Should Sony Release Less Exclusive Games?

Push Square: "If variety is the spice of life, then the PlayStation 3 is a particularly posh brand of pepper. Arguably more than any other platform holder over the past five years, Sony has provided its system with a stream of high quality content. From big-budget blockbusters like Heavy Rain and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, to smaller endeavours such as Starhawk and Siren: Blood Curse. But with such a vast roster of releases in its catalogue, is the company spreading itself too thin? Indeed, would the Japanese giant be better off focusing on a few tent-pole titles as opposed to such a broad spectrum of content?"

[jc48573]

still want last guardian

[Abash]

No way. The smartest thing that Sony has done this gen is build up an army of successful first party series like Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, inFamous, God of War, Killzone, Sly Cooper, Gran Turismo, etc. that not only is the reason why they were able to make the PS3 successful but also is why people are looking forward to the next PlayStation when this gen every third party developer wants to develop on every platform.

We all know third party exclusives are a thing of the past now, but it's the exclusives that ultimately define which console you want to get. Sony keeping it up next gen with all the exclusives will do great things for them next gen

[Kennytaur]

Screw you for not wanting The Last Guardian! :-P

Ant clinging to a top comment just to be seen without even replying is poor behaviour.

[Peppino7]

Stupid question/title if its a serious one.

[Grap]

yah what safe sony @ss this gen is 1st party Exclusive Games.

[Campy da Camper]

Agreed. If I only played an Infamous, Uncharted, Little Big Planet, Kill zone, God of War, Ratchet n Clank title with a couple AAA 3rd party's in a year I'd be fine. I've gone frm playing tons of meh games to really getting I to the good ones and playing the hell out of them as a gamer. Quality over quantity.

[ABizzel1]

I don't think the amount of games is the problem. Sony needs to make a window for all of their releases throughout the year.

[MostJadedGamer]

"We all know third party exclusives are a thing of the past now"

That is totally and completely false. My most anticipated game next year is a 3rd party PS3 exclusive; Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires.

[MostJadedGamer]

"Screw you for not wanting The Last Guardian! :-P

Ant clinging to a top comment just to be seen without even replying is poor behaviour."

95% of PS3 gamers could care less about The Last Guardian, and that is a fact.

[saladthieves]

What?? I'll take more exclusives over less and few exclusives thank you very much.

[MikeMyers]

We all want as many games to choose from as possible but those resources need to be funded somehow. When you spread yourself thin then certain games will get lost. We all know The Last of Us will get a ton of attention but that's offset by other games that don't get near the amount of attention. People paid good money for games like Twisted Metal but if those games don't get the support the online could be pulled or the support for new DLC or balance issues might not be there. I used Twisted Metal just as an example hypothetically.

I don't want to see companies run like Activision where they put most of their resources into one franchise and bleed it dry. I think Microsoft is doing the same with Halo and Forza. There are signs of Sony doing this as well with games like God of War. It all rests on the shoulders of consumers. If they don't buy unique games like Beyond and just want to keep buying Gran Turismo and God of War instead what do you expect? Sony can only keep taking so many chances before they too just focus on proven franchises. I wouldn't want to see that happen but that's the frailty of this business.

[Tapewurm]

Agree with Abash here ....... answer to the title..... How's about Nooooooooooo. :) 1st party exclusives are what make the PS3 the system to beat.

[BinaryMind]

Yes, I do not want Sony to keep making more and more games. No one bought a PS3 for anything but the Blu-Ray player, Gran Turismo, and God of War anyway.

Oh wait, that was sarcasm.

[d3nworth1]

I agree they should keep bringing they out but at least space out the launch dates. Some of their games will come out within a week of each other and the big name title will take sales from lesser title.

[a08andan]

@Mostjadedgamer:

Pweeeh. That means ps3 gamers really want The Last guardian then.

[insomnium2]

The amount of exclusives is what keeps PS3 selling for years to come. 100 million sold in 2015 and 120 million in 2020. If they keep manufacturing them ofc.

[MikeMyers]

The PS2 dominated the market. You cannot take what support that system got after the PS3 came out and apply it to the PS3 once the PS4 comes out.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Funny how before it was "the PS3 has no games, Sony needs to release more exclusives." Now people are starting to question if Sony releases to many, lol.

Sony should keep doing what they are doing. The reason why people keep saying that Sony should release less games is because they assume that every single one of them costs tens of millions dollars to make. If releasing so much games was really hurting their bottom dollar they would have slowed down production/releases long ago.

[prototypeknuckles]

Right I remember those days xbox has halo and gears ps3 has no games, its kind of ironic how the tables have turned.

[Ben_Grimm]

Well they actually did say that releasing so many games stretches their bottom marketing and ad focus.
This could be the reason why so many folks here on N4G keep going to the "Sony doens't market enough" line.

http://www.playstationlifes...

Which I don't think is true since I see a lot of ads for Sony not to mention their Kevin campaign not too long ago. But it has been quoted.

