Platform exclusivity

Platform exclusivity (also known as console exclusivity) refers to the status of a video game being developed for and released only on certain platforms. Most commonly, it refers to only being released on a specific video game console or through a specific vendor's platforms—either permanently, or for a definite period of time.

Exclusivity is a topic used in discussions of the advantages and disadvantages of rival vendors in the video game market, and one which is used for marketing by vendors involved. Industry analysts generally agree that there is a correlation between availability of exclusive titles, and hardware sales.

A video game's exclusivity to specific hardware may either be permanent, or timed—the latter case allowing a game to be released on different console platforms and/or PCs after a specific timeframe lapses. Permanent exclusives are often developed (first-party title), published or heavily funded by the console manufacturer. In some cases, the exclusivity may only apply to a game's console release, either for games being ported from PC to console (such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, whose console release was a timed Xbox One exclusive), or games being released on PC along with a single console.

Games may also include features and content that are exclusive to specific consoles, such as features that leverage a specific platform's distinguishing features, or appearances by characters from the platform's first-party franchises (such as Banjo and Kazooie being playable characters on the Xbox 360 version of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and Fox McCloud from Nintendo's Star Fox series being playable in special content on the Nintendo Switch version of Starlink: Battle for Atlas). Timed exclusivity may also apply to downloadable content for an otherwise multi-platform game, such as Activision's exclusivity agreements with Sony Interactive Entertainment (which cover the Call of Duty franchise).

Exclusives are typically at the forefront of promotional efforts during gaming conferences such as E3, in order to help drive sales of hardware, as a consumer choosing between options may be swayed by the different range of games available on each different console. Analysts have stated that sales figures in the past have indicated that there is a relation between hardware sales, and the release of software specifically for that hardware. They state that there is also data which shows that during holiday periods, when consumer spending is generally higher, hardware with a list of exclusive releases generally outsell those with a smaller selection. Correlations have also been drawn between the sales of software, and the sales of relevant hardware, as in late 2009 the Wii dominated both the hardware and software charts.

A console manufacturer may invest in or acquire other video game developers so that their expertise can be leveraged for first-party titles, such as Microsoft's acquisitions of Lionhead Studios (Fable) and Rare (which, up until then, had been strongly-aligned with, and minority-owned by Nintendo), and Sony's acquisitions of Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games—two studios that had primarily developed titles for PlayStation (with the latter having also developed Sony-published titles such as Ratchet & Clank and Spider-Man).

There have begun to be exceptions to the practice: Microsoft Studios-published exclusive Ori and the Blind Forest was given a Nintendo Switch port in 2019 (although this was part of a larger pattern of collaboration with the company, including cross-platform multiplayer support between the Switch and Xbox versions of Minecraft, and inclusion of the title duo from the Rare-developed Nintendo 64 game Banjo-Kazooie as a downloadable character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate). Following its purchases of Double Fine, Ninja Theory, and Obsidian Entertainment, Microsoft stated that it would honor the multi-platform release plans for games from several studios that it had recently acquired (including Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds, whose publishing rights had already been sold to Take-Two Interactive prior to Microsoft's purchase of the studio), but that they would focus on Xbox platform exclusives in the future. In December 2019, Sony announced plans to transition its first-party MLB: The Show franchise to multi-platform releases "as early as 2021".

In the PC gaming market, a form of platform exclusivity has emerged involving digital distribution, whereby an online retailer acquires exclusive rights to distribute a game by means of either vertical integration between a publisher and a co-owned distribution platform, or through a financial arrangement between a publisher and a third-party distributor. Microsoft Studios employed this strategy on certain first-party releases by making them exclusive to Microsoft Store (formerly Windows Store), including cross-buy support with Xbox One. This also made the games, such as Quantum Break, exclusive to the Windows 10 operating system, due to the use of Universal Windows Platform (UWP). Games on the UWP architecture also included technical and compatibility limitations that critics and consumers considered unfavorable and contrary to norms (such as locked frame rates and incompatibility with third-party tools). However, Microsoft would later re-release Quantum Break on Steam with support for Windows 7 and newer, and announced in May 2019 that it would begin to offer more of its flagship first-party titles on third-party platforms such as Steam to widen their availability, and in Win32 architecture to remove the limitations of UWP.