Quote Originally Posted by Skyblade View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Ouch! View Post
Exclusives create differentiation between the consoles. To be perfectly honest, some third party developers are going to have to provide exclusives whether they like it or not. First party developers are too few to produce enough games to create solid differentiation between the consoles. Whether you care or not, you have to recognize that despite their technological differences, the 360 and PS3 are becoming more and more indistinguishable in terms of software. If the software isn't any different, the hardware stops mattering.
Wrong. If the software is identical, the hardware is all that matters. When people chose between DVD and VHS, it wasn't the content that drove them to choose DVD. Similarly, when selecting HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, it wasn't the movies that came out that made the final choice. It was the quality, capability, and availibility of the hardware. Console exclusives do provide differentiation among the consoles, but they also serve as a crutch that hinders the consoles. If a company relies on their exclusive content to draw their bidders, they lose an incentive to do anything else to differentiate their system.

If both the PS3 and the X-Box 360 did have identical software, then it would be the merits of the system that defined them. It wouldn't be a simple matter of "oh, this system has the FF franchise, so I'll get it". Gamers would be drawn to the system which was most cost-efficient, ran best, or had some other advantage. Losing the exclusives means that both Sony and Microsoft will have to work harder to make something unique. Something that will draw gamers more than simple name-recognition, and therefore give game developers a reason to keep their games exclusive to one console. Money offered for a game or not, if it doesn't sell on the new system, game developers wouldn't make it for that system.

Losing exclusivity will force companies to build a better console. Not just the one with the best hardware, but the one that balances capability, cost, reliability, and a hundred other factors into the ideal package. That's what free market is all about. Each company must strive to produce the best product they can, and the one that produces the best product wins. I, for one, am all for it.
I disagree, but I'm not so full of myself to tell you that you're just plain wrong.

As you concede, the Xbox 360 is an inferior machine to the PS3. Due to this fault, multi-platform releases must be tailored to work on the Xbox 360. Games are, as a result, made below maximum specs for the PS3. I'll grant that the PS3 is more difficult to develop for, and that is a point against it, but the fact remains that its version of multi-platform games suffer more than the 360 due to this. I heard reports that games like Madden '09 were running at a lower frame rate on the PS3 because of such issues.

You might argue that this is solely because the PS3 is more difficult to develop, but I think it's evidence that a market geared towards multi-platform releases leads in the opposite direction you propose. You say this would encourage developers to make better consoles. I think it encourages the developers to make consoles with the bare minimum to remain in the competition. Sure, we would continue to see advancement in the industry, but nothing any more significant than we already have.

Hardware would become no more important than it already is. The thing is, more often than not, it's exclusive titles that really show off a console's capabilities. It's never any of EA's slew of sports titles that help give a console its identity. It may run better on some systems than others, but if one console is ever better than the others, it's a moot point because the title will get watered down to make a multi-platform release easier on the developer.

The problem with hardware as a defining point is that hardware is only as good as the software that utilizes it. That ATI graphics card isn't too terribly fantastic if the only thing you're running on it is a dusty copy of Doom. Exclusive titles are more likely to push a console's limitations and utilize it's full capabilities than a multi-platform release. See my point?