Support NeoGAF

[mckmas8808]

Content is and ALWAYS will be king!

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Sony lost an awful lot of money with the PS3, while Microsoft profited greatly. By that metric (the only one that matters, Xbox 360 was the winner). A lot of this was due to the fantastic line up of exclusives that the 360 had. Yes, Sony definitely caught back up, but at the outset, across 2005, 2006 and 2007, Microsoft was the comfortable winner. Quite rightly so.

...which is why it baffles me to this day that they just threw it all away, and have continued to make bad strategy calls, after having the winning one for a good three or four years

Yeah, the direction Microsoft took their first party and general decision making has been very perplexing considering how good those first party games were in X360 era. New leadership perhaps?

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Just look at next gen currently, peopole are literally asking themselves why to get a XSX when theres no exclusives on the horizon, its essentially a Netflix gaming machine so you can play your xbox360 games in 60fps. SONY has a weak lineup too but at least there are actual exclusives coming day one and beyond...you know what you are getting. I wouldnt buy PS5 to play Killzone 1 from PS2 at 60fps.

FunkMiller

Well you can ask the same question for Microsoft. After such success with 360, taking away exclusives from SONY, exclusive DLC only to xbox or timed exclusive etc...and then they released a dud X1. They went 180* on what made them successful in the first place and lost all momentum. I actually thought they would really destroy it but instead they dropped the ball so bad. As you said, SONY caught up...if im not mistaken even outsold by a bit at the end of the generation. X1 at the end of the generation has half the sales PS4 does.

 

[quest]

Without hardware, there is no Xbox. You can argue otherwise, but SEGA is a shadow of its former self after they left hardware behind. Yes, Xbox can exist as a third party studio, but claiming that is fine is just pretending the console never mattered.

The current Xbox customers are buying Xbox consoles because they want the consoles. if they didn't need the hardware they wouldn't be buying them.

Xbox can't exist as a 3rd party publisher it is a waste of resources and not enough potential returns. If the series x and s fail the division will be folded and studios parted out or closed. Only Sony and gabe profit off a Microsoft 3rd party not Microsoft.

 

[Knitted Knight]

This thread has warmed my heart with all the shenanigans going around in the industry.

You don't fix what's not broken. Exclusives matter, differentiate consoles, and showcase the systems at their best. It's healthy for the industry.

More important than ever.... even the degree of exclusivity is important.
Full exclusives are the most valuable, the biggest reason to buy hardware when they hit that bar of excellence.... timed exclusives and 'console exclusives' are mostly a waste of time and money.... I'd rather 1 full exclusive than 3 timed or console exclusives.

I also believe PlayStation have taken their eye off the ball with respect to exclusives over the last few years...moves like letting Quantic Dream games, Horizon and others got to PC have muddied the waters and instead of creating interest in people to buy PS5..... it lead many on PC and elsewhere to say 'oh the games will eventually come to other platforms, they are loosening up'....... huge mistake!

They also lost a lot of first parties... like Guerrilla Cambridge and Evolution Studios along with earlier losses such as Zipper and SCE Liverpool.
They also lost Ueda and genDesign...another massive loss IMO and my feeling is that Kojima's next game is probably not a PS exclusive.... another massive mistake.

Ueda, Kojima and the Wipeout series in particular are connected to the identity of PlayStation.

Consider that MLB The Show will also no longer be exclusive soon either.....

Then I see huge holes in their offerings appearing due to Xbox's aggressive moves lately.... both Obsidian and Bethesda are off the table. If Sony had the foresight, they could have bought Zenimax and filled the missing Shooter and RPG genres in their lineup but again they missed the boat... just like Minecraft before that.

It really seems like despite how much gaming has done for Sony, they are unwilling to make any large strategic moves to capitalize and solidify their position into the future.

They still make my favorite (exclusives) games and I know they have things in the works that are exciting but there are so many possibilities and opportunities that they seem unable or unwilling to take advantage of that it is frustrating.

Great commentary.

 

[THEAP99]

Interesting watch I suppose.


Just trying to keep the hype rolling until the 12th!

U said the Bedrooms To Billions is on Amazon Prime? I will find time to watch that as well this week if it is on Amazon Prime Video!

One thing I find interesting is nobody has had a major fuckup yet that sets the stage for the rest of the generation. Just kind of two platforms heading in two different directions, which makes it kinda boring in a way.. but eh

 

[FritzJ92]

I'm worried they will just make more OK games to fit the GamePass timely release model.

How does Gamepass has a timely model, when games get Halo got delayed... that's bad judgement

 

[12Dannu123]

Exlcusives are still an important piece of the puzzle. But Sony's model of not expanding beyond Consoles is outdated. The gap that Sony has, Microsoft will fill. Sony's lack of expansion into PC and Cloud Gaming, Microsoft will fill that gap and dominate it. The lack of expansion beyond consoles is what will stop Sony from acquiring publishers in a consolidating industry.

If Microsoft continues to acquire publishers, Sony will have less market share and leverage in the future.

 

[Tschumi]

How bout noooo?

This whole narrative about exclusives being questionable is manufactured by xbox and their fans to feel better about their lack of them. It has nothing to do with reality.

 

[ZywyPL]

Times have changed "a bit" since the PS1 launched, where exclusives indeed used to be the most important aspect of the consoles, simply because there were so many of them, but since the PS360 era and the widespread of internet connection, 3rd party multiplatform titles started to took over, and MP/GaaS games are the most played titles nowadays, with exclusives being pushed back to being nothing more than a nice addition, and what better example shows this than the PS4 that sold at around 40-45M units without a single exclusive other than those few launch titles, it was games like Battlefield that pushed current-gen consoles sales quite a bit thanks to 64 players and 60FPS upgrade, GTA5 remaster, stuff like that. Don't get me wrong, exclusives still matter to some degree, there are cases when just a single title can sell an entire console to someone, but in the grand scheme of things they lost the impact they once had, most people would be able to live without them if Sony/MS decided to close all their studios, they would play nothing but EA, Ubi etc. titles and would've been perfectly happy about it.

 

[Bernd Lauert]

Sony's first party game attachment rate is borderline abysmal, so I don't 100% buy that exclusives are key. The PS4 being 100 bucks cheaper, being the stronger hardware and having overall better marketing (those FIFA/Cowadoody bundles killed it in Europe) is what made it successful. The exclusives were icing on the cake and definitely moved a bunch of consoles, but they weren't key to the success imo.