Multi-Platform Games You Associate with a Particular Platform

[Moonface]

I just saw a trailer for a Katamari game coming out soon for Switch 2, and not knowing much about that series I had been under the impression it was a Sony IP only to learn it actually belongs to Bandai Namco and also never exclusive to PlayStation (even if the other earlier games came out on mobile at a time mobile gaming was an afterthought). It got me thinking about other games that have never been exclusive to a platform, but are heavily associated with one as if they were exclusive to them for a time.

The most famous example will probably be Final Fantasy, which a lot of people probably view as a PlayStation series despite not being heavily associated with the platform for anything before FF7.

Another one that I always consider as a PlayStation series is Tomb Raider, even though it was always released simultaneously on both PS1 and PC until 2006's Tomb Raider: Legend when the series expanded to include Xbox and Nintendo consoles.

[Maniakkid25]

The most famous example will probably be Final Fantasy, which a lot of people probably view as a PlayStation series despite not being heavily associated with the platform for anything before FF7.

That would probably be because Sony consoles didn't exist when FF1-6 came out. Before then, Square/SquareSoft was a Nintendo series, bay-bee! Funnily enough, Square originally planned for FF7 to be on the then-next Nintendo console (the N64), only to find out that it was going to be another cartridge-based console, and walked out on that basis alone. Cartridges just didn't have the capacity to meet their demands compared to that new-fangled "CD-ROM" technology everyone was getting hyped over.

Resident Evil is probably a strong contender for this sort of thing for Playstation. While games did come out on other consoles, Resident Evil was biggest on the Playstation consoles until Resident Evil 4 came along. SMT is another example; while starting on Nintendo consoles, they didn't come to the West until the Playstation was a thing, and mostly released on those consoles until SMT 4 on the 3DS, so most Westerners would probably associate them with Sony. Which is peak irony, because they're owned by SEGA now, a former hardware manufacturer.

[Moonface]

The most famous example will probably be Final Fantasy, which a lot of people probably view as a PlayStation series despite not being heavily associated with the platform for anything before FF7.

That would probably be because Sony consoles didn't exist when FF1-6 came out. Before then, Square/SquareSoft was a Nintendo series, bay-bee! Funnily enough, Square originally planned for FF7 to be on the then-next Nintendo console (the N64), only to find out that it was going to be another cartridge-based console, and walked out on that basis alone. Cartridges just didn't have the capacity to meet their demands compared to that new-fangled "CD-ROM" technology everyone was getting hyped over.

Oh yeah, I know those games had no choice but to be associated with anything but PlayStation prior to FF7, which is why I find it so wild how the series isn't more heavily associated with any of the consoles prior to the PlayStation. Or rather, at least in the West where the Final Fantasy games were repackaged and released at random times whilst in Japan I wouldn't be surprised if more people associate it with Nintendo because that market had the most exposure to that era of Final Fantasy.

Resident Evil is probably a strong contender for this sort of thing for Playstation. While games did come out on other consoles, Resident Evil was biggest on the Playstation consoles until Resident Evil 4 came along.

I had to go look this up because I actually thought Resident Evil was initially just a PlayStation title until Xbox and GameCube came along, only to see it's very similar to Tomb Raider. Rayman is another one too that I know was on other platforms but for me it's a PlayStation game, despite knowing that Rayman 2 was released to enough different platforms to make Skyrim blush and the PS1 version of Rayman 2 is one of the most altered versions on home console.