RIP "Exclusives don't matter" 2015-2017

So, now that we have numbers corroborating that XBox is a third place console even in its own back yard, I think we can lay the notion to rest, yes? If facing the full frontal barrage wasn't the death blow to one of System Wars weakest arguments in the history of ever, we now see a console twitching on the floor with a glowing Master Sword in its back.

One more time for the audience in the back. . . No one buys consoles for the space-filler, boredom-killer cross platform stuff. Those games exist purely to fill the gaps between exclusive games that people buy the console for in the first place. You will not run out and buy console B or console C to play games you already get on console A. This isn't just a Cow thing any more. Sheep have hit the ground running and moved past the "Booming voice says exclusive, but other platforms libraries say otherwise" console here.

It's over. It's been over. It should have never been a thing to begin with. *Drops the mic*

I agree TC. But I truly hope the bone x brings the heat, because I like having the most powerful shit.

Sad day for lems indeed,

I hope it lights a fire under MSes ass to make actual exclusive games again. It's clear that they are lying to kick it at E3 like they have them but don't actually pony up money to make them. It was not a good look, and once again, I find myself cheering them to get their ass kicked again. I really had hope for the Scorpio, too.

how is it in 3rd place?

@Shewgenja: the problem is that MS doesnt have the dev talent to make a blockbuster game. At this point they know it too, and hence why they rely on third party. Forza is amazing, but it's not worth having a steaming pile of dung in your house to be able to play a racing game.

Right, Wii U and it's exclusives is what made it sell like hotcakes and such a massive success. lol

Let's not forget the Bore didn't have much in exclusives for the first two years yet somehow it outsold X1 and Wii U big time.

In other words mah friend, no Fake news allowed here in the bastion of honest debating... System Wars. tehe. :P

"Exclusives don't matter" on consoles was always something weird to say. Exclusives are the only thing consoles have above PCs. A console without exclusives is just a crap PC with overpriced games and paid online and no freedom at all.

Well. It's in third place for the year. The Switch almost outsold it for 2017 in its launch month alone. As things stand, here in the now, it's not exactly in a position to move upward in the overall count as well. It didn't exactly take long for the PS4 to sell 30M, nor the Wii for that matter.

WiiU found itself in an artificial price war with the XBox. Also, the XBox had exclusives back when WiiU was trying to build momentum. Look at it another way, though. Nintendo was able to launch two completely separate platforms on the strength of its exclusives and come back to put the XBox under. Think an XBox Two would have the same luck, or is it a platform trying to ride Gen 8 into the sunset because it has no developer support to start over with?

Just being honest.

I swear most of you are 12

I'm not sure I agree. The PS4 sold shit loads in it's first year off the back of crap like Knack and The Order.

Games like GTAV are responsible for way more console sales in my opinion. Plus the fact that it's more likely people friends will have PS$ now and they will want PS4's so they can all play GTAV together.

But hey what do I really know, this is all just conjecture based off the crap that get posted here.

I really don't get all that but suffice to say it just can't be anything other than Exclusives that make a console more successful than another. Hey, I heard it here first from someone ( name withheld to protect the ummm, innocent. lol ) who never try's to create false narratives and loves everything MS/Xbox so ya know it's gotta be true. lol :P.

That's a mighty fine argument you have there based off of sales results and your own opinion. If we're talking about those of us that use these boards then sure. Exclusives are why we buy consoles. We are the minority though. Vocal, but still a small portion of the large amount of people that buy gaming consoles.

I remember seeing a study around 2015 about why people buy certain gaming consoles. For the PS4, exclusives weren't the first reason. Not even the second reason. It was better resolution first and then Blu ray player second. Then exclusive games/content. For the Wii U the top 4 we're fun factor, better for kids, price/value and backwards compatibility. The fifth reason was exclusive content/games.

People generally don't know what we know about games and gaming consoles. Microsoft shot themselves in the foot out of the gate and Sony capitalized. Then everyone else followed suit.

Exclusives are why I bought a PS4, and I'm sure it is for many fun us here. Just not the majority it seems.

That's easy to say, I think, if we discount the notion that people bought it to have the latest as well as being tucked in for the ride knowing the exclusives would come. 4 Playstations later, people more or less know what to expect.

Nah. The Wii U sold terribly, and the PS4 sold like hot cakes it's first 2 years on the market with little to no exclusives. Also the Switch was selling out its first 2 months on the market when it had 0 exclusives.

People might not choose the specific brand of console for multiplats, but they sure as hell buy consoles for multiplats. I buy consoles for PRIMARILY their exclusives, because I have a PC, but not everyone does. Most people do want to play the next GTA, Battlefield, Dragon Age, Witcher, Fallout, Crew, etc - and if they aren't interested in PC gaming they're gonna buy someone's console to do it

GTAV has been constantly in the top 10 sales for the last 137 years. That game has sold more PS4's than any exclusive ever will. And Minecraft.

