Network now...FEATURE
The Year Ahead: Xbox 360 Games
Guitar Hero Metallica
Activision
Neversoft
US Release: “Q1 2009”
UK Release: “Q1 2009”
While we’re confident the Beatles Rock Band title will be more lucrative, surely a band such as Metallica is more – dare we say – suitable for the genre?
It’s struggling to think of many Beatles melodies that would sit ideally on a rolling guitar neck, whereas the busty Fuel has already proven to be a wonderful flirtation with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. And while there are queues of people desperate to play as Lars, who in their right mind would ever want to say “I’ll be Ringo then”?
Forza Motorsport 3
Microsoft Game Studios
Turn Ten Studios (TBC)
US Release: TBA 2009
UK Release: TBA 2009
How much is known about Forza 3? If it wasn’t for two reported betrayals of NDA, the answer would be nothing. There is no confirmation on the game’s existence, though back in June last year the infamous Intellisponse leak revealed that both an Xbox avatar system, as well as Forza 3, was in development.
What we can expect is for the game to progress in a linear manner at the very least; more cars (rumoured to be 400), more tracks (100, again rumoured), more race modes and more ways to customise your own vehicle.
Image sourced from the reported leaks of Forza 3 art..jpg)
Bayonetta
Sega
Platinum Games
US Release: TBA 2009
UK Release: TBA 2009
Writing Hideki Kamiya’s resume would be one of the easiest tasks in the world. Just jotting down four games – which happen to be Okami, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 2 and Viewtiful Joe – under the heading of director says more than enough about the talent he brings to Platinum Games and, of course, his next title.
Bayonetta gives the distinct impression that Kamiya is continuing to play to his strengths; the game looks likely to push the hack and slash games to a new level of screen-filling action, persistent intensity, and manic tempos.
Contact Us / About Us / Advertise With Us / BeltwayBlips / TechBlips / MassiveBlips / GamerBlips / FAQ
Subscribe To Edge Magazine / Corrections / Terms & Conditions / Privacy Policy
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
Subscribe To Edge Magazine / Corrections / Terms & Conditions / Privacy Policy
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
The 'phoenix from the flames' could be Perfect Dark 2. But this really should be Rare's last chance. I for one cant take much more underperformance and broken promises from Rare. Anything less than a 10/10 and MS should shut them down.
MEH.
When the year ahead list includes some DLC and a multi-platform DMC-alike game like Bayonetta?
Ouch...things are looking decidely barren on the Xbox 360.
my Sony-flaming aside, it seems like microsoft might really be out of tricks at this point...hopefully they're hiding something for later this year.
nonetheless, I suspect 360 will retain its dominance...it really does all come down to price.
side note: anyone find it humorous that we bitch between ps3 and 360 when the true king of the hill is the wii?
Vader
Cause the king of the hill for us gamers ISN'T the wii. Most of us prefer the 360 or PS3, if we were Wii fans, then we wouldn't care about the additional features the 360 and PS3 offer, thus wouldn't be arguing about them.
I get your point though. I also think that since the Wii is running away with it, the race between it and the HD consoles isn't interesting. The lead MS has over Sony isn't as huge as the Wii's lead over the 360, but it is a smaller lead which is a bit more interesting than the team that has a 3 touchdown lead with only 2 minutes left and the losing team has no timeouts and the two minute warning has already stopped the clock. The 360's lead is more like a 10 point lead with 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter but MS has the ball still and is just trying to run the clock out.
Sony has alreay lost the battle with Nintendo. The casual gamers that owed a Ps2 in the last generation, now have a Wii. And it is easily to understand when you had a console that costed 600$ compared to 250$. On the other hand DS is dominating the portable console market. But strangely Sony fans seem to forget this facts and prefer to concentrate on their hate for MS.
Probably this will not be the best MS year but they already had two great years in term of sales. Moreover most of the original ip like FFXII and Residenti evil are not exclusive anymore and that is already a big goal.
But wasn't even PS2 originally very expensive? People didn't appear to mind paying a high price for that but moan about the PS3's high price & PS2 came with considerably less features.
It's very amusing indeed. Such intense squabbling over second place!
