Let's Talk About Sony's Timed Exclusives and Lack of Disclosures

Nightengale said:
Not for ROTR.

ROTR is a case study of how not to do it, where Xbox tried to take a mile and stretch it ten miles, and honestly, that incident made me lose a lot of respect for Xbox and Phil Spencer, since it highlights how deep the rabbit hole they were willing to go to defend and spin their way around timed exclusivity.

I wrote this a long time ago in an already closed thread, so I can't quote it, but here goes:
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This. The timed exclusive was never the biggest problem here their communication for that hasn't been topped yet. It's like ppl forgot why exactly it caught so much steam
 
What´s all this about Nioh? I thought it was a PS4 exclusive.

soyouretellingmetheresachance.gif

dude said:
There's something to be said about the Nier Automata fiasco as well. I mean, we're days from launch and it seems like the people working on the game are banned from even mentioning the PC version under the threat of death.
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Yeah that´s just sad.
 
lupinko said:
The Yakuza games besides the one time Nintendo moneyhat test on WiiU are PlayStation only games. Not because of Sony moneyhats but because Nagoshi only deems his babies to be PlayStation games.

That and when the series was first conceptualized, Nintendo and Microsoft turned it down or something. So there's also that brand loyalty too.
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Wasn't it leaked that Sega wanted money hat from Ms and when declined they went for Sony which did moneyhat them?
 
I mentioned this somewhere before, but I speculate that Sony's PR tries to keep this sort of stuff under wraps to ensure a higher preorder/day one turnout.

If the average customer sees Nier Automata and wants to play it, if they already own both a PS4 and PC, chances are they're going to pick up the PS4 version because that's the only platform it's being marketed on. They aren't going to skip it day one and hope that it gets an eventual PC release. If that PC date gets announced and it's, say six months away, Nier could've already gone on sale for $30 and that same consumer might not be interested in getting the PC release at full price because the value proposition is skewed.

Back during my Gamestop days, I'd always have customers around the launch of a game say they're 'waiting for the PC release' or 'waiting for the definitive edition' if it was a Bethesda game. And within the next few days, they'd be back to pick up whatever that game was (assuming we weren't sold out of it since launch)
 
With all of these companies, you can learn more from what they don't say than what they do say.

I do genuinely believe that the "labels" thing is an attempt at them being transparent but they just keep fucking the placement up. I mean, maybe I'm giving them too much credit here, but I feel like if they wanted to be sly and underhand they wouldn't have so many different labels to begin with.
 
GhostTrick said:
Lol, seriously ?
Ace Combat 7 was only announced for PS4 for more than a year. Even the producer was evasive on the platform choice.
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Yet every thread with both ace combat 7&ni no kuni2 consisted of can't wait to play on Xbox and nx(at the time) go take a look. They never said it was exclusive, and they aren't going to talk about other platforms either. That's the publishers job so like I said ppl keep comparing this stuff to tomb raider go right ahead
 
Zemm said:
And making sure the publishers aren't allowed to say anything either.

At this point MS and Sony are as bad as each other.
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Shhh, this doesn't fit the narrative.

Third party exclusivity, timed exclusivity and shady communication has become a norm in the games industry, unfortunately.

The only good kind of 'money hatter's exclusivity is bayo2 where the game would not exist if not for Nintendo.
 
Zemm said:
And making sure the publishers aren't allowed to say anything either.

At this point MS and Sony are as bad as each other.
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Both companies has their issues in regards to this matter.

But personally? As long as they're not lying or attempting to be legitimately deceitful, I don't care because fundamentally I don't trust 3rd-party games to be permanently exclusive unless the highest level execs are willing to parade that exclusivity consistently.

Games like Crash where I don't hear a whiff of the word exclusive? I will assume it's not exclusive, or won't be a permanent one, because I don't hear the magical "e" word.

However, if it ends up being an actual exclusive, then I'm all that bothered either.

Which is why I find a lot more issue with Sony's shitty product labellings, (Only on PlayStation has a huge implication and is a front-center branding) and their terrible inconsistency with it. Don't fucking use it if you aren't going to be strict about it.
 
black070 said:
What Diablo 3 situation ? Announcing other platforms 3-4 months before release ?
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Not announcing right away, and then  after all the hype and mind share goes to playstation it's announced to other platforms close to release, yes.

And it wasn't just xb1, it was the same for ps3 and 360, which IIRC had the announcement way closer than launch.

Also, remember when Assassins Creed was going to be a ps3 exclusive? 
 
Blackleg-sanji1 said:
Yet every thread with both ace combat 7&ni no kuni2 consisted of can't wait to play on Xbox and nx(at the time) go take a look. They never said it was exclusive, and they aren't going to talk about other platforms either. That's the publishers job so like I said ppl keep comparing this stuff to tomb raider go right ahead
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Those games not even timed exclusive or anything.
 
