November Console Sales Numbers

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I definitely mentioned in both the NBA 2k thread and the Gamertag thread that I couldn't even got on to sign-up for my account. Fortuanetely for me I must have been at the tail end as I couldn't get in one night, but the next day everything was peachy.

If it would have gone on for several days for me I would have been pretty pissed.

Ah, I see it now. Looks like you dodged most of the problem since you didn't try to log in until the very end of the outage.

[Butter]

For my Wii, I have bought an extra Wiimote and a Nunchuk. $50, that is it. May get a couple of Gamecube controllers eventually so my kids can play the older Gamecube games, but we are having so much fun with Wii Sports, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, and the Super Mario titles, that we are going to be playing on those for a long while.

Also enjoy the weather and News feature thanks to my wireless connection. Love the fact that I didn't have to buy another adapter to get the Wii to hook up to my wireless network. Couldn't be happier with the Wii so far. At least until it sends out its mind control rays and takes us all over.

[wade moore]

Ah, I see it now. Looks like you dodged most of the problem since you didn't try to log in until the very end of the outage.


yeah, exactly... so for me personally, not a huge thing..

But if I was a paying customer and couldn't get in for a week I'd be pretty pissed. I think the smart thing for M$ would be to proactively credit a week to every Live account, not sure if they will though.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

But if I was a paying customer and couldn't get in for a week I'd be pretty pissed. I think the smart thing for M$ would be to proactively credit a week to every Live account, not sure if they will though.

From what I've seen in various posts/articles, Microsoft Support is citing the Terms of Service, which state that refunds will not be given for any service outages. So I'm guessing that refunds will not occur.

[wade moore]

From what I've seen in various posts/articles, Microsoft Support is citing the Terms of Service, which state that refunds will not be given for any service outages. So I'm guessing that refunds will not occur.

Figured as much.

Poor form. It may not have a big impact on their bottom line because people are kind of stuck, but that's very poor form. Poor enough to the extent that if this happened BEFORE I bought my 360 it may have made me lean towards the PS3.

[Eaglesfan27]

Figured as much.

Poor form. It may not have a big impact on their bottom line because people are kind of stuck, but that's very poor form. Poor enough to the extent that if this happened BEFORE I bought my 360 it may have made me lean towards the PS3.

You should know better than to trust MBBF's guesses, Microsoft officials have already said that Gold users will be compensated. I guess he is technically correct in that full refunds are unlikely, but as usual, he presents a slanted view. More likely, users will get a service credit for the downtime:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=178284

A few excerpts from the article:

Xbox Live's director of programming Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb posted several messages on his official blog (http://www.majornelson.com/), stating that "problems like this are not acceptable," and that "things are getting better each hour and that no one on the team is going anywhere until the job is done."

Now that most of the hiccups have been sorted, The Bitbag reports that Microsoft will be compensating their paying Xbox Live Gold subscribers for the problems. An unnamed Microsoft contact told the site: "we will definitely be doing something for our Gold members that weren't able to get online over the last week."

[Eaglesfan27]

If true, this is another blow to the PS3. According to an Xbox site (which is why I don't necessarily take it at face value), Metal Gear Solid 4 is coming to the 360 after all. It will be a timed exclusive on the PS3 for about a year, but some fans (myself included) who might have bought a PS3 for MGS4 will instead just wait for the 360 version:

http://xboxfamily.com/xf/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1123&Itemid=2

An excerpt:

Metal Gear Solid 4 is coming to the Xbox 360. This is not a rumor. This is straight (http://ads.clicksor.com/go.php?cpx=cpc&uid=2025514801&pid=85400&sid=124806&curl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.etoro.com%2FB51_A721_TClick_SU.S.A-L-5.aspx) from a Konami distribution representative’s mouth. The game is already in production and has been since early 2007. Complete details after the jump:

No, the rep will not be named, but this is pretty concrete. Speaking to a Konami rep at an undisclosed distribution meeting, I was told, after a lot of nagging, that yes indeed MGS was in development for the 360. The rep stated that Metal Gear Solid will be released for the Xbox 360 between 12 to 14 months after the PS3 version hits shelves. This is not a rumor.