...but that just goes to show the extent to which Nintendo has lost the interest of "core" gamers. Can't say I saw much on the Wii list to change that. Looks to me like both Microsoft and Nintendo need to pull a few tricks out of their sleeves in the big announcement windows in late Spring.
Kudos to Sony for having the best line-up out of any of these lists. Together with a price cut, it might just be enough to persuade me that a post-price cut PS3 is worth the purchase.
looks like the days of 3rd party exclusives really are over. there is next to nothing to distinguish 360 and PS3 when it comes to 3rd party. HOWEVER the different approaches are interesting. With the 360 so cheap it attracts new buyers (and repeats from RRoD) who will find an amazing, and cheap back catalogue. The PS3 is blasting out plenty of WWS games and 2nd party Sony published titles, which makes the present and future look bright. Because lets be honest here MS has announced bugger all, apart from 2 Halo games and some DLC 100% locked into release in '09 (Wake and Forza are speculation).
It will be interesting to see how it goes for the two strategies. I would expect a significant price drop for the PS3 in the US (and us PAL gamers paying for it). MS would retaliate with a drop for the 60 GB/Elite consoles (since it gouges for the price of a poultry 60/120GB HDD).
@Africa,
I agree. I think since the 360 has been out a year longer than the PS3 they have more breathing room to drop the price of the 360 (according to reports the games division for MS has been in the green for a couple quarters at least, something Sony doesn't benefit from). If Sony starts gaining ground on MS again in '09, I think MS would just drop it again. I think 2010 will be the last full year for the 360 so continued price drops I don't think are out of the cards for the 360.
Microsoft's 2009 line up is simply unexciting. The PS3 has 33 exclusives (spread over Blu-ray and PSN) coming this year and of the 10 games shown here on Edge for 2009, 8 are exclusives and 4 are original IP's.
Where is all the original IP's for Microsoft's hardware?
AWESOME
2009 is going to be AWESOME for the Xbox 360
Consider these facts:
* ONLY the Xbox 360 will be receiving the 20 hour expansion to Grand Theft Auto 4. This expansion pack that is called "The Lost and the Damned," is going to be INCREDIBLY POPULAR!!!
* TWO Halo games are on the way!!!
* Xbox 360 is by far the most dominant console for Real-Time Strategy games, and Halo Wars is incredible!
* Halo: Orbital Drop Shock Trooper is going to be an AWESOME game that will be marketed just as heavily as Halo 3 was!
* Alan Wake is a game that people have waited three years for!
* Forza Motorsport is by far the best racing simulation series available.. The fact that Forza 3 is on the way this year is going to be AWESOME!
* Resident Evil 5 is a huge achievement because it represents the first time a Resident Evil game will be on the Xbox platform.
* Tekken 6 - Same thing for Tekken
* Final Fantasy 13 - Same as above (although FF11 is on Xbox 360 now)
* Star Ocean 4 - is an Xbox 360 exclusive RPG that is awesome
*** Don't forget, there are PLENTY of games for the Xbox 360 that have not been announced yet. As several people have mentioned, we had no idea Gears of War 2 was going to be released in 2008 until well into the year. It will be interesting to see how things turn out.
You're tottaly blinded aren't you?
Now I know. You're not an employee. Even MS would be ashamed of this kind of enthusiasm.
You're either a ten years old troll, or plain crazy. Maybe I won't flag you this time, because it's AWESOME.
He's probably just messin with us. Cause this one's pretty bad even going by Kim standards. It is pretty funny though, almost as if it is meant to be funny. Maybe its like a parody of the average fan-boy?
Mr Bach, is that you?
Alan Wake definitely is an interesting title. It will be released when it's ready though, according to its creators. Which could just as well be 2010, considering the fact people have been waiting for the thing for 3 years now.
Bleak Corner said:
Alan Wake definitely is an interesting title. It will be released when it's ready though, according to its creators. Which could just as well be 2010, considering the fact people have been waiting for the thing for 3 years now
Max Payne was 4 years in development and that didn't exactly turn out to be a classic. The game was a run of the mill third person shooter with a bullet-time gimmick.
