The Necessity of Console Exclusives

When I wrote about picking the Wii U over the PS4 and Xbox One, I pointed out that most Third Party games are multiplatform, including PC. This meant that even though PS4 and Xbox One get third party games, basing your decision off them is pretty much useless. Getting a home console should be for getting unique or the best experiences. If the games you would buy for the PS4 exist on the Xbox One or PC, how does that help you determine which console to get? Right now, the only things I can think of for determining which system to get is friends and exclusives. When the Xbox One was going to be completely different from the PS4, that was an easy choice (PS4), but since Microsoft pulled a 180, they are pretty much the same system for general purposes (i.e. playing games).

[SaveFerris]

That PS4 controller looks weird.

The PS4, Xbox One and WiiU have some great exclusive games with more to come. Gamers will choose the console(s) with the games they like best.

[mixelon]

How anyone disagrees with this I don't understand.

The PS4 controller in the pic is completely bizarre hybrid of the DS3 and DS4.

The other line is just common sense.

[ShinMaster]

It leaves the impression that the writer isn't all that knowledgeable when he don't know how an actual PS4 controller looks like.

[XboxOneX]

Xbox One does have the best exclusive games but I do agree that the PS4 also has a few good exclusives like Uncharted 4. That is why I own both consoles and enjoy gaming on both of them.

[Vidyagames]

"best" exclusives is an opinion. Some people may love Sony games, others may love Xbox, and others Nintendo. Many enjoy all three, but which is "best" always comes down to personal preference

[Why o why]

Sony have the best exclusive library.....they had the most goty games last gen. Many new ips. Sony didn't just lose those ips. They'll continue introducing new ips whilst revisiting old ones. Thats their model and has served them and their customers well.

Exclusives differentiate consoles from their competitors, timed exclusives not so much.

@ vidyagames
definitely opinion but based of the fact sony did output more exclusive gotys last gen. Uncharted 2, little big planet and the last of us with multiplat games taking the other years if I'm not mistaken. Now if any of those didn't appeal to you then their goty tag means diddly squat. What can't be argued against is the variety and number of exclusives sony had which ultimately what we all want from our console providers, more choice and variety.

[Vidyagames]

@Why o why
Maybe Sony has the best library in your opinion, and maybe in many people's opinion, but I prefer Halo and Forza Horizon and Nintendo games to many Sony exclusives. Never loved my PS3 so I am waiting on ps4 to capture my interest. It's all opinion.
@Why o Why (again)
Yeah, I can see that. Microsoft tries to just has shooters and racing for the most part. Now they are trying to switch it up, but I really know I won't be interested much in the 2015 lineup for Xb1 (except Halo). PlayStation certainly has the edge when it comes to a well rounded lineup, it's just certain people (myself included) love a few franchises to pick one console over PlayStation (for now, I'll pick one up next year). PS also has a much better appreciation for video games as an "art", and I would say value "story" more than fast paced multiplayer with little direction other than fighting.

[Gemmol]

@why O Why

sony having the best exclusive depends on opinion, having most of the game of the year awards do not mean much, because there are games who fair better on the metacrtic, which is a website that show the avg score of a game from different websites, in my example I will Use Smash bros wii u or Bayonetta 2, both games on metacritic have a higher rating than that shadow of mordor but a website still give the game the game of the year.....so game of the year seems to not count on highest rated game, because if it did then Nintendo would of won a lot

plus Sony do not always revisit old ips, thats another lie, once a game sells bad on sony they give it one more chance or drop it and put it on the bench, then they make a new game, look at all their past exclusives that do not come out no more, look at the last sales reported for those games

The last point I am trying to make, is if the sony had the best exclusive, why do their sales not back it up

http://www.vgchartz.com/pla...

on ps3 top 10 best sellers, only one game made it on the list and it was in 5th place, that means 9 other games are 3rd party games on the top selling ps3 games, so all those awards did not mean much

http://www.vgchartz.com/pla...

in the ps4 top 10 sellers there highest on the list

on the ps4 they have 2 games that made it on the top 10....they took the 8th and 10th spot, meaning still 3rd parties take the number 1 spot

by the way this happens to ps2 also, with 3rd parties taking up most of the sales, leaving sony with less game sales

Even if you were to say my post was lies and assumptions, you would be wrong because sony owner came out and said the similar thing, so it shows the information about their game sales that I wrote above is true, that even with the awards they do not seem to be the best exclusives because compared to other games people do not flock to them that much

http://n4g.com/news/1543674...

this the link where sony owner saying only 4 out of 10 playstation games make money, which also the basis of my whole point that once a sony game start to sell bad they make a new ip, and they have to make new ip all the time, because after 1 or 2 games, no one buys it no more, while Nintendo is different

The internet do not like Nintendo, even if they had the highest metactic like I told you above, they would still pick another game for game of the year, but its good to know the internet do not affect Nintendo that much, cause even without game of the year, a game like Mario Kart double dash on gamecube small base still outsold sony best selling 1st party game on any playstation system

[Why o why]

Gemmol

All of that to say what, sales..... another lie...wut....... vgc is your source. ...... waisted your time. Not worth taking too seriously.

