Two 360 Titles Lose Their Exclusivity

While for the most part we've been hearing about formerly PS3-exclusive games heading to Microsoft's console, as the PS3 begins to get some momentum up in the marketplace we'll start to see the opposite happening. The first converts are the titles Kane & Lynch (a stealth shooter), and Crossfire (a co-op military shooter). Both are now slated to launch on the PlayStation 3, as well as the Xbox 360. Opposable Thumbs reports: "'[SCi Entertainment's] Board believes that a release of these products simultaneously on all three platforms (PS3, Xbox 360 and PC) including the two next generation platforms will benefit the long term revenue potential for these two strong franchises rather than releasing different versions at different times.' It's hard to say that this move is all that surprising. We've said time and time again the high development costs of current generation software are going to lead to an increase in the number of cross-platform software, as extending the possible player-base for a title is crucial for profit. From the looks of these two games, this is a solid win for the PS3: two more quality games to add to the growing list of the PS3's star software."

What can you say

Personally it doesn't seem like these games carry the same weight as the PS3 exclusives that made it to the 360, but still good for Sony taking something back.

Re:What can you say

I visit game news sites daily, and have never even heard of these two games.

Re:What can you say

I visit game news sites daily, and have never even heard of these two games.

Now you know the reason this article exists. On the surface it's an article about XBOX360 games losing exclusivity. However, on second read:

"IO Interactive's Kane & Lynch is a strange and mysterious action game that focuses on the relationship between two men on opposite sides of a deal gone wrong. The developer is best known for the Hitman series, so stealth and careful gunplay are likely to be the order of the day. As for Crossfire, information is somewhat scarce, but the Pivotal Games-developed title is a two-player co-op FPS that revolves around two government agents on a mission behind enemy lines." ... "From the looks of these two games, this is a solid win for the PS3: two more quality games to add to the growing list of the PS3's star software."

What actually happened is you were introduced to two games you never heard of, and they were placed as "two quality games" to add to the "growing list of PS3's star software".

Ninja advertisement at its best.

Still No Dead Rising

I still can't believe that one's exclusive.

Kane&Lynch

K&L is not a 'stealth' shooter. It is a shooter alright, but with more gameplay in common with IO Interactive's Freedom Fighters than the Hitman series.

Meh.

Oh boy, more military shooters! There certainly aren't enough of those out on the market!

Wow, what a sea change

Let's see, the PS3 loses Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto IV to multiplatform releases.

The 360 loses two games I've already forgotten the names of to multiplatform releases.

Yep, the tide is definitely turning.

Re:Wow, what a sea change

Let's see, the PS3 loses Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto IV to multiplatform releases.

GTA4 was never a PS3 exclusive. I'm not sure why the assumption would even be made, as GTA1, GTA2, GTA3, GTA:VC and GTA:SA were never exclusives either.

I think people need to make a distinction between "exclusive" and "coming out on one platform six months before being ported to another". They are not the same thing, and never have been. This notion of a "timed exclusive" is one of those either meaningless or wrongly-applied industry buzzwords that really needs to go. There is no such thing as a "timed exclusive" - a game is either exclusive or it isn't.

Assassin's Creed I don't know about, but GTA4 was always multi-platform. The only difference in GTA4's case is the simultaneous release. Losing six months of "exclusivity" isn't losing exclusivity, it's losing six months. Again, not the same.

What and What Now?

I am not familiar with these games. The impact is lessened considerably.

Strong Franchise?

It's not a franchise until two games in the series are released (i.e. there's at least one sequel).

It's not strong until it sells well.

Both of these titles are new properties, unreleased and without sequels. Therefore they are neither franchises nor strong. Calling them so is merely wishful marketing.

Hans

How about the Wii?

The Wii is the system creaming the competition, how about offering this on the Wii? The article states: "...a release of these products simultaneously on all three platforms (PS3, Xbox 360 and PC) including the two next generation platforms..." -- That's a pretty curious omission of the Wii... It's definitely possible to scale down the graphics and offer the same exact game on the Wii, a system even more powerful than the original XBox, which could handle Half Life 2.

Re:How about the Wii?

It's possible that the Wii's lack of processing power makes it unsuitable for these games.

As developers learn to take advantage of the 360 and the PS3(!), expect this to happen more and more often.

Re:How about the Wii?

As much as i like the Wii.... i would have to completely agree with the above statement. Point: I want to get a 360 for games like Mass Effect or Bioshock. I just don't ever expect them to be ported to Wii... EVER. Wii is fun for other games, however.

Wait, people give a shit about this?

Let's say I own a 360. A videogame I really want will also be released for the PS3 and PC. So what? I still can purchase a 360 copy.

