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Exclusivity sucks as a gaming practice

Its so fucking annoying when a game you're so amped up about playing is limited to a particular system. Countless times I've been frustrated finding out I can't play my jams anywhere cuz they're exclusive to different stuff.

Before select fanboys come at me, NO, I'm NOT excluding anycorp from criticism. Apples to MS, Sony, Nintendo, etc. Not going indepth into their practices for time&space, but they're currently going all into different exclusivity strategies.

This sucks for gaming man. Why do companies cage games from more gamers? Why lock and limit games to just one box? What happens to those exclusives when the platform they're on reaches end-of-life or stops getting support? The games just die there?

These guys have to smarten up, see reason in broader reach, UNSHACKLE exclusives for the sake of game preservation; & focus on making good games. Games don't need to be exclusive to be a quality standard. Elden Ring, Witcher3, RDR2, Skyrim, Minecraft, Tetris, GTA are proof! non-exclusive, acclaimed, among the best-selling & greatest games ever.. Give me more platform agnostic, top-tier, competitive games! Why's competition stuck to being about boxes and exclusives? Should've always just been about striving to make quality games!

Exclusivity sucks! Bring forward legacy titles like MGS3 & 4, Red Dead Redemption, Uncharted 2 & 3, etc. on PC! Halo and Forza on PS5! Demon's Souls, Bloodborne and Gravity Rush on XSX/PC/Switch! Nintendo games on anything! Let people have OPTIONS. Let gamers play games wherever they want! THAT'S WHAT GAMING'S ABOUT! STOP this practice of forever restricting games to one platform, digital store, etc going forward!
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Exclusivity is good because it's an AAA push to sell more consoles.
Otherwise... why exactly make exclusive AAA big titles like god of war if your fighting battlefield is in service?
Games don't need to be exclusive to be a quality standard. Elden Ring, Witcher3, RDR2, Skyrim, Minecraft, Tetris, GTA are proof! non-exclusive, acclaimed, among the best-selling & greatest games ever..
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
Exclusivity is good because it's an AAA push to sell more consoles.
Otherwise... why exactly make exclusive AAA big titles like god of war if your fighting battlefield is in service?
But consoles are famous money sinks, each console player subsidises them.

Exclusivity is bad but it is used to tie people to each company’s ecosystem where they get the biggest cut.
 

feynoob

Banned
But consoles are famous money sinks, each console player subsidises them.

Exclusivity is bad but it is used to tie people to each company’s ecosystem where they get the biggest cut.
You wont get games, without exclusivity.

People here are utterly dumb, for not understandng basic business.

If there are no exclusivity, then companies wont be able to compete with each other, and the industry wont progress.

Look at current mobile industry. They are progressing at a faster rate, due to exclusivity contents.
 

reksveks

Member
0) agree that games don't have to be exclusive to be great imo.
1) gamers (largely don't want exclusive games) they want great games. some gamers do just to justify their product.
2) console/platform holders are able to monetize players/engagement slightly differently that allows them to spend more money/time/effort on a game (p.s. i can see a world where Starfield was out already also p.s. this doesn't always work out see Halo Infinite)
3) that more money/time/effort doesn't always lead to better games but it does seem to generally work out.
4) Exclusivity deals in certain cases is money that a developer needs to start to dev or finish the game and we will never know what the impact of not having that $$$ was.

I think fortunately for us, PC is being the 'safe-zone' where both MS/Sony and other publishers will release games.

so as a consumer, i kinda agree with you a little bit.
 

tmlDan

Member
The best looking and performing games are on a single platform or two at most, making games for all of them makes game worse.

Even then, Sony outsources PC dev to nixxes now and most companies don't have those resources.

You can list the FEW games that are still good but are Multi, but its so rare, and even then it takes 7-10 years for them to make a new GTA or a new elder scrolls.

You have a unique exception with Elden Ring and From but even they essentially make the same game with slight variations, they don't make new IP with completely new art style, gameplay, and concepts (apart from Sekiro, that deviated more than ever before)
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Also there are games can only exist because they are exclusive, with Bayonetta Platinum Games tried to bring the series to other platform but neither Sony, Microsoft and even SEGA themselves interested supporting the game but Nintendo was and games like Bayonetta 3 can exist thank to Nintendo.
 

KellyNole

Member
Exclusives are great because the console manufacturer is usually footing some of the bill. This means these games can usually take their time. This can help third parties because they get a money hat to keep their stock holders happy. If a third party game isn’t exclusive, it may be rushed because stockholders want to recoup the cost asap. In general it seems most exclusives score higher in reviews.
 
