I Want You All To Myself: Console Exclusivity

The name of the game last generation was exclusivity. I was reading through Gamasutra's Analyize This segment to see what the analysts who get paid way more than I do have to say and honestly, I didn't see much a casual observer couldn't predict - Halo 3 is the killer app for the X360 and Nintendo will max out their big brands (Mario, Metroid, Zelda).

I think the article is missing the bigger picture - in this generation there is very little incentive for third party developers not to release on both the X360 and PS3 if financially able. Sony had the market share to convince third party developers to release only on the PS2, but this time around things are shaping up to be much more competitive and that bargaining chip has likely been taken off the table. The Wii is a different story because of its unique play style (hence additional development costs), but they easily make up for that with a killer lineup of first party titles (much stronger than MS or Sony).

You will see a lot of the major third party titles cross platform. It's a great PR move - announce a highly anticipated game as an exclusive on one system, then reverse that decision late in the game. They get all sorts of press buzz and fanboys on both sides go nuts. Sony lost GTA a while ago, and I'll bet the farm you'll see a lot more do the same. The trouble for Sony is a LOT of their major hardware movers are third party - Metal Gear Solid 4, Tekken 6, Devil May Cry 4 - and God help them if they lose Final Fantasy. If Sony loses too many I'm not sure their first party lineup can match Microsoft's.

Halo 3, Gears of War and Fable 2 > Lair, LittleBigPlanet and Heavenly Sword.

Comments

Not to mention that Sony has

Not to mention that Sony has been placing a lot of attention on Metal Gear Solid 4, despite the fact that the earlier Metal Gears made it to the Xbox (albeit much later than their PS2 counterparts). It'll be no surprise to see MGS4 on the 360 eventually.

While there is a lot of cross-platform development going on, Microsoft has been pretty good at getting some huge exclusives, like the new BioWare game (Mass Effect), the next Splinter Cell, 2 new games from Peter Jackson, and even exclusive downloadable content for GTA4.

What does the PS3 have? MotoStorm? Hot looking game, but I don't think it's the killer app.