Nintendo Bringing Its Exclusives to PS5 and Xbox Would Ruin the Brand

PlayStation has effectively signaled that its exclusives will no longer be exclusive. For one thing, PC has some of those titles already, and Xbox is about to get Helldivers 2 at the end of this month. Pretty soon, it’s feasible that Marvel’s Spider-Man, God of War, and others will be available on Xbox consoles.

As a result, the days of consoles having exclusives seems to be coming to an end. Xbox gave up its games a long time ago. The only stalwart remaining is Nintendo, a company that has been criticized for not letting PC or any other platform get access to its IP. Now, as the final remnant of that era, it’s even more imperative for Nintendo to stand strong. Otherwise, it might ruin things for them.

Nintendo Doesn’t Need to Cave to Pressure

Nintendo’s been called out for a lot of things, namely the pricing on the games and consoles. They’ve also been criticized at times for clutching precious IP extremely tightly in the day when the console wars are effectively complete. Nintendo is and always has been extremely protective of its characters.

There were complaints about not being able to mod The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on a PC, which also would’ve probably helped the game run a little smoother than on the original Switch. Those complaints will likely increase in frequency once PlayStation “exclusives” drop on Xbox, too.

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Nintendo need not cave to pressure, though. Sure, they’ll be looked at as anti-consumer by not making the games as widely available as possible, but that’s a label the company has worn for a while, and it arguably wears that with pride. There shouldn’t be a world where Mario can be played on a PlayStation 5 or where Zelda is seen on an Xbox, fitting as the green colors would be.

In doing so, Nintendo would effectively be waving the white flag on a war it is currently winning. Nintendo’s sales are good, and it’s because of its first-party IP. People want to play Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, Animal Crossing, and the rest. The only way to do so is on a Nintendo console, so the sales are inextricably linked.

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Sure, Nintendo would make money on the games because a wider audience would be purchasing them. But they’d lose so much in console sales that it probably wouldn’t be worth it. No one would buy a Switch 2 when they can just get a Steam Deck for portable gaming or a PlayStation 5 for console gaming. The consoles that Nintendo produces will become obsolete, in that case.

And while that might ultimately lead to more profit since consoles are expensive to make and ship, it would be a disappointment. Nintendo consoles do not push the bounds of gaming power. That’s why the Nintendo Switch 2 is five years late in matching the Xbox Series S in power.

Nintendo does, however, push the bounds of creativity. Nintendo tries to do things differently. The Switch was a revolutionary console. Can you imagine if Nintendo had just not made it and put the games elsewhere? The Switch 2 is innovative, too, and that would’ve been lost to history. Who knows what they’ll come up with next, but at least we will get to know and experience it when Nintendo does it.

Don’t Expect to See Mario or Zelda on Anything Else Ever

Fortunately, this is highly unlikely to happen. Nintendo isn’t suffering quite as much as some other gaming brands right now, so there’d be no reason for the company to sell off IP. And truthfully, with PlayStation admitting defeat on that front, Nintendo stands to gain even more by remaining the only place to get certain games.

Nintendo has never even considered being lax about the IP they have crafted. Cease and desists are sent to fan-made games. ROM emulators are taken down all the time because they use Nintendo assets or games. That is largely because Nintendo can’t make any money off of them, but it’s also because those characters belong strictly on a Nintendo console.

As long as Nintendo wants to continue making consoles and finding ways to innovate, there will be no Pokémon on Xbox or Splatoon on PC. That’s ultimately a good thing for the gaming world as a whole, but it’s vital to Nintendo’s success from here on out.