UPDATE
Well, Xbox has announced that they’re “testing the waters” with their own multiplatform strategy. But how far do you think these companies will go for their profits? Let us know below!
ORIGINAL STORY
If you’ve been paying attention to the gaming world, you’ll know that a change seems to lurk in the shadows that’s slowly being brought into the light. Specifically, it appears that Xbox is about to announce a shocking change to their release strategy by going multiplatform with their exclusive titles. On this scale, such a thing would’ve been unheard of in past generations, yet they seem to be doing it, even announcing a “business update” tomorrow to highlight potential changes to their plans. The twist? It seems PlayStation will be jumping on this rocket, too, if their President’s latest words are anything to go by.
During a Sony Investor Q&A, Sony President Hiroki Totoki had this to say on the matter of exclusivity and whether it can be maintained on consoles:
“In the past, we wanted to popularize console and the 1st party titles’ main purpose was to make the console popular. It is true, but there is a synergy to it. So if you have strong first party content, not only with our console but also other platforms like computers, 1st party can be grown with multiplatform and that can help operating profit to improve. So that is another one we want to proactively work on. I personally think there are opportunities out there for improvement of margins, so I would like to go aggressive in improving our margin performance.”
Some may point out, “But weren’t PlayStation titles already coming to PC?” The answer is yes, but there was always a significant delay because Sony wanted to keep people “on their system first.” Case in point, the recent releases for titles featuring Kratos, Spider-Man, and others haven’t gotten a PC release, and it’ll be a while before they do. Furthermore, even with 3rd party exclusives, we know that a PC port will come, but we don’t know when.
This “exclusivity window” has been both a boon and a detriment to Sony in certain ways. Regarding certain franchises, it helps get people to buy their consoles and have big sales, like with Kratos, Spider-Man, and a few others. However, in the case of Final Fantasy XVI, despite all the hype around it, the sales weren’t as impressive in comparison to the others. Could a side-by-side PC release have helped that? It’s possible.
Granted, unlike the rumors with Xbox, there’s no indication that PlayStation exclusives will be heading to other consoles. However, this will be a marked change in their business strategy if they are indeed “aggressive” with it.