People who bought a console for just one game (ya, such people exist) might be upset if a title's exclusivity is lost. But why should anyone else care? These "OMG UR CONSOLE DOESNT HAVE EXCLUSIVES!1" pissing contests represent videogame geekery at its worst.

Would this even be a story if the headline read: "Videogame publishers increasing profits"? Because that's exactly what they're doing by releasing a game on multiple platforms.

And as far as I know, Kane & Lynch was never totally exclusive; a PC launch was planned from the beginning.

Good for everyone

Exclusivity sucks. The more even the 3 systems are in sales the more even the game releases get. If we can all just buy one system and get all the games we want, even if one version is slightly better, this is good.

I expect to see more of this, too. It really has little to do with the success or failure of any one system. It has more to do with the insane development costs games are amassing. If you're spending $20mil on a game is it really that bad to spend another couple mil to port it?

Translation

SCi Entertainment's Board believes that a release of these shitty products merely on the 360 would deprive PS3 and PC owners of the absolute crapfest that is to come. So, we're releasing them on all platforms with the hope against hopes that we'll be able to make our money back and won't be forced to file Chapter 11.

Bigger News - Beautiful Katamari 360

From a recent NAMBCO/BANDAI press release:

"Leading video games publisher and developer NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. announced that The King of All Cosmos, everyone's favorite pint-sized Prince, and the whole wacky and wild Katamari crew will be making their hilarious next generation debut in Beautiful Katamari for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft later this year."

Still no compelling reason to invest in a PS3 if you've already got the Wii60.

No Brainer

Like the article states its more profitable to go cross-platform then exclusive. The days of staying on one platform is over for the 3rd party companies, theres no incentive to stay exclusive unless your being paid by the big dogs(Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft).

This is news?

I've never even heard of those two games before. Who cares...

To me...

this is a good thing. Neither of these titles are as big as say Mass Effect or Final Fantasy (although the exclusivity of FF13 is in question)...I actually want to see smaller lesser known titles such as these on multiple systems just to get their exposure increased (even though prior to the comments above, I didn't realize that Kane was a lesser known title...then again, I had never heard of the other one so ::shrug:: whatever)

Good news for gamers

There's no advantage (from the gamer's POV) to exclusives.
I hope PS3 owners enjoy these games as much as we 360 owners will.. and hope some PS3-exclusive devs will give us 360 gamers some lovin' by releasing their game for our consoles..

Lame

It is nice to see that several people here are dumping on two games that in fact may be very great. Sure we have not played them, but is that any reason to dismiss them out of hand just because they have not been published yet? Let's all be reasonable and logical and wait for the games to come out so we can judge them on their merits. I know that sounds crazy, but in reality, it the correct thing to do. If they suck, then yes, it is not a big loss for the 360. But if the do in fact kick major ass, then the loss may be more significant then previously thought. Just my 2 cents adjusted for inflation.....

Oh noes....

SCi's biggest hit was Conflict Desert Storm which was found in bargain bins weeks after release. While I understand the desire for something positive for the ps3 fanboy crowd, they may want to skip the bravado over this crapfest.

Here's a list of all of SCi's accomplishments to date, look at all the hits...

Alfreds Adventure
Aqua Aqua
Battlestations:Midway
Carmageddon
Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now
Carmageddon TDR 2000
Conflict: Desert Storm
Conflict: Desert Storm 2 (a.k.a. Back to Baghdad)
Conflict: Global Terror
Conflict: Vietnam
Constantine
Cool Bricks
Cyberwar
Futurama
Galleon
Gender Wars
Gumball 3000
Kingdom O' Magic
Live Wire
Mille Migla
Rally Championship
Rally Championship Xtreme
Richard Burns Rally
Rolling
Spellcross
SWIV
The Great Escape
The Italian Job
The Lawnmower man
Thunderbirds
Total Overdose

What games were those again?

No, seriously. I can see why you titled this "Two 360 titles" instead of giving the names of the actual games. Nobody would have recognized them of course because they are obscure and by no means AAA titles. This, in turn, means that this "news story" has no value whatsoever and I suspect the only reason it got approved is because it falls in the "bad news for m$" category.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

News Laundering?

Its funny how we get an ARS link to some nobody link (http://www.pro-g.co.uk/ps3/crossfire/news-5307.ht ml) to a story about some exclusives moving and none of those pages has a Sony source link. Im sure its in the bowels of Sony somewhere.. I just find it interesting that the breadcrumbs dont lead to the house I guess..

Re:All 3 Platforms?

Wii's not a next-gen platform. It's a modified, over clocked GameCube. Even Iwata and Miyamoto recognize this.

Re:All 3 Platforms?

One might have thought they meant the Wii.

"What kind of music do you usually have here?"
"Oh, we got both kinds. We got country and western."

Re:All 3 Platforms?

Yeah. I don't see the situation changing for the forseeable future either [youtube.com]