Network now...FEATURE
Exclusives Analysis: PlayStation 3
October 2008’s LittleBigPlanet is one example of Sony’s first-party publishing philosophy, says Rohde. Media Molecule’s concept is based on the classic platformer format, but user-generated content and a robust community network—all layered with a stunning graphics engine—succeeded in “busting open” a classic genre while appealing to both core and casual. It was a different kind of game, and a new IP, but Rohde says he never considered it a risky release.
“…There’s a certain feeling that you can get about a title; one that is indescribable. Looking at LittleBigPlanet a year or more before the launch, there wasn’t a single person in this company who thought that title was going to be a risk, right? There’s just a special feeling about it.”
SCEA will need a few “special feelings” this year. The company has struggled with consumers who have found that the premium price of the $400 PS3 doesn’t balance with the amount of must-have software available for the console. Such an imbalance is only exacerbated in light of Microsoft’s less-expensive Xbox 360, the PS3’s closest competitor. The soccer moms in the market for a Wii wouldn’t even consider such a pricey console.
Rohde holds fast to the belief that core consumers recognize and value Sony’s tendency for developing new, original properties, in spite of the obstacles laid down by the PS3’s price tag. “You could say that every time we put out a new IP it’s a risk, but I think that’s what Sony does best. I think the core gaming audience specifically understands that when you invest as a consumer in a Sony platform, one thing you know for sure is that Sony is going to push a lot of new IPs at you. They’re going to try things that haven’t been done before, they’re going to try new twists on genres, they’re going to try new things like LittleBigPlanet. That’s what you expect as a consumer with Sony platforms and we’re going to continue to do that. That’s one of the top reasons we have such a big investment in first-party studios.”
First-party investment
Sony has about three times as many internal game development studios as Microsoft. SCE Worldwide Studios includes Team ICO, Gran Turismo house Polyphony Digital, God of War developer Sony Santa Monica, Wipeout house Studio Liverpool, MotorStorm creator Evolution Studios, and several more top-tier game developers. SCE’s internal game development strategy is markedly different than Microsoft’s.
“In my position, I’m certainly glad to be working for a company that believes in that strategy of investing in the first-party studios,” Rohde says. “To have that under your own control is amazingly beneficial. For us to be able to sit down and just craft a dozen or more exclusive first-party titles and not have to abide by anyone’s rules is beneficial.
“We can build something that doesn’t fit nicely into a boxed genre, and deliver a unique experience. You can’t necessarily do that if you’re working with a third-party, and you need to kind of abide by the rules of all the publishers."
Rohde ponders further the upside of having a large stable of internal studios. He says that having numerous unique, exclusive first-party IPs on PS3 is another aspect that raises the brand value of the console in the minds of consumers.
“We’re very proud of the fact that we have a huge investment in our first-party development, as opposed to what some of our competitors do. In the case of Nintendo, they perhaps rely heavily on existing IP, just pushing out the tried and true. With our other main competitor in Microsoft, they have a large investment in co-marketing for third-party titles. What we do is to invest a ton of money in these first-party studios, which we believe gives the consumer the best and most unique experience out there.”
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
Microsoft employee indeed. Only a paid person could do this and what I know about M$ (Halloween documents, PR FUD stupidity) I don't doubt that.
I am currently at work, and I think I'd rather do some work than read this shite. Seriously, please stop responding to Kim. This whole thread is dedicated to him and he's loving it!
What a load of garbage some people have written below! LOL I think some people seriously need to get out more.
Final Fantasy 13 Versus is in development for Xbox 360. There is no doubt about that; it has been in development for the Xbox 360 in Japan for quite a while now. Final Fantasy Versus 13 won't be released until 2012 anyways, so it doesn't really matter. But anyone who thinks Square Enix would release a Final Fantasy game on the Playstation 3 but not on the Xbox 360 is a person who hasn't been paying attention over the last couple of years.
Xbox 360 lets you play Final Fantasy NOW, but Playstation 3 does NOT. Square Enix continues to relase Final Fantasy 11 expansion packs for Xbox 360...but nothing like that at all for Playstation 3. Rumors continue to float around saying that Xbox 360 will receive exclusive expansions for Final Fantasy 13 when it is released, too.
Square Enix continues to release fully exclusive and timed-exclusive games for Xbox 360. For example, The Last Remnant was released first on Xbox 360 and nobody knows when the PS3 version will be released. Star Ocean 4 is exclusive to the Xbox 360, and the developers recently made it clear that PS3 version will not be released. Infinite Undiscovery is another exclusive JRPG game for Xbox 360 from Square Enix.
There are plenty of developers in Japan working on FF13 Versus, and it's no secret that Final Fantasy 13 Versus will be released for Xbox 360.
Also,
I agree with everything written below. Nothing stated below was incorrect. If Sony wants people "banned" for writing accurate information, I guess that is their style. But seeing Edge support it is disturbing. The comments below definitely have a lot of merit.
_________________
PROBLEMS
The biased statements made by Sony's employees have some major problems!
