Sometimes i wonder if yall cant analyse events properly, imagine if KI was on xbox, ps4, nintendo, Steam etc KI woulda been the Number one fighting game in the world now, In my opinion, Microsoft exclusivity for KI killed KI’s popularity, its a terrible business decision and am thoroughly embarassed
KI devs are not the issue, exclusivity is our greatest evil, we should fight against it . Thoughts?
By any chance, do you see GOW or the last of us on Xbox/Switch? No, because it’s an exclusive IP. No company gives it away. Why would Microsoft do that? On the other hand, I think it’s wrong to see a third party game like Street Fighter V coming to just one console. Personally, I don’t want to see killer instinct running on a PlayStation.
It took you 5 years to come to this conclusion?
KI’s only problem is that it’s on a console everyone loves to hate.
It was very tough for xbox and the devs from day one and it’s still amazing how well this game was supported during the years even so it is on xbox and even so KI’s community is idiotic.
Thank you IG,DH and MS for this amazing game
Somehow I don’t think Sony would take too kindly to Microsoft making money off of them. Ki is on steam as well. Albiet it should’ve had a pc release well before s3.
From what I understand MS is much more open to the idea than Sony is. At the very least MS is open to cross play and Sony is not. So I wouldn’t speculate that this is MS at fault entirely here.
You are correct. Both Microsoft and Nintendo are on board. Sony is the only one denying it.
I mean, by this logic, why have exclusives at all? Every company puts every game on every system and they’ll all sell more copies, right? Why give gamers any reason to buy your system specifically? Why use games to try and sell that $300-$500 box that you put millions and millions of dollars worth of R&D in to?
Look, I know MS wants to sell as many first party games as possible, just like Sony and Nintendo, but their main goal, and the reason why any first party publisher puts games out on their system to begin with, is to sell their hardware; to give players as many reasons to buy THEIR main product as possible.
While you’re focused on Killer Instinct and how it can be as successful as possible, and that’s great, it’d also be great if you could respect the fact that MS has a bigger picture to focus on and that Killer Instinct is only one small piece of a larger puzzle.
To help sale consoles…period.
It worked for me…I wouldnt even be gaming right now if it wasnt for KI on XBone
I wouldnt have a PS4 if it wasnt for Bloodborne.
Funny thing is being an exclusive never stopped the popularity of the smash series, or other fighting games that were exclusives. But I do agree with you.
A game should be accessible to anyone who cannot afford a console.
Heck if i was working on a fighting game it would be on all consoles too.
Which is odd considering how many people worshiped the PS4 for quite some time. You’d think they’d be the ones who would support cross play. I guess some rivalries never soften in the eyes of some.
KI was the reason I bought the Xbox in the first place. It took the PS4 several years to offer an exclusive I want.
Now I have several game son the PS4 I do enjoy.
Dragon Ball Fighter Z (not an exclusive but we grabbed it for that version because we were lacking some games on the PS4)
Primal Carnage
God of War
Actually i always knew, but i thought KI would force people to buy xbox , apparently i was wrong, am from the Nigerian gaming community , all my FGC guys sight just one example for why they didnt buy xbox , KI is a great game but they are not gonna shelf 400 to buy xbox one for just KI, they ask me why i cant tell the devs of KI to put Ki on all consoles in the world. xbox ps4, nintendo, steam PC etc . Thousands of them, they all tell me the same thing day in and out . Tell microsoft to stop being selfish and stop killing KI by bringing KI to all consoles. They all speak loud to me with the same voice ! KI should never be an exclusive
This is the only hindrance to KI greatness. Microsoft should drop this exclusivity for KI, u can have exclusive for Halo forza, and all the others KI is way too great as a fighter to be trampled upon and destroyed by exclusivity clauses. that kills franchises, I remember how agonizing the 17 year KIabsence was, and now Ki is back and its exclusive . am so sad to how KI events and poupular turned out to be, cuz its a freaking great game ! !.
I just wish humans can work togther and be happy, instead of being self centered and promorting only their own thing. KI is too great to be exclusive to xbox guys in this 4K VR world, , we need to wake up and act … Imagine KI on 4K , KI VR on all available consoles including PC and steam . All consoles. why do we have to be a stumbling block in our own greatness? why? why is the question i ask? why? why why?
