In this day and age, exclusives are a rare sight to behold, especially when coming from a third-party studio. That’s why folks were surprised when Microsoft announced at its E3 press briefing that Splinter Cell Conviction was coming exclusively to Xbox 360. Publisher Ubisoft explains why:

Splinter Cell conviction is a true Microsoft exclusive title and there are no plans to have Splinter Cell Conviction on other platforms. There are several reasons behind this choice. First of all, Splinter Cell games are historically linked with Microsoft platforms. The first Splinter Cell on the original Xbox was one of the first games to fully exploit the console’s technical possibilities. At that time, Microsoft really believed in the game potential and provided strong support to promote it. So, there is a “link of heart” between the franchise and the platform. Some games are like this (think of Final Fantasy for instance). The second reason behind this choice is purely linked to production. Having a single target platform means that we can optimize the game even further, because we only have one type of – console – hardware to support.

Fair enough. From a developer’s perspective, having one platform to target resources towards does make things easier. But that Final Fantasy comparison is iffy, seeing as XIII jumped ship to the Xbox 360 after numerous assurances from Square Enix that it would remain PlayStation-exclusive. That said, we expect there still is a chance that Conviction could land up on PS3 in the distant future, even though Ubi is outright dismissing such a port at this point in time.

Dev Q&A – Your Questions Answered [Ubi]

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