And the reason "people" (people meaning N4G) are saying this is because a lot of their games are not appealing to the mass audience. Some of the titles may not cost tens of millions, but I'm sure they are in the million range and a million loss is still a million loss.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

I wasn't talking about marketing. I was talking about people saying Sony can't afford to release too many games.

With that said, I don't recall seeing a Twisted Metal ad, nor a Starhawk ad, nor a Sorcery ad. I have seen ads for recent titles such as Battle Royale, LPK, and WonderBook however and not mention 3rd party games such as Need For Speed and Assassin's Creed III. I personally think that when Sony does actually advertize they should show actual gameplay. The Battle Royale ads I've seen have no gameplay in it whatsoever leaving the clueless wondering what the game is about.

***"And the reason "people" (people meaning N4G) are saying this is because a lot of their games are not appealing to the mass audience. Some of the titles may not cost tens of millions, but I'm sure they are in the million range and a million loss is still a million loss."***

If they aren't appealing to the masses then why should one expect the game to sell high amounts anyway? I don't think any game released this year for Sony was of high budget.

[smashcrashbash]

That is the way the modern gamer community is. They are confused. They complained about how few games PS3 had and harped on about how the 'PS3 haz no games'. Now that they went all out to prove that they can make a huge enough line up it's 'Sony could you make less games?'. Gamers,especially Sony gamers really don't know what they want.They are not happy unless they are complaining about something. They would prefer that Sony make less games to force you into buying those rather then giving you a wide selection.Look how antsy everyone got because most of Sony's best games are coming out next year.

[TheLastGuardian]

"Gamers,especially Sony gamers really don't know what they want.They are not happy unless they are complaining about something. They would prefer that Sony make less games to force you into buying those rather then giving you a wide selection."

What in blue blazes are you talking about? Especially Sony gamers? I don't think so.

[Syntax-Error]

Your joke is meaningless considering Gears and Halo both outsell any Sony exclusive by themselves. Your attempt was an EPIC FAIL. Do your research first. It took Halo 4 less than a month to sell 4M. Halo franchise in itself has sold 50M. Please lets not go there. You can put all PS3 exclusives together and they will NEVER reach that number. I love PS3, but now your talking reckless and looking like a clown

[showtimefolks]

i think sony's world wide studio president even admitted that they released too many exclusives. i don't want them to stop that because that's what makes Playstation so special

i want them to spread them out over time and each game should get at the very least a small advertisement budget.

sly 4
god of war
last of us
beyond 2 souls
along with others and that's just in the 1st half of 2013

IMO sony is the best gaming company that caters towards hardcore gamers

[Maddens Raiders]

no. Sony Exclusives = Sony Exclusivity. The quality; the array of games speak for themselves, which simply make the console a more sought after commodity to those who seek out such attributes.

[akaakaaka]

THE LAST GUARDIAN :'-/

KILLZONE 4 has a lot of option to be a amazing game specially in a new tech the PS4 but I will love to see first two games in a row for GG new IP and then KILLZONE 4 or maybe the new IP first KILLZONE 4 and fallow part two of the new IP maybe 3 games in 5 years will be ideal since it will take time to build and perfect the new engine(since GG now has two teams I will like GG to make a new Socom since they did nam 67' which is similar to Socom)

ND should do the same with TLOU continue the IP on the PS4 and maybe be a old IP remake (a new uncharted, SF, Socom"sony does really need to bring back socom back to glory") they should and also make 3 game sin 5 years.

Siren for the ps4 and let this same studio do a next gen extermination game, i don't understand how nobody or even sony have not thought about this great IP they own, and this japon studio is talented they should be working on this ips, they will sale good enough and maybe also give this studio Demon Souls XD ..

Give insomniac a chance to create a new IP? (or Resistance 4 only if they go to modern times) one every two and a half years and make sure it does not coincide with the same year that KILLZONE comes out.
let them do a R&C but not as many as they did this gen it's annoying to see such a great devs waste time in that IP for kids no offence i know people love it but come on maybe one every 3 years is enough.

MotorStorm should be more real and xtream and less cartoon-ish. a game every two years should be good for racing games.

Santa Monica should keep doing GOW they are the best at that and maybe try a new IP?(they have two teams now!) and keep doing what they did this gen help other devs to make the games. (a game every two years to will be good enough from this team.

David Jeff should keep is mouth shut and create a new IP and be more humble (this guy do need this a lot) and if he fail to impress she should retired or make psn games.

Starhawk devs for me just suck at gameplay controls, their game feel cheap and arcade.I don't understand how some people say they are fun but let's be honest they are bad at it they have no ideas and their game are just fun for the few, some may hate me but its the true. They should be used to helps other devs in their multiplayer codes since that what they are good at.

MM go back to LBP in next gen. and create two new original IPs after that.

GT6 should have all cars premium no excuse on having cheap low res unfinished cars. 3 games prologe, gt6 and gt6 full speed or something like that.

Sucker Punch should create a new IP i will love that, inF was great but it's done, new IP from them is needed super powers open world like infamous but more wild original and exotic.. and create 2 games in 5 years.