[Kodos]

I never enjoyed the MGS series. Too much trial and error gameplay. I don't like stealth games in general.

I will surely get a PS3. The only question really is when. Probably after another price drop...

[Eaglesfan27]

Many rumors are swirling that Microsoft is going to partner with Toshiba (which will supposedly help them in the Japanese market?) to make a 360 with an integrated HD-DVD. Bill Gates has said an "important announcement" will be made at the CES show next week.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=178311

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Now that most of the hiccups have been sorted, The Bitbag reports that Microsoft will be compensating their paying Xbox Live Gold subscribers for the problems. An unnamed Microsoft contact told the site: "we will definitely be doing something for our Gold members that weren't able to get online over the last week."

If so, that is a change from what they were saying earlier in the week during the outage when Support staff was denying that any refund would take place. Certainly makes a lot more sense. Best to make a good move late rather than none at all.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Many rumors are swirling that Microsoft is going to partner with Toshiba (which will supposedly help them in the Japanese market?) to make a 360 with an integrated HD-DVD. Bill Gates has said an "important announcement" will be made at the CES show next week.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=178311

That's been in the works for over 4 months now. It certainly is an interesting swing if it does finally come to pass given that Microsoft and Toshiba have both stated that the integrated BR drive in the PS3 has little to no effect on HD movie unit sales.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

If true, this is another blow to the PS3. According to an Xbox site (which is why I don't necessarily take it at face value), Metal Gear Solid 4 is coming to the 360 after all. It will be a timed exclusive on the PS3 for about a year, but some fans (myself included) who might have bought a PS3 for MGS4 will instead just wait for the 360 version:

This rumor will go on forever, legs or no legs. Impossible to verify the claim given its anonymous source, so it must be true. ;)

[cartman]

That's been in the works for over 4 months now. It certainly is an interesting swing if it does finally come to pass given that Microsoft and Toshiba have both stated that the integrated BR drive in the PS3 has little to no effect on HD movie unit sales.

Don't the sales figures support that assertion? Counting PS3s, the install base of Blu Ray to HD-DVD players is about 3.5 to 1, but title sales ratio is only about 1.5 to 1.

[Eaglesfan27]

This rumor will go on forever, legs or no legs. Impossible to verify the claim given its anonymous source, so it must be true. ;)


It's never been out there so blatantly. That site's credibility goes to pot if it ends up being untrue.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Don't the sales figures support that assertion? Counting PS3s, the install base of Blu Ray to HD-DVD players is about 3.5 to 1, but title sales ratio is only about 1.5 to 1.

Sales ratio is currently 62:38 in favor of Blu-ray since the inception of the formats. I'd agree that they do generally support that assertion.

Assuming that the built-in media players don't have that much of an effect, why would they add a HD-DVD drive to the console, which is going to result in a higher price point for that console and put it in direct competition with the PS3? IMO, the current strength of the Xbox 360 is that they are able to offer consumers a HD-gaming experience at a price point lower than the PS3. One of the major reasons they have that advantage is because of the lack of a HD-DVD drive. The addition of that drive would indicate two things:

1. They do believe that the BR drive in the PS3 does pose a threat on the HD-movie format war (I think that's true).

2. They believe that the general consumer may move to a more complete entertainment center rather than a gaming system along as the prices drop into the mass market price range (I think this is a move Bill Gates would love to make to try to integrate TV, PC and the 360 into one cohesive unit).

One problem that MS also faces is that they can't make games for the HD-DVD format without alienating their current user base which only has the DVD drive in their system. They're pretty much stuck with the DVD format for this generation as far as games go.

