3 ms·

How is paying for exclusive content any worse or different than first party games in general? Do you have a source for that 'dumb down' claim? Because that pr

by roc 17y ago

How is paying for exclusive content any worse or different than first party games in general? Do you have a source for that 'dumb down' claim? Because that practice would actually support your assertion.

chrischen 17y ago
Because buying exclusive content is one way to artificially enhance the Xbox's value. First party games are different from buying exclusive content because making a first party game does not take additional effort to benefit the first party. Buying exclusive content is going out of their way to devalue the competition's product without directly improving their own product. To be honest I can't find the source of the 'dumb down' claim, so it might be a bad memory. From what I can remember, the memory was associated with GTA IV, but I think it might have just been the Xbox forcing GTA IV to be dumbed down to one disc simply because of the technically inferior capabilities of the Xbox (and not because of Microsoft coercion).
- roc 17y ago
  Kinda like how the PS2 'forced' GTA III to be dumbed-down to run on its inferior hardware? C'mon. Developers write to the platforms they can sell on. That's not a sign of some malicious intent on the part of the platform owner. And I'm still not buying your argument about exclusive DLC vs First Party games. Buying and maintaining first-party studios takes a hell of a lot of effort. And the entire goal of those titles is to increase the value of your platform (relatively decreasing the value of your competitors). It's the same thing. The only difference is that buying exclusive content for a multiplatform game is far, far cheaper and much less risky in this day and age.
  - chrischen 17y ago
    I don't mean to say that the fact that xbox is technically inferior is some evil strategy. Buying a developer so that they can make something exclusive is no different from buying exclusives. It is somewhat anti-competitive. If Sony does this, I'm pretty sure it's much less than Microsoft. Buying a company after after they release a hit is different from commissioning a company to make a big hit. The former is not promoting innovation.

by roc 17y ago

chrischen 17y ago

Because buying exclusive content is one way to artificially enhance the Xbox's value. First party games are different from buying exclusive content because making a first party game does not take additional effort to benefit the first party. Buying exclusive content is going out of their way to devalue the competition's product without directly improving their own product. To be honest I can't find the source of the 'dumb down' claim, so it might be a bad memory. From what I can remember, the memory was associated with GTA IV, but I think it might have just been the Xbox forcing GTA IV to be dumbed down to one disc simply because of the technically inferior capabilities of the Xbox (and not because of Microsoft coercion).

roc 17y ago
Kinda like how the PS2 'forced' GTA III to be dumbed-down to run on its inferior hardware? C'mon. Developers write to the platforms they can sell on. That's not a sign of some malicious intent on the part of the platform owner. And I'm still not buying your argument about exclusive DLC vs First Party games. Buying and maintaining first-party studios takes a hell of a lot of effort. And the entire goal of those titles is to increase the value of your platform (relatively decreasing the value of your competitors). It's the same thing. The only difference is that buying exclusive content for a multiplatform game is far, far cheaper and much less risky in this day and age.
- chrischen 17y ago
  I don't mean to say that the fact that xbox is technically inferior is some evil strategy. Buying a developer so that they can make something exclusive is no different from buying exclusives. It is somewhat anti-competitive. If Sony does this, I'm pretty sure it's much less than Microsoft. Buying a company after after they release a hit is different from commissioning a company to make a big hit. The former is not promoting innovation.