I would like to mention what some of them are:
1. The lineup of games for PS3 in 2009 will NOT include games like Gran Turismo 5 or God of War 3. Playstation 3 hardware is very difficult, time-consuming, and expensivefor programmers to develop software on. Reliable sources have already indicated that we won't see Gran Turismo until sometime in 2010. This seems valid considering that Sony released an expensive $40 demo of the game.
2. The developers of God of War were being interviewed before the third game in the series had started development. The developers specifically said that if they were to start developing the game at that moment, the soonest the game could hope to be released would be late 2009. The game didn't start being developed until six months after that interview. Don't count on seeing God of War 3 until sometime between the summer of 2010 or late 2010.
3. Remember, Playstation 3 "earned" the nickname "Delaystation" for a reason--because games take a long time to develop and are not released on time. Sony's employees may try and say otherwise to try and get you interested in the PS3, but you need to remember that Sony's employees are the same people who deliberately LIED and said "Playstation 3 is going to launch simultaneously worldwide in spring of 2006." We didn't see PS3 in Japan or North America until late 2006, and Europe didn't see it 2007. Sony simply cannot be trusted.
3. Little Big Planet was a BIG little FAILURE! Little Big Planet had the same type of impact on the PS3 that Clockwork Knight did on the Sega Saturn. Monthly sales of PS3 hardware did not improve when Little Big Planet launched, so it is not a "killer-app." The same can be said for Killzone 2, which did not improve PS3 monthly hardware sales.
4. Killzone 2 received a review score of only 7 out of 10 for a reason--because it fails to live up to gaming expectations for 2009. Sony's biased employees at the "Official Playstation Magazine" were dumb enough to say that Killzone 2 was the best game ever made in history. For crying out loud, if you are going to lie, make the lie believable!
The fact is, Sony is going to try and push Killzone 2 for "Game of the Year" awards. But the fact is, Killzone 2 can be beaten in less than 8 hours. The single-player mode has very little replay value. And Killzone 2 is the ONLY shooter to be released in the first-half of 2009 that does NOT include the standard feature of a Co-Op mode!...
Nominating a game like Killzone 2 (which does not include Co-Op) for a Game of the Year award in a 2009 era when Co-Op mode is a STANDARD feature would be like awarding a Tree Log as the Transportation Device of the Year in the era of the Wheel!
5. SEQUELITAS!!! Sony may "claim" to issue new franchises more than other game companies, but that is simply NOT TRUE! Look at games like this for PS3:
* Motorstorm 1
* Motorstorm 2
* Resistance
* Resistance 2
* Uncharted
* Uncharted 2
* Pixel Junk
* Pixel Junk 2
* Pixel Junk 3
* Killzone 2
* God of War 3
* Gran Turismo 5
If Sony would spend less time making sequels (or more time simply making a game correctly the first time; that way they wouldn't need to re-release it), it would have allowed Sony to put more time into making games in genres such as increasingly popular Real-Time Strategy genre. It was terrible the way Playstation 3 was on the market for THREE holiday shopping seasons with ZERO games in the Real-Time Strategy genre...and STILL having no Tetris games on the PS3 is as bad as it gets.
6. The number of new franchises on the Xbox 360 and Wii is actually higher than what has been released on the Playstation 3...Yes, it's true that when you look past 2010 to games like "Africa" and a few others that it appears the PS3 has more IP franchises than the competition. But once again, that is NOT TRUE...The reason for this is because Microsoft and Nintendo have software to show NOW at THIS POINT IN TIME at their trade shows such as E3. Microsoft and Nintendo have plenty of games that they haven't mentioned yet.
Sony does NOT have software to show at THIS POINT IN TIME at the trade shows. It's amazing how the small number of remaining PS3 fanboys say things like: "Look at all the exclusive games the PS3 has: God of War 3, Gran Turismo 5, Africa." ... All games that get lots of media attention because they were shown at trade shows, but are still NOT on the market.
As a result, the websites and magazines rip on Nintendo and Microsoft for showing games that will be released "soon," and "not showing enough future products," while Sony actually gets attention for their games that are 2 years away, since that is the sort of stuff that sells magazines. If those trade shows laster longer, Nintendo and Microsoft would have shown a LOT more stuff.
For example, at last years E3, Microsoft didn't even mention Alan Wake. The reason for this is because Microsoft knew there was only a limited amount of space at the show, and only a limited amount of time. Therefore, Microsoft made the decision to show a game like Alan Wake at NEXT YEAR's show. Sony didn't have any other choice but to show off games that were scheduled for 2010.
7. Most developers do NOT know how to develop for the PS3 any more now than when they first started. Sony would like you to believe the simple logic of, "They made a game, so they gained experience, and now they are better at making games." If everything remained the same, that would probably be true...but things do NOT remain the same.
