A Look Back at the Gaming News of 2006

Every year in gaming is interesting, but last year was ... special. Two major console launches, the rebranding of Windows-based games, a couple of magazine shutdowns, new sites, scandals, rumours, and the last 'real' E3 we're likely to see. Thankfully, several of the gaming sites have gone back to revisit some of the important bits from last year. Eurogamer has pulled out the biggest stories from the first part of the year, as well as the second half of the year, offering up a comprehensive piece called 'That Was The News'. 1up is highlighting some of their best gaming culture articles, with articles ranging from sex to humor, and then all the way back to Warcraft. Gamasutra does the same, with their ten most-read stories of the year giving a good snapshot of what was on the minds of gamers in 2006.

Comments

Sony's PS3 Dissappointment Timeline

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist]

from Natural_Mystic at http://uk.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php? topic_id=25247543 :

First, we start with Sony itself. Yes, I was going to only make a timeline of the PS3 news, but how can you ignore this arrogance from late 2005?

Nov. 10th, 2005 - Sony is caught hiding a rootkit inside music CD's that place a virus on users computer. Sony's Tom Hesse defends the decision by stating that people don't know what it is, so they shouldn't care

Now that we know Sony cares about us, lets move on to the PS3...

Feb 27th, 2006 - Sony misses it's Spring launch date
May 8th, 2006 - Sony holds it's E3 conference announcing the pricing of the PS3 at $600/$500
May 8th, 2006 - New PS3 controller will have six degrees of motion, but no rumble feature. Sony's Phil Harrison states that rumble was last gen and no longer needed.
May 31st, 2006 - Sony's Phil Harrison denies copying the Wiimote and states that the PS3 will replace the PC
Sep 5th, 2006 - Gamers looking to get the best picture out of Sony's premium PlayStation 3 package will need to shell out extra for proper hookups.
Sept 6th, 2006 - PS3 is delayed in Europe until March 2007
Sept 6th, 2006 - PS3 launch shipment is cut from 2 million to 400,000 in the US (100,000 to Japan)
Sept 8th, 2006 - Sony's President admits that the company's hardware is in a current state of decline
Sept 26th, 2006 - PS3 first-party titles announced to be the same price as third party titles, at $59.99
Sept 26th, 2006 - Square Enix will not exclusively support Sony's PS3 as much as they did with the PS2.
Sept 29th, 2006 - Sony's President Ken Kutaragi states that his company does not care about the Xbox 360 and Wii competition.
October 12th, 2006 - Sony Exec calls the 360 and Wii "too expensive"
October 19th, 2006 - The infamous spec sheet comparison and how Sony claims the Xbox 360 requires HD-DVD to play games
October 20th, 2006 - Announced that Sony may have to replace your PS3 controller for you after it no longer holds charge
October 24th, 2006 - Sony sinks Lik-Sang
October 26th, 2006 - Sony's Q2 profits decrease by 94%
October 28th, 2006 - Sony president Ken Kutaragi said he expects the PS3 to be capable of running games at a stunning 120fps
October 30th, 2006 - PS3 will push Sony $1.71 billion into the red
October 31st, 2006 - Japan launch of the PS3 is cut to 80,000 units
Nov 8th, 2006 - Sony ships without update. You must update your PS3 out of the box in order to use PlayStation Network
Nov 9th, 2006 - NBA Live 2007 is cancelled on the PS3
Nov 9th, 2006 - Oblivion is pushed back from launch title to Jan 2007
Nov 10th, 2006 - Sony's Phil Harrison states that he can no longer confirm a March 2007 launch for Europe
Nov 11th, 2006 - PS3 launches in Japan and rewards few
Nov 11th, 2006 - Sony unprepared for Japan launch
Nov 14th, 2006 - Sony will miss 400,000 unit target for the US. Approx 150k to 200k will be shipped for launch
Nov 14th, 2006 - PS3 has backwards compatibility problems
Nov 16th, 2006 - PS3 downscales 720p games instead of upscaling to 1080i
Nov 16th, 2006 - Sony's Jack Tretton comments on the PS3 BC problems and states that the Wii has 0 backwards compatibility
Nov 20, 2006 - NYT not impressed with PS3
Nov 20, 2006 - Game Devs Prefer 360
Nov 20, 2006 - PS3 annoys Joystiq
Nov 21, 2006 - PS3, PSP Rainbow Six held till '07
Nov 23, 2006 - Saving Sony, one console at a time
Nov 25, 2006 - Sony retracts 1080i fix statement, leaving customers in lurch.
Nov 26, 2006 - More PS3 exclusives head to 360
Nov 26, 2006 - Bloomberg: Sony missed PS3 ship targets
Nov 30, 2006 - Sony shuffles senior execs
Nov 30, 2006 - Analyst: "I cannot imagine a PlayStation 4"
Dec 4, 2006 - Sony Australia: Wii "More Fun" than PS3
Dec 8, 2006 - Court rules for Immersion; Sony to pay up
Dec 11, 2006 - Industry watchers weigh in on "record-low tie ratios" for Wii