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Quezacolt

Member
You know why we got games like elden ring? because first we got demon's souls on the ps3, wich was an exclusive, the game that started this genre, and it wouldnt have existed if it wasnt an exclusive.

it sucks if you want to play something, but that things isnt on your platform of choice, sure, but i'd rather have things as they are now, than not, because most of the genre defining games, many of the most amazing franchises we enjoy, exist because they were made as exclusives, in order to push the sales of a certain hardware.
 

Keihart

Member
i like exclusives just for the fact that it's an incetive for publishers to fund some weird shit, like Bayonetta 3, Sunset Overdrive or Death Stranding, a game is getting made with a budget it would never get only based on potential sales but because it brings value to a platform in the form of either diversity or critical acclaim.

I don't need to play every game i want to on release if i don't have the cash to get the system, but it's better to see these games exist than not.
This is only a problem if you want everything and now and in your own way.
 
As long as consoles exist then exclusives will as well. You can't really tell me that it makes sense for Nintendo to make games with their own resources and their own time and then say they can't put it out on their own system. It just makes no sense. Of course that is what they will do.

When consoles get replaced by cloud then you'll see exclusives vanish. But they'll still be cloud exclusives.
 
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SmokedMeat

Gamer™
A big reason why I’m on PC, because everyone’s a third party. Fight it out with console exclusives, while PC just sits on the sidelines and is cool with everyone.

We just have to deal with Epic games paying publishers to block consumer choice and price competition in the PC marketplace.
 
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GHG

Gold Member
A big reason why I’m on PC, because everyone’s a third party.

We just have to deal with Epic games paying publishers to block consumer choice and price competition in the PC marketplace.

Goes beyond that in the PC space though as we also have hardware vendors locking up exclusive marketing deals which has meant certain games missing features like DLSS and/or FSR in recent times while it was stuff like physx in days gone by.

It's just part of the game really. When money flows around like it does it's just how it goes.
 
I'm mixed about it. On one hand, smaller companies like Nintendo need exclusives to be able to combat huge companies. On the other I agree at a fundamental level as a gamer.
 

Bridges

Member
I have come to realize that certain genres would probably become much more rare without exclusives. I like the direction things are going with most games coming to PC at least.
 

-Zelda-

Banned
Tell me about it. I do not console war, but I also hate the fact that Fable games are not on Sony and Nintendo consoles like they are on PC and Xbox. Still worried about the (physical) nature of the Elder Scrolls series going forward on Sony and Nintendo platforms.
 
In a perfect world that would be great but if a company pays to make the game and trying to make it so you buy into their ecosystem what benefit do they get to make you pay it on a competitor?
These aaa games wouldn't be the same if they can just go 3rd party. Since it takes a butt load of money and companies would play it safe to get max amount of customers we would see safe boring tried and true games. We wouldn't see any risky ideas or games. What would be the benefit of risking to make something that is different when you might not make as much money .
That is why I love Sonys approach of making exclusives and they know some won't make their money back but will risk that to see if they have a tent pole franchise. That risk would go away.
Thank God for exclusives because then it would look like what Microsoft is overing, which hasn't been much for 10 years.
 

Sentenza

Member
Exclusivity is good because it's an AAA push to sell more consoles.
1. Nah.
2. Why the fuck should I care, anyway? "Selling more consoles" is nothing of my concern nor anything I benefit from.

Also, not sure why I was tagged in this thread.
 
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I own a PC, XOne & PS5.
This isnt that I can't play games. It's that I can't play games anywhere I want.
You guys honestly aren't reading.
Don't know why some people can't be open minded to see the positives behind games anywhere.
 

Fredrik

Member
I’m gonna be bold here and say that the only scenario when people are genuinely okay with exclusivity is when they aren’t personally affected by it. Every other scenario people will complain and say it sucks, rightfully so.

And for the IP growth and sales figures it’s always bad. Minecraft exclusive to Xbox would not be a great move, neither would Destiny exclusive to Playstation or Elden Ring exclusive to PC.

For platform warriors exclusives are awesome though. And a lost exclusive is like a lost bullet for their gun. All they have left when exclusives go multiplat is a possible DF Face-Off win. If they lose then the IP was never good anyway.
 

Nickolaidas

Banned
For me, it's like this:

Buy a console if you just want to play games and don't really care about resolutions, mods or performance

Buy a powerful PC if you want games to run a lot better than consoles.

And devs should release games in PC and consoles so that the PC owners can play a game in ultimate settings.
 
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