If you are a mature gamer like myself you probably have more than one gaming platform in the house. I currently have 2 myself, although I have had many more at different times. Currently I’m playing most things on PC but I have an XBOX One X as well.
As I result of my platform choices I missed out on 2 of the biggest games of the year Sony’s “God of War” and Insomniacs’s “Spider-man.” Both of these were exclusive to the PS4 and likely will never see a PC release.
Yes, you are right. If I wanted to play these games bad enough I could have gone out and purchased a PS4 and copies of both games. But at $499 for the cost of the console and $90 per game that is a big expense for 2 games. One I wasn’t willing to submit to.
If I were a parent I would be even harder pressed. No parent wants to deny their kids but this “hobby” is an expensive one and I think most parents would have to say no when presented with those numbers. Especially if there is already a PC or XBOX in the house.
Game development is expensive. The average cost of a triple A game is approaching $120 million USD. Some have topped out around $300 million USD already.
Big deal you might say. Hollywood Blockbusters cost this much and they are doing fine.
Yes sure. But the average Blockbuster game brings back far less money even with the price difference. Couldn’t they lower the price of the games? Sure and maybe they would sell more BUT … if you look at the price of a movie ticket, $15-$20 for a 90 minute movie. The price of a video game, $90 for 15 to 20+ hours of playtime. Suddenly the video game looks like a bargain.
Also a Hollywood movie is released globally to as many theaters as possible to reach as many people as possible. Video games however have to be specifically developed for each platform.
The current video game consoles are very similar to each other on paper. However each has their intricacies that require separate development be done for both.
When you make a game only for one console you are limiting your reach to only that audience. Right now the split is roughly 60% for Sony and 40% for Microsoft.
Personally I think the concept of the Console Exclusive needs to go away. With the price of consoles being so expensive it’s unlikely that you are getting enough people “crossing over” for one specific game. Worse yet you may be alienating gamers who see it as greedy to lock a game to a specific platform or make you wait a year for it to release on another platform.
If the gaming industry wants to charge these prices and survive it needs to reach as many people as possible to do that you need to be on as many platforms as possible. Yes multi-platform development is more expensive but you make that back easily in being available to the other half of the gaming audience.
Exclusive deals limit this exposure and segregate gamers. It ticks off parents. It may even prevent new people from picking up the hobby. It’s a practice I’d like to see end.
NoShade's 