Microsoft wants more exclusives and wider audience

5:16 AM on 08.02.2008   |   Jim Sterling

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When Sony lost exclusivity with Final Fantasy XIII, its biggest (and perhaps only) criticism of Microsoft was that its own exclusives were lacking and that the Xbox 360 relied on third party multiplatform games. This is something that Microsoft appears to have thought about, as it has made its desire for more exclusive titles known.

"We’d love to have more exclusive hits on our box, absolutely," stated Microsoft interactive entertainment boss Don Mattrick when asked about the 360's weaknesses. "Are we investing in that? Yes we are. Does that take a lot of time? Yes it does."

Mattrick also talked about Microsoft's attempt at broadening the Xbox 360's appeal beyond "hardcore" gamers: "It takes time to do that – we’re working on those beats but you can only do so much in a year."

So, Mattrick's stance is that everything takes a lot of time. Fair enough.

So far, Microsoft has thrown a lot of money at acquiring third party games with an eye to introducing exclusive DLC, but it's not a tactic that has proven to significantly hurt Sony's sales. If Microsoft wants to compete on the exclusivity front, it will have to make like Sony and start focusing on first party development.