What happens is that when game developers create a game for the PS3, they gain experience working with difficult parallel processing. This is a valuable piece of experience that looks great on a resume. As a result, these experienced developers leave the low-paying game developers so they can go get better-paying jobs working with organizatons such as military defense contractors or NASA. Those types of organizations use hardware that is complex--often based on parallel processing focused on math rather that graphics, which is exactly what the PS3 is. So, once these developers leave Sony, the team starts all over again without experience. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link in game programming, so if even just a couple programmers leave, the others who gained experience have their time wasted picking up the slack training new people. I have personally seen this happen many times with the PS3 and Sega Saturn.
8. People used to believe it was a good idea to buy a company once they had created a good game. Sony was one of those organizations. But this is no longer considered a good method, because nothing contractually binds those employees to stay with the organization. Sony is essentially buying IP franchises, rather than staying focused on keeping groups of quality employees together in order to keep making great games. This is the reason why so many of the "sequels" and new IP franchises that Sony has published are disappointing compared to the originals. So many times a small company will agree to be bought by Sony and become a first-party developer. Shortly thereafter, the employees say "I'm not working for Sony," and they go and use all their new money to start a new development company.
9. Sony hasn't "sold" anything close to 20 million systems worldwide. In 2007 Sony literally changed their corporate definition of what the word "sale" means. Sony used to be like Nintendo and Microsoft where "sold" was defined as "Shipped to a retailer or wholesaler who had purchased the product." In 2006 Sony had promised to "sell" 6 million PS3 systems by spring of 2007. But when spring of 2007 arrived, there were only 1.4 million "owners" of the PS3 system. As a result, Sony had some angry shareholders. So, Sony changed the corporate meaning of "sold" to "produced on the assembly line and put into inventory." This allowed Sony to take credit for "selling" all 5.5 million consoles that had been "produced" on the assembly line and put into inventory. Sony was literally telling shareholders that they had "sold" 5.5 million consoles, when only 1.4 million consumers "owned" the system. PS3 doesn't have anything close to 20 million "owners."
10. Finally, this article forgot to mention that the PS3 has the weakest third-party support. Xbox 360 receives far more third-party support than the Playstation 3. Xbox 360 has a larger number of exclusive games from third-party publishers. But what's even more important is the fact that the third-party multi-platform games released on both consoles are almost always either "noticably" or "significantly" better on the Xbox 360 in terms of graphics, online play, and scheduled release dates. People don't like waiting a year for a PS3 version of a game, paying twice as much as the Xbox 360 version sitting next to it, and then fining out the graphics aren't as good and there aren't as many people to play with online.
Yeah because Final Fantasy is so relevant these days and FF13 will be as good as the others.
Sorry but Square just got paid alot where as no one else is probably willing to pay anything for FF13.
Shame the 360 can't top the DS. Top quality remakes of the good FF games and some Dragon Warrior titles and a new DW game which is arguably much more important than FF.
Wow.
You really seem to be bothered with what is in store for the PS3 in 2009.
You obviously don't own one. Probably you can't afford it.
You're fanboy heart has been hit.
Spin spin spin spin spin... I feel dizzy now thank you.
I'm done with logic and objectivity.
Like passing a huge dump, I feel a bit of pride to know that it was a result of my comment such a gigantic turd was posted.
Kim,
Hey buddy. Hey, I'm going to be on Halo 3 tonight, just shoot the party and game invite to O1. Cool man, if you don't reply I'll assume that's a yes then. Thanks a bunch!
Is he reposting his own stuff now?!
This is getting surreal.
are you kidding me FINAL FANTASY VS 13 ITS A PS3 EXCLUSIVE its 13 thats coming to 360 AFTER the ps3 version. get your facts strait before you trash on any system I HAD A 360 BUT I RETURNED IT AFTER I GOT THE RROD 3 TIMES IN 3 MONTHS. ARE YOU KIDDING ME live is not better then psn for 1 reason and that is its FREE and in my view it was the same thing the only thing that was differnt that you have 2 pay 4 live and not psn, again get your facts strait the 360 doesnt have any exclusives. HALO 3 IS COMING 2 PC JUST LIKE HALO 1 AND 2. GEARS 2 is also coming to pc just like gears 1( which was the better gears) yes the ps3 is in last place and ill tell you this, WHO CARES! it give alot, BLU RAY, WEB BROWSING WHICH I BELIEVE WORKS PRETTY WELL BC IM POSTONG THIS ON IT, wifi and wired internet conections, great REAL EXCLUSIVE GAMES LIKE MGS4, R2, LBP, ETC BC im not going 2 name them all. now im not saing that the 360 is a bad system its just not reliable, and ripes you of with its online service. JUST GET A LIFE XBOT FANBOY AND GET YOUR FACTS STRAITS. LIKE IT OR NOT PPL play game on any system and dont trash on somethin you havent even owned in my personal view i got a better stasfaction on my RELIABLE PS3 also on my wii even though i dont play my wii that much
No I'm referring to how people claim DMC4 is good not releases before and after I'm well aware DMC came out before GoW I'm saying in ref to DMC4 being good its overrated. And if GoWIII comes out in 2010 it most likely won't be later than March in 2010 considering GoW series has been released in March. Nero's fighting style in DMC4 was broken nothing but grabbing...terrible. But when Dante is used its back to being fluid and combo based.
