Sony's Lost Exclusives: A Timeline

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Having spent a lot of time this afternoon thinking about all the exclusives that PlayStation 3 has lost over the last tumultuous year, we here at Game|Life decided to catalog them in the runup to E3.
I'm not listing franchises that had been exclusive to Sony systems but now have Xbox versions, because that's not the point and because I don't want to be here all day. The exception to this rule is when a publisher was pursuing an exclusive, but Sony didn't sign on. As in the case of...

Grand Theft Auto IV -- Peter Moore shocked the world at E3 last May when he announced that GTAIV would appear day-and-date on Xbox 360 and PS3. Months later, Newsweek reported that Take Two had wanted to continue its long-standing practice of giving Sony a lengthy timed exclusivity on the game, but they didn't want it.
Newsweek says that former Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi's "radio silence" on the issue left Sony's American execs without the authority to make deals, and nothing happened. Same with...

Assassin's Creed -- Again, Newsweek revealed that Ubisoft had actually gone to Sony with an offer to make the game a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Although Sony did go through the trouble of asking Ubisoft to make it seem as if their multiplatform action game Assassin's Creed was indeed PS3 exclusive, it came out shortly after E3 that it would ship simultaneously on both platforms.
The brief flirtation with pretend exclusivity at E3 that year did get Assassin's Creed noticed, winning it several "PlayStation 3 Game of the Year" awards that it wouldn't have won otherwise. Very similar to what happened with...

Devil May Cry IV -- Another game that was said to be one of the biggest reasons to buy PlayStation 3, and easily the best PS3 title playable at Tokyo Game Show in 2006. A few months later, it was multiplatform, with a simultaneous release date.

Virtua Fighter 5 -- PlayStation 3 fans, count your blessings: at least you're enjoying Virtua Fighter 5 now, instead of later this year when Xbox 360 owners will get their version. Still, though, it's one more exclusive gone.

Beautiful Katamari -- Now, we're getting into the realm of games that PlayStation 3 might have lost entirely. Beautiful Katamari was originally announced for a multiplatform release, but according to Newsweek (helped along by Namco Bandai's curious reticence on the subject), the PS3 version has been junked and it's now Xbox 360-only.

Fatal Inertia -- Originally announced in 2005 as a PlayStation 3 launch title, Koei's racing game first was delayed into this year, then went multiplatform. This morning, it was announced that the PlayStation 3 version is "delayed indefinitely" due to issues with Unreal Engine 3. Where this leaves Koei's BladeStorm -- also announced as a PS3 title, also delayed, also made multiplatform -- is unclear. Koei says its status is not affected as it doesn't use UE3.
What's remarkable about many of these high-profile titles is that they are all from Japanese publishers, who historically have been resistant to the idea of multiplatform games in the first place. Market realities have had a profound effect, and very quickly, on their business practices. Sony is lucky that Xbox 360 was such a non-starter in Japan, because otherwise it would be ever more doubtful that game makers would bother putting together PS3 versions of their games at all.

What's Next? -- The two major remaining third-party exclusives for PlayStation 3 are Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII. Konami has certainly never been resistant to putting Metal Gear titles on different hardware; witness Twin Snakes on GameCube and Substance on Xbox. And Microsoft is likely gunning hard for the game. Also, Konami probably prefers making money to losing truckloads of it. All things considered, I'm pretty sure it's already a done deal, given the fact that we hear very credible rumors about it once a week or so.
So that really only leaves Final Fantasy XIII. We know that Square Enix is not blind to the changes in the market. Last Remnant, their latest RPG franchise, will be released simultaneously on both platforms.
Also, Final Fantasy XIII's release is a long, long way off. The EGM crew says that they will miss their stated goal of having a playable demo ready for E3. And Square Enix says the game won't hit until after March 2008.
So does that mean it'll end up on 360? Ehhhhh no. Maybe. Possibly. No. It could remain PlayStation 3 exclusive, although Square Enix would make way more money if it wasn't. But it's not one of those no-brainers like Metal Gear. We'll see where E3 takes us. Maybe the FFXIII logo will be tattooed on Peter Moore's chest.

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