PS3 Launches in Europe!

[A Black Falcon]

Just how many people were killed for a ps3 in france in that massive crowd where they where being handed out as the lucky few were trying to get out alive.

*He got one! Kill Him!!

Massive crowd...

(Is that a joke or are you confusing the PS2 and PS3 stuff?)

How does this actually hurt the fans? As I just said, the important thing is that the people now will know exactly what they will be able to get, and that's an ADVANTAGE for ALL consumers. THAT is what is important!

The idea of basically waiting just so people who may not otherwise have got it will get it? That's trickery and that doesn't help anyone, except those fanboys who want to be able to brag that "hey, you can only get it on my favorite system". That's just stupid selfishness. That's not a real advantage of any sort.

Exclusivity does mean something, though. It says that the company believes in the platform in question enough to release the game only there and not anywhere else -- ideally it is a statement of confidence, or of acknowledgement that the platform in question best matches the target audience of the game. It's also a prestige thing for the fans, of course... so when a company announces a port of a game that had previously only been announced for only one system (and people had a reasonable expection that it might stay exclusive), people are naturally upset. This DOES matter! If your fans are upset, as I said, they might retaliate... witness that very petition of angry Sony fans. Or the reaction to the RE4-PS2 announcement.

As for the trickery thing... you're right of course, but if you want to win, you have to get people to buy your system somehow, and paying third parties for timed exclusivity is a time-honored way of doing that. Getting them to not announce the port until after the first version is out is just one step above that... whether it's right or wrong, it happens. And seriously... if you want the first version to sell as well as possible, doesn't it just make sense to not announce more versions until after it's had a chance to sell? This does not apply to simultaneous or near-simultaneous multiplatform launches, of course, but those games aren't what I'm talking about here.