Say goodbye to third-party exclusives

Once a staple of the games market, the supply of platform-exclusive titles from third-party developers is drying up. Aylon Herbet from Gameplanet explains why this isn't such a bad thing...

[HighDefinition]

Please don`t remind me.

[Chandresh Patel]

Heavy Rain is looking ridiculously hawt

[jwatt]

That was a good read besides the fact that they left out Socom and Motorstorm2 as ps3 exclusives seeing that I'm just as hype for those games as I am for LBP and Resistance2. Plus Heavenly Sword does not fall into the same category as Lair and Haze. I do agree though that Third party exclusives are going to be hard to come by though.

[Viktor E]

Once Gears of War is announced for the Playstation 3,the stream of Tears from the small and endangered Xbox population will be used by Millions of Playstation 3 owners to sail to the Land of success

[RawPowah]

Can be accessed for Free ;) ?

[Bangadoshish]

No Monthly Subscription required XD

[Viktor E]

Will be a welcome addition to the growing Playstation 3 AAA game Library

[Viktor E]

They now have the ability to explore what lies within the successful Mountain that is the Playstation 3

[Lucas22]

isnt socom exculsive?

[HighDefinition]

Is 1st party.

So, of course.

[PimpHandStrong]

Zipper isnt making the next Socom...Slant Six is

[Panthers]

Socom is owned by Zipper and Sony though. They are getting Slant Six to make it because Zipper is busy with MAG.

[Silogon]

The thing I'm going to remember is this -

"So, Ps3 droids how does it feel to get our left overs?"

When talking about Bioshock and the eventual release of mass effect on the ps3.

And my question to those very same xbox only owners is going to be this -

"So, xbots, how does it feel getting ps3's left overs?"

When talking about the eventual release of mgs4 on the xbox 360 next year.

Everything has a double standard attached to it when it's something you support. Ever notice that? I never catch myself a "Sony stand alone blu-ray player guy" saying "Hey, wouldn't you like to watch X movie on your phillips dvd player?"

It's stupid. Imagine that. Imagine a world where say Batman the dark knight wouldn't play on anything other than a Sony dvd player cause it was exclusive.

See how absurd that sounds? At the same time, though, I fully support exclusive on systems so even I have a double standard and am, in this respect, a hypocrite.

[UnSelf]

admission of guilt automatically qualifies u for a bubble.

enjoy Silo

[dro]

i predict ur confused!! i always see ur comments and u dont know were ur mind is,one day ur making a positive comment about the ps3 the next day ur a 360 fan boi or u will act none bias then u go back to the ps3 and today ur comment just makes no sense!!! (-_-)

[RawPowah]

There's just too much money to be made from making games Multi platform Vs making them for a single platform.

This is why the "Mass Effect 1 is coming to the Ps3" announcement is just around the corner

[Peekay]

I guess MGS4 - the last true great third party exclusive?

[Breakfast]

Dont take too many bubbles.

[butterfinger]

at this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see MGS4 on a 360 or Gears 1 or 2 running on a PS3 in the future. We would be more likely to see MGS4 on a 360 it would seem, since Microsoft has made it very clear that they are trying to neutralize Sony's exclusives now.

[Chandresh Patel]

Actually,such a World exists;Batman;the Dark Knight,will only be released for Sony and partners format,that is,Blu Ray...

So technically,without a product made by Sony,you won't be watching the Dark Knight in full Hi Def glory///

[butterfinger]

that is how it has always worked. A company or group introduces a new format, and the format either succeeds and becomes the standard or falls apart and becomes worthless. Didn't Toshiba lead a group of companies in the introduction of DVD back in the day or something like that?

[SmokingMonkey]

your right they should release batman DK on HD-DVD too!....aaaaawwwwwww
TOO SOON?

[Bangadoshish]

Will be bundled alongside Mass Effect 2 for the Ps3

[mistertwoturbo]

I think what Exclusives mean to people who really care about games, is the quality and content. People have a double standard for exclusive games because they are in general more superior than multi-platform games on the same system. It can also be argued, that exclusives really push the boundaries of the console their on. It allows the developer to focus solely optimizing on that one console.

However when a game like Haze comes out, and it's exclusive to one system (which happens to be the PS3). People have expectations that it better have sex with them at night. But obviously, the actual game came out lacking.

