@BAMozzy I completely agree about exclusives, it’s bizarre to argue that exclusives are suddenly better than multiplat games and many get ported to other consoles in later generations anyway. It feeds into the mentality of ‘please let me have made the right purchase’ as people have to justify that their chosen platform is better or risk admitting that they’ve spent £450 on a ‘worse’ console. It’s also tribe mentality where people just like to argue. Bizarre.
The crowd, accepting this immediately, assumed the anti-Eurasian posters and banners everywhere were the result of acts of sabotage by agents of Goldstein and ripped them from the walls.
@Col_McCafferty First off, Exclusives are there to benefit the Company - not the gamer. They are there to make you buy that hardware and in doing so, generate income from all sales - inc 3rd party games for that manufacturer. Sony will take some money from every game because its on their platform so to make sure you buy a Playstation, they make 'games' exclusive for it. Even with new generation hardware, they can make games exclusive to the 'new' generation, even if they can scale down to their older generation - just to make you buy a 'new' console.
There is nothing stopping Sony (or MS for that matter) releasing games on other platforms. Its a 'business' decision - not a Gamers decision. Selling a game on Xbox for example would also give MS some money for every sale - even if Sony would generate a LOT more because the game now has a much larger potential sales. If MS has better hardware, Sony games could theoretically look and/or run better too and, even if the Devs decided to make the games the 'same' on both, the chances are, their console sales would plummet - which in turn would see their finances plummet because they would also lose out on the percentage of revenue from ALL game sales drop - fewer consoles, fewer people to buy games meaning lower revenue - therefore, they need Exclusives to make people buy their hardware.
It really doesn't matter whether you and all Sony gamers get to enjoy a game or you and ALL gamers get to enjoy a game. It doesn't make the game any more or less enjoyable whether its 'just' on a Sony platform or available to millions of others. It can actually unite gamers as they can discuss their opinions, experiences etc on the same games. Does it really matter if 10's of millions of people you don't know can enjoy the same game whether they are all on PS or on whatever platform they prefer? As long as you can play it and enjoy it, that's ALL that should matter.
I am certainly not 'moaning' about Sony withholding games from other platforms at all - I understand WHY they and why others do it, why MS, Nintendo and even Epic, Steam or any other option will do it - its purely for the Company - not the gamer at all. Its to make people buy into their ecosystem rather than give the gamer the choice to decide which platform may provide them the features and hardware specs they actually want/prefer.
As for why MS hasn't built their 'Last of Us pt 2' or 'God of War', Prior to adding studios in 2018, they had 5 Studio's - 343 (Halo), Turn 10 (Forza Motorsport), the Coalition (Gears), Rare (Viva Pinata, Sea of Thieves, Kinect) and Mojang (Minecraft - who joined in 2014). That's not a 'lot' of Studio's and so they have invested in the formation of a couple of Studio's (the Initiative in 2018 and Worlds Edge in 2019 who will be doing Age of Empires and acquired numerous others. In 2018 they acquired Obsidian (Grounded, Avowed), inXile (just finished Wasteland 3 so haven't yet announced what's next - Xbox Exclusive?), Compulsion Games (not announced their next project after We Happy Few), Undead Labs (State of Decay series - all exclusives), Playground Games (Forza Horizon series and upcoming Fable - all exclusives), Ninja Theory (Bleeding Edge, Hellblade II, Project Mara - all Exclusives), in 2019 added Double Fine (Psychonauts 2 in development so haven't yet announced an Exclusive) and now in 2020 have had Zenimax Media which has 8 Studios which include Bethesda Game Studios, Arkane Studios, id Software, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, ZeniMax Online Studios, Alpha Dog Games and newly formed Roundhouse Studio's.
