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Why do third parties divide their fan bases?

Dream-Knife

Banned
I've been thinking this for awhile now in regards to Sega, but upon being reminded of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters makes me bring up this question.

So with Sega after the Dreamcast they have basically divided their games between Nintendo and PlayStation. This holds true to this day, particularly with Atlus (SMT vs Persona). Square-Enix is doing the same thing. FF7 remaster exclusive to PlayStation and soon EGS, yet the FF pixel remasters are only on Steam or mobile. FF16 on PS5 for the first year or so..? Dragon Quest definitive for Switch for the first year. Meanwhile the traditional style games are exclusive to Switch, and then come to Steam a year later (Octopath Traveler, Bravely 3).

Suppose you were a hardcore fan of either of these companies. You would have to own 2-3 pieces of hardware just to play their entire output. This really makes zero sense. The obvious answer is money, but they're purposely hurting their die hard fans and there is no consistency.
 

PhaseJump

Banned
Sega's die hard fans didn't buy enough games when there was only one limited platform to choose from. Why would they feel obligated to buy everything on all platforms now?
 

Dream-Knife

Banned
Sega's die hard fans didn't buy enough games when there was only one limited platform to choose from. Why would they feel obligated to buy everything on all platforms now?
Times have changed and Segas current output is different than it once was. I wasn't a Sega person back during the war, but I love Yakuza, SMT, and Persona now. I'd need to own 2-3 platforms to just play those.

I couldn't careless about Square's games beyond Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, and Nier, but the same runs true. I imagine there's some hardcore fans out there that love all of their output. Especially at how they market their games (regarding that FF advertisement showing 3 generations playing FF).

With all hardware besides Switch being the same, there's really no reason to exclude your fan base.

PS5 is a PC, so why don't they have FF pixel remaster?
 
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lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
Because money.

Selling games without the funds from Console manufacturer is higher risk.
While obtaining funds from Console manufacturer for exclusivity is lower risk.
 

PhaseJump

Banned
Times have changed and Segas current output is different than it once was. I wasn't a Sega person back during the war, but I love Yakuza, SMT, and Persona now. I'd need to own 2-3 platforms to just play those.

I couldn't careless about Square's games beyond Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, and Nier, but the same runs true. I imagine there's some hardcore fans out there that love all of their output. Especially at how they market their games (regarding that FF advertisement showing 3 generations playing FF).

With all hardware besides Switch being the same, there's really no reason to exclude your fan base.

PS5 is a PC, so why don't they have FF pixel remaster?

Indeed. To play those you would need to own 2-3 platforms, all named PC.

This thread is dumb. All the hardware is different. PS5 is not a PC. It's a heavily customized piece of hardware built around similar tech.

You're begging questions as to why game developers put their resources into porting games to various platforms, as if there is no cost or risk involved. Come on now. You want Sega or Square Enix to port some no-name weeaboo vocaloid doll-screwing simulator JRPG to Xbox, and don't understand why they just might not do that?
 

Dream-Knife

Banned
Indeed. To play those you would need to own 2-3 platforms, all named PC.

This thread is dumb. All the hardware is different. PS5 is not a PC. It's a heavily customized piece of hardware built around similar tech.

You're begging questions as to why game developers put their resources into porting games to various platforms, as if there is no cost or risk involved. Come on now. You want Sega or Square Enix to port some no-name weeaboo vocaloid doll-screwing simulator JRPG to Xbox, and don't understand why they just might not do that?
PS5 is a PC running X86 Zen 2 and RDNA2 architecture with a closed FreeBSD OS. It's no different than a Dell or HP with their proprietary hardware and soldered processors.

If someone was a hardcore 80s hair metal generic fantasy fan (Final Fantasy), why would they have to buy 2-3 platforms to play these games? Square advertises their series as one continous product, yet they won't sell that complete product to one group.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
For those cases I would say the best option, aside from buying all the consoles, is getring a nice PC and wait for the eventual port.

More and more games are coming, including old ones like SMT Nocturne or the Yakuza Collection.

You might have to wait for a long time tho.
 

Dream-Knife

Banned
For those cases I would say the best option, aside from buying all the consoles, is getring a nice PC and wait for the eventual port.

More and more games are coming, including old ones like SMT Nocturne or the Yakuza Collection.

You might have to wait for a long time tho.
Obviously PC is the ultimate platform when it comes to such things, but I'm trying to figure out what such a hardcore fanbase would do, and why a company would split their fanbase in such a way. Previously if you were a Square fan you would just buy a PS, but now thats not true as you would need to own a PS, Switch, and PC.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Obviously PC is the ultimate platform when it comes to such things, but I'm trying to figure out what such a hardcore fanbase would do, and why a company would split their fanbase in such a way. Previously if you were a Square fan you would just buy a PS, but now thats not true as you would need to own a PS, Switch, and PC.
Well I don't know why they do it. As some stated eaelier is probably contracts money.

