Curmudgeon GamerAs for losing GTA IV, Harrison said that the PlayStation 3 was not suitable to be the exclusive home of Rockstar's upcoming title. "I don't think PS3 has the install base to support Rockstar's investment in GTA IV on its own," Harrison told the assembled bloggers. The first next-gen Grand Theft Auto game likely cost Rockstar considerable money and development time. That being such, it couldn't have sold enough copies on PS3 alone to make exclusivity worthwhile. In the future, as the number of PS3s in homes grows, it should become easier to nab major exclusives.I think that is awfully close to an important point I was trying to make recently: Sony expects the big-name titles to be cross-platform, primarily Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, so they can maximize the return on the huge development investment. The money saved on buying exclusives can be folded into Sony's internal studio budgets.
Not worth it to release exclusively on PS3.
That's kind of like saying that in the 16-bit era, it wasn't worth it to release a game exclusively on the TuboGrafx.
That doesn't mean much in relation to third party real and timed exclusives on the other platforms though. How many people in Japan bought a SNES just for SF2?
By Jeremy, at 09 March, 2007 09:54
Jeremy, do you ever have anything intelligent to say? You are a cookie moating flea bagger who couldn't get afraid if you slipped a seal doll off a roofie.
By , at 13 March, 2007 21:59
I think the costs are becoming too high to bet on exclusives. If some company makes a 360 exclusive game and it flops, they might not have enough money to re-release it to the PS3. That's the economics of this new, "mature" industry. ;)
I think development costs, licensing, and tie-ins are hindering good game development in favor of the familiar and the established. At the cost of making a next-gen game these days, going out on a limb is only reserved for the ones with the deepest pockets. And those companies are preferring to stay in the tidepool getting their feet wet with steady franchises and proven game concepts.
What has to sell systems now is being the "better" of the competition (or "best" if we count all the players...)
And what is a cookie-moating flea bagger? Wait, I really don't want to know. .....
By JFTaylor, at 14 March, 2007 00:05
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