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6Microsoft: Firstparty Xbox 360 releases "superior" to Nintendo or Sony's
During an interview with Industry Gamers, Xbox CFO Dennis Durkin claimed that Microsoft's first-party Xbox 360 releases to date have been "superior" to those of Sony and Nintendo. In response to a question on whether or not Microsoft needed to bolster its first-party line-up with new studio acquisitions, Durkin answered: "I would ask you to go and look at some of your data, just to compare first party performance over the course of this lifecycle, because I think our first party performance in terms of quality bars and units per title this shift has been superior to our competition's. But certainly we think first party is an important tool and you can't dispute titles like Forza, which has consistently come out on a repeated cadence and sold multi-million units. You can't dispute things like Fable, which again, on a very consistent pace, has come out and sold 2 and 3 million units a pop. And now new titles, like Kinect Sports, which has come out and sold over 3 million units. So we are, not only building existing IP and incubating around titles like Halo and others, but really building new IP in new areas. And that's going to be core to us... to build those experiences and monetize those."
Source: Industry Gamers
Comments
6Life's good when you're living in a bubble.
Microsoft seems to be following more and more in Nintendo's footsteps in regards to who their core demographic is. Their "hard core" IP's have fallen by the wayside and Gears of War and Halo are the only two left in the stable. The rest is all Kinnect this and Kinnect that and even with E3 there was a significant balance issue between what could be called a "hard core" game vs. the Disney Land Kinnect game.
Sony has been the most constant with their message and their IP's with Microsoft and Nintendo both saying they want to appeal to the hard core...but who is that now?
Good points. I think the problem is that the 'Core' titles are expensive to make, and you have Core gamers split across the platforms due to entrenched loyalties and/or limited finances. With the exception of a couple of big-hitting exclusive Core franchises per console (Halo/Gears/Fable.Forza; Uncharted/Gran Turismo/Killzone; Mario/Zelda) I can see the strategy behind focusing having other in-house titles aimed at the Casual market.
As long as we still have a multiple console market, I can see the Core gamer being best served by the 3rd party independents who can bang out big-budget muti-format releases (CoD, Battlefield, Assassin's Creed, Bioshock etc) to reach as many punters as possible.
What is a hardcore game now? Around 10 years ago a core game was one which had ingenuity, clever level design, challenge and could even have childish graphics. How possibly can a game which requires no brainwork, has zero creativity anywhere apart from the graphics, and all the gameplay consists of is run, hide and shoot be regarded as a game for hardcore gamers. Personally I think Kirby's Epic Yarn is more hardcore as it has more creativity within than every first party MS game put together. R.I.P Rare.
Well he works for microsoft so i wouldn't expect him to say any different. But in my opinion it is all three companies which have pretty weak first party lineups. Just lots of been there done that sequels.
How do they explain Kameo, Viva Pinata, Too Human, Banjo Kazooie, Lips, Crackdown and Kinectimals?