Remedy are still a PS3 registered developer and with the time and funds spent on Alan Wake it wouldn't surprise me if we seen the title on the PS3 at sometime. Just like Bioshock. In other words, a timed exclusive.
http://v4vg.com/the-information-box-alan-wake-plot-visuals-playstation-3...
Depends on your definition of classic. Remedy is one of the most highly esteemed developers in the PC world and the Max Payne series was tremendously influential with its successful implementation of bullet time, gritty noir storytelling and impressive graphics (at time of release obviously). There is a world outside of consoles, Japanese developers and gamers older than the Nintendo generation, Top_Dollar.
It's true that it could be a timed exclusive, but that's really a moot point as any game released on another console after a year is an afterthought (Bioshock and every other 360 port to PS3 never made it anywhere near the monthly top 20 charts).
Since Alan Wake is being published and funded by Microsoft Game Studios, there's no way it's coming out on the PS3.
Aloosh said:
Since Alan Wake is being published and funded by Microsoft Game Studios, there's no way it's coming out on the PS3.
Yeah, just like the "Only on Xbox 360 and Windows" Bioshock.
In other words, Remedy own the IP (just like 2K with Bioshock), therefore they can do what they want with it, after it's "exclusive period" expires!
Sorry, but that's incorrect. BioShock and Alan Wake have two very different deals and types of publishers.
BioShock was published and funded by 2K, so they're not beholden to any platform, other than the exclusivity deal they made with Microsoft.
Alan Wake is published by Microsoft, and have control over the Alan Wake IP, as they're funding the development of it. There is no exclusivity period. Remedy are only the developers. It's a 2nd party title and therefore will only ever come out on a platform Microsoft wants it to come out on. Remedy cannot do as they like with the IP. They cannot decide to release it on the PS3 if they want to - only Microsoft can do that, which they have never done.
The Halo IP is a good comparison: Bungie is known for developing the game, but it's published and funded by Microsoft. Microsoft decides what to do with the IP. There's no exclusivity period on it either.
It's the same as Killzone 2, or LittleBigPlanet, which are published and funded by Sony, but developed by others; they'll never come out on the 360. There's no exclusivity period here either.
From the official Alan Wake FAQ:
Why isn’t Alan Wake on the PlayStation 3?
We never announced platforms except for “next generation of consoles”. Yeah, the plural is in there, so I do understand where the sentiment comes from, so I do apologise for any disappointments.
It was a big decision for us to go with a console first party publisher with Alan Wake, but looking at it in hindsight I still think it was the right one for the game and for the company.
To "go with a console first party publisher" means that it's controlled by that publisher - "first party" means the console creator, which in this instance is Microsoft.
Take a look at the official FAQ for more info: http://www.alanwake.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1216
Good explanation. From games published by Microsoft, you won't see on another platform. Same for Sony. One note though, Guerrilla is a 1st party studio of SCEA meaning they are an internal studio. Media Molecule is an external studio but I hope Sony snaps them up. A great example of a 3rd party studio is Insomniac. They can develop for any platform they choose but Sony owns all the IP's they have developed thus far. Same for Bungie. They can now develop for any platform they want but MS owns Halo, which is evident by them releasing it under every genre they can.
I didn't realize Guerrilla were a Sony first party. I try to keep up-to-date on things like that so thanks for pointing that out :)
When they first announced it, didn't they actually say it was going to be a PS3 release? Although Max Payne wasn't my type of game, I do enjoy horror-ish games though - but yeah... even with this amount of development time, it could still be crap... here's to hoping it's not - on whatever system it gets released. :)
Remedy may have said that the Alan Wake was going to be a PS3 release, but that would have been before they made the deal with Microsoft to be their publisher, which means it's no-longer coming out on the PS3. Remedy was funding and developing the game on their own before Microsoft came onboard.
I'll check it out on the 360 then... I highly doubt it would look any better on the PS3 anyway as it seems developers do not seem interested in improving on their titles anymore with PS3 ports - taking the Bioshock port for example. I've never cared much for console wars - but I do care about getting certain games on the platform that suits them best. A game like FF13 for instance - it's going to be a huge win for Microsoft if that one looks identical (or possibly improved) after its initial PS3 release... and since Square Enix usually really does some hardware pushing with these titles, it's going to be very interesting to see what happens with that game.
