This is the sort of stuff that I have issues with on community oriented sites now that businesses have infiltrated them. YouTube should threaten to take this crap down since Sony is essentially offloading the filehosting capabilities onto YouTube for this stuff. I feel the same way when I see a movie or album advert on tv now with a URL directing to its MySpace page. These are supposed to be sites to build communities around, not a freaking marketing section of the web.
This has been the most obvious choice for Nintendo to launch into online with anyways. They already had some experience with Pokemon Crystal back on the GBC using a cell phone connector to communicate with other players for battles. It just makes a whole lot of sense. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there's a Pokemon MMO in the works for the future. Aside from the fact that Pokemon is almost a psuedo alternate reality game anyways (the only thing an MMO could provide is not needing to seek out your friends in real life for trading). Mega Man Battle Network would've made an interesting MMO concept, if Capcom hadn't already beaten the dead horse in to the ground by the 4th installment....
I'm also wondering if MP3: Corruption is going to get any sort of online capabilities. I don't see how exactly they'd go about doing multiplayer with the wiimote (methinks the smaller real estate for everyone would be really hard to use with the wiimote, since you'd need much more precise aim) while people are physically present. It almost seems like online is the only way to go.
I'm just crossing my fingers that they come through with WiiConnect24 content for Twilight Princess, and they had better do it for Smash Bros (new stages, new characters anyone?), Mario Galaxy, and Animal Crossing. The inevitable Mario Kart Wii and F-Zero Wii must get the WiiConnect24 treatment as well (I think the old PC arcade racer Pod spoiled me with downloadable tracks and cars). Actually, I think most of Nintendo's franchises could very easily get Connect24 features without a whole lot of thought on Nintendo's part.
I can live with the friend codes, but I really do wish they'd consider doing a global friend code that maps to all your other friend codes. Hell, they have a patent on a software messaging system which provides you a buddy list and what that person is doing. Why they haven't put it to use yet is completely beyond me. Or sued XFire for that matter.
Sony is very very far behind on its road to being the system with the most boxes in the living room. In less than 2 weeks, Nintendo has already moved about 1.5-3 times (depending on if what figures you look at) as many Wiis as Sony has PS3's. This also doesn't take into consideration the fact that the XBox360 has been firmly engrained in the market for almost a full year. For sony to have had a successful launch they would've needed to at least tied with Nintendo for the amount of consoles shipped. By the way, the Wii goes on sale in Japan and Europe next week, so expect the gap to widen.
Then there's the brewing 3rd party discontent. Let's see: PS2 golden child Grand Theft Auto has gone multi-platform, and was confirmed for the XBox360 before the PS3 version was announced. That's a first. Square-Enix has been slowly having an affair on the side with Nintendo, to the point where they are doing another direct PS2 game sequel on a handheld system (FF12-2, first being Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories), in addition to two confirmed titles on the Wii. Then there's the whole business a few years back about them wanting to revisit and revamp FF7-9 to have FFX or better graphics. Well they just got done with updating 1-6, which have sold pretty well. There's a new untapped market for them to exploit with the Wii. Forget the FFVII PS3 tech demo. They could easily pull off some impressive visuals with the Wii if given the chance. And quite honestly, there's going to be a decent market out there for them to sell remakes to, especially if they get crazy with the wiimote and offer the usual hard-ass bonus dungeon + bonus content that they've been offering. Plus they can still make overly impressive FMV if they so choose. In addition, we have Kojima being less than pleased with the lack of rumble on the Sixaxis, which is something they're dealing with but I don't think he's the sort of designer/director who likes to have his style crimped. Sony needs to find a new golden child / poster boy for their system, or they are going to go no where fast. Sure this is probably over analyzing/extrapolating from an ant hill of problems, but there's no denial that these are the franchises that helped a lot to get the PS2 and PS1 to where they were in previous generations. If I was Sony, I'd be more than a little concerned about dissension in the ranks.
