In this day and age developing for a single console is pretty risky, unless that console is the Wii and you’re developing a game starring a Nintendo character or exercise. The general logic is that because games cost so much you want them out in front of everyone in order to make the most money. Hence games like Grand Theft Auto are no longer Playstation exclusives. However, Rockstar’s next game, Agent, will be exclusive to the PS3 as was briefly announced at Sony’s E3 press conference and then further hyped.
Why go down this road? Take-Two’s president Ben Feder explains. “The trade-offs a publisher will typically make is, if you’re platform-agnostic, you get a larger installed base. You’re platform exclusive when you get the right kind of support from first parties,” he said, going on to to explain, “At this phase in the cycle, when you’re trying to launch a new franchise, exclusivity can really help you launch the franchise. It can give you the kind of platform that you need to start exclusive, start in the right kind of way with the right kind of partner. Exclusivity does work.” Finally rounding it all up by pointing out that early GTAs never had any problems being console exclusives and Sony helped the games get where they are today.
Maybe I’m just jumping to conclusions here, but the way Feder was talking it sounded like Agent‘s PS3 exclusivity is not a permanent thing. In which case the move is even smarter since, as he notes, being a console exclusive gives you a crap ton of press that you wouldn’t get if you were in bed with both consoles. So if it turns out that the game does come to the 360 remember where you heard it first.