Other than 'buying' Exclusives or contracting outside studio's to make an Exclusive for MS, they really didn't have the Studio's to make games - even if they had the money. Therefore your statement is wrong - they didn't have the Studios and therefore couldn't make those type of games. That's why they have invested in building up their Studio count to make more games. The Studio's they did have were invested in making games like Halo MCC Halo 5, Halo Wars 2 and a couple of Twin Stick arcade shooters set in the Halo universe, Gears 1 Ultimate, Gears 4, Gears 5, Gears Tactics, Forza Motorsport 5, 6 and 7, Kinect Sports, Killer Instinct, Rare Replay, Sea of Thieves, Minecraft updates, Minecraft Dungeons - all released this gen. Playground and Undead Labs also made Forza Horizon 2, 3 and 4, State of Decay 1 & 2 before officially becoming part of the Xbox family. The other 'Exclusives' were timed from independent studio's - like Ori or Cuphead, bought exclusives like Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive or contracted out - Crackdown 3.
Gears of War inspired Uncharted - According to former Naughty Dog developer, Lucas Pope, the franchise drew inspiration from the Gears of War series, with the first Uncharted game being delayed after the first Gears of War game released in order for various core gameplay and technical elements to more resemble and feel like that of the latter - obviously drew inspiration elsewhere for story and Characters but from a Game-play perspective, Gears was inspirational and both Gears games on XB1 are great visually and from a gameplay perspective too - maybe a bit too safe from a story perspective and for a 'new' studio with a fresh slate. Forza series almost always wins the best racing game every year with FM7 beating GTSport when they went head to head.
Point is, MS hasn't had the Studio's to 'compete' with the amount of titles and variety on Playstation - that's why they have invested heavily on building up their studio count in the past 2yrs. Before MS bought Zenimax, the Studio count was pretty even - although you could say that Sony had 'more' established AAA studio's as MS bought a few that had only made a couple of smaller 'indie' games. Also, a number of Studio's had existing games in development for multiple platforms - The Outer Worlds, Wasteland 3, Psychonauts 2 so they had to finish those before they can even begin making Exclusives. Big Games take time to develop - especially if starting from scratch so you cannot expect to see the fruits of these acquisitions within such a short time.
Anyway, getting back to it, I would not be upset IF MS opted to publish ALL their games on Playstation. It wouldn't matter to me at all - same as it wouldn't matter of Sony published all theirs on Xbox or Nintendo publishing ALL their games on Xbox/PS/PC too. The only thing that matters to me is being able to access ALL the games I want to play and it really doesn't matter to me IF everyone else can also get to play the same Library as me if they want. It ONLY matters to the manufacturer because they make more/less money based on which platform you buy it on and potentially give money to their rivals. If Sony released God of War on Xbox, they would get money from sales as developers and publishers but MS would get money because its on their platform too - money that if it was on Sony's system, they would also get as well as money from making you buy their platform and any games you buy on that, any subscriptions you buy etc. That is why Exclusives exist - not for the 'gamers' as a whole, but to make you join their ecosystem and make you spend money there...
I don't expect it to change at all. It seems that the practice too has been spun round to make it look as though its 'good' for their fanbase but the reality is that its actually done for the benefit of the Manufacturers and is more 'anti-consumer'. The whole thing with Apple and Epic games is exactly the same principal as Apple wants you to buy through them so they get their 30% and won't allow other stores/options to compete with them on their hardware. That's also going affect those who buy All Digital consoles as they can only buy from Sony/MS stores and without competition, can essentially charge RRP because you don't have the option of going to others stores to find it cheaper. They are not competing with GAME, with SimplyGame, with SmythToys, with Supermarkets, with Amazon etc because you cannot go to Amazon and buy the game on Disc instead of paying £70 for the Digital version. Amazon can charge less because they want the sales instead of you going to GAME. They are prepared to lose more on their profit margin on selling you the game instead of going elsewhere. GAME also buys up exclusive rights to certain editions and charge RRP because if you want that Edition, you cannot go elsewhere.
Exclusives are not Consumer friendly at all - no matter how you, how manufacturers or how the Press want to spin it. They matter to the Manufacturer to make you join their Ecosystem - whether you would (because it has the best specs, preferred controller layout, features you want etc etc) or not. It would be like LG having Exclusive rights to BBC channels and Samsung having the rights to ITV channels to make you buy their TV's instead of BOTH having ALL the channels so you can choose which TV suits you best - whether its OLED for PQ but maybe a risk of Burn-In and not the 'best' Colour Volume on the market or QLED because there is no risk of Burn-in and it has the best colour volume but PQ isn't quite as good because it relies on backlighting and local dimming.