Me as a fan tho, am fucked. Don't have a PS5 nor desire to grab one any time soon. If Persona 6 gets announced tho? Well... That's one more piece of expensive plastic to care about.

I can wait for most games and patience exists, but there are cases and cases.
 

KungFucius

King Snowflake
The real problem is Sony and Nintendo not putting their games on PC day 1. If they did that we wouldn't have to spend 800+ on hardware just to access games that could run on our expensive PCs. I blew money on a dust collecting PS5 for access to Sony's first party games. If, I didn't need one for that, someone else would have my system and probably be buying multiplat games for it. Lost licensing revenue for Sony. Apart from the PC side, it does make sense to have exclusives to compete with other consoles and as such it makes sense for some sweet deals for publishers like Squeenix to provide exclusives. I bet it will get worse with MS owning so many devs.
 

PhaseJump

Banned
PS5 is a PC running X86 Zen 2 and RDNA2 architecture with a closed FreeBSD OS. It's no different than a Dell or HP with their proprietary hardware and soldered processors.

If someone was a hardcore 80s hair metal generic fantasy fan (Final Fantasy), why would they have to buy 2-3 platforms to play these games? Square advertises their series as one continous product, yet they won't sell that complete product to one group.

PS5 is a game console appliance that uses similar parts in a customized, non-standard configuration. It's not a PC. You can't simply install Windows or Linux on it. It's not open, despite using the same ISA.

As someone who has been listening to metal since the 80s, I will just fold my arms, scowl in your general direction; and suggest you learn about other cool things that were popular in the 80s. Economics, competition, supply and demand.

murderface.jpg
 
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Nautilus

Banned
You already answered your own question: Its about money. Of course its more complicated than that, you would have to calculate the risk of taking a deal like that and all, but when companies like EGS and Sony come to your doorstep and say: "Hey, if you make your game(s) exclusive for a year or so, we will give you 30-50 million dollars(if its one game) to 150-200 million dollars (if its multiple games)". So when someone offers you to basically pay the whole dev cost for just a TIMED exclusive deal, and you will still make money off normal sales in that platform, and more sales in other platforms after the exclusivity ends well, its hard to say no.

And you underestimate how flexible the audience of these big companies is. First of all, putting on EGS is never an issue, because thats a storefront and it has no barrier of entry.So being on the same platform as Steam and having zero costs for downloading a storefront wouldnt divide no fanbase. People who have issues with this are the hardcore of the hardcore, which represents a very small percentage of the fanbase itself. I think the larger problem with being in EGS is discoverbility, or marketing in other words. EGS is a far smaller in terms of userbase, and not everyone is as knowledgeble as us in terms of whats going on in the industry. So square would have to spend more with marketing and all.

As for consoles, well its more complicated than PC, but it has been working so far, hasnt it? FF 7 Remake was a sucess, Octopath was a breakout hit, and given how FF performs in PS consoles, FF XVI shouldnt have too much problem. Like I said, the fanbase of these companies are not as concentrated in one system as they used to. Every now and again they do some weird choices, like the FF Pixel remaster, but those are becomming more rarer by the day.
 

nush

Gold Member
So with Sega after the Dreamcast they have basically divided their games between Nintendo and PlayStation.

At the time each Sega developemt team was allowed their own decision on what platform they wanted to make a game for. It was a creatively driven hedge bet.
 
I've been thinking this for awhile now in regards to Sega, but upon being reminded of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters makes me bring up this question.

So with Sega after the Dreamcast they have basically divided their games between Nintendo and PlayStation. This holds true to this day, particularly with Atlus (SMT vs Persona). Square-Enix is doing the same thing. FF7 remaster exclusive to PlayStation and soon EGS, yet the FF pixel remasters are only on Steam or mobile. FF16 on PS5 for the first year or so..? Dragon Quest definitive for Switch for the first year. Meanwhile the traditional style games are exclusive to Switch, and then come to Steam a year later (Octopath Traveler, Bravely 3).

Suppose you were a hardcore fan of either of these companies. You would have to own 2-3 pieces of hardware just to play their entire output. This really makes zero sense. The obvious answer is money, but they're purposely hurting their die hard fans and there is no consistency.
The amount of people avoiding EGS based on principle is statistically irrelevant.
 

yurinka

Member
I've been thinking this for awhile now in regards to Sega, but upon being reminded of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters makes me bring up this question.

So with Sega after the Dreamcast they have basically divided their games between Nintendo and PlayStation. This holds true to this day, particularly with Atlus (SMT vs Persona). Square-Enix is doing the same thing. FF7 remaster exclusive to PlayStation and soon EGS, yet the FF pixel remasters are only on Steam or mobile. FF16 on PS5 for the first year or so..? Dragon Quest definitive for Switch for the first year. Meanwhile the traditional style games are exclusive to Switch, and then come to Steam a year later (Octopath Traveler, Bravely 3).

