The deal with the temporary exclusives: Bad for the consumers, good for the devs

[Nirmugen]

Starting with this generation, many developers begin to have deals with Sony and Microsoft about a "1-year exclusive" deal with an specific game. (Rise of Tomb Raider or Street Figther V for example).


Although SFV is gonna be released in PC too, the console side of things is where the sales are focused from the beginning.


Many people on any sort of forum and media start to rant and complain about this situation, posting a bad situation for the consumer and the multi-platform format. The real thing is this generation can't have that format anymore or at least similar.


Why? It's simple: "AAA games are not easy or modest to make". This thing was a problem back in the day, now is a common situation for any dev. See for example, the expected sales from Tomb Raider (2013) that Square-Enix posted in their Fiscal Report. It was close to 8 million in a year, a number that only a few titles could make. It was exaggerated yeah but ,in the reality, that represented how much the invested in their project, not easy by the way.


The same could be applicated for any developer in the business.


Now, look "the new big IPs" for this generation: Watch_Dogs, Destiny and Titanfall. Every single game have at least one problem or a situation where it is not represent what the previews and the impressions had been directed. And those games have a massive investments.


Plus with a bunch of devs with a bad economic situation and other ones focused on other lucrative markets, the console gaming is in a edge with a long fall.


One solution? Focusing on development of PC and making at least a console version from the beginning with a deal with the console makers.


This reduce the cost, the expected sales, the man working, etc.


It is good for the consumers? No.
It is gonna make important exclusives? It depends of the franchise and many more things.
It is gonna help the industry? Yes, without a question.


So, what are your thoughts about that?

[TimmiT]

We don't actually know if Street Fighter V will be a temporary console-exclusive or not. It's very possible that Capcom will release something like Super Street Fighter V and release that on Xbox One as well, but it looks like the original game is PS4 console-exclusive at least.

Also

It is good for the consumers? No.

Then don't do it. :V

Really the solution should be "don't spend so much fucking money on making a single game". Let's compare the budget Tomb Raider to a very similar (and better) game:

Uncharted 2: $20 million
Tomb Raider: $100 million

If Tomb Raider costs five times more than Uncharted 2, something must have gone horribly wrong. I get that one game is made for a single platform and the other on three different ones, but that probably wouldn't cause the game to cost that much more to make.


EDIT: I do think that developers should make games for PC first and consoles later if they can't afford to make console versions though, particularly independent developers. Of course, Microsoft is holding those back by themselves with their dumb indie parity clause, which as this recent NeoGAF thread shows is causing lots of indie games to not be made for Xbox One.

[Nirmugen]

We don't actually know if Street Fighter V will be a temporary console-exclusive or not.

I'm talking about the first version but also Capcom isn't in a good situation to publish in multi-format, neither many JP companies.

Really the solution should be "don't spend so much fucking money on making a single game".

If you wanna be next-gen or even relevant in the last-gen, that wasn't a option. Making temporary exclusives is an option to reduce cost but see how many people react to that even if it is a good move to devs to improve their games without worrying about being casual friendly all the time and developing AAA tier things like heavy-licesing for example.
 

If Tomb Raider costs five times more than Uncharted 2, something must have gone horribly wrong. I get that one game is made for a single platform and the other on three different ones, but that probably wouldn't cause the game to cost that much more to make.

Making video games is not easy and not cheap if you wanna mass appeal. That's include advertising, obligatory paid reviews, PR for your products, deals with retailers and more. Uncharted 2 cost so much less because Sony has their own PR agences.

[TimmiT]

If you wanna be next-gen or even relevant in the last-gen, that wasn't a option. Making temporary exclusives is an option to reduce cost but see how many people react to that even if it is a good move to devs to improve their games without worrying about being casual friendly all the time and developing AAA tier things like heavy-licesing for example.

