Opinion - The Exclusives are Back

The platform agnostic future has been put on hold

The last couple of months have been interesting. We’ve seen Sony start to commit to keeping their narrative-driven single player games exclusive to their consoles, no longer opening the door to PC ports. We have Xbox beginning to contemplate whether to return to any form of exclusivity as they look to rebuild brand trust. Some gamers are ecstatic about the potential return of exclusivity, and others are not so happy. It seems after a few flirtations, the console industry is going back to exclusives, but is this a good thing, a short-term fix, or something more?

---

The Pool

In many ways, this decade has been the decade of the industry's flirtation with the potential for a platform-agnostic future. With the advent of cloud-based streaming and subscription services, the rise of PC gaming, and the dream of breaking into smartphones, the industry has been eyeing video games as more than just plastic boxes. One way to think about it is that the big three platform brands are all sitting around a pool. Microsoft slowly got into the pool, and last year, they fully went in and swam to the deeper end. Sony sat down and put their feet in the water without committing to jumping in, while Nintendo sunbathed, reading a book. Yet there began to be a feeling that Sony would jump into the pool, and Nintendo would at least have to think about getting its feet wet. However, this seems to be over, as Sony has left the pool, Nintendo is going home, and Microsoft is swimming on the edge, thinking about getting out.

I myself was, and still am, an advocate for a platform-agnostic future. I truly believe that video games would be even bigger in terms of audience and market penetration if you remove barriers like expensive consoles. However, much like it seems Microsoft is realizing, that future is much farther away than I was hoping. Truthtfully, it was always going to be tough to sell it as Xbox’s competition is all too happy to collect cuts from third-party games and make money by providing the hardware ecosystem to consumers. Microsoft decided to go all in, but the competition didn’t follow, and now Sony is done with most PC ports. I do believe we will eventually get to that future, but we’re probably a couple of decades away, and we probably need cloud technology to get much better. Until then, console gaming, as many of us grew up with it, remains the primary model for mainstream AAA gaming.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is coming to PlayStation 5

Is It Too Late?

No one has jumped at the idea of a platform-agnostic future more than Xbox. Whether you agreed with it or not, Xbox decided to go all in this year and has begun releasing massive Xbox-centric franchises on PS5, including Gears of War, Forza, Fable, and even Halo. However, this was all before the new change of direction. It became apparent to Satya Nadella that the current direction wasn’t working and Xbox was losing users. The new leadership hasn’t committed to bringing back exclusives, but they are teasing it and have said they will consider it. I think many Xbox fans are not only angry that it felt like Microsoft had ditched the Xbox Series consoles, but also mad about sending their top IP to PlayStation and Nintendo and getting nothing back. The question is, is it too late, is the preverbial genie out of the bottle?

Personally, I don’t think it’s too late, somewhat. We’re getting numbers showing shockingly low sales for Xbox titles currently. I’m surprised Gears of War: Reloaded hasn’t hit one million units yet. There’s probably more than one answer as to why, but it’s worth considering whether those sales are worth losing brand power. But, you can’t deny the success of Forza Horizon 5 and what will most likely be a successful sixth entry on the way. I also think there’s a chance Halo: Campaign Evolved does well for PS5, just for the feeling of playing Halo on a PlayStation alone. So what should Xbox do?

Here’s my personal recommendation to Microsoft. Anything released under Activision and Bethesda should be automatically multiplatform and released day-and-date. Microsoft can still do the heavy marketing with Game Pass releases, console bundles, and more with those two publishers anyway. As for Xbox Games Studios, I would focus on making the smaller, more artful games, timed exclusives. I would consider making the big AAA titles console exclusives. There will be some exceptions, such as Forza, and they may have to consider putting Gears and Halo’s multiplayer on PlayStation, while keeping the single-player campaigns exclusive. That’s just my suggestion, as anything Xbox does will have pros and cons.

Is This Even Good?

So is the seeming return of console exclusives a good thing? I would say yes and no. On one hand, many gamers who got a slight taste of a platform-agnostic future (specifically, Xbox and PC gamers) really like what they got. Now, if a PC gamer fell in love with God of War, they can’t pick up the latest entry next time one releases. Sure, you can say maybe this convinces someone to pick up a PlayStation, and I’m sure they are out there, but for the most part, a PC gamer is going to move on. Then, you have some who never liked Xbox killing their exclusivity and are jumping for joy that we may get exclusives back. The PlayStation situation is a little different because Sony never fully committed to the idea; they sort of just flirted with it. I’ve seen the arguments both for and against console exclusivity.

First, we have the people who want exclusives. Most of these people aren’t thinking about a gaming industry that’s platform-agnostic; instead, they want it to largely stay the same, with console boxes we buy and that compete against each other. The belief being that competition is good and that consoles having games that sell their box leads to great content and ideas. They point to Nintendo, which sells its hardware for its games, because, despite whatever you or anyone else thinks, the primary reason to buy a Nintendo system is for its worlds and characters. The thing is, they’re right. Console exclusives give you a reason to buy the boxes, and that eventually leads to competition and the creation of beloved IP and new ideas. If the competition isn’t going to play ball, why should Xbox? They should say if you want to play that game, get an Xbox.

On the other hand, we have gamers who believe that limiting a game’s potential audience is bad for the game. They want to expand gaming and make it available in more places. The idea is an industry that’s not regulated to plastic boxes and “console wars”, but focuses on just selling good games in your ecosystem of choice. Think of it as an open-ended industry like Android or Windows. The belief is that games with smaller audiences won’t die on one platform and can get a few more sales and eyeballs on other platforms. With exclusivity becoming a major focus again, now you have to pick up a box, and now they’re EXPENSIVE AS HELL to boot. Are you mostly an Xbox guy but don’t want to shell out an additional $500-$800 for Switch 2 to get Mario and PS6 to play the latest Naught Dog game? Well, too bad. Another point of view I strongly agree with. I do believe the future of gaming should focus on ways to go beyond consoles and expand its audience. Why limit yourself when we can play all kinds of games on the ecosystem and hardware I choose, rather than being forced to use them?

In the end, no matter where you land, it’s going to be determined by outside forces, not necessarily gamers. I think the real reason Sony is done flirting with the idea of releasing games on PC and/or competition is the upcoming PS6. If Sony knows the PS6 will be more expensive than they want it to be, they need reasons for people to upgrade, and exclusive games can do just that. It’s easier to pitch a platform-agnostic future when hardware is easy everywhere than when hardware is pricing people out, and you need to find reasons to make people pick your ecosystem. The upcoming consoles need a reason for you to buy them, and making your games available everywhere doesn’t give a consumer a reason to pull the trigger, especially at the insane prices we are at now. Who knows, maybe things will change in five to ten years, and we will be back to flirting with putting things everywhere. Until then, I think the exclusives and using them to sell consoles are back and won’t be going away quietly.

As for pro platform-agnostic people, don’t worry, the industry is constantly changing, and I’ve said before, we are in a time of messy transition to a new way to look at consoles and PC gaming. Stay tuned.

---