So, April continues to roll on. The weather’s getting warmer (for some of us, anyway), there’s a massive ash cloud hovering over our island and the sky is still blue. As far as the website goes, we’re chugging along as ever, but nothing hugely different for me to report on this week. We seem to have found our steady ground as far as everything is concerned, with regular weekly features and a design that we’re sticking with for the foreseeable future, mixed in with our usual lot of reviews, blogs and videos. The videos are picking up a bit more steam, and you can expect something a little special next week.
Something I’d like to talk about this week are timed exclusives. Firstly I guess I should state the obvious in that everyone is probably aware that companies are out to make as much money as possible, regardless of how they do it. From past experiences it seems that every independent developer or publisher has their ‘price’, which will buy exclusivity for a certain item, whether it’s full games or DLC of some sort. Upon reaching an agreement a contract is signed and the items in question are only allowed to appear on a specific platform for a (typically undisclosed) amount of time. I would assume that if more truckloads of cash are exchanged, the exclusivity period is longer or something. I kid. Then again, maybe I’m ‘on the money’, so to speak.
As most gamers are probably aware, this weeks PSN update brought the Grand Theft Auto Episodes (The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony) to the PS3 and PC on Friday, with them seeing a disc-based released the same day. These have been available on the 360 for well over 5 months now and until SimplyGames accidentally let the cat out of the bag at the end of January, many non-360 owners were wondering whether they’d ever see them at all. Microsoft have a lot of cash behind them, presumably enough to buy more than half a year of exclusivity, so their concern was understandable. If someone were to buy one that lasted a couple of years then the next game in the series could be out and the content may be out of date when it finally did hit the other platforms.
Having said that, it could be a strong tactic for the publisher in question to have a longer exclusivity period. Sales of the content on the exclusive platform may be drying up at the end of the period as everyone that wants the content would have it, so when it’s finally released on the other platforms sales are strong again on those. It’s all a matter of timing, if you look at it – you want it to be long enough that you get a large number of sales on the exclusive platform, but not so long that it’s out of date when it hits the other platforms, as not many people would be interested.
The first Modern Warfare 2 map pack is also a timed exclusive worth mentioning. Whilst 360 owners have been enjoying killing things in these new (I use that term loosely seeing as some are from Call of Duty 4) maps since the end of March, PS3 owners are having to wait until the end of this month until they get to kill things in them. It’s interesting to see what effect this has on the communities of both and whilst I haven’t had any major contact with either I suppose it’s the same old “360 pwns PS3″ on one side and “goddamn 360 owners” on the other. Can you guess which quote is from which? Intentional or not, the 360 appears to have been the ‘lead’ platform when it comes to MW2, ever since the E3 2009 demo was openly played on one, so it was unsurprising to see the exclusive map pack. I suppose they would chalk this down to the fact that the 360 has a larger/stronger online community than the PS3.
You can probably now see a pattern emerging here which is always stated in fanboy wars: the 360 always gets the ‘best’ exclusives with Microsoft pipping Sony to the post with the major franchises. This is true to an extent, but the PS3 does have its fair share of hit franchises and content. I don’t really have a point for this retrospective, it was more just an observation and a few thoughts on the matter, so I’ll leave you with a couple of questions. Firstly, do you feel that securing exclusive content is a correct practice? Also, should companies like Sony be doing more to secure exclusive content?
Let us know in the comments.
mynameisblair (75)
wick15 (17)
toutski (14)
Daywalker (13)
gazzagb (12)
Personally I don’t like exclusive or timed-exclusive DLC. I just think it’s unfair to gamers that don’t have the luxury of owning more than one console. It won’t stop though.
Yes, Sony should secure more exclusive DLC, especially for the big titles.
I’m of the opinion that timed exclusives are a bit pointless in the long run, for everyone involved. Sure, it might seem enticing at first, but when you cut the cheese and get down to brass tacks, everyone winds up with the same stuff: publishers get the same revenue, gamers get the same content, the only one who’s losing out is Microsoft or Sony, for paying for it in the first place. Stupid when you think about it, eh?
True, but I suppose there must be some margin of profit in there somewhere, otherwise they wouldn’t do it.