Splinter Cell: Conviction Producer Discusses Console Exclusivity Benefits

All of us ‘older’ gamers can remember when games exclusive to one console was the norm. In recent years, however, that trend has been reversed, to the point where games are commonly available across a wide range of platforms. Have you ever wondered why your favorite title never made it to your favorite console? Well, Ubisoft’s Mathieu Ferland, senior producer of Conviction, has a few answers for you.

In explaining the reasoning behind console exclusivity, Ferland said, “Developing a game for multiple consoles is not so difficult but it requires certain compromises, usually quality compromises. If such investment is not done, every feature unique to a console will not be used and a game will generally end up with a ‘lower quality’.”

This makes sense. After all, if you develop a game for a certain console, you can take full advantage of that platform’s strengths, while working to minimize its weaknesses. Also, a game developed specifically for PS3 will likely perform better than a game built to run on all platforms. The best benefit I can think of is that since the dev team only has to code the game for one system, they can spend more time making the game itself, and still hit their release date. That means more content, and more goodies.