Re:Sony's PS3 Dissappointment Timeline

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, the Wii had a record-high tie-in ratio from what I've read. Whereas the PS3 had a ratio of less than 1 in Japan (and under 1.5 in the US), the Wii ratio was around 3, which is fantastic.

Re:Sony's PS3 Dissappointment Timeline

[Fozzyuw]

• Dec 20, 2006 - Forced bundles and high retail price put consumers off, claims tracking firm.
• Dec 27, 2006 - PS3 Greymarket Watch: Scalpers Returning PS3s Back To Stores.

I find that interesting, as this is exactly what both my friend (who got his hands on 4 PS3's, 2 of each kind) told me. He sold one for $1,500 (60gb) and one for $800 (20gb) and he couldn't sell the other two, which he returned to the store. He said there was just too many scams and shams going on with try to sell them and they just got sick of it.

Also, my local Gamestop manager chatted with me saying they where selling PS3's relatively slowly. It could take up to 2 days to sell the stock of PS3's. Three weeks later, after the holiday's, I was in the store again and they're telling a customer they have no DS or Wii's and they cannot save Wii's over the phone. Also, that once someone calls on the phone for a Wii, the people in the store usually over hear them saying they have Wii's in stock and proceed to purchase them, before the guy one the phone can make it to the store.

It was certainly an interesting year. I look forward to 2007. But saying that, I've not taken my Wii out of the box for the last week. (hauling it all over for the holidays) I'm playing Baulders Gate on the PS2 and Guild Wars on my gaming PC. Too much to do and too little time. I guess once the Wii gets online RPG games, I'll be playing that. Until then, it basically waits for a party to play some sports and Raymond.

Cheers,
Fozzy

Re:Sony's PS3 Dissappointment Timeline

[Endo13]

What's really scary for anyone who likes Playstation is that the PS3 can already be found sitting on the shelf at Wal-Mart, despite the console launching with only 200K units in the US. Apparently the low supply hasn't mattered, as demand seems to have already been met.

Re:Sony's PS3 Dissappointment Timeline

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course, there's always a question of why - what makes the fanboy tick? It's quite simple, really. Fanboys are the result of people who felt like outsiders for so long finally getting a modicum of acceptance. You see similar behavior in all sorts of milieu - from car snobs that will only touch one manufacturer or line, to cineastes who won't touch a perfectly fine director (as opposed to everyone who wants to shoot Uwe Boll on sight), from Epicurean food critics who refuse to give good ratings to certain cuisine types, to sports fans who argue for the bloody poundings of their hated rivals. There's a sense of alienation in each person that's solved somewhat by finding something they like, and discovering there's a community around it. Suddenly, it's not just that they're appreciated (as consumers), but there's an entire group of people dedicated to the same object, person, idea, or what have you. In part thanks for the freedom from alienation and in part fear that said alienation will again begin one day, fanboys are almost violent in their devotion to a company.