People don't really have a problem with a game just being a temporary exclusive, what they do have a problem with is Sony or Microsoft paying the publisher to not release a game on the other platform for a certain amount of time. Especially when said publisher is doing well and the game is a popular series. And I just provided an example where it is an option: Uncharted 2 costing five times less than Tomb Raider. If you want a more current example: No Man's Sky is one of the most impressive current-gen games and it's being made by ten people. And you don't just stay relevant during new generations by spending lots of money. Minecraft is one of the best selling games of all time and isn't exactly a nice looking game graphically, nor did it probably cost much to make.

Making video games is not easy and not cheap if you wanna mass appeal. That's include advertising, obligatory paid reviews, PR for your products, deals with retailers and more. Uncharted 2 cost so much less because Sony has their own PR agences.

Sony knows how to market their games. Also paid reviews aren't a thing. Maybe Youtube channels being paid to say they like a game, sure, but not big professional sites where reviews come from that are counted on Metacritic or something.


My point still stands: the problem isn't games having to cost so much, it's publishers spending far too much money on them. Games don't need overproduced CG trailers to sell, they just need to present the game. Not making the games incredibly generic and actually making them stand out like Minecraft, The Last of Us or No Man's Sky also helps.

[Nirmugen]

Yes they payed for those exclusives but more than anything the devs doesn't mind that much because with that they only need to reach less sold copies and their PR is co-handled with the company in question.

We don't know about now much time No Man Sky was in development but we know that Sony "helped" the devs with the production of the game.

Mass investments =/= luck and success.

Minecraft is one of their kind that found sucess.

Is not the same for any game.

You have a 9-month cycle, an ultra advanced and expensive studio with hundreds of people with almost no break, Heavy advertising, paid reviews (yes, even big sites and Metacritic established that 85 or less for a game is not good for a AAA title and beyond 70 is a piece of crap, no joke) and favors to Youtubers and yo have a expensive investment.

You think they spend so much money for nothing? Think again, this is why the industry is so harmful right now and even monopolized.

[TimmiT]

paid reviews (yes, even big sites and Metacritic established that 85 or less for a game is not good for a AAA title and beyond 70 is a piece of crap, no joke)

None of that means that reviews are paid. Also, your points are based far too much on assumptions rather than facts.

You have a 9-month cycle...

Stopped reading there, apparently you really don't know all that much about game development if you think games like Assassin's Creed are made in 9 months. (tip: multiple development studios making games simultaneously)

[inthesky]

Yes they payed for those exclusives but more than anything the devs doesn't mind that much because with that they only need to reach less sold copies and their PR is co-handled with the company in question.

We don't know about now much time No Man Sky was in development but we know that Sony "helped" the devs with the production of the game.

Mass investments =/= luck and success.

Minecraft is one of their kind that found sucess.

Is not the same for any game.

You have a 9-month cycle, an ultra advanced and expensive studio with hundreds of people with almost no break, Heavy advertising, paid reviews (yes, even big sites and Metacritic established that 85 or less for a game is not good for a AAA title and beyond 70 is a piece of crap, no joke) and favors to Youtubers and yo have a expensive investment.

You think they spend so much money for nothing? Think again, this is why the industry is so harmful right now and even monopolized.

What's more or less clear are game publishers paying for ads on gaming media sites (and wikias, etc), and that the expectation of good reviews/friendly relationships with a publisher can sometimes make it easier to get access to review copies without conditions (pre-release embargo, etc.) The latter is far more insidious than the former, while the former requires strict standards. What is not necessarily apparent are paid-for reviews on a large scale

[TimmiT]

What's more or less clear are game publishers paying for ads on gaming media sites (and wikias, etc), and that the expectation of good reviews/friendly relationships with a publisher can sometimes make it easier to get access to review copies without conditions (pre-release embargo, etc.) The latter is far more insidious than the former, while the former requires strict standards. What is not necessarily apparent are paid-for reviews on a large scale

I think that what does make it apparent that paid-for reviews aren't a big thing is how publishers handle releases of games they expect not to review well. See Ubisoft having an embargo on Assassin's Creed Unity reviews until after the launch or SEGA being very late with giving out review copies of Sonic Boom, if they sent them at all. That being said, the sponsored videos are pretty obvious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWjv8RSXiOU