[Daimyo]

How much extra does it cost to stick in a HDDVD drive compared to a DVD drive? Reportedly, Toshiba was still turning a profit even on the SA players that sold for $100 so it can't be that much more. If it costs them $20 extra and they can sell them for $50 more (maybe only put them in the Elites?) then its certainly worth it.

[Daimyo]

DOLA, its pretty clear that the PS3 has had some effect on BR sales... PS3s don't sell as many discs as standalone players, but they certainly are selling some.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

How much extra does it cost to stick in a HDDVD drive compared to a DVD drive? Reportedly, Toshiba was still turning a profit even on the SA players that sold for $100 so it can't be that much more. If it costs them $20 extra and they can sell them for $50 more (maybe only put them in the Elites?) then its certainly worth it.

I would think they'd almost have to put it in the Elite unit. Most people that purchase a unit with a HD-DVD drive are going to want a larger HDD too.

Pricing could be all over the place. They may be willing to sell the unit at cost or for a slight loss to get more of the HD-DVD drives in the marketplace. If they do sell it at a loss, they'd likely have to drop the price of the HD-DVD add-on as well to make it somewhat comparable in pricing for those that already own a 360 without a HD-DVD drive.

[Synovia]

Don't the sales figures support that assertion? Counting PS3s, the install base of Blu Ray to HD-DVD players is about 3.5 to 1, but title sales ratio is only about 1.5 to 1.


Yes, but we also have to consider that there may be (most likely very small) contingent of people buying HD-DVD combo disks who don't have HD players, as a "future proof" sort of thing.

[Big Fo]

It doesn't really affect me since I would already have bought the PS3 version, but if MGS4 were to eventually come out on the 360 I would be all for it, everywhere video games are discussed on the Internet the fanboy tears would be EPIC.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Ubisoft delays three of their titles into fiscal year 2008.

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/15382/Ubisoft-Delays-Three-Key-Titles/

Ubisoft announced it has postponed the release of three titles, Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, Far Cry 2 and Tom Clancy's EndWar, into fiscal 2008, which begins in April.

The reason for the delay is to boost numbers for the 2007 fiscal year. Assassin's Creed has sold more copies than Ubisoft initially forecasted and by pushing back the release of these three titles, the publisher cuts on development and market

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

New game info from Surfer Girl...............

1) Factor 5's next title, a downloadable affair out next year, will feature multiplayer. Their next two titles will both be PS3-exclusive.

2) Discs of Tron and Tron will see finally release next year on XBLA.

3) EA Tiburon's Wii-exclusive title is a new intellectual property that is one of the two or three new intellectual properties from Tiburon that will see release next year.

4) Some of the 2008 additions to the Xbox Originals lineup: Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding, Amped 2, Armed and Dangerous, Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Blinx 2: Masters of Time & Space, Blood Wake, Brute Force, Conker: Live & Reloaded, Dead or Alive 3, Deathrow, Dino Crisis 3, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Fable bonus content, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, GunValkyrie, Halo 2, Jade Empire, Jet Set Radio Future, Mechassault, MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf, Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, Midtown Madness 3, Ninja Gaiden, Quantum Redshift, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Phantom Dust Rent-A-Hero No. 1, Shenmue II, Sneakers, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse", Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus, ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth, Tork: Prehistoric Punk, Voodoo Vince, Whacked!. Service expected to have over one hundred titles end of next year.

5) The two-dimensional Grand Theft Auto titles (with Mission Packs included) will grace console(s) next year in a downloadable form.

6) Watch out Mario Kart because Electronic Arts racing to the finish line next year with MySims: Racers for the Wii and DS.

7) Cryptic's Marvel project is dead, but they have two or three other MMOs that they are working on. One will peep its little head out next year.

8) Next fall's Wolfenstein takes place in some large, open hub city where you select missions and go about them. And there are side quests too! So it's like Saboteur, except with more shooting, less French people, and is not published by Electronic Arts.

