Typically, we have “exclusive” fallout from the console war which forces the hand of the consumer to purchase all consoles to play all the games they love. Many hardcore gamers are into first person shooters like Halo and Gears of War but also like their Grand Theft Auto and Final Fantasy fixes. In years prior, you’d have to invest in Microsoft and Sony’s solutions to get your fix. Now things are changing.
With these third party developers playing neutral in the war on consoles, Microsoft and Sony are forced to rely on near “first-party” titles to keep their army strong. Metal Gear Solid is a Sony exclusive and Gears of War and Halo have been Microsoft’s hype babies for a year or so now. The problem? Many of these exclusive games are not divisions, subsidiaries or in any way under the wing of the console makers.
Nintendo holds exclusive rights to almost all their hard hitting titles. Mario, Link, Zelda, Samus Aran and all their mascot style characters are designed, developed and marketed under the name “Nintendo.” These characters are all part of Nintendo’s lineup of solid best selling titles including the Metroid, Zelda and Super Mario Bros. series and all their spin-offs. Nintendo has the power to re-implement their characters into games like Mario Party, Mario Kart, Links Crossbow, Metroid Prime, Metroid Pinball and a huge array of other first party titles.
Microsoft and Sony must continue to play nice with Konami, Bungie, and Epic Games to keep their exclusivity. What happens if one of these developers “betrays” their console and starts shipping multi-platform?
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I enjoyed watching the press conferences this year. I’ve been waiting to see Mirror’s Edge and Assassins Creed, but also took an interest in a few titles I didn’t know anything about. I absolutely loves that it was less talking and more videos.
I mainly play The Sims series, so what I took away from E3 was the information released about The Sims 4.
I was glad to hear that there is an autosave feature since my Sims 3 game has crashed so many times and I’ve ended up losing hours of gaming. I also enjoyed seeing the new feature: The Gallery (Similair to The Sims 3 exchange) and hearing that it would be in-game.
I am glad to hear that the lots our sims visit will actually be full with people. I am excited to see what the emotions system is going to be like. The world looks great and I am just really excited about the Sims 4. I am counting down until September 2.