Sean Halliday of Pixel Gate writes:
"Recently, a short article went around named ”Exclusives Need to Die’.” It created some discussion and promoted some interesting points. On the whole, I disagreed with the main point presented, mainly as it wasn’t put forward very well, but the post set off some cogs in my head, and soon I was thinking about why exclusives are needed, and why they tend to be staples of a generation of systems and games."
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"
Microsoft: "why's that"
Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
Eventually they’ll realize the value is with the employee not the company. Buying an IP means nothing if the people who contributed are let go. They’ll get it one day.
tech is different because they buy threats and then kill them. Twitter bought Vine and did nothing with it. Despite people seemingly liking it. Could've had tiktok a decade before bytedance. go figure.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
INDIE Live Expo, Japan’s premiere online digital showcase series , will debut never-before-seen games & content updates across more than 100 titles on May 25th.
How is this even a topic? Would you like to play Uncharted on Xbox and Halo on Playstation. It sounds good if you think about it, but what's the point of owning 2 or 3 consoles that will play the same games? Hahaha
Exclusives might seem silly, but the fact is that the rivalry between console manufacturers is the main driving force behind quality. It always has been, ever since the SNES vs MegaDrive/Genesis continually pushed forward with Mario/Sonic, FF/Phantasy Star etc. Exclusives are a key part of that as console manufacturers do their best to secure great games for their system.
A one-console or exclusive-less future could be a meritocracy, but just as likely, would mean that great games can get lost in a flood of complete crap. As we're seeing on Steam at the moment.
TL;DR: exclusives are a good thing, because console rivalry keeps companies *relatively* honest and quality high. Long may it continue.
Exclusives need to live. Its the point of competition
While I agree with the author has to say in regards to the importance of exclusives. I will say though that with Playstation Now and Xbox Live Cloud service will render consoles irrelevant. Moving away from the silly hardware war to which console manufacturer can deliver the better service.
Exclusives are the reason I gave Sony a chance with the PS3.