[mewhy32]

Sony should absolutely make as many exclusive games as possible. If they relied more on 3rd party games they'd be farther behind Xbox than then already are. Third party games most always look, play, and perform better on the Xbox 360. Exclusives, however, help to mask the short coming of the ps3's miniscule ram and paltry rsx chip by being developed with the strenghts of the the ps3 soley in mine and not having to worry about trying to keep up with pc or Xbox 360 levels of fidelity. They'd better keep on making them exclusives for sure. I personally can't wait for the last of us. I'm really excited about that.

[NYC_Gamer]

Sony needs to space out releases and promote them better

[Snookies12]

DEFINITELY needs to promote them better...

[Gazondaily]

I have hardly seen any ads for PlayStation All Stars. Why?! That kind of game is begging for advertising especially prior to Christmas.

The VITA is getting a big marketing push though.

[TopDudeMan]

Yeah, their best games don't really get shoved in your face enough. I mean, they advertised the crap out of uncharted 3, but in the same year, resistance 3 (probably my favourite in the series) got hardly any attention, and as a result, sold poorly.

[onandonandon]

I know their head of marketing must never show up for work!!

[Silly gameAr]

Bingo.

[FuzzyPooka]

I would be so happy to see a TLoU ad. So happy.

[Relientk77]

The number of exclusives isn't the problem, it's their advertising. Exclusives are one of their strengths.

[get2sammyb]

But as the article discusses, they only have so much money they can spend on marketing. While the likes of Microsoft can spend ALL of that money on a single game like Halo 4, Sony simply has too many games to promote in the same way.

As such, I believe the sheer number of releases are what hurts the advertising in the long run.

[Alos88]

I'd rather have a bunch of 1st party titles than one with amazing advertising; after all, I'm paying for the game, I'm not interested in how many billboards it gets mentioned on.

[NintyJazz]

@ Alos88
you completely missed the point. It's not about how many games they have, it's about how much money sony can spend on advertising. You guys complain about Sony not advertising but even when the games don't sell well you'd rather have Sony keep pumping out exclusives rather than have common business sense.

[Alos88]

I don't complain about Sony not advertising, as I've said I don't care about adverising, it looks like you did't get my point either.

[admiralvic]

@ Get2Sammyb

Normally I would agree, but Sony did a FANTASTIC job with the Kevin Butler series. While not every ad was exactly memorable (or even did a great job promoting the game...), they did a spot for virtually every first party game coming out that year. I would say the issue isn't advertising, but getting their message across...

As I mentioned above, the Kevin spots were numerous, but didn't exactly sell the product. I would suspect the average person saw the jokes and missed the point. I believe other games like All-Stars falls in the same category, since the ads are well done, though they don't really get the SALE needed. If Sony could find a middle ground between getting the point across and having fun (since they really do some fun ads), I believe we would see more sales across the board.

[bozebo]

Yeah, they need them to keep profits up.
Sony needed it from first party titles due to less 3rd party sales this gen.

Next gen, it's going to be even harsher (for MS too, but they have people paying for P2P multiplayer...). They will have to keep up the same tactic, which is bringing us brilliant games so that's good. Once they take a look at 3rd party sales on the PS4, they would make less exclusives if that meant more profit (doubtful).
I'm guessing next-gen consoles will be sold at quite a hefty loss to Sony/MS per unit if they want the performance to hold up for years. That means they'll need a certain number of new game sales or other purchases from each console owner to get back into profit territory, without huge 3rd party sales - that has to be done with great 1st party titles (more profit in them overall, vertical expansion in the business etc.)

[izumo_lee]

With their current financial situation advertising games is not on the highest 'to do' list unfortunately. So Sony is hoping that 'word of mouth' from the millions of Playstation fans eleviate much of the burden.

Hopefully as things get better within Sony that they will advertise the way they use to in the past.

[Yangus]

Number one ps exklusive:

Gran Turismo brand.

Not KZ,not Uncharted,not God of War.

Xbox number one system seller=Halo brand.
Ps number one system seller=Gran Turismo brand.

FF and MGS series multi.

[bozebo]

(not sure what you're on about but) MGS4 was a decent system seller. GT5 was bought by many but by then, the PS3 had already made significant headway and a lot of first party games were out by then (a spectrum of games, so there's something for everyone).

If you look back at the PS2 and the exclusivity of FF combined with earlier launches of GTA... they were big sellers but the PS2 was popular because of the brand and launch timing.
They _would_ have been massive system sellers this gen if they were Sony exclusive though, but the publishers aimed for multiplat to access the most customers, they don't do Sony's bidding (hence Sony's efforts on first party games in the 2nd half of this gen)

[Kamikaze135]

I'd be inclined to agree, but I don't think they're releasing too much. The "problem" is that they have a lot of first party studios and they all need to release games to stay in business. So when they all release a game every year or two, it definitely seems like a lot. I can't see the exclusive releases slowing down.

[punisher99]

"As such, I believe the sheer number of releases are what hurts the advertising in the long run."

