Cliff Notes – Video game exclusives are dying as PlayStation plans new Xbox and Switch ports
- Sony is shifting its strategy towards multiformat releases, indicating a decline in the significance of exclusives for PlayStation titles.
- A recent job advertisement suggests Sony is focusing on expanding its games to platforms beyond PlayStation, including Xbox and Nintendo.
- While high-profile exclusives like God Of War remain unlikely to appear on other formats, older titles and live service games are increasingly being considered for broader distribution.
Video game exclusives are dying as PlayStation plans new Xbox and Switch ports
How many of these will end up on other formats from Sony Interactive Entertainment?
As rumours claim Gears Of War: E-Day is coming to PS5, and Sony confirms more multiformat releases, the era of video game exclusives appears to be coming to an end.
For 40 years the primary selling point for video game consoles has been the exclusive games that they play host to. As Xbox has acknowledged, things changed during the previous generation, when digital downloads began to dominate and switching formats no longer became a trivial matter.
Nobody wants to leave behind their library of games on another console and while the PlayStation 4 still had plenty of high-profile exclusives, by the time the PlayStation 5 arrived fans were already locked into the PlayStation ecosystem.
Increasing cost of making games
Given the increasing cost of making games, exclusives must’ve begun to seem like an expensive and unnecessary indulgence to Sony execs. But now it seems they’re taking things a step further, with plans to release more of their internally developed games on other formats.
One of the most frustrating aspects of Sony’s change in approach is that they’ve never explained anything publicly. The above is all speculation and while it’s almost certainly accurate, Sony has never acknowledged a change in plans or discussed why they’ve released so few exclusives in the second half of this generation – or why they’re so obsessed with live service titles.
That too can easily be guessed at, but it seems their plans are shifting even further, with a recently discovered job ad asking for someone to ‘play a critical leadership role in shaping and executing the global commercial strategy for PlayStation Studios software titles across all digital platforms beyond PlayStation hardware, including Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox, Nintendo, and mobile.’
As the ad puts it: ‘This role is accountable for optimising title profitability, ensuring cross-functional alignment, and leading a high-performing team focused on multiplatform expansion, mid-range commercial planning, and platform partner management.’
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Naturally, no examples are given but while it’s still unlikely that recent PlayStation 5 exclusives will appear on other formats, other than the PC, Sony has recently ramped up its multiformat efforts with the release of former PSP exclusive Patapon on Nintendo Switch and the promise of Everybody’s Golf to follow.
Clearly these are very low-profile franchises, but while they and last year’s Lego Horizon Adventures purposefully skipped the Xbox, live service games Helldivers 2 is coming to Xbox Series X/S next month.
There’s no suggestion that this new role will mean God Of War or The Last Of Us turning up on Xbox overnight, or indeed ever, but the older some exclusives get the more likely it becomes, at least on Nintendo formats – which Sony has long insisted are not direct rivals.
For now, the newly advertised role is still likely to focus on older games and live service titles but even that would have been unthinkable even just five years ago, at the beginning of the generation.
As far as Nintendo is concerned, exclusives are their life blood and it is certainly impossible to imagine any of their games appearing on other formats, but for Sony exclusives are an increasingly minor consideration, that are no longer profitable enough when released on only one format.
This is a truth that Xbox has already realised, especially given how poor Xbox Series X/S hardware sales have been compared to the PlayStation 5.
Microsoft hasn’t been very open about their plans either, but it already seems clear there’s nothing that won’t eventually be released on PlayStation 5. So it’s no surprise to find that just as the Sony job ad appears there’s rumours of Gears Of War: E-Day and State Of Decay 3 also coming to Sony’s format.
Website MP1st has found résumés and job ads that seem to confirm both games being multiformat, although whether there’d be a short delay after the initial Xbox and PC release, as there was with Indiana Jones And The Great Circle, is unknown.
There were many ways to cope with the increasing cost of making triple-A games but, perhaps predictably, Microsoft and Sony have made no attempt to decrease budgets and have instead sought to increase their revenues by increasing the number of places their games can be bought and played.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing but there’s not yet any sign that Sony will start making more exclusives, whether they’re multiformat or not. If that had been the case then most fans would likely welcome Sony’s new approach with open arms.
Gears Of War: E-Day on PS5 is not much of a surprise (Xbox Game Studios)