Battle of the console exclusives

Wii

Nintendo (1st party published titles)

Animal Crossing

Battalion Wars 2 / BWii2

Big Brain Academy

Disaster: Day of Crisis

Excite Truck

Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn

Forever Blue

Hajimete no Wii: Your First Step To Wii

Mario Strikers Charged

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Pokemon Battle Revolution

Project H.A.M.M.E.R.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Mario Galaxy

Wario Ware: Smooth Moves

Wii Music Orchestra

Wii Motor Sports Airplane

Wii Sports

Activision

Rapala Trophies

Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam

AGFRAG

Bob Ross Paining

Atlus

Tramua Center: Second Opinion

Banpresto

Crayon Shin-Chan: Saikyou Kazoku Kasukabe King

Capcom

Biohazard Umbrella Chronicles

Hudson

Kororinpa

Sky Workers

Koei

Samurai Warriors Wave

Konami

Elebits

Majesco

Bust-a-Move Revolution

Marvelous

Harvest Moon (Bokujou Monogatari)

Namco Bandai

Ennichi no Tatsujin

One Piece: Unlimited Adventure

SD Gundam: Scud Hammer

Tamagotchi no Pika Pika Daito-ryo-!

Nibris

Sadness

Sega

Bleach: Wii Shiraha Kirameku Rinbukyoku

Sonic and the Secret Rings

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz

Spike

Heroes

Necro-Nesia

Square-Enix

Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers

Taito

Cooking Mama

Tecmo

Swing Golf Pangya

Tomy

Naruto: Geiktou Ninja Taisen Series

Ubisoft

Red Steel

Here are some interesting factoids to consider:

There are 58 Xbox 360 exclusives with the console’s one year head start. 23 of the exclusives are published by Microsoft Game Studios, the remaining games are spread over eighteen different companies. Eighteen of those titles are currently on the market, which means the bulk of the games are still in development. Why is the number so low? Some of the popular titles on the X360 like Call of Duty 2 are also PC games due to the ease of releasing games on multiple platforms. Even though the Xbox 360 doesn’t have exclusivity on franchise games like the Godfather and NBA Live 07, the 360 versions typically look better than their current generation counterparts.

Meanwhile Sony only has eighteen titles developed internally and 35 titles exclusive to the Playstation 3. They lost out on exclusivity to Assassin’s Creed, BioShock and the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Losing Grand Theft Auto is a dent in Sony’s line up, but Sony managed to snag console exclusivity of The Elder Scrolls series and F.E.A.R. away from Microsoft. While Sony was once the reigning champion of third party support, but as of now only nine companies are developing exclusive titles for the Playstation 3 and one of those companies is technically a division, Sony Online Entertainment. Speaking of Sony Online Entertainment they are making an online game based on the DC Universe and Microsoft is making an online game based on the Marvel Universe. Competition much?

Nintendo has a huge catalog of console exclusives, 46 (updated from 38) to be exact. When you adjust the amount of Xbox 360 exclusive titles for the one year head start the Wii has six more Wii only games. Nintendo is rightfully the big supporter of the Wii with 14 titles in the pipeline. Nintendo also has a sizeable amount of third party support with 19 companies publishing properties just for the Wii. Another arguable point is that all of the Wii’s titles are “gameplay exclusive”. Since the Wii has a its own control scheme Call of Duty 3 is going to play quite differently on the Wii than it is on the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. Will this cause gamers to purchase two versions of the same game? One for the Wii’s remote style gameplay and one for traditional gamepad controls? Or will this favor the Wii’s intuitive set up?

Namco Bandai, Square-Enix and Sega are splitting up their exclusives with unique games on each of the three consoles. However, there is a slight bent towards Sony between these companies. Virtua Fighter 5, the next Tekken and Final Fantasy XIII are considered Playstation 3 exclusives (note Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is its own series).

While Ubisoft is strongly backing the Wii with eight titles on launch day, Red Steel is the only game designed stricktly for the Wii.

The Wii has the most exclusive games based on a licensed properties and most of those games are anime titles. Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, SD Gundam and Shin-chan are all coming to the Wii

Rockstar Games might have made the Grand Theft Auto series multiplatform, but their upcoming game, L.A. Noire, is currently a Playstation 3 exclusive.

Microsoft is the largest first party publisher with 23 titles designed specifically for the Xbox 360. 

Update 1: Correction, the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is not an exclusive title, it is still coming out for the Gamecube. I also added in a bunch of other key Sony properties even though they are in the distance like White Knight Story and Killzone. The numbers in the factoids are updated accordingly.

Update 2: Added the creative horror game, Sadness, from Nibris and Heroes developed by Grasshopper Manufacture to the Wii list. Also the factoid numbers have been updated to reflect these changes. Thanks for sending in the correction about Sadness everyone.

Update 3: Made some massive additions to the Xbox 360 list filling in games from Namco Bandai, From Software, Idea Factory and so forth. Also added in more Wii titles like Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Bob Ross Painting and so forth. Thanks for the additions everyone and please continue to correct me if I missed anything!

Update 4: I just want to clarify that we do not favor any system over another. In fact there are great unique titles on all three consoles and this list is merely here to show you what is out there. Each system has something special in their camp and no matter which choice you make you’re going to be playing some great games in the near future.