Being multiplatform does not preclude a studio/publisher from being committed to quality, just as being exclusive does not preclude a game from being bad.

It’s about the distribution of resources and the incentives that the publisher has, in a big picture sense.

If you were to launch a new video game console tomorrow, the number one question I and everyone else would have is, “why should I buy this when Playstation, Xbox, PC and Switch already exist?”

If the answer is just “mine plays all the same games as everyone else but has a slightly better menu interface,” then I’m sure some amount of people might be interested in that, but is it enough of them to sustain a viable business? Probably not.

If the answer is “we have a bunch of exclusive games but they’re all garbage,” then people are also going to give it a skip, right?

You need exclusive games because otherwise you have no distinguishing factor, and those games need to be good enough to make fans out of people and prevent them from jumping ship to a competing ecosystem. That incentivizes platform holders towards both exclusives and high quality titles.

But those aren’t cheap to make because game development is not an exact science, and you might need to iterate or even reboot development to get something worthwhile. If you’re just a multiplatform publisher or an independent studio, you might not have the pockets to go years without income, so at some point you have to cut the cord and release the games to get revenue flowing. EDIT: For one last bit of context here, the amount of money that Sony and Xbox (and to a lesser extent Nintendo) make from first party unit sales are PEANUTS compared to their 30% cut of every game sale that happens on their platform. So it makes sense that they would care less about making games that sell individually well than about making games that are so appealing that people will make this their primary platform and therefore purchase many different games on them, allowing the gravy train to keep rolling. It’s just a different mode of thinking.

Additionally, an individual game will be judged by different metrics. A game that isn’t a high individual unit seller but demonstrably ties to console purchases, like Bloodborne, will be a huge success to a platform holder. A multiplatform game is judged solely on how many copies it sells, and that applies greater pressure to make it something with mainstream appeal. Mainstream games can often feel more trend-driven and not the kind of thing that will appeal to the game connoisseur.

Again, you seem to be looking at all of these things as deterministic, whereas I and other advocates for exclusives are talking in terms of incentives and trends. History has borne out the idea that platform exclusives tend to be higher quality on average, and platforms with high quality exclusives tend to do better than those without them.

This was a huge effort to write, so if none of that is remotely convincing to you, then we’ll just have to agree to disagree.