How Exclusive Will Exclusive Games Be?

Gamasutra's regular 'Analyze This' column (which gets answers to topical questions from industry analysts) today ponders the exclusivity of next-gen games. With the costs of developing a AAA title ever on the rise, the article seeks out the answer to whether truly exclusive titles (games that are only released on one platform) are a thing of the past. "I feel title exclusivity for [third-party] developers is less important then title differentiation. All three consoles have strengths, and I would advise [developers] to clearly develop with the console in mind, and I would stress differentiation within their titles. This clearly poses a problem for smaller, more financially strapped developers who don't have the budget to develop what is in essence three separate games. - Ben Bajarin, Creative Strategies"

Comments

PS3 Exclusives

[Telvin_3d]

From how it is shaping up so far, if Sony wants exclusives for the PS3 it's going to have to make them itself. The Wikipedia lists for PS3 and Wii games have been put in a sortable format. Sorting by exclusive titles gives some interesting data. So far, the PS3 only has between 12 and 14 (depending on region) exclusive games far enough along to have a release date more concrete than 'Q4 2007'. Compare that to the Wii which has between 26 and 42 exclusives with release dates. The range of publishers that are making the Wii games is also interesting to look at. I wish there was a way to check the 360 titles in the same way, but alas, that list is not sortable.

Check them out for yourselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wii_games http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_3 _games

No, it does exist

[jchenx]

Nintendo is the only player who is basically a game designer first, hardware manufacturer second. They're first-party titles are about the only thing that will count for exclusive, unless they one day go Sega's route of only publishing games.

Uhh, what are you smoking? Both MS and Sony have extensive groups in charge of developing 1st party "can't get it anywhere else" content: Microsoft Game Studios and Sony Computer Entertainment.

I wouldn't be shocked to see Halo 3 ported to PS3, after it's XBox 360 and PC run, of course. I wouldn't be shocked to see a Metal Gear title on something other than a playstation, like, say, gamecube.

This is silly. Halo 3 is being developed by Bungie, which is a first party studio that is owned by Microsoft. Metal Gear is developed by Konami, which is very much independent. There is no chance at all for Halo 3 to go to the PS3, unless you somehow envision MS being bought by Sony or something similarly insane. Equally impossible is the chance that a Sony first-party title, such as Gran Turismo, will be published on the 360, or a Mario game to show up on the PS3/360.

The only exception is in the portable space, where MS doesn't have a platform. There are already first-party IP that have been developed for Nintendo portables, such as Age of Empires DS.

It's interesting how fanboys of all consoles tend to have a very narrow view of things. Nintendo fanboys live and breath the Mario/Zelda/Metroid-universe, Xbox fanboys with Halo, Age of Empires, etc. and Playstation fanboys with Gran Turismo, SOCOM, etc. There are plenty of great first-party games available on all the big platforms, despite what fanboys might claim.