Just wondering....

[Mendon]

After watching the Xbox and PS3 media events, I got to wondering: with both companies fighting for exclusive content and games, will gamers ever get tired of this exclusivity and start yelling at companies to STOP?

 

Take for example, Battlefield Hardline, an upcoming game on PS4 & XB1.... someone laid out $500 for an XB1 and bought Battlefield 4 for it and enjoyed & played the hell out of the game. Yet this XB1 owner will get no access to the Hardline Beta currently going on because Sony signed a deal with EA to be exclusive. Could it ever reach a point where gamers say "To hell with EA for not letting me play the Beta, I'm not buying Hardline now".

 

Or how about PS4 being the only console to get the Hulk figure for Disney Infinity 2.... could XB1 or Wii U owners ever reach a point where they say to hell with this exclusivity and not buy the Infinity game because a part of the game is withheld from their console of choice?

 

It used to be just exclusive titles, a Halo or Uncharted, that people grumbled about because they couldn't play it on their system of choice. Then it became timed exclusives. And now, its becoming parts of a game (like with Infinity) or a Beta.

 

Maybe its me, but I'm of the mind that this exclusivity is getting a little out of hand. I'm curious as to what you think.

[Austin]

IMO, exclusivity is a necessity when you have multiple platforms available. It gives buyers a reason to purchase any one (or all) of said-platforms. If everything that came out was multi-plat, there would be no point in having multiple consoles on the market, as they would all essentially perform the same functions, albeit with a slightly different GUI and company branding, heh.

[cimerians]

It used to but it doesn't bother me anymore, eventually things become available for other systems. You just have to wait.

 

In my own case, as much as I want the Halo collection, I can live without it and there's not much on the Xbox One that won't show up on PC eventually. Dead Rising 3 was just announced for PC for example.

 

Like I said, it used to bother me a lot, like Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Soul Calibur getting special stuff on different machines but right now I could care less.

 

The PS4 got a pretty good E3 showing in my opinion minus this shitty TV and Powers crap. I'm fairly excited for it and I'm actually glad I only have that machine to worry about.....everything else gets played on PC (and Wii U).

[Mendon]

I hear what you are saying, Austin, and I agree. Having exclusive titles like Halo or Gears of War or Killzone or Uncharted is understandable as companies want to sell consoles and make money.

 

But it seems weird to me what is happening now. I mean, why would EA make the Hardline Beta exclusive to PS4 when they want to sell their game on both consoles? Why would Disney make an exclusive figure for one system and potentially PO owners of the other systems?

 

Like I said, maybe its me but the Infinity figure and Beta exclusive seem to go far beyond a title being console exclusive.

[cybercylon]

It is getting pretty silly with exclusive characters or betas, etc.

 

But I am not sure how much I care about little things like that.

 

As Austin said, each system has to have some exclusive games. When I was younger, it used to annoy me that that the SNES would be the only console to get game Y and the Genesis would only get game X.

 

These days, I can simply wait. Eventually, i will probably have both systems much like I have a 360 and PS 3 now. The problem is that this creates a big "to play" pile. I could probably go on for 2-3 years or longer with what I just have now. By then, both systems will be cheaper, and the new games now will be in the sale bin.

 

Not sure I ever will get a Wii U. We have a Wii, but only the kids play it. I lost interest in Nintendo franchises years ago.

 

Then again, cimerians has got to stop remind us about those PC game deals :-). That just adds to the play pile, but why I keep revisiting old games… don't know. I don't even want to count the hours lost on Skyrim for the PS3, 360, and the PC.

[godslabrat]

History is not on the side of gamers commanding better treatment from publishers.

[Austin]

But it seems weird to me what is happening now. I mean, why would EA make the Hardline Beta exclusive to PS4 when they want to sell their game on both consoles? Why would Disney make an exclusive figure for one system and potentially PO owners of the other systems?

 

It could be the hardware manufacturers tossing a few extra dollars to these publishers to get said bit of exclusive content.

[R.Bear]

It was the absolute worst last gen, Microsoft appeared to be getting out the wallet a lot to bribe for exclusive DLC and things like that, looks like the same is going on from both sides from this time but last generation it seemed to be even worse.

 

At least the consoles are similar hardware architecture wise... so either platform shouldn't be getting completely broken versions of games anymore like previous gen.

[HammR25]

Apparently the only way to get gamers to band together and tell a company to go fly a kite is for them to have an alternative to an online only gaming console.

[Jess Ragan]

The two game systems are practically identical, save for a wimpier graphics processor in the Xbox One. There's absolutely no reason a game for one system can't appear on the other, aside from licensing issues.

[BydoEmpire]

It could be the hardware manufacturers tossing a few extra dollars to these publishers to get said bit of exclusive content.

Hit the nail on the head. Just cross-marketing at work. I personally don't see enough gamers caring enough to make it not worth it for companies to do these deals, so they will continue.