Following the PlayStation 5 reveal a few weeks back, there has been a lot of discussion about timed exclusives and whether they are detrimental to the gaming industry. As far as I am concerned there is no definitive answer on this subject and it should be taken on a case by case basis. There are also situations where the exclusivity deal benefits the publisher, but not necessarily the gamer.
In a perfect world, all games would be available in as many places as possible. Xbox fans would currently be touting the graphical fidelity of the Last of Us Part II on the Xbox One X while PlayStation fans would be eagerly anticipating Halo Infinite. First-party studios like Naughty Dog and 343 Industries exist to push sales for specific hardware though, and it’s that desire to sell systems that drive the deals for timed exclusives with third parties.
Personally I like console exclusives, regardless of their first, second or third party exclusivity because it gives me a reason to own the different machines. Last gen I owned all systems and spent large portions of time on each. However this generation I skipped the Xbox One altogether as they just didn’t deliver any killer app that I felt like I had to have.
Now granted, I currently game on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC, so I do have access to all Xbox exclusives through the wonders of Game Pass, but honestly if Microsoft were releasing first-party games with in-depth stories like Detroit Become Human, Days Gone and the recent Last of Us Part II I would have gone ahead and bought a One X just for the console experience. But as things stand I am as well just dabbling with Microsoft’s offerings on PC.
Now, where I do have an issue with timed exclusivity is in the likes of the original Destiny where you got the game on Xbox, but a decent chunk of DLC content was locked to PlayStation for a year. Back with Call of Duty when these deals would be 30 days it was bad enough, but this is objectively making the game worse on one system for an unacceptable amount of time.
The other instance where I took umbrage with this practice was for Rise of the Tomb Raider. On the surface it made total sense. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was due to launch on PlayStation 4 not too long after and so this was Microsoft’s chance to have their own third-person action-adventure game to compete. Plus Square Enix will have likely felt the game wouldn’t fare as well on PS4 with the next Nathan Drake adventure looming and decided to take the cash.
My issue wasn’t with the deal. It made sense to almost all parties that stood to gain financially from it. Except for one glaring omission: it was a sequel. To me, this was where it became an anti-consumer move. If Square Enix and Microsoft want to make Lara’s adventures exclusive to a console that’s well within their rights. But don’t release a game, then put a direct sequel to that story on only one of those systems for an entire year.
This brings us to these upcoming PlayStation 5 timed exclusives like Deathloop, Ghostwire: Tokyo and more. These are all new IP and therefore I personally have no issue with the exclusivity. I know that it has divided fans and annoyed some predominantly Xbox gamers, but I fully expect Microsoft to show off some third party exclusives themselves during their July event. At that point it will be up to us, the consumer, to decide which console manufacturer has sold us on their initial lineup.
As for whether these timed exclusives are good for the publisher/developer, that remains to be seen. These companies are backing horses right now. If you pick the console that comes out the gate strongest, it will likely benefit your wallet. If it doesn’t, you may lose out. At the end of the last generation EA would have thought it was a no brainer to put Titanfall exclusively on Xbox One, but the console had such a limp start that it ended up doing irreprible damage to the franchise. By the time it migrated over to PS4, no-one cared.
My hunch is that Sony will continue to be in a strong position next generation, but I also feel that Xbox is riding a wave of goodwill and are poised to back that up with solid games. My hope is that both can put out strong first, second and third-party titles that will give gamers a genuine reason to own both consoles. I guess we will just need to wait and see what the next generation brings.
Thanks for reading this short editorial on timed exclusives. What’s your thought on the subject? Let me know on Twitter where we regularly run polls, do giveaways and have interesting and fun discussions about games. Until then, take care of yourself and be kind to others.
-VDZE ✌️