Reasons to buy console and all that stuff I get it.
But fighting games are wrong genre for exclusives.
They sell poorly if they’re not SF or MK, take a lot of time and dedication to learn and appreciate. Fighting games need as biggest accesibility as possible to succeed.
If MS wants exclusives that will sell their consoles, they should not make them from obscure genres and when their other games have potential, try not to fkin cancel them every time -.-
I think exclusivity can be good. It just sucks for niche genre games like fighters unless the fighting game has been around for a while (street fighter) or already had a following outside of the actual fighting game itself (smash, pokken). The majority of fighting games are at a minimum are available on multiple platforms, some are even cross-play.
I still think KI’s netcode is a double-edged sword (save for the current server issues of course). On one hand, the netcode is so good you can have random or legit competitive matches straight from the comfort of your couch. On the other hand, the great netcode means people may have little reason to get together offline, thus other fg players may not get to see the greatness that is KI.
At our local weekly just a few hours ago, a dude said he’d definitely buy KI but he has a mac and a ps4. At that local weekly fighting game meetup, I get at least 2 people a month who want to play but literally only have a mac and ps4. … Their loss imp, but as someone who doesnt own ps4 i totally understand.
But yeah, if they release this game on ps4 … with crossplay ranked preferred but heck even with crossplay exhibition!! …
Forgot to add this last point - Although the single player fighting game experience can be a blast, I’d imagine most would agree that fighting games which are often played in a one-on-one fashion are best experienced with other people. Exclusivity and even slightly segmented populations (ranked xbox/win10 and ranked steam) makes playing with other people more difficult.
Hmmm, given that many fighting games are multi-platform, now I’m a little curious to see if exclusivity was a factor or not in the devs decision to making this KI free-to-play.
All this said, KI has been the only game I’ve cared to play consistently for like 5 years now lol! Thank you DH, IG, and MS! 
I don’t know why we are all compelled to respond every time someone drops a bucket of stupid on the forums. And here I am, just as guilty as the rest of you…
Yes, KI being only on Xbox One limited sales potential for the game. Just like only being in Nintendo consoles limits sales potential for Mario games. But until or unless the companies that own these franchises get out of the console business (like Sega did) we are not going to see these franchises on other consoles. No matter how many times some ignoramous comes up with the genius idea of “put it on all the consoles!”
As far as whether it was a bad business decision, I think that’s debatable. I’m sure it was a negative for KI, but I think it was actually a bright spot for Xbox One and Xbox One needed some bright spots. In fact, among the stable of Microsoft exclusives and IPs I think KI is among the brightest lights, even if it wasn’t a huge money maker.
Why does time and dedication mean it’s a poor genre for exclusives? Lots of games take time and dedication. Also, it’s not like a community can’t come up with great tech and have a nice little competitive scene even if a title’s exclusive.
Tekken was exclusive to Sony until what, Tekken 5? Virtua Fighter was exclusive to Sega consoles for the first three games. So was Eternal Champions. ArcSys games come out on PS4 only now, don’t they? Well, BBCT came out on Switch, but still. KOF XIV was PS4 exclusive. Smash game are always on Nintendo platforms. I’m sure there are other examples out there, but all I’m saying is that I’m not sure this blanket statement about a whole genre really applies.
Okay, but it’s not as if KI was the centerpiece of their launch strategy and was expected to do a lion’s share of the heavy lifting as it pertained to console sales. They had several other games at launch. Exclusives like Forza 5, Dead Rising 3, Ryse, etc and a bunch of multiplats with much bigger name recognition in bigger genres than KI.
I think it’s more that it’s a good strategy to cover as many bases as possible. If you like shooters, it has COD and Battlefield, if you like zombie games it has Dead Rising,
if you like fighters, it has Killer Instinct, and so on. It’s an important piece of the puzzle to people like you and me, but still a piece of the puzzle that MS puts together to sell consoles, so why not have a fighter in there, or an on rails shooter like Crimson Dragon or whatever?
Couldn’t agree more. Man… XB1 has been a graveyard for exclusives lately. Loved Sunset Overdrive and Ori and the Blind Forest, but I feel like those came out ages ago now.