If thats really true. Then Im all for Sony hurting their advertisement. Because they have spoiled me too much this gen with their exclusives.

[get2sammyb]

Oh, I agree, don't get me wrong. The sheer amount of original content is what makes PlayStation great. I'm just worried that the model is not sustainable.

Sony will know the answer to that better than I do.

[punisher99]

They have just got to find a way. lol

[Conzul]

It's, "Should Sony release *fewer* exclusive games".

[Series_IIa]

"Douche"

[Conzul]

Heheh.

[BlackTar187]

Seriously grammar nazi are the most annoying type of people on the interwebs

[from the beach]

:P

[ExCest]

But without them, editors wouldn't exist. Without them, incompetent journalists would be able to get away with English mistakes, the subject they most likely majored in. (I'm not saying this author is incompetent. Just others)

[BlackTar187]

Fair enough ExCest if you get paid to do so and it actually means something other then just sounding like a tool then i'm okay with that. its the ones who get nothing from it and waste a post on it and contribute nothing that need to get a life and their head checked.

[I_LOVE_MYSELF]

I would like even more. I would not say no to having more exclusives. However, I think they need to focus on maintaining a certain quality. Many PS exclusives are excellent and they are the reason that my PS3 is my primary console. I don't really think that "quantity" is more important than "quality". Sony are somewhat consistent with their quality, but there is no denying that quite a few exclusives have failed to hit their full potential.

We needed the poor exclusives like Socom 4 to have packed a punch and been fantastic.

[Prototype]

I want double the exclusives from the PS1/2 era; I know with current costs there's only so much they can do, but I miss the days of seeing more exclusives to keep me occupied for months before even thinking of buying another game.

[RXL]

pffh..

that's like asking "should you snort less coke?!"..

wait..no..you should snort less coke..

unless..you got a long gaming night ahead of you because of all those sweet playstation exclusives..then by all means batton down the hatches and proceed with all the booger sugar your nostrils can hold..

[medziarz]

Sony's next year PS3 lineup looks spot-on:
- begins modestly with Sly 4 in February,
- followed by God of War in March,
- and then the culmination of Sony's 1st part awesomeness: The Last of Us in May,
I'd assume Beyond and Puppeteer are slated for after the summer break - fall or winter 2013

[sandman224]

That's the only thing keeping them in good shape. If they have less exclusives then people have to depend on ported games that look awful.

[Ezz2013]

no i was xbox lover 2007-2008
but since 2008 sony brought me back to ps3 and i never looked back
what makes me will by ps4 is the awesomeness of their 1st party studios

[Seraphim]

I don't even have to read this one... what an idiotic question. Sure Sony has it's share of less than popular exclusives & undeniably slow, money wasting studios but they bring a TON of great IPs to the table that cater to their fans. Some of which define Playstation and TONS of which have defined Playstations each generation ever since inception....

[dafegamer]

i think they should improve their marketing instead.

[jay2]

NO! Sony's lost most of their exclusives.

[Ben_Grimm]

I'm all for quality over quantity. Sony has exclusives that me personally am not interested in.

But this doesn't mean that they should stop because my interests are not someone else's. But they should defintiely consider to stop making some exclusives that don't sell as well as they hoped for. Maybe shelve them for the time being, then later on create a buzz or teases of an IP returning and gauge the public interests, then drop it on the public if the response is positive.

But I am all for some more Siren which has become my Silent Hill 2 of survival horror games. Such a good game. Love the episode format in games like Walking Dead. Even Alan Wake and a similar concept.

Edit:
Also the lame excuse of Sony not promoting is .. well ... lame. Sony does promote well enough, it may not be closing down Time Square type of promotion but it is there well enough. I agree with AdmiralVic above, people here on N4G magically seem to forget all the Kevin Butler, (Marcus *cough*) and even the third party promos.

[Minato-Namikaze]

Author is a super troll?

[dafegamer]

no getsammy always provides legit and informative news and topics

[Hicken]

Nope. Not in the slightest.

Spread em out more? Sure.

Get a bit more advertising for em? Sure.

Make less of em? Hell no.

[JadedXGamer]

They should focus on investing and supporting good (in terms of quality and general consumer interest) and profitable exclusives only.

Some examples of what happened with the following studios and their games this year:

- Bigbig studios were closed after making Little Deviants

- Zipper interactive were closed after making Unit 13

- Studio Liverpool were closed after Wipeout 2048

I'd rather see less companies close and people losing their jobs because of a certain company having the 'most' exclusives...

[Jek_Porkins]

In my opinion it wouldn't hurt to scrap a couple of the lesser games per year and put that money into actually advertising some of the other exclusives. As it is you have a ton of great games that nobody even knows exists! Sony has to keep in mind that it's actually a very small minority of gamers that use online forums and places like N4G to get gaming news.

I like that they take risks, but some games just get zero publicity and that boggles my mind. Resistance 3 and Starhawk are two examples of (what I thought) were GREAT games that got absolutely no love.