Gow, gt, signstar, buzz, wipeout, yakuza, killzone, mlb......the list goes on. Nowhere did i state or imply sony revisit every single ip so thats a very stupid comprehension fail, furthermore heres a list

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/w...

You mentioned sales....smh....not sure why, another fail especially when the subject matter is exclusives. ..

If your a Nintendo fan then having exclusives isn't your main problem....its having fresh exclusives.. its almost like revisiting is all nintendo do. They've registered less new ips than microsoft last gen and thats saying something. ...lol

Better comprehension = less failing

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

I'd say they're pretty important, because an exclusive is guaranteed to be build specifically to take better use of one single system's architecture.
That increases the chances of the game being truly great.

[miyamoto]

*Ahem

This list of Playstation Exclusive games for 2015 is proof that exclusives are deemed necessary by game makers and gamers.

Retail and Digital

Bloodborne
The Order 1886
Until Dawn
Ratchet & Clank
Uncharted 4
Deep Down
Rime
No Man's Sky
Wild
Tearaway Unfolded
MLB The Show 15
Raven's Cry
One Piece Pirate Warrior 3
Dragon Quest Heroes
The Tomorrow Children
Yakuza Zero
Ultra Street Fighter IV
Street Fighter V
What Remains of Edith Finch
Gundam
Nairo High School: Seishun Hakusho
Persona 5
Sengoku Hime 5
Grim Fandango
New Everybodys Golf
Day of the Tentacle Special Edition
Hellblade
Wattam
Fat Princess Adventures
God Eater 2: Rage Burst
Alienation
Let It Die
Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force
PlanetSide 2
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
Tropico 5
H1Z1
MMO Wander
Disgaea 5
New Godzilla Game
Primal Carnage: Extinction
Kingdom Under Fire II
Senran Kagura: Estival Versus
Omega Quintet
Darkest Dungeon
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster
The Witness
Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory II
Dungeon Defenders II
Samurai Warriors 4-2
Magicka 2
New Ys JRPG
Kill Strain
ABZU
Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed ( February 5, 2015 EU)
Killing Floor 2
Guilty Gear Xrd: Sign ( EU release )
The Forest
Onechanbara Z2 (Western Release)
Orcs Must Die! Unchained
Drawn to Death
Soma
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven
Earth Defense Force 4.1

Only Digital:

FFVII PS4 Port
GUNS UP!
Big Fest
Alone With You
Helldivers
Habitat
Super Stardust Ultra
Among the Sleep
Broken Age
Titan Souls
Starbound
Volume
Nuclear Throne
Gunship X
Citizen of Earth
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Announced but not confirmed for 2015:

Exclusive Games for Project Morpheus
Shadow of the Beast
ProjectCode: Daten
The Last Guardian
ProjectCode: Tsukiyomi
Without Memory

PlayStation has all bases covered in terms of Quantity of Quality Games.

[jelani435]

Lol, thanks for the list but what point are you trying to prove?

[Spotie]

If exclusives meant nothing, there sure as hell wouldn't be so many of them.

[Vegamyster]

^

A bunch of those games are also on PC, not what i'd call "Playstation exclusives"

[ainTgoTTime2bleed]

He does not need to prove anything, those (games) are actually facts;)..They're coming and in great numbers as you can see on that list....;)

[Borma]

@Vegamyster As true as that is, how many people even have computer's strong enough to run those games at 1080p 30/60FPS. Sadly I am still running a 6 year old computer with oddly a triple core processor lol. It's much easier to just play those on a console. At least for me it is. People are buying console's and tablet's nowadays not brand new $1000+ computer's.

[Vegamyster]

@Borma

It doesn't matter if people don't have a computer capable of running those games, he put up a list claiming they were Playstation exclusives but obviously they're not if its available on another platform. That being said over 10 million people bought GTX 680's alone which are easily capable of 1080p 60 fps or 1440p 30 fps. http://www.dsogaming.com/ne...

Also what's up with people still thinking you need the absolute best hardware to play games and need to spend thousands? Playing those games at similar/better performance to a console is less than $600.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/T...

