The issue of exclusive video games has been with us for many years. Anyone would think that technological advances would have made it possible for it to be a less and less common problem… but the reality is that it has never been such a hot and topical topic as in the days that we have had to live.
The PlayStation and Xbox consoles have had exclusivities since their origins and the communities have created a absurd rivalry based on them. The snowball has been getting bigger and bigger as Sony and Microsoft released exclusive games for their consoles. However… a relatively recent blow to the table raised tensions.
Exclusive video games: point of no return
The purchase of Bethesda (ZeniMax) by Microsoft left the entire video game industry speechless. Many gamers began to seriously consider that their favorite installments (The Elder Scrolls, Fallout and others) would become exclusive to Xbox and PC. And the fears came true when Starfield announced that it won’t be coming to PS5.
Meanwhile, Sony has not slowed down on its exclusives: Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarök, The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Returnal… And although it is true that Sony’s policy regarding exclusives has changed (I deal with the matter below), the reality is that we are facing the company that has Defined the video game market through exclusivity.
The dominant player (Sony) has defined market competition using exclusives, so that’s the world we live in. I have no love for that world. – Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoftin a recent interview.
In fact, his own Jim Ryan, PlayStation boss, told Microsoft’s lawyer that he disagrees that it is in Microsoft’s best interest to make Activision games available on multiple platforms. The Ryan’s words and the historial de PlayStation they are proof of what Nadella says.
Although Microsoft has exclusives and has contributed to shape the market that we have today, the reality is that Sony has been much more influential due to the enormous success and great popularity of its exclusive games. I don’t think there is much debate on this point.
A turnaround for Microsoft and Sony
Hay of events that have forever changed the landscape of exclusive video games: the bethesda purchase (and Activision in the works) by Microsoft and Sony’s new direction regarding its exclusive video games. Both reactions are “opposite” and the result of actions also “opposite” of the other. We have seen the latter in the previous section.
Sony has been making gold with its exclusive video games for many years, so it stands to reason that Microsoft is making sure it has the wherewithal to compete (at the very least) on a level playing field. And having these means goes through get big studios like Bethesda to ensure renowned AAA deliveries.
On the other hand, Sony began to relax its exclusive policies a few years ago. Either because he has seen the ears of the wolf and/or because they have really found a lucrative market, installments like Days Gone, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us and Returnal arrived on PC. And more will come. While it’s not a total abandonment of its exclusivity, it’s a step in the right direction.
Satya Nadella points out that “I’d love to remove console exclusivities, but that’s not for me to define.“. This is a statement that is a half true. Sony certainly has considerable weight and is usually a very stubborn company when it comes to open up with their exclusivebut Microsoft’s latest moves indicate that they go in the opposite direction of what its CEO thinks.
The future does not look promising for video games. Everything indicates that both companies are going to continue launching exclusives and Nadella’s words will end up falling on deaf ears… like many of the promises made in this industry.
A world without exclusivities: science fiction?
It’s hard to imagine a world without exclusive video games as such. Sure there is an alternate universe in which it happens, but we can’t know because we’re not Flash to hit a career we don’t even see all the possibilities as Doctor Strange. That being said, is a world without exclusive video games really viable?
It would be difficult to calculate the difference in sales of a video game, being exclusive and being available for all platforms. Luckily, we have a very recent example that can give some clues: Call of Duty which has been the focus of attention during legal meetings between Microsoft, Activision and Sony.
The possibility of making Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive was never discussed with me, nor was it brought up in board presentations. (…) An essential component of the estimated $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard is the future of Activision sales across all platforms, including sales of Call of Duty on PlayStation – declaration of Amy Hood, Microsoft finance leader.
The first-person shooter franchise spawns a absurd amount of money on PlayStation. Making it exclusive would surely bring a lot of money to Microsoft and sell a lot of Xbox Series X/S. The question is if I would give the same or more amount of money I feel exclusive without being. This reflection can be applied to the rest of the exclusives: Halo, God of War, Gears of War, Horizon and the rest that we all know.
For its part, Sony admitted that bringing its exclusive video games to PC brought them benefits and that it was a great idea, in fact they are open to keep doing it in the future. Knowing all this, I can’t help but imagine how many copies of God of War (for example) would be sold on Xbox Series X/S.
It’s hard to believe that exclusivity benefits anyone beyond Sony and Microsoft. The number of people who buy a console to play certain specific video games is infinitely smaller than what is thought. And even if the number were larger than I imagine, it probably wouldn’t exceed number of copies sold in case the game reached the other console.
On the other hand, doubts assail me upon seeing the Starfield case. Surely Microsoft knows things that we don’t and it is true that a server is going to buy an Xbox Series X to play it, but (and I repeat myself)… Are they really going to get more money for Starfield being exclusive to Xbox and PC than having it? included for PS5? And the same goes for God of War Ragnarök. It’s an example, don’t get me wrong.
The harsh reality is that exclusivities are here to stay and that a world of exclusivities as such is still a long way off. But perhaps a middle ground is somewhat more imminent: temporal exclusives. I give up past installments like Bloodborne and State of Decay 2, but perhaps in the future the next God of War and The Elder Scrolls 6 will find a way to reach Xbox and PlayStation, even after a year of exclusivity on their main platform. Dreaming is free.
In conclusion: Do the words are gone with the wind, Satya Nadella. Video game exclusivity sucks (pardon the expression) and part of the dance between PlayStation and Xbox. In practice, it only annoys those of us who play video games. As a fan of the adventures of Kratos y Marcus FenixIt hurts me that there are people who can’t enjoy them because they don’t have the money to buy a modern PC or two consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X) whose total price exceeds 1,000 euros… and that’s not counting the 70 euros on average per game and monthly subscriptions.
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