The console wars are coming back, whether we wanted it or not

Sony’s and Microsoft’s studio acquisitions spell the return of exclusive games.

[FTLmaster]

Exclusives never went anywhere tho

[isarai]

Exactly, WTF is this author goin on about? Also suggesting that the PS4 generation was the only time they really focused on exclusives? Like bud, the PS1 ps2 and PS3 were the same story. Sony has just been doing what literally every great console manufacturer has been doing, from Nintendo, to Sega and yes Playstation, exclusives are what has and always will make the console, MS has just been the outlier for like a decade now.

The "console wars" never went away, neither did the importance or existence of exclusives. MS just wasnt up to par, and still isnt till we see what these acquisitions start delivering. This article is stupid and trying its best to not make MSs lack of trying for the past 10yrs or so look bad, but i was bad, it was a problem, if it wasn't they wouldn't have spent billions making acquisitions to try and fix it.

[CorndogBurglar]

Yep. 100% agree. Exclusives are always extremely important. All one needs to do is look at the Xbox 360 and PS3 generation.

The 360 was beating the PS3 in sales for most of the generation. There are other reasons, like the 360 having over a year head start and people being mad that the PS3 launched at $600. So yeah, that hurt them. But at some point during the 360's run they stopped putting out exclusives. Their generation started strong with all kinds of good exclusives. But as soon as that slowed down, PS3 was able overtake them and beat MS in sales by the end of the gen.

And MS never really understood what happened because they announced the Xbone with all those anti-consumer tactics, and then spent all last gen NOT putting out any exclusives lol.

We all see how that played out. Which is why they started acquiring all these studios.

Exclusives never went anywhere. MS just didn't realize their importance and stopped putting them out.

[IRetrouk]

I agree with what you are saying, but worldwide the ps3 was outselling the 360, and if you actually launch align them, the ps3 was selling more from day 1.

[YodaCracker]

@CorndogBurglar

That is simply not true about the 360’s sales slowing down due to the number of exclusives. The 360’s highest sales were in 2010-2012 after Kinect’s launch and when people would argue they were releasing fewer exclusives.

Source: https://www.statista.com/st...

Notice the large increase in sales starting in 2010, the year Kinect launched.

[DOMination-]

I'm guessing the point of the article is aimed more at first party but I want to raise a wider point that I have observed over the years.

Take a look back at the generation with PS2/GameCube/Dreamcast and Xbox. Of course there were multiplats but each of those consoles have really diverse libraries of games, with a good mix of first, second and third parties. Of course, PS2 reigned supreme and had thousands but the other consoles had hundreds of unique exclusives too. Even the first 12-18 months of PS3/X360 both systems had lots of third party exclusives each. But then as gaming became mainstream that gen the exclusives dried up pretty quickly.

Today the XSX and PS5 are essentially cloneboxes. With the exception of a few games a year (and please understand, I am not downplaying Sony or Xbox Game Studios here) they are basically the same. Games are so expensive to make and take so long to develop, third parties no longer want to take the risk which is fair enough.

IMO things are not sustainable as they are. Either two things will happen. 1. Sony and Microsoft get together in future and make one console together. That's good for them and for third parties but could end up being terrible to consumers with a severe lack of competition. Or 2. Gaming truly enters the conglomerate age and Sony/MS start acquiring Embracer levels of studios. That way they will have the ability to release more regular content. MS will need it anyway for GamePass and I'm sure one day Sony will have a similar service. I also wouldn't rule out Embracer having an end goal of being a console maker with that portfolio of studios. And as much as people may hate it, I wouldn't rule out Apple/Amazon/Google still playing a part - if any of them actually became serious about gaming they have the cash to do it.

PS4 and PS5 might just be the best consoles ever. And Sony made some amazing games for them. But the generations they were a part of were some of the dullest in gaming history.

[IRetrouk]

"Take a look back at the generation with PS2/GameCube/Dreamcast and Xbox..."

The exclusives never dried up on the ps3, it was more towards the middle and end where they actually really started to push their exclusives, so don't really agree with your point here, there were still plenty of third and second party releases too, exclusive and timed.

"Today the XSX and PS5 are essentially cloneboxes..."

They have only been out for 8 months, give em a chance lol.

"IMO things are not sustainable as they are. Either two things will happen. 1..."

That will never happen, and also doesn't need to, both ms and sony are making more revenue and profits from gaming than ever before, infact sony is setting records with revenue and profit in gaming, they do not need to come together.

"2. Gaming truly enters the conglomerate age..."

Gonna happen anyway as part of the gaming landscape getting bigger and bigger, I do see others trying to enter the market, they will need plenty of content to catch the big 3 though.. could be very difficult to break into.

Services are not the way forward for gaming, they are and should be a side dish to your mains, sony know this, so even though sony already has ps now, they won't ever push it above their games because their games sell. They do not need to copy ms day 1 releases because of this.

"PS4 and PS5 might just be the best consoles ever....."

Sorry but don't agree, some of the best gaming moments and jumps have come from those gens, not just from sony either but ms and nintendo too.

[oldenjon]

@IRetrouk I don't agree. Game Pass is growing rapidly, and constitutes a killer app the likes of one we haven't seen in the industry. Unless Sony does something to respond, it's going to take signifiant market and mind share away from them, and set a new precedent for consumer value that will inevitably hurt sales. The longer it waits the longer it will take to catch up. Sony knows this, that's why we got the PS plus collection at launch.

[IRetrouk]

We know nothing about gamepass numbers other than the ones ms hands out, and they have never once told us active user base, just an overall number of subs.... ps now was doing the whole sub for loads of games thing before ms was, so it has been seen in gaming before lol, stop the cap.

