PSN Exclusives Loses Two Titles

So, I've been sitting on this one for a bit and with nothing else really striking out to me as something to write about news-wise (and my only gaming being Uncharted 3 which reduces me to a Near-Vita-Level inability to articulate my enjoyment), but I think it bears being brought up.  "Exclusives" get tossed around a lot and it's usually a pretty big deal when whoever 'loses' that exclusivity unless it was announced as such to begin with (Think Summer of Arcade stuff), but these two went without too much fanfare.  I don't know if it's because they're (former) PSN exclusives which apparently only get a resounding 'meh' from the internet at large, or what, but in pretty rapid succession two exclusive games ended up being announced for other platforms, one of which being a real surprise.

The above pictured Joe Danger is likely the bigger one, as it was promoted quite heavily and even partook in the Sony Pub Fund to be made (I -believe-) so it was sort of like how some of the more prominent XBLA titles have been brought about and made/kept exclusive.  When Joe Danger's sequel, Joe Danger: The Movie, was announced for both PSN and XBLA, it wasn't that much of a surprise, honestly, but given how difficult MS Publishing Standards have seemed in the past, the last thing I would have expected was a re-release of Joe Danger on XBLA.  But that's exactly what's happening with Joe Danger:  Special Edition.  As per the previously mentioned standards, the game will be an enhanced edition, featuring things exclusive to the XBLA version (much like a PSN version when the shoe is, as it often has been in the past, on the other foot) in exchange for appearing on the platform, er.....late.

I'm not too fussed myself; I never really cared for Joe Danger after playing the demo for quite a bit to make sure I had an opinion established on playing, rather than impression, but this is kind of a big thing, really.  I'm pretty certain that this is a first, but if we can't take anything else from this, at least we can take away the idea that, yes, PSN does have quality offerings; quality enough that other platforms feel the need to poach them, as it were.  (That's not how it is at all.)  Since my main platform is PS3/PSN, I'm obviously against the theory of having PSN exclusives heading off to XBLA with content I'll never have access to without buying it again, but, well, I suppose this is what 360-centric players have been feeling for quite a while.  Though, in all fairness, I think the last big 'exclusive lost' was Braid, which, well.....we'll not get into that.  I just can't think of anything else besides that and Castle Crashers.

Also on the first bus out of PSN-town is Rochard, which I'm going to Chance a guess that everyone who reads this would've known this by now.  On November 15th, it'll hit PC through Steam (at least, not sure if it'll see a release through the developers, Recoil Games, themselves as well) and offer just that many more people the chance to play around with Gravity Guns in a third person/sidescroller perspective.  The latter is for emphasis as, well, whenever I see Gravity Gun I think of another game that I shan't mention here until it's finished which could be a while.

I've not seen, heard, or played a lot of Rochard beyond seeing it a few times when the playstation blog brought it up, but it seems like a neat game if on concept alone.  Not enough games deal with gravity in such a direct way (that I can think of anyhow) and while physics puzzles are commonplace now, I don't think they've really overstayed their welcome, personally.  Of course, personally, I don't think the Puzzle game genre gets enough representation nowadays; at least proper puzzle games, not "figure out how to do something in two seconds, take thirty minutes trying to do it because it's so goddamn precise" types.  Or "have only the vaguest of tiny clues given to you to know how to achieve this outlandish resolution to a bullshit puzzle" types of puzzle games.  It is a delicate balance, is my point, and a lot of developers don't really get that middle-ground.  Hopefully Recoil Games has done just that, though.

I guess we'll just see what this all will mean for PSN as a whole, but I honestly doubt we're going to lose out on a lot of exclusivity here.  I think we can identify the 'core' games that were developed for PS3/PSN and have no intent of shifting anywhere else.  Not that moving around is a bad thing, of course, just that some companies want to have the most focused product they can offer which is, pretty much, too difficult or bordering on impossible to do over two different platforms, since every platform has its ups, downs, strengths and weaknesses that can't be quantified in simple terms with others.  Still, I just have to wonder why a bigger to-do hasn't been made by the internet as a whole.