Activision boss: content exclusives help, but games go wherever gamers are

Platform exclusive deals are "mutually beneficial", Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg has said, but the publisher wants to go "wherever gamers are".

Speaking to IGN at E3, Hirshberg said that there are definite benefits to platform exclusive content deals like those announced for Call of Duty: Ghosts and Destiny.

“It helps us launch the games. It helps us amplify our marketing messages and get the word out to a larger audience," he said.

"Getting the first parties to participate in that process is very helpful. Us giving them some meaningful exclusive content or time advantages for their platform helps them have something to market to their community as well. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship in both of the cases that you mentioned."

That said, Hirshberg wanted to stress that Activision has gone right off platform exclusives games.

"It’s important to note that they’re not exclusive relationships. Activision has historically been a platform agnostic company," he said.

“As much as I’m sure the first parties would love to have some of our games exclusively, we want to be wherever gamers are. We try to strike the right balance between giving something meaningful to the first parties for them to market to their community, and for them to reward their community for their loyalty, but something that also allows us to continue to flourish on all the platforms.

"We’ve struck the right balance, because Call of Duty is equally popular on PlayStation as it is on Xbox. We hope Destiny is the same.”

In the same article, IGN also spoke to EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau, who repeated similar sentiments as when he discussed Titanfall's exclusivity.