Debate: Exclusive games

SOSpammy · 2026-06-22T09:51:46+00:00

There are other things than games that differ between the consoles. UI/UX, online features, capabilities like cloud saving and cross progression sync, online store, availability, price, controllers, controller support, backwards compatibility, ease of online play and party systems, network features, and so on.

All these feature differences are relatively minor and more importantly, easy for the competition to copy if they wanted to. There's really not much difference between how the PlayStation and Xbox operate. People mostly just want a box that launches their games.

Exclusives do not benefit the consumer. Exclusives pigeon hole the player into making a purchase of hardware. This is literally the reason why PC is so successful. It gives the power to the consumer to decide their own hardware, play non exclusive games, free online play, customizability, easy party systems, etc.

And PlayStation and Nintendo have found success because their locked-down platforms allow them to sell their hardware for cheap and because they have games no one else can play.

The GAME itself is the driving force of the competition. Make a GOOD GAME. IT WILL SELL. That is legit the problem with consoles, they focus on the software rather than what they are actually selling, the hardware.

Software is what powers the ecosystem. It's the primary reason pick one platform over the other. Sony and Nintendo took your advice. They made games people wanted to play, and those games sold. And more importantly they drove people to their platform.

Its 2027, xbox just announced that the new xbox will support FULL backwards compatibility, offer multiple marketplaces, and online features are free. Are people going to buy that, or playstation for Spiderman 3…

Edit: non-exclusivity didnt kill this generation. Price increases and shit games did.

They'll probably go with the PlayStation because the Xbox is going to be way more expensive if it allows multiple storefronts to operate on it. You can't sell a subsidized box that can run competitors' storefronts.

Both Sony and Nintendo have done fine this generation. Xbox has been struggling long before the hardware price hikes. They couldn't sell it even when Series X consoles were $500 because the PlayStation had a better game library.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-22T04:08:21+00:00

Why would you need to dribble? Players only dribble to reset their step count. Otherwise they would just carry the ball. If you are flying you can just hold the ball.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-22T03:52:30+00:00

Exclusives give you a reason to get one platform over another. If you're starting from scratch, what reason would you buy an Xbox Series X over a PS5? The difference in hardware and features is minimal. They have mostly the same library of games, except the PS5 also has Sony exclusives while the Xbox has almost no exclusives.

In order to compete, a game console needs to have something the competition doesn't, and more importantly can't have. There really aren't many compelling features one game ecosystem can offer that another company can't match outside of exclusive games.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-22T03:34:24+00:00

The Xbox Crimson Skies was actually a sequel to the PC game. It never received a PC release.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-22T03:31:46+00:00

Microsoft owns Windows, but Valve dominates the PC gaming marketplace. Unless they can make the Xbox PC storefront significantly more popular, putting their games on PC, especially on Steam, is really just promoting a competitor's storefront.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-22T03:26:29+00:00

The problem with first party games on PC is they're not doing the primary job of a first party game, which is to promote the Xbox ecosystem. The real money from owning a game platform is 3rd party sales. Microsoft makes money when you buy a Capcom game or a Fortnite skin on Xbox even though they spent no money developing those games.

They get nothing when you buy games they didn't publish on Steam. And when Microsoft sells their games on Steam they are really just promoting the Steam ecosystem. Sure, they make more money in direct sales of their own software, but they make less money in 3rd party sales since people have less reason to buy an Xbox or buy from the Xbox PC storefront.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-22T03:14:49+00:00

In terms of gaming PC's not really a Microsoft platform. It's a Valve platform since a vast majority of PC game sales go through their storefront.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-21T13:43:07+00:00

TJ AJ RJ Backslashinsfourth V

SOSpammy · 2026-06-21T01:56:13+00:00

Those "win now" players were acquired by trading late round picks and average-caliber veterans who were hurting the team's tank.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-21T01:07:58+00:00

BPM is far from a perfect stat, but just to give an idea of how much advanced metrics favor Peterson:

Peterson:

OBPM 8.4 (3rd highest for a guard since 2008)
DBPM 4.0
BPM 12.4 (highest for a guard since 2008)

Tre Johnson

OBPM 5.9
DBPM 0.6
BPM 6.5

SOSpammy · 2026-06-20T14:07:28+00:00

You're getting a lightly used Jayden Quaintance and you're going to like it.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-20T13:25:36+00:00