Best experienced? Yes. It can certainly be more fun to play video games with other people. But I wouldn’t sell short the segment of the population that simply enjoy a single player experience, regardless of whether the game is intended that way, like God of War, or if it’s a game that can please many masters, like most fighting games.
Yeah, as much as I love other fighting games, it’s almost hard to go back to them after playing KI and sitting and watching as someone does a combo on me that I can’t do anything about once it starts lol. There are several other reasons as well, but KI has been my main fighter for years now.
I know, I can’t resist. I take the bait every time.
That’s true for me, at least. Most of the exclusives MS has had this generation either don’t appeal to me personally, haven’t kept me interested, or simply haven’t been that good or reviewed well enough for me to give it a shot if I was on the fence.
Killer Instinct, Sunset Overdrive, the Horizon line of Forza games and Ori and the Blind Forest have pretty much been it for me. That’s five games I’ve really enjoyed in five years. I feel like Sony and Nintendo put out at least twice that number last year alone.
So yeah, KI is a bright spot for me, no question. It’s unfortunate given that I really like the XB1 controller, Xbox Live, Games with Gold, the Xbox One UI, and I enjoy playing multiplats on the system as well. It’s a GOOD system. I also know that some exclusives that aren’t on my list are still good games, even if they’re not something I’m super in to like Halo, Gears, Quantum Break, etc.
But even then, it’s still been an arid desert in terms of exclusives lately, which is only exacerbated for me by the fact that the exclusives that have come out lately (Gears 4, ReCore, State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves, etc) haven’t piqued my interest in the least. I was mildly intrigued by Crackdown 3, but even that seems to be stumbling, if the rumors are to be believed.
Sorry to go on a rant here, but I really hope MS brings the heat at E3 this year. I’m not expecting it, but I’m hoping.
My expectations aright now are (in no particular order):
-Halo 6 trailer
-Multiplat reveal
-Exclusive Indie reveal from well known studio or perhaps a Below trailer
-Crackdown 3 in playable form accompanied by some weird audience participation, guest or awkward dev
-Brief montage of new original Xbox games coming out this year, the first four are out today!
-Multiplat reveal
-A car on stage for Horizon 4 (making everyone wonder why it was necessary to put a real car on stage).
-Indie reveal
-Another Ashen trailer
-ID@Xbox montage
-New No Man’s Sky content inexplicably shown off as if it’s a feather in MS’ cap to be getting this game
-Indie multiplat revealed in language that makes people wonder if it’s exclusive or not
-Multiplat reveal (I’ll guess Divinity: Original Sin 2)
-Multiplat speech and trailer for a game people really care about like Anthem
-Trailer for multiplat that comes out this year, which MS is getting stuff first or exclusive items
-New Trailer for The Last Night
-Gears 5 teaser as the “just one more thing” thing
-Montage of all the great stuff coming out on Xbox One making you think you just saw a ton of great stuff
Now, obviously that whole thing was me being a cynical ■■■■■■■ and I apologize for that. It’s easy for me to sit here and lob insults from the cheap seats when I’m not the one making the games, buying exclusivity, putting teams together and doing this difficult stuff for a living.
But I feel like I’ve seen too many of these briefings now where we get shown like 70 games and of those, 50 are indie titles or brief snippets of indie titles I don’t care about, 10 of the remaining 20 are multiplatform games, and 5 of the remaining 10 are either new things that seem “okay,” games I completely expected like Halo, Gears or Forza, and/or suprises I’m psyched for or games I really care about. So ya know, like 2 or 3 games.
I just want MS to have a great show full of big surprises, triumphant returns for a bunch of their franchises that have been withering on the vine for too long, as well as some great sequels to great franchises and some compelling new IP. It’s all I want from any company for that matter, but for MS specifically, I’d love to add to that list of five games in five years. This far in, KI shouldn’t have to be such a bright spot for me, ya know?
Why do they think you have some inside track with Microsoft?
Really. THOUSANDS of people tell you, day in and day out, that Killer Instinct needs to be multiplatform and that MS should stop being so selfish. Really. C’mon man.
