Boris Schneider-Johne, product manager for Xbox 360 at Microsoft Germany, explained the company’s stance on the importance of exclusive titles.
“That is difficult to assess. In the past, in the eighties and nineties, that was a major issue. I remember the big ‘Mario vs. Sonic’ debates. What we see today is that the influence of exclusive titles on the sales curves becomes ever smaller,” Schneider-Johne told Golem.de in an interview.
“In addition, we are in a situation that there is a head-to-head race on several consoles and that nobody is super clear in leadership - especially in matters of the PlayStation 3 against Xbox 360.”
“Given the production costs of the games, it is hardly possible for developers to commit itself exclusively to someone. Now Sony makes its own games for the console, we make our own games for the console. The titles are exclusive, as they are also attempts turnout the best of the console, but someone like Electronic Arts or Activision can have a business model of rarely developing for a console exclusively. Therefore, the exclusive title is a little less important.”
“That is difficult to assess. In the past, in the eighties and nineties, that was a major issue. I remember the big ‘Mario vs. Sonic’ debates. What we see today is that the influence of exclusive titles on the sales curves becomes ever smaller,” Schneider-Johne told Golem.de in an interview.
“In addition, we are in a situation that there is a head-to-head race on several consoles and that nobody is super clear in leadership - especially in matters of the PlayStation 3 against Xbox 360.”
“Given the production costs of the games, it is hardly possible for developers to commit itself exclusively to someone. Now Sony makes its own games for the console, we make our own games for the console. The titles are exclusive, as they are also attempts turnout the best of the console, but someone like Electronic Arts or Activision can have a business model of rarely developing for a console exclusively. Therefore, the exclusive title is a little less important.”