#console exclusives

To paraphrase, I wouldn't endorse any videogame corporation that wouldn't have me as a player.

It's a dumb move. I can appreciate that they might be spooked by a steamcube, or the dent that the deck already might be putting in PS5 sales. It shows they're interested in selling their system, not the games trapped in their ecosystem. And that logic is fine when economies are doing well. However, when we've got the woes of the US government our economy being exported around the world in the form of an energy and materials crisis?

When the kids look at their parents and proclaim they want a PS5 or PS6 when it eventually releases, the adults are gonna look at what they have to pay in gasoline bills and datacenter-spiked electricity bills, grocery bills and inflated prices on everything as a result of those foundational costs? They're gonna look at Timmy and Sally and go, "You already have a PS4 and a PC at home."

So what happens when suddenly developers aren't seeing the numbers when it comes to people playing their games when the PC audience and their money fall out of the equation? Do they continue developing for a game system closing their gates on the PC market? Or do they start developing for a wider audience that already have PC's in their homes? If they want money and numbers on Steam of concurrent players, or more of a say in what they get to develop and distributed, I can see Sony in for a rather rude awakening.

Absent little kid draws like the 800lb gorilla is still pumping out new versions of with every console, I'd be willing to guess the audience for the playstation skews older. As well as being in possession of a consciousness that has to take bills into account before dropping lots of money for a gatekept device that only plays games and comes with several add-on costs like 'Did you want more than one controller for it? Did you actually want to play any of this online with other people?" There's folks pointing to the X-Box as your example of the sense of staying multiplatform. But that's not the one you want to remember. Your example here is Sega. They're the ones who did the math and had to decide, "Are we a console maker, or a games company?" They got out of making consoles and focused on making games people could play on other consoles. And they're still here doing exactly that. Had they decided the opposite, I'm thinking they wouldn't be. We're about to see the proof of that written large in a new chapter of the console wars. One where no one can afford to support the exclusivity Sony wants to pursue. They see themselves as a console maker, not a games company.

For my own part, I'll recommend against buying Sony on most products until this decision is reversed. But I don't see Sony's gaming division surviving it. I remember console makers that aren't around anymore because of the hubris on display here. And that goes even further back. When was the last time you bought an Atari console, by the way? I know where I can buy and play their back-library though.

I watched (and in one case rewatched) some Scott the Woz videos over the weekend.