Dissecting the Fanboy Mind

Re:Sony's PS3 Dissappointment Timeline

[ZakuSage]

First thing on the list, I didn't read any more of them:

Feb 27th, 2006 - Sony misses it's Spring launch date

Since when is February Spring?

Re:Sony's PS3 Dissappointment Timeline

[rob1980]

That article had a bunch of links - the date of the story was Feb. 27, the release date was supposed to be spring 2006.

As for what wasn't special...

[Mr. Samuel]

Consoles being massively under-supplied at launch!

Re:As for what wasn't special...

[SimDarth]

Yeah, that never happens with Microsoft or Nintendo. It always amazes me how every time a system comes out everyone is so surprised that there is a shortage. No one wants to have their consoles sell well and have some left over... they want the news reporting about long lines at Best Buy and people getting capped in line waiting for their systems or getting jumped and console-jacked leaving the store.

Re:As for what wasn't special...

[jizziknight]

There's a difference between shortage and low supply. Sony = shortage and Nintendo = low supply. Low supply is what you want to have; enough numbers to satisfy the demand (and get a large number in people's hands so that their friends can play and want one) but not so many that there are units sitting on the shelves. This way you still sell a lot of units and are selling out, thus having the image of a successful launch, rather than selling a lot of units and still having units on the shelves, thus making it look like the demand isn't very large. The average consumer doesn't know what the launch numbers are, just that they're selling out very fast and quite a few people they know have them, so if they see units sitting on the shelves for more than a day or two at launch, things begin to look sketchy. If you end up having a shortage, people get pissed because they can't find one and almost none of their friends have one for them to try out, so they become disinterested. Then if people start seeing them sit on the shelves for more than a day or two during launch, and almost nobody they know has one, it looks as if there is no interest in the console, and they won't buy it.

Re:As for what wasn't special...

[Mr. Samuel]

Well said. I'd like to note that I didn't intend to single out Sony; to some degree demand will exceed supply during console launches, although it seems Sony's case last year was particularly bad.

The very idea of constraining supply to positively manipulate demand seems stupid, although it probably works (have we had the opportunity to see what happens when a major console ships with supply left over?). I mean, in theory, wouldn't you want Gadget Y whether it is selling out or not? Is this tactic employed with other kinds of products? Doesn't a sell out like the PS3's make the parent company seem incompetent? Are people really so blind to this sort of deception? It reminds me of a recent Penny Arcade strip:

"Does that shit actually work on people?"
"It doesn't not work."

Gamasutra

[XxtraLarGe]

Gamasutra does the same, with their ten most-read stories of the year giving a good snapshot of what was on the minds of gamers in 2006.

Gamasutra is targeted at game developers, so this is a good snapshot of what was on the mind of game developers, not gamers per se. I realize that probably most game developers are also gamers, but they really are in a different category.

Helpful guidelines for discussing this topic.

[HeavenlyBankAcct]

Proper format for posting here:

Opening Sentence -- A strident sentence declaring your steadfast allegiance to one of three multi-national electronics companies, followed by a detailed description of exactly why said company cares about you deeply, both as a consumer and an individual. This sentence should include liberal usage of the terms "next-gen", "the gaming industry", and "fanbois", and should be followed by several line breaks and possibly an emoticon.

Martyr's Tale of Sacrifice -- Wherein the author should detail the trials and tribulations which he endured to purchase his product of choice. If possible, this dilemma should be immediately related back to the product's amazing sales performance, in contrast to the utterly dismal sales of its competitors.

Martyr's Tale of Martyrdom -- In keeping with the general tone of the opening paragraph, the next section of your post should be a desperate lament to those who are polluting the internet with $_SYSTEM bashing. It should also be mentioned at this point that Slashdot is now controlled by a shadowy cabal of $_OTHER_SYSTEM supporters who are misrepresenting the true public opinion of this issue for their own personal gain and popularity.

