Do Sony first-party exclusives matter anymore?

[danielrbischoff]

How much did Sony really gain investing in so many first-party exclusives? I feel like they really just blew through a ton of capital and reaped very little of their investment in return.

Uncharted obviously blew up, but now that Uncharted 3 has come and gone and the devs have moved on to The Last Of Us, does anyone really care?

I know for a fact that no one gives a shit about the Resistance series, at least not really. I only played the third one and despite the high-review scores, it made no waves.

Ratchet and Clank... where the fuck did those guys go?

The amazing thing is that the exclusives are still coming, (talking about TLOU and PSASBR), but the opposition (Microsoft) is putting all of their bank roll behind one solitary exclusive this holiday (Halo 4) and right now, it seems like the better strategy.
_________________

[Bretimus_v2]

I think that if you can sell a console package set off of an exclusive (i.e. Uncharted), then they still make it worth it.
_________________

[danielrbischoff]

I suppose that's true. I think they're cutting their losses and turning to an all digital console as fast as possible. They'll let 360 debut first and they'll be one year later with everything available day and date digitally as the Vita is. They won't abandon their physical media too quickly.
_________________

[used44]

If the Sony exclusives truly interested me I would have a PS3 by now. And it's been 7 years or whatever.

Last of Us may change that...

[Bretimus_v2]

Sony makes too much of a market on hardware (BD, DVD, miniDisc, etc). They love selling discs, players and all of that. I see them taking longer to get on board the digital train than MSFT. That being said, I still think it won't work globally. There are people still using that jacked up redneck dial-up for crying out loud.
_________________

[NickKmet]

I think the problem for Sony is that none of the exclusive titles really are at the level of Microsoft's big name exclusive series: Halo. Now, I'm not saying that their games are bad. In fact, most of their exclusives are downright phenomenal. It just seems like none of them have been able to generate the level of broad interest and fanboyism that Halo has. Maybe it's because they don't really have any true multiplayer exclusives that are that great (or at least none that I know about)? It also doesn't help that their community is limited in comparison to XBOX Live, and that was probably mostly caused by the high price of the PS3 right out of the gate.

Just a thought.
_________________

[madster111]

Well, i bought my PS3 pretty much only for GT5. And then it turned out GT5 was a pile of shit and now i'm selling my PS3 and have no plans to buy another Sony console unless the PS4 has a strong line up of titles i actually want to play or the PSV stops sucking so much ass.

Seriously, my PS3 only existed because my friend liked the Uncharted series and because i was keen for GT5. GT5 was crap and the Uncharted games can only occupy so much time. Buying multi-console releases on the PS3 is pointless considering the controller simply isn't as good as the 360 and PS3 version regularly get screwed over by dlc dates and updates.

So honestly, Sony invested way too hard on exclusives. If all of those exclusives were excellent or were ones people actually cared about, it might have worked, but it just didn't.
Compare the PS3 bundles with 360 bundles. Remember how many consoles Halo 3 sold? Think about how many Halo 4 is going to sell.

Sony never really had a Halo 3 moment. They never had a big name exclusive to sell within a year of the consoles release to get sales.
Maybe if they release a PS4+Uncharted 4 bundle on release of the PS4 it might work, but failing that i can only see Sony's sales falling, especially considering we haven't heard anything about the PS4. Meanwhile the 720/Durango is confirmed for a late 2013 release, and it's likely to release with Forza 5 and a Halo 4 based game like Halo: ODST was for Halo 3, the new Gears of War might even be held back and ported over for a launch release.
_________________

[Affen]

The reason I decided on ps3 instead of the xbox 360 in the first place was the free online and bluray abilities. Exclusives didn't matter to me back then and they have no impact now either.

Nintendo has the best exclusives anyway.

[WickedLiquid]

Why did I buy a PS3 instead of a 360? Because I knew MGS4 and God of War 3 would be exclusives. But I was also pleasantly surprised at Little Big Planet, Heavy Rain, Uncharted 1 and 2, Infamous and a whole bunch of PSN downloadables.

Also, anything that was Game of the year worthy is usually on both consoles so screw it.
_________________

[Dolive90]

I've always been a fan of Sony's Playstation exclusives, all the way back to Crash Bandicoot. I bought my PS3 pretty much just so i could get my hands on Killzone 2 on it's release day.

I think NickKmet hit the nail on the head by saying that these exclusive by and large don't attract the same following as their Xbox counterparts. I say this knowing that few will agree with me but, Killzone 2 in my opinion was one of the best and most enjoyable online shooters i've ever played. But even at it's peak it only had around 1 million players, and only around 100,000 or so regular players after the first few months, such a shame.

[Bretimus_v2]

I feel like you go were you best have a community. My siblings and friends owned PS3s, so I bought one. Exclusives only help in the inital marketing push, but once you have a decent in-house base you just let the users recruit and influence.
_________________

[Longo_2_guns]

There are still worthwhile first party exclusives in the market? I had no idea.
_________________

[Wes]

[WickedLiquid]

What? No. I'm talking about games on both 360 and PS3 being worthy of the title GOTY, as in more than one. Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, as well as Twilight Princess are worthy as well.

I love the Wii (loved). I won't stand for such lies!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9mRK91Wqao
_________________

[Longo_2_guns]

[used44]

PS3 and Xbox360 will always be compared to each other. The Wii is a different thing.

[danielrbischoff]

[madster111]

[danielrbischoff]

Mario and Sonic at the Olympics
Any number of Mario Party games
Mario Sports Mix

Anyway, you seem to be suggesting that because Mario games are usually good, that disqualifies them from being considered "game of the year."

I hope you're not that stupid Mad-- wait, nvm.
_________________

[used44]

Also, don't fix what isn't broke, right? Mario games are still among the best and most innovative 2D platformers, and are definitely the best 3D platformers, I think.