After reading that incredibly long post with about 10 points I think some of my braincells have just died. But anyway the exclusives do look fun as all hell I have a PS3 and love it. As for how 360 has the better multi-platform games I don't know about that. Its more a matter of preference. Now referring to DMC4 one word its GARBAGE Nero is so dam broken here's how you fight with him let's just go on a grabfest. It should only be Dante and Vergil in that game. Heavy Rain and inFamous look fun as all hell. As for the MLB series by Sony if your into baseball game MLB absolutelý trounces the 2K series. As for GoWIII it seems that if doesn't come out in 09 it won't be such a bad thing with all thing confirmed by Sony for 09 some ppl might find going to a store to shop for their PS3 having to choose between games and possibly cannibilizing sales of some of their first party games so so March 2010 seems the most likely considering all GoW games to my knowledge have been released in March. On a sidenote I've heard through rumor and speculation FF13 VS is PS3 exclusive and some of the footage shown is actual gameplay. As for PC gaming for crying out loud there will be a point in time where a console will rival a PC in power and specs.
Seems rather odd to discuss the PS3 and leave out Final Fantasy. Even if 13 is on the 360 too, it comes out on the PS3 first.
or has Versus XIII also been announced on the 360?
VS I understand is still PS3 exclusive.
One more thing lets take a look a pc vs ps3 line for games
http://adrianwerner.wordpress.com/games-of-2009/
the real hardcore gamers who spend the real big money are not buyingconsoles. I think sony needs to know place in the food chain. pc gamers are your real gamers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONjAwKO-IjA&feature=related
Okay, we all get it Dream. You like PC games. Now please rein in the PC fanboy stuff.
some one needs to tell the truth, sony lost billions because they over looked this single fact. For invsestors and business that is really important. Consoles have high production costs not really good in a recession too. losing big money is nothing to joke about.
Maybe we have a new Kim_Naroz in the works? Picard is in for some long hours.
I think Picard has the resolve and the strength to get things done!
He has the resolve but he doesn't have the hair. Besides, he's getting to be really booooring, like Arron is.
I went to this particular website hoping it would somehow have less fanboy trolls - and it seems that the majority of people here are capable of having a normal, intelligent conversation/discussion. People like Kim and now this Dreamhunk person are some of the more extreme examples of the opposite though - and especially with Kim, who changes his name but not his writing style constantly, it's frustrating to waste time on his nonsense. Kim, Dreamhunk - do everyone here a favor a get yourselves a hobby.
And ArronC07, please continue to post the Picard picture - or something similar... it makes it a lot easier to avoid certain posts. ;)
Instead of looking at whether a console will do better because of a particular game, I think that the focus should be on whether a game is innovative on a certain level - which can be anything on any console... or even the PC. In my opinion, this is the only thing that's truly interesting - and in the end, should be the only reason for people to consider purchasing a particular machine.
On topic, with the PS3, my money is still on Heavy Rain. Although I do like certain other exclusives on offer, I think this title has the potential to push adventure games forward. With regards to digital distribution, I'm hoping for more releases like Flower and Echochrome, which, like Heavy Rain, bring something different and fresh.
Nice article. Reading stories like these and thinking about a $299 PS3 tempts me to get one. If I already didn't have enough time for my 360 I'd most likely get a PS3. I unfortunately only have time for 1 console. Enjoyed the read though. Sony isn't TOO far behind MS month-to-month and it seems most likely a price-cut alone would be enough for Sony to match sales with MS, and with both companies having a strong software lineup for 09 (assuming MS has some unannounced games for '09 that will be relatively big exclusives anyway) this year could go either way.
I'm looking forward to Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2 (the first is one of my favorite games this generation) and God of War 3.
I don't think any of the exclusives listed changes the dynamics of this generation for Sony though. Too many consumers, like myself, buy multiplatform games on 360 for the superior online/community. Still, I'm glad to have promising exclusives to look forward to on PS3.
Sony is a dumb company,they should have done their reseach. All your high end "rich "gamers are on the pc. Consles are for people who are cheap. Now they are not making money on a old pc machine. Your going to have to go cheap for those console gamers.
Now you sony knows their place in the food chain!!!! your line up of games are not going to help. Your just going to be losing alot more money. By the way tthere is more and more pc games that is making console look and play real old.
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/pc/why-your-next-cpu-could-be-a-...
soon pc gaming will be taking a major lep over consoles here is why
http://www.pcworld.com/article/161545/personal_supercomputer_is_coming.h...
better hardware makes for better games.
http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/03/23/new-report-on-pc-gaming-industry-...
This also needs to be said pc's will always be more adavanced than consoles. normally I don't put so meny links to back my facts up but it needs to be said.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4557935...
sorry is going up river with this console. Console are at the buttom of the food chain for a reason. By the way pc gamers boycott companies they don't like.