I think I read somewhere that Sony needs to sell about 30 games per console for them to break even on each unit sold. That's an awfully large task considering that most games are going in the $40-60 range. That's a minimum of $1200 per gamer. And as the hardcore audience becomes more hardcore and less diverse in their interests, finding 30 worth buying / must have games in their respective niches is gonna be a tough act to pull off. There's no way for them to catch up at this point. Microsoft will have an XBox360 price drop well ahead of any by Sony, and then there's still the Wii which is well ahead of both their price points. Not to mention the fact that the Wii is already the cheapest to make, Nintendo is actually making a profit on each unit regardless of bought games, so they are in the perfect position to drop the price when they want to and not worry about it, especially since manufacturing costs are going to go down as the process refines itself.
Long story/rant short: Sony faces a monumental uphill struggle at this point.
If you are positioning yourself to be the 2nd system in the living room, won't you naturally end up in 1st place in terms of market share? The theory being that no one is going to want/need a PS3 and an 360, but could certainly afford one or the other in addition to the Wii. Also, both Sony and MS were trumpeting the "get us and a Wii" horn shortly after E3. There's no way the Wii will be close to third place.
Hell, in sheer sales right now, Nintendo is well ahead of the PS3 by at least 2x.
Now I understand how MS was able to get away with using a wifi connection to transfer DRM crippled songs between devices.
Isn't this almost like a Mafia protection scheme? Pay this "pirate tax" because we know you're gonna do it anyways, but we'll still sue you if we can? Is that the new plan? If you can't sue all your users, make them pay extra out of spite? And the Better Business Bureau/Department of Commerce/FTC hasn't done anything why?
I really think these guys are fighting a losing battle. The fact that their schemes get more bizzare each month only proves they're starting to realize it.
That's pretty much my theory at this point. They've proven themselves to be a company that is going to make games for the platform that will give them the biggest audience. Anyone who argues graphics/hardware capabilities had better take a good look at the S-E lineups on the PSP and DS and give a good explanation as to why there's been a lot more titles on the DS than the PSP. Their increasing interest in cell phone games is another good example of this. It seems like Deja vu if it's technology (and it's cost) that makes Square-Enix switch their "exlusivity" again.
Excellent points, especially since I know the trends you speak of since I've been playing games since the NES. In particular Mega Man has gone from niche (original series) to mainstream (x series) to oversaturated (battle network) and niche (zero and ZX) again. Also, I'd argue that Final Fantasy gained momentum (or potential energy) in the 16-bit era and then exploded once it went 3D on the PSX. A lot of Square's earlier games are not much to write home about, their work really started to take off when the SNES was released.
Alright point taken. But these are the big huge exclusive franchises to the system. GTA was always PS2 first, XBox + PC later. The fact of the matter is this: if you wanted to play MGS, FF, GTA, Jak & Dexter, Ratchet & Clank, etc. you wanted a PS2. The big issue is going to be how many exclusive titles is the PS3 going to have to carry it along, especially the bigger names. It's pretty obvious at this point that Square-Enix is putting a lot of power behind Nintendo and are about to release another game using Mario soon (Itsast Special with Mario: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/itastds/ ), not to mention the amount of support they're showing for the GBA, DS and Wii. My guess is that if the PS3 doesn't shape up to be the selling system that is expected, Sony stands to lose some noticeable 3rd party support.
Probably. Although I have to really wonder how low the price will be by then. After 2-3 years will it be down in the "typical" price range of $300 for a new console? In the mean time, it looks like Square-Enix is content to keep their bankroll going with Wii and DS titles.
I'm still curious to see how this system holds out in the long run. The launch is going to most likely go well, as long as you don't look at the real numbers, in other words they'll sell every unit they've made just forget about the fact that they are a noticeable number of units short of the initial estimates/hype. Long term should be a lot more interesting, they're still a ways off from the next installments of system-seller franchises. Metal Gear Solid 4 is still about a year away, GTA4 is within a year, Final Fantasy XIII is very very far off (supposedly only 1% of it is complete? Although might not be a big deal, FF7 shipped 2-3 years after the PSX was out). I'm just wondering exactly what Sony is planning to fill in the gaps between these 3 high-profile franchises which pretty have pretty much kept the PSOne and PS2 running.
Does anyone remember how many units they originally said they were planning on having for launch? Selling 80k units in your home territory isn't exactly "news". Hell the PS2 managed to sell 900,000 units in its first weekend in Japan. Somehow a 92% reduction in the number of units you managed to push is "newsworthy"? Give me a break.
