Hello guys, I’m a seasoned and passionate gamer since the early 90s. I’m here to share my opinion and perspective about some aspects of gaming, the industry and its players, so please don’t flame me if you disagree, because remember: there is no right or wrong here, this is just my opinion.

As in with any business, every corporation tries to bring something unique to the game so it can attract a bigger chunk of the market share. In the world of console makers that would be, well, games.

Back in the NES era (mid to late 80s), Nintendo practically single-handedly saved the home videogame industry from its crash in 1983 by using some ingenious marketing to gain penetration and most importantly, exclusive games.

Nintendo created and destroyed many conventions in video gaming, from platformers to non-linearity and that was (and arguably still is) Nintendo magic: the power to invent and reinvent videogames and their IPs. Being a software developer as well as a hardware maker, you can understand that Nintendo use their IPs (like Mario, Zelda and Metroid) to sell their own consoles, but they took it even further…

Among other measures, Nintendo required third-party developers to launch games exclusively for the NES, trying keep their rivals (namely SEGA, at the time) from taking their market share.That kind of measure only benefits the hardware manufacturer, while developers could not broaden their demographics, players would be forced to buy a NES, even if the game they wanted to play wasn’t a Nintendo IP.

Fast Forward to 2010s, we still see this kind of things, and worse, we see players actually condoning this practice and thinking that it’s awesome that their console will have the new hottest game while their “rivals” don’t. As an avid fighting game enthusiast I can think about a recent example: Street Fighter V.

As many of you may have heard, SFV will only be launched on PS4 and PC, leaving XBone out. I’ve read on many forums and threads people bragging and laughing about XBOne adopters how they won’t be getting SFV while PS4 players will. All I can think about is how stupid it is, since not only they get no benefit from XBOne players not getting the game, it’s actually worse, because the community will be smaller, and the game will have less players, hence, less support and longevity.

And at the same time, all I can think is that XBOne players get to play the awesome Killer Instinct and I don’t for the same reasons. I’ve waited almost 20 years for this game and now I can’t play it because of Microsoft trying to push XBOne down our throats. The sad thing is that the thought of buying and XBOne just for that game actually crossed my mind.

I get that people will often try to rationalize their purchase choices so they can get most value for their money and that’s exactly what console manufacturers try to exploit, but in the end people condoning third-party exclusive are in fact shooting themselves in the foot because inexorably there will be a game they want and will be only available on another platform. Also, it’s a way to try cover the awful truth that videogame consoles are just underpowered easy-to-use computers that nowadays has actually almost no real difference between them at all.

I guess that my point is that we gamers often tend to see ourselves as XBox, Nintendo, Playstation or PC gamers and that just benefit them as corporations, not us as consumers. So, next time you are about to brag about your new game only available for your platform, remember that it’s not the interest of each platform group (PS4, Wii U, PC or XBOne) against each other, its the corporations interest against ours; so gamers UNITE!!!