"Microsoft’s method of keeping game exclusives has been somewhat shady: they pay exorbitant amounts of money and do not allow companies to publish elsewhere for at least six months. Even high-profile companies like Bethesda had to stay true to this, as their Dawnguard expansion is still exclusive to the XBOX360, even though the developer has stated that they intend to release for the DLC for the PC and PS3. With the next generation of consoles arriving and modifications rumored to be a major feature on them, will Microsoft be able to keep up their charades?" | Explosion.com
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Think of all the gamers they could round up with exclusivity/timed exclusive over CoD? That's a hardware pushing title. Also other franchises that could be revived for the next gen, such as Guitar Hero.
It's too early to say, but you raise some valid points.
ms were to buy a stake in activision, MS knows how much revenue that game could generate.
So they themselves wouldnt even make it exclusive when they know that copies sold on other platforms is money in their pocket as well.
Also, it's up to Activision as the publisher to do what it wants. It doesn't matter who owns Activision stock, no one tells Activision what to do but Activision. The only thing a stock owner can do is threaten to sell their stock and so what? Activision can just go buy it up off the market. The only way you can have any say in how a company is run if you are the MAJORITY stock holder, and currently no one can buy that many shares in Activision as they aren't up for sale. Quite frankly Activision may have hit its peak, because if CoD BO2 doesn't outsell MW3, the company doesn't have the same financial year, and the stock goes down, so sell now!
" We all know how dedicated CoD Fans really are, and out of the 12-15 million that purchase the games every year on the PS3"
....ummm dude, the best selling ps3 game ever, gt5, only sold 7.4 million, the best selling ps3 cod game is mw2, and it did 4.8 million)
no ps3 game has sold anywhere near 12 million
check it;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
And the only reason the devs agree is because they are greedy and they want Microsoft's payola.
When speaking about the nature of hypocrisy a wise man once said, "you will strain a fly from your soup and swallow a camel." This saying also applies to fanboys. They whine and complain about the sins of others while they ignore the sins of the companies they support.
they are doing it better. When nintendo had their contractual strangle hold on gaming in the 80's. Developers like konami, sunsoft, capcom and others sued to get publishing rights to release games on competing platforms.
This isnt exactly the same situation as the developers are getting paid AND still have the opportunity to release their content on other platforms when the time comes.
Sega please start a kickstarter for the DC2.
Geez man, it's been over 12 years, let it go.
How is Sony selfish when they were responsible for the CDROM optical drive technology for the Sega CD.
"One of the interesting things to me is that one of our strongest partners in developing for that platform was Sony. They had a software division run by Olaf Olafsson, who was a great partner to us. They spent lots of money developing games for the Sega CD (probably more than we did), we gave them technical help – a lot of it; we loaned them people, and there was really this wonderful collaborative effort. We each benefited from each other’s work, and I think that’s one of the things that has been forgotten in video game industry lore or history: that this very strong bond existed back then between the two companies. In fact, taking it to the next step, at one point Olaf, Mickey Schulhoff (former Sony of America CEO), and I discussed that since we had such a great relationship from working on the Sega CD, why don’t we take what we’ve learned from our software developers – their input – and use it as the criteria for what the next optical platform ought to be?"
http://www.sega-16.com/2006...
That next system will be the Sega Saturn.
And no Nintendo and Sony did not conspire the bring Sega down to it's knees as G4 TV would like us to believe.
all in all its just business.
Best comment I've seen on N4G in as long time..
Evil
I actually never heard of Nintendo and Sony paying for exclusives until today, although it's not outside of the realm of possibility of truth. Since everyone is agreeing with this, does anyone does anyone who agrees with this have a link to that to confirm this statement?
Any help would be appreciated.
As far as I know, Nintendo had strict rules for making games on their NES and SNES consoles, I haven't heard anything about Sony one way or another other than they never promoted a "mascot" for their consoles like Mario was for Nintendo, Gex was for 3DO (briefly), and Sonic was for Sega.
http://archive.gamespy.com/...
Sony:
http://psx.ign.com/articles...
Shows how Nintendo was cut throat with the Nes and keeping titles exclusive. The Sony one doesn't necessarily show them being cut throat, but does demonstrate how they bought up a load of developers to create software that could rival Sega and Nintendo right out of the gate.
MS has basically done the same thing as everybody else.
*UPDATE*
FOR NINTENDO:
"By the late '80s, Nintendo of America was riding high on the profits of the most lucrative video game platform yet created. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) had virtually taken over the U.S. home video-game sector, gobbling up over 90% of the market by 1990. But Nintendo didn't get there by being nice; rather, this company played hardball. It was notorious for the iron-clad terms that it required third-party game publishers to agree to, which gave Nintendo full control over how many cartridges could be manufactured and prohibited publication of a game on rival systems until it had been available on the NES for two years. It's also alleged that Nintendo played favorites when meting out merchandise allotments to retailers, and stiffed stores that dared to drop prices or carry certain competing items. In short, Nintendo was accused of price fixing.
