Paying for platform exclusivity for a series that used to be available on other platforms is incredibly evil, and something that only Microsooo ..... oh.
It's something Sony have always done, since they first got into this business. And MS too. And Nintendo. And Sega would probably have done it too, if they'd ever had the money.
Businesses being businesses. At least we can ditch all the Moral Superiority and Microsoft Slammin', at least for a while. Everyone's shit stinks for the next person coming into the bathroom, but everyone drops dem bombs.
I know I'm late to the party - and it's a rather old post to be quoting, but being one of those that was vocal in the Tomb Raider 2 topic, I thought I needed to clarify something that nobody seemed to have realized regarding the whole exclusivity discussion:
With Tomb Raider 2; the 'outrage' wasn't directed at Microsoft. At least not by the majority posting in the thread. It was largely because of how the exclusivity deal was announced and the way both Square (Crystal Dynamics?) and Microsoft communicated the deal. If anything, I think the TR2 deal is a brilliant move by MS, business wise. It's a powerful exclusive, no doubt about that. The issue that fans have regarding the exclusivity is that the previous game was a multiplatform gem that sold good on both platforms and better on the PS4. To take a sequel exclusive is in that sense is a decision that is hard to swallow for fans. The 'hatred' that arised wasn't solely directed at Microsoft who is just doing what is good for their business, but predominatently at Square/Crystal directly for going through with a deal that has the potential to upset their fans and split their marketshare. As a Tomb Raider fan mysel, and irregardless which platform I own, I question the reasoning behind such a deal that will surely alienate a large portion of their fans. The way fans reacted to the announcement shows and underlines that perhaps the way the deal was communicated perhaps wasn't the best way to go around things. If it's indeed only a timed exclusive, there probably would have been better ways to communicate the deal. If it's a full blown exclusive... well, I personally think it will be a bad move since the Xbox version alone won't make up for the lost sales by the PS fan base and such a exclusivity has the potential to alienate fans in the long term and away from the franchise. In other words, what they have built up with the brilliant franchise reboot, will be kind of lost to a large part of the market.
Look at Insomniac and Sunset Overdrive; It didn't cause an upset like TR did. Perhaps because it's a fresh franchise.
A similar example would be MGS4 on the PS3. Once it came out on the X360, it was an old game no one cared about anymore. The exclusivity on MGS4 perhaps wasn't such a big deal in the first place since it was always a PlayStation accociated game, so the impact on the exclusivity perhaps wasn't a major factor.
Anyway, Street Fighter exclusivity; I coudn't care less. Personally, as a gamer, I think it's a game that deserves to be multiplatform. Either way, I'm not blaming Sony or Microsoft for this or the Tomb Raider deal.
