The question of how much exclusives matter in today’s market realities is something that has been extensively debated. Some, including Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, believe that exclusives are minimally important in terms of how console is doing on the market. However, NPD Analyst Mat Piscatella recently sounded off on the issue himself, stating that exclusives are what explain the difference between the performance of different consoles on the market right now.
In a discussion on ResetEra about how exclusives matter, Piscatella noted that multiplatform games such as Fortnite benefit all consoles, but exclusives are what are defining the difference between how the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch are doing on the market- which seems to make sense. The PS4 and Switch have received strong first- and third party exclusives, and have topped charts through the year. Meanwhile, Xbox One, lacking that kind of strong exclusive support, has, while doing well for itself, trailed behind the other two systems.
“I dunno, seems to me exclusives are THE thing that most explains the differences between the consoles right now, with Fortnite providing a lift to everyone, to a varying degree,” Piscatella said.
Thankfully, Microsoft is at least aware of the importance of exclusives, seeing as how they have expanded the reach of their first party recently– while the jury is out on whether or not that is too late to help the Xbox One, it should at least put them in a strong position with the Xbox One successor, if nothing else.