If it was a multiplatform title, it would have just been tossed in the "no-buy" group of multiplatform games like Turning Point, Conflict, etc.

[AmericanPsycho23]

But you can't just say Haze was a bad game because if it would of came out around the time the PS3 first shipped or even on the PS2, it probably would have done better and had better reviews. I just think that with games like Resistance, Halo3, Bioshock, and Call of Duty 4 it just changed most views of what a FPS can do or be

[mistertwoturbo]

Actually you're right about that. I'm sure Free Radical was in a tough spot when they decided to delay the game. There's probably a whole lot of things they wanted to fix before releasing.

But personally, I think either way Haze was screwed. Either release an unfinished game and get bad review scores. Or release a finished game that didn't meet people's current expectations and get bad review scores anyway (which is what happened).

Now if they would have released the same game as it is now, pre-call of duty 4, Bioshock, etc. Then yeah it would probably have done a lot better in people's expectations.

But now it goes back to our topic of exclusivity. Even then, being a PS3 exclusive it still would have had a double standard. People still would hate the 1024x576 resolution. People will continue to blame Sony and the PS3 for haze lacking in graphics.

Haze would have just been better off as a multiplatform title. Being exclusive to PS3 basically doomed itself.

I played Haze, and as much as people hate it. It's still playable and better than Turning point, Conflict, and Jericho. So if it was a multiplatform title, people could brush off the resolution. And stop blaming the PS3 and sony.

[PimpHandStrong]

are good

but whatever

i will know what i want and what i like when buying a game.

[butterfinger]

to see third party exclusives being phased out. Since I have a PS3 and 360, I generally look forward to the exclusives as they are usually of a higher quality (of course). If we are going to start to see the end of third party exclusives, I'm afraid many games will underachieve in the future. However, I expect that we will also see a substantial increase in first and second party exclusives to make up for it. After all, these companies know that exclusives can really push the consumer in one direction or the other.

[Closing]

It just means I would get to play Gears on my ps3. Also If thats the case then xbox has some serious catching up to do on the 1st party market from the other two brand consoles.

[Peekay]

I recommend everyone to read the article. It's one of the most intelligent and balanced articles I've read in a while.

[RAM MAGNUMS]

Exclusives are the games you keep.

[chrisnick]

y did they only list 2 exclusives for the ps3?......idiot.

[Zerodin]

"Vagina! Vagina! Vagina! Vagina!"
...no wait, it was "Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!"

[ThatCanadianGuy]

Wow..your really losing it buddy..

Kinda like balmer.. http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[juuken]

Well written article.

I'm sad to see 3rd party exclusives go but that's the way it is now. 1st party exclusives seem to matter the most these days and I'm sure Sony will in fact deliver on that. Hopefully Microsoft can also come up with their own exclusives as well.

[Breakfast]

I dont believe you.

:)

[juuken]

That's nice.
I didn't ask for your input. :]

[Breakfast]

Make sure you ask for my input next time.

[juuken]

I'll be sure not to dear.

[Tacki]

Anyone notice they left out PS3 exclusives such as SOCOM: Confrontation, Moterstorm 2: Pacific Rift, Valkyria Chronicles, and Disgaea 3?

And on the Xbox 360 side they left out Infinite Undiscovery. Really L4D isn't exactly exclusive (appearing on PC) and they could have slipped that one in its place. Though I'll admit you can argue that it's at least exclusive when it comes to the consoles so I'm not trying to say it NEEDS to be removed.

Anyway... I just noticed those things were missing. And I do think we'll still see SOME third-party exclusives, but not as many as past years and most likely from smaller developers.

[AmericanPsycho23]

I was just thinking the same thing, and don't forget about Tekken 6. Its still supposed to be out in 08( keeping fingers crossed).

[mistertwoturbo]

Motorstorm. Sony bought Evolution Studios back in 2007.

[Lord Vader]

The most intelligent article I've read on this site in a LONG time.

"But with luck, we - the gamers - will be the victors in the end."

[yoshiroaka]

In the xbox360 life cycle so far microsoft has only one exclusive game that is really worth talking about. That is halo 3. Every other game they have has or will come out for pc in the near future. Gears of war, fable, too human, mass effect...sony effectively has more exclusives than the 360 if you count PC as a platform.

[MvmntInGrn]

They forgot ALOT of PS3 exclusives.