2008 article:
Piracy sinking PC games industry
Video game developers are frustrated, as thousands of copies of their games are being illegally distributed every day over online file-sharing networks.
Piracy is having an effect on high-powered shooters like Unreal Tournament 3 and Crysis which only managed to sell only 34K and 87K copies respectively in their first month, according to the NPD. Both titles were reviewed well and were expected by most analysts to be blockbusters for the PC gaming industry.
Instead, the Playstation 3 version of UT3 almost tripled the PC number selling 86,633 copies in its first month, despite the console’s small install base.
Many game company representatives like Infinity Ward’s community manager Robert Bowling are blaming online file sharing communities. “The amount of people who pirate PC games is astounding," he wrote in a recent blog post. "It blows me away at the amount of people willing to steal games (or anything) simply because it's not physical or it's on the safety of the internet to do."
Sites like Mininova and ThePirateBay allow users to download illegal copies of their favorite games, and pirates are participating in record numbers.
For instance, Call of Duty 4 is being downloaded by 16,385 people from Miniova at the time of publication. The game sold 383K copies in 2007 according to NDP reports. If one estimates that it would take 2-3 days to download a DVD-copy of a game on average (average taken from some of the top seeded games), that would equate to 164K to 246K downloads a month. At that rate, more people have downloaded the game illegally than have purchased it in stores.
Using the same formula, Crysis, which is being downloaded by 6806 people, would be downloaded 68K to 102K a month, more than the game sold in its first month of release.
The PC market which once drove the industry only accounted for 14% of all game sales in 2007. While PC game developers are losing money to piracy, companies like Nintendo are raking in enormous profits from the booming console market.
So what are PC developers to do?
Many are either switching, or porting their games to console. According to ShackNews, Crytek announced today that they will be showing off CryENGINE 2, the technology that powered Crysis, on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 at this year’s GDC, which could signal that the developer is looking to make money from those platforms as well.
pircay is on every gaming machine in fact the dsi and nintendo wii have been pirated alot more than the pc. how about if pc gamers boycott AMD that has 80% of their hardware in consoles. AMD is close to bankuprcy and it's not because of the recession. Some pc gamers are boycotting AMD and Micro soft vista. Companies like intel is gaining gorund because hardware companies over looked pc gaming and pc gamers . Pc gaming is the backbone of the pc Industry. Pc gaming will never die and if ever it does the effects will be felt all over the world. why because pc gamers buy the buy the best hardware to play the best games a game devs can make.
by the project offset is the next big game to come to the pc besides starcraft and crysis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkoi6WCCJHY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBPegjNG2qw
project offset is own by intel by the way. the next big thing on the pc. Yea a sure a console can keep up with the pc. Your dreaming if pc gaming dies so does gaming. Pc gaming is on the higher end of the spectrum. if Sony did their home work they would have never lost billions like they did with the ps3.
I have a pretty good gaming rig myself and I still play Counter-strike Source regularly, which I bought legally through steam. But where I am, piracy is a thriving industry where a lot of people make a living (and a lot get rich) out of selling bootleg games, music, software or anything digital. The US has got piracy under control but still, there's Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia and other places out of reach of the proper authorities. Also the internet has make it a lot easier to steal IPs. Piracy is indeed a tough nut to crack.
I would have to agree with you there. Lets say pc gaming did die pircates would just move over on to consoles. You can blame hackers for pircay. Some countries depend on dd, I also think one of the problems of pircay is those games are not sold in some counties. Maybe the country is really poor to buy games.
also even the low budget pc games are looking better than console games. like stalker clear skies and Cryostasis.
If your a real gamer why would want to buy over priced old pc when you can get a high end pc with alot more games, more genres and better tech. Besides a pc is alot more useful than a consoles and you can't even play mods, or cetern genres on consoles. When was the last time you seen a space sim or even an ocean game on consoles.
bettter hardware makes for better games
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,659651/Gaming-Special-The-biggest-har...
gamers with money will choose a pc over a console any day for meny reasons
http://www.darkmattermag.com/june03/dark_games.html
companies like sony and micro soft and game devs attack pc gaming is only damaging the pc market. which in turn will have huge effects on the next consoles that is if they ever come. also huge effects on the pc industry.
http://www.eetimes.com/rss/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=215901451&cid=RSS...
PROBLEMS
The biased statements made by Sony's employees have some major problems!
I would like to mention what some of them are:
1. The lineup of games for PS3 in 2009 will NOT include games like Gran Turismo 5 or God of War 3. Playstation 3 hardware is very difficult, time-consuming, and expensivefor programmers to develop software on. Reliable sources have already indicated that we won't see Gran Turismo until sometime in 2010. This seems valid considering that Sony released an expensive $40 demo of the game.
2. The developers of God of War were being interviewed before the third game in the series had started development. The developers specifically said that if they were to start developing the game at that moment, the soonest the game could hope to be released would be late 2009. The game didn't start being developed until six months after that interview. Don't count on seeing God of War 3 until sometime between the summer of 2010 or late 2010.
