Forget About Timed Console Exclusivity
Exclusivity is a part of gaming business. One of the determining factors for many people when purchasing a console is whether or not it has games that they want to play. Exclusivity allows there to be a certain level of parity between offerings. Whether it is 1st, 2nd, or 3rd party titles being tied to a specific console, the practice isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
However, timed exclusivity is a whole different animal. In the cases of games that have small teams that want to ensure the game runs on a particular platform before giving over resources to putting it on another the practice is completely acceptable. But for deals such as the one Microsoft struck with Square Enix to bring Rise of the Tomb Raider to Xbox One a year prior its release on the PlayStation 4, just seems like bad business all around.
The deal drew the ire of Tomb Raider fans all around when its muddled details were revealed at Gamescom in 2014, and the deal may have done more harm than good for Xbox. The game did not sell well as it was cannibalized by other major releases (Star Wars Battlefront, Fallout 4, Call of Duty Black Ops III), and with the game coming to PlayStation 4 in a year, fans of Sony’s console simply resolved to wait it out. With the sales numbers as poor as they were, despite the fact the game has been praised critcally, it is safe to assume that the move did not result in more Xbox Ones moved.
