Poll: Exclusive Games

[asam92]

Edit: Sorry everyone the poll is labelled wrong and it wont let me change it, TAKE YES AS MORE AND NO AS LESS

I was having a discussion with a 360 owner friend of mine who thinks that all games should be multi platform ie God Of War on 360 and Wii, Halo on PS3 and Wii and Super Smash Bros on PS3 and 360.
In theory this would be the perfect idea, but in reality I dont think it will work for one simple reason

The Exclusives make each console great.

Most of the greatest games have been designed specifically for a paticular console
Take into account the following
Halo Series
Uncharted
God of War
Super Mario
Mass Effect (well for now anyway)
Super Smash Bros
Zelda series
Gears of War
Gran Turismo
Forza
Infamous

These are all the cream of the crop of the gaming world and all are dedicated to one platform.
I am not saying there isnt any multi platform that aren't good.
Red Dead Redemption, Assassins Creed 2 and Borderlands are all multi platform that have been good games I have played recently.
But will increasing the number of exclusives make for better gaming? Or will it hurt more people that if only too choose one console (personally I have all 3 current gen so it doesn't bother me) you are missing out on a whole heap of other good stuff.

What do you think? More Exclusives or Less Exclusives

 

[Canadian Briton]

less exclusives, exclusives are the reason I cant play Shadow of the colossus. Therefore I hate exclusives.

 

[asam92]

Yes Shadow of the Collosus, that game itself is worth buying a PS2 for.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

No exclusives. Anything can be on both the 360 and PS3, if you have enough discs for the 360 version. That said, certain games will be exclusive to the Wii, because of it's unique controls and the fact that it's barely more powerful than the PS2. And there will always be PC exclusives, because that where the RTS genre lives and thrives.


But for the 360/PS3, there really shouldn't be any unless they are first party...

Also:

Disc swapping once every few hours isn't THAT bad, people. I remember Legend of Dragoon. You had 1/4 of the world map on each disc. I had to swap discs every time I wanted to backtrack!

 

[Galaxy613]

Because making a game compatible with the PS3 and Xbox360 is a trivial thing... yeah...

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

It's kinda hard to say. On the one hand I fully agree that exclusives are what make the different consoles stand out from each other and gives each it's own identity. On the other hand it's because of exclusives that my copy of Gran Turismo 5 is gonna be costing me about £400, because I'm having to by a PS3 with it for the sake of playing one game. [sub] Grrrrrrrr [/sub]

 

[Kollega]

Less. I am a PC gamer, so i have a bit more problem with this: even if the game is both on X360 or PS3, it can still evade my platform - like that TPS Vanquish which i'd really like to play. Some games, the ones utilizing a particular platform's strengths to their fullest should stay on that one platform, but in general, i believe that exclusives cause more harm than good.

Then there's my cosmopolitan way of thinking that is in favor of even distribution of awesome.

 

[Macgyvercas]

No exclusives. Anything can be on both the 360 and PS3, if you have enough discs for the 360 version. That said, certain games will be exclusive to the Wii, because of it's unique controls and the fact that it's barely more powerful than the PS2. And there will always be PC exclusives, because that where the RTS genre lives and thrives.


But for the 360/PS3, there really shouldn't be any unless they are first party...

Also:

Disc swapping one every few hours isn't THAT bad, people.

I don't get why things that on PS3 can't be on 360 and vice versa. They have roughly the same processing power and storage space, so what is stopping developers and publishers from going multiplatform? Money, probably.

Also, disc swaping isn't "bad", but I would label it "inconvenient" (especially if you're really immersed in something.

 

[imnot]

well i have to make gettiing a 360 look better than if i bought a ps3 like my freind did, now he's moaning that he can't play halo

 

[asam92]

Less. I am a PC gamer, so i have a bit more problem with this: even if the game is both on X360 or PS3, it can still evade my platform - like that TPS Vanquish which i'd really like to play. Some games, the ones utilizing a particular platform's strengths to their fullest should stay on that one platform, but in general, i believe that exclusives cause more harm than good.

Then there's my cosmopolitan way of thinking that is in favor of even distribution of awesome.

Like Red Dead Redemption as well.
GTA also takes a while to come onto PC, and when it does it isnt very good because the controls are adapted for a console, this being a main reason why exclusives are good.

 

[Captain2990]

Personally i have a 360 a ps2 and a wii but i love exlusives it kind of makes you feel part of something that not everyone can get in on but i thought for the companie it was all about the money it takes to change the compatability of the game to other consoles hiring new people and all that but more people buying it because its exclusive so they make more money on it. If any of that makes sense it did in my head.

 

[asam92]

well i have to make gettiing a 360 look better than if i bought a ps3 like my freind did, now he's moaning that he can't play halo

Thats the reverse problem my friend had with his 360, he is moaning that he cant play Uncharted, God of War and InFamous

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

You know why so many games are exclusive? Not because devs don't want the extra sales, but because such games are funded by the console manufacturers who pay specifically to keep the game exclusive to their platform.
So, yeah, I'm fine with exclusives.

 

[Nyrad01]

I've had this discussion with my friends a few times, and on the whole we're agreed that Exclusive titles are a tad pointless, it seems that companies are punishing you for buying a different console.

 

[Woodsey]

I'd much rather have multi-platform releases that take advantage of the features on each platform.

The main problem I have with the lack of non-RTS/MMOG exclusives on the PC is that the platform doesn't get pushed to it's limits and ("flame on!") the consoles hold it back.

GTA also takes a while to come onto PC, and when it does it isnt very good because the controls are adapted for a console, this being a main reason why exclusives are good.

That's an argument for better ports, not exclusives.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I like exclusives.

They feel so...exclusive.

Ultimately, a console's image and character is decided by its exclusive games.

 

[Vivace-Vivian]

I'm fine with them the way they are. Exclusives give a company personality in a way.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I don't get why things that on PS3 can't be on 360 and vice versa. They have roughly the same processing power and storage space, so what is stopping developers and publishers from going multiplatform? Money, probably.

Their available power is pretty comparable (depending on what you're doing, the PS3 may have more number-crunching power, but not everything can be easily split up to take advantage of its setup), but the architectures are very different. The way you need to write your code to take full advantage of the two systems is very different. If you have a lot of time/money and some very good programmers who are good at abstracting stuff enough that it can run well on two separate sets of subsystems on two fairly different sets of hardware, you can certainly make a game run well on both. It's a lot of hard work, though, which is why so many people use stuff like the UE3 engine for cross-platform games, because it solves most of the really complex stuff for you ahead of time.

If you can't afford to license an engine or other middleware that does all that for you or nothing exists that meets your needs, though, it's rather hard to get something running well on both. It's not too hard to get something just plain running on both, but it won't be very impressive. It's obviously possible to get something that runs rather well on both, too, but it's far from trivial. It's much easier to go between the 360 and the PC than the 360 and the PS3 in terms of the basic hardware architecture and design decisions, when it comes down to it.

Anyway, I wish I could vote for "none of the above". I'm all in favor of there being some cross-platform games, as long as they work well on all systems they release them for (if you're going to make a crappy port, don't bother in the first place), and I'm also all in favor of there being platform exclusives, especially if they take advantage of the features the platform they choose has. There's plenty of room for both ways of doing things.