How important are launch exclusives compared to long-term development?

[BrotherRool]

I'm wondering how people evaluate launch exclusives? Considering that the titles that come after launch are almost always better (Halo 3>Halo 2, Gears 2>Gears 1, Uncharted 2>Uncharted 1, inFamous 2>inFamous 1, Little Big Planet 2>Little Big Planet 1). It's the swan-song titles like the Last of Us that are the best of all.

To me as long as Microsoft or Sony have enough multiplatform support that there will be good games to buy on launch, long term prospects seem better than the short term. For example, Remedy are a really decent developer who will continue to make games for Microsoft, whatever the status of their launch title, they will make interesting games to come.

Or Naughty Dog haven't got a PS4 launch title. But they are an incredible company who've consistently made world class games and are owned by Sony. They will make games for the PS4 and those games will be incredible.


And then the third-party exclusives, almost every third-party exclusive apart from Gears of War ended up multiplatform for their next title (Metal Gear Solid, Bioshock, Demon Souls etc). So I don't think they've got much lasting power. You get one game and then the rest of the games in the lifespan will be multiplatform.


So I think you should be judging exclusives based more on the inhouse studios, the Rare's the Remedy's, the Sucker Punches, as opposed to the titles that will be available at launch. Does that make sense to other people or are the launch titles more important?

 

[tippy2k2]

Before I say anything, I do want to state that I agree with you (exclusive studios are far more important than exclusive launch games).

With that said, the launch titles DO have some importance; namely, capturing early adopters. Early adopters are the ones that allow your system to survive and thrive. If people do not buy the system, your system dies and you do not get the killer games that show up in the future (see God of War in the PS2 era and now The Last of Us in the PS3 era).

 

[ShinyCharizard]

They can be important for early adopters but we all know the real good games don't come out for at least a year or more.

 

[Little Gray]

They are fairly important to build up your early customer base so your bigger titles will sell more.

As for titles getting better later on that is because developers the more experience you have with something the better you will become. Ever console has its own little quirks and it takes time and practice to learn them all. Once you get really good with working with a system you can optimize it far better and create some really crazy stuff.

 

[BrotherRool]

They are fairly important to build up your early customer base so your bigger titles will sell more.

As for titles getting better later on that is because developers the more experience you have with something the better you will become. Ever console has its own little quirks and it takes time and practice to learn them all. Once you get really good with working with a system you can optimize it far better and create some really crazy stuff.

Oh yeah, there's definitely real reasons, and developers learn and iterate on the mistakes they made before, but that does mean that what studios eventually do is going to be worth more than they do now.

I meant more what are they worth to consumers than to the companies who make them. They've clearly got a huge advantage to the console manufacturers, but for us as buyers, especially considering how prolific quality multiplatform titles are, how much importance do you place on launch exclusives compared to the development teams working for them and the liklihood of making good games in the long run?

 

[Little Gray]

They are fairly important to build up your early customer base so your bigger titles will sell more.

As for titles getting better later on that is because developers the more experience you have with something the better you will become. Ever console has its own little quirks and it takes time and practice to learn them all. Once you get really good with working with a system you can optimize it far better and create some really crazy stuff.

Oh yeah, there's definitely real reasons, and developers learn and iterate on the mistakes they made before, but that does mean that what studios eventually do is going to be worth more than they do now.

I meant more what are they worth to consumers than to the companies who make them. They've clearly got a huge advantage to the console manufacturers, but for us as buyers, especially considering how prolific quality multiplatform titles are, how much importance do you place on launch exclusives compared to the development teams working for them and the liklihood of making good games in the long run?

Well for consumers its because even though developers are still learning how to develop for new consoles they can still do a lot more then they can on current ones. Even fairly new games are capable of surpassing what can be done on the current console generation.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Before I say anything, I do want to state that I agree with you (exclusive studios are far more important than exclusive launch games).

With that said, the launch titles DO have some importance; namely, capturing early adopters. Early adopters are the ones that allow your system to survive and thrive. If people do not buy the system, your system dies and you do not get the killer games that show up in the future (see God of War in the PS2 era and now The Last of Us in the PS3 era).

basically this, it gives the console developer some overhead flow to advertise/update/patch/make games with, and once they build a sufficient userbase, developers can't help but be attracted to that idea.

 

[BrotherRool]

Well for consumers its because even though developers are still learning how to develop for new consoles they can still do a lot more then they can on current ones. Even fairly new games are capable of surpassing what can be done on the current console generation.

I mean the exclusive part, and I don't even really mean if it actually gives the consumer value. I'm basically asking, if you as a person put a lot of weight on launch exclusive titles, and if my logic of not putting weight on them makes sense to other people

EDIT: Specifically on the exclusives as well. Launch titles are important so that you have something to play, but how important is having the exclusives at launch?

 

[TehCookie]

They're important because they give people a reason to buy it at launch. There's a lot of WiiU games coming out that I want, but since none of them are released I haven't bought it yet.

I agree with you on long term prospects but I think it's more of evaluating which will have more games you like. If you like the games the in house studios make that's a good reason. I couldn't care less about them so that doesn't work for me. I like JRPGs so I'm going to take a guess based on common sense and past examples that the japanese system will have more japanese games.