Suppose you were a hardcore fan of either of these companies. You would have to own 2-3 pieces of hardware just to play their entire output. This really makes zero sense. The obvious answer is money, but they're purposely hurting their die hard fans and there is no consistency.
I assume it's because they want to reach the whole market but still want these money hat bucks. So they kept some games exclusive in some platforms specially when their financials weren't really solid so they need these moneyhats (I remember now the cases of SFV for Sony or Dead Rising 3/4 for MS).

But now companies like Sega or Capcom mentioned they want to bet more on multiplatform (even including PC), I assume because now their financials are more solid so they don't need the moneyhats and instead they prefer to release their games on as much platforms and markets as possible to get as much revenue as possible, to compensate the growing development costs.

Square instead is signing temporal exclusives: games like FFVIIR, FFXVI will end on PC and Xbox sooner or later. Regarding the remasters of the first FF games, they released these games a lot of times on console so maybe they think there isn't enough interest to release them again.
 
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01011001

Banned
So with Sega after the Dreamcast they have basically divided their games between Nintendo and PlayStation.

and... Xbox... are you completely ignoring the fact that Sega had an exclusivity deal with Microsoft for multiple games? many of which were sequels to existing franchises like Crazy Taxi 3, Jet Set Radio Future, Toejam & Earl 3 or Outrun 2

in the US even Shenmue 2 was an Xbox exclusive
 
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teezzy

Banned
and... Xbox... are you completely ignoring the fact that Sega had an exclusivity deal with Microsoft for multiple games? many of which were sequels to existing franchises like Crazy Taxi 3, Jet Set Radio Future, Toejam & Earl 3 or Outrun 2

in the US even Shenmue 2 was an Xbox exclusive

Those Smilebit developed games were especially a treat.

People always overlook the original Xbox

Dude was a beast and has some amazing titles it seems many weren't able to experience. Shame it isn't revered in the same light as PS2 or GCN seem to be now... which is strange, given it outsold GCN in the States.
 

Woopah

Member
Publishers have always split their output between different platforms, for various reasons.

We have three different platform holders who want you to buy their platform, and the more exclusive content they have the better. Part of these are created by the studios they own, and part of these are from partnerships with other developers/publishers.

Sony wants some SE RPGs to come to their platforms first, so they pay SE to do this. Nintendo also wants SE RPGs on their platform, so they agree to publish them in the West as first party titled. Sony/Nintendo get the exclusive content they want, while SE gets money and other forms of support.
 

Dream-Knife

Banned
and... Xbox... are you completely ignoring the fact that Sega had an exclusivity deal with Microsoft for multiple games? many of which were sequels to existing franchises like Crazy Taxi 3, Jet Set Radio Future, Toejam & Earl 3 or Outrun 2

in the US even Shenmue 2 was an Xbox exclusive
Yeah I totally forgot about the OG xbox games, and I owned one. Xbox really was the successor to the dreamcast.
 

ACESHIGH

Banned
What irks me the most is... why would they split the fan base in MULTIPLAYER games. Specially fighting games which is a niche genre better played with pads or sticks, PC gets no advantage there...
 

Nezzeroth

Member
I can only hope they get paid a lot by Sony or Nintendo to keep their games exclusive. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
I dunno but if you're a big FF fan, you should have known from almost 25 years that each important mainline (sans the MMO I guess) launches on a PlayStation console, that much is given.

Dragon Quest has been strongly associated with Nintendo but has some weird launches: namely on the "winning" consoles. Nowadays if you're a DQ fan, you can either get it on the Switch of PS consoles.

If you're a Persona fan, get it on the damn PlayStation and stop begging and hoping.

The reason why they're splitting them up is because of the money, association, and where the "main" fanbase is.
 

cireza

Banned
Sega's die hard fans didn't buy enough games when there was only one limited platform to choose from.
Of course they did. Don't make the fans responsible for the absurd investments made by the company during the Dreamcast days.

So with Sega after the Dreamcast they have basically divided their games between Nintendo and PlayStation.
Sega fans were best served on Xbox, overall.

To respond to the OP : because they are completely dumb. Atlus deserves a medal for this, by the way.
 
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NahaNago

Member
For the most part money. You get console marketing for your game, possibly some money to make your money exclusive, and you get to create hype for your game by making it exclusive and it creates a desire for others to want the product even years later if or when it comes to pc.

Just think about all the free publicity third parties get when youtubers talk about exclusives coming to a platform.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Summary for those interested in Atlus games:

Persona - get a PlayStation
Shin Megami Tensei - get a Nintendo console

If you're a fan of both, get both consoles. If not, then get one console. Sucks but such is life.

The End
 
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