The lights are on
In the midst of EA's second-quarter financial earnings call yesterday, chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen put to bed one of the hottest discussion topics in the next-gen conversation. Many people have wondered whether Titanfall would ever make the jump to PlayStation 4. We now know that it absolutely won't, at least in the series' inaugural outing.
We've become used to almost ubiquitous multiplatform parity as the current generation has carried on, but Titanfall exclusivity is a reminder that isn't how things used to be. We want to know how you feel about third-party exclusives? Do you like having games that make each of your systems special and consolidate your friends, or do you prefer diving into a single platform and playing as much as you can on one machine?
Let us know what you think in the comments. We'll highlight some of your thoughts in this afternoon's second Reader Discussion.
It feels bad when I know I can't get a great game beacause it won't be released in one of my consoles even though it's not a first-party title, but I know it can be an important business decision and I accept it. It is after all very attractive for a console to have great exclusives.
I dont like third party exclusives. They make me sour towards the publisher. As a company that makes money off of multiple consoles it really worries me when they try to get involved and force my wallet one direction or another on my console purchases. I know its not true, and is completely unreasonable but it makes me feel like other titles from the publisher wont have as much care put into them on the non exclusive console. I can't help it, that's just how it makes me feel.
As one who has been fortunate enough to own both (sorry, Nintendo) major consoles over the years, I haven't missed out on exclusives. I have never really felt a loyalty to a company where I reached a level where it was us versus them. I can understand how an exclusive can be associated with a console's identity, but personally, I wish the gaming experience could be shared regardless of which system one owned.
It's not that big of a deal to me. I can't even think of many third-party exclusives (not counting indies) from this generation other than the first Mass Effect. It just doesn't seem to happen too often anymore.
There's enough games for me to play. Missing out on one game isn't the end of the world.*
*Cyberpunk 2077 is the only exception. D:
It's just the nature of the beast. You just have to learn to live with it. I for one, don't mind. I don't own an Xbox, and I am content. I enjoy my PS3 and its exclusives, and I am not an Xbox hater at all.
Games should be enjoyed by all and not just a select few. I would think that a game developer should be focusing on no matter how much money Microsoft or Sony throw at them. Third-Party exclusives only benefit the console companies. It doesn't benefit the consumer as they might miss out on playing a great title and it doesn't benefit the developer as it may not sell as many copies if it were for all consoles. Microsoft or Sony should be focused on making really good first party titles and leave third party titles to their freedom to make and sell their game the way they want to.
I absolutely hate them but especially content exclusivity. Its so frustrating when parts of a game are kept from you because you dont own a particular system, it feels like we are being punished for not having the pubs/devs preferred system.
I'm usually kind of "meh" on 3rd party exclusives. The only real games I feel I missed out on being on 360 were the 1st party Naughty Dog masterpieces. I might miss out on Titanfall if I get a PS4, but I hate always online games anyways.
It's exactly like empires.
The only thing that follows loyalty is betrayal and the only thing that follows exclusivity is the lost of the exclusivity.
We now sit and wait (with our pop-corns) to see when those laters are going to happen.
All I want is to have Killer Instinct on the PC at least down the road :/ Spending $500 on a system for one game isn't my style. I've always wished that exclusivity would slowly die off, have the companies put out games for each system that can handle it. Have the differences on the consoles be the features and additives. Or at least have everything be PC viable damnit -_- While I know that will most likely never happen, I can dream!
How sad and lonely it must feel to be a 2nd party developer. No one ever talks about them.
Can we have ANOTHER post talking about Titanfall? That was sarcasm btw. Three posts that are all about Titanfall's exclusivity is a bit much in less than one day. We get it Mike, you really really like your Titanfall exclusivity. :P
IMO they are a double edged sword since they can be invaluable for getting people to consider getting one game system over another but can eventually lead to frustrated questions on why the game isn't multiplatform for people who feel left out. While indie games benefit from being multiplatform, I doubt players would have the time or budgets to play all the games they enjoy if all games were multiplatform, and that might not be so bad in the long run.
It sucks
There should be more on all consoles, brokered by deals with the console makers to give vastly more value to each console.
However, this is increasingly unrealistic given the massive development costs of pretty much every major AAA game out there.
I believe third party exclusive are okay imo, but I can understand frustration when you see a game exclusive to one system when you only have the other. But to me that's what makes getting one system over the other more exciting it is what helps separate consoles from each other. Consoles are starting to be hardware wise more and more similar so exclusives are they only thing keep consoles stand out over the other. The thing I personally do not like is when a game is multi platform and there is exclusive maps or content to on console over another or even time dlc. If you are making a game on various consoles and you have fans supporting you game on both systems then give everyone the same content at the same time.