OrtizGames

I just spent like seven nine hours yesterday playing World of Warcraft. I’m in Mexico with nothing to do for two weeks. I might as well play games. But World of Warcraft the whole day? I really need to play something else. Or do something productive. I guess I’ll go fix Mom’s computer, or something.

Wait, or Monster Hunter. (*finds PSP*)

Someone who is not successful said something that is completely a lie and irrelevant. If exclusives didn’t exist, practically nothing would turn games to one title or the other. It’s getting to the point where everything has the same features and abilities. If exclusives didn’t exist, people would have no reason to buy one console over another, and they’d all end up buying the cheapest one.

They’d buy the Wii. Can you imagine the horror?

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I remember thinking in summer of 2006 that I wanted an Xbox 360, and bad, for one game. One, single game was catching my attention. I wasn’t waiting for Halo 3, I wasn’t excited about Gears of War–which really wasn’t even that big yet, so whatever–no, I wanted to play Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

To me, that was the selling game of the 360 during that time. A multiplatformer.

Fast forward to one year later, and the games that sell the PS3? None. Despite the fact that it has FEAR, The Darkness and Oblivion in its repertoire, it has no selling point at all. And people hate it. They hate the PS3. They hate Sony, too–not that they didn’t have a reason to, with Sony’s constant confusing marketing strategies that are about as commendable as falling on your face on purpose. Everything seems geared completely against the Playstation 3, and what’s the argument used against it?

“It doesn’t have any games.”

At the very same time in the PS3′s lifespan, it holds just as many interesting titles as the Xbox 360 did in its time–and yet people hate the PS3, with a passion.

Why is that?

I have a theory that has three points of reasoning behind it.

1) PS3 does not have a Gears. Gears of War was the game that turned Microsoft’s sales completely around–whether it be because of the overhyped marketing put across for it about how it would be a ‘Halo-killer’ or just the general attitude of the game itself which somehow appealed to the exact same audience that would be interested in Halo, plus ten of their friends. Christmastime, and PS3 has no Gears of War title to show–it could have been Uncharted, or even Folklore, but Sony simply didn’t back the game up enough–they threw their support behind games like Heavenly Sword and LAIR which were, to be honest, simply atrocious compared to what was promised in the advertising. Heavenly Sword was by no means bad–I loved it, it was gorgeous–but it just didn’t live up to what people wanted, like Assassin’s Creed. And LAIR… let’s not go there.

2) Sony screwed up too much. Microsoft had the Red Ring of Death and crappy launch titles and the whole “This is an Xbox 180, not a 360!” bit. Sony had a lot of bad rap for not having “PlayStation Live” or having any good exclusive games. But they didn’t fix things. They screwed up with the Boomerang controller, which I have a high suspicion was supposed to have motion sensing technology but they wanted to save the news for later. Upon hearing people’s dislike for the controller, they went right back to the drawing board–only Nintendo came out with the motion sensor technology announcement first. And then Sony were left looking like jackasses as they raised their Sixaxis timidly, “We added motion sensing, too.”

Then there was the horrible PSP advertising, and bad management of things like prices and titles being held back, all of which made the console look like it was either not worth it or too hard to develop for.

3) Above all other factors, though, it comes down to competition. The Xbox 360, during its starting year (we all remember), had no competitors. It had CRAP games, like Perfect Dark: Zero, Kameo and Battle for Mattle (My affectionate name for Battle for Middle Earth II). It had some good ones, like PGR3, but those were so niche it was difficult to sell via mainstream (and PGR3 was rather limited compared to PGR2, to be honest). But it didn’t have any next gen console to compete with. It could make its mistakes, and there would be no other company to compare to.

Sony comes out with the PS3, making a lot of the same errors and having many of the same difficulties as the 360, but now that Microsoft has an established fanbase, Sony’s called out as if they were incompetent, because they have trouble catching up to a console that has already been out for a year. Now, let’s think critically here, you naysayers who seem to believe PS3 has no games: what are the REAL differences between PS3′s launch and the 360′s?

Decent but somewhat unimpressive shooter

(Xbox 360) Perfect Dark: Zero

(PS3) Resistance: Fall of Man

Fun But Otherwise Unremarkable Driving game

(Xbox 360) PGR3

(PS3) MotorStorm

Oh Look A Multiplatform Game

(Xbox 360) Oblivion

(PS3) Also had Oblivion, but also recieved games like FEAR, Project 8 and Fight Night

A War Game? Oh Wow

(Xbox 360) COD2

(PS3) COD3

I mean, the list goes on. We didn’t have that much of a success story with either of these launches. Or do you remember Xbox 360s in very short supply? I certainly don’t. And PS3′s been getting back up. Xbox 360 had to do exactly the same thing. We barely ever sold 360s when I was working in the game shop. The thing is, nobody was really aware Xbox 360 had been tripping. Now, with Nintendo and Microsoft also competing in the NextGen market, Sony has to not only establish their console but also maintain face as an approachable platform for games release.

In summary, all I’m trying to say is, lay off Sony, peeps. Yes, they’ve screwed up. But in the long run, PS3 has a very bright future ahead of them. All they need is a must-have, and a killer app.

I nominate MGS4 and Final Fantasy. But we could really use something right now.

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Enough said.

