Exclusives?

Oh, the arguments of fanboys. For nearly two years, the 360 loyalists shouted over to the PS3 side "we bought our system for games, not watching movies!", and then the PS3 loyalists shouted back "where's MGS4 on YOUR console?". For a while, Metacritic score reigned supreme, but then fanboys sorta gave up on that one once both HD consoles' games began to even out. Then it was all about sales, but that's starting to lose steam, too (thankfully).

Now, it's all about exclusives.

We're back to copypasta-ing our list of exclusives. "How many exclusives do YOU have, 360?" yell the PS3 loyalists. "Plenty. How many crappy multiplats do YOU have, PS3?" yell back the 360 crowd.

And this is just insane. First of all, exclusives matter! This argument I constantly hear of "I can play multiplatform games just fine. Who needs exclusives?" is one of the dumbest I've heard in my life. It's like saying "I don't want to play great video games. I'm proud of being able to play fewer games than the other guys!" What? This is pure fanboyism. Who WOULDN'T want to play more games?

Another thing, quit with this ridiculous "console exclusive" nonsense, fanboys. X-COM isn't an exclusive, 360 kids. DC Universe and FF14 aren't exclusive to the PS3, either, Sony kids. Exclusive means AVAILABLE ON ONLY ONE PLATFORM. It's really that simple. Exclusive has never ever ever ever in any previous gaming generation meant "playable on 360 and PC, but not on Wii and PS3" (or an equivalent). Stop making up terms like "console exclusive". It's pointless, because anyone can make up these terms. Did you know that Black Ops is a Sixaxis exclusive? That's RIGHT! Ps3 is the ONLY console with SIxaxis that can play Black Ops!!! OMG! And Mass Effect 2? It's a non-DLC console exclusive on the 360, because 360 is the ONLY CONSOLE where the DLC doesn't come bundled with the game. Exclusive! Exclusive! Sheesh, it reminds me of Turn 10 shouting "definitive!" into our ears over and over again until we all passed out (or bought into it).

But don't get carried away. We all love to twist the labels in our favor. Anyone hear how the 360 had no exclusives in 2010? Well, beside Halo: Reach, Fable III, Alan Wake, all the Kinect titles, what did 360 gamers have to play? Uh, PLENTY! Are exclusives the only video games people are allowed to play? Now, don't get me wrong: each console should have a healthy dose of exclusives, but why can't people mostly play multiplat games? I just don't get it. I mainly play on PS3 but there are plenty of PS3 exclusives that I do not enjoy (Motorstorm, GT5, The Show, Valkyria Chronicles, and more). The reality is that there are just as many highly rated mutliplats as there are exclusives on all the consoles combined. So, doesn't it make sense that a person is allowed to enjoy multiplats on their console?