MS is proving day by day that exclusives are no longer a viable option to survive in this harsh industry

DR3AM

DR3AM

Dreams of a world where inflated review scores save studios
Look at Indy and Forza exploding on other consoles
Look at Sony making their games available on PC
Look at 3rd parties benefiting from their games being available on every platform
Facts don't lie, exclusively is not worth it anymore
Just don't look at Nintendo
 
Nintendo is the only company exempt from this

Both Sony and Microsoft are hardly if any doing exclusives (I'm including PC releases in Sony's case)

Nintendo marches to their own beat and for them it works
 
Sony's PC excursion has been a miserable failure aside from Ghost of Tsushima and Helldivers 2. Hell, in a world where Sony never put games on PC Concord might not have become such a meme and might even have been mildly successful.

Think of it this way: Marathon would not currently be in danger if Concord hadn't maxed out at 670 players on SteamDB.
 
I would agree if Sony actually started giving their smaller games and their failures a real second chance to succeed.

But so far, most of their ports were already successful on their original platform.

So the real reason isn't 'exclusives aren't viable anymore' it's 'we just like even more money.'
 
This is clearly a joke post, right? I mean, Microsoft and ONLY Microsoft don't want exclusives to stay on their consoles as they don't sell on them. Any guesses as to WHY they don't sell on their consoles and WHY Microsoft is now pushing hard for no exclusives as a good thing in gaming??? I'll give you all a hint- it starts with "game" and ends in "pass"...
 
Yeah no. What they're proving is that when you have a strategy that is entirely dependent on getting people to subscribe to a rental service while offering no exclusives, have few exclusives or flat out bad ones, and a goon like Phil Spencer running the show, you can't survive in the console market.

All Xbox is proving is that whatever they have done for ten years it's the wrong thing. I'm an Xbox fan btw. It's my preferred console. Doesn't mean they haven't been a total failure.
 
Exclusives are just silly at this point. I really wish Nintendo would get their games on PC too. Would love to play the new Metroid in 4k with high fps and with an actual keyboard and mouse. (Using those joy cons as "mouse" looks terrible)
 
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CrimsonTide said:
What in Gods name does this have to do ANYTHING with the OP?

A mediocre QB with no brains and hella talent got drafted later than you wanted. Bro. Just calm down. It's ok
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Christopher Reeve Reaction GIF
 
I'd say third party is showing platforms don't matter so much these days. MS/Xbox/Game Pass is showing a new open software platform over locked into hardware, seems like Xbox is really finding its feet now. The real money makers are cross platform and third party. Well there's always the exception to the rule, Nintendo exclusives.

For some reference the biggest revenue games for the last 3 years were -

2022 -
  1. COD Modern Warfare 2: $1.05B
  2. FIFA 23: $800M
  3. Elden Ring: $750M

2023 -
  1. Honor of Kings (mobile): $1.65B
  2. Hogwarts Legacy: $1.2B
  3. Baldur's Gate 3: $900M

2024 -
  1. COD Black Ops 6: $1.3B
  2. Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: $1.3B
  3. Elden Ring: Shadow of Erdtree: $1.0B

*If you throw in F2P games things get a little different e.g. Billion dollar club COD: Warzone, CS:Go etc.
 
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Topher said:
Eh.....Sony would be fine without PC ports. Microsoft is the only one of the three that truly needs to be multiplatform.
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Perhaps. But Sony didn't change their entire business model for a few bucks. They knew what they were doing by opening up to PC gamers
 
Hugare said:
Or Sony. They are doing just fine. Their PC sales are so low that I dont know why they even bother.
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From 2020 → 2023 (pre helldivers 2)

Sony went from $35M → $80M → $250M → $450M

Year Helldivers 2 relesaed, they reported $700M

Yea let's not put you in business decisions..
 
DR3AM said:
Look at Indy and Forza exploding on other consoles
Look at Sony making their games available on PC
Look at 3rd parties benefiting from their games being available on every platform
Facts don't lie, exclusively is not worth it anymore
Just don't look at Nintendo
Click to expand...

It doesn't work if you're trying to sell as much software as possible. Sony is still trying to sell consoles though and exclusive software works for that.
 
CrimsonTide said:
Perhaps. But Sony didn't change their entire business model for a few bucks. They knew what they were doing by opening up to PC gamers
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I don't think selling ports of games 1+ year after initial release is changing their entire business model. Sony could sell Nixxes and stop doing ports immediately and PlayStation would continue on. If we go by what Sony has said they are doing this to make PlayStation more attractive to PC gamers. Not sure if I buy that, but that's their stated purpose.
 
Topher said:
I don't think selling ports of games 1+ year after initial release is changing their entire business model. Sony could sell Nixxes and stop doing ports immediately and PlayStation would continue on. If we go by what Sony has said they are doing this to make PlayStation more attractive to PC gamers. Not sure if I buy that, but that's their stated purpose.
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For ME… just says "wait and I'll get their AAA game"

Maybe that's just me. However. This fall. IF we get GTA6. I will 100% not wait and choose a "current gen" console to buy
 
DR3AM said:
Look at Indy and Forza exploding on other consoles
Look at Sony making their games available on PC
Look at 3rd parties benefiting from their games being available on every platform
Facts don't lie, exclusively is not worth it anymore
Just don't look at Nintendo
Click to expand...
And Sony. MS is the problem, not the industry lol.
 