Links to Blog Entries -- Next, we move into the 'discovery' phase of the post. Here, a list of links to blog entries should be detailed. It is important that very few of these entries actually contain any useful information, and even more important that none of them are links to respected news outlets -- These should be remedially written diatribes about the superiority of $_SYSTEM that include a photograph of a display box on a shelf in Kalamazoo to demonstrate, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that nobody is buying $_OTHER_SYSTEM.

Reference to Overblown Technical Deficiancies -- Whether it's a faulty piece of nylon, or an unsupported specialty video mode, every technical product will have initial mechanical glitches. Exploit this to hammer home your opinion! Completely ignore all statements, fixes, or recall attempts issued by the company and make sure to do everything in your power to illustrate $_OTHER_SYSTEM as a faulty machine that was created solely for the purpose of fleecing computers. This is a good time to refer back to the theme of your Opening Sentence and mention that the manufacturers of these systems are simply money-grubbing capitalist automatons, while the manufacturer of YOUR system operates from a place of pure altruism, happiness, and flying unicorns.

Summary -- This can be anything from a simple rephrasing of your opening statement to something more dramatic and edgy, such as "I CANT BELIEVE YOU BOUGHT A $_SYSTEM SUCKERS!!!" in all caps. While the content of this may very, make sure to employ a tone of overwhelming gravity -- lest people forget, you are discussing video game consoles here and this topic should be treated as the massively important and life-changing decision that it is. No hyperbole could EVER be too overblown to emphasize the importance of your choice of entertainment products, so make sure to use plenty of phrases like "I'd rather die than...", "Sure, idiots might think that...", and "Jesus christ, are you fucking retarded?" Another valuable tactic is to use comically exaggerated descriptions of physical violence to explain what would happen to anybody who tried to "force you to buy/play a $_OTHER_SYSTEM", as electronics retailers are often known to do.

Hopefully this has been a helpful primer to entering the Great Console Debate of 2007. Follow these simple guidelines and watch opinions sway!

hey, obsessive guy

[thatguywhoiam]

You couldn't think of a shorter way of telling us that you don't want to buy a PS3?

Re:hey, obsessive guy

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Mar 23, 2006 -- Although the plastic surgery to soften the slight sharpness of Morgan Webb's face makes her objectively prettier, many fans feel her visage has lost some of its character, which had attracted them in the first place.

Dec 30, 2006 -- Child lies to me that they had "talked to Best Buy in Westland" and that they did in fact have a new shipment of wiis that morning. After driving 35 minutes to get there, manager notes they have no such shipment, and expects none in the forseable future. Child admits he was actually put on hold for 10 minutes that morning, then gave up and remembered they had told him a week and a half earlier that they'd be getting a shipment on that particular day, and he "just assumed it would have arrived."

Real E3

[d0hboy]

...and the last 'real' E3 we're likely to see

'Real' is a matter of opinion -- some might say the more recent E3's degenerated into something more and more fake (ie. smoke and mirrors) as time went on. From oversized booths to expensive parties and the like, it probably ate more than its share of marketing (vs. development) dollars from most game publisher's budgets.

..Note: upon reading a bit, I might have shot my own earlier paragraph down--E3 apparently started as a pretty substantial exhibition, according to gamespy's 10 year's of E3 article.

quote: "The Electronic Entertainment Expo was never a small show. It began with over 50,000 attendees and has grown to 75,000."

Re:Real E3

[kria]

The layout for the exhibitor's area at Gencon Indy has been revamped, and a substantial area set aside for the electronic gaming folks. Some of the companies will save some money, because they were already attending GenCon, such as SOE and the makers of City of Heroes.

The Map in PDF format

Other trends

[Tom]

There's one other trend where I think 2006 has really excelled - though 2005 wasn't much better:

Selling half-finished games.

On the PC, this is currently the major problem. I've played so many games in '06 that were clearly not released "when done", but much earlier. Massive gameplay problems, huuuge AI errors, crippling graphics problems. Ever since the Internet and widespread broadband adoption have made patching easy, it seems companies ship when it's half done and hope they can work the major bugs out between gold master and first week of sales.