And I thought they said a while ago they weren't going to port Vice City Stories cause they didn't make much on the LCS port. Unless they're talking about porting LCS to PC finally...
Original Starcraft Terran Campaign Mission 3? The one where you have to defend the base for 30 minutes while 90% of the map is Zerg controlled. Best moment is at when they send everything they've got at you with 5 minutes left on the clock. Most awesome experience ever in an RTS.
Tobias: "Oh, my God, we're having a fire. Sale. Oh, the burning! It burns me! Evacuate all the schoolchildren! (Screaming. Singing "Amazing Grace.") This isn't a fever! (Continues singing.) Can't even see where the knob is! (Dramatic sigh.) And scene"
Don't forget there was a NES port done back in the day too. The NES version probably looked better than the C64 version, I wouldn't be surprised if they used that one for the VC in this scenario.
This completely explains the cease & desist that was sent to that Halo RTS mod team earlier this month...
GTA IV Episodes? That also explains why Sony got their act together finally with the online stuff. It'd be a shame for them to completely lose that exclusive.
Blizzard was probably one of the earlier companies to start this. If you want to play on Battle.net you MUST be running the most recent version. If you don't have it, it automatically downloads and installs. Don't want the new version? Tough. Go play direct IP.
Steam is a bit different though. With steam you have less control over when your content gets updated. Although I must say the writing was on the wall with this feature. Anyone remember the patch for Episode 1 in response to people having a hard time in certain sections?
This seems like an entirely uselss and unneeded feature. Players shouldn't be encouraged to play with a variety of guns. If this is an attempt at balancing the weapon mix, it's pretty pathetic.
That's cause it's a rebranded Lite-On drive? I did the same thing, and then found out my folly. Take a look around for the firmware updates and see what's really behind the label.
Slashdot Mirror
So you mean this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5D ?
This is the sort of stuff that I have issues with on community oriented sites now that businesses have infiltrated them. YouTube should threaten to take this crap down since Sony is essentially offloading the filehosting capabilities onto YouTube for this stuff. I feel the same way when I see a movie or album advert on tv now with a URL directing to its MySpace page. These are supposed to be sites to build communities around, not a freaking marketing section of the web.
This has been the most obvious choice for Nintendo to launch into online with anyways. They already had some experience with Pokemon Crystal back on the GBC using a cell phone connector to communicate with other players for battles. It just makes a whole lot of sense. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there's a Pokemon MMO in the works for the future. Aside from the fact that Pokemon is almost a psuedo alternate reality game anyways (the only thing an MMO could provide is not needing to seek out your friends in real life for trading). Mega Man Battle Network would've made an interesting MMO concept, if Capcom hadn't already beaten the dead horse in to the ground by the 4th installment....
T O2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-b ool.html&r=30&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=Nintendo. ASNM.&OS=AN/Nintendo&RS=AN/Nintendo
I'm also wondering if MP3: Corruption is going to get any sort of online capabilities. I don't see how exactly they'd go about doing multiplayer with the wiimote (methinks the smaller real estate for everyone would be really hard to use with the wiimote, since you'd need much more precise aim) while people are physically present. It almost seems like online is the only way to go.
I'm just crossing my fingers that they come through with WiiConnect24 content for Twilight Princess, and they had better do it for Smash Bros (new stages, new characters anyone?), Mario Galaxy, and Animal Crossing. The inevitable Mario Kart Wii and F-Zero Wii must get the WiiConnect24 treatment as well (I think the old PC arcade racer Pod spoiled me with downloadable tracks and cars). Actually, I think most of Nintendo's franchises could very easily get Connect24 features without a whole lot of thought on Nintendo's part.
I can live with the friend codes, but I really do wish they'd consider doing a global friend code that maps to all your other friend codes. Hell, they have a patent on a software messaging system which provides you a buddy list and what that person is doing. Why they haven't put it to use yet is completely beyond me. Or sued XFire for that matter.
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=P
Here's my conspiracy theory.
Sony is very very far behind on its road to being the system with the most boxes in the living room. In less than 2 weeks, Nintendo has already moved about 1.5-3 times (depending on if what figures you look at) as many Wiis as Sony has PS3's. This also doesn't take into consideration the fact that the XBox360 has been firmly engrained in the market for almost a full year. For sony to have had a successful launch they would've needed to at least tied with Nintendo for the amount of consoles shipped. By the way, the Wii goes on sale in Japan and Europe next week, so expect the gap to widen.