Again, I have typed a LOT but to explain and educate with little room to misconstrue or allow for misinterpretation, as well as provide examples, a simile or two etc to explain the situation with Exclusives, why they are used by manufacturers, why they are anti-consumer (not that I expect to see them change) and why MS hasn't been able to compete this generation. We really don't know whether we could see a 'reversal' in terms of 'quantity' of Exclusives or whether MS will be challenging for Game of the Year titles in the 'near' future yet. I don't expect Sony's studio's to drop in either quantity or quality and they do have their own history to compete with too. Their PS5 output will be compared to PS4 and their new games with the old so they are 'competing' with themselves as much as anything. ALL games, exclusive or not will be compared to each other for sales. Whether you 'prefer' the majority of games that Sony Studio's make compared to those coming out of Xbox Studio's is a separate thing altogether. Even if you don't like the characters or setting of Gears of War for example, doesn't mean that the developers didn't make a great game with great visuals and game-play mechanics that could 'rival' some of Sony's best.
As I have stated, it doesn't matter to me whether Sony or MS have hundreds of exclusives or none because they release on PC and/or other consoles, doesn't matter if they make no 3rd party exclusive deals or a lot. What matters is whether I can play the games and as I will own BOTH a Series X and PS5, I can play ALL the exclusives and take advantage of any 3rd Party deals too!!
Exclusivity deals on 3rd Party multi-platform releases - like access to DLC 1 month earlier, extra content etc is totally wrong and should be banned in my opinion - that is again about making you buy the game on that platform so they get a 'chunk' of the profits from the publishers and developers and potentially more money because you will buy more games on that platform. It only divides and annoys gamers. At least with full exclusivity like first party games, you are not being charged the same to have less content or to 'wait' longer for some content - but its all about what's best for the manufacturer and not the gamer!!
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Why can't life be like gaming? Why can't I restart from an earlier checkpoint??
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The crowd, accepting this immediately, assumed the anti-Eurasian posters and banners everywhere were the result of acts of sabotage by agents of Goldstein and ripped them from the walls.
@BAMozzy I know you make a lot of good points, but there are a few counter arguments. Exclusives are generally made to sell consoles, and therefore not necessarily to make money. If they are profitable that's great of course, but they can lose money on a game. The Last Guardian and Dreams come to mind, neither game can be profitable at this point. Their games also don't include MTX, because they rather have a GOTY game that garners a ton of attention, than a game that is forgotten about in a year but managed to make a little extra profit with season passes, MTX, etc. If all games were released on every platform, this wouldn't apply anymore.
The crowd, accepting this immediately, assumed the anti-Eurasian posters and banners everywhere were the result of acts of sabotage by agents of Goldstein and ripped them from the walls.
@Octane Exclusives are made to sell consoles and by doing so, lead to more game purchases on that platform. As I said, Sony (for example) will get a portion of the money for EVERY game sold on Playstation so that Exclusive or even the console may end up being a loss, but even if that person never buys another Exclusive, every game they buy is giving some more money to Sony.
A multi-platform publisher for example loses some of their Profit to the Console Manufacturer just to get their game on there. They have to sell many more games to break even - even if the game costs exactly the same to develop because Sony and MS are taking a cut of that profit margin just so that publisher can reach their users.
