NBrid

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Written by: klamkilla

With the upcoming console wars imminent, all I

have been hearing in game or game related

conversations are things like this... "Well PS2

is going to have Metal Gear Solid 2, and Final

Fantasy X," or "X-Box is going to get Unreal

Championship". Now this always gets me to

thinking, wouldn't it be better for third parties

to keep all of their options on the table (i.e.

not develop specifically for one console or

another)? In my opinion this is one of the things

ruining video games today.

Now I understand that exclusive titles are

usually a result of a console manufacturer like

Sony offering the third party of their choice

large sums of money in exchange for a game that

will appear no where else. Obviously the drive

behind this is to move more consoles off of

shelves, or build up hype for their system. Why

though would a third party accept an offer like

this when they could clearly make more money off

of a game going multi platform?

Case in point Squaresoft. Now Square has been

Sony's lapdog for the past four or so years.

During this time they have produced countless

games for the PlayStation and appear to be

repeating the trend on PlayStation 2. Why though

didn't they see the potential a blockbuster RPG

could have been on the Nintendo 64? The N64 was

the most RPG starved system in history, and I am

almost positive that one big Square game would

have sold millions of copies state side alone.

Although now it seems Square is taking a step in

the right direction by making Final Fantasy XI

multi platform, I can't help but wonder what could

have been.

Another company that was being held tightly

within Sony's iron fist was EA. Granted they

released a few token sports games and a re-hash

of the mediocre Nuclear Strike on N64, they were

pretty much a Sony exclusive third party. Where

was their Dreamcast support? Maybe they were

afraid to go up against Visual Concepts beautiful

2K and 2K1 games? In any case, it was non

existent and they could have made a huge profit

off of the DC.... and who knows maybe DC wouldn't

be in it's dieing state today.

One of the major third companies though that has

always been relatively open minded towards

developing for all consoles is Capcom. Capcom has

earned my respect for their unwavering support

of the Dreamcast even though it is on it's last

leg. Along with their stellar support of the

PlayStation and their left to be desired but still

there support of the Nintendo 64, Capcom has been

able to rake in money.

So now we look to the future and to Sega. Since

their announcement to go third party earlier this

year they have surprised us all by announcing

several of their major franchises on all three

next gen consoles. It is apparent that Sega is

out to make a name for themselves, and they are

going neck and neck with some of the biggest names

in the industry while doing it.

To wrap this up, who really wants to buy three

separate consoles just to play three different

games? I sure don't, but with the way things are

going now it seems that in another twenty or so

years each game will come with its own pak in

console......