To Be Exclusive Or Not

Posted Mar 20, 2007 by Wes Phillips

Updated Mar 20, 2007 at 04:52 PM

Capcom announced late Monday that it will be bringing “Devil May Cry 4” to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PCs later this year. The series has been a PlayStation exclusive up until now. While this may excite Xbox fans, the groans you hear are those of Sony fanboys after losing another platform-exclusive AAA title. ( See: “Grand Theft Auto IV” )

Have no fear, it’s the wave of the future. In the past, when PlayStation 2 had a much larger install base than both GameCube and Xbox, exclusivity made sense. With the success of Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 the playing field is more level, so it doesn’t make financial sense for publishers to go exclusive.

Oh, you can stop smirking over there, Xbox fanboy. Your day will come. Do you think Xbox exclusives such as “Dead Rising” and “Lost Planet” will stay that way? When it comes to big business only one notion is exclusive. Profit.