We have the advantage of textures, models, maps, engines, hi-quality renderers… why aren’t we using them? Because we want to fit COD4 on a DVD? I understand the need for multiplatform, but that’s ridiculous. We all know PS3 has more power, more capability, more space. And there’s already an extensive list of must haves for the PS3, not including the ones that haven’t been released.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

Folklore

Eye of Judgment

Heavenly Sword

Rachet and Clank

Warhawk

Rock Band

Unreal Tournament 3

Assassin’s Creed

Oblivion: GOTY Edition

The Orange Box

And no, many of them are not exclusives–but UT3, for example, is coming out with exclusive content for the PS3 in the form of uploadeable user-created content–in fact, Mike Rein specifically said the game was designed for PS3.

So it’s just a matter of time before developers start really kicking into gear and adding some serious content.

That, or we run the risk of future multiplatform games looking like this.

And no, it’s not coming out for 360.

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When Reuters says something, it tends to be rather serious, so in this article they just released on MGS4 I had to bite my lip a little. I promised I would write about M.U.L.E., but I really haven’t have that much time recently so I’d rather mention this current issue briefly.

Reuters suggests MGS4, along with a lot of other upcoming exclusives for the PS3 (and Wii and presumably Xbox 360, if in fact it’s getting any?) are among the last of the fading breed of console exclusives. Now, they may have a point that if games continue to become more and more pricey in their development, they’ll eventually be unable to sell their product enough to get a product, but there are several things that Reuters is not taking into account, and I say this in the humblest manner possible.

It is my opinion that exclusives will forever be a major part of console’s selling points, because each console has such a unique personality. It would be impossible, for example, to design a Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the Wii and maintain the attitude, grandeur and power of the PS3 version. We see what happened wih COD3 on the Wii. And the same goes the other way–I can’t imagine third party developers being too keen on developing a game based on motion-sensing technology and have to put it on the Xbox 360 and PS3 (though in some cases I guess the game could be ported to the PS3, too).

When we continue to hear things like the console war is still heated and rolling, it makes me think that exclusives must continue to play a huge part in the future of this industry, like a checks-and-balances political system; you release a Zelda, we release a Halo, they release a Final Fantasy.

Also, there’s the matter of the rising trend of online purchases. Through things like Xbox Live, The Wii Channel and the Playstation Store (I’m putting my money on it becoming integrated into PSHome pretty soon) players will have all sorts of unlockable/buyable, downloadable content. Costumes, add-ons, weapons, features can all be sold by the same developers for their exclusives and they can make a much larger cash influx (sort of how Blizzard just keeps making money off the same stuff). Because developers won’t have to go through stores and distributors (though I’m not sure how much they have to pay to put their work on each console’s online portal) they’ll be able to make a lot more profit off each feature sold.

Finally, to address the issue of MGS4′s looming deadline, I have a feeling well over 33% of Playstation 3s sold were bought by people who wanted Metal Gear Solid 4. After all, look at all those rumors (and another) spread around by Xbox 360 fanboys that MGS4 is cming out on Xbox 360, when Hideo Kojima already confirmed the bloody thing for PS3.

I remember reading at some point that Kojima replied, when asked why so many rumors kept popping up about MGS4 for the Xbox 360, “Well, because obviously people want it on the Xbox 360.” I lost the source, so I can’t really cite it, but when I read it I thought that was such a concise and clever answer.

So if this many people want it out, even those that don’t have a PS3, I don’t think MGS4 has anything to worry about.

And I believe firmly, despite the negativity I’ve heard around me, that it will be an excellent game.

Here’s to hoping.

P.S. WordPress somehow deleted this post which I put up earlier today… I seem to have had a draft saved so I could rewrite the end, but man, that was irritating and frightening.

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http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/sony-expecting-great-deal-of-momentum-with-ps3/18568/?ncid=AOLGAM000500000000016

 There’s much good news coming from Sony recently. I’m usually excited to hear good news about the PS3, since I’m such an avid supporter of its higher performance technology. Honestly, I would have one right now if I could afford it. I’m hoping the upcoming price cut (rumored $299 USD with the release of Haze–source unavailable, but there was a video, even, so I’m convinced) will allow me to finally be able to purchase one of my own. I’d prefer an original 60gig, with the integrated backwards compatability, but if I have to settle for a cheaper 40gig version I may very well do so. I’ve wanted a PS3 for well over two years now.

To elaborate on why I support the PS3′s high-power approach to gaming:

Someone once mentioned to me that “console gaming shouldn’t end up so focused on performance and visuals and hardware, because a good console will never match up to a PC.” While I agree a great PC will be able to run Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion far better than the PS3 or Xbox 360 ever could, I have to argue that from an industry perspective this can’t possibly be true. PC games, we’re assuming, will always improve graphically, as our technology is growing exponentially at a steady rate (it was technology doubling in potency every 8 months or so, no?) so consoles, if they want to be able to host those games (ex. Bioshock, Oblivion, CoD4 and SPORE) need to raise their hardware bar every so often to keep up. PC developers want consoles to host their games. They pay a lot of money for it, and often those games that are successful on the PC (and Mac) will be successful on consoles (imagine WoW on PS3). But why would PC developers care about consoles?

Because PC gamers often download their games illegally. And most of the time, a software developer is guaranteed that if their game is released on a console, it is infinately more likely that gamers will actually buy the real copy of the game and not download or purchase a free/cheaper pirated version.

So if gaming graphics continue to increase on PC and not on consoles, trust me, the balance will tip and the scales will fall. Unless people plan on holding back on the processing power of PCs (trust me, they won’t) games will continue to grow more and more complex and detailed, and consoles will have to keep updating. They can’t afford to sit still and experiment with the same old technology (and by this I mean infra-red).

And trust me, even if I have to buy a new Playstation every seven years because of the technology increase, I won’t mind. I’d rather have that than the gaming industry crackle and break like a twig under the strain of a rapidly evolving digital world.

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