Wow not looking good for MS this was bound to happen though with only a small handful of 1st party studios what did u expect ? Ive been sayin it for months MS doesnt have the support necessary to keep the exclusives coming it was only a matter of time and w a PS3 price cut and an exclusive timed launch of FF in Japan MS is in trouble the Japanese will eat that game up and it will def sell consoles. MS had a good if not excellent run but in 2009 your gonna see Sony close that 8 million console gap rather quickly with its price drop and excellent lineup.
There are still a lot of stuff not announced. I mean look at last year, Gears 2 wan't announced till GDC.
Plus, they still have two Halo games. Both will sell very, very successfully. I'm sure Sony will do good, but the fact is it won't catch up to Microsoft this year, or likely ever.
MS could have some unannounced titles for 2009. Currently, the list is pretty lean though. It actually looks worse than Sony's.
They will have at least one new game announced at GDC, guaranteed. But Alan Wake doesn't belong on this list, as interesting as it looks from the 2 year details, I am highly doubtful it'll come out in 2009.
Most of these games are multi plat...
Which isn't shocking. Hopefully, Microsoft announces some exclusive titles (not this DLC crap) for the remainder of this year and early next.
I would like to see more announcements from both on PSN and XBLA titles.
this lack of software has been predicted for years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3185663.stm
The game industry has had to encompass an exponential staffing level growth with each generation. The first wave of home computers saw a single person doing everything, the next saw teams of 2 to 5. The consoles have a similar story to tell, just larger teams from the start. We are now at a stage where the development team for a videogame is matching the crew of a major Hollywood blockbuster in terms of size and budget. This generation, the development and publishing houses are flying blind learning how to cope with such huge teams of people and the administration of it all. They cannot look back to previous years for experience, as the past is games development in a spare room of a parents house, or a short term rent office. The net result of this is a stumbling and sporadic release of titles. Alan Wake (Alan Wait to the internet), along with the the concept of a Blu-Ray based game filled with gaming content. are wishful thinking. I have serious doubts that either will come to be. This far into the last generation, the Xbox had a comprehensive library covering most genres, and the PS2 had the most breath taking library of games in the industries history. Where are the titles for the current generation, that whilst not system sellers, are bedrocks of a good game library; titles such as Rallisport Challenge, and Crimson Skies?
If Halo ODST acutally comes out this year then I'll be surprised, Halo Wars could be awesome and Resident Evil 5 should be a hit. Okay so it's only 3 games I'm looking forward too but I still have to get GOW2 and I'm hoping for another Call of Duty, still I'd rather have a bit of a dry year than buy a ps3 which in my humble opinion is still far too expensive, only tempts me due to Little Big Planet and is a total swamp donkey to look at, oh and it's controllers are awful.
I'm sure it will. Bungie already stated the game will not be a full-fledged title on price and content. It is a standalone expansion pack to Halo 3.
Similar to the PS3 lineup, I see a lot of stuff I don't care about, or the ones I DO care about are all cross platform or "Release date TBD", which knowing programmers means "may not show till next year"
I don't see 2009 being the year that shoves people one way or another with the console "war".
The 360's line-up is piss poor, exclusives are on thin ice and over deep water. Most are third party games, while games like Alan Wake maybe not be released this year at all. Also, games like Mass Effect 2 maybe even get a PS3 release as it's EA who are pulling all the strings at Bioware now.
MS have the weakest line-up for 2009. No doubt about that. MS are running out of steam as each year their line-up get's worse, 2007 was majestic for them, 2008 was hardly a vintage year, while 2009 looks to be very average.
I seem to remember that this time last year similar doom and gloom predictions were being made regarding the 360s software line up for 2008, how it would be impossible to follow the great selection 2007 offered, and look how that prediction turned out! I think it's best just to wait and see as far as M$ are concerned, it's only worth worrying if things are still looking "dry" after this years E3.
If we look at it, there wasn't that much top exclusive 360 games in 2008. I can remember only of GOW2, Fable II and L4D. And all of them came in the end of the year.
Sincerely it seems rather weak when compared to the PS3.
Only 4 exclusives (2 halo games, 1 DLC and 1 that we don't really know if it is good), it really doesn't seem that attractive.
