Exclusivity News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden has opened up on his thoughts about the modern games industry, stating that «exclusivity is the „Achilles' heel“ of the modern development cycle.

Last week, the Xbox community was sent into a tizzy over rumors that Xbox exclusives Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves might soon be exclusive no more.

Qualcomm was reportedly able to leverage an exclusive agreement with Microsoft where only the San Diego company’s chipsets would be used with any OEM launching a Windows notebook. However, we could be heading into a new era as, according to ARM CEO, the agreement between the two companies will expire later this year, giving other chipset makers an opportunity to penetrate this market and offer more options to customers.

In the early days of the streaming wars, library content seemed to be king. Peacock holding onto the rights of extraordinarily valuable parent-company shows like The Office looked like wins that would help the streaming service soar and felt like an existential threat to Netflix. But three years after Peacock’s launch, that’s not really how things have shaken out. In 2023, Netflix is still king of the streamers, and studios licensing out their most valuable shows and movies is starting to look like a great idea again.

Marvel’s Blade, the next project from Arkane Lyon, is likely going to be an Xbox-exclusive title, despite exclusivity not having been discussed during its reveal.

Disney says it doesn't feel making the upcoming Indiana Jones game an Xbox exclusive is "over exclusionary" as it'll still reach a lot of players. 

Whether or not MachineGames and Bethesda’s Indiana Jones title would be a multiplatform release was a frequently asked question (to say the very least) for months following its launch. Ordinarily, you would take that for granted for a game carrying a major IP’s license, but this is, of course, being developed by a first party Xbox studio. Earlier this year, however, it was confirmed that Indiana Jones will indeed be skipping PlayStation and releasing only for Xbox and PC, and according to Disney – parent company of Lucasfilm and owner of the Indiana Jones IP – that makes “financial and strategic sense” for the game.

The upcoming Indiana Jones by MachineGames is being developed as an Xbox console exclusive title, and Disney feels like Xbox exclusivity made sense for it, as it won't limit it reach in any significant way.

Final Fantasy XVI, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are all timed PlayStation exclusives, but they may never make it to Xbox, as exclusivity for Square Enix titles is apparently going to get worse in the future.

One of the major surprises at The Game Awards recently was Arkane Lyon’s next big title. While many of us expected Dishonored 3 or Deathloop 2, it revealed Marvel’s Blade. The single-player action-adventure title is set in Paris and will be in third-person, a major shift for the studio.

Amid the madness of announcements at The Game Awards 2023, Square Enix has reaffirmed when the PS5 exclusivity periods for Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will end. As spotted by @IdleSloth84_, the trailer for Final Fantasy 16’s upcoming DLC, Echoes of the Fallen and The Rising Tide, has noted that the base game isn’t available on other formats until December 31st, 2023.

Sonic the Hedgehog fans were greeted this morning with an announcement for a brand new game: Sonic Dream Team. Just as fans prepared for another dry season after the release of two major games – Superstars and the final horizon update for Frontiers – this new game reveal dropped out of the blue.

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox

Xbox head Phil Spencer has shed more light on what Microsoft's recent acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision will mean for the series, and no, it isn't about using timed exclusivity deals for the franchise in order to sell consoles.

Diablo 4's leap to Steam—alongside other games like Overwatch 2—is welcome news to gamers wanting to keep their rigs launcher-slim. Adam Fletcher, the game's Global Community Development Director, has fully confirmed on Twitter that the game will be coming Steam Deck verified next Tuesday.

The PC version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 launched as an Epic Games Store exclusive in September 2020. Now, three years later, it’s ready to hit Steam on October 3.

After three years on Epic Games, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 is finally making its way onto Steam. 

Three years after making its PC debut as an Epic Games Store exclusive, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 is coming to Steam, with its release date set for 3rd October.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s next-gen version enjoyed a puzzling period of exclusivity on Xbox Series X and S back in 2020 that was never properly explained — until now.

When and whether other versions will come remains unknown.

Polish developer The Astronauts was founded nearly eleven years ago and only released the horror adventure game The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (in 2014), though that's about to change with the upcoming early access debut of Witchfire.

Yesterday was a big day for gaming, as there were two big game preview events from two different companies, meaning there was a lot of news going around. For the Sony State of Play event, they highlighted some key titles that were sure to get fans excited for both this year and next. One of the biggest showings was Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which featured a truly deep look into the upcoming sequel to the remake title, and there were many details to be seen within. However, one detail that arguably could’ve been the most important regarded its release date and exclusivity.

As has been the case with all mainline Final Fantasy games in recent years, the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is going to be exclusive to PlayStation at launch, though its exclusivity window for Sony’s console won’t last as long as it has done for the last couple of Final Fantasy games.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the second entry in the FF7 Remake trilogy, finally has a proper release date, and Square Enix has also revealed that it has a three-month exclusivity window on PS5.

With Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios has released its first ever title as a first party Xbox developer, and though the studio is, of course, going to continue focusing on the sci-fi RPG for a while, there’s already no shortage of excitement around what will come next either. The Elder Scrolls 6 will be BGS’ next big project, and though it’s still a ways off from launch (to say the least), questions about whether it, too, will be an Xbox console exclusive continue to be asked by the masses.