BOTH Dreams and the Last Guardian can be profitable because Sony are the developers, the publishers and, as they are selling the game on their own platform, taking ALL the profit on a Digital sale. On a Physical sale, the profit margin is much smaller because you have the manufacturing cost, distribution (who also want a profit), Wholesalers (who want a Profit) and retailers (who want a Profit). Large Retailers buy in bulk from a Wholesaler who buys in bigger bulk from Sony and the 'more' you buy, the cheaper per unit the cost. For example, a fame may sell for £50 in a shop, Amazon, as a massive retailer, may pay £37 per game and a small independent store may pay £42 per game. The Wholesaler may have paid £33 per game and Sony's cut for selling it on their system is £10 per game, costs of manufacture and distribution is £5 per game - so the publisher is getting £18 per game to recover all the costs of development in this scenario compared to an Exclusive which would be £28. Digital - the Publisher may get more because they don't have all the costs and middle men and Sony take 30% too - meaning they get more money from games sold in their store but Digital - ALL the money is going to Sony as developer/publisher/retailer and platform holder.
Even if 'Dreams' sales are not high enough, despite the Much larger profit margin for Sony because its on their own platform, the sales of other games will easily cover their costs.
If they sold Dreams on Xbox, MS would get their 30% or £10 just because its on that system. Also may mean that people don't buy a Playstation so all the other games that person buys is given MS more money.
DLC too loses 30% to the platform holder because its a Digital Store purchase - same as any Micro-transactions. Even if Sony/MS don't do any themselves, they are getting money from everyone else selling them. Let alone any subscriptions they get because you bought their console because of an Exclusive. They don't need to do DLC/MTX (neither does 3rd party multi-platform releases if they actually made games people want to buy) It doesn't take that many sales to make a game profitable - depending on the cost of development and advertising (which often is the larger cost) and it takes a LOT more sales for a 3rd Party multi-platform game to recover its costs because of the sizeable chunk that Platform Holders will take to allow those games to sell on their system. If you own a System, that 'chunk' is pure profit - not an extra expense.
For 3rd Party publishers, they want you to go Digital because they can charge £50+ for a game and don't have all the other middlemen taking their chunk of the profits that contribute to a £50+ price point. They only lose 30% to Sony/MS or steam or epic and the rest is all theirs. An Exclusive though is ALL Sony/MS's - they get that 30% on top of the Profits that a 3rd Party publisher gets.
An Exclusive may sell consoles but it also means that person will be constantly giving money to the platform holder regardless of whether they buy another Exclusive again. Every game, DLC, MTX etc they buy on that platform will be giving the platform holder money so its doesn't need to sell DLC, MTX etc to keep money coming in. Doesn't need to sell as many games per million spent on developing it because the Platform holder gets a LOT more money for every game sold. They want you to buy their system because they will constantly be getting money from you for EVERY game you buy and the more people locked in that system, the more games get bought, the more money they get. They can make a loss on a game but its still profitable because of all the other software sales that they get money for....
A pessimist is just an optimist with experience!
Why can't life be like gaming? Why can't I restart from an earlier checkpoint??
Feel free to add me but please send a message so I know where you know me from...
The Metal Gear Solid/2 Substance PC ports that were revived in rumors yesterday just got rated in Taiwan, basically meaning they're like a few inches away from an official confirmation/announcement
More importantly though it also gives some weight to the rumors surrounding the PS5/PC remake of Metal Gear Solid
@TheFrenchiestFry This isn’t a new port. It’s just rereleasing an old Windows XP port on Steam. I wouldn’t say this confirms anything about a remake. If they announce 3 on Steam though, fair enough as that would have to be a new, dedicated port.
This is the first time I'm buying a console at launch. PS4 + my current financial position convinced me it was right. One question about launch titles, though: did previous generations also had close to zero games justifying the new console at launch? Apart from Miles Morales and Demon's Souls (which is a remake), everything seems to be year 1, not day 1. Don't get me wrong, I'm still excited about the potential of PS5, and I'm looking forward to playing some of PS4's best games in PS5 (if anything, I hope it stays silent unlike PS4-about-to-take-flight sound). Just curious why would anyone without a PS4 buy a PS5 at launch.
@RenanKJ Not many consoles have had killer launches. Dreamcast and NES were probably the best because they both had great games and plenty of choice. SNES and N64 had great games but not many to choose from. Playstation traditionally has had rather uninteresting launch lineups so the PS5 having big budget titles is promising. It’s just that we’re coming off a great last couple of years for the PS4 and it feels like that momentum is being interrupted.
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