I Hate Exclusives! (Spoiler! It's Another Rant)

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I hate exclusives! I hate the guys who came up with the idea to ditch Halo on the PC! I hate the people who came up with the idea of making Uncharted, Last of Us er...whatever, PS3 exclusives! I hate- *Goes on a very long, violent rant, which has been polite fully removed from this section of the thread*

...Okay, I've calmed down now.

Now, the problem is...exclusives! I just, utterly...HATE them! (Actually, if you read my whole thread, you will see that I would actually endorse exclusives if done correctly).

Yea, I know; it's a strategic decision on behalf of the console's producer (Sony for PS, Microsoft for Xbox) to make them solely available for their platforms, so 1. they don't have to share profits with the other console companies, and 2. it encourages people to buy their own consoles just for the sake of getting that specific game. (Note: Yes, I know, games like Morrowind were, console wise, only avaiable on the Xbox, or how Final Fantasy was exclusive to Playstation. But I'm not talking about them; they were third party games. I'm talking about games developed by the console producer for the sole sake of being exclusive to said console.) Now, there will be people who will say, "well, your criticizing Microsoft and Sony for making exclusives for their games, but not Nintendo?" Well, that's because, quite simply, Nintendo has always done it, is doing it, and always will do it, with multiple franchises that I like and will actually buy a console to play. I didn't buy a Wii to play games; I bought a Wii to play Nintendo games. I bought it to play Mario Kart, Zelda, Metroid, Pkmin, Pokemon, Star Fox...I could go on and on (partly why Nintendo''s consoles have been so successful when compared to PS and Xbox, is because the vast majority of their consumers bought it mainly to play Nintendo games). Then you look over across the fence towards Microsoft and Sony. They pretty much have no exclusives whatsoever, and share the same games. You buy an Xbox not to play Microsoft games, but just to play games. You buy a Playstation not to play Sony games, but just to play games.

Also, DON'T bring PC exclusives into this - that is a completely, utterly, absolutely different story which would make for an interesting debate, but that's for another rant thread of mine to be written. (One in a long list of rant threads I have on my to-do-list).

Now that I have exonerated Nintendo, I will get back to the point. Recently (as in, 2007), console producers have begun producing games exclusively for their own consoles (Uncharted: Drake's Descent/Halo 3). You couldn't get these games any other way, other than to buy them from the producer (Sony, Microsoft) to play them only on their consoles (PS, Xbox). I'm more infuriated with Microsoft, for taking a game that we PC gamers absolutely adored on PC, and then just yanking it out of our hands and saying "Sorry! If you wanna see what happens to Master Chief at the end, you'll have to walk down to Target and buy our 400$ console (before the 60$ game itself) to find out. And oh! Not only that, but you'll have to pay 15$ per month just to shoot other people online." I'm sorry, but when I found about what Microsoft was doing then, I literally cried. Yes, I, a man, cried.

And now, those same producers have taken the concept of console exclusives to extremes; they are now devoting entire studios (and several of them) to just developing awesome, ridiculously high quality games just for their own consoles. They spend twice as long as most other video game developers, get far larger budgets, get all the technical assistance they ever need, etc, just to make a game for their own console. Now, yes, if I were on the board of directors for Microsoft or Sony, I'd probably agree that making the best games exclusives would probably be one of the most effective ways to rake in income. But it hurts!

Now, if Sony and Microsoft went Nintendo, and offered dozens of different franchises - ultra high quality games - as exclusives for their consoles, like Nintendo, then I'd feel differently about it. At that point, I wouldn't be looking at consoles for which one plays X game the best, but rather which consoles offers the best collection of X games for me. (If Sony and Microsoft are listening now, and you did this, I'd forgive your transgressions). In fact, I think that this is the wave of the future for consoles; Sony and Microsoft will have dozens of studios like Nintendo just dedicated to producing the best and highest quality content for their consoles.

But that isn't so...yet. The dilemma here is that they are just making a few of the best games exclusives for their consoles (Yes, I know; I'm a hypocrite). I'm looking at the Last of Us...I want to play it...but to play just that ONE game, I will have to pay 100$ for a console for only a single game. I wanna play Halo 5 as well, but to do that I'll have to pay 400$ for a console that I'm only ever going to use to play a single game.

