It’s a fairly new trend that doesn’t seem like its going away any time soon, but it really should. Timed exclusive games are, no matter how much press releases and trailers try to tell you otherwise, utterly pointless.
Outright exclusives are becoming unicorns in modern gaming; you rarely see a game that appears on one platform and one platform only throughout its entire lifespan. Games that might have once been only available on PS4 will often eventually find their way to PC or Xbox One and vice versa. Unless it’s being produced first-party, your console-seller might not be a unique sunflower for too long as its developers and publishers look to squeeze every last penny out of it before it becomes old news.
Enter the timed exclusive. The same people who thought that online passes and horse armour DLC were good ideas are probably behind this one, too. It’s just another attempt to change up the market, but it isn’t going to work. If you need proof, take a look at Rise of the Tomb Raider. Did you forget that Rise of the Tomb Raide
The gamble hasn’t really worked for Microsoft, at least where shifting Xbox One consoles is concerned. The Windows version trounced the console version of the game in terms of sales, selling two thirds more within its first month of release. Worse still, the game only managed to sell 63000 copies Time brought more success, but not much: Rise of the Tomb Raider had “only” managed to sell 1.4million copies by March 2016.
Sure, RotTD had to compete with the likes of Fallout 4
If timed games are bad, timed DLC is the devil. Sony have recently made the PS4 “the home of Call of Duty”, meaning that all DLC comes to that console first with it arriving later on others. It won’t shift as many extra units of the PS4 and generate as much revenue as purchasing the exclusivity rights no doubt will, so decisions like these just smack of companies sticking their middle fingers up at their rivals and telling them to wait the fuck in line. It’s simple posturing.
I intended to cover this topic a while back, but since learning that Dead Rising 4
Dead Rising is a series I have always loved; the original giving me an excuse to go over to my weird friend’s house to play it. When the sequel was released, it was a delight to be able to play it on a PlayStation system with the PS3. The threequel (three guesses what it’s called) was an Xbox One launch exclusive and still unavailable for PS4 owners. So, when Dead Rising 4 was announced, I was hoping to be able to play it from the comfort of my front room instead of having to beg my decrepit PC to put up with it. No such luck.
When DR4 does eventually make its way to the PS4, the hype and allure will be lost. Countless Let’s Plays that are simply unavoidable and spoilers creeping up everywhere will take the sheen off the games. Let’s not forget that most gamers don’t have bottomless pockets – why prioritise your budget for a full-price game that others have already been playing for some time? Wouldn’t you prefer to buy the big new thing out at that minute?
By limiting the potential audience for a game, which probably cost you a few million to make, caused many sleepless night for its developers, and created one or two arguments between friends working on it to meet ridiculous deadlines, you’re effectively giving yourself a death sentence in the modern gaming climate. Publishers should know that no slap in the face to your competitors is worth alienating potential people.
#FreeLara
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