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Two 360 Titles Lose Their Exclusivity

Posted by Zonk on from the now-we-go-back-the-other-way dept.

While for the most part we've been hearing about formerly PS3-exclusive games heading to Microsoft's console, as the PS3 begins to get some momentum up in the marketplace we'll start to see the opposite happening. The first converts are the titles Kane & Lynch (a stealth shooter), and Crossfire (a co-op military shooter). Both are now slated to launch on the PlayStation 3, as well as the Xbox 360. Opposable Thumbs reports: "'[SCi Entertainment's] Board believes that a release of these products simultaneously on all three platforms (PS3, Xbox 360 and PC) including the two next generation platforms will benefit the long term revenue potential for these two strong franchises rather than releasing different versions at different times.' It's hard to say that this move is all that surprising. We've said time and time again the high development costs of current generation software are going to lead to an increase in the number of cross-platform software, as extending the possible player-base for a title is crucial for profit. From the looks of these two games, this is a solid win for the PS3: two more quality games to add to the growing list of the PS3's star software."

4 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Wow, what a sea change by Control+Group · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Let's see, the PS3 loses Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto IV to multiplatform releases.

    The 360 loses two games I've already forgotten the names of to multiplatform releases.

    Yep, the tide is definitely turning.

    --

    Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
    1. Re:Wow, what a sea change by badasscat · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Let's see, the PS3 loses Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto IV to multiplatform releases.

      GTA4 was never a PS3 exclusive. I'm not sure why the assumption would even be made, as GTA1, GTA2, GTA3, GTA:VC and GTA:SA were never exclusives either.

      I think people need to make a distinction between "exclusive" and "coming out on one platform six months before being ported to another". They are not the same thing, and never have been. This notion of a "timed exclusive" is one of those either meaningless or wrongly-applied industry buzzwords that really needs to go. There is no such thing as a "timed exclusive" - a game is either exclusive or it isn't.

      Assassin's Creed I don't know about, but GTA4 was always multi-platform. The only difference in GTA4's case is the simultaneous release. Losing six months of "exclusivity" isn't losing exclusivity, it's losing six months. Again, not the same.

  2. Strong Franchise? by hidannik · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's not a franchise until two games in the series are released (i.e. there's at least one sequel).

    It's not strong until it sells well.

    Both of these titles are new properties, unreleased and without sequels. Therefore they are neither franchises nor strong. Calling them so is merely wishful marketing.

    Hans

  3. How about the Wii? by HalAtWork · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The Wii is the system creaming the competition, how about offering this on the Wii? The article states: "...a release of these products simultaneously on all three platforms (PS3, Xbox 360 and PC) including the two next generation platforms..." -- That's a pretty curious omission of the Wii... It's definitely possible to scale down the graphics and offer the same exact game on the Wii, a system even more powerful than the original XBox, which could handle Half Life 2.

    --
    Twinstiq, game news