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Launch Title Letdown: What Happened to Exclusives?

It wasn't a terrible list of launch titles for Microsoft and Sony, but it wasn't very good either.
This article is over 10 years old and may contain outdated information

We’ve had a week with the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One is finally here as well, but now that we’ve had some time with the games, how are you feeling about them? Amazing graphics? Slick presentation? Maybe so, but in my opinion, these launch lineups are big disappointments.

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Third-Party Games Are Great, What Happened to the Exclusives?

I don’t necessarily mean that all the games are bad, but what I’m more focused on are the first-party exclusives. Sure Forza Motorsport 5 is amazing and Resogun is a pleasant surprise, but beyond those, I feel like the Sony and Microsoft put forth merely a decent lineup of titles. The third-party games like Assassin’s Creed IV, Battlefield 4, Need for Speed: Rivals, and NBA 2K14 are all excellent, and make for plenty of great games to play on your new console. But the exclusives are lacking. 

Not Enough to Keep Me Coming Back for More

Killzone: Shadow Fall, for example, is a beautiful game that runs at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second. But the depth of the game really isn’t there. The single player campaign is ok and the multiplayer is stale, so there really hasn’t been a whole lot of reason for me to come back to it. Dead Rising has never been a series that appealed to me, and the newest entry is no exception. Granted, I don’t own an Xbox One, but I have spent a significant amount of time with the games, and I haven’t been blown away.

Like I said, Forza is amazing, and Resogun will last me a long time. The third-party games are solid enough to help make these launch lineups some of the best ever. But I’m disappointed in the efforts of the first-party studios. I feel like they could have given us a Halo or Fable or Uncharted or Gran Turismo. Had these games been available at launch we may all be singing a different tune.

The future is no doubt bright for these two consoles, filled with many great games, both first and third party. But as far as launch lineups go, I’m not impressed.


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Brian Armstrong
Proud gamer parent and freelance journalist (and fundraiser). I cover anything and everything that's interesting about the gaming industry, and even some stuff that isn't so interesting.