As posted above:

SOCOM: Confrontation (very popular Ps2 series)
Motorstorm 2: Pacific Rift (first sold 3 mil +)
Valkyria Chronicles
Disgaea 3

[gumgum99]

perhaps the best article thus far in N4G when it comes to the Xbox and Playstation

at first I thought it was bias as an 360 fan article when it stated that Xbox had the better list this year, but quickly balances it out later in the article by taking a jab back at MS when it came to exclusives coming next year with Sony holding the upper hand.

let this be an example to all future writers on how an article should be done. Its about taking both sides and not picking favorites.

[CouchKing0]

Bubbles for cool video! Damn that was hilarious.

"Say goodbye to third-party exclusives" Ya, because Micro$oft is buying them all! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA CRY MORE XBOTS, YOUR TEARS MIGHT COOL DOWN YOUR XCRAP 3FIXME!!

[Figboy]

SOCOM: Confrontation
Wipeout HD
Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
Valkyria Chronicles
Disgaea 3
Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty

for the PS3 list of exclusives yet to release this year.

anyway, third party exclusives aren't dead.

with MGS4 selling 4 million units on the PS3, developers/publishers see that the PS3 is just as capable as the 360 in bringing in sales for exclusive titles.

with the PS3 also being a viable console in all THREE major territories, and not just one (ie, the 360 failing miserably in Japan, doing pretty good in the UK, and doing very good in the US), developers/publishers with a worldwide strategy may gear themselves towards the PS3 for exclusives.

sure, the Wii has the largest install base, and is also selling like mad in all three major territories, but what games were highlighted at E3 this year? what games have people frothing at the mouth? games like Prince of Persia, Mercenaries 2, Fallout 3, etc. games that are pushing technology in a way the Wii just CAN'T. the two more powerful consoles outclass it in every way on the technical front, and as developers harness that power, and the prices of those consoles drop, i just don't think the Wii will be able to keep up.

another factor is the very hardware itself. as more and more high profile developers start to make their concerns of disc space, high multi-disc license fees, and being unable to use the HDD for caching known, more and more high profile devs may just say, "screw it. we're not going to compromise our vision just for multi-platform status," and move development to the PS3.

already, a few devs, like LucasArts, Criterion, Pandemic, EA, etc, are moving to the PS3 as the lead model for development on future titles. Mercenaries 2 is leading on the PS3, as is Ghostbusters, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and Mirror's Edge.

it's possible that developers that love to push the technology like id software with RAGE, may just throw up their hands if Microsoft remains stubborn, and Nintendo continues to reap the benefit of high sales for their OWN games, and not third parties, and move to PS3 exclusively because of the FREEDOM the platform allows; open network, no HDD restrictions, no disc space restrictions, no need to worry about high licensing fees for multiple discs (because, for the most part, more than one disc won't be necessary). the only difficulty expressed by the majority of developers out there is that the PS3 is difficult to program for. but that issue is resolved over time with knowledge and experience.

even Rockstar has stated, more than once, that LA Noire is a PS3 exclusive (for now), because of things like Blu Ray, and their NEXT big franchise not related to GTA or LA Noire, will be PS3 exclusive because they want to push the technology, including the large capacity of a Blu Ray disc.

Rockstar is third party, so this whole, "say goodbye to third-party exclusives" thing is, honestly, pointless.

in truth, back during the SNES and Genesis "wars," there weren't THAT many exclusives that weren't published or created by Nintendo and SEGA. the two consoles had most of the same games. flagships like Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog were, naturally exclusive, but first party.

it's only because the PS1 and PS2 were so dominant, and developers so eager to throw their money behind the technology (CD over N64 cartridge, DVD over the Gamecube's proprietary disc. the Xbox had DVD also, and a few devs went with the more powerful Xbox), that it seemed like third party exclusivity was important. and the fact that some of the most classic gaming franchises in the modern day gaming industry were spawned on Playstation consoles (Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy's mainstream boom began with FFVII on the PS1, etc, etc), that the Playstation brand became synonymous with certain classic series.

but Sony has carved quite a few classic series themselves that will carry the system, even if all third parties go multi-platform; Gran Turismo, SOCOM, Wipeout, Twisted Metal, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Buzz, Singstar, Sly Cooper, Resistance, Uncharted, Motorstorm, Level 5 RPGs like Dark Cloud, Rogue Galaxy, God of War, etc.

