#1 selling game in December, and the second-biggest franchise last holiday behind Madden, even though it only came out on one platform.
Innovation and originality dead? Sorry guys, just because Okami didn't appeal to an American audience because of it's heavy reliance on Japanese mythology doesn't mean that originality and innovation in gaming is dead. Is Twilight Princess on the Wii not innovative? Someone already mentioned Nintendogs, but what about Phoenix Wright, Dance Dance Revolution, Lego Star Wars, Rayman Raving Rabbids, SingStar and Viva Pinata? Those were all top-100 selling games over the holiday.
Just because "insert game here" didn't sell doesn't mean originality in gaming is dead. The rewards for making an innovative blockbuster have never been higher... just ask Red Octane.
What Microsoft is doing with the Zune is something new to the market... yes you can only play a shared song for three days, but at least you can share the song to begin with! Apple doesn't have a feature like this, and it's something I'm looking forward to. If a buddy has a song, I can wifi it over to my zune, check it out, and even if the zune store or whatever it's called doesn't have it, I still have the info on my device and can find the song from another provider.
When the iPod was first mentioned on slashdot, it got hammered as being too expensive, too unwieldly, blah blah blah... now, since it's Microsoft, the same crowd is crowing about how great the iPod is and how no one will ever buy this.
Sorry folks, innovation is good for all consumers. Get behind it.
Yes, COD2 is the first million selling title on the Xbox 360 in the US. So, it doesn't matter that you think the 360 is a flop in Europe, and it doesn't matter that you're sick of WWII shooters. The thing sold a million units to customers in the US. With a little over 3 million consoles in the US, that means a third of all 360 owners has COD2. The only other game with that kind of attach rate is Halo. So, snark all you want, people liked the game enough to buy a million copies of it, and it had been the #1 360 title on Live for most of the product's life. Yes, the last three weeks has seen Madden and Saints Row at the top. And yes, Halo 2 is the most played title of any platform. So what? The game was a well made, well crafted, popular game.
Awesome comment and it's great to see someone on/. contribute something other than "witty" one-liners about "M$". This is actually really helpful for some analysis I'm working on too... thanks Cyno01...
That's simply not true... I lost my hard drive and didn't have the Steam password anywhere. I reinstalled Steam, entered my email address and clicked the forgotten password link and I had the password in my inbox in seconds. I signed in, all my games were listed ready to be installed and I was playing HL2 in minutes.
Now, when I lost the CD Key to RTCW a couple years ago... well that's another story.
So, if I've been reading slashdot correctly, there are two things about game developers and publishers:
1) They're all greedy bastards
2) They all make crap games
And, in order to stick it to them, because they don't make anything good (apparently Call of Duty 2, Civ and Battlefront II all sucked) just buy used games (or pirate... shhh).
Let's tie it together using EA. Because of the next-gen stuff coming out (or not, depending on what place in line you were) and because of so much, as everyone here likes to say, crap, fewer games were sold on current gen. This, in turn, has led to EA layoffs.
Now, put your business hats on. If people are buying fewer games, what do you have to do? Well, you have to make games that appeal to the mass market, and to mom buying things for Little Johnny. You have to make games based only on big franchises, preferably tied into movies, with additional in-game advertising as an additional source of revenue since your consumer is buying used or pirating.
Do you think that will improve the quality of games? And what will you be buying in the used bin in a few years from now?
Some great games came out this year that no one bought - Psychonauts being a prime example. What did people buy instead? They bought Madden. You know who you are... a number of people here complaining about sequels and non-innovative gameplay have a copy of Madden. Hell, you might even have picked one up used.
So, EA has to make a decision. Come out with a franchise game based on an existing engine where they know they'll get "X" in sales, or come out with something innovative like Psychonauts and take the risk of losing their shirts on the title.
You can call it greed all you want, for the most part developers and publishers are people who love games, that like to bring good games out, but who also have to live in a market environment where they know they have maybe two months to make money on a game before the used copies start showing up for the next Madden or GTA or NFS that comes out. And, they have to live in an environment where people just don't always buy the great games - but they always buy the next Madden.
So tell me again how developers and publishers are greedy bastards who are making money hand over fist? Keep your chatter on tech topics like source codes and new virusses and just save the rest of us from reading your inane dribble on business topics you have no idea about.