I understand that a certain Sony demographic likes the idea of Sony having so many exclusives, but if those people just enjoy the idea of exclusives and they aren't actually buying, and Sony isn't advertising, that ends badly for all parties involved. We've seen some really good developers close down over the past year because of issues like that.

[Minato-Namikaze]

Most sony exclusives sell well. Where are you getting this info?

[dafegamer]

its the gaming journalism and trolls who spits out the garbage that Sonys exclusives doesnt sell

[Sizzon]

Well Resistance 3 has sold over a million copies now, but yeah it got a slow start and sad but true Starhawk got no advertising and got overshadowed.

[akaakaaka]

I'm amazed on how gamers rather have sony advertise more one IP instead of investment on a game.
Look I love most sonys games, lbp, gt, siren, killzone, resistance, socom, uncharted..
But star hawk was lame, there are to many ranched and clarks ..

I'm upset on how sony dare to stop making socom games its a shame, if they really love their gamers they will have not and just hope they rethinking this stupid decision abd give socom a actual good budget and enough time to be a quality game.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

no..

[BigStef71]

No way thats one of the main reasons to get a playstation because of the exclusives. They just need better marketing for when the games come out

[Soldierone]

I think they should, but shouldn't. They should have their triple A titles, 3 a year. One early, one in summer, and one in the Fall. Promote the hell out of these 3 titles.

However still have smaller titles, and use the big titles to promote these ones.

Resistance getting killed by Killzone is a stupid mistake, both of them could have done well for Sony. Uncharted dominates anything around it etc, so don't put another big title next to that.

However still keep the hidden gems and bragging rights so smaller studios stay afloat. Cross promote them, but don't be too worried when they don't sell millions.

[abzdine]

No, but what they can avoid for sure is releasing all exclusives during the same month -_-'

[BitbyDeath]

As long as the genres differ then you can release as many as you want.

[DigitalAnalog]

SONY has a lot. However, they NEED to make money. Hence the quality may not be up to the standard to the likes of ND or SSM. Not every exclusive has a AAA backing behind it. Sadly, these games may take the hit the most and suffer due to the disparaging quality difference to 3rd party studios but SONY's very own exclusives.

Best bet is that they have to make games for the Vita since it is less competitive and does not take a lot of resources to develop for. OR, they have to combine teams to make AAA games instead of A or AA budgeted games that may not perform so well.

[ginsunuva]

Yes.... so the xbox fanboys don't feel as bad.. lol

[InTheLab]

Can you imagine if Sony only made Uncharted,Killzone, GT and a handful of decent to mediocre titles like MS does with it's lineup? We'd have have at least 5 Killzones and a remake, 4 Gran Turismos, 4 Uncharteds, all on a single console in a span of 6 years.

[sdplisken]

^exactly^

[DomceM]

i think they need to release less, further increase quality (its good now, but it can be amazing), and promote better. Hear me out before you disagree with me.

This would result in more people playing these games. Killzone and resistance should have been the same franchise with twice the budget and development power. It should have been the equivalent of Halo for PS3. Instead we got 2 games good games, instead of 1 amazing game, which split people who like scifi games in half.

Games like infamous need to be further polished. There was a serious lack of mission diversity for the first game. You can perform identical missions only so many times before you get bored. It should have been a GTA game with super powers... Yet it fell far short of its potential. Sony games have great concepts but execution is sometimes lacking.

Some games got it perfect... like God of War for example. That is truly a masterpiece... I would not touch that franchise. Also I doubt uncharted can be improved... Id leave those 2 alone.

But games like starhawk (amazing multiplayer and mediocre campaign), infamous, killzone/resistance, etc... development teams should have been increased and the games better promoted.

These games are released into obscurity and then forgotten as people just move on. Too many gamers split among too many games to have a solid community like Halo on the PS3.

Reduce the quantity, increase the quality, and promote the shit out of it. I want to see a Killzone/Resistance Hybrid commercial Every week on TV. Dont let people forget about these games. Sony isnt building strong brands by not doing this kind of stuff.

Also... Fire your entire marketing team and hire someone else.

[P_Bomb]

I disagree as far as decreasing them, and what constitutes good vs great.

KZ2 has a 91 meta' avg, the same as arguably the best Halo game on the market, Halo Reach. It set the bar for graphics and lighting/fx for a console FPS when Halo 3 was still sub-HD. What more could you ask for in its evolution from PS2 to PS3?

Halo 4 has a meta' avg of 87 which is the exact same as Resistance 2. Resistance 1 is right there too with an 86. Halo 3 ODST has the same 83 avg as Resistance 3.

If anything, you have *two* quality exclusive FPS titles on the PS3 that have matched Halo for quality tit for tat.

Two.

The only thing Halo has more of is sales, but that isn't always indicitive of quality. Same way that Gran Turismo is the best selling racing sim this gen' despite Forza being the best reviewed.

I disagree as well that inFamous fell "far short of its potential". According to what? Its closest peers are/were Crackdown and Prototype, and inFamous 1/2 outperformed all 4 titles in those series both critically AND commercially. Gotta give credit where its due.

