There is precedence for console exclusive content. Namco had an additional character in every version of Soul Calibur II and is continuing on in that fashion with one of its iterations (Soul Calibur IV). Fight Night Round 3 was given ‘Get In the Ring’ mode for the PS3 as incentive for people who owned the game previously on 360 and now perhaps wanted to repurchase it for the new system. There is also word that Grand Theft Auto IV will have additional episodic content exclusive to the Xbox 360 (content that should arrive this Fall).

As fellow videogamers, we all have to deal with this reality. It’s like going on and on about how pitchers from the dead-ball era would throw until their shoulders fell off; no matter how much we complain, pitch counts are not about to go anywhere. The reason for this is the same reason exclusive content is here to stay; there’s too much money involved.

That is why it shouldn’t be any surprise to see a company like Take-Two elevating this trend to the next level with Top Spin 3. Granting the PS3 exclusive rights to Rafael Nadal, they have succeeded in aiding Sony while not only hurting the consumer, but themselves as well. Think about the person who takes the game home wanting to recreate Federer vs Nadal on the grass at Wimbledon or the clay at the French Open. These match ups have been a shining part of the sport of tennis for the past few years. If he or she only owns an Xbox 360 or Wii, they will be stuck reenacting Federer vs Roddick and we all know how that match concludes. This may turn off many potential buyers and also might lead to a negative stigma attaching itself to 2K Sports.

Having Nadal removed from a tennis game is like having Peyton and Eli removed from a version of Madden, or Triple H removed from an edition of Smackdown vs Raw. Better yet, what if Nintendo Wii had exclusive rights to Tiger Woods for Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’09? Sounds ridiculous huh?

That’s because it is!

This entire movement of withholding a character or feature to only one version of a game is not only unacceptable, it’s down right mind boggling, especially if the other consoles are not compensated by some means. Soul Calibur IV for example will have one exclusive character on the 360 (Yoda) and one on the PS3 (Darth Vader).

The only way to do something about it is to not buy the game at all. People are not going to do this, though, because the sad truth is that in this day and age the variety of games based on one sport are becoming as rare as a Dallas Cowboy playoff victory (I know T.O. it’s not fair!).

Noles_ACC wrote a good article, Life Before Sports Gaming Darwinism, that spoke about the golden days when sports gamers had options and options led to innovation. Survival of the fittest used to rule the land and the gamers were, "…the police, jury, and executioner all in one." Yea that’s right, I quoted Judge Dredd.

This is why it’s time to settle in and get used to exclusive content. Our options are becoming limited and instead of owning all 3 systems as a luxury, it’s becoming a necessity. Sony and Microsoft have plenty of money to start a bidding war with each other and some people forget that Nintendo owns the most popular console on the market, and I’m not talking about the Wii. The Nintendo DS trumps all! So Nintendo is not hurting in the financial department either.

Competing over multi-platform games will lead these companies to do whatever they can to gain an edge, even if the gaming population suffers as a result. If 2k Sports is any sign of what’s to come, it shows that instead of the Big 3 paying for additional add-on content, they may soon be purchasing exclusive core game content. That reality is one we hope to never see develop. The extent of this situation may yet be unknown but one thing that is for sure is the forums better get ready for the spam wars to heat up over who owns the most 1337 console.