Slashdot Mirror
#1 selling game in December, and the second-biggest franchise last holiday behind Madden, even though it only came out on one platform. Innovation and originality dead? Sorry guys, just because Okami didn't appeal to an American audience because of it's heavy reliance on Japanese mythology doesn't mean that originality and innovation in gaming is dead. Is Twilight Princess on the Wii not innovative? Someone already mentioned Nintendogs, but what about Phoenix Wright, Dance Dance Revolution, Lego Star Wars, Rayman Raving Rabbids, SingStar and Viva Pinata? Those were all top-100 selling games over the holiday. Just because "insert game here" didn't sell doesn't mean originality in gaming is dead. The rewards for making an innovative blockbuster have never been higher... just ask Red Octane.
What Microsoft is doing with the Zune is something new to the market... yes you can only play a shared song for three days, but at least you can share the song to begin with! Apple doesn't have a feature like this, and it's something I'm looking forward to. If a buddy has a song, I can wifi it over to my zune, check it out, and even if the zune store or whatever it's called doesn't have it, I still have the info on my device and can find the song from another provider. When the iPod was first mentioned on slashdot, it got hammered as being too expensive, too unwieldly, blah blah blah... now, since it's Microsoft, the same crowd is crowing about how great the iPod is and how no one will ever buy this. Sorry folks, innovation is good for all consumers. Get behind it.
Yes, COD2 is the first million selling title on the Xbox 360 in the US. So, it doesn't matter that you think the 360 is a flop in Europe, and it doesn't matter that you're sick of WWII shooters. The thing sold a million units to customers in the US. With a little over 3 million consoles in the US, that means a third of all 360 owners has COD2. The only other game with that kind of attach rate is Halo. So, snark all you want, people liked the game enough to buy a million copies of it, and it had been the #1 360 title on Live for most of the product's life. Yes, the last three weeks has seen Madden and Saints Row at the top. And yes, Halo 2 is the most played title of any platform. So what? The game was a well made, well crafted, popular game.
Uhm... 1 million in the US...
Awesome comment and it's great to see someone on /. contribute something other than "witty" one-liners about "M$". This is actually really helpful for some analysis I'm working on too... thanks Cyno01...
That's simply not true... I lost my hard drive and didn't have the Steam password anywhere. I reinstalled Steam, entered my email address and clicked the forgotten password link and I had the password in my inbox in seconds. I signed in, all my games were listed ready to be installed and I was playing HL2 in minutes. Now, when I lost the CD Key to RTCW a couple years ago... well that's another story.
Couldn't agree with you more... and with digital distribution it just might happen.
So, if I've been reading slashdot correctly, there are two things about game developers and publishers: 1) They're all greedy bastards 2) They all make crap games And, in order to stick it to them, because they don't make anything good (apparently Call of Duty 2, Civ and Battlefront II all sucked) just buy used games (or pirate... shhh). Let's tie it together using EA. Because of the next-gen stuff coming out (or not, depending on what place in line you were) and because of so much, as everyone here likes to say, crap, fewer games were sold on current gen. This, in turn, has led to EA layoffs. Now, put your business hats on. If people are buying fewer games, what do you have to do? Well, you have to make games that appeal to the mass market, and to mom buying things for Little Johnny. You have to make games based only on big franchises, preferably tied into movies, with additional in-game advertising as an additional source of revenue since your consumer is buying used or pirating. Do you think that will improve the quality of games? And what will you be buying in the used bin in a few years from now? Some great games came out this year that no one bought - Psychonauts being a prime example. What did people buy instead? They bought Madden. You know who you are... a number of people here complaining about sequels and non-innovative gameplay have a copy of Madden. Hell, you might even have picked one up used. So, EA has to make a decision. Come out with a franchise game based on an existing engine where they know they'll get "X" in sales, or come out with something innovative like Psychonauts and take the risk of losing their shirts on the title. You can call it greed all you want, for the most part developers and publishers are people who love games, that like to bring good games out, but who also have to live in a market environment where they know they have maybe two months to make money on a game before the used copies start showing up for the next Madden or GTA or NFS that comes out. And, they have to live in an environment where people just don't always buy the great games - but they always buy the next Madden. So tell me again how developers and publishers are greedy bastards who are making money hand over fist? Keep your chatter on tech topics like source codes and new virusses and just save the rest of us from reading your inane dribble on business topics you have no idea about.