[DomceM]

Thats fine. I still disagree. Metacritic scores are not what I worry about when I play a game. It takes only a few years for the online community to completely die off for sony exclusives. Im sorry but that really sucks. If you have the best game on the market and 5 people play it... thats just sad. Its bad enough that we are all split across the many different genres of sony exclusives... But we are also split across games in the same genre?

KZ2 may have gotten a good metacritic rating... But many people quit because of laggy controls (I got used to it... but clearly not everyone could). It would have made more sense to have REsistance dev team polishing all of the tiny imperfections so the game wouldnt have been plagued by these problems. Also, killing people is delayed on killzone 2. You know what i am talking about. You shoot someone and you end up dying at the same time as they are. Many maps had problem of spawn raping as well.

I guess when we buy Sony games we should expect a dead MP in a couple of years then? And i know a few people still play (im one of them), but dude... its not something i would call an "Alive" game MP wise at all.

Why does sony need 2 scifi multiplayer games? Whats the point of splitting the consumer base? If you have someone interested in a scifi shooter, and the only one that is available on your platform is KZ2... Guess what. thats what people will buy! They couldve saved development costs, and made a better game.

And who cares that KZ2 has a better metacritic score. Which game has become an icon (HALO) and which one has a better following right now? Sony needs to streamline their games. 1 per genre i say is more than enough.

And regarding infamous... I dont care if it outperformed other games which sucked even worse. Infamous 1 has repetitive boring missions. If you dont agree then I dont know if we both played the same game. Sony will continue to have a console with forgettable characters because they dont understand that more is not better. 2 development teams should be working on a game like infamous. 3 maybe even. Infamous is not even a 1/2 of a GTA game scope wise. IT NEEDS TO BE if sony wants to be successful.

[P_Bomb]

You talk about Halo in godlike terms though. "Icon" and "followings". What about games just being good? I just want to play good games, and two good games is better than one imo. I don't stick with one game for long.

As such, a longterm online following means nothing to me. I have far too much backlog as is. I beat Halo 3 last year, got my 500gs and haven't touched it since. That it has a bigger online presence 4 years later than Killzone means nothing to me as I'm currently playing FarCry 3 anyways.

You say why have two sci-fi shooters? Killzone and Resistance are different enough under the hood though. COD and Battlefield have far more in common art, weapon and storywise. I don't see EA ditching Battlefield anytime soon though just cuz Activision's cornered the market. If 3rd party studio Insomniac wants to compete with 1st party Guerilla Games in the sci-fi shooter market with Fuse and Resistance, is Sony really gonna say no? They don't own Insomniac.

Comparing everything to GTA isn't fair to games that don't wanna be GTA. Its success is an anomoly, it's lightning in a bottle. MANY games have gone after that open world crime drama market. Does inFamous really need to? We already have Mafia, Saints Row, Sleeping Dogs, True Crime...but none have matched GTA's success. Not even Rockstar's own LA Noire. There's only one Beatles, one Rolling Stones. I'll always love Mario, as per my avatar, but no one will ever recapture that magic. So I've stopped looking. I'm just smelling the roses these days, enjoying the view.

[s45gr32]

The PC and PS3 exclusives lack heavy promotion but are quality games (not all of them) with their respective audience.

[chobit_A5HL3Y]

so... essentially, instead of having a next gen of consoles with exclusives, we'll have ms and sony competing to see who can run multiplats better. that's one of the most retarded things that could happen to gaming.

[Ezz2013]

every one would get pc and forget about consoles
if that happen
what makes my buy ps3 was exclusives
if they don't have any
then why bother ?!

[Sizzon]

I don't know, nah, but sometimes I do wish Sony would promote and advertise some first party games a little bit better.

Loving the variety in PS3 exclusives tho, everything from LittleBigPlanet to Killzone to Uncharted to Gran Turismo etc. :)

[ShaunCameron]

No. I like seeing more games that are native to its platform.

[shotgun_ps3]

From a business point of view, yes they should release less exclusives and focus on a few games a year to give them a better marketing budget and increase sales.

BUT, and as you can see this is a very big but (it's so big I'm going to say it again in case you missed it), BUT from a gaming point of view... hell no.

Some of the best games of this generation have been because Sony are fearless in their exclusives. I'm still amazed, and very grateful, to this day that there was a publisher out there that was brave enough to release games like LBP, Heavy Rain and Journey.

It does seem to be working for them though as the Playstation section of Sony is one of the few that is making money, please someone correct me if I'm wrong there, so hopefully they'll keep up the good work.

[grassyknoll]

Someone who plays games is asking if there's too many games? WTF.

[BitbyDeath]

People seem to play numbers more than games these days.
Sad

[grassyknoll]

People who love games shouldn't be bothered about the numbers (bar online heavy ones), just the quality of the game itself. Sony needs far more & improved advertising, not less games. Personally I think they should pack in their exclusive titles in bundles.

[imdaboss1]

hell no

[brian1985FM]

Should Nintendo be "less exclusive?" I say let Sony stand out when it can.

