Capcom Declares An End To Exclusives
With development costs skyrocketing in this console generation, many analysts (myself included) predicted that system exclusives from third party developers would all but die out. Well, it has begun. Capcom, in its fiscal 2008 shareholder's report, made the official announcement that all of its high profile titles from here on out will be console agnostic.
"All major titles launched during the next fiscal year or thereafter will be developed as multi-platform games"
The question is, should we be happy or scared? On the one hand, this means that more people will be given the opportunity to play Capcom's games, and Capcom will be able to take more risks with its games because of the increased revenue from a wider audience. There's also the fact that exclusives are often used by fanboys and girls of all console alignments to start inane and petty arguments to inflate their own sense of self-importance. But at the same time, there is truth in the fact that exclusive games generally are optimized for its system with a better framerate and fewer bugs. Personally, I tend to sit in the camp of people who see multi-platform games as a positive. A wider audience and silencing fanboys can only be a good thing, and with a little extra development time any multi-platform game can run just as smooth as an exclusive. Maybe I'm just an idealist and think that the more people who can play a game, all the better. Or maybe I'm just indifferent because as a former Sega fanboy my system of choice has already bowed out of the competition. Who knows?
Is Capcom leading the industry in a good direction by going multi-platform? Or is Capcom corrupting the competitive spirit of the industry? What do you think?
Capcom Swears Off Console Exclusives [Kotaku]
NaviFairy
Posted to Video Games on 12 September 2008
· Comments (5)
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I think that multiplatform releases are good for both developers and consumers. Now, as a consumer, we'll not have to worry about missing a AAA title because we own the wrong system. As for the developers, this naturally means more money if the game succeeds in the market, but some games, like Okami, could really have used a multiplatform release to get the recognition it deserved. (Not that Capcom's bitter about that one.)
Huu.. well, it cannot be avoided. But this again shows the unnecessary of the current console-models.
All we need is an operating system, which is (like in microsoft's ad) as soft as a cake to use AND does not look like a classic PC anymore.
Maybe a little shiny white box you can hook up onto any display device and *zoom* you are in the game - that's what "the user" wants, isn't it?
Since GPU and CPU are going to crash together during the next 2 years, I am sure that we will observe the same with consoles.
Sounds good to me. Bring on the omni-console releases!
If anything, with what's happening nowadays, it's pretty much what the game industry needs for a sustaining model.
But, what is going to happen is how we'll see competition between Sony and MS about who gets what DLC, as has been demonstrated with GTA4 and Fallout 3.
Nintendo is playing an entirely different game altogether, and it's working for them.
I would be less frustrated about multiplatform games if my data were transferable between platforms. Pathetic though I may be, I'm totally willing to pony up the cash for certain games to play on multiple platforms so I can play them with friends who own each platform. But having to unlock everything x2? Ugh.