Couldn't agree more

"Exclusives don't matter" became only a thing when lems saw how hard the X1 flopped by having non, lol.

In the real world, exclusives are the biggest reason to pick one console over the other.

I disagree. 90% of all games on a console are multiplat. This alone means that 90% of the games on the Xbox One X will be better than the PS equivalent. You basically buy an Xbox One X if you can't afford a $1500 PC and still want great gaming graphics at 4K. It has it's market, and that's exactly who will buy it for 'space-filler, boredome killer corss platform stuff'.

This console seriously has the cows quivering at being second place in hardware. The most powerful console ever made is coming in a few short months!

@pdogg93: Then get a PC.

Exclusives do matter to me. For me, exclusive games are what really separate PS4 and Xbox One. Those two systems have similar ideas but differentiate primarily in the exclusivity department.

In terms of sales? Things get a little more complex. Marketing, buzz and reputation go a long way. I think leading up to the release of the Xbox One, all the negative feedback and confusion regarding the Kinect, online privacy and approach had a big impact on its reputation. By comparison, the PS4 was accessible, easy to understand and straight forward. At the start, people argue that the PS4 didn't have many exclusives to its name but the platform itself was simpler to digest than the reputation and narrative derived from Xbox One. This created a knock on effect where sales of PS4 grew and grew, making it more desirable for publishers, leading to more exclusive deals and more reason to buy a PS4.

Likewise, the Wii U had great exclusive titles. Really great stuff like Bayonetta 2, Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Maker, Smash Wii U and The Wonderful 101 but what it didn't have was clear marketing, an understandable concept and buzz.

Exclusives matter but so does effective marketing in terms of what systems are successful.

Exclusives/console exclusives and online platform are what matter to me. Thats why i went with Xbox One over Ps4. The games featured on xbox one interest me more since MS Games incorporate co-op/multiplayer.

So yeah, on consoles i believe they matter.

If they did matter then the top 10 best selling games each week would be just PS4 exclusives. With an install base of over 60 million they should be absolutely dominating the sales charts.

But they don't.

The exclusives argument is always a tough one. Some people have already noted how terrible PS4’s exclusive lineup was in the first two years, but sold very well. I wanna attribute this to the horrible reveal of the Xbox One and disaster that was the Wii U. At this point, the damage is already done. I’d also like to think that anyone who is coming over from the 360/PS3 now is buying whatever console their friends have. In that case, PS4 would continue its momentum and dominate (based on the current X1/PS4 sales ratio).

Uncharted 4, Bloodborne, The Order, Knack, Tales of Zesteria/Beseria, Gravity Rush 2, Nier, Nioh, and others are not system sellers. Hell, half of those games target a fraction of the PS4 audience. This all has to do with the terrible launches of Wii U and Xbox One. Nintendo got their second chance with the Switch. Xbox won’t get one by keeping the “X” an Xbox One.

no, PS4 jumped out of the gate as the strongest, cheapest console option. It rode that success with moderate exclusives for almost 3 years. It became the casual console, GTA, Destiny, COD, those people went there. Then friends of the people went there obviously the cycle continued with success of RB6:Seige, and Wildlands. These games sell have good if not great attachrates, gets people on the system, gets their friends playing with each other on the system. Exclusives are the nice little in between titles that drop between the important games.

We had what something like 160 million total sales of PS3 and 360. Right now we are sitting at maybe 90 million consoles sold between PS4 and Xbox One. Where are the other 70 million, Fact of the matter is Xbox has plenty of games you can't play on PS4, PS4 has plenty of games you can't play on Xbox One, obviously PC doesn't matter, largest install base, weakest sales in Ubisoft games, that's what's we are basing this off right.

I bought an xbox - how this fits into your theory I'm not sure. I guess I'm statistically part of the 'no one buys consoles for the space-filler, boredom-killer cross platform stuff', i.e. no-one, and therefore un-statisticable.

Probably he refers to sales from January to June the XBO is in deed 3rd by leaks.

And this month was outsold by the Switch as well.

And that is in the US. . . Xbox home territory.

People are waiting for the Xbox one x

Exclusives matter but not in and of themselves, hence the WiiU. They matter in helping to produce a deeper and more robust game library which is a leading factor (along with price) as to the success of a console. This is factually proven by history. Each generation, simply look at the console with the biggest game library in which exclusives and multiplatform games are a contributor and you will find the top selling console of that generation with the Wii being pretty much the only exception.