Then there's the brewing 3rd party discontent. Let's see: PS2 golden child Grand Theft Auto has gone multi-platform, and was confirmed for the XBox360 before the PS3 version was announced. That's a first. Square-Enix has been slowly having an affair on the side with Nintendo, to the point where they are doing another direct PS2 game sequel on a handheld system (FF12-2, first being Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories), in addition to two confirmed titles on the Wii. Then there's the whole business a few years back about them wanting to revisit and revamp FF7-9 to have FFX or better graphics. Well they just got done with updating 1-6, which have sold pretty well. There's a new untapped market for them to exploit with the Wii. Forget the FFVII PS3 tech demo. They could easily pull off some impressive visuals with the Wii if given the chance. And quite honestly, there's going to be a decent market out there for them to sell remakes to, especially if they get crazy with the wiimote and offer the usual hard-ass bonus dungeon + bonus content that they've been offering. Plus they can still make overly impressive FMV if they so choose. In addition, we have Kojima being less than pleased with the lack of rumble on the Sixaxis, which is something they're dealing with but I don't think he's the sort of designer/director who likes to have his style crimped. Sony needs to find a new golden child / poster boy for their system, or they are going to go no where fast. Sure this is probably over analyzing/extrapolating from an ant hill of problems, but there's no denial that these are the franchises that helped a lot to get the PS2 and PS1 to where they were in previous generations. If I was Sony, I'd be more than a little concerned about dissension in the ranks.
I think I read somewhere that Sony needs to sell about 30 games per console for them to break even on each unit sold. That's an awfully large task considering that most games are going in the $40-60 range. That's a minimum of $1200 per gamer. And as the hardcore audience becomes more hardcore and less diverse in their interests, finding 30 worth buying / must have games in their respective niches is gonna be a tough act to pull off. There's no way for them to catch up at this point. Microsoft will have an XBox360 price drop well ahead of any by Sony, and then there's still the Wii which is well ahead of both their price points. Not to mention the fact that the Wii is already the cheapest to make, Nintendo is actually making a profit on each unit regardless of bought games, so they are in the perfect position to drop the price when they want to and not worry about it, especially since manufacturing costs are going to go down as the process refines itself.
Long story/rant short: Sony faces a monumental uphill struggle at this point.
If you are positioning yourself to be the 2nd system in the living room, won't you naturally end up in 1st place in terms of market share? The theory being that no one is going to want/need a PS3 and an 360, but could certainly afford one or the other in addition to the Wii. Also, both Sony and MS were trumpeting the "get us and a Wii" horn shortly after E3. There's no way the Wii will be close to third place.
Hell, in sheer sales right now, Nintendo is well ahead of the PS3 by at least 2x.
Now I understand how MS was able to get away with using a wifi connection to transfer DRM crippled songs between devices.
Isn't this almost like a Mafia protection scheme? Pay this "pirate tax" because we know you're gonna do it anyways, but we'll still sue you if we can? Is that the new plan? If you can't sue all your users, make them pay extra out of spite? And the Better Business Bureau/Department of Commerce/FTC hasn't done anything why?
I really think these guys are fighting a losing battle. The fact that their schemes get more bizzare each month only proves they're starting to realize it.
That video clips has Wii written all over it. If it can pull of Metroid Prime 3, that tech demo should be possible on a Wii.
It still never gets old though...
That's pretty much my theory at this point. They've proven themselves to be a company that is going to make games for the platform that will give them the biggest audience. Anyone who argues graphics/hardware capabilities had better take a good look at the S-E lineups on the PSP and DS and give a good explanation as to why there's been a lot more titles on the DS than the PSP. Their increasing interest in cell phone games is another good example of this. It seems like Deja vu if it's technology (and it's cost) that makes Square-Enix switch their "exlusivity" again.
Excellent points, especially since I know the trends you speak of since I've been playing games since the NES. In particular Mega Man has gone from niche (original series) to mainstream (x series) to oversaturated (battle network) and niche (zero and ZX) again. Also, I'd argue that Final Fantasy gained momentum (or potential energy) in the 16-bit era and then exploded once it went 3D on the PSX. A lot of Square's earlier games are not much to write home about, their work really started to take off when the SNES was released.
