Slashdot Mirror
Why Game Exclusivity Deals Are Feeding the Hate
Parz writes "The recent announcement that the upcoming Ghostbusters game will be a timed PlayStation exclusive in the PAL territories — revealed a mere month before release — has set a nasty precedent which could have long-term repercussions for the industry. This Gameplayer article explores how this generation of gaming has spiraled into a tit-for-tat war on third-party exclusivity deals instigated by Sony and Microsoft, and the effect it is having on the psychology of the consumers. The Ghostbusters developers aren't pleased by Sony's deal, and the Guardian questions whether the game will be big enough to really affect console sales."
How is this news? Consoles were built on exclusive content, all gamers know that. You can't play Sonic on SNES, you can't play Mario on Sega Genesis, etc.
It was an Xbox360 exclusive for a year. I think that's what he's referring to. Not the DLC.
Waiting a year but getting a couple of extra levels? I would take the earlier launch date.
After his asinine last article he comes back and writes a worse one explaining that Sony users are just mad because Sony isn't doing well for them this generation.
Whoa, weren't these two whining articles written by an angry 360 fanboy, not a PS3 fanboy?
This business has been going on since MS started moneyhatting developers to get a quick leg up on Sony's (at the time) deep roster of 1st party games (remember MS buying Bungie after Halo was first shown on a Mac?). It's not time to suddenly say it's turned to madness just because Sony's moves angers a few MS fanboys.
Purchased exclusives worked great for MS this generation. Do you really expect Sony to stand by and take it? If MS fans are angry about purchased timed exclusives, they have only themselves to blame. They bought Rock Band 2 when it came out for 360 two months before PS3 de to a purchased timed exclusive. They bought BioShock in droves. They bought GTA4 for the 360 because the DLC was exclusive.
MS fans, you've reaped what you've sown, stop whining that you've been victimized.
And again slashdot, you shouldn't give this chump a forum to do his own hating.
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I can't count the number of people complaining about lost exclusives and lack of obtaining them
Can't count them but I'd estimate their number to be less than 5% of people who are annoyed by exclusives. You have to be REALLY into the pointless console wars to crow that people like you who bought console A get to play a game before people who bought console B. Most gamers actually aren't.
Exactly; fanboys always overestimate their own importance and how much of the market they make up. Or they think they "deserve" something for this downright sad and uni-directional loyalty to some corporate entity and a piece of hardware.
Some people will latch onto anything for the tiniest sense of tribalism, but that doesn't make it any less pitiful.
And if someone whines because their own pathetic sense of self-worth by proxy (not that it's about the console really anyway- that's just a means to an end) needs artificially boosting by such means, then fuck 'em.
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"Mr Justice Laddie ruled that Ball had violated the European Union Copyright Directive, which came into UK law in 2003. He further found that the sale, advertising, use, or possession of such mods chips for commercial purposes was also illegal." Since Ball was done for selling them I'm not sure what the "also" is doing in that list, but although IANAL it looks to me as if it's not illegal to chip your console or to have a chipped console, you just have to get the stuff to do it from (or get it done) outside the UK.
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I had a C64 too but I'd consider that more of a computer than a console just like the MSX which did share titles between itself and the NES. The other basically came about because Nintendo got people buying games consoles again.
Given Nintendo's 2 year lead on the master system in Japan and it's year lead on the 7800 and the Master system meant they had more than enough time with no real competition establish the clear lead and in turn use it to do things like bully retailers.
Which gets back to my original point in that Nintendo didn't really have to buy exclusive games because they gained control through other means making it stupid for developers not to work on the NES.
What about Halo? I believe it was originally a Mac only title, then Microsoft bought it. We could say that Microsoft wouldn't be where they are today without exclusivity deals.