paying for a game to be exclusive makes no sense

Unless it's a heavy hitter like call of duty or grand theft auto......if those was ACTUALLY exclusives and not timed exclusives......that would make this real interesting. Remember a huge reason why the ps2 sold so much was because of grand theft auto. Rockstar eventually dropped it on xbox but still......those games never sold as much as it did on ps2.

Creating a new exclusive from the ground up would probably cost less than buying exclusive rights to GTA or COD.

It is bad for gamers. On other hand one may see it profitable by signing a deal with console makers but I think sometimes it hurts you in the long run because you are disappointing your community that made you successful in the first place. Valve games sell like hot cakes because they've made a loyal fanbase, by treating them well for the last couple of years. There is always an easy way out (by taking money from Sony or M$ and making games exclusive to their consoles) but this hurts devs later down the road when there is no one to support them financially (except gamers who vote with their wallets). That's my theory.

No one would buy a Wii U if it didn't have exclusives.

Exactly. Competition should be among games and game developers. Not large toy manufacturers and their toys.

@JangoWuzHere: real talk

It's probably cheaper and gets them a decent return. I'm sure the finance department at these multi bilion dollar companies have run the numbers

Fixed

Yeah but a new exclusive doesnt have to be good and sell well like a GTA game:P

Are you referring to the case of SSV? Because I totally agree

Technically no one has really bought out a multiplat game for an exclusive which has only just come to light.

Tomb Raider even I was up in arms about that, but it seems a little more complex than just buying the exclusive rights to the game, seems like Microsoft coughed up money for them as well to produce it, which pretty much means the first Tomb Raider (the remake) didn't make them enough money to produce it themselves and sell it multiplat and Microsoft jumped in to publish the game.

Same with Street Fighter 5, it may never of seen the light of day, if Sony hadn't of come in and decided to cough up money to produce the game in conjunction with Capcom.

But of course it makes sense, the only reason we have a system wars and a console rivalry is all about the exclusives, if we didn't have exclusives then there would be no reason to buy a certain console, which means a loss of money for everyone around, I never bought a PS4 just on the merit that it was the better console, I just know from history that Sony make great exclusives on there platform where you cannot get anywhere else and there the type of games I like.

Just like how a Microsoft Fan buys a Xbox One because they have history and like the exclusives they know they will enjoy them once they decide to show up.

GTA was never exclusive to Playstation they were on PC as well, it just so happened that the PS2 had absolutely no Rivalry when it came out for those types of games and grew on that basis it took a year or 2 before we even saw an Xbox and that was a very new console.

Exclusives matter and it really does make sense to buy exclusives.

What should never happen is a well built franchise which has always been a multiplat should never be taken/bought for exclusive purposes.

I think exclusives are incredibly important for the video game market. When all is said and done people buy a console for simply one game.

Console makers need exclusives to make their console stand out. Buying out exclusives is also nothing new. Look at Halo. It was supposed to be Mac and PC right up to the verge of release and then, "Poof!" Total blackout.

The next thing send shockwaves when Bungie released a statement saying they're with MS (XBox) only from that point on.

@Dswiss: yes I am

sometimes it makes people buy a console. I admit that i did buy a ps2 to be able to play FF10 back when it came out.