babinro said:
I remember growing up and looking at exclusivity with pride back in the NES, SNES and even in a little in the Gamecube era.
Having grown up you realize it's just flat out anti-consumer garbage to push system sales. When E3 Sony, Nintendo or Xbox conferences announces something as EXCLUSIVE...the crowd response SHOULD be overwhelming boos. It would be wonderful if we could create a movement where companies felt forced to release for all platforms because of the backlash that would happen if they don't.
Anti-consumer is a bit of a stretch, but more just a company profiting from its own hardware. You make a game console, then you decide to invest in games. Could Sony release Uncharted on Xbox? Yeah. Same with PC but then why bother to make a console and not just be a game publisher for PC? There is a market for consoles. Some people prefer that format even though it is now basically a crappy PC. Shopping for a console, interface, etc. is unique to the console vs. shopping for, interface, etc. for the PC. Some people prefer the console experience.
Exclusive games have a huge advantage of being developed and tested in a very controlled environment. (A 1 platform environment) They also utilize the purpose and market for consoles. If they didn't people wouldn't be complaining about it. They want it, but they dont want to have to pay the high cost of entry that is buying into new unique hardware. However, if games released on all platforms, consoles are merely limited access PCs. Then all console manufacturers should just be game publishers and people who like the console experience are just shit out of luck.
If exclusives are anti-consumer, then a slippery slop starts where consoles are anti-consumer even though many people want consoles. Then platforms like Steam become anti-consumer because they dont include every game for those that want it. But then an argument out there is that Steam is anti consumer because what if you want the game but not Steam. Even Steam recognizes the market for consoles with the Steambox as stupid as an idea as that is.