Top Stories
-
Xbox One's Live TV Will Not Be Available In Australia At Launch, Requires A Separate Device
-
Everything You Need To Know About Xbox One
-
Xbox One Is Not Always Online, But It Seems To Block Used Games
-
Xbox Reveal: The Liveblog
-
We're Live Blogging The Xbox Reveal At 3am!
-
What The Next PlayStation And Xbox Need To Get Right
Regulars
This Year’s San Diego Comic-Con Exclusives Are Gonna Break Me
Now that my wallet has finally recovered from Comic-Con 2009, it’s time to venture forth once more into the land of must-buy exclusive toys and shame. Rather than surprise my bank account this year, I’ve compiled a shopping list containing the logical, illogical and not-embarrassing-at-all items I’ll be bringing home this weekend.
Sony Says ‘Nothing Is Ever Exclusive’
Sony Computer Entertainment UK director Ray Maguire gives fans of Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3 and Tomb Raider: Underworld hope for the future of “exclusive” downloadable content on the PlayStation 3 platform. Each has promised DLC only for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, but Maguire tells VideoGamer that “One thing to remember, nothing is ever exclusive.”
These Days, Exclusives Are A ‘Little Less Important’
Germany’s Xbox 360 product manager Boris Schneider-Johne slightly mehs exclusives. They are so not important. While exclusives were more important in the 1980s and 1990s, he says, they are not anymore. Explains Schneider-Johne:
What we see today is that the influence of exclusive titles on the sales curves becomes ever smaller… In addition, we are in a situation where there is a head-to-head race on several consoles and nobody is super clear in leadership — especially in matters of the PlayStation 3 against Xbox 360… Given the production costs of the games, it is hardly possible for developers to commit themselves exclusively to someone…
Now Sony makes its own games for the [PS3]console, we make our own games for the [Xbox 360]console. The titles are exclusive, as they are also attempts [to]turn out the best of the console, but someone like Electronic Arts or Activision can have a business model of rarely developing for a console exclusively. Therefore, the exclusive title is a little less important.
These days it’s all about the timed exclusives — well, mostly. Are you willing to wait. Well, are you?
Interview mit Boris Schneider-Johne [Golem via GameRush via Games Industry]
Capcom Still Believe In Third-Party Exclusives
Games cost a lot of money now, there’s not as many people owning current-gen consoles as owned stuff like the PS2, competition between the three platforms is closer than last gen, blah blah blah. In short, the third-party exclusive is dead. We’ve heard it all before. Capcom have heard it all before, too, and do you think they care? They couldn’t give a rat’s arse. Capcom marketing VP – and exquisitely-named gentleman – Nique Fajors: Exclusives are driven by gameplay functionality and cost. If you get your gameplay functionality and costs right, exclusivity can work.
How right he is! Phoenix Wright, Dead Rising, Lost Planet, Devil May Cry…oh, wait… Capcom: Third-Party Exclusives Still Viable [Next-Gen]
MGS4 Needs To Sell Over A Million On Day One
Could Metal Gear Solid 4: Sons of Liberty be the last of the great exclusives? A Reuters article explores this possibility, explaining that game development is becoming far too costly for third-party developers to concentrate on any one console. Take MGS4, for instance. Assistant Producer Ryan Payton claims that the game will have to sell over a million copies on the first day of release to recoup the enormous development costs the game has accrued. A tall order, especially considering that only two PS3 games have reached the million mark since the system was released, much less on the first day, so it is easy to see how unattractive exclusives have become. At least Sony is prepared for the end of exclusivity. “We understand publishers are needing to recoup their investment,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing for Sony. “From our perspective, as long as the games aren’t going exclusive to other platforms, PS3 gamers are not actually losing anything.”
PS3 Exclusive Haze IS Coming This Year…in December
Back at E3, Sony spent a lot of time hyping up two big third-party PlayStation 3 exclusives for this fall: Unreal Tournament III and Haze. Unreal Tournament III has slipped into 2008 according to Midway (or late December according to Epic), so that begs the question: What about Haze? At one point it was set for release in November, but now EB Games is reporting a launch in early December, with a December 4th release date.
Sources close to Ubisoft tell me that the game is indeed coming this year (although I’m hearing December 11th), so it looks like Sony will at least get one third-party exclusive out the door. Still, I bet the house that Ken Kutaragi built is kicking itself that it didn’t lock up Assassin’s Creed as a PS3 exclusive, especially with early review scores like a 9.5 from Game Informer. (I’ve played the game but my thoughts can’t be posted until Tuesday morning).
Omega Five Is Xbox 360 Exclusive… For Now
Hudson’s Omega Five isn’t sorta great, it’s really great. And by “really great,” we mean really great. At TGS, we played the crap outta it and are very much looking forward to downloading it. Gamasutra’s Brandon Sheffield has posted a Q&A with Hudson director Daisuke Sato. Hudson is publishing, but Natsume (Wild Guns, Harvest Moon) developed the game with a small five person team. That, however, is not why the game is called Omega Five. Doh! Sheffield asks Sato if the game is an Xbox 360 exclusive:
Q). Do you have any plans to bring Omega 5 to PlayStation’s PSN?
A). Not at present, no.
Q). Any particular reasons why not?
A). The specs of the respective hardware were one reason. We also determined that certain aspects of the development would be easier using the 360. The project was conceived of first for the 360, and we kept it exclusive to keep the development team small.
Oh, so it’s a 360 exclusive, right? Not so fast…
