PS4 gets early beta access is only turning me away (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Thursday, March 23, 2017, 17:05 (2587 days ago) @ MacAddictXIV

However, I also know that Activision/Bungie didn't propose this deal, it was Sony.

Do you actually know this? Is it public knowledge who initiated the deal? (Genuinely asking--I don't know.)

Maybe not public. I was told this by one person, so keep in mind I haven't confirmed this with anybody else:

Sony really wanted Bungie to reveal Destiny at the Playstation event. Harold knew this and made a deal, making Bungie a nice chunk of cash in exchange for the reveal, and the exclusivity. So yes, Sony initially showed the interest.

Why the exclusivity is ongoing for Des2ny, I have no idea.

I guess technically, I don't. But it makes no sense, in my mind, for Bungie/Activision to do Playstation exclusives unless they were hurting for cash.

The charitable version is that Harold is a businessman for a company on which many employees and their families depend. He's looking out for the well being of everyone financially, especially given that a new IP is never a sure thing.

I think you know what the non charitable version is.

I know these are all companies, which means they are there to make money. I just hate that Console companies are using game companies to sway their users. Damnit, just make a superior console and I will buy it. Don't use the games I love to sway my vote.

I feel where you are coming from, but the pragmatic side of me says "this is how consoles have always been, and they aren't likely to change any time soon". At the end of the day, slightly better frame rates or marginally faster load times are not "sexy" ideas to sell. The thing that gets gamers excited about a console is games. And selling the exact same games that everyone else is selling just doesn't cut it. Every business ever wants to have an "edge". Something they can offer that the competition can't.

The slightly sad part is that Microsoft keeps trying alternatives, without finding much success. When they first announced the Xbox One, they tried to lean hard on the idea that the console would function in a variety of new ways. Problem was, they bet wrong on what would get gamers excited, Sony capitalized and gave gamers exactly what they wanted, and Xbox has been struggling to catch up ever since.

Then Microsoft pivoted, re-built the Xbox One into the platform we have now, and doubled-down on the old-school approach of exclusive titles. Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, Dead Rising 3, Forza, Ori, Halo 5, Gears 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider. Mostly great games, with a couple exceptional ones in the mix, but none of them gained the kind of traction or sales that Microsoft needed.

So then they pivoted again, almost in the opposite direction, with their "play anywhere" idea. And then, like clockwork, Sony all of a sudden opens the floodgates on an avalanche of critical-darling exclusives, culminating with Horizon Zero Dawn (with God of War and The Last of Us 2 on the way). Oh, and Nintendo releases a new Zelda which completely takes over the world.

Microsoft just can't seem to catch a break these days.