Once the hype around Starfield dies down a bit, discussion will once again turn to the next Elder Scrolls game. Nearly twelve years after Skyrim, the next installment is now finally said to be in the early stages of development. As such, Xbox head Phil Spencer has been asked whether the elusive RPG will be an Xbox exclusive.

Microsoft’s head of gaming has addressed the subject of whether The Elder Scrolls 6 will be an Xbox exclusive.

Bethesda is celebrating its successful launch of Starfield into the marketplace. The video game was quite a massively anticipated title for fans. Likewise, this is Bethesda’s first new RPG in a very long time. So having a new franchise, a new exclusive for Xbox, and after years of developing the game, finally crossing the finish line for the game development is likely allowing the folks from Bethesda to enjoy a bit of a break. However, even with this latest game that just launched into the marketplace, there are questions about what awaits next. For instance, we know that the next game under Bethesda would be The Elder Scrolls 6.

Starfield Director Todd Howard, the man behind The Elder Scrolls and the latest Fallout games after Bethesda acquired the franchise, is easily one of the most acclaimed video game designers in the industry. He received many personal awards, including the honor of being inducted into the AIAS (Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences) Hall of Fame six years ago for his many contributions to the industry. The following year, he got a similar 'Industry Legend' award at Gamelab Barcelona.

One of the biggest arguments that many gamers and developers get involved in is the discussion of console exclusivity. The general premise behind exclusivity is simple: it keeps certain games and franchises on specific systems so that they can have a “unique title” compared to other systems. In contrast, when a game is multiplatform, the game dev team has to attempt to ensure that everything works on every single system it’s on, which can be very stressful. The Starfield release on Xbox and PC is a hot topic issue given Microsoft’s buyout of Bethesda, but Todd Howard is looking toward the positive side of things.

Bethesda’s Todd Howard has discussed the benefits of Starfield being an Xbox console exclusive.

Bethesda development chief Todd Howard has discussed the benefits of Starfield being Xbox exclusive, namechecking the brand association Nintendo enjoys with its first party games.

Bethesda was acquired by Microsoft in 2021, which resulted in both Redfall and Starfield's Xbox exclusivity. Many have taken this to mean that The Elder Scrolls 6 and, when it eventually launches, Fallout 5 will also be Xbox exclusive, to much disappointment and even backlash. However, Todd Howard argues that this is good for the company and its games.

Starfield game director Todd Howard has spoken on the new RPG's console exclusivity for Xbox systems.

Baldur’s Gate 3 will launch as a PS5 console exclusive early next month – but in a rare occurrence, there’s been no behind-the-scenes shenanigans from Sony to make that the case. The reason the game is coming to Sony’s system before the Xbox Series X|S has always been due to development issues with Microsoft’s machine, specifically it’s cheaper, lower-powered new-gen option.

Epic Games has launched its new First Run program, which allows developers to keep 100% of their net revenue when launching a game exclusively on the Epic Games Store.

Epic Games is offering third-party developers 100 percent of revenue for six months, in exchange for game exclusivity on its storefront.

Epic’s ongoing quest to dethrone Steam as the PC gaming storefront of note has taken a new turn with First Run, an option for developers to get 100% of their game’s sales revenue in exchange for being an exclusive on the platform for six months. But is this really a good choice?

The Epic Games Store is taking another approach to combating Steam, as Epic today announced a new opt-in First Run Program that will trade the company's share of revenues for the first six months of release in exchange for exclusivity.

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

Epic is taking the fight to Steam by rolling out a new revenue sharing model in the form of Epic First Run, an initiative that will offer developers up to 100% of revenue for six months if their PC game remains exclusive to the Epic Games Store.

Epic Games is trying to secure more exclusive titles for its PC storefront with its latest proposals to third-party developers. The company is offering the makers of eligible games and apps 100 percent of net revenue for six months. After the exclusivity window ends, developers and publishers will still take away 88 percent of their projects' revenue, with Epic receiving a cut of 12 percent.

The program requires a six-month exclusivity period on PC only for 100% revenue share.

Epic Games has announced a new exclusivity scheme that will see developers getting a 100% revenue share for the first six months.

Today, Ubisoft announced that it had signed a deal with Microsoft that will allow it to host all the publisher’s titles and every game it releases within the next 15 years for Ubisoft + subscribers to play. This restructuring of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard aims to ease concerns over a market monopoly from the UK’s approval board.

Lenovo has launched its new YOGA Air 14s laptops equipped with AMD's Ryzen 7 7840S & Ryzen 5 7640S "Phoenix" APUs

Exclusives play a massive role in the video game industry. You have three big names bringing out consoles into the marketplace. The means to get them on a specific platform might end up being each platform’s exclusives. So when these companies are bringing out their own first-party studio releases, deals are made to ensure that a third-party game might end up being exclusive to a specific platform. Some of these deals are just timed exclusives, so eventually, other platforms end up with the highlighted game.

In a new interview with GameReactor, I/O Interactive Senior Technical Executive Producer Cris Vega and Core Engine Programmer Álvaro Fernández shared very few details about the status of Project Fantasy.