3. Remember, Playstation 3 "earned" the nickname "Delaystation" for a reason--because games take a long time to develop and are not released on time. Sony's employees may try and say otherwise to try and get you interested in the PS3, but you need to remember that Sony's employees are the same people who deliberately LIED and said "Playstation 3 is going to launch simultaneously worldwide in spring of 2006." We didn't see PS3 in Japan or North America until late 2006, and Europe didn't see it 2007. Sony simply cannot be trusted.
3. Little Big Planet was a BIG little FAILURE! Little Big Planet had the same type of impact on the PS3 that Clockwork Knight did on the Sega Saturn. Monthly sales of PS3 hardware did not improve when Little Big Planet launched, so it is not a "killer-app." The same can be said for Killzone 2, which did not improve PS3 monthly hardware sales.
4. Killzone 2 received a review score of only 7 out of 10 for a reason--because it fails to live up to gaming expectations for 2009. Sony's biased employees at the "Official Playstation Magazine" were dumb enough to say that Killzone 2 was the best game ever made in history. For crying out loud, if you are going to lie, make the lie believable!
The fact is, Sony is going to try and push Killzone 2 for "Game of the Year" awards. But the fact is, Killzone 2 can be beaten in less than 8 hours. The single-player mode has very little replay value. And Killzone 2 is the ONLY shooter to be released in the first-half of 2009 that does NOT include the standard feature of a Co-Op mode!...
Nominating a game like Killzone 2 (which does not include Co-Op) for a Game of the Year award in a 2009 era when Co-Op mode is a STANDARD feature would be like awarding a Tree Log as the Transportation Device of the Year in the era of the Wheel!
5. SEQUELITAS!!! Sony may "claim" to issue new franchises more than other game companies, but that is simply NOT TRUE! Look at games like this for PS3:
* Motorstorm 1
* Motorstorm 2
* Resistance
* Resistance 2
* Uncharted
* Uncharted 2
* Pixel Junk
* Pixel Junk 2
* Pixel Junk 3
* Killzone 2
* God of War 3
* Gran Turismo 5
If Sony would spend less time making sequels (or more time simply making a game correctly the first time; that way they wouldn't need to re-release it), it would have allowed Sony to put more time into making games in genres such as increasingly popular Real-Time Strategy genre. It was terrible the way Playstation 3 was on the market for THREE holiday shopping seasons with ZERO games in the Real-Time Strategy genre...and STILL having no Tetris games on the PS3 is as bad as it gets.
6. The number of new franchises on the Xbox 360 and Wii is actually higher than what has been released on the Playstation 3...Yes, it's true that when you look past 2010 to games like "Africa" and a few others that it appears the PS3 has more IP franchises than the competition. But once again, that is NOT TRUE...The reason for this is because Microsoft and Nintendo have software to show NOW at THIS POINT IN TIME at their trade shows such as E3. Microsoft and Nintendo have plenty of games that they haven't mentioned yet.
Sony does NOT have software to show at THIS POINT IN TIME at the trade shows. It's amazing how the small number of remaining PS3 fanboys say things like: "Look at all the exclusive games the PS3 has: God of War 3, Gran Turismo 5, Africa." ... All games that get lots of media attention because they were shown at trade shows, but are still NOT on the market.
As a result, the websites and magazines rip on Nintendo and Microsoft for showing games that will be released "soon," and "not showing enough future products," while Sony actually gets attention for their games that are 2 years away, since that is the sort of stuff that sells magazines. If those trade shows laster longer, Nintendo and Microsoft would have shown a LOT more stuff.
For example, at last years E3, Microsoft didn't even mention Alan Wake. The reason for this is because Microsoft knew there was only a limited amount of space at the show, and only a limited amount of time. Therefore, Microsoft made the decision to show a game like Alan Wake at NEXT YEAR's show. Sony didn't have any other choice but to show off games that were scheduled for 2010.
7. Most developers do NOT know how to develop for the PS3 any more now than when they first started. Sony would like you to believe the simple logic of, "They made a game, so they gained experience, and now they are better at making games." If everything remained the same, that would probably be true...but things do NOT remain the same.
What happens is that when game developers create a game for the PS3, they gain experience working with difficult parallel processing. This is a valuable piece of experience that looks great on a resume. As a result, these experienced developers leave the low-paying game developers so they can go get better-paying jobs working with organizatons such as military defense contractors or NASA. Those types of organizations use hardware that is complex--often based on parallel processing focused on math rather that graphics, which is exactly what the PS3 is. So, once these developers leave Sony, the team starts all over again without experience. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link in game programming, so if even just a couple programmers leave, the others who gained experience have their time wasted picking up the slack training new people. I have personally seen this happen many times with the PS3 and Sega Saturn.