Needless to say, Nintendo made a lot of enemies. Many chose to work inside Nintendo's profitable little fiefdom, but still chafed under Nintendo's oppressive rule. "We are at their mercy. They can make or break any of us overnight," said one anonymous CEO, quoted in David Sheff's Game Over, the definitive book on Nintendo's business history. A few other companies went renegade and used various means, legal and illegal, to work around Nintendo's patented lock-out chip technology. The most notorious of these organizations was the Atari/Namco offshoot Tengen, which tangled repeatedly with Nintendo in the courts."
Confirmed for Nintendo. Thanks again.
*UPDATE FOR SONY IN A FEW MINUTES*
The whole matter about MS payola is about how they pay publishers to change their release strategies in order to favor Xbox/harm competition.
This link shows how Sony bought studios and started it's now recognized first party powerhouse.
Buying studios that you'll get behind and pay checks so they develop games exclusively for you is not the same as bribing publisher to change the way costumers see the games... I'm not saying Sony never did it, just saying this link shows nothing like that.
SONY:
"There was no doubt that Sony could deliver the hardware. After all, Sony was one of the world's largest manufacturers of electronics. There was no denying though, that Sony was extremely green when it came to videogames. And no one knew it better than Sony.
Not wanting to end up like Atari or 3DO, Sony set about rounding up third party developers, assembling an impressive 250 developing parties in Japan alone. Sony also knew it had to gain the support of the millions of arcade-going gamers if it was to succeed. The involvement of Namco, Konami, and Williams helped ensure Sony would be able to compete with the arcade-savvy Sega on its own turf. Namco's Ridge Racer was the natural choice to be the flagship launch game, and Williams' Mortal Kombat III, previously promised to Nintendo for their Ultra 64, could be tested in the arcades using the new PS-X board.
Perhaps Sony's most controversial acquisition was the purchase of Psygnosis, a relatively unknown European developer, for $48 million. Sony needed a strong in-house development team, and Psygnosis' Lemmings seemed to point at good things. While the purchase confused many at the time, prompting vocal outcries from naysayers and competitors alike, Psygnosis has since proven them all wrong. Sony Interactive Entertainment, as Psygnosis was renamed, has been responsible for some of the PlayStation's best games, including WipeOut and Destruction Derby.
Sony's acquisition of Psygnosis yielded another fruit as well: the development system. SN Systems, co-owned by Andy Beveridge and Martin Day, had been publishing its development software through Psygnosis under the PSY-Q moniker. Sony originally had been planning on using expensive, Japanese MIPS R4000-based machines that would be connected to the prototype PS-X box. Having become accustomed to developing on the PC, Psygnosis gave Beveridge and Day first crack at creating a PlayStation development system that would work with a standard PC.
The two men worked through Christmas and New Year's, around the clock, eventually completing the GNU-C compiler and the source-level debugger. Psygnosis quickly arranged a meeting for SN and Sony at the Winter CES in Las Vegas, 1994. Fortunately, Sony liked the PSY-Q alternative and decided to work with SN Systems on cendensing the software onto two PC-compatible cards. Thus, an afordable and, more importantly, universally compatible PlayStation development station was born."
This article confirmed that Sony bought a bunch of companies for themselves, which is exactly what you meant when you said that Sony wasn't being cut-throat. What makes the actions of Sony different from Nintendo and Microsoft, however, is that Sony bought-up the developers, which at one sense denies the other consoles from getting those games, they're no longer 3rd party.
I was looking for 3rd party "misdeeds" that Sony has done to developers: basically, making a non-exclusive 3rd party game into one or a better version through threats. Turning 3rd party developers into 1st party developers who have an umbrella from some of the financial obligations of being an independent company constitutes a mutualistic relationship.
Nintendo crushed 3rd party developers who tried to oppose them up to and including price-fixing. Microsoft currently has been known timed exclusives for other consoles and even delayed or removed titles from the PC entirely (fable, Gears of War) and has been proven to threaten to not allow people to publish on their console if the other console version is out before their console. Here's the proof (it would be disrespectful to not offer it after the help you gave me):
http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...
For now, unconfirmed for Sony but I will consider other proof if anyone has it.
Thanks for the info! Anything more?
AT BISHOP:
That's what I got out of it: I went through it three times to find dirt on Sony, but it was more like they were dumped on by Nintendo first, then screwed by CDi after a deal gone bad, and two groups got together at the behest of Sony. What Sony did was get developers under their roof to keep from failing, but from the article they did not squeeze any 3rd party developer out of business; as a matter of fact, people complained about the Psygnosis developers at first.