9) Next year, Eidos hopes you want to survive a virtual recreation of an existent earthquake.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Pulled this release list off a website (Sixth Axis). This is the list that Best Buy currently has in their system for 2008. Note that this is a PS3 list, so the 360 exclusives will not be listed, but the multiplat games should be the same release date. Looks like February through April are going to have a lot of releases.

January

NFL Tour: 8th January
Burnout Paradise: 14th January

February

Turok: 5th February
Devil May Cry 4: 5th Feburary (and Special Edition)
Conflict: Denied Ops: 12th February
FIFA Street 3: 18th February
The Club: 19th February
History Channel: Battle for Pacific: 19th February
Dynasty Warriors 6: 19th February
Condemned 2: 26th February
Turning Point: 26th February
Lost: 26th February

March

Karaoke Rev: American Idol: 3rd March
Lost Planet: 3rd March
Major League Baseball: 3rd March
Sega Superstars Tennis: 4th March
Army of Two: 4th March
MLB 08: 4th March
Destroy All Humans 3: 4th March
Viking: 4th March
Pro Evo Soccer 2008: 11th March
Rainbow Six Vegas 2: 11th March
Haze: 18th March
Hot Shots Golf 5: 18th March
Battlefield Bad Company: 24th March
Dark Sector: 25th March

April

End War: 1st April
GTA IV: 1st April (and Special Edition)
Midnight Club: 1st April
Sid Meier's Civilisation: 1st April
Killzone 2: 7th April
LittleBigPlanet: 7th April
Star Wars Force Unleashed: 8th April
Brothers In Arms: 8th April
Mercenaries 2: 8th April
Monster Madness: 8th April
UEFA Euro 2008: 15th April
Iron Man: 22nd April

May

Fatal Inertia: 1st May
Frontlines: 5th May
Heist: 13th May
SingStar: 13th May

June

Soul Calibur IV: 2nd June
Bourne Conspiracy: 3rd June
Incredible Hulk: 3rd June
Metal Gear Solid 4: 17th June
Hellboy: 24th June

2nd half 2008

Two Worlds: 1st August
Borderlands: 1st September
Wheelman, The: 1st September
Tiberium: 2nd September
Golden Axe: 8th September
Fall Out 3: 9th September
Prototype: 15th September
WET: 1st October
Ghostbusters: 7th October
Dead Space: 8th October
Brutal Legend: 3rd November
Rogue Warrior: 10th November

[Daimyo]

No FF13?

[Eaglesfan27]

No FF13?

No date has been set and there is still a decent chance it won't be released until 09.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

No FF13?

There's a lot of games not on that list which still may be in the 2nd half of the year. Most of them are simply because the release date is nearly a year away. You'll note that most of the EA games (especially sports) that will be released later in the year appear nowhere on the list. Games like Motorstorm 2, FF13, GT5 and Resistance 2 are all tentatively scheduled for Holiday '08 releases.

[Big Fo]

I would be shocked if LittleBigPlanet, GTAIV, and Killzone 2 were all out by April. Also, I would be at least $500 poorer...

[Noop]

Just a heads up for potential PS3 buyers, sonystyle.com is hard to beat. Sign up for their Sony Visa card and get $100 off your first purchase of $299 or more from sonystyle.com. 40 GB PS3 for $299.

[Calis]

I never enjoyed the MGS series. Too much trial and error gameplay. I don't like stealth games in general.

I will surely get a PS3. The only question really is when. Probably after another price drop...

Count me in as someone who hates the series and just doesn't get it at all. Absurd characters, an almost nonsensical over the top storyline, and crawling around in boxes.

I don't get it.

It'll be interesting to see how it sells though, the series has gone drastically downhill in sales each release, a huge drop, but even with the drop it's still a huge seller. I just don't see it as a system seller, at least in the U.S., I don't know what Japan is like with it.

Definitely not one that I care about though.

What's Tom Clancy's EndWar? I hadn't heard of that one. Is it a shooter style game or a Splinter Cell thing or something new all together?