And I don't mean small bugs. I mean game-stopping problems. Check the forums for any of the large games. Crashbug here, unplayable due to bug X there - and that's months after the initial release in many cases.

Re:Other trends

[Kpau]

Though I've somewhat enjoyed playing the new NWN 2, I knew I was in trouble when after *first* installing it right after launch date - it had to download a multi-hundred *mega*byte patch... followed by two others in the first couple of weeks. For that amount of byte transfer, they might as well have just saved the distribution and sold me a usage key to download over the net. People with dialup (still a large percentage of computer users thanks to telco failure to make good on promised deploys) are just fscking screwed in this environment. I do have a satellite ISP connection ... but the patch software for NWN 2 does not even have a resume feature ...it restarts from scratch if the download fails or is interrupted. I blew through the Hughes Net "stupid cap levels" the first evening. Never mind the horror of Steam, but at least it is able to resume (now if only it could throttle like torrent clients can).

WoW

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw this article on the Gamasutra link of popular articles, and I feel like I want to make my own rebuttal. The guy rails on WoW for a while about things that a lot of people do, common complaints you might say. But for people like me that actually enjoy WoW, the common complaints just tell me that instead of trying to shoehorn a single player mode into my MMORPG, you should go find a game you actually want to play.

Here's some key points that I want to comment on from is article.

Investing a lot of time in something is worth more than actual skill.

This is just not true in WoW. This is my Rogue's gear... full epics, some of the best on the server I play on. So you can safely say I've spent a lot of time playing (my /played is 250 days or so). So, according to this article, me having spent all this time playing means I'll automatically be awesome in pvp because of my gear, right? Right, except for the fact that I've been killed by Rogues, Hunters, Warlocks, and Priests in gear not only worse than mine, but gear so bad they might as well have been naked. Skill matters. Gear only helps people enhance skill they already had, it does not magically one shot your enemies. Some classes are more gear dependent than others (an undergeared warrior, for example, is going to have a really hard time beating a rogue like mine) but that's more of a problem with class balance than some huge design flaw.

Group > Solo

Yes, even though it has the most single player content of any MMORPG ever, WoW is not a single player game and I'm sorry. I really, truly am, this is not sarcasm. I used to be introverted online too, so I can understand people that don't want to group. But after I finally came out of my online shell, so to speak, I found that I loved interacting with people in MMOs, as much if not more (heh) than interacting with them IRL. It's so easy to run up to someone and start a conversation in an MMO. I can give you an example. Once I was in Silithus, killing some mobs that drop an item I needed for one of my tradeskills. I accidentally aggroed a few too many of these mobs and nearly died. This priest walked up to me, we weren't grouped and I hadn't ever seen him before, and said "Looks like they took a bite out of you!" and buffed me up and healed me to full. This is an example of how easy it is to reach out and make a difference, even to complete strangers in an MMO. I think it actually helps people who are introverted in real life venture out of their shell a bit and experiment with being a more social creature. It worked for me, at least, and it's one of the reasons I love the game.

At this point the article talks about guilds, and says, "It's a very weird social environment with the same dangers as nationalism and flag-waving." Sure, some guilds are like that. Some aren't, and I've found that the best guilds on a server almost always have good relations with most if not all of the other guilds on a server. Of course you get the occasional elitist attitude guilds, but take my guild for example. On Whisperwind, we're one of the most progressed guilds (several bosses down in Naxx, the hardest 40-man raid dungeon) yet we don't snub new players that apply to our guild. The rule is, two sponsors and you're in. That's almost the only requirement. We've had people way below 60 join because they had a couple friends sponsor them. I guess my advice to someone that thinks guilds are bad is to find a better guild or start your own. It may be a hard search, but well worth it.

[you can be banned for using] profanity (even though there is an in-game language filter, to say nothing of free speech)

I'm a pretty die-hard liberal but I had to laugh at this point. Someone is seriously demanding free speech in a video game?