Board 8 > Are Link/Heihachi/Spawn the greatest console exclusivity gimmick of all time?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was thinking about this earlier, that no other game (to my knowledge) offers something like this. Everyone in my school was talking about this, and it clearly made Namco a ton of money, and yet Soul Calibur II is from twenty-one years ago. Even when games get released on multiple consoles today, they still don't get console exclusive content themed for each platform.

I don't think that this series would have taken off the way it did if it didn't have Link it in it (got a ton of non-fighting game players to play the game). So maybe.

Maybe, but personally I didn't know anyone who cared about Heihachi or Spawn. It was a very clever way to sell a bunch on GCN though.

Link and Spawn absolutely helped with the brand recognition. Less so Heihachi since Tekken fans probably already knew about Soul Edge/Calibur.

But yeah, the console exclusivity thing itself helped a lot for getting people to know what SoulCalibur even is.

There are some similar examples of games getting console-exclusive characters.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing had playable Banjo & Kazooie and Avatars for the Xbox 360 version, and the Wii version had playable Miis.

And then for Mortal Kombat 9, Kratos was exclusive for the PlayStation versions.

Anagram posted...

Even when games get released on multiple consoles today, they still don't get console exclusive content themed for each platform.

Other than minor cosmetics, there's a good reason for that. In a competitive scene, like fighting games, console exclusive stuff tends to get banned.

Nowadays it seems like the strategy would be to get you to download a character pack that has all three characters eventually released on all systems.

That's probably best as a consumer, but there was something uniquely exciting about a different character per system.

Link sold copies

It seemed cool at the time because all I cared about was Link and I didnt mind not having the other two, but in retrospect it kind of sucks to create a situation where no one version of the game can have every character.

like if MK1 did this Id just be mad that they spent their time on three exclusives instead of having three non exclusive characters available for every version

Link being in it was the only reason I bought it.

We just passed the twenty-year mark...maybe some online rabble-rousing and petitioning over the next few years could lead to a Soul Calibur 2 remaster with all three characters. I feel like people would buy that and get some positive attention on the SC series.

MoogleKupo141 posted...

in retrospect it kind of sucks to create a situation where no one version of the game can have every character.

Yeah, my OCD hates this. Then again I didn't particularly care about missing out on Heihachi and especially Spawn. Link absolutely sold copies.

HaRRicH posted...

We just passed the twenty-year mark...maybe some online rabble-rousing and petitioning over the next few years could lead to a Soul Calibur 2 remaster with all three characters. I feel like people would buy that and get some positive attention on the SC series.

What are the odds Nintendo allows this to happen on PS5/Series XS? If it were one of their lesser IPs I could see them saying "why not" but it's freaking Zelda.

yeah the only way that happens is Nintendo getting it as a full exclusive

which is technically possible since theres nothing tying the other two characters to their specific platforms rightswise, but I dont see it happening

Didn't Samus appear in Fortnite, but only on Switch? I imagine Link would be the same in a hypothetical Soul Calibur 2 remake/remaster.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/8/0/AAEwvCAAErp0.jpg
I always thought this was a bit of a missed opportunity for the other consoles.

Mewtwo59 posted...

Didn't Samus appear in Fortnite, but only on Switch?

No, she was going to, but Nintendo wanted her to only be available to Switch players and Epic said no, so it fell through, apparently.

I think the Nintendo IP stuff in Rocket League is restricted to just the Switch.

I had a PS2 , perfectly capable of playing SC2, but I literally wanted to buy a gamecube just for the Link version

I remember thinking this was pretty cool

HaRRicH posted...

Nowadays it seems like the strategy would be to get you to download a character pack that has all three characters eventually released on all systems.

They did that two games later; SC4 had Yoda on 360 and Vader on PS3 and you could buy the other as DLC. (Also Starkiller from TFU was in both.)

JonThePenguin posted...

They did that two games later; SC4 had Yoda on 360 and Vader on PS3 and you could buy the other as DLC. (Also Starkiller from TFU was in both.)

It's unfortunate that the key word is "could". Such a shame that you can't anymore since Namco has removed all PS3/360 SoulCalibur content from the digital stores.

WhiteLens posted...

It's unfortunate that the key word is "could". Such a shame that you can't anymore since Namco has removed all PS3/360 SoulCalibur content from the digital stores.

Yeah, V was just delisted a month ago but IV's been gone since 2016 I think. Shame too, I didn't have a PS3 at the time but always liked the idea of picking up a cheap copy when I could to go with having all three versions of II, and would've definitely added Yoda to it if I'd done so.

the real best console exclusive character tho:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLg5IlZdEHM

oh yeah also speaking of heihachi i'm still a huge fan of tekken tag tournament 2 wii u edition's exclusives (with the mushroom battle mode and every character getting a costume of mario/luigi/peach/bowser/link/samus/fox/captain falcon, plus other exclusives like tekken ball)

Yes and it's not really close

It's cool in the sense that Nintendo wouldn't allow Link otherwise, but unfortunate that all the versions are missing some of the characters.

MoogleKupo141 posted...

yeah the only way that happens is Nintendo getting it as a full exclusive

which is technically possible since theres nothing tying the other two characters to their specific platforms rightswise, but I dont see it happening

Yeah, I think the most likely scenario is that they simply release the remaster with the same version exclusives. Heihachi on PS5, Spawn on X/S, Link on Switch.

UF8 posted...

oh yeah also speaking of heihachi i'm still a huge fan of tekken tag tournament 2 wii u edition's exclusives (with the mushroom battle mode and every character getting a costume of mario/luigi/peach/bowser/link/samus/fox/captain falcon, plus other exclusives like tekken ball)

...Tekken Tag 2 is on Wii U?

Underleveled posted...

Yeah, I think the most likely scenario is that they simply release the remaster with the same version exclusives. Heihachi on PS5, Spawn on X/S, Link on Switch.

There was a remaster on 360/PS3 but it skipped Nintendo and just had Heihachi and Spawn in both.

MZero posted...

...Tekken Tag 2 is on Wii U?

Yup. I've got it too.

MZero posted...

...Tekken Tag 2 is on Wii U?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiEX51e7Fck

words cannot convey the perfection of this version

That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Wii U had a ton of 360/PS3 ports.

I remember that was one of the notable ones. Particularly for the exclusive content, but also most Wii U ports were crap like Assassin's Creed, and bad ports at that.

I bought SoulCalibur 2 without knowing who Heihachi or Spawn were. (And I did not own a GameCube, so I did not get the Link version.) So whether or not it was a good "exclusivity gimmick," it didn't affect me at all.

I don't even like fighting games and I bought SCII cause everyone was talking about it. Tried playing the third one and maybe the fourth one too but didn't like them really. SCII is still the only traditional fighting game I've enjoyed playing I think. So think I agree with this topic!