Blackleg-sanji1 said:
Yet every thread with both ace combat 7&ni no kuni2 consisted of can't wait to play on Xbox and nx(at the time) go take a look. They never said it was exclusive, and they aren't going to talk about other platforms either. That's the publishers job so like I said ppl keep comparing this stuff to tomb raider go right ahead
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Not when publisher is banned from doing so, that's the point of this topic. What they are doing is deliberately create ambiguity around some titles to make them appear exclusive without ever explicitly saying they are or not.
 
Sony doesn't tell you when a game isn't exclusive but they don't dance around the term for months to maintain the doubt for as long as they can.

It's not their job to promote games on other platforms than their own.

That's why they don't get much flak.
 
People aren't as annoyed because they don't outright lie like the RotTR thing. It's a degree below, and so the complaints are less in turn.

Although I'm not sure what world you live in where people don't complain about Sony's "console exclusive" labels.
 
get2sammyb said:
With all of these companies, you can learn more from what they don't say than what they do say.

I do genuinely believe that the "labels" thing is an attempt at them being transparent but they just keep fucking the placement up. I mean, maybe I'm giving them too much credit here, but I feel like if they wanted to be sly and underhand they wouldn't have so many different labels to begin with.
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There's absolutely no quality control between regions for that labels.

And ultimately putting that on any 3rd-party game is fundamentally not true because even if a game is exclusive for 10 years, it can come out elsewhere eventually.

It's honestly more honest to just leave it blank, even if the game is a bonafide exclusive, because those exclusivity choices were made by the 3rd-party, not by Sony.
 
miladesn said:
Not when publisher is banned from doing so, that's the point of this topic.
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Well the point of this topic would be baseless speculation at best. Only thing we're sure of is the tomb raider situation. Marketing,third party deals etc have been going on so long from these companies it's a whatever thing until you start lying than its a problem

Eumi said:
People aren't as annoyed because they don't outright lie like the RotTR thing. It's a degree below, and so the complaints are less in turn.

Although I'm not sure what world you live in where people don't complain about Sony's "console exclusive" labels.
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Their labels however are some absolute bull agreed
 
Shari said:
Sony's trick is basically to pay thirds to not to speak/promote about them launching games on other platforms.

FTFY.

It hurts the publisher getting less copies on the other platforms thanks to no marketing and the customer by disallowing information thus making decision making really hard.
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Are you joking .
Those deal cost a lot of money and Sony pays for a big part of marketing .
For big titles it also means bundles which is guaranteed cash for the Pub .
3rd parties won't be making those deals if they were not getting something from them .
 
Blackleg-sanji1 said:
Yet every thread with both ace combat 7&ni no kuni2 consisted of can't wait to play on Xbox and nx(at the time) go take a look. They never said it was exclusive, and they aren't going to talk about other platforms either. That's the publishers job so like I said ppl keep comparing this stuff to tomb raider go right ahead
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Fairly certain there was a thread abou nnk2 NOT being exclusive as soon as it was announced.
And why people keep comparing coy marketing to tomb raider is beyond me.
Rotr for those that don't remember was announced as a multiplat. One year later they said its an xbox exclusive. Then a couple months before the release they backtracked and announced a ps4 version.
Obviously dony isnt gonna go out of their way to announce a pc version of a game when they are providing a 3rd party dev their stage and marketing backbone. Devs comply because that stage is big and more often than not these games are likliest to sell the best on ps4.
 
Footos22 said:
Do the labels on a box matter? Your either going to buy it or you aren't anyway. Different regions use different covers/ labels. This isn't anything new.

UMvC never once said "only on playstation" so why you've included it in this is beyond me.

Crash bandicoot was never announced as exclusive in any way shape or form officially. I see no wrong here,its not like they are openly going to say "oh yeah" don't buy it on PS4 buy it on a competitors console instead"

FFVII was always announced as first on PS.

This thread is pointless to be honest.
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There was LITERALLY a thread on this yesterday where the official PS Ireland account tweeted it was exclusive to PS4, only to have the message pulled hours later.

So yes they said it was via an official channel then were forced to make a correction.

Also: Nier automata - what's up wth the PC version hijinks
 
I always thought the biggest problem with that Tomb Raider deal was how shitty it was for SE to take it. They had a pretty successful reboot of the series then chop it off at the knees by not releasing it for a year on the bigger user base console and when they do it's full price. Was a shit way to handle that franchise.

Platform exclusives and timed exclusives are a necessary evil I figured people would be used to by now. Time warp back to the Snes and Genesis days and some of you would be having absolute fits with the shenanigans going on back then.
 