So, right now, I have a PS3 that I just bought from Ebay on the way for TLOU (Yes! I'm a double hypocrite!), and am hording up my gamestop points to buy a PS4 to play The Order: 1886, and possibly a TLOU sequel (which will probably happen - as a PS4 exclusive, ofcourse).

Oh, and one last thing; I know I could just simply not play them. But, let's be honest; It'd be a sin not to play them.

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Now that my rant (rather short in the thread) is finished, I will endure your righteously biased and overtly nasty criticisms. Blast away!

[Ergar]

Yeah i kinda hate exclusives aswell, but i see why they do it. I would really love to play games like god of war (3 and ascension), TLOU and Halo 4 on my pc, but i can't. I will most likely just buy a ps3 for cheap at some point, but it's still annoying.

[Skorpionss]

Frankly I just hate any game that isn't on PC :P couldn't care less about the microsoft - sony war... just give me them last of us and beyond two souls and uncharted and halos plx

And I hate nintendo the most... ppl been begging for a decent pokemon game on pc for years if not decades ...

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Playing Mario Party on the PC would be a wet dream.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Yeah i kinda hate exclusives aswell, but i see why they do it. I would really love to play games like god of war (3 and ascension), TLOU and Halo 4 on my pc, but i can't. I will most likely just buy a ps3 for cheap at some point, but it's still annoying.

As do most people, like you and I. But, I guess we'll just have to hope either exclusives will become unpopular and fade away (Which is wishful thinking, considering that Last of Us was the PS3's best selling game ever), or just have to hope for the collection format.

[draykorinee]

I really really hate exclusives, like flat out can't stand it, Nintendo are the worst of them all for it, but I've argued that to death in another thread. I understand the idea behind it all but I sure don't like it. Whats really getting my goat is the shit pulled for Watchdogs/Cod where certain consoles/pc get other exclusives for a multiplat game, hideously obnoxious.

[Deleted]

Im not THAT upset about xbox/playstation exclusives, but goddamn nintendo why don't you want to swim in money? To get all of their games on other platforms would net them soooo much money.

[Mormolyce]

I admit I didn't read all of your OP but for what it's worth just a couple of days ago I was playing Last of Us on my PS3 and thinking what a disservice it is to the game that it doesn't look like it'll ever get a PC port.

I also detest exclusives. You should choose a console (or PC) based on its features, not because ____ is only going to release on ____.

- - - Updated - - -

Im not THAT upset about xbox/playstation exclusives, but goddamn nintendo why don't you want to swim in money? To get all of their games on other platforms would net them soooo much money.

I find it more understandable in Nintendo's case because since the Wii they've had a particular experience in mind with their consoles and many games are designed around the unique properties of the Wii. Whether that appeals to you or not.

XBox and PS are really just mini-PCs though.

[draykorinee]

No offense but nearly every game before the Wii could have been on another console, nothing is stopping them from putting a HD majoras mask on PSN or Xbox live. Also did anyone really play Zelda with the wii mote and not the generic controller (for any longer than an hour), nearly every big game, be it Mario or Mario Kart could easily port on another Major console, I dont buy this whole its been designed for the Wii thing.

[Deleted]

There really isn't any reason for it whatsoever, and it is just an artificial way to get you to buy a console, yes. It is pure business, and though not admirable, I can get why they do it (money is great).
But this isn't something new to this world, exclusivity has been here for decades (or even centuries) and I for one is okay with it. Yes I might not be able to play something like MGS5 without buying the PS4 (and I am a complete freaking sucker for everything MGS) but it is nothing but a game, nothing more than entertainment, nothing important whatsoever. And even then, the amount of quality entertainment hours that new games can give me is far beyond my spare hours that I actually have, and MGS5 might not be one of those games I will play but to be reasonable there is just as much entertainment and enjoyment to be gained from non exclusives.

With all that defending it, of course in a perfect harmonic world, yes MGS5 would be released to PC and I would play it for days; and Game of Thrones would air the same time here in Denmark as it does in America but one has to limit their expectation (and I hate saying it but entitlement) over entertainment and where that entertainment can be gained and where it is restricted from your current array of procuring it.

