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Microsoft vs. Sony: Are Exclusives Actually Bad for Gamers?


The Case for Exclusives: Good for Gamers? 3
Credit: Microsoft

There's been a lot of back and forth between Microsoft and Sony concerning Microsoft's plans to acquire Activision-Blizzard, following up on other major acquisitions like Microsoft's purchase of Zenimax and Sony's buyout of Bungie. Today, both companies are accusing each other of attempting to lock down games to exclude the other, but what's really going on? Not to worry, because in this article we'll explain if exclusives are actually bad for gamers.

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The Case for Exclusives: Good for Gamers?

The Case for Exclusives: Good for Gamers?
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Credit: Sony

The basic idea behind an exclusive video game that only comes out on one platform is pretty simple. Basically, companies like Microsoft and Sony don't make the big bucks off selling actual PlayStations and Xboxes, the stacks of cash come from getting gamers to buy PlayStation or Xbox games, sign up for online services, etcetera, that kind of thing.

Thus, exclusive games are born. Why buy an Xbox? Well, you can play Halo. Why opt for PlayStation? You get The Last of Us. On one hand, it can suck that Xbox gamers won't ever get to try out Uncharted and PlayStation gamers can't see what Gears of War is like, among many others, but there actually may be a lot more good for gamers than bad coming out of exclusives.

Think about it. Imagine we're living in a beautiful, pure post-exclusive world where every game is on every console. Which console do you buy? Probably the one that's more powerful, or maybe the one that more of your friends play on. That's it. There's ultimately little reason to prefer an Xbox Series X over a PS5 outside of the games. Sure, maybe you prefer the PlayStation controller, or maybe you like that Series X is a tad more powerful, but these aren't big deals.

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This might sound like a bright future where choosing a console becomes, essentially, an aesthetic choice, but this future may not be as perfect as it sounds. If Sony can't get gamers to prefer PlayStation because of games, the brand will have to do that some other way. This could mean increasing prices and coming to the table with stronger hardware than Xbox, or maybe it means cutting prices on games so that gaming is cheaper on PlayStation.

Either way, though, this is a race to the bottom. If consoles get more and more expensive to try and offer up the best performance, gamers suffer. If prices on games get so low that it doesn't make financial sense to make as many games anymore, well, gamers also suffer. It's a relatively delicate ecosystem, and without exclusives tying it all together, the gaming console business model just doesn't make a lot of sense.

However, the above isn't the only way to look at things.

The Case Against Exclusives: Bad for Gamers?

The Case for Exclusives: Good for Gamers? 2
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Credit: Microsoft

The basic idea behind not liking exclusives today is also pretty simple. Essentially, games getting locked to a single platform means fewer gamers will get to play it than if it were widely available, and it's also bad news for game preservation once a console isn't as popular or active anymore.

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However, that's not all. In the modern day, games are just such a huge business, far bigger than what they ever were before. This means that it's realistically possible now to sell more games on a single platform, even with a multiplatform game, than it was to sell copies of an exclusive game 10 or 15 years ago on that same single platform.

Plus, there are also other reasons to prefer one platform over another outside of exclusive games. For example, say you really like Xbox's Game Pass system to play lots of games for cheap, or say you really like the PS5 controller with its adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. This is to say nothing of folks who have been earning achievements or getting trophies on a particular platform for over a decade who might prefer to keep doing that on one platform.

Chances are if you're an Xbox guy or PlayStation diehard you won't be switching up your console of choice by now unless there's a really big, new thing you can only do on one console. Even then, if you've gamed on a particular platform for a long time, all your friends are probably also on the same platform, so that's another reason to stick with what's familiar.

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What's more is that exclusive games are slowly becoming not so exclusive, and the world hasn't ended, either. PlayStation, for example, has been bringing once-exclusive games to PC for years to much success, while everything out on Series X you can also find on PC. The lack of true exclusivity in this sense hasn't done much to slow down the profits of major corporations.

So, what's the verdict on exclusive games?

Exclusive Games: A Verdict

The long and short of it when it comes to exclusives is that it likely still makes a lot of sense for a platform holder like Sony to have, at least, a few AAA exclusive games you can only play on PlayStation that will inevitably help to drive sales. But that's all there needs to be.

Most games likely will benefit from multiplatform support, and so will gamers. This means that while God of War makes a lot of sense as a PlayStation-only game and Halo as an Xbox and PC game, there's little benefit to gamers, for example, for PlayStation to get exclusive Call of Duty content or Xbox gamers never getting a chance to play a fairly niche series like Nioh.

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Chances are both Sony and Microsoft wouldn't suffer enough to close their doors if all exclusives disappeared tomorrow, but they would likely make less money. And when it comes to businesses that have shareholders to report back to, well, choosing to make a lot less money probably won't be the way forward anytime all that soon.

We'd recommend not getting too upset seeing each console come with some exclusive games, but there's also definitely cause for concern when companies like Microsoft continue to buy up studio after studio as the years go on. Luckily, there are tons of excellent games out there on every platform, though, so you won't be missing out on too much, wherever you play.

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