Does there come a point where a first party publisher becomes too big where exclusives don't matter anymore?

Started by the-pi-guy, Jan 20, 2022, 10:58 PM

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the-pi-guy

Weird thread premise i know. I'm sure this will sound dumb./

The ultimate purpose of exclusives is to bring people to your platform, it's the only place to play X or Y game.

But at some point there are diminishing returns. You can't get more people on your platform. Some people will never buy an Xbox, because they like PC or PS or their Switch. Some people will never buy a PlayStation because they really like their Xbox.

If you have 200 studios, does it make more sense to have those 200 studios all working on exclusives or does there come a point where there's no difference for your platform if you have 40 studios working on exclusives and the other 160 are making games for a wider market.

Thoughts?

Legend

No.

At that point you just expand xbox and take over the other niches.



On that note though, when do you like xbox will get into VR? Activision and Bethesda have both done it.

the-pi-guy

No.

At that point you just expand xbox and take over the other niches.
At that point all the other niches are taken over.
It's just stubborn people who don't like Xbox left.

I don't think it's a stretch to think there's some point where a greater quantity of exclusives starts losing benefits.  

(Although really I think at that point, your studios probably can't sustain themselves, because exclusives would start hurting each other)
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On that note though, when do you like xbox will get into VR? Activision and Bethesda have both done it.
MS already does quite a bit with mixed reality in other departments.

They even put out the "metaverse" as being a reason for buying Activision. I think it will happen.

kitler53

I don't think your question is dumb but I think it would be better rephased. 

does there come a point where first party development is too much?


yes. 

a portion of the market literally only plays 1 game a year.  a majority of the market plays less than 5.  a vast majority of the market plays under 10. 

if you have 200 studios then you legit are launching a game every week and most of them will have very little player engagement.  yes the consumer will be happy but due to diminishing returns the vast majority of consumers would have been just as happy if you had only released once a month. 

Ms has a massive first party now.  if they can't get to their 100 million subs with this amount of first party,.. buying another publisher or two will do little to push the needle.  

the hold outs are the gamers that only play 1 game a year and gamepass is more expensive then just buying the game.  ...or the ones that love Nintendo/Sony exclusives.  ...or gamers that only like physical.   ...or, God forbid, there just aren't 100 million gamer households. 


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