Sony Is Sticking With Third-Party Partnerships in 2016

If you weren't a gaming enthusiast, you could be forgiven for thinking that Destiny: The Taken King and Star Wars: Battlefront are PlayStation 4 exclusives this holiday season. Those titles are available on Xbox One, of course, but all the ads you see tie them to the PlayStation 4 in the minds of average consumers. Alongside exclusive titles like Street Fighter V, paid-exclusive DLC like the Call of Duty: Black Ops III map packs, and its first-party line-up, co-marketing deals allow Sony's library to look much stronger to the average consumer.

The PlayStation 4 already has a sales lead over its competitors, but Sony isn't letting up. According to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president Jim Ryan, co-marketing deals aren't going anywhere. Sony wants the average consumer to think those games are available "only on PlayStation".

"We are going to be strong with games that we have developed and we will publish, but third-party partnerships will continue to be important to us," Ryan told MCV. "The days of a platform holder working in isolation are long-gone. It is a connected ecosystem and relationships with publishers operate on many levels – they will certainly continue to be really important in 2016."

Heading into 2016, Sony is off to a great start with games like Street Fighter V, Uncharted 4, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, Gravity Rush Remastered, and No Man's Sky. Microsoft has some interesting exclusives coming, like Scalebound, Crackdown 3, and Gears of War 4, but those titles are spread out later in the year.

I admit, I already leans towards the PlayStation 4 for my personal purchases, but that's because I've gotten used to the system for review purposes. It's much easier to take screenshots and videos for review using the PS4, compared to Xbox One's OneDrive-powered system. If you have a PlayStation 4, are you happy with the system? And if you don't, do the paid exclusives and co-marketing deals entice you in any way?