At E3 2011 this year, Game Rant brought an army. All eleven of us in attendance went to the Sony E3 press conference - which was both fun and entertaining - and all eleven us paid very close attention to what was said on stage. In the wake of the terrible PlayStation Networks hacks, there wasn't too much room for comedy and hence, no Kevin Butler. But while each of the "big three" made an effort to promote every exclusive they have this - even down to timed DLC few care about - Sony's press conference has convinced us that sometimes, what's promised to fans here isn't going to come true.

Time exclusives are annoying. No one cares if it's just a week or two, and if it's longer, it's unfair to gamers who paid the same price as others for the game. Microsoft has time exclusives with major publishers including Activision for the Call of Duty games and Bethesda for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

For Sony however, the PS3's Blu-ray capabilities give them opportunities for a different type of exclusive - added content that can fit on the disc's empty space. Assassin's Creed Revelations for example, debuts today and for the PS3 version, it ships with the entire original AC, a great deal for newcomers to the series.

Some exclusives promised at E3 this year at Sony's event however, didn't come true. We were told something that was false, starting with Battlefield 3. When this game was presented on stage at the Sony conference, it was announced that anyone who purchased the Limited Edition of Battlefield 3 for the PS3 would also get Battlefield 1943, thus making its package more valuable than the equal priced Xbox 360 alternative. This incentive thus affected the buying decisions to gamers who own both consoles.

Without making it abundantly clear that this wasn't going to be the case (read: hid this fact), the game didn't actually ship with Battlefield 1943 and some gamers were rightfully angry - they'd just been screwed over, even if the price of 1943 isn't much, it's the principle that matters here. It was announced that a specific deal was coming on the PS3 package but EA did not deliver, while also not making it clear ever that the game wouldn't actually come with what they said it would.

So when the game came out, many looked through the package and contents on the disc to find nadda. So, what did EA offer instead?

“In lieu of 1943 being available on disk for PS3 customers, EA has made all BF3 expansions available early to PS3 customers.”

Huh? What good is that?

Another neat PS3 exclusive promoted at the Sony conference was for Saints Row: The Third, the game that has made plenty a entertaining video in the last few weeks. As our friends at Joystiq point out, an exclusive mode for the PS3 was promised but now that the game is out... it's nowhere to be found.

Adding to the confusion, THQ and Volition would not even clarify what they meant - they offered a "no comment" to Joystiq when asked - which makes this mysterious. Is there no mode at all coming or is some sort of exclusive PS3 DLC on the way that we don't know about yet? Either way, you can't be promoting fake stuff at E3. Unless you have a deal locked in and it's confirmed, stop misleading gamers and then pretending these things weren't said at the world's biggest gaming event. It's not worth it.

[Update: THQ is giving PS3 owners a free download of Saints Row 2 to make up for this.]

What is worth it however, is the game so read our Saints Row: The Third review to see why.

Saints Row 3 is now available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

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Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes.

Source: Joystiq