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XSN Sports - It Coulda Been A Contender?
Thanks to Gamers With Jobs for its article discussing the apparent problems inherent in Microsoft's XSN Sports titles for Xbox Live. The article points out: "The XSN Sports brand was intended to provide a unifying structure for the ultimate online sports gaming experience." The author then goes on to argue that "the games upon which [XSN is] based do not compete in market share with the competition, at least for the most popular sports", also pointing out the alleged clunkiness of Rallisport Challenge 2's XSN Sports event settings, which has you "manually entering the name of the competition [and a number of other selections] into the Xbox using the controller." What would you like to see from XSN Sports, after its break for 2004 ends?
Stuff like this does not bode well for the future of the XBox. With most XSN titled benched for this year and titles being cancelled left and right along with uncertainty on the specs of the next XBox, one can only wonder if we're seeing a pattern of withdrawal from the field.
Granted, that none of this definitively means XBox is dead, but nothing has happened yet to assure that another XBox is a certainty.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
I recently purchased the aforementioned Rallysport Challenge 2, and have to say I am very pleased with it. _Except_ for the XSN BS. Or the plain Live! content.
Sure, it's great to race ghost rallies realtime, but the killer is the comms. For some reason, the game developers thought that it would be interesting if you could only talk to the person in front of you, and the person behind you. For one thing, this leads to you talking to seemingly random people when you're lined up at the start. Also, during a close race, it's hard to keep up a conversation with one person, as that person would have to be within one position of you. Not to mention the fact that the guy ahead of you is keeping up a conversation with the guy ahead of him, so you only hear half of it. Kind of like someone talking on 2 cell phones at once to someone talking on 2 cell phones at once [... ad infinitum]
I've played lots of Live! games where you can talk to your whole team at once (ala Rainbow Six 3) or everyone in the game at once (ala PGR2). I haven't done any bandwidth measurement, but from the sounds of the audio, they're using a fairly high compression codec, and they're band pass filtering for additional size reduction. There's no reason why I should only have to talk to 2 other players bandwidth-wise.
I suppose I should mention how impressed I am with the use of the communicator in SC:PT. In that game, the communicator becomes a somewhat vital part of gameplay (the spies can intercept mercenery communication, and the mercs can jam the spies). This obvious good sense comes from Ubisoft (who, IIRC, also made PRG2) so it doesn't surprise me that they got things right. What suprises me is how much MSGS got things wrong.
Did nobody play-test this stuff?
Karma: Raspberry Kiwi
1) A deal with Konami to bring Xbox Live support to Pro Evolution Soccer - with Microsoft's cash they should be able to sort out the official player and team name problems (ie it's Manchester United, not Manchester and it's Arsenal, not North London).
While I'm sure most Americans don't appreciate this, Pro Evo 3 on the PS2 is somewhere in the top two or three best games of all time, it's that good. It's sort of the European John Madden, as well - it's the game of choice when you've got your friends round. FIFA 2005 will support Xbox Live, but it's all flash and no substance compared to Pro Evo.
2) If they don't already have this, all XSN Sports games should support the creation of User tournaments and leagues, not just one off matches.
The dominance of the EA Sports brand has stifled innovation in sports gaming, when it had the potential to become the killer app for online console gaming.
Every season I rent a ton of sports games, and I would say 80% of the time I find sega's lineup to be the best. My brother owns an Xbox and PS2 and he has yet to buy one M$ based sports game. He claims the 2004 series are literally comparable to Sega/EA sports games in 2002.
It's likely the XSN series will not be coming back at all, as MS has finally convinced EA to make games for XBL. If they port all their sports franchises, the Xbox would be a more attractive platform for sports gamers than MS could make it alone, and they must know that.
If I sign up for a tournament on my PC, which is linked to the gamertag- then why do I have to put in all the info again, on my Xbox? Unlike the author though, I finally got smart enough to write the shit down on paper. Even that was annoying, because the way the screens are set up on the XSN site, you can only print ONE password at a time- because the other rounds are behind 'tabs'. So, I end up writing them. This sucks, because in my daily life I don't write anything anymore.
Another problem with the XSN setup, is that I have to go to my PC to sign up for a tournament. The tournament usually doesn't start for a few days. By that time, I probably will be busy or something. Here is a scenario that would be a lot better:
- I'm playing on my Xbox, and decide to start a tournament.
- On my Xbox I go to the XSN tab and 'Start a Tournament'
- I invite friends and stuff, and boom- an hour later the tournament starts.
- The tournament only runs a few hours, and we know who the winner is by the end of the day
- We can stare at the stats for the rest of the week on XSN.
Also, the only game that I have successfully taken part in tournaments in Links 2004 (golf). Because there, you are only competing for a low score, and you don't need to go head-to-head. I guess you can do this in Rallisport Challenge 2 also, but I am so bad at that game that entering a tournament would be an absolute joke. But the important thing is that I don't need to arrange a play time with a stranger. Like I really want some dumbass e-mailing/calling/IMing me because we are scheduled to play a game of basketball.The delay of days, or in some cases weeks before a tournament starts is crazy. If I get the itch to start a tournament, I want to start it NOW not sometime in the distant future.
That's why I end up playing 'Optimatch' all the time. I don't want to wait around for this stuff. But if tournaments were immediately available, and I know I can sit and play for a few hours- sure, I might as well. Otherwise it's too damn complicated. What's next- mandatory practices?
XSN is a great concept. They just need to integrate it into the games a little more. Bigger tournaments are usually not better, because getting 64 people to cooperate is never gonna happen. But if Microsoft keeps trying, and they come out with XSN 2.0, I'm sure this could kick some butt.
Actually, come to think of it. XSN is really not necessary if the games themselves have this built in. But at least it was a push in the right direction.
No reason to lie.
Uh, just this week both Full Spectrum Warrior and Chronicles of Riddick were released as XBox Exclusives. Look at their ratings. XBox is stronger now than it's ever been.
XSN games were put on hold for a single year as part of the deal with EA to get EA to use Live instead of wanting to use their own game servers. It was a good move on Microsoft's fault... Microsoft needs EA to take advantage of all the XBox's features more than it needs a little bit of sales from some sports games. In addition, everyone agrees that the *concept* of XSN is brilliant, it's just the execution that needs work. XBox games can be patched, remember? These issues will be fixed.
Another XBox? Uh, not only is XBox2 already mostly designed, but the dev kits have already been distributed to some of the game development houses. I can quite safely assure you that another XBox is a certainty.
Comment of the year
It doesn't seem like there is still a need for XSN, as EA has announced it will be making their games for Xbox Live. Sure, XSN games were good, but they don't compete with the fame of EA titles. No football game can ever beat Madden, same goes for NBA Live, imho.
The fact that MS is losing major money on the Xbox, has been pulling back on its marketing, and has more than few analysts calling for them to cut projects like the Xbox means that it is very possible, within a year, the Xbox will be no more and the Xbox Next will never make it past development stage.
I'm not denying the attractiveness of the Xbox but, to be fair, it has not caught on the way a console has to by this point of its lifecycle.
> What would you like to see from XSN Sports, after its break for 2004 ends? ...a break for 2005.