Tellaerin said:
You know, if Capcom had announced that DMC4 had been cancelled for PS3 and was becoming a 360 exclusive, all this freaking-out (positive and negative) would be understandable. But for it to go multi? Not so much. After the GTA4 announcement, the writing was on the wall - the PS3 just doesn't have the install base to make big-budget exclusives profitable for third party publishers at this point in its lifespan. (And I imagine that even sweetening the pot with a paid exclusivity deal wouldn't be enough to make up the difference in sales.) Sony probably also felt that with two exclusive, high-profile action franchises of their own (Heavenly Sword, GoW), the loss of this particular exclusive wouldn't devalue the brand too much in the long run, despite the initial fan freakout. (Personally, I think they'd be right about that, but then again, I like both GoW and Ninja Gaiden more than DMC3, so you can take my opinion with a grain of salt.)
The people crying, 'Waaaaugh, every reason to buy a PS3 has just
vanished!' are overreacting, IMO (though that's just business as usual around here
). Heavenly Sword's on its way. Ratchet's still coming. Home and LBP are still on track. This news doesn't change any of that. I think it's interesting, though - it looks like first-party titles are becoming more and more of a defining factor for each system, and that they'll play a much greater role this gen than they did in the last one.
Sony's being dumb about this. Phil Harrison was being idiotic for basically saying that the userbase can't support 3rd party titles alone. If the PS3 can't support GTA, how will it support other company's titles? What message does that send to those 3rd parties? That Square better move Final Fantasy to the 360 as well because the PS3 can't support it on its own? Konami better move Metal Gear Solid? If their userbase can't support third party titles, then how can they support their own big titles? What are they going to do, just accept these losses? How much is Killzone costing? I really don't buy into that little argument of, "Well it's all about 1st party this generation." No, it's not. Sony's trying to turn into Nintendo of old and they are going to get very much the same results Nintendo used to get. If Sony thinks they can try to be a 600 dollar Nintendo, then they'll face a very gruesome fate, and I'll have no pity on them for their arrogance. Sony's been talking big and basically dismissed the competition and now they may very well get slaughtered. It is time for Sony to reevaluate paying for 3rd party exclusives.
Only a relatively small userbase is going to pay 600 dollars for PS3 1st party titles, and with a hundred dollar price drop of the 360, Microsoft can drop the axe on Sony's head. And if Microsoft ever gets a significant userbase lead on the PS3, then it definitely won't be a 1st party battle because they will start to get free exclusives due to the userbase being able to support the games. Also, Microsoft's first party titles stack up quite well. Gears of War, Halo 3, Forza, etc. And for as much as Sony's emphasizing first party, its almost hard for me to care less about their first party efforts because THEY AREN'T SHOWING ANYTHING. We hardly have any media for their 1st party games, and what are gamers supposed to do, wait more months hoping Sony shows what they have while Blue Dragon, Mass Effect, Forza and all of these other games drop on the 360?
Look at what the 360 has already released or is soon to release, and many of these future games are coming out on the same date:
Ace Combat (only announced for 360 right now)
Command and Conquer (only announced for 360 right now)
Lost Planet (only announced for 360 at the moment)
Dead Rising (only announced for 360 at the moment)
Virtua Fighter 5
Devil May Cry 4
Grand Theft Auto 4
Resident Evil 5
Ridge Racer 6
Armored Core
What 3rd parties basically looked at the situation and decided to abandon exclusivity? First it was Koei, then it was Sega, and now it's Capcom. Who's next? Namco? Square? If they lose Final Fantasy or Metal Gear, there's really little reason for the average gamer to own a PS3.
It really hurts Sony that Microsoft is getting many of its biggest third party games ON THE SAME DAY. On the other hand, PS3 gamers have to wait for GRAW 2. They get to play Oblivion a year later (PS3 wasn't released yet, so that's understandable). It also hurts that Sony has never had to face up against a CHEAPER machine that basically has all of the same 3rd party games on the same machine and these titles look just as good, if not at times better. Sony is out of their mind if they think they can let the 360 have all of the same 3rd party games and just battle it out on 1st party, and have the gamer pay a premium on top of that.
I've been a Sony fan since the PS1 days, and it's more than disappointing to see what Sony is turning into. They are basically going in the opposite direction of what made me such a big fan of the previous two machines and into a direction that turned me off from Nintendo of old, which was my favorite company during the 8 and 16 bit days. As of right now, the PS3 is basically a 600 dollar portstation, and those ports aren't even particularly good. Does that sound extreme? Yes. Is it true? What other exclusive games other than Resistance and Motorstorm are PS3 gamers playing right now? Exactly. I could understand paying a premium if the ports were significantly better, but they're not. And Sony is being a hermit about its 1st party games. What exactly are they waiting for? The next tradeshow? Why? So Nintendo and Microsoft can continue to build up a lead and put themselves in a position to grab exclusives for free? So that more 3rd parties can defect from exclusivity status? What Sony needs to get through their heads is that they have to sell the PS3 as a GAMING machine. Only a small portion of the market has HD tvs or even really care about HD movies. Home will fail if they don't get enough users, and the primary reason anyone will buy a PS3 is the GAMES... not movies, not streaming, not whatever else Sony is trying to focus on.
I keep hearing, it's only been 4 months. So? In those 4 months they are losing exclusive after exclusive, and at a 500 to 600 price tag, there should be no excuses. Sony is trying to sell the PS3 off of hardware instead of gaming software, and if they don't change up that policy soon, they are going to lose bigtime.
