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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"
From the Article:
"In my view there is no incentive for third parties to develop exclusively for a single platform, unless there is some form of financial inducement from the hardware manufacturer. If you want the largest potential user base, you go multi-platform." - Ed Baron
This pretty much sums up the issue. Until such time as the platforms themselves provide such differentiation factors that affect core game design, developers are much better off by releasing products on as many platforms as possible.
The Wii Remote is one example of the type of thing that can differentiate platforms. If the core design of your game is one that hinges upon a feature that is only available on a single platform, then you almost de facto exclusivity. If the core elements of game play can't be pulled off if you port to another platform, then it makes no sense to do that port.
Ultimately, the issue of exclusivity remains in the hands of the hardware manufacturers. If they design new hardware with unique and compelling features that ultimately support unique design elements on their platform, they will win the exclusivity they so desire. On the other hand, they can simply resort to the checkbook and buy their way into exclusivity.
First party games are those games that are developed by the maker of the console. Halo, Mario, Zelda, Project Gotham Racing, etc. They are not going anywhere unless the console maker no longer makes consoles. This is why you don't see Mario games being developed for the PS3.
Paid exclusives means that a publisher paid money for the title to be exclusive. Either for a limited period of time or forever.
Default exclusives occur because it costs money to port games to other consoles. When a console has the majority of the market, some game developers will make a title for just that console. Think of the NES, Playstation and Playstation 2. Many game developers would just develop for the major console and ignore the rest. This is unlikely to happen this time because of the Xbox 360's weakness in Japan, PS3's cost and Nintendo's recent history of poor 3rd party game sales.
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.
3 _games
Check them out for yourselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wii_games http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_