Alright point taken. But these are the big huge exclusive franchises to the system. GTA was always PS2 first, XBox + PC later. The fact of the matter is this: if you wanted to play MGS, FF, GTA, Jak & Dexter, Ratchet & Clank, etc. you wanted a PS2. The big issue is going to be how many exclusive titles is the PS3 going to have to carry it along, especially the bigger names. It's pretty obvious at this point that Square-Enix is putting a lot of power behind Nintendo and are about to release another game using Mario soon (Itsast Special with Mario: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/itastds/ ), not to mention the amount of support they're showing for the GBA, DS and Wii. My guess is that if the PS3 doesn't shape up to be the selling system that is expected, Sony stands to lose some noticeable 3rd party support.
Probably. Although I have to really wonder how low the price will be by then. After 2-3 years will it be down in the "typical" price range of $300 for a new console? In the mean time, it looks like Square-Enix is content to keep their bankroll going with Wii and DS titles.
I'm still curious to see how this system holds out in the long run. The launch is going to most likely go well, as long as you don't look at the real numbers, in other words they'll sell every unit they've made just forget about the fact that they are a noticeable number of units short of the initial estimates/hype. Long term should be a lot more interesting, they're still a ways off from the next installments of system-seller franchises. Metal Gear Solid 4 is still about a year away, GTA4 is within a year, Final Fantasy XIII is very very far off (supposedly only 1% of it is complete? Although might not be a big deal, FF7 shipped 2-3 years after the PSX was out). I'm just wondering exactly what Sony is planning to fill in the gaps between these 3 high-profile franchises which pretty have pretty much kept the PSOne and PS2 running.
Does anyone remember how many units they originally said they were planning on having for launch? Selling 80k units in your home territory isn't exactly "news". Hell the PS2 managed to sell 900,000 units in its first weekend in Japan. Somehow a 92% reduction in the number of units you managed to push is "newsworthy"? Give me a break.
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=212
No further comment needed
And I thought they said a while ago they weren't going to port Vice City Stories cause they didn't make much on the LCS port. Unless they're talking about porting LCS to PC finally...
Original Starcraft Terran Campaign Mission 3? The one where you have to defend the base for 30 minutes while 90% of the map is Zerg controlled. Best moment is at when they send everything they've got at you with 5 minutes left on the clock. Most awesome experience ever in an RTS.
Like this?
:(
Tobias: "Oh, my God, we're having a fire. Sale. Oh, the burning! It burns me! Evacuate all the schoolchildren! (Screaming. Singing "Amazing Grace.") This isn't a fever! (Continues singing.) Can't even see where the knob is! (Dramatic sigh.) And scene"
I miss Arrested Development
Don't forget there was a NES port done back in the day too. The NES version probably looked better than the C64 version, I wouldn't be surprised if they used that one for the VC in this scenario.
This completely explains the cease & desist that was sent to that Halo RTS mod team earlier this month...
GTA IV Episodes? That also explains why Sony got their act together finally with the online stuff. It'd be a shame for them to completely lose that exclusive.
Mistwalker is also doing a DS game called ASH. So they're not entirely XBox 360 exclusive.
Blizzard was probably one of the earlier companies to start this. If you want to play on Battle.net you MUST be running the most recent version. If you don't have it, it automatically downloads and installs. Don't want the new version? Tough. Go play direct IP.
Steam is a bit different though. With steam you have less control over when your content gets updated. Although I must say the writing was on the wall with this feature. Anyone remember the patch for Episode 1 in response to people having a hard time in certain sections?
This seems like an entirely uselss and unneeded feature. Players shouldn't be encouraged to play with a variety of guns. If this is an attempt at balancing the weapon mix, it's pretty pathetic.
I bet there's going to be a merger at some point. Coming soon: FaceSpace!
That's cause it's a rebranded Lite-On drive? I did the same thing, and then found out my folly. Take a look around for the firmware updates and see what's really behind the label.
Actually, it's south and west of the northwest corner of CT (I believe). That's pretty darn close to BumF*ck if you will.