A long time ago, Jack Tretton mentioned that Sony will not pay for PS3 exclusivity in this generation of games. "We have a very different approach to exclusives than some of our competitors. We don't buy exclusivity. We don't fund development. We don't, for the lack of a better term, bribe somebody to only do a game on our platform," he noted. Instead, Sony tries to seduce developers to make better games on the system, and use the appeal of the PS3 hardware to secure exclusives.This strategy has meant a bevy of formerly PS2-exclusive series to become multiplatform successes on Xbox 360 and PC. However, Kaz Hirai told ThreeSpeech "that's something that we can re-evaluate." High-profile exclusives act as differentiating reasons for system purchases. PS3 has a strong first-party line-up, but it will need to pursue third-party exclusives with an even stronger bite. However, with games being so expensive in this generation, such a proposal may be difficult. "It's also something that the publishers need to make a business decision on. Ultimately, it becomes a dialogue – if it makes sense for them to go exclusive, that's a business decision that they need to make. But generally speaking, because of the investments that publishers need to make in this round of hardware, it's going to be more difficult for publishers to make that decision."













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
5-30-2008 @ 11:02AM
GridloQ said...
Money talks.
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5-30-2008 @ 11:06AM
browntown said...
I don't think they will start paying until they are profitrable. So in 2010 we may start hearing about exclusives which SONY will fund.
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5-30-2008 @ 11:10AM
PSPDog said...
They didn't need to pay for them before when they were king of the hill. Now that there is some competition, and especially since their main competitor is willing to pay, Sony doesn't have much of a choice. The game companies just want to get paid, there's no loyalty, it's just business.
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5-30-2008 @ 11:18AM
reson8er said...
Totally agree. They banked on brand loyalty way to much (especially in America, where all you have to do is look as professional sports to see we'll go wherever the money is). It was a grave miscalculation/error on their part and Microsoft has really one-upped them in this respect. In all honesty that is what Microsoft does best, buy things to compensate for their own lack of ability to drive content development.
5-31-2008 @ 8:21AM
PeacefulOutrage said...
I never believed the "we don't pay for exclusives" line anyway. Stuff like co-marketing where they share or pay for a games advertising with the PS logo at the end has been done for a long time. that's just one way to get a developer on board, especially when advertising can get very expensive and eat into game profits.
5-30-2008 @ 11:16AM
fersis said...
SONY games division will become profiable at this year end.
Im more of the likes of NOT paying for exclusives.
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5-30-2008 @ 11:40AM
reson8er said...
It's not a question of profitability of first party games, its branding.
Consumer associate certain games or genres (like GTA, and RPG's were with PS2) to certain systems, this helps enable the system to have an identity or definable brand. Microsoft has aggressively targeted these to try to bring PS2 gamers (read: majority) to transition to the 360 and not PS3). They also went to japan and sign exclusive deals with companies that the hardcore gamers revere, such as Treasure, to create the market they have now. So far they have been pretty successful, just look at their lineup of XBLA offerings.
To that end, though, and where they are behind (as is tradition in Microsoft in innovation. buying innovation is all they can do, if you look at all of their internal development, there is a lot of me too stuff, or sequalitis. No company is immune to that, but I feel Sony's strength is its 1st and 2nd party devs. While this is generally great, not every dev is insomniac, which can crank out an AMAZING game every year. This gen has seen a lot of growing pains (especially on PS3) and it takes time for devs get games out. This is the reason PS3 needs to pick up the slack through 3rd party games, and unique exclusives.
5-30-2008 @ 11:30AM
CALIX said...
Sad that exclusivities have come to this, the old American way of selling out....
Thank you wealthy companies for again ruining another business.
I could almost hear (MS) “I got 5 on it”
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5-30-2008 @ 11:40AM
True_Darknight said...
Ok So M$ comes in and starts messing with the gaming industry... we knew they would.... Start paying for exclusives... make sub-par machinery... i mean really.. keep your crappy practices to your PCs..... GRRRRR
And yes Sony had exclusives before.. but they didn't pay for them... Developers wanted it that way!
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5-30-2008 @ 11:58AM
baby sea tuna said...