Isn’t that literally what you’re doing here? Yeah MS can keep Halo and Forza AND ALL OTHERS to themselves, forget Sony and Nintendo fans that want those games. I care about Killer Instinct and therefore I want…
Hmm.
As someone that never takes the bait, I have no idea what you could possibly mean by this. 
Totally unrelated note, but a hundred thousand friends of mine just walked up to me and told me that they ALL want to see a new Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge sequel revealed at E3 and they all want it to be a hybrid of flying / dog fighting and on the ground traversal / gunplay like Tomb Raider or Uncharted. They all think that’d make for a really compelling game.
Yikes… I was a real jerk in this post. Sorry! I feel bad now. I want MS to put great stuff out on my system, but I shouldn’t be so rotton about it. My bad. Oh and also for dissecting everything OP says. I guess this is what happens when I’m bored at work lol.
It probably has a lot to do with their decidedly majority position in the console market. Microsoft and Nintendo would benefit the most from sharing software and offering cross-play across all platforms, while Sony would benefit the least.
Casuals make most of sales. Casuals don’t even know what are cancels, frame data, hitboxes, and mostly don’t intent to find out, and when they hear game is technical, they wont even bother with it.
Tekken has made a legacy and was pioneer from gameplay and technological standpoints, also always had a lot of casual content, so sales are high. VF1 and 2 had PC ports (VF2 has online play feature but I cant find anyone to try ;__; )
All of recent ArcSys games are on PC right now, I don’t have precise sales but aside from DBFZ, most of their games are niche because of being anime and having stigma of complexity.
Thats… what I was saying. Fighting game, no matter how good, will always be a small fry compared to titles from more popular genres like shooters, action adventure games, action rpg’s. Making fighting game an exclusive does not benefit anyone - it will sell worse because no matter how great a FG would be, most people will not buy a console for it. MS loses money, great FG loses chance to grow community.
Even Street Fighter 5 is an afterthought for Capcom. It sold ~1,7millions of copies and Arcade Edition update added less than 100,000 copies to that, and Monster Hunter World right now sold over 7,5 millions of copies. One game literally carried their sorry butts through fiscal year.
KI may have been financial success for MS (they never boasted about sales though, makes ya think…), but game’s potential was blueballed throughout it’s entire support cycle.
Ryse got mixed reviews and game director blamed Xbone exclusivity for low sales (lel)
Forza 5 sold 1.3 million copies, okay for a racing game i guess.
Dead Rising 3 sold 1.2 million copies.
I’m too lazy for looking up Sony’s exclusives sales but I can bet their one exclusive snorts up all above numbers.
Getting a roster of exclusive games is not as simple as covering all the bases with meh games nobody would care about.
Exclusive games aside from existing have to be good, REALLY good, because they are like singles of music album. And MS is like that wannabe rapper who tries to shove you his mixtape where among few dozens songs maybe 2 are not terrible.
IMO exclusive game has to be carefully tailored by best gamedev specialists to be guaranteed smash hit. I don’t know the recipe but I can bet top league designers, programmers, artist and PR managers do. And publisher has to give them generous budget.
And KI had fkin lunchmoney budget. It’s a miracle it looks, sounds and plays so well tbh.
A shame really. This would’ve ended the needless dispute between the two groups.
Yeah, but with only a few more notable exceptions, people can learn a very basic amount of information and still have fun in a game. My wife loves Soul Calibur, but if you asked her what a guard impact was, she’d have no idea.
I really don’t think that Killer Instinct is SO technical that people can’t still pick it up and have a good time. Almost every special move has a very simple command, and it takes less than five minutes to learn how to string a combo together.
Yeah but Tekken didn’t always have that legacy. They had to build it up. I’d also argue that doing moves in that game, learning a character or even just messing around has a higher learning curve than Killer Instinct, but maybe you might disagree.
I also don’t think that VF1 and VF2 sales were extended to any great measure by PC ports, but maybe I’m wrong. As far as exclusives are concerned, I’m mainly referring to console exclusivity regardless, especially since KI is out on both PC and Steam.
Okay, I hear ya, but isn’t it better for a console manufacturer to want as many good fries, big or small, on their system as they can get?
