The world of gaming has been turned upside down in recent months. First came the news a while back that the previously Playstation-exclusive GTA IV would be appearing on Xbox 360 as well as the PS3, then there were the persistent rumors (just as persistently denied), that Metal Gear Solid 4 would migrate over to Microsoft’s console as well. Finally, PS3 owners got a dose of surprising and welcome news when they found out that an enhanced version of Bioshock would be coming out for their platform this Fall. Everywhere you look, the idea of a console exclusive is falling by the wayside. And what do the people who make the games think about this? Well according to Okami producer and current big shot at Platinum Games Atsushi Inaba, it’s a good thing. Inaba states, "I still feel that none of the platforms totally satisfy my needs. That’s why different games on different platforms is the way to approach the situation. Also, from a business point of view, it doesn’t make sense to develop for a single platform at this point."

So there you have it, from both a personal and professional standpoint Inaba sees the disappearance of exclusives as nothing but good for the industry. We know that first-party studios will always make platform exclusives, but does anyone really see a downside to third-party publishers making their games available to as wide an audience as possible? Also, considering exclusivity doesn’t really seem to help a game’s sales (has anybody actually purchased Haze?), there seems to be very little incentive for a studio to go that route, other than the fat paycheck they’ll see from the deal.

Maybe, hopefully, we’re moving into a "post-exclusive" world. Personally, I think that’s one of the best things that could happen to gaming since the advent of the CD as a storage medium.