8. People used to believe it was a good idea to buy a company once they had created a good game. Sony was one of those organizations. But this is no longer considered a good method, because nothing contractually binds those employees to stay with the organization. Sony is essentially buying IP franchises, rather than staying focused on keeping groups of quality employees together in order to keep making great games. This is the reason why so many of the "sequels" and new IP franchises that Sony has published are disappointing compared to the originals. So many times a small company will agree to be bought by Sony and become a first-party developer. Shortly thereafter, the employees say "I'm not working for Sony," and they go and use all their new money to start a new development company.
9. Sony hasn't "sold" anything close to 20 million systems worldwide. In 2007 Sony literally changed their corporate definition of what the word "sale" means. Sony used to be like Nintendo and Microsoft where "sold" was defined as "Shipped to a retailer or wholesaler who had purchased the product." In 2006 Sony had promised to "sell" 6 million PS3 systems by spring of 2007. But when spring of 2007 arrived, there were only 1.4 million "owners" of the PS3 system. As a result, Sony had some angry shareholders. So, Sony changed the corporate meaning of "sold" to "produced on the assembly line and put into inventory." This allowed Sony to take credit for "selling" all 5.5 million consoles that had been "produced" on the assembly line and put into inventory. Sony was literally telling shareholders that they had "sold" 5.5 million consoles, when only 1.4 million consumers "owned" the system. PS3 doesn't have anything close to 20 million "owners."
10. Finally, this article forgot to mention that the PS3 has the weakest third-party support. Xbox 360 receives far more third-party support than the Playstation 3. Xbox 360 has a larger number of exclusive games from third-party publishers. But what's even more important is the fact that the third-party multi-platform games released on both consoles are almost always either "noticably" or "significantly" better on the Xbox 360 in terms of graphics, online play, and scheduled release dates. People don't like waiting a year for a PS3 version of a game, paying twice as much as the Xbox 360 version sitting next to it, and then fining out the graphics aren't as good and there aren't as many people to play with online.
You know, you spin more than a washing machine.
Let's get this out of the way, Shall we?:
- Wii is leading all consoles, but has less desirable games for "hardcore" gamers.
- PC will always have superior specs, useless comparing to consoles.
- 360 has great games that hardcore gamers enjoy, Xbox Live is a great service for its users, have a stupendous marketing department, has a sturdier controller (love the triggers compared to the PS3 ones).
- PS3 has more reliable hardware, playing online is free and those that get into it don't mind if it's not at a par as Xbox Live, has a better legacy of established game franchises.
Disclaimer: I have all consoles and play also in the PC, I like them all.
What I don't really understand is the need of biased opinion against an article that clearly supports a specific console. If you have the urge of bashing the PS3 it would be easier for you to go into a Wii/PC/Xbox forum, where you will get the nodding heads from all of the other users. No wonder there's less and less objective writers these days, they all want to cater the same audience: Fanboys (just like you).
Now, I'll answer all of your points (rants?) with a more objective view:
1 and 2.- Yes, maybe those games won't come out this year, but everybody's hoping they will. The fact that the PS3 is harder to program for only applies to most 3rd parties, which the studios that develop GT or God of War may not be in that category, so it's more feasible that they could release them as expected. Yes we the gamers have had to suffer through delays for it's games, but the same thing can be said of everyone else (Alan Wake for the Xbox, Wii's motion control plus, etc). What matters at the end is to be able to play those games, I can tell you that I can keep myself very busy with all the games that come out for all the consoles for whenever they come out, most real gamers don't feel the urge to play 20 different games at the same time.
3.- There's no corporation that can be trusted, ever, get over it; they will be thinking about their bottom line first and lastly;. Oh and not releasing when they said they would doesn't affect most users since I'm not an early buyer, it's better to buy something that is already polished than suffering through all the growing pains. My Wii currently doesn't have any games that attract me (new ones I mean), Does that mean that they don't cater to me?; My 360 has RROD twice, Should I stop buying games for it?; My PS3 lacks RPG's, Should I ditch the whole console because of it?.
Your second 3.- What's the definition of failure?, it has already sold more than a million games, which admittedly is less than what Sony (or Media Molecule) would have wanted, but you can't call that a failure. Now, the Orange Box for the PS3 was an utter failure in all regards.
4.- Yes, it received a 7 from THIS magazine, that doesn't mean it deserves it, I enjoy it just fine. If Left 4 Dead (very short single player, no story at all, but very fun to play, etc) was considered a game of the year for 2008, I don't see why Killzone 2 can't be for this year.
5.- You are kidding, right?: Mario, Zelda, Halo, Metroid, Gears of War, Lost Planet, Fable, even Viva Piñata have 1 or more sequels. It "affects" all consoles, and I stress the "affect" because I don't mind at all having sequels to games that I love.
6.- Don't know about this, I honestly don't know how many exclusives are by specific console, but from experience (since I've been a gamer since 1981) I can tell you that any given -different- console will always be in the lead varying by year. This only benefits us, it's called competition, Imagine if we only had the 360 and the Wii?, we would miss a lot of other options for all gamers. RTS games are better on PC's, sorry.
7.- Game developers will always advance in their programming skills and there will always be new people with better skill sets than the previous programmer. Evolution is great!
