Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Announces Xbox E3 Line-Up, Xbox Live Details.
Thanks to Shacknews for pointing to the brand-new Microsoft E3 press release that accompanies their press conference this evening. Highlights include the announcement of three Rare titles exclusively for Xbox, including Grabbed By The Ghoulies (!) and Conker:Live And Uncut, confirmation of Halo 2, Counterstrike, Project Gotham Racing 2, and a new Crimson Skies game for Xbox, plus the full info on the Xbox Live expansions, including XSN Sports and Music Mixer.
...when you can go straight to The Beast to read the press release from the source. It's at least formatted better.
One advantage the xbox seems to have in the console wars is the dominance of the 'console FPS' game genre. Halo, Red Faction, Serious Sam, RTCW and now CS. Seems good option for those sick of the latest Radeon/GForce costing more than the rest of your system combined.
Though have to insert obligatory remark about WASD/mouse control advantage here.
A web-based stats database? Sure beats the "records get reset every month" stuff we get now. We've had stats on the Web for games like UT on PC, but a central stats database for every Xbox Live game? That's just downright cool. Not to mention the site will also have communicate-with-friends features.
General lobbies will also be really nice.
Some of the integration features, like alerts to your cell, or games that allow you to accept online challenges even when you're playing single-player, are the kind of features that don't mean much to the 90% that won't use them, but mean the world to the 10% that do. It's extra features like that - ones that don't get in the way if you don't want them - that make a nice, complete product.
The Xbox should really be defined by Xbox Live. It's the best online console by a ridiculous margin. Hopefully people will get over the Microsoft bashing, Sony/Nintendo faithful chest-pounding, and take note that Microsoft is (*gasp*) truly innovating here! No other console, or PC for that matter, have the kind of complete online gaming service that Microsoft is making Xbox Live to be.
The EA Sports juggernaut rolls on over the competition NOT because of quality but because it's what people are used to. Say "video game football" and most people are going to think of Madden. Say video game sports and they're going to think of EA Sports (sometimes maybe 989 since Sony pumps the heck out of that name).
Microsoft didn't make any kind of mistake in not wooing EA more. EA believes that they are going to get a huge payday out of online console play at some point - possibly with monthly fees, which they refuse to rule out - and they wanted money and concessions out of Xbox Live that just were not going to be forthcoming - for example, EA wants to disable online play of older sports games in order to "encourage" purchase of the sequels. In fact, Microsoft making any kind of special deal with EA for getting their sports franchises online would have been even more foolish considering that Microsoft (like Sony) is marketing their own set of sports games, all of which had a respectable debut. They aren't as polished as the Sega and EA franchises but they'll only improve.
What it comes down to is this: If EA gave a damn about customer satisfaction, they would take the Sega route and simply enable online play on BOTH the PS2 and Xbox Live. Instead, they have decided to give their Xbox customers the finger. The Sega and Microsoft brands are going to get a huge bump out of this from Xbox Live users and a lot of those people may never buy an EA Sports game again.