Nintendo and Platinum Games gave a double surprise a few days ago during the presentation of all the details about the launch of Wii U. The first was the confirmation of Bayonetta 2. The second, that the game will be exclusive to the aforementioned new desktop console

The news is good, very good, or maybe not. Many fans, fans of the original Bayonetta, felt betrayed by Platinum Games and did not hesitate to express their outrage on the Internet. They did not understand why the company was abandoning the multi-platform policy and leaving Sony and Microsoft users stranded.

Saga creator Hideki Kamiya received numerous insults via Twitter and even death threats. The atmosphere heated up to such an extent that the company was forced to explain how they got to this point. One of the main arguments made things pretty clear: Sega wasn't interested in a Bayonetta sequel and Nintendo jumped at the opportunity.

Actually, the anger doesn't surprise me, I can understand it to a certain extent, but it does seem to me that the issue has been exaggerated, especially when compared to similar cases in the past.

Now the strategy of attracting clients with exclusivities surprises us because this generation —Wii aside— has homogenized launch policies a lot, making multiplatform titles the most common, since third parties have found the best way in this system to monetize their developments.

However, there was a time when the console wars were fought over highly differentiated catalogs loaded with exclusive titles. While Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 now seek differentiation with first party products and, above all, through image and services, in the past the main thing was games.

8 and 16 bits had very defined personalities marked by their unique catalogues. With the advent of 32 and 64 bits, Sony entered the market and, at the stroke of a checkbook, got hold of numerous exclusive games. I, as a Nintendo, suffered at that time seeing how PlayStation engulfed everything, taking licenses, franchises and companies that in the past were related to the great N.

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Also in the last generation, the victory of PlayStation 2 in the international market was very marked by the many and very good video games that you could not play on any other console. Now, however, very few big third-party games have been relegated to a single platform. Perhaps Metal Gear Solid 4 is the most notable case.

In none of the cases do I remember death threats (and when Squaresoft abandoned Nintendo, half the world shed tears), I never remember a company having to explain itself for releasing a game exclusively for a console. Ok, it's true that for a lot of that time the commercial Internet didn't exist and, when it did become popular, it took a while to become what it is now, but I also have the feeling that our perception of the video game business was very different.

I understand the benefits of the multiplatform policy, both for companies and for players, but I recognize that exclusive titles have their point: they give soul to the console, differentiating elements that give them a charm that the others do not have. I fondly remember how as a kid I had to go to a friend's house to try the Master System II games and then the Mega Drive while he came to my house to play the NES and the Super Nintendo. I don't think it's negative to keep any of this.

Nintendo has succeeded in giving wings to Platinum Games to develop Bayonetta 2. Although it seems clear that this game is not going to become the console seller of the century, it is a first big step to sell a new image of Wii U and demonstrate that Nintendo is serious when it says that it also wants to pamper traditional gamers.

And now the big question: Bayonetta 2 exclusive to Wii U: yes or no? because?

Tags: bayonetta, bayonetta 2, platinum games, wii u | Stored in: Games