It's taking nothing away from playstation at all, record breaking profits from 2018 untill today proves this, gamepass has had no effect on playstation at all.

Ps plus collection was for new ps5 owners, it had nothing to do with gamepass at all lol, what a reach.

Services have their place, but as the main way to game? Na.

[jonny897]

The desperation for clicks never went away for these sites.

[lelo2play]

Don't understand what they are talking about...
Console wars never went away.
Exclusive games never went away.

[Flawlessmic]

When did it leave?

Console wars are great for competition and ensuring we get the best value as customers, as they keep trying go one up each other.

We as gamers win in the end, i mean u can see it happening already, sony absolutely spanked microsoft last gen and and to rectify that MS had to spend a whole lot of money and step up there game, which will mean xbox owners will have plenty to play soon and will be happy.

Sony in turn will keep stepping there game up.

[gold_drake]

sigh.

[BrainSyphoned]

This just in, Polygon doesn't actully pay attention to video game news. Or write it.

[garos82]

lmao Polygon writing articles pretending they know what they are on about.

[Elda]

Gaming consoles will always have exclusives,that is what differentiates each console.

[Terry_B]

ok.

[Retroman]

"Console Wars coming back"
When did it leave?? and where did it go??
Competition will keep it alive.

[ScootaKuH]

They've never gone away. Although this PlayStation VS Xbox war has nothing on the SNES vs Mega Drive. That was the console war to end all console wars.

Side note: SNES is better 😏

[DJStotty]

Mega drive is better, we have megaCD!!!

(attempting to revive an age old console war) :p

[ScootaKuH]

No! SNES and Super FX beats Blast Processing any day!

Mind you, blast processing does sound better

[DJStotty]

Lol, in all fairness, i ended up with both consoles in the end :p

[thecodingart]

What a clickbait load of crap article. Nothing has changed people, move along.

[CYALTR]

Yet you comment, so I guess it was successful. People will never learn

[Nuvem]

It's not successful unless we click on the news site. Just commenting here is the best way to not give them clicks.

[CYALTR]

More comments attract higher placement on this site which brings more attention. More attention=more people=more opportunities to get clicks. Best bet with something you don't want to get clicks...just don't click or comment on it!!

[MadLad]

N4G enjoys it.

[Imortus_san]

Never felt they stop anytime ever since the Zx Spectrum vs C64.

[Thundercat77]

Mediocre article.

[dbcoops]

"the return of exclusive games."

What return? Sony always has had exclusive games.

[DJStotty]

Really strange article :-

1) the console war never went anywhere so can not come back?
2) neither did exclusives (at least on Playstation)

And that is just by reading the title and description, did not even need to click.

[IRetrouk]

When did exclusives go away🤔

[DJStotty]

They kinda did on xbox, i think the author is just running with that and throwing PS's name in the hat as well to see what they come out with lol.

[IRetrouk]

Kinda but they still had exclusive releases too, maybe not enough variation for a while, but they never went completely away, I hate these articles man😂

[NeoGamer232]

I would argue the definition of exclusives is shifting. Exclusive only meant one platform for a long time, but now it can be more then one. Console fans are getting more and more desperate on the definition of exclusivity and now calling it console exclusivity more and more because PS is shipping more and more games on more PC too. Of course XB has been on PC for almost a full generation now.

There are very few games that only ship on one platform exclusively now (Outside of Nintendo).

[IRetrouk]

How many games has sony released on pc so far? 4 or 5 maybe? most of their games are exclusive to playsation, either to ps5 or to the ps4 and 5(I actually don't care if they release on pc, infact I would prefer it, leads to more sales, support, funds for next game)

console exclusivity was a term started by xbox fans from what I recall, they are now using ecosystem exclusive, not sure why you are pinning that one on playstation fans lol

Again sony still publish plenty of exclusives not just nintendo lol

[NeoGamer232]

@iRetrouk
It is not about how many games get released on PC, it is more about the quality of those games, and they are all high quality (in my opinion). And I have no problems with it. In fact, I want all the games on all the platforms. Every gamer should be able to play any game and like you said that helps the developers get more money for the next game.

Console exclusivity did start with XB for sure, and I wasn't trying to peg it as a PS thing, but over zealous fans on both XB and PS are getting more and more desperate to find games that are truly exclusive, so they keep falling back to the next definition and right now that is console exclusivity. Until Horizon PS fans were firm that exclusivity was all about only shipping on a single platform, but now all of a sudden, it is fine to also ship on PC.

Sony does publish a lot of exclusives. Nintendo publishes the most exclusives as a percentage of their output... 100%, Sony has moved to about 75%, and XB is 0% (All their games ship on PC as well).

[IRetrouk]

All fair points, and points taken, we actually seem to be on the same wave length more than I original thought, I appreciate you taking the time to explain your view better to me👊

[Outlawzz]

BEAST WARS!!! RAWRRRRSHHHH!!!

[sourOG]

Xbox is competitive again lol. That’s a good thing… I asked for that…

The “console war” as in goobers taking jabs at each other in the comments never stopped and it never will. These peoples boredom has no bottom level.

[Rainbowcookie]

Rip van winkel ?? It's been months. 3+ Major brands looking for market share. Fans looking for their favourite franchise.

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

Can these publications stop pretending they're over console wars and console wars are beneath them??
They literally THRIVE off them! They're the ones keeping it alive.

[John_McClane]

Click bait.

[Knightofelemia]

There will always be console wars what it comes down to is who can produce the eye catching, jaw dropping, holy shit I have to have it exclusives.

[Nuvem]

hmmm when did they went away? Are you sure you're a gaming journalist?