I mean, I get how this would effect the game’s ability to sell given the small install base. But on the flipside, would being a moderate sized name at launch, when there aren’t a ton of games to go up against, be a good thing? I mean, if KI came out this year near in the early months, you’re going up against last Fall’s blockbusters and people that aren’t spending a ton, then there’s DBFZ. Soul Calibur will be out at some point. There’s also the Fall when tons of games are coming out… Wouldn’t it be more likely to get lost in the shuffle in 2018 than in 2013 at launch? I mean, if SFV is an afterthought, how would KI fare?
I dunno, to me, it’s debatable. If you can offer a little of everything, I think there are people that will be drawn to that. If you’re a fighting game fan and you think you might buy and Xbox, and you see this game Killer Instinct, even if you haven’t heard of it, this might give you another reason to buy in.
Does MS really boast about their numbers on other games? I dunno, I honestly can’t recall. As for KI’s success, I think it depends on how much they had to put in. To me, this seemed like a moderate investment. Certainly not in the same league money-wise as Halo or Gears. So maybe it didn’t have to crazy good numbers to be deemed a sound investment.
What’s your point? I don’t mean that in a crass way by any means, I think I just missed it and hope you’ll clarify.
Of course. I’ve been moaning about the desert we’ve been in as XB1 owners for a while now in terms of quality exclusives.
Eh, I don’t think they all have to be of the highest caliber. I don’t think that’s overly realistic, even if that should theoretically be the goal.
As for KI, do you think it’s a miracle that it looks, sounds and plays so well or do you think it’s MS knowing how much to invest, knowing the right team to get, and doing a good job of shepherding it through production for the last four years? I’m not saying they’ve done everything perfectly. I just wonder if you’re not giving them too much blame and not enough credit.
As much as it pains me to say so, Andy is absolutely right. Even contrary to what I wrote in an earlier thread the reality is that publisher exclusive games that come out of Microsoft and Sony all have slim to zero chance of making their way to other platforms.
I’ve mentioned this before as well but I believe exclusives are good and they are necessary for these consoles to thrive and be a success however at the same time I also believe there can be some give and take. God of War, Halo etc are very popular franchises with guaranteed install bases that span over a decade+ but what about fighting games, do these games work well as exclusives? Fighting games in general are already niche and then you take a game like KI which is even more niche and throw it on a platform that few want…well you see where this is going. The question that has to answered (not by us) is if shipping a few extra Xbox Ones is worth it over selling thousands of extra copies of KI. I say this because the Fighting Game communities platform of choice is PS4 this generation so putting an exclusive fighting game on Xbox isn’t going to change that, it’s just going to force people not to want to play that particular game as we saw with KI; instead of buying an Xbox One people just decided not to play it altogether.
Now don’t get me wrong I know a lot of players including myself who said they only bought and Xbox One for KI and perhaps they found another exclusive title like Sunset Overdrive for example that peaked their interest so they bought it. I can only say every since KI came out on PC I haven’t used my Xbox to play an actual game which was what 2 years ago? I’m mainly a PC gamer so I’m probably the odd man out when it comes to consoles and wanting to play exclusives…I just don’t care for them.
Being involved with some many different communities personally over the years whenever I recommended the game to someone in the FGC whether it was SF community, NRS, or even Smash players I’ve spoken with all said they wished the game was on PS4 so they could play it because A they aren’t willing to shell out for a console for one game or B they didn’t have a good gaming PC to play games on. Another popular German SFV player flat out told me he didn’t want to play the game because it didn’t have a big player base and would limit his experience with the game not only online but offline as well but that’s entirely different problem.
All in all it is what is is. If Microsoft wanted to do whats best for KI they would put it on other platforms end of story but the reality is it’s never going to happen because of competition to sell as many more consoles than the competitor as possible which MS is currently losing in that regard. Sometimes I just wish KI wasn’t owned by Microsoft so it could given to a 3rd party developer like NRS or Capcom who always put their games on all the platform.s (of course SFV being a special case because of the Sony deal)
I’m gonna guess that if and whenever a new KI happens they’re just gonna put it on Xbox,Steam and W10 from the start and just hope that’s enough to make it more successful then KI2013 in which case they better have one hell of a Marketing plan, actual budget, and back the game way stronger this time around otherwise we’re just going to see a repeat disaster all over again.