Hugare said:
Or Sony. They are doing just fine. Their PC sales are so low that I dont know why they even bother.
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Because they still get more money out of a game that has otherwise saturated its original market, but more importantly, it's also advertisement for their IPs beyond their initially intended audience.

They're not porting Ragnarok or something to PC necessarily because they expect it'll sell billions - they're porting it so that more people outside of their intended prime market will get to know the IP, so that when GoW 3 hits, those people might go "hmm I kinda liked the previous game, maybe I'll dip and get a PS6 to play the sequel". Convert those people into potential future sales and participants of your ecosystem.

I think this is the best exclusive strategy out of all three, and strongly believe Nintendo should do the same with their IPs, but they're old guard and stubborn and leaving money on the table.
 
a'la mode said:
Because they still get more money out of a game that has otherwise saturated its original market, but more importantly, it's also advertisement for their IPs beyond their initially intended audience.

They're not porting Ragnarok or something to PC necessarily because they expect it'll sell billions - they're porting it so that more people outside of their intended prime market will get to know the IP, so that when GoW 3 hits, those people might go "hmm I kinda liked the previous game, maybe I'll dip and get a PS6 to play the sequel". Convert those people into potential future sales and participants of your ecosystem.

I think this is the best exclusive strategy out of all three, and strongly believe Nintendo should do the same with their IPs, but they're old guard and stubborn and leaving money on the table.
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That would have the opposite result. PC players would be less likely to buy a PS.

Imagine if Nintendo starting porting their older games to PS5. You think that would make PS5 owners more likely to pick up a Switch? No, they'll just wait for the newer games to get ported.
 
Nope. Both Sony and Nintendo have built their businesses upon exclusive content. MS lost the race principally because they failed on that score. You are drawing the wrong conclusion. If Sony and Nintendo were to abandon exclusives, their businesses would collapse. Exclusives are *why* they succeeded.
 
Funny enough, the only time MS was even remotely successful with Xbox was when they had exclusives for Xbox 360.

They're now dead last and had to pivot. Not to mention spending a boatload of money on buying up game developers and publishers. Essentially buying up their market share instead of earning it. Now they have to release everything everywhere to make some money.

MS entered the gaming space for the wrong reasons. They thought that some box under someone's TV would replace the PC and they would lose market share. They never cared for gaming that much and they still don't. All they want is to funnel money through their business any way possible.
If someone handed them a 10/10 blockbuster exclusive game, they wouldn't know what to do with it.
 
Im sure PS5 exclusives will no longer sell now that XBOX has "proven them wrong."

Meanwhile, Nintendo's entire existence is based on exclusives but don't let that minor fact ruin your fanboy theory.
 
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Nah, it just shows Microsoft can't and don't know how to maintain IPs. They had one of the biggest and they ran it into the ground.
 
Or - and hear me out - Xbox isn't viable for games to to survive in this harsh industry. What's actually selling well on their platforms at this point? A lot less than there should be.
 
Ebrietas said:
That would have the opposite result. PC players would be less likely to buy a PS.

Imagine if Nintendo starting porting their older games to PS5. You think that would make PS5 owners more likely to pick up a Switch? No, they'll just wait for the newer games to get ported.
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Sony's strategy specifically makes the ports late though, the ports only come when the initial market has been exhausted (and this is a key point). Similarly, Nintendo's games would port late. Nintendo has nothing to lose from porting Metroid Prime 3 on PC/PS, but they have everything to gain from getting people interesting in Metroid Prime 4 and by extension the Nintendo ecosystem. Sure, the PS people can wait 2-3 years for the MP4 port to release, but those people were not going to buy a Switch anyway. The intent is not to reach and convert anyone, but at least some.

It's another form of advertisement and it does make it more likely, but you of course have to also understand "more likely" does not mean "100 % likely". It's fine if most of those people won't buy a Switch - some will, but not all, or maybe not even the majority - but it's all about entering your decision pool. Car advertisements on the TV won't make you go buy a Nissan on the spot and they're not intended to do so either - the advertisement is meant to get the name Nissan into your head, so that when you are finally thinking about a new car, the name of Nissan is sloshing around in your decision pool as well and you might be a little curious to check out what they got to offer.
 
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a'la mode said:
Nintendo has nothing to lose from porting Metroid Prime 3 on PC/PS, but they have everything to gain from getting people interesting in Metroid Prime 4 and by extension the Nintendo ecosystem.
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They will lose a reason to buy their hardware and strength of their IP. The moment they place one game, any game, on another system they are basically opening the gate for more. And people will wait for more releases, because if MP123 released, surely 4 is on the way. And so on.
 
Exclusives are not an option for Microsoft's survival. That's all you should take from this
 
Rush2112 said:
Im sure PS5 exclusives will no longer sell now that XBOX has "proven them wrong."

Meanwhile, Nintendo's entire existence is based on exclusives but don't let that minor fact ruin your fanboy theory.
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Nintendo existed way before video games even was a thing so I highly doubt that.
 
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