There are many young people who believe that the war of exclusive video games is a current thing, from recent years. The reality is quite different, as in the early days of gaming each machine was unique and games only worked on a specific console. It was the dawn of the industry and we didn’t know what the future held for us.
And we bring this little history lesson because today’s news is about an exclusive that was forged for one reason only: the fear of competition. Game exclusivity is only driven by fear, the fear that your rival will sell better than you. This is known by Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox. However, the latter has started to open its mind this 2024.
As we have been able to read this weekend, the fact that the GTA (Grand Theft Auto) series by Rockstar was exclusive to PlayStation was not an unforeseen move. On the contrary, it was influenced by the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox, as revealed by a former president of PlayStation Europe.
Sony signed exclusivity deals for Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas partly due to concerns over Xbox's impending launch. Former Sony exec Chris Deering revealed this strategy aimed to secure third-party support amid rising competition. #PlayStation #GTA Read more>>
— playswave (@playswave.bsky.social) December 6, 2024, 16:06
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PlayStation did not want Xbox to succeed under any circumstances
According to an interview with Chris Deering (via GamesIndustry.Biz), former head of PlayStation, it is revealed that the franchise was deliberately limited to Sony’s video game consoles in an attempt to divert interest from Microsoft’s upcoming release called Xbox.
Deering claims that, apparently, the people at PlayStation were “worried” about Microsoft’s console, and the idea of making the Grand Theft Auto franchise exclusive came up “randomly.”
“We were worried when we saw Xbox coming. Just as the Christmas season approached when Xbox would be launched, some of us reached out to our favorite publishers and developers and asked them: ‘How would you feel about making a special deal if you keep your next-generation game exclusive to PlayStation for two years?'”, explained the former head of PlayStation in Europe.
“And one of the agreements we made was with Take-Two for the next three Grand Theft Auto games. At that time, it wasn’t clear that Grand Theft Auto 3 was going to be as big as it was. It was a great stroke of luck for us. And actually a stroke of luck for them, because they got a discount on the royalty they paid. These types of agreements are not uncommon in platform industries,” concluded Chris Deering.
Thus, the collaboration between Sony and Take-Two was driven by Microsoft’s launch of Xbox, and we wouldn’t be wrong to say that this decision has been crucial for the success of Sony’s previous consoles and the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Ultimately, the collaboration was beneficial for both parties, and the fact that this move managed to overshadow the launch of Xbox is now a thing of the past.
In the case of Grand Theft Auto 6, exclusivity for PlayStation is out of the equation for now, as the franchise is expected to follow a release strategy similar to that of GTA 5. That is, first the consoles and then other consoles.