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

No I DON'T want them to stop releasing LESS Exclusives... leave that to their competition... they've been doing that WELL ENOUGH!

What I like about Sony's Exclusives this gen is that they TRUELY showed Next Gen gaming and PROVED the fact that their Exclusives could TRUELY and ONLY be done on their console!

There is not even a close answer to any of their Exclusive games even available on the 360!

[Bathyj]

No.
Other consoles should release more.

[banjadude]

This is just getting ridiculous, the first few years of PS3, people were dogging on it for not having enough games and now... they want/suggest less?

Also, the people saying that releasing less exclusives will yield "better quality" titles.. that's REALLY subjective, and I hate how you people (not you Bathyj) are stating that as if it's fact.

[Scholla]

NO NO and did I mention NO!

[arbitor365]

im generally happy with sony's smaller exclusives. it good to have diversity. we dont want an industry desaturated into only a few AAA franchises that get pumped out every year.

[Belking]

or maybe the fanboys should buy more instead of just talking about them. Talk doesn't help sales.

[Silly gameAr]

It's tough to buy them all when there's a lot to chose from, you know? Oh, nevermind. You wouldn't know. Sorry.

[s45gr32]

Do you have the digital catalogue and import sales. Do you have new vs used sales charts or shipped vs bought data... If you do great talk about sales if not dont talk about this subject. Vg chartz,NPD,etc. only cover retail sales. To imply PS3 exclusives are not selling due to low retail sales (25% success/failure rate) is beyond moronic in this day and age

[Belking]

"To imply PS3 exclusives are not selling due to low retail sales (25% success/failure rate) is beyond moronic in this day and age"

Its also moronic to think that a game will sell well just because it's published by a certain company. The truth is that all of sony's exclusives don't sell very well. Only certain ones. MS puts out less but they make much more money with theirs. Fact. Son'y biggest exclusive this gen is money loss. That is exclusive to only them because the other two are raking in the profits while sony is busy shuffling around CEOs to try to stop the bleeding.

[Kingthrash360]

"wow" I said reading this article title...."I'd rather read the 234th phantom pain article than to read an article about a stupid question."

[nerdkiller]

Wow, just when I thought an article couldn't get any dumber. A new king takes its place

[RELIGHT]

Of course not, the more exclusive games, the more appealing the console. It's the reason you own multiple consoles IMO

[YodaCracker]

I'd rather have a smaller number of outstanding exclusives than a large number of mediocre exclusives. This year I played Halo 4, Forza Horizon, Fez, Mark of the Ninja, Dust: An Elysian Tail, and Trials Evolution as exclusives on my 360. All wonderful, highly-rated titles. The only exclusive I played this year on the PS3 was the Journey: Collector's Edition which I rented from GameFly. It was a great experience, but it was pretty much my only PS3 experience this year.

I don't care how many exclusives there are if they are the likes of Twisted Metal, LBP Karting, Starhawk, and All-Stars. This was simply a poor year for exclusives on the PS3. Next year looks much more promising with The Last of Us, Beyond, and GOW: Ascension. A console can have 10 times more exclusives than its competitor, but if none of them stand out as high quality then I don't care one bit.

[P_Bomb]

That's you though. You say you don't care about Twisted Metal, Starhawk and PS All Stars...but other people do. Such as myself, and I bought them all this year along with Trials Evolution, Deadlight, Forza Horizons and oldie but goody Metro2033, on the 360.

No need to do away with any of them just because they aren't one person's cup of tea. I didn't buy Halo 4. Doesn't mean they should scrap it. Choice is good, because taste is subjective. I can't stress that enough.

[silkrevolver]

They just need to space them out better.

[jalen247]

I think they should continue to do what they are doing but spend more money on promoting their games.

[mayberry]

The article's title made me think in terms like... " SHOULD FERRARI BUILD SLOWER CARS? " So absolutely against what gamers want, its almost a truly asanine question !

[s45gr32]

uggghhh while the PS3 exclusives may not sell well at retail it still have a 75 % chance to succeed via digital catalogue and import distribution channels. Two it gives the PS3 a reason to buy. Finally each exclusive game has an audience.

[ghostrider32]

No. Their competition is already doing that. What they need to do is advertise more often.

[taijutsu363]

YES THEY SHOULD!...........
........so MS can catch up. lol

[CommonSense]

The word is "fewer" not "less."

Who are these retard journalists? It's painful to come to N4G anymore.

@taijutsu363: You're not funny...just a troll.

[majiebeast]

Author wants less games *mind is blown*

[black911]

Sony just need to promote there games. I watch TV all the Time and for example the only time I saw a commercial for playstion allstars was the VGA Awards Really. An event with gamers and nerds who already know about every single game.

[jaggernaut25]

I refuse to read this. No pageview for you.

[talisker]

How can a game be less exclusive? Can you be less pregnant?

Anyway, there weren't so many exclusives on PS3 this year. A clear sign PS4 is sucking the funds.