8.- You surely must have a lot of anecdotal proof about this of course. Again, related to the previous point, people will always move from one place to another. So Sony buys companies, while Microsoft buys exclusivity rights, How's that different?.
9.- 2007 is a long way, since then you can be certain that the number given today can be pretty accurate. IF there's one company I can't rely on numbers is indeed Microsoft, until they give us an actual number of RROD's/E74's/scratched disks they've had to repair, I won't trust them with anything they say about numbers (either from them or their competition). Nintendo is too busy counting money to be bothered in petty discussions.
10.- I agree with this, hopefully this will change sooner rather than later. But still, I do enjoy playing online in the PSN, even if not a lot of people use their headsets, I rather have an enjoyable experience in COD4 listening to my music than listening a freakin' teenager yelling "orders" or how much I suck all the time.
I've been a gamer for almost 30 years (started in 1981) and no I'm not that old (32) hahaha; I enjoy gaming and get truly bothered when people just trash talk to either justify a purchase, or declare loyalty to a company that doesn't care about you.
Saludos
Very well written response Ramiro and I agree with 99% of your post, but I'm afraid it's all for not. Kim (the individual you replied to) is an established spammer and will never respond to a direct posting. He at times does offer some accurate information but it's usually guised in extreme bias and near unreadable due to his blatant disregard for objective discussion and fair debate. We've learned to ignore him for the most part, usually poking fun at his nonsense (see most replies to post). Again though, well put together and well written response. Kudos.
Thanks Nick... Damn, wasted reply then...
It's happened to us all. He was Kim_Naroz, then athlete gamer, then game_fan, and apparently gaming_god now. Yeah dubz, he's commenting on his own posts as if he was someone else. That's the most human he's been so far.
This little piece of ignorant nonsense is priceless...
What happens is that when game developers create a game for the PS3, they gain experience working with difficult parallel processing. This is a valuable piece of experience that looks great on a resume. As a result, these experienced developers leave the low-paying game developers so they can go get better-paying jobs working with organizatons such as military defense contractors or NASA. Those types of organizations use hardware that is complex--often based on parallel processing focused on math rather that graphics, which is exactly what the PS3 is. So, once these developers leave Sony, the team starts all over again without experience. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link in game programming, so if even just a couple programmers leave, the others who gained experience have their time wasted picking up the slack training new people. I have personally seen this happen many times with the PS3 and Sega Saturn..
Indeed foot fuckin mastah. Kim, even when he manages to provide information that may be accurate, he goes on to say some rather ridiculous stuff such as this.
Foot fuckin mastah? Damn. Wish I had thought of that before I created my UID.
I'm an old Pulp Fiction fan so anytime I hear the word mastah I think of that line from the movie. Most people don't get it though and they just look at me funny when I say it.
I started reading that thinking 'oh here we go' but despite the bluster I found it hard to actually disagree with much of it.
I'm glad everyone follows your advice. I mean, fuck! I am so glad that there was only one Legend of Zelda or Super Mario Brothers. I am glad MS waited until Halo was perfect so we wouldn't ever have to waste time on a second or a third.
Alan Wake is a good example of what you are calling Sony on. MS announced it when? 2006? And they are developing it for a system that's pretty much the same as making a PC game. I wonder if it will be out before or after Duke Nukem Forever.
The fact that you cared enough to write an essay that long means you are way beyond being a normal fan about anything which hurts all of your arguments. The other console makers will have their shot to talk as this is part ONE of a THREE part series, as noted at the beginning of the article.
All that said, a $299 PS3 would be a game changer. I don't think they are smart or brave enough to cut the price that much, though.
Brian
www.brianwoods.com
Kim? Still no Halo 3 invite...I'm waiting. Just tell me hello atleast, and ask me how my day has been going. I deserve that much.
"Biased comments by Sony Employees" This surpises you? Any companies employees and I do mean ANY will be biased to their own products and procedures. I don't see your issue with that
You really take all this WAY too seriously. Worried about perceived lies, treachery, deceit, etc etc by Sony
All 3 companies will tell you 1/2 truths when it's convenient for them. The will steer you in any direction true or not in order to steer future sales.
My opinion of this? WHO CARES! I dont buy into the whole business BS. I have all 3 systems and whoever puts out a good game I'm on board. I'm not concerned with what people are saying about one company over the other or what the platform holders are saying about each other. Its all just manipulation for the sake of sales. In other words standard business practice for all 3
Just enjoy the games for what they are. Entertainment! It's a whole lot more fun than worrying about all that other cra#
Have good one......
How many times can you repackage Kim_Naroz?
3 at my last count. And that's just since I've been on these forums. It's funny, he has such an unmistakable style that you know it's him within the first sentence. Sometimes you can tell it's him just by his "headline"; FACTS, or PROBLEMS, or PROOF.
F*ck reading that when I'm at work.
Very eloquently written and meticulously researched... but it's still fanboy bluster.
Kim talks gob shite, again!