but like i said before, many developers may flock to the PS3 because of the technology (Blu Ray, HDD, Cell Processor), and those devs that actually strive to push technology forward may choose the PS3 over the 360, not because the 360 couldn't bring about their vision on the CPU/GPU angle, but on the "can't require a hdd, and we ran out of room on a DVD, and more DVDs cost a LOT in fees," angle.

the PS3 is becoming the lead platform for development almost by default (not including the PC, as all games are made on the PC first anyway), and as more developers get familiar with the consoles architecture (and with devs like Sony Santa Monica, Guerrilla Games, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, etc lending a hand), they will get used to the difficulties, and it won't become so difficult anymore. the same thing happened with the PS2, where developers/publishers whined incessantly about how the PS2 wasn't developer friendly, expensive, and tech support was atrocious, mainly due to the language barrier between the Sony techs in Japan, and the developers in the US/UK. support this time around is better, and there are tools in place to help devs get through the rough spots.

i don't care much about games going multi-platform, as long as the quality of the game DOESN'T suffer due to multi-platform status.

[mistertwoturbo]

Man, I want to read your comment. But it's just so long. i'll read the last paragraph :)

[Figboy]

i'm pretty sure the last paragraph sums it up in a way to make the first, what, eleventy billion unnecessary.

thanks for trying though. bubbles to you!

[vdesai]

Microsoft ruins what it touches. Im sure you can all agree with me on that one.

[SmokingMonkey]

Looks like SONY is dictating the gaming industry...still.
(yet ever1 still thought FF13 (3rd party) going multiplat was a big deal...and they will again when MGS4 goes on 4 discs.) This was inevitable and SONY knew it, that's why they beefed up their 1st party BIG TIME! (Zipper,Insomniac,TeamICO....i 'll stop there ;)
(i don't count the wii, because they're just ps2 games, don't believe me? Bully!, Tenchu4!, MonsterHunter3!, and many more...the Wii would be just as successful if all it played was WiiSports....so i don't get bashed...i like my Wii for the virtual console and Nintendos, wait for it........1st party titles!)

[badz149]

Insomniac is not sony's btw

[Cajun Chicken]

Signed up, Good article any very good points there FigBoy. The 360 appears to be a console purely built up on exclusivity. This exclusivity does not behave much like Sony's or Nintendo's exclusivity, because bit by bit, its becoming clear that MS just give bags of cash to maintain on top. Things are changing now, people are seeing through the smokescreen that MS created.
For a start. I'm infuriated how much these '360 fanboys' praise the console so much, mainly for the reason, I owned an Xbox. MS conveniently made a machine that 'canceled' the existence of the original Xbox an insult to me as an adopter to the console. I then learnt trust through Sony because, face it, they develop some pretty damned original IPs and own great developers, this is MS's main weakness right now. MS game studios is a fraction of the size of SCE's dedicated world development units, people are also realizing, they just don't want to blast the crap out of each other online, nor just have games with 'big guns', basically, Sony always offered the inbetween of what MS (the PC) and Nintendo offered, last of all... Insomniac are just about the only company brave enough to make a quality cartoon'y, childsafe, goreless, 3D platformer on a next gen console, thats a hell of a risk in this day of age, well done Sony, well done, good luck for the future; redefine gaming with LBP, put a fun tool that parents and children can use alike in the same room.
As for MS, buck your ideas up, we need more Crackdown, EDF, platformers, action games, less purely online focused games and games that don't count on massive big guns and no personality, far, far cheaper if not free online gaming or they're out of the game as far as I'm concerned as Gears of War and Halo does not solve everything and right now, MS is discovering that exclusivity isn't as it used to be, exclusivity does not mean 'instant hit' I can only see them making the 'Brute Force' (The next Halo, apparently) mistake again at this rate or fall flat and lose image in an act of desperation for gaining the casual (FAMILY) audience.

[badz149]

we'll see more 3rd party exclusive when one between 360 and PS3 dominate the market! this theory was true last gen and will be true this gen! PS2 is not as powerful as XBOX or maybe GC, which both came out later but it dominated the market! thus 3rd parties went PS2's way and left XBOX and GC in the dust! there is still quite plent of thing going on this gen between 360 and PS3 and I'm not predicting it will end soon! give it a couple more years and we'll see 3rd party exclusives coming to the dominating console!!

[nomad117]

Microsoft needs more 1st party developers.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...