[ziggurcat]

*facepalm*

[landog]

I think sony, with the GIANT amount of amazing first party titles they have created this gen, are in a position to take the gaming world by storm with the ps4,

imagine a lineup of stunning, 1080p, 60 frames per second releases of uncharted 4, killzone 4, heavy rain 2, ratchet and clank, twisted metal, resistance 4, lbp 3, Starhawk 2, warhawk 2, socom 5, motorstorm ect....ect....ect....

could you imagine a launch lineup like that, shiiiiiiiiit, i'd pay $700 for a system that offered that....

bring it sony!

[urwifeminder]

I think they should make twice as many more keep spending that cash.

[10V3N0M01]

Looking at the comments as well the ratings/voters encouraging them I find this very sad, really.
I am a PC gamer, and I love it but I am 100% for consoles before you make unjustified judgements. Now the worse part about this is exclusives. Why do they exist? To Make profit? What does this mean for me? All these "great"(which I'm sure they are) games are games I will never pay. Having a PC has its own benifits, as does consoles. For me, having a powerful PC is expensive but a two sided plus for me. I program and need a good computer and once I spend a bit more I get a gaming PC. So before you say I should rather go console, it's just not a logical option. I pray for the day when our platform doesn't dictate who have these "great" games. PS3 has its own, 360 has its own, PC has plenty too but because of exclusives it has become a situation where if you don't have that platform then, well, it's just too bad hey? Exclusives are sometimes great just because of resources for less platforms but you know the real reason is that the profit is much larger. I guess games are not just games/entertainment anymore. Business is business but greed is stronger, and we're all literally paying for it.

[madjedi]

"If variety is the spice of life, then the PlayStation 3 is a particularly posh brand of pepper. Arguably more than any other platform holder over the past five years, Sony has provided its system with a stream of high quality content."

Right so, the problem is what exactly. There are still plenty of sequels to ps1 and ps2 games, i am waiting for sony to announce. Like dark cloud 3, legend of the dragoon sequel ect. I would kill for a champions of norrath hd collection.

I guess to some people, too much variety is a bad thing.

This is the reward for gamers who buy consoles at launch, then wait patiently for the less than stellar launch lineup to expand/mature into a ton of kickass game choices.

[unicronic]

I'd only support less exclusives if it allowed better marketing of the ones that are left.

For games like StarHawk to sell poor enough to result in layoffs is a complete joke.

[wishingW3L]

true that. Starhawk is one of the most underrated games of this generation. And it's ironic since people these days only care about the online multiplayer and Starhawk is one of the best at that. But the lack of hype, inflated scores and advertising killed it.... =/

[iNathan]

but some are just launched to flop...

Starhwak. LBP Karting, Royale, Twisted Metal and more...

[bozebo]

No. They need them to keep profits up.
MS make it from XBL, Sony needed it from first party titles due to less 3rd party sales this gen.

Next gen, it's going to be even harsher. They will have to keep up the same tactic, which is bringing us brilliant games so that's good. Once they take a look at 3rd party sales on the PS4, they would make less exclusives if that meant more profit (doubtful).

[Rhythmattic]

No.

FFS

[Tzuno]

Sony should learn from PS2 time.

[rulakir]

Exclusives define a system, and Sony has been doing well with their first party studios since PS1. Exclusives just have to be released in a timely manner that way new games don't get overshadowed by other new exclusives.

[Tibbers]

Just no. I want exclusives optimised for the PS3 and not shitty ports of multi-console titles.

[Fakdafakinfakerz]

Only 1 or 2 "shitty ports" per year... Plus some multiplat games are better on PS3 but hey... who cares?

[FITgamer]

The only logical answer to this question is...HELL-TO-THE-NO!

[lionxkami]

stupid post

[Enigma_2099]

I dunno... should Microsoft do the same?

[kingPoS]

@ landog You forgot Gran Turismo & Infamous (heh heh)

I don't mind the sequels so long as they're at least as good or better than it's predecessor. Like the jump from Infamous to Infamous 2.

I also don't want a back to back 'Madden' amount of sequels either. I like Ratchet & Clank alot, but there's like a ton of them out atm.

[J86blum]

Should they release Less Exclusive games, No. They are doing fine with releasing their exclusive titles in a good manner. This is a 360fanboy just mad. Yes Sony releases more because they have more exclusives and ip's. Microsoft well you guys have Gears which cliffy B left. Halo which bungie bounced from. and Forza..which well Horizon was junk.

This is just them slinging dry mud at this point. Tell you what keep it up while I enjoy The Last of Us when it comes out, and Beyond:Two Souls.

360 May of come out first swinging but its coming down to the finish line and they have run out of steam. just releasing sequels (the new gears is a prequel I believe.) and when a prequel game comes out we all know its a sign of no more fresh ideas. And while 360 releases these last weak sequels Sony is going strong with two more new ip's both of which look amazing.

Sony won this war when it comes to originality, customer support, better overall console (we have the yellow ring yes, but the red-ring-of-death more then doubled the yellow ring.) and ALSO led to more 360's being sold which fanboys seem to leave out of arguments.