For years certain series were only found on certain consoles. These exclusive titles were a big win for whoever had them since many of them were popular enough to sell a new console on the mere promise of a game for it. Unfortunately with the rising costs of development this has become less and less of an effective strategy. Sony in particular has been suffering as a result of this. Recently the newest Final Fantasy title was announced to be a multi-platform title; the JRPG series had been a Playstation exclusive for more than ten years. Now with Metal Gear Solid Rising being developed for the Microsoft console as well, Xbox strategy boss Shane Kim has said that the third-party playing field has become level.

Kim says that achieving this has always been part of their strategy for the console, hinting that they knew the viability of exclusive games was soon to be ended. Their future plans include focusing more heavily on exclusive downloadable content for multiplatform titles as they have with games like Fallout 3, as well as Project Natal.