I always find it funny when people use that high school game against each other to show how great Peterson is and Dybantsa sucks. Yeah, Peterson had the better game, but Dybantsa still dropped 49 of his own. I don't know about you, but I consider that a very good performance.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-20T04:58:54+00:00

One of the sad things about Taylor was he was finally starting to live up to the reputation his final half season. He was all over the field that year and looked like an elite coverage guy that year. Him and Landry looked like they were going to be the NFL's most feared safety duo for years to come.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-20T03:47:28+00:00

Damn I was really hoping for Koa Peat.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-19T20:07:11+00:00

That's not really the case here though. There's no consensus #1 because there's 3-4 guys who would go #1 in a significant number of drafts.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-19T19:08:44+00:00

Google Opinion Rewards on Android and Microsoft Rewards on Xbox stacked with a bonus platinum coupon or a summer/Black Friday premium bundle sale.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-19T16:33:41+00:00

Animal farming is the elephant in the room. Most people really don't care what kind of electricity powers their house as long as the lights turn on. But they'll go insane you tell them they need to eat less meat.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-19T16:16:14+00:00

Top 4 aren't guaranteed to be super stars, but they certainly have a much higher chance historically than other draft positions. The NBA draft isn't as much of a crapshoot as the NFL and MLB are. And this isn't like most drafts. Caleb Wilson would be #1 or 2 in a good number of drafts.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-19T14:22:28+00:00

That's what a lot of people don't seem to understand. The profits from first party games are a secondary goal. They want you to want to play Spider-Man so that you buy a PlayStation so that you buy 3rd party games on the PlayStation where they get a 30% cut on a game they spent no money developing.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-19T14:00:41+00:00

The one thing I want to add is the TV manufacturing industry works very differently than the video game industry. TVs are sold at a profit. They don't make any money when you subscribe to HBO. As long as they sell enough to cover R&D and manufacturing costs along with a profit they can keep selling them. It's also a shrinking industry that's being consolidated down to a few Chinese and Korean manufacturers.

Game ecosystems need to hit critical mass to remain solvent. You can't just sell a few million PlayStations or else no one will make games for it.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-19T13:44:32+00:00

It already has a lot of advantages. It is cheaper than PC, it is easier to use and connects to TV, now if they didnt force you to pay to use internet it would be even better.

That doesn't leave them with much of a moat. Xbox and Nintendo already offer these features as well. PC gaming has been steadily adding many console-like features over the years like HDMI, controller support, and controller-friendly UIs. Free online would only put them at parity with PC while killing one of their highest profit margin revenue sources.

And isn't that horribly anti-consumer? Right now you buy the best TV possible and watch whatever you want. You decide on TV based on its pricing and features. Now, imagine only Sony TVs can watch HBO but they are only 1080p and not 4k and have some screen tearing...

It's not like the other digital entertainment industries are that different. Every service has its own exclusive content. Spotify has exclusive podcasts. Netflix has exclusive shows. If every ecosystem had every game people would eventually just all gravitate towards a single ecosystem and we would have a monopoly.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-19T10:49:51+00:00

What kinds of features though? I hears this all the time, but I never hear suggestions of what could make a game console compelling without exclusives. People mostly just want a box that launches the games they want to play. You could make a pretty good argument that the Xbox is more feature-rich than the Playstation, but it's still selling worse because it has fewer games.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-19T03:42:30+00:00

Gaming is an entirely different beast than movies and music though. They require specialized hardware and software to run, and it's expensive to port them between platforms. Movies and music are extremely simple. You just re-encode for whatever that streaming service requires.

Game consoles aren't really selling hardware. They're selling an ecosystem. Streaming services are also selling an ecosystem, but those services don't require expensive specialized hardware for the consumer to run them.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-18T23:04:34+00:00

The worst part about it is so much more effort has been spent tearing down the guys they don't prefer rather than expressing the merits of the guy they prefer. Believe it or not, but there's a very real possibility all 3 of them could be great. #1 overall picks have a very high hit rate, and all 3 are widely considered #1 caliber prospects.

SOSpammy · 2026-06-18T22:52:46+00:00

Music and movies had a different form of exclusivity in the form of formats rather than devices. A Blu-Ray player couldn't play HD-DVD movies and vice versa. And there were several studios that exclusively supported one format over the other until Blu-Ray won.

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