Is that how you see your job? Shouldn't you be doing a job cause it's something you enjoy and feel like you make a difference? Money is not important. IMO
Working is an important part of upholding society, even if you were earning nothing you should still be doing it or at least doing something that makes a difference.
What else is the point? Luxary is only available to those in situations of working hard. If everyday was a vacation it would sooner lose the meaning.
Slavery?
I didn't mean it that way though...
Said the 10 year old or guy living in his parents basement.
OK, I read you're follow up comment. You're ten right?
PS. That other comment was a joke.
EDIT: I think people misunderstood my first comment i am simply stating money while important is a means not an end. Of course you need it in this world but in the overall scheme of things yout shouldn't let it play a major role in your life.
Some of these same people on n4g have such sick and twisted perceptions of what true morals and ethics really are.
And contrary to popular belief, No every big company bottom line isn't about money! If that's the case how does the Red Cross fit into all of this? They rely on government grants and donations, and most of the workers are volunteers or work for pennies on the dollar.
Sorry for the rant, but I'm sure you understand what I'm saying!
It doesn't sell a lot more on the consoles?
Plus these companies can tell MS no so stop blaming MS.
Sony and MSFT have been doing this in this current gen with MSFT having a bit more cash available. The last year or so Sony and MSFT have been equally doing this. Sony actually has plenty of deals with major multi platform games releasing in the next year or two as does MSFT.
I just hope people are not confusing the xbox 360 becoming the preferred console for 3rd party developers, with paid exclusivity.
There are other factors in becoming the go to console for 3rd party developers like, percieved brand recognition strength, presumed fanbase following, predicted console success, developer relationship with company and tools and overall strategy and pricing.
Once devs start advertising their software with their primary platform things snowball with the public, allowing risky deals for exclusive DLC and timed exclusives that supplements the perception set in place already.
Stupid article...
LOL... for some people the hate of Microsoft is so great that they don't see anything else.
EDIT: Also if timed exclusive content on the Xbox really bothers you that much at the end of this gen, then simply buy an Xbox for it, then everything wouldn't seem to be so bad. Remember its TIMED, and it seems to be part of being an XBL member. most big third party "BlockBusters" DLC hitting first on Xbox.
Family friendly = games that are rated E (Adults/Kids)
Casual = games that are played by stay at home moms or people who play games like once a month (Kinect/Move)
Also whats with this "stay at home moms" line? Kind of childish tbh....
Lol, when did I say I didn't like the 360?
"Stay at home moms" and "kids who barely play videogames" are pretty much the people who want motion gaming dude. Hence why I said Kinect AND MOVE.
Read your own comments and you'll see that you clearly have a dislike for the 360. Like i said its hard to cover your tracks when everyone can see 'em.
"Stay at home moms and kids who barely play videogames are pretty much the people who want motion gaming dude. Hence why I said Kinect AND MOVE."
Even with your explanation you still sound childish. So "stay at home moms" and "people who barely play video games" (or kids as you changed it to) have some sort of connection to people who play Move/Kinect games?
....Mkay....
"Read your own comments and you'll see that you clearly have a dislike for the 360. Like i said its hard to cover your tracks when everyone can see 'em."
Ok?????? I found like 3 or 4 "Hateful comments" as you say, out of like the one hundred comments I made. And those comments weren't even fanboyish, lol they were more like corrections to Xbox fanboys if anything. If 3 or 4 comments about correcting others are considered fanboyish to you then you have no idea what a fanboy is bro :)
"childish."
Says the guy who stalks and combs through a guy's comments to try and prove a point nobody cares about. lol
"So "stay at home moms" and "people who barely play video games" (or kids as you changed it to) have some sort of connection to people who play Move/Kinect games?"
Yep, pretty much.
....Mkay....
I'm sorry but exclusives seem pretty meaningless for the most part. Sony had six major exclusives released last year and the 360 outsold the PS3 for the year. There may have been a time when they mattered. But not now. Except for maybe Nintendo. But they are not trying to compete for the same market.
Like Gears Of War last year. Sold 5m copies, one of the biggest selling titles on the Xbox. But sold very little Xbox units. Its the game that sales not the console.
And let's put this sales don't matter stupidity to rest. Ask Sega about their importance. Or all of the defunct developers. The VG industry isn't treated like ballet or artist. The government isn't going to step in and hand them millions in free money. So unless you want all title to be Kickstarter games, respect sales.
