While exclusive first-party games on the PS3 like Uncharted and Ratchet & Clank Future will certainly give Sony's platform a boost, exclusive third-party efforts are becoming a rare breed. In a Reuters piece, which dubs the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4 the "last of the great exclusives," Konami's assistant producer on the game, Ryan Payton, said that because of the high production costs, the PS3 "killer app" would have to sell at least one million copies on its first day.

It's not known how much Metal Gear Solid 4 will ultimately cost Konami, but development on the new consoles typically requires a budget of around $10 million or more and according to IDC analyst Billy Pidgeon, some games cost as much as $50 million. It's obviously a big risk, even for the big name publishers.

"You might be able to weather one title coming in at 500,000 in sales," he said. "But two or three failures like that and even big publishers are going to be hurting."

That's why most publishers are reluctant to give a high-profile game exclusively to one platform, unless the platform holder provides the publisher with incentives (read: bags of money and lots of marketing support). Nevertheless, Konami doesn't feel like it's being limited by releasing MGS4 exclusively on PS3.

"We're telling our fans that if you want to play Metal Gear Solid 4, you have to buy a PS3," said Payton. "The PlayStation brand has always been good to us, and we're pretty bullish on the PS3."

For its part, Sony doesn't feel bad about its lack of third-party exclusives. "We understand publishers are needing to recoup their investment," said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing for Sony. "From our perspective, as long as the games aren't going exclusive to other platforms, PS3 gamers are not actually losing anything."