Game over for console exclusives?

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By Theresa Raine De Guzman

Sony Senior Vice President Sadahiko Hawakawa’s recent statement about moving away from a hardware-centric model toward a broader platform-based approach has sparked intense speculation among gamers and industry watchers.

His comments suggest that PlayStation’s future strategy may focus less on driving console sales through exclusivity and more on expanding its player community and engagement across multiple platforms.

This shift is already visible in Sony’s release strategy, as once tightly held exclusives like God of War Ragnarok, The Last of Us Part I, and Spider-Man have made their way to PC.

The move gained further attention when Helldivers 2, which launched in 2024 for PlayStation and PC and reached a peak player count of 450,000, was later ported to Xbox—a rival brand in the long-standing “console wars.”

Sony’s approach now mirrors that of Microsoft, which has ported key titles such as Doom Eternal, Sea of Thieves, and Hi-Fi Rush to PlayStation in an effort to reach a wider audience.

Both companies appear to be moving toward a more open ecosystem, where platform walls are less rigid and content availability is driven by engagement potential rather than exclusivity.

If this trend continues, the era of platform-exclusive games could be coming to an end, transforming the competitive landscape of the gaming industry.

Instead of fighting to keep titles locked to their hardware, companies may compete on service quality, community features, and cross-platform innovations.

Nintendo, however, is expected to remain the outlier.

With its stable of blockbuster franchises like Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Kirby, and Pokémon, which serve as powerful system sellers, Nintendo has little incentive to break from its long-standing model.

Its exclusives are deeply tied to its brand identity, ensuring that for now, at least one console maker is likely to stand firm against the tide of cross-platform convergence.

(Theresa Raine De Guzman is a Bachelor of Science in Interactive Entertainment and Multimedia Computing [IEMC] student at De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde [DLS-CSB], specializing in Game Design and Development.)