@livedreamplay: Well thats a logical assumption but other cases back my assumption instead, as usually companies will first try to make business and profit in the most direct way, the way they have almost total control, and only after some big financial trouble or a backlash or strong competition forcing them to change they might move to other more "collaborative" ways of making business with consumer friendly policies as a part of that. Nobody likes depending on others more than necessary for anything, but as it tends to happen, cooperation still breeds the strongest and safest success, though also providing the biggest challenge too.
See for example, If I take what you said here, but apply it to game publishers, do you really doubt it as much? CDPR are not just one of the most successful developers/publishers today based on their nearly opposite practices to those of their competitors, but even more impressive, that's how they started when they had nothing, and grew insanely quick.
And even if in all these years others totally analyzed and tried, its... not an easy job exactly: Consumers, entertainment and technological progress and trends, cultural changes, it all amounts to incredible emergent complexity. The argument that things are the way they are now, cause that's the best way they could be, is imo trusting a little too much in their intentions and capabilities as futurologists.
About piracy, yeah I agree the impact is definitely there, that's undeniable, its just always good to keep in mind a pirated copy most times does not equal a lost sale.
@livedreamplay: Yeah I'd say the biggest revenue of consoles bought because of exclusives come from that kind of case, where people have a pc but still keep a console around. Imo that'd be greatly surpassed by games selling a ton more, console hardware actually getting competitive because of not having to rely on "hostageware" but I'm being redundant at this point :P
What you say about piracy is true, but that impact can't be measured accurately, there's just no method, and that holds especially true if the only thing one has is the amount of downloaded torrents or whatever. I live in a place where piracy is prob more common than buying games, and I can tell you the vast majority of pirates fall in 2 camps, 90% I'd argue even with a lot of confidence: 1st the people that pirate to try and buy if its good or buy later in a sale (depending on quality/customer treatment), 2nd the people that pirate and will never buy that game no matter what. I don't want to get in a full scale discussion about piracy but talking to plenty of pirates both personally and online everyone well versed in the subjects seems to align to my personal experience and knowledge.
@livedreamplay: You make some good points there but I simply disagree that exclusives are a main reason why people get consoles. I think its one of the lesser impacts actually in consumer's preference.
The extra development costs of ports for other platforms would be minimal compared to the sales they'd get, provided the games are good of course. And it's my understanding that piracy in pc specifically is only an issue that detracts from sales when publishers pull out bad ports/releases and/or engage in anti-consumer policies. When the games are good, and the publishers behave appropriately, money comes in, that's in consoles, pc or anywhere else. (with AAA marketing).
But yeah its just a really complex scenario to predict, I think I'm mostly right but if it turns out I'm not it wouldn't surprise me either.
I have experience enough to believe that most console gamers play on consoles because of other reasons than exclusives, just like I said in my previous comment a bit. But there are even other reasons too, such as no desire to get a PC even if it had the same games, differences in price, and it all propagates with people considering what do they friends get, can they play MP games with them? etc.
Because of this, I think that there is a different solution, problem is naturally, that that would shift the balance we have right now, which is obviously in the hands of the only people who could change it, so it will never happen.
However, Sony or Nintendo, could sell imo the vast majority of what they sell right now, even if their games were on other platforms, and they'd get a huge revenue to compensate because the sales of their exclusives would easily double, if not triple. Survival of the console market isn't even remotely in risk, I think they'd even have a better business than now with the proper strategy. Nintendo might have to abandon making systems altogether, unless they focus on what's truly unique about its hardware, such as mobility (which would put them in a strong position to sell people hardware that they actually want), but like I said, triple game sales, maybe more.
There is a word for companies that pay for very expensive games to get made, but count on the games' performance rather than mainly having it hostage on a system of their own to break even: its called publishers, normal publishers.
Zelda and Horizon If I remember correctly have sold less than Ghost Recon Wildlands combined!, that's absolutely brutal, and of course it eliminates the studios' chance to become popular to bigger audiences and so snowball that into more sales and more successful IPs.
Bottom line is, this situation isnt the only way, and definitely not the best, I know this utopia will never occur cause making business that benefits consumers tends to be the last method companies use, but it does exist.
@livedreamplay: uh yes but right now you're talking about games it has on offer as if the only games that count are AAA exclusives man.
the PC has far many more games that you can't play on consoles if you count older games for instance (console ones too), and then also its not just about what games, but how you can enjoy them, mods, and so on, but thats not the point.
My point is that PC gamers in general, play on PC because of the machine, not because of one type of game, or just exclusives that they can't find in consoles, its about the whole package.
And even console players in general play on consoles cause of tradition and brand loyalty or ease of use, only a portion of them choose based on exclusives. An interesting fact is that exclusives sell a lower number of copies vs multiplats even when limiting the latter to sales on just one platform.
Here now is where we disagree or have a different vision, I've seen a ton of console gamers that would not like a "utopic gaming industry where everybody can play everything", it sounds ridiculous I know, but its a very popular opinion. The typical argument I see is that if you dont buy a particular machine, you don't deserve its games, you're not part of the team/company/whatever
I've seen some PC gamers think like that too, but as I explained, it seems mostly as a defense mechanism against bad PC versions or limitations, not out of a sense of exclusive entitlement or to "keep whats worth about pc gaming in the pc only".
Oh and btw, 10 or 15 years ago the PC wasn't much more valuable due to its exclusives imo, the early 2000s still had good console games.
@livedreamplay: well you said it yourself: until someone starts basically measuring value because of something is exclusive only to some people, they hate exclusives.
So maybe in a world where console gamers wouldnt try so much to support the idea that something is better just because others cant have it, there'd be no one liking exclusives at all.
I truly dont agree with any PC gamers that might like PC exclusives to defend themselves against a console gamer argument, but its still just a defense at the end of the day, they aren't the ones pushing the idea.
Also you have to understand history a little bit and how it affects people; countless pc game development cycles and designs have been ruined by console versions/ports. In some cases its just a mismanagement or a mistake, like when CDPR nearly died because of the xbox witcher port, in other cases its because the devs and publishers actually don't mind ruining a game by "consolizing" it. Again, a defense mechanism.
Kind of a weird list to make; in my experience most pc gamers don't care at all whether a game on pc will be exclusive to it or not, which makes a lot of sense of course.
Unless we talk about projects where console dev might hurt the pc version or whatever but thats very specific.
Oh and I think some of these games are indeed coming to one or more consoles :P
@Xatsuna: And they seem to be right so far, since CDPR has never done something like that yet, Cyberpunk is not a common word to have in a title at all, and they made a serious effort to try to explain it was a defensive mechanism against cheap clones or "scam games".
Taking this example from one of the most aggressive companies known for having done this several times and somehow using it as an argument to religiously condemn any trademark ever no matter what it is or who uses it is a rather poor attempt
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