The lack of disclosure is for everything and everyone, even the smallest thing.

When The Game Baker's Furi was announced on Xbox One in October with one new boss (a big deal for a game like this) the little french studio was not able to hint anything about if and how the content would reach the PS4 and PC versions of the game.

We only learned last week that the new boss will indeed come to PS4 and PC as a paid DLC.

Every game that is coming first on PC/Xbox One would also be very quiet when asked about other platform. Haven't been checking their Twitter after the announcement, but Did Cellar Door Games gave any hint/answer about Full Metal Furies on PS4 for example ?

Also I can't believe how much people seriously think Sony has anything to do about the Nier Automata PC situation :D
 
LukasTaves said:
Also, remember when Assassins Creed was going to be a ps3 exclusive? 
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Um.

On Assassin's Creed, it's probably due to Ubisoft realising that the 360 had a better market share than the PS3 at that point.

Probably Ubisoft's decision not to make the game console exclusive anymore, because that would be stupid with how popular the Xbox 360 was in the west.
 
SlipperyFishes said:
There was LITERALLY a thread on this yesterday where the official PS Ireland account tweeted it was exclusive to PS4, only to have the message pulled hours later.

So yes they said it was via an official channel then were forced to make a correction.
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That was clearly a mistake by some small guy from their pr. They deleted it almost immediately and then corrected it a couple of days later.
 
Yeah, where did Nioh come into the mix?

The very first screen is "Sony Interactive Entertainment Presents"
 
I don't get it. Are Sony barring Pubs from mentioning other platforms in exchange for money? Why wouldn't a publisher want to announce they're coming to as many platforms as possible?
 
LukasTaves said:
Not announcing right away, and then  after all the hype and mind share goes to playstation it's announced to other platforms close to release, yes.

And it wasn't just xb1, it was the same for ps3 and 360, which IIRC had the announcement way closer than launch.

Also, remember when Assassins Creed was going to be a ps3 exclusive? 
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- It was announced at the PS4 reveal in Febuary 2013 for PS3/PS4
- PS3/360 release date announced in June 2013
- PS3/360 release in September 2013
- PS4/XBO release date announced in May 2014
- PS4/XBO release in August 2014

For reference, it would be the same amount of time between the Crash trilogy's release date and it's release as it was the announcement of the XBO version of Diablo 3 and it's release. Had they announced an XBO release of Crash, would you feel it were done too close to release ?

Also, I'm not aware of the Assassins Creed situation.
 
FlutterPuffs said:
Um.

On Assassin's Creed, it's probably due to Ubisoft realising that the 360 had a better market share than the PS3 at that point.

Probably Ubisoft's decision not to make the game console exclusive anymore, because that would be stupid with how popular the Xbox 360 was in the west.
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The game (called project Assassins before) was even at the launch party for 360.

Even when they were announcing it as exclusive there were reports of they showing the 360 version, which was later said to be the base version of the game.

Dunno if there were a deal that fell through when they were getting to pass as a exclusive, but the game was for 360 right from the start.
 
The only one that mattered to me was Ace Combat 7, but that's out in the open now. I'd have bought a PS for that though.
 
Xer0 said:
Yeah, where did Nioh come into the mix?

The very first screen is "Sony Interactive Entertainment Presents"
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Sony rarely does so nowadays, but for some 3rd-party games, they still act as distributor publishers for games that they don't fund/own the IP for.
 
Kolx said:
That was clearly a mistake by some small guy from their pr. They deleted it almost immediately and then corrected it a couple of days later.
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Well. Clearly a mistake is still a PUBLIC statement on record. It happened. They were called on it and it was corrected.

Now, Nier?
 
Blackleg-sanji1 said:
It's simple really

Microsoft:Tomb raider will be coming exclusively to Xbox one

Tomb raider will be coming exclusively to Xbox one holiday 2015

Tomb raider is timed exclusive

Sony:We have partnered with acti to bring the original crash,crash 2 and warped to PlayStation, PSX not a word about exclusive, interviews not a word about exclusive, if they said we have partnered with acti to bring crash exclusively to ps4 than later o no it's timed they would get shit.

SFv was transparent,nioh the devs confirmed that one,Ni no kuni2 never had an exclusive label (on the trailer i thing they goofed on stage can't remember) Nioh was said to be ps4 exclusive by the devs themselves.

Ppl bring it up over and over again but there's a reason tomb raider got so much heat compared to the many other third party deals we've been thru for decades

Sorry for wall of text
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Well Sony did use the exact same wording as microsoft used for tomb raider but for dragon quest heroes lol
 
What exactly are you mad about? Of course they're not going to mention it coming out on other consoles. Why the hell would they do that?
 
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