[Big Fo]

Count me in as someone who hates the series and just doesn't get it at all. Absurd characters, an almost nonsensical over the top storyline, and crawling around in boxes.

I don't get it.

It'll be interesting to see how it sells though, the series has gone drastically downhill in sales each release, a huge drop, but even with the drop it's still a huge seller. I just don't see it as a system seller, at least in the U.S., I don't know what Japan is like with it.


Metal Gear Solid sells a lot better in the West than in Japan. Games whose PS2 versions sold more than MGS3 and MGS4 have already had PS3 versions (Dynasty Warriors, Hot Shots Golf) and those games only provided temporary sales boosts.

[Eaglesfan27]

Live will be giving users a free downloadable game in the near future to "say thank you" for baring with them during their issues over the Christmas break. Details are to be announced soon:

http://209.11.233.28/archive/2008/01/03/xbox-live-holiday-performance.aspx

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Live will be giving users a free downloadable game in the near future to "say thank you" for baring with them during their issues over the Christmas break. Details are to be announced soon:

http://209.11.233.28/archive/2008/01/03/xbox-live-holiday-performance.aspx

Giving a refund for the missed time would have been a much better move, but they are going to do something at least. This move will obviously cost much less than the refund would.

[Eaglesfan27]

Giving a refund for the missed time would have been a much better move, but they are going to do something at least. This move will obviously cost much less than the refund would.


I'm not sure how logic makes that slant work. A month's worth of service is 4 to 5 dollars and the service wasn't down a month. A game is a minimum of 5 dollars and some of them are more expensive. Depending upon what game(s) they offer, this could be quite a bit more expensive than just offering a refund.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I'm not sure how logic makes that slant work. A month's worth of service is 4 to 5 dollars and the service wasn't down a month. A game is a minimum of 5 dollars and some of them are more expensive. Depending upon what game(s) they offer, this could be quite a bit more expensive than just offering a refund.

My assumption would have been a full refund for that month, not just that week. As you said, roughly $5.

There's a profit margin built into each of those games for Microsoft. The only real cost will be reimbursing the game publisher for their portion of the cost and any profit lost for that publisher. Assuming that games $10 and under will be offered, that's certainly not going to be any more than $5 at the most, likely less.

Also, if they gave a direct refund, that would be money coming directly from MS and would have to be refunded. In the case of those free games, there's going to be a large number of users that never even bother to get a free game. They're not going to give away 8 million games because not every user is going to get one. The actual number downloaded would be significantly less.

[Bee]

Would a refund have made any sense? Does Microsoft have enough info on all the Gold members to actually send refunds to everyone? Can't you just pick up those cards in a store and use a code to pay for membership? I'm not a gold member, so I don't know how much personal information you have to give Microsoft. The whole thing just sounds like a logistical nightmare to me for what amounts to something like $2 back?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Would a refund have made any sense? Does Microsoft have enough info on all the Gold members to actually send refunds to everyone? Can't you just pick up those cards in a store and use a code to pay for membership? I'm not a gold member, so I don't know how much personal information you have to give Microsoft. The whole thing just sounds like a logistical nightmare to me for what amounts to something like $2 back?

Very good point. That could very well be the reason behind why they did it this way.

[Balldog]

I'm not sure how logic makes that slant work. A month's worth of service is 4 to 5 dollars and the service wasn't down a month. A game is a minimum of 5 dollars and some of them are more expensive. Depending upon what game(s) they offer, this could be quite a bit more expensive than just offering a refund.

I've been been hurt by the downtime. Please refund my $0.05 that I lose due to downtime instead of giving me a $5-20 game for free.

If this had been Sony's doing, it would have been a great PR move.

[spleen1015]

From a Gamespot article:

A post on Hryb's Major Nelson blog, which contains a statement from the general manager of Xbox Live, states that January 2 saw the biggest ever number of concurrent members using the service, and the holiday period also saw the most new users sign up for the service in its five-year history.

