There is the other part of the story where development and contracts predate the pandemic, so without knowledge about the dramatic impacts on supply chain, resources, availability and consumer behaviour.

It also took a while to code the game and without a planned port that can't be produced out of thin air (not to mention under lockdown conditions). The game is also available for PS4, so a broader console audience.
 

Sony and Microsoft apparently think so, and were it not for the artificial limitation due to the chip shortage, there'd be a lot more consoles sold than there are right now. But from my perspective, it saves me buying another game I'd like to try, because I don't have $500 for a new console, let alone scalper prices, when I've got items such as car repairs and medical bills to worry about.
 

As a consumer I really hate the idea of platform exclusivity - and also other similar concepts, like country exclusivity (or regional locking for any entertainment product)

I can understand that making a game support multiple platforms is extra development and testing work, but the main console gaming platforms are well established and mature, and most of the game engines like Unity and whatever else is used today should be cross-platform, so that effort would be really small compared to creating a game from scratch.

Now, porting a game from a console to PC or from a PC to a console can be a bit more complicated due to the different input controllers - a game designed for a console controller may not translate well to a keyboard+mouse interface - I have stumbled on such examples in the past.
 

I've been immersed in the console economy for decades now and can see why they maintain exclusivity....it drives sales and links customers to their platform, which means one is more likely to buy games on that platform. But for a consumer, especially today where the differences between platforms and PC are so blurred now, it is less useful to have to decide if you will buy Xbox to play Halo or PS5 to play Uncharted/Horizon.

The console is, these days, like a record player: you aren't buying a record player because you want the newest tech, you are instead buying in to a specific experience. PS5 players are largely in this crowd....and having a PS5 is a certain kind of experience that people do want, and exclusive titles are part of it. Xbox, however, has moved to a different kind of market, and in many ways now the Xbox Series X/S are just "cheap PCs for gaming in a closed store venue" that you can opt to avoid and simply play those same games on your PC, streaming, or whatever.

The irritation with Sony would be milder (not nonexistent, just milder) if they could sort out their manufacturing demand nightmare. But Sony would lose its market if it catered to the broader crowd by losing its exclusives, and the only reason Sony should do that is if there is no longer an incentive to offer up their own console with its own closed marketplace....and unlike what happened with Sega and the Dreamcast 21 years ago I don't think Sony is anywhere close to the state Sega was in when they pulled the trigger.

Either way...the notion is consoles need exclusives. But Microsoft is challenging this, and can afford to do so, as they have significantly less share of the console market anyway and stand to lose nothing by opening up their games to PC. I think Sony will keep their exclusives "late timed releases" for PC as they have been doing....but giving up console exclusivity would hurt Sony a lot more than Microsoft, I suspect.



 

I've owned some of the previous playstations. I do not see playstation as an experience or anything different from an xbox. It is just a different console with a different name, but that is all for me.

I would be a 100% certain purchase of the new horizon (or any of the uncharted) if they were on pc. I will not buy a console for a game.
 

Totally agree. As a stop however I am experimenting with game streaming. I recently tried it the streaming service on Xbox gamepass ultimate and I was very impressed. It isn't as good as native but it is still very playable. Unfortunately any Xbox have I want is already on PC so Xbox streaming isn't an that useful to me. I would definitely pay money to stream some recent PlayStation exclusives though. Sadly Sony are slow to offer new releases on streaming. Zero Dawn is on there but Forbidden West isn't yet.
 

My backlog of good games on PC is enough that I can't imagine even caring about any console exclusive. I suppose consoles have smaller and more curated libraries, and competition between them is affected more.
 

Exclusives don't make sense in an age where game sales are no longer the end all and be all in profits for the console makers.

The massive success of games as a service and F2P games has made the traditional $60 game sale less important. Microsoft has tapped into the subscription model and smartly realized that's likely where the industry is heading.

Even on PC epic exclusives have started to slow down after reports of several games doing terribly on the epic store despite the payout.
 

@Bigeye Sony makes a lot of money on people who re locked in to its own store, so exclusives help drive sales by bringing people in willing to buy the console to play those particular games. Microsoft has gone a different route entirely, because it can. The subscription model is not so much a case of MS tapping in to it, but rather MS creating it (or taking up the mantle from the detritus of prior failed attempts). It's working, by and large, so far.

As far as Epic goes, the failure there is likely due to Epic providing subpar value in their store to Steam. No achievements, no community buildup, no review scores by actual players, no discussion forums, no steam workshops.....Epic pretty much offers nothing except some free games and occasional good coupons.