Yeah, it's really Microsoft's fault that Sony dropped the ball at the beginning of this generation. It has nothing to do with bringing their machine to market last, not supporting the RPG genre that put food on Sony's table last time around, making the Cell so hard to program for (while simultaneously not going out of their way to help developers...well...develop for it,) and (worst of all) being so arrogant to expect an automatic brand loyalty from both consumers as well as developers, based *solely* on the fact that they were king of the hill last generation (regardless of whether or not they had the best platform.)
Yup, totally "M$'s fault," as you so eloquently put it.
5-30-2008 @ 12:52PM
Paul (PSN: heypaul) said...
This is why I comment on Joystiq instead of the Fanboy sites. The man makes a bold, but reasonable statement, but gets voted to oblivion simply because he voiced something that is not pro-PS3.
The only console I own this generation is a PS3. Feel free to read my post history and see how I defend it. But I'm also reasonable enough to not plug my ears and tell someone to shut up, just because their well-reasoned point is not something I like to hear.
Someone tells you that you screwed up, that everything is your fault. Yeah, it hurts to hear it, but that doesn't mean they're necessarily wrong.
5-30-2008 @ 2:01PM
Popfrogs said...
We only have two kinds of posters here, PS3 fans and Microsoft defenders. The latter kind tend to come out of the woodwork when they feel their precious console and company is under attack.
And they talk about a Sony Defense Force...sheesh.
5-30-2008 @ 11:40AM
madsci said...
They really fucked up by losing GTA and Guitar Hero as exclusives. If they hadn't, they'd be rolling in it by now. Devil May Cry was also a stupid loss. The only real worthwhile exclusives XB had were Halo and Crimson Skies, IMO. Sony should have never given up so many franchises. All that did was give MS more good titles and momentum.
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5-30-2008 @ 11:44AM
reson8er said...
Agreed.
5-30-2008 @ 11:54AM
Kenology said...
At the same time, Sony had no idea it would be in the position it's in right now. This why they reneged on a few stances they took prior to the PS3 launch (i.e. "Rumble is last gen" ---> Dual Shock 3, "we don't pay for exclusives" ---> this very article). If anything, Sony is adapting to the market. I agree with you though, had Sony been open to money hatting earlier, it would be interesting to see where things would've been. However, is it true that Sony money hatted Namco for Soul Calibur 3 on PS2?
5-30-2008 @ 11:41AM
HektikLyfe said...
I for one am glad to hear this. Not a complete confirmation by any means but a step in the right direction and a hint that Sony's cockiness may be wavering.
Did they really expect Microsoft to play fair?
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5-30-2008 @ 11:41AM
T-P-M said...
Personally I think they should invest the money more into Indy/startup game companies than exclusive established titels. The money would go a lot further. As long as the titles arn't all going exclusive to another system I dodn't really care.
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5-30-2008 @ 11:46AM
koehler83 said...
Anyone else see too many Chiefs?
Jack says this. Then Kaz vetoes and says this. Then that old dude from SCEE pipes up with his contradictory 2 cents.
Who is going to make anything happen when the guys upstairs cant come to a conclusion on what's going to happen?
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5-30-2008 @ 12:29PM
Brodie-san said...
Bring back Ken I say!
:)
5-30-2008 @ 11:46AM
ComicShaman said...
Something I've noticed is that there are several JRPGs that have been announced recently as being X360 exclusives. I'm drawing a blank on titles, but there were at least two mentioned on Joystiq recently. My reaction to both was: "Huh. Those look like they should be PlayStation or Wii games." It seems very likely that Microsoft has negotiated exclusives for these games.
I think it's only a secondary goal for Microsoft to increase its popularity in Japan. Really, I think they're trying to kneecap Sony by plucking away at the PlayStation's RPG base. Microsoft is aggressive enough to bankroll these developers to the point that they can endure the hit in sales they will experience by keeping these PlayStation-type games on the X360.
You have to adapt to your competitors. I think Sony is seeing Microsoft's willingness to play a pretty ruthless game of funding exclusives at a loss just to hurt the PlayStation brand, and is now realizing they can't afford to ignore this tactic.
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