Beautiful Katamari an Xbox 360 exclusive?

Will Xbox 360 have the Royal Rainbow all to itself? At least, that’s what Newsweek‘s N’Gai Croal is speculating. He points out the trend that’s been happening recently in Namco Bandai. Cases in point:

Ridge Racer 6 was released as a 360-exclusive launch title for the 360. It should be noted that the Ridge Racer franchise has always been associated with the PlayStation consoles. However, Ridge Racer 7 became a PlayStation 3 exclusive.

Also, Ace Combat 6, the latest addition to the previously Sony PlayStation-only franchise, was introduced as a timed Xbox exclusive game – with a PS3 version to be released after some time.

See any patterns? Croal supposes that Namco is in the process of “flirting” with Microsoft, though it could not let go of its long-time relationship with Sony. Well, whatever drama there may be, it’s not impossible that the same thing will happen with the quirky little favorite that is the Katamari franchise.

Croal’s source did mention that Beautiful Katamari, the upcoming sequel to the PlayStation 2 hit, We Love Katamari, will roll into the batch of video games that will be released as Xbox 360 exclusives, and will most probably be announced at the upcoming E3 event.

PS3 owners need not be alarmed, however. The Newsweek blogger did note that none of the games were entirely lost to Sony; they eventually made their way back into the PlayStation 3 console.

But he emphasizes that Sony’s currently weak PS3 sales are what may be causing the problem. Sony is not strong enough to hold on to its supposedly exclusive games and franchises. Microsoft’s aggressive courting of Japanese game publishers are also to be taken into account as well, and if the current trend goes on, everything that previously belonged to Sony may eventually be found alongside Microsoft.

Will Xbox 360 have the Royal Rainbow all to itself? At least, that’s what Newsweek‘s N’Gai Croal is speculating. He points out the trend that’s been happening recently in Namco Bandai. Cases in point:

Ridge Racer 6 was released as a 360-exclusive launch title for the 360. It should be noted that the Ridge Racer franchise has always been associated with the PlayStation consoles. However, Ridge Racer 7 became a PlayStation 3 exclusive.

Also, Ace Combat 6, the latest addition to the previously Sony PlayStation-only franchise, was introduced as a timed Xbox exclusive game – with a PS3 version to be released after some time.

See any patterns? Croal supposes that Namco is in the process of “flirting” with Microsoft, though it could not let go of its long-time relationship with Sony. Well, whatever drama there may be, it’s not impossible that the same thing will happen with the quirky little favorite that is the Katamari franchise.

Croal’s source did mention that Beautiful Katamari, the upcoming sequel to the PlayStation 2 hit, We Love Katamari, will roll into the batch of video games that will be released as Xbox 360 exclusives, and will most probably be announced at the upcoming E3 event.

PS3 owners need not be alarmed, however. The Newsweek blogger did note that none of the games were entirely lost to Sony; they eventually made their way back into the PlayStation 3 console.

But he emphasizes that Sony’s currently weak PS3 sales are what may be causing the problem. Sony is not strong enough to hold on to its supposedly exclusive games and franchises. Microsoft’s aggressive courting of Japanese game publishers are also to be taken into account as well, and if the current trend goes on, everything that previously belonged to Sony may eventually be found alongside Microsoft.