The NES had the biggest library and stomped the competition.

The Genesis and SNES both had deep game libraries with a wide variety of exclusives and were neck and neck the entire generation.

The Playstation's game library was the biggest and it destroyed the N64 and Saturn

The Playstation 2 Followed the same playbook as the PSX.

The Wii arguably had a weaker game library than the XBox 360 and PS3 yet sold the best that generation.

The Playstation 4 has the biggest library and is easily leading the competition.

This isn't an argument. History proves it. Exclusives matter.

Please even the mighty PS2 had mostly multiplatforms is something normal because 3rd parties by far outnumber what a single company can output,hell many 3rd parties don't even put out the amount of exclusives sony release in a gen,outside the usual rinse and repeat ways of the market.

Nor sony,MS or Nintendo will ever output more than all 3rd parties combined is impossible,but from there to downplay the importance of exclusives based on 3rd parties far outnumbering exclusives is a joke.

And pretty low for lemmings who for YEARS Hyped Halo and Forza as the reason to get an xbox over the competition,if i can get Halo and Forza elsewhere for what in hell would i want an xbox?

Oh please the only time MS ever tasted 1st place was when they launched in 2005 and they were quickly over took by Nintendo,and in the end even by sony which release a $600 dollar platform.

When sony does things right MS can't touch sony,and we have see it already.

lol The PS4 still is the most powerful console ever created since 2013 and was cheaper not $100 more than the competition and you just didn't care..lol

The PS4 from day 1 had more games than the xbox one,and higher rated to.

3 years? For god sake it took just 3 months for Infamous to hit,that same month MLB,3 months latter TLOU remaster also hit,and that was early 2014 that is more quality releases than what the xbox one has had this year.

You lemmings simply are out of touch with reality,you believe that only your shitty Halo,gears forza crap count as a good game some how,the rest doesn't count for any platform,the xbox officially has less games than the PS4 and lower rated ones each and every year since 2013,is not my opinion it is there in black and white (actually in color) in Metacritic and many other sites.

A game you can't play on PS4 or xbox one but that you can play also on PC is a multiplatform game is not an exclusive,is not Uncharted or Horizon or others,so basically the xbox one loss its identity to PC which is the real problem.

you lemmings are simply put out of touch with reality,the xbox one has been dragging its feets game wise since 2013,and its first 90+ game hit in late 2016 and wasn't even exclusive you could play it on PC in superior form.

My best guess is, everyone in the U.S has gotten wiser this time from not dealing with MS consoles and it looks like Xbox One was the last straw. Can you blame'em?

PS4 sold so much without exclusives is because PS consoles are synonymous with exclusives, people know the exclusives will come, proven by PS1, PS2 and PS3, and they were right...

@tormentos: exactly what I said mediocre games, kudos for including that remaster cash grab. In the early years, Titanfall was better than anything on PS4 and it was a glorified demo, same for Killer Instinct and it is free, Dead Rising 3, Sunset Overdrive, MCC, all leaps and bounds better than anything PS4 offered before Bloodbourne(which isn't great either). Plus you could play all the big MP games. It's a fact PS4 took off because the first time ever the more powerful console was also the cheapest. Poor price, poor comparable power, poor word of mouth, and Kinect hurt the Xbox One.

It's not the only thing that matters, obviously, but it's up there.

And people wonder why I game more and more on PC. So I won't half to worry about sales such as this thread.

PC FTW!

BTW, Exclusive games do matter, that part right there I understand indeed.

Right OP. Exclusives do matter. This stupid narrative of exclusives not mattering was only started by lems when the Xbox started failing and had no exclusives.

The most successful Xbox, the 360, had a ton of quality exclusives during its early years. Back then lems didn't say stupid shit like exclusives don't matter.

Exclusives are the only thing that differentiate the consoles and the only thing that make people pick one console over the other. People cite the early start of this gen as "proof" that exclusives don't matter but those people are clowns. From day one, the PS4 had more exclusives than the Xbone and more announced games. Adding insult to injury it was $100 cheaper and more powerful and didn't didn't have Kinect/potential online DRM holding it back at launch.

Exclusives definitely matter to me, if the PS4 had games like Forza, Halo and Gears I might have bought a PS4 instead. In a big fan of those 3 and that was a big factor in my decision for choosing Xbox, and I'm glad I made that decision because although the PS4 console has great exclusives, I prefer the ones on Xbox. And no, I couldn't care less if they are also on PC or not. I'm not PC gamer. There are other reasons that were part of my decisions, I like the emphasis Xbox puts on online gaming with its dedicated server support on all 1st party titles, etc. Xbox has games like Elite Dangerous and the and the awesome Everspace before PS4, its getting the highly regarded Path of Exile soon. So its not just G/H/F, but that was definitely a big part of the decision for me that Microsoft decided support these franchises instead of abandoning them and trying out new IP first.