Nobody said that sales don't matter, but what I will say right now is that a sales pissing contest doesn't matter. If the console I'm playing is doing well enough that it is receiving continued support and giving me the return I expect, then it's doing it's job, whether or not it's major competitor has shipped 5% more worldwide units. Also, not-beating your competitor in that contest is not an indicator of a failure. There have almost always at least two strong home-consoles available for people to play, most of them with repeat appearances. Was the Genesis a failure? Or the N64? It amazes me that anyone would sit around criticizing Sony for taking the competitive route that results in a strong library for their consumers to enjoy.
Yeah me too, I saw advertisement for assassin creed 3 a multiplat game at a movie theater, yet at the end I only see ps3 logo implying that it is only on ps3.
so let me ask you this, if u are paying for an advertisement, should u also give free advertisement for your competitor as well? I mean they didn't pay for it right? I don't know what else to say about your critical thinking skill, if any.
So reign of TERRORRRRRrrrr hasn't stop for MS just that Sony now also join in on the fun.
Seriously, we're a pretty niche group here. Lets not label everyone a moron for not understanding how the games industry works. We aren't the norm here.
Did you watch TV in the last gen? Yikes. PS2 ads had lots of different tail ends to them, highlighting that the title was available on the PS2. The original Xbox had some as well, it's pretty standard practice.
i still bought a ps3 but since i don't really play it or buy too many games for it (due to lack of interest) i promised myself if it broke i wouldn't pay to have it fix or replace it
MS is so blatantly NOT for gamers I just can't comprehend why anyone would be so loyal.
MS usually pays for exclusivity where Sony just buys the company and negotiates a so-many-game exclusivity deal such as with "that game company" with journy, flower etc.
I don't see where all this anger is coming from in this article.
Sony allows mods and other features.
Unreal Tournament 3 = PC Mods
Burnout Paradise = Game Save uploads to website for map updates
Steam/PSN Account Sync
otherOS while gone shows a huge opportunity for another platform to run side by side with PSN just like steam (android maybe?)
If you buy the sony hardware, I could see sony allowing not only free but cheap valve/steam sales ala pc prices.
etc etc etc
All this stuff Microsoft won't do... and sony wont strike with those weapons...
If the roles were reversed I think ms would have opened the flood gates with mods and such..
But microsoft is such a closed off company, people expected sony to sell propriatery hard drives and its Microsoft that does it. Even their packed in headset is odd... no one uses that size headset plug, why can't I use my iphone or standard headset on my 360 controller? because microsoft knew the smaller size plug was not common and easier to sell at a premium.
It's funny actually, people seem to love microsoft for the same thing they say they hate sony for.
Are you saying the character models, maps etc created by the community for source games on steam are not mods?
Even still, what ever you want to call it, its still a cool feature that so far I've only seen on ps3 where the content comes directly from the pc community to the console
Everyone gets the same game and content eventually and Nintendo still won in terms of sales.
If MS hadn't charged for Live they'd be in a lot worse shape and they wouldn't have had the money to waste on this timed exclusive business.
Their tactics cost a lot of money and I guarantee they didn't make a return on all of those investments. I don't think it was a smart move on MS' part and I don't think charging for Live was either.
I held a 360 in my hands at a store at the beginning of this gen. It came with 2 free games and a 2 year warranty, but I chose the PS3 in part because I thought that Live was a scam.
I'm sure there are others who would love cross game chat on the PS3, but I wouldn't use it.
you mean holding them to their contract that Polytron signed and agreed to? oh noes, the horror!
Polytron f$%^ed up, its ALL on them. they signed an exclusive contract with microsoft. if they didnt read it properly its their fault. they knew that they get 1 free patch, then they have to pay the certification fees for every patch after that. they used their free patch, and it broke the game for some users. now instead of paying the certification fee, that they agreed to when they signed with microsoft, theyve (or he, as its only 1-2 guys) just spat their dummy out and said "i could patch it for free on steam"....yes, you could - but you chose NOT to go with steam, you chose microsoft to publish your game. they didnt pay you for exclusivity, Polytron actually paid Microsoft to be exclusive (straight from Polytrons mouth).
Microsoft did nothing wrong. for those microsoft haters, Sony also charge the same exorbitant prices for patch certification. its to make sure developers are held accountable for buggy/broken code. if you have to pay $10k every time you fix a bug, youre gonna make less bugs. if they were to remove the certification process, thats when unsafe code gets passed through that allows hackers to cripple the system/network.
@Raoh: "Even their packed in headset is odd... no one uses that size headset plug, why can't I use my iphone or standard headset on my 360 controller? because microsoft knew the smaller size plug was not common and easier to sell at a premium. "
its a standard headset plug mate, any 2.5mm mobile phone one will work. try it for yourself if you dont believe me.
MS needs a good old fashioned lesson in humility ala Sony circa 2006 because MS are like the Nazi's in the gaming industry.