back to, which people seem to ignore or discount a lot of the time.
Persona has been a niche franchise that has blossomed some recently. It is an example of how Sony's first party release strategy, having given them the edge in filling out the calendar and taking a commanding lead i hardware sales, has been translated to 3rd party exclusives with success. Also, games get delayed, I don't see the relevance here.
Nioh's development started in 2004 lol. It's great that Sony finally released it for the PS4, but don't act like it was this brilliantly planned game that they developed recently with the sole intent to counter Dark Souls 3.
The game was canned multiple times along the way. The fact that something vaguely related was scoped in 2004 is completely irrelevant.
Nier was originally multiplatform, released on both the ps3 and 360, probably because the 360 was doing so well. Shocker that Nier Automata isn't multiplatform this time around now that the One is not doing as well.
Um, that's kind of the point. Sony is picking up free 3rd party exclusives now because of their market advantage, a market advantage in large part created by their first party strategy.
Also, Ni No Kuni is coming to PC. Can I use the "it doesn't count as an exclusive" argument lol?
What windmill are you tilting at here? I can't recall every arguing that a PC version invalidates a console exclusive. MS' stated first party commitment to PC releases surely hurt XBox sales, but that doesn't make those titles less compelling.
But then this is just the cherry on top of your entire disingenuous response. Nier is on PC as well, why wasn't that pointed out? Or could you just not come up with some other absurd reason to discount Ni No Kuni so suddenly that matters? Obviously a rhetorical question as I think the answer is pretty clear to everyone.
The funny thing about it all is that unless you're really into Japanese games, most of those games are by and large unappealing. I for example and not really interested in them. So even with the extra number of exclusives for the PS4, it doesn't do anything to persuade me to buy one.
So ignoring all the western first party titles still. Sure.
Your argument would make more sense a decade ago when Japan was a major market for home console video game systems and software. Now a major part of Sony's worldwide lead over MS comes from a far stronger presence throughout Europe. Is that because of Japanese games too?
But mainly I just wanted to point out that it's not that hard to have this strategy of staggering releases through out the year when you have so many niche game IP's to use and the benefit of a market that will buy them.
Again, Sony gets their major AAA titles out of the holiday season as well, then uses them as bundle fodder to help drive hardware sales when 3rd parties are picking up the major new release side of the market. P5, Nier, Nioh, etc. are icing on the cake now thanks to how Sony managed the releases of Infamous, Bloodborne, Uncharted, and Horizon, as major first party offerings in the early part of the year to keep interest up and let those titles breathe from a sales and press coverage standpoint.
Just not seeing it as a knock against MS which doesnt have that luxury, nor the luxury of record sales this gen to be putting in all their chips on new IPs, especially niche ones.
First, why are they releasing Gears and Halo directly against CoD, BF, Destiny, etc.? That is absurd. Halo and Gears shouldn't be within three months of other major shooter releases.
Second, MS is the richest company active in this industry. They spent $400M on a marketing deal with the NFL that produced basically nothing, and they've been paying out cash for things like timed exclusives on streaming services (HBO for example) and an Halo based show that is basically MS' own version of vaporware.
They do this while licensing out IPs like Shadowrun and MechWarrior to smaller studios who then make profitable games with them, because MS can't be bothered to figure out how to make money on those products.
They do this while driving off the primary creative staff at Lionhead by making them focus on Kinect games instead of a real next iteration in the Fable franchise, then shift all the leftover folks onto an F2P MOBA they kill basically on the doorstep of release because it wasn't particularly good.
They do this while funding a new IP from Black Tusk, then shut it down to re-purpose the studio in a Gears factory, complete with a re-name because MS is simply not willing to carry more first party studios than they have existing marketable AAA IPs.
The strategies aren't hard to understand, which is why we can talk about them with some level of accuracy on a fan board. The challenge is in execution and while MS has paid lip service to their desire to broaden the first party base they haven't delivered on it. Either they don't get this relatively simple concept, are being dishonest in their commitment, or are just exceedingly inept. I'm personally betting on a combination of all three.