[ShinMaster]

@ Vegamyster

I believe those games are called console exclusives. Meaning that they're not on any other competing consoles.

And even though consoles don't really compete with PCs, PC fans like to compete with console gamers for some reason.

[Vegamyster]

@ShinMaster

He didn't say console exclusive, my whole point is based around him saying "Playstation exclusive"

Playstation exclusives, Sony exclusives, Xbox One exclusives, Microsoft exclusives, Wii-U exclusive, Nintendo exclusive. Blah...

[ABizzel1]

@Vegamyster

Which is where the term console exclusive game into play, since most PC games were rarely ported to consoles last-gen, now that these consoles are basically PC's and powerful enough to run the majority of PC games we're starting to see ports more frequently, but the fact is many of those developers are choosing to go PS4 exclusive for those ports or at least timed exclusive, and as Borma said most console gamers don't have a PC capable of running these games at playable settings.

As far as the link you posted, you only need to read down half way, and see your comment is wrong. 10 million people bought into the GTX 104 architecture, not 10 million people buying GTX 680's alone, which is the perfect indicator of the high end PC gaming market (likely less than 30m mid-range (GTX 660) or higher PC gamers). Once again proving high-end PC gaming is a niche market.

The last part of your comment is spot on, and it's just console gamer ignorance regarding PC cost. $1,000 will get you a PC that absolutely crushes these console in hardware. But a $500 - $600 PC is much more affordable, and also more powerful than these consoles.

The problem however, is that as we see now the consoles will almost always be cheaper and can be found as low as $330 for both the XBO (pretty much everywhere + $50 gift card) and PS4 (wal-mart), and while the consoles are weaker than that $500 PC, it's not a huge enough gap that most console gamers would care, and going from console to PC is a difference ecosystem, that some people just don't want to deal with, like losing PSN/XBL friends list, achievements/trophies, etc... Finally many console gamers have no desire to learn or idea how to build a gaming PC, so that immediately eliminates PC gaming for the masses. So it's still not quite black and white, but to all console gamers PC gaming is not a $1,000 entry price, $500 is for a worthwhile PC.

In the case of Borma, simply buying a GTX 750Ti would turn his old PC basically into a XBO (DEPENDING ON THE CPU, Quad Core and you're rocking, Dual Core and you'll see some CPU bottlenecking in some games), and this is what I recommend to all console gamers who want to enter PC gaming who already have a random computer sitting around. Simply buy the GPU push it in the PCI slot like a N64 cartridge and boom you have a gaming PC that can run games equivalent to an XBO.

So I agree with both of you to an extent. No they're not full exclusives, but that's why we have console exclusives, timed exclusives, and platform exclusives (PS3/PS4/PSV only or XBO/360 only). Also PC gaming is easier than ever to get into especially if you have a desktop computer. Just buy a 750 Ti GPU and stick it in the PCI slot (GPU slot), go to NVIDIA.com and download the drivers, and you're ready to game.

[miyamoto]

true facts

http://gematsu.com/exclusiv...

actually there is more including released games
n4g's 4000 character limitation is not enough to contain them all

PS4: Quantity of Quality Games

Believe you me

PS4's agenda is to bring them PC developers to get their games published on PS4 and its lucrative market share.
The way it looks PS4 is winning.
PS4 is revolutionizing gaming between consoles and windows pc. A new era of unprecedented peace and harmony between consoles and pc is coming.

[Borma]

@Vegamyster But this console generation is not just going to end with a 680 being good enough. Eventually you will need to upgrade that, and then later on upgrade again to have your computer run them on high settings and stable. That is my point. A console is set, for 7-10 years. A computer is not set for that long. Especially when games requirements are starting to be insanely high like 4-8GB of VRAM and probably i5-i7 will be mandatory too.

And to your point of the GTX680 selling 10million units is great, but it's been out since 2012. PS4 already well surpassed that in 1 year and Xbox One is about to pass that number too in about a little over a year.

[Vegamyster]

@Borma

"Eventually you will need to upgrade that, and then later on upgrade again to have your computer run them on high settings and stable."

Yes and eventually you'll have to buy a PS5, Xbox Two or Wii-U 2 + Subscriptions, considering a GTX 480 (4+ years old) performs better than both consoles on WD while underclocked i doubt you would have to upgrade a 680 any time soon. https://www.youtube.com/wat...

+ it's a 1440p capable card on visually demanding game further proves its future proof.

