I guess the word “exclusive” has taken on a different meaning in this generation of consoles. Back in the early days, if a title was exclusive to one platform, that meant that the only way to play this game would be to buy the platform. Nintendo and Sega were battling for exclusives, so much to the point that each system was made up of nearly 100% exclusive titles. Many gamers will not remember this era, but Nintendo had a clause in their contractual agreements that if an intellectual property was on the NES – such as say, Batman - it could not be on other systems in any form. Yes, you read that correctly. Nintendo blocked the U.S. release of Sega’s 16-Bit Batman game – which was a different product entirely from what Sunsoft produced for the NES – because it could cause “confusion” among fans. The title was only available on the Sega Mega Drive in Japan, but eventual uproar from the gaming community – mainly EGM magazine – thwarted this rule and eventually it made it’s way to the Sega Genesis, opening the floodgates for cross-platform titles.
But back then, if you wanted to play all of the year’s hottest titles, you almost certainly had to buy more than one console. Today, I am a Playstation 3 gamer, whom dabbles in PC gaming when I have to. “When I have to” being the operative phrase here, because I know that I can pretty much play any 360 console “exclusive” on the PC, sooner or later. I got to experience great games like Gears Of War, Mass Effect, and Left 4 Dead via the PC. I even have the option of playing the Halo series via PC as well, but I’ll pass for now.
Remarkably, all of the above mentioned titles have been touted as “360 exclusives” – at least in a console sense – but the truth of the matter is that anyone with a decent PC can play them. Not being a fan of Microsoft in general, I can “buck the system” so to speak by playing these titles on my MacBook Pro, (partitioned with the Windows OS).
But even so, as a primarily Playstation 3 gamer, previous Xbox 360 exclusives have eventually made it to the PS3, eliminating the need to have to boot Windows at all. Case in point is Bioshock, which at one time was referred to by a 2Kgames forum admin saying, “there is no PS3 version of Bioshock. This has been explained time and again”. Except that there was….
360 “exclusive” DLC for Fallout 3 eventually came to PS3, as did “exclusive” downloadable titles like Braid, and on the horizon, we are seeing evidence about titles like Grand Theft Auto IV: Liberty City Stories coming for PS3 and Gears Of War 2 making it to PC. While there remains a chance that these titles will remain 360 exclusives, just like in the case of Bioshock, more and more evidence to the contrary keeps slipping out from day to day.
So the word “exclusive” has taken on new meaning this generation, or at least in the case of Microsoft’s Xbox. What it means now is that it’s exclusive for a little while, but if you wait a year or so, you can get the title for your PS3 or PC, respectively. And, it might even include some new content (i.e. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2). So take the word “exclusive” with a grain of salt now, especially when developers get caught saying key phrases like “at this time” and “we currently have no plans” for a port of your desired 360 exclusive.
To be fair, there’s a whole host of truly exclusive titles on the X-Box Live Arcade, such as Bubble Bobble Neo and Geometry Wars. This is fine, but those titles don’t sell systems, and won’t convince me to buy an Xbox anytime soon. The Playstation 3 instead has a large number of 100% exclusive Triple-A properties including Killzone, Uncharted, Gran Turismo, Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, that won’t be found on an Xbox or PC, ever – not to mention the biggest and best exclusive of all – games and movies on Blu-Ray.
Perhaps Project Natal can sway this jaded old gamer’s hand with some truly mind blowing technology to embrace the Microsoft machine, but as far as right now, I don’t think I’ll give that balding fat guy a hug anytime soon.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
I have some issues with the 360, among them is the reliability and the mounds of additional costs to the "core" experience. But damn this is a pretty good argument not to buy a 360, I of course do say you should but only if your friends have it and you like the games.
I don't want to wait for the innevitable PC release of a title like Gears 2, Fable 2 or Alan Wake and I think as time goes on MS will realise the need for more 360 "exclusive" support and I suspect more titles will never make it to PC, but as of now there aren't that many names exclusive to the 360.
Halo says hi
Why bother getting a PS3 for Uncharted 2 if I can just wait a few months and get it on PSP? There is no such thing as a PS3 exclusive.
The difference here is that there is no legitimate competition for Windows, but the Nintendo DS is obviously a much more complete system than the PSP. So why bother buying either of Sony's systems?
I think more factors weight heavier on console choices than just exclusives. Most people don't even pay attention to whether a game is exclusive or not, or even know what an exclusive game is.
People tend to gravitate to what is familiar to them. Madden, Call of Duty, Halo... games like that that sell year after year.
The good thing about the PS3 is that other than Halo, you can have access to all of the popular multiplatform games that usually outdo console exclusives. Especially now that the PS3 is at a more favorable price.
Although a lot of the games that are on the 360 are also on the PC, I guess the term should be "console exclusive." Not everyone has a pc that is good for gaming.