Somnolent

Time was, the type of hardware you were playing on would determine the types of games you were able to play. Even in the last generation, publishers would directly target consoles with specific series, distinguishing the three formats for us, the mere consumers.


Now, exclusives are much harder to come by. In fact, the day has now come when the likes of Sony and Microsoft talk up exclusive features, like extra missions or in-game videos, rather than exclusive games themselves. The only fully-exclusive titles seem to come from either Sony or Microsoft themselves, on the whole.

So, when gamers get to the tills and pick their consoles, are they doing nothing more than associating themselves with a brand?
"...in this generation, it costs much more to develop one product, it’s just natural for third-party publishers trying to recoup the investment from multiple platforms," Sony's new Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Three Speech. "I think that’s pure economic pressure, pushing most of the third parties to move from some exclusive titles to more multi-platform titles.

"As far as I can see, with major publishers like Activision and EA, their major titles will be day-and-date with the Xbox 360 and their quality will be really good. And some of the titles, I expect, will have something extra because of the PS3’s abilities and the space on the Blu-ray format." So, there you have it. The PS3 is basically a 360, with a few added knobs and bobs. If even Sony is admitting that the majority of its line-up will be identical to its main rival, then why exactly did I mortgage my house to buy both of them, then?