But I bet that MS has some cards up their sleeves. They better have, or else if Sony manages to drop the price of the PS3 somehow, it will be unstoppable.
I bet Mass Effect 2 will come in 2009.
ME2 will appear in some form at GDC09.
6 of those are coming on the PS3- dry doesn't cover it really.
I suspect MS has several more first party titles up their sleeves and/or exclusives they just haven't announced yet. MS has a history this gen of holding games close to their vest and not talking about them until the calendar year they are released (I personally disagree with this strategy, but it seems to be working for them).
Even if you assume all 8 PS3 exclusives scheduled for this year will be good, the problem for Sony is that gamers won't decide to spend $400 for a handful of exclusives. They're going to look at the entire game library available (in terms of variety, quantity and quality) on each console and that's why third-parties are far more important in the end and 360 wins that battle hands down.
Exclusives are what determine if a user buys a console. It is the only compelling reason to choose a console over the other. If you make your console buying decision over multi-platform games, then obviously exclusives don't matter. If you look at upcoming games for a platform and one of those platforms have many exclusives you like and also receives the same 3rd party titles....then your decision is easy. I have each of the consoles this gen for the exclusive games they offer. If I didn't, the PS3 would be my choice as I have a preference for the IP's they have available. Yes, if those IP's were on another platform, then I would own it. I bought my 360 for Gears and Alan Wake. Hopefully Wake is actually released this year.
Microsoft has acknowledged the criticism of not showing any games beyond what many already know are releasing and this year at E3, they are going to show games that are further out. Something I thin we can all like.
I hear what you're saying, tirminyl, but have to disagree somewhat. For example, I usually buy multiplatform games which have a strong online component on 360 for the superior online features and community 360 offers. If a game is strictly single-player (or the online doesn't interest me) I'll base it on price (I find most games usually have a slight sale on one platform or another within 6 weeks of launch).
Sony's lack of standards has resulted in a fragmented user and feature base (some gamers have headsets, most don't; some games have voicechat, some don't, etc.) and their online performance has been abysmal (MGS4, LBP, SOCOM debacles). 360 has had it's share of glitches online, but the experience is notably more consistent and fully featured.
Superior online features Sony has pretty much caught it with that you can no longer say that because they are both pretty much equal with a few more options on 360 but if those few options are worth $50 a year then go ahead and be the idiot.
Sony has "pretty much" caught up? How you figure?
P.S. -- if I was going to call people idiot because I don't like their opinions or choices I might try not to make that position apparent in a rambling post that demonstrates a complete lack of appreciation for such niceties as punctuation or grammar or coherent structrure but go ahead and maintain the worst stereotypes of PS3 fanboys all you left out was 1337-speak and a RRoD joke as you make a fool of yourself for everybody to see but go ahead and if you missed it this extended sentence is what's known as mocking you before you jump in with "well you did it too".
I don't really see what's so bad about MGS4 online, sure it was slow to register and there weren't many online for a while but I think thats because people actually wanted to play the engrossing, awesome, exclusive single player game first?!! And LBP has issues because it's REVOLUTIONARY. 360 hasn't come close to presenting any software as groundbreaking as LBP (Brilliantly done rehashes on 3rd person shooters still doesn't sound revolutionary to me, and look at the MS's Mii2's (or MiiHD's whteva they totally ripped the Mii)... barf), plus there haven't been any 'network' issues it has been copyright infringement issues causing incredibly minor inconveniences to a few people on LBP who kick up a big fuss. While PS3's online capabilities are yet to bloom games like Warhawk and utilities like Home show that the potential is definitely there and that it is up to Sony to get out there and show developers how to use their machine better.
I hear what you saying and have to disagree as well. Even with standard set of features to support, that still does not solidify the end product for the user. There are games on both sides of the fence that have network issues. I do agree features should be standardized for PSN, but allowing them to have an open network has provided them with other benefits.
When I choose multi-plat titles, I play on the PS3, even if it is online. I have found nothing breaking for me. Could be that I don't like talking to people online, and don't care to listen to people talk, lol. I also hate people inviting me to play a game when I am playing something else, lol. I'm weird, yes.
I also realize I am not a representative of everyone out there so I am just sharing my personal thoughts.