[Deleted]

All this complaining because you want to play halo5? Did you not play 343s attempt at halo? Pretty campaign but that MP sucked so bad very glad my collectors edition didn't cost me any extra money

[Aeluron Lightsong]

All this complaining because you want to play halo5? Did you not play 343s attempt at halo? Pretty campaign but that MP sucked so bad very glad my collectors edition didn't cost me any extra money

Obviously your opinion isn't going to be the same as everyone else.

[Yunru]

Do not promote piracy in these forums. -Edge

[Deleted]

As do most people, like you and I. But, I guess we'll just have to hope either exclusives will become unpopular and fade away (Which is wishful thinking, considering that Last of Us was the PS3's best selling game ever), or just have to hope for the collection format.

How about getting at least your facts right? The Last of US best selling game ever on PS3?With 6 million sold units it's not even close to Gran Turismo 5 let alone GTA 5.
Also other things you mentioned make no sense like nintendo consoles being sucessful compared to sony.The N64 was a flop compared to the ps1. So was the gamcube compared to the ps2(best sold console ever).The Wii U floped pretty hard. And just to inform you sony pretty much developed or payed developers for own games since the launch of the original playstation. So this is not something new or something to be surprised about.
And why do you start ranting at the companies that produced the consoles instead of the third party developers who don't seem to have the need to port their games to the PC.

[draykorinee]

Well theoretically GT 5 selling well kind of backs up his point that exclusives are here to stay, just used the wrong game :P

[Vankrys]

yup, despite all the bad press EA or Ubisoft may have, at least they are not abandoning the PC plateform like rockstar, microsoft or konami (yes, metal gear solid 1 & 2 were ported on PC).

[Zephyr Storm]

So many hypocritical things in the OP's post, it's astounding!

And weren't you in the Star Citizen thread (PC exclusive) going on and on about how amazing the game will be? I'm sorry, but if you're gonna hate on exclusives and bitch about Microsoft and Sony doing it, then apply it to everything and everyone, because (while being hypocritical) it's not fair for other people to not get Star Citizen just because they don't have a gaming PC (just for an example). Your argument/rant holds no weight otherwise.

[Lazy Gecko]

Fortunately for you console exclusives seem to be a dying breed in the long run. With the amount of money it takes to make those types of games, making them exclusive to one platform is just giving up too much potential revenue unless the console manufacturers are willing to spend a shit ton of money on them. The amount of exclusive console games are lower than ever. And it seems like EA's decision to not release Titanfall on PS3 came back to bite them as they're apparently too embarrased to brag about sales for the game now, after the ludicrious amounts of hype they poured into the game.

[dapperedodo]

yup, despite all the bad press EA or Ubisoft may have, at least they are not abandoning the PC plateform like rockstar, microsoft or konami (yes, metal gear solid 1 & 2 were ported on PC).

I dont really care about console exclusives they have been around for ages. But I really hate that certain studios abandon the platform they got big on, Rockstar for example. And they use lame excuses for it also like piracy on the pc would ruin they profits. Well doubt that. When it comes to exclusives that started out on consoles like Forza or GT I don't mind that. Sure I would love PC versions of some console exclusives but I won't go crazy if that doesn't happen. And the amount of PC exclusives is just 100x bigger then the console exclusives anyway. Just though luck if those exclusives aren't your genre.

The only thing that I hate which I blame on the consoles is the lack of innovation and pushing the systems to the limit. There used to be a time when you had to upgrade your pc every 2 years to be able to play games cause of the devs tried to get everything out of everyones PC. Now you have to upgrade every 3 years and not because the game looks way beter but becease the game is actually an unoptimised ugly looking piece of shit. And that's all becease easy money on consoles they don't care about the pc player base anymore. Eventhough most franchises got big on the PC.

[Vankrys]

Fortunately for you console exclusives seem to be a dying breed in the long run. With the amount of money it takes to make those types of games, making them exclusive to one platform is just giving up too much potential revenue unless the console manufacturers are willing to spend a shit ton of money on them. The amount of exclusive console games are lower than ever. And it seems like EA's decision to not release Titanfall on PS3 came back to bite them as they're apparently too embarrased to brag about sales for the game now, after the ludicrious amounts of hype they poured into the game.

For EA not to release titanfall on PS3, they must have received a big fat check from microsoft. And yes, i think that was a mistake. Possibly, because it was a new IP, there were a bit cold feet and wanted to financing from being an exclusive.