TWT59 – XBoring
A year ago I would have bet that I would own both an Xbox One and a PS4 right now… I mean, all they had to do was come out with a couple decent exclusive titles each, at launch, or soon after, and that would make my purchase worthwhile while I waited the necessary soak-time for grade A titles to start coming out consistently. But there was nothing… and now we’re over a year in, and there’s still practically nothing. How is that possible? Is this normal, and it’s just been so long since a console launch that I’ve forgotten what it’s like?
~C
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It’s like what we dealt with the Wii U last year and how almost a whole year passed with no exclusives came out. Dark times indeed.
I think the decent exclusives part happened – Killzone, Ryse, Dead Rising 3, even Knack – but that the only legit top of the line exclusives have been Forza games, but if you were interested in driving games you’d have had the Kinect staring at you for a year already. The next closest to top of the line are probably Infamous: Second Son and Sunset Overdrive, or maybe The Last of Us HD and the Halo Collection.
I think it’s just been a long time since a console launch? Looking at a game list, it seems like consoles since the year 2000 really only have one top of the line exclusive each in time for their second Christmases – Gears of War on 360 in 2006 and Uncharted on PS3 in 2007 (Elder Scrolls Oblivion might count for 360, but was on PS3 a year later). Wii U got Super Mario 3D World for its second Christmas last year. Wii got Super Mario Galaxy. PS2 got Metal Gear Solid 2 and GTA3, although those were also on Xbox a year later; and Gran Turismo 3. Xbox got MechAssault, which maybe isn’t in the same class, but launched with Halo. GameCube got Super Mario Sunshine.
Playstation, Nintendo 64, and even Dreamcast have a ton of top of the line exclusives in their first two Christmases – there’s stuff like Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot and SoulCalibur and Resident Evil and more. (Sega Saturn’s game list on Wikipedia sorts dates alphabetically, so April 14, 1998 comes before October 3, 1996 – so screw that.)
Personally, I think I’ve gotten my money’s worth from my PS4 and recommend everyone gets that, although partially out of selfishness (but I’m pretty sure you guys are looking forward to the Halo Collection…)
It’s not normal. Console gaming is in the early stages of dying, just like PC gaming did. The economics of publishing AAA titles (== console exclusives) aren’t there any more. The ROI is on small indie/XBLA/PSN titles, and mobile gaming, which is why that’s all that’s coming out. Look at the press Don’t Starve got – that’s a Flash-based browser game, for heaven’s sake.