[b]Disclaimer[/b]: Everything expressed in this thread is strictly opinions. To start off with this is not a rant about exclusive content. I made that bed and slept in it long ago. Rather, this thread will use an article made by Paul Tassi from Forbes.com. Paul has made a lot of great articles about Destiny with a [i]mostly[/i] unbiased opinion. Now you might be thinking, "OP, why don't you get off your ass and tell us yourself." I've thought about that, but if I were to do that, the thread would get confusing to anyone who doesn't have some form of education in business or economics, I use a lot of jargon and it would go over people's heads most likely. So with out further wait here's the article: [quote]This week, Bungie debuted one of the two new Strikes for Destiny’s The Taken King expansion, a Cabal-heavy mission called Shield Brothers. The other Strike? Well, we don’t really talk about that one. It’s PlayStation Exclusive. Since launch, Destiny has had content exclusive to Sony systems. Over time, the grand total has added up to be fairly hefty. A host of exotic weapons, two Strikes, multiplayer maps, armor and ships have all been engineered specifically for Sony players, and only now is their year-long exclusivity coming to an end. When The Taken King launches, Xbox players will finally have all these bits and pieces of content for themselves. Their own mini-expansion, as it were. The Sony exclusives seemed to be lessening with time, and by The House of Wolves had only been relegated to a single multiplayer map. But now in year two, we’re back to pretty significant content being stuck on one console, another Strike, at least one exotic weapon, armor sets for each class, and so on. The problem? PlayStation exclusive content makes Destiny a worse experience for everyone, not just Xbox players. How does that make sense? Surely Sony’s pile of missions and loot just makes Xbox players jealous, but there’s no downside to those on PS4 and PS3, right? But while it’s true that it’s very clear how PS exclusive content makes Destiny a lesser experience for Xbox players, the same is true of PlayStation players, just in a different way. The problem is that with PlayStation exclusive content like Strikes and Exotics, that content has to be taken out of the rotation for certain activities. For example, Strikes like The Undying Mind and Dust Palace have never been rotated into the Nightfall or Weekly Heroic slot, because Bungie has to draw the line at one console getting access to high level mission rewards and leaving the other out entirely. The same goes for Xur, who is not allowed to sell PlayStation Exclusive exotic weapons like Fourth Horseman, Hawkmoon or Monte Carlo because Xbox players do not have access to them. That means PlayStation players have had to rely on pure chance alone to get these weapons since launch, making them even more rare than the infamous Gjallarhorn for many (which Xur has sold twice). So what happens now? Because of the lifted exclusivity agreement for year one, two new Strikes can be added to the existing Nightfall rotation, which will be a first-ever experience for both PlayStation and Xbox players. Xur is now free to sell all of those previously unavailable exclusive weapons, meaning some PlayStation players may actually get to use them for the first time, given how hard they may have been to find previously. And yet, now the cycle will to start all over again. There’s a new Strike that will not be allowed into the Nightfall rotation because it’s PS only, and one new exotic that promises to be one of the rarest in the game because Xur will never sell it (The Jade Rabbit). Fundamentally, this ends up being a worse experience for those who play on either system, as opposed to how things would be if all this content was available to everyone. As bizarre as it is, the simple truth of it is that even PlayStation players are somehow getting a lesser experience than they would if their exclusive content was not exclusive. It’s crazy. The counter-argument to this made by Bungie and Activision is that this deal has probably netted them a fair amount of cash from Sony. Cash that can in turn be reinvested into the game to make it better for everyone (and definitely not added to Activision’s pile of profits). While I understand that this is assuredly a valuable deal, Destiny itself has proven that just because you can make money in a certain way, that doesn’t mean you should. More than most games, Destiny is primed to be potentially filled with microtransactions, for example. That could easily be a revenue stream for the game given that there are roughly a hundred different currencies that could probably be sold for real world cash, and even if only one or two went down that path, it would likely funnel millions to Activision. And yet Destiny has resisted this temptation. Why? Because it would almost certainly be bad for the game. Despite that the potential to make money is there, because it would create a fundamentally worse experience for players, it’s not worth it. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening with the Sony deal. It makes the game dramatically worse for Xbox players, knowing that with each new bit of content, they’re missing out on whatever is going to PlayStation players. But it’s bad for PlayStation players as well, who see missions and items that could show up in Nightfalls and in Xur’s inventory restricted from doing so because of their exclusivity. If this content was available to everyone at the same time, the game would simply be better for all. Maybe we’ll have to suffer through another year of this nonsense, but with Destiny’s “ten year plan,” I really hope that a never-ending deal with Sony isn’t part of it. It’s the worst kind of petty, divisive console wars BS, and the game would be unequivocally better for both sides without it.[/quote] This thread is isn't meant to rustle any jimmies so don't get upset if you disagree. Too long didn't read - Go back and read it. Off topic and inflammatory posts are not welcome and will be ignored.