Looks like there were a lot of people pissed off that Xbox Live was down...

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I've been been hurt by the downtime. Please refund my $0.05 that I lose due to downtime instead of giving me a $5-20 game for free.

If this had been Sony's doing, it would have been a great PR move.

Apples to oranges. Servers are provided by the individual game companies and the service is free. Tough to refund something you never collected.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

From a Gamespot article:

A post on Hryb's Major Nelson blog, which contains a statement from the general manager of Xbox Live, states that January 2 saw the biggest ever number of concurrent members using the service, and the holiday period also saw the most new users sign up for the service in its five-year history.

Looks like there were a lot of people pissed off that Xbox Live was down...

MS and Sony press releases are a beautiful thing. Funnier yet is your correlation of that press release having anything to do with people being upset with the outage.

"All is well, ALL IS WELL!!!!!!"..........

[spleen1015]

MS and Sony press releases are a beautiful thing. Funnier yet is your correlation of that press release having anything to do with people being upset with the outage.

"All is well, ALL IS WELL!!!!!!"..........

Blah.

It is the same basic argument you've been having with everyone for months.

If people were so outraged over Xbox Live being down, there wouldn't have been records set for the number of subscribers during that time.

I'm done. I'll just sit back and watch your foolishness from now on.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

If people were so outraged over Xbox Live being down, there wouldn't have been records set for the number of subscribers during that time.

Seriously? You think you can draw that conclusion (i.e. people obviously weren't upset because they logged into the service in large numbers on January 2nd)? Wow.

Xbox Live is a monopoly to some extent. If you own a 360, there's only one way to play online games and that's to buck up for the Gold subscription. For those that were irritated, they can't just go to a rival service. They still play on XBL and are likely to play on January 2nd, as most people are out of school or on vacation at that point. It would be surprising if they DIDN'T have large numbers on that date given the addition of new consoles over the holiday season and the fact that people hadn't been able to play online for over a week before.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Preliminary worldwide sales numbers are in for the month of December:

Wii: 4,701,000
PS3: 2,521,000
PS2: 2,376,000
360: 2,332,000

The Wii continues its strong sales numbers, bolstered by the supply increase in Japan. That supply increase allowed it to increase the margin it outsold the PS3 from 60% last month to 81% this month. Below are the trend numbers for the last three months of 2007:

October Worldwide Sales Numbers......

Wii: 1,137,000 (44% of market)
360: 888,000 (34% of market)
PS3: 554,000 (22% of market)

November Worldwide Sales Numbers......

Wii: 1,939,000 (45% of market)
PS3: 1,197,000 (28% of market)
360: 1,149,000 (27% of market)

December Worldwide Sales Numbers......

Wii: 4,701,000 (49% of market)
PS3: 2,521,000 (26% of market)
360: 2,332,000 (25% of market)

While Wii and PS3 market share have both increased slightly over the last three months, the 360 has gone from holding a 12% market share month-over-month lead over the PS3 in October to falling slightly behind the PS3 in November and December. In regards to units, the 360 sold over 300K units more than the PS3 in October. By December, the PS3 was selling nearly 200K units more than the 360, which is nearly a 500K units/month turnaround in that regard.

NPD numbers for North America should be released next week to verify the accuracy of these preliminary numbers.

[Daimyo]

If every month had a Christmas, PS3 would be on pace to catch Xbox in only 38 months based on this month's numbers!

[Kodos]

DOOOOOOM ON THE 360!!!!

[Synovia]

In regards to units, the 360 sold over 300K units more than the PS3 in October. By December, the PS3 was selling nearly 200K units more than the 360, which is nearly a 500K units/month turnaround in that regard..

On the same note, the Wii went from only outselling the PS3 by 600K units in october, to outselling it by over 2.5Million units in December. Thats a turnarount of nearly 1.8 MILLION UNITS