Also, a lot of PS4 exclusives have alternatives on Xbox One....Bloodborne looks great, but Dark Souls 3 gave me my fix. I have The Surge which is great, and I have Dark Souls 2 remastered, so its not like I am famished for those kind of games. I like to play a lot of different type of games and Xbox One has me covered. I'm thinking I'll get a PS-pro down the road because now I have a 4K tv, so might as well....those Housemarque games look amazing I must say.

I find that the importance placed on exclusives is kind of not seeing the forest for the trees, that in focusing so intently on exclusives, the bigger picture and the more integral element to a console's success is missed.

Looking back at the race between Xbox 360 and PS3, X360 began earlier and had more exclusives in its first 3 years, but Sony kept closing the gap. Overall PS3 had more exclusives, yet 360 managed to keep a lead (however narrow it became), as the two platforms battled it out in a neck and neck race during the whole second half of that generation. And as it's been pointed out, PS4 just fired right out of the gate with a very slim lineup of exclusives, where even now MS and Nintendo (even with it's strong exclusives lineup) are having a hard time catching up.

Nintendo has a pretty spotty track record, at least after the Super Nintendo when it once held dominance in the industry. But beginning with Nintendo 64 we saw the company, even with it's reliable stable of first party exclusives, fall behind the competition where they hit an all time low in the Gamecube. There was that rise with the Wii, but that seems to have more to do with the new demographic it brought in with it's new style of interface, a trend that didn't carry over to Wii-U as by then the novelty of motion controls has worn off. And once again from there, despite the regular exclusives lineup, Wii-U was a sinking ship. Nintendo just hasn't been the same since SNES, when the name was synonymous with video games.

So in all the platforms and what turned out to be their most sought after consoles, Super Nintendo, PS2, PS4, X360, is it exclusives that made them the system to have? If you think that's the definitive answer, you're missing what they all had in common... missing the forest for the trees. Because while exclusives are to some extent a selling point, what really brings the consumers in by the masses - is the third party support. Sure that can cover exclusives but for the most part, 3rd party studios and their stable of popular properties are what gamers want to have. It really comes down to a well rounded library that has gamers choosing one system over the others, and from that principle I would argue that 3rd party has far more priority over exclusives.

When Nintendo had a strong offering of both exclusives and 3rd party (SNES) is when they were at the height of their glory. But later on as 3rd party support became more and more scarce, it's no coincidence we saw Nintendo lose it's market leadership. PS2 was also the monster that it is, as being the system to have for such a robust 3rd party selection in its library in addition to its exclusives. And Xbox 360, a platform that had a smaller exclusive selection showed that a platform can still take a strong market position from a robust 3rd party support, having all those sought after titles like GTA, COD, RainbowSix, Battlefield, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Dark Souls, Mortal Kombat, Farcry's, Crysis, Street Fighter, RDR, Bioshock, Skyrim, Fallout, Batman Arkham... the list goes on.

Of course there are other factors like price (look at what $600 did to PS3), specs, features and options (online infrastructure was great for Xbox, Kinect not so much), but when it comes to library, never underestimate the value and importance of 3rd party support, and how much weight it has to exclusives.

the only people who care about exclusives are you and other PC gamers here who need an excuse to keep their consoles , and believe me OP , you're the minority

Less than 5% of the PS4 install base buy the exclusive games.

If you were happy with your purchase you wouldn't be spending so much time on here trying to convince yourself it's not shit.

Microsoft needs to put more effort into making more 1st party games that are good. The XB1 is in a 1st party drought right now.

https://youtu.be/52830TsSkN4?t=61

I do not understand how you draw that conclusion. It's a rather grand assumption to make that the same small pocket of PS4 owners are buying exclusives when the console has an incredibly diverse portfolio.

Minority compared to what? I don't own 2017's third place console, even by American standards.

Shots fired!

@Shewgenja: I think the above poster is comparing us who buy consoles just for the exclusive games it has with the majority of people that buy a console.

We're different here. As I said in a post earlier in this thread, were the vocal minority. Take a look at my post above. People said they bought a PS4 for better resolution and a Blu ray drive. Exclusive games was the third most popular reason people bought a PS4. And the fifth most popular reason to buy a Wii U.

@cohmiracleman: I guess. I just don't think the numbers corroborate the notion that a console without its own exclusives has much of a future going forward. I'm not saying that third party support isn't important, though. Clearly, it was the WiiU's undoing.

The problem is, most of PS4 exclusives are mediocre at best

This^