"That is my point. A console is set, for 7-10 years. A computer is not set for that long"

Based on what? A 8800 GTX (8 years old) to this day still performs better than a PS3/Xbox 360. This isn't 2006/7 where PC's were expensive to build, a GTX 750 Ti performs just as good today compared to last year versus the PS4:

BF4: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

AW: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Are you going to tell me Devs haven't learned anything from the consoles hardware during that time? This isn't even considering other variables like MFAA (Basically MSAA without the performance loss: https://www.youtube.com/wat... ) Mantle on AMD cards and Phil Spencer saying DX12 will primarily benefit PC.

[ShaunCameron]

@ ABizzel1

Another problem with PC gaming is compatibility. While a PS4 game is playable on all PS4's, a PC game isn't playable on all PC's due to the differing variations in hardware specs. All the hardware power in the world means nothing if it can't run a simple game.

[98xpresent]

Sf5 is not exclusive neither is sf4 . Planet side 2 is not exclusive, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster you can play it on ps3, no mans sky is timed, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is not exclusive, hellblade is not exclusive, Yakuza Zero on the PS3 I think. C'mon now put ps4 only

[ShinMaster]

Even if you took those out completely, it barely puts a dent on his list.

FFX/X2 and Yakuza Zero are what one would call a PlayStation exclusive.

[brew]

The goaloposts were moved though. Now you have to remove any games that are coming to PC (or going to end up on PC later).

I guess once that is done , the goalposts will be moved yet again. So now take out all of the PS3 or Vita games because now PC-Nintendo fanboys can pretend to have those systems already.

Once that is done , now take out all of the DL or F2P games.

Once that is done , now take out all of the games unlikely be be 80+ metacritic.

What are you left with ?

[Why o why]

Lol....
i get ya but yo be fair, games on pc aren't true true exclusives. I said the same last gen so its the same this gen. The term 'console exclusive', although once frowned upon, is an apt description. When it comes to true exclusives sony still have the edge. Cross gen titles blurs even more lines....these then become platform exclusives but I'm fine just calling them exclusives until someone can give me a compelling argument not to. Those claiming vita equivalent games deem their ps4 versions non exclusive are clutching at straws.

[SamPao]

Wooooa gimme a break! Thats a freakin lot can't wait!!! :D

[Vidyagames]

The exclusives give me a good excuse to buy all three consoles. I think third party exclusives are not beneficial to anybody, but first party certainly help give each console an identity. Which is "better" is purely subjective

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

Sonys Exclusives are always what sells me on Playstation!

[Illusive_Man]

Consoles have always had exclusives.

PC is a Microsoft platform. It should get a pass if some of its games overlap. Sony however is PLaystation only. The big exclusive lists you guys post are loaded with Steam games.

[DigitalRaptor]

Can we just end this "PC = Microsoft" bulls**t.

Microsoft makes NO MONEY from PC game sales unless they're publishing the game. That is a very rare thing unless Microsoft is making or funding the game.

So nope, you guys used the "not on PlayStation" mantra last-gen to try and use it as some kind of all fulfilling argument, and you're doing the same again. Why can PlayStation gamers not use the same logic if it means so much to you guys to exclude others? You can't use the PC to fight your battles when those games aren't on your Xbox.

I will be playing Killing Floor 2, SOMA, The Forest, H1Z1 and many more on PS4 and you won't. Additionally, PS4's library will be growing and growing with the addition of all these amazing looking games, and Xbox One will be limited to whatever MS deems acceptable for their "first class" gamers ( http://www.gamesindustry.bi... ).

The most amusing part of this, is that even if you remove the "Steam games", PS4 is STILL left with more exclusive games than the Xbox One.

[ShaunCameron]

Microsoft makes PC's like they make consoles? That's news to me.

[DougLord]

Console exclusives aren't necessary. They are a way for 2 nearly identical machines to compete, and its bad for all of us. But its the way of the world for now. When we go to streaming, the Devs will control everything.

Imagine if I could get one box and play Bloodborne, Halo MCC, SSOD, Forza Horizons 2, Halo 5, UC 4 etc... I only WANT to spend $300 once. I only want 1 box. I only want 1 online subscription. But alas I am screwed.

[ShaunCameron]

No it's not.

Yet another example of a gamer thinking he's entitled to something. I hate to break it to you but if that day comes, there's a good chance you're gonna be spending a hell lot more than $300 due to the absence of competition.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

Wait!! HOLD THE PHONE!!

Last gen Sony fans were all about PS3 got the exclusives games not on any other platforms not it don't matter.

But it matter with PS1-2 95% of the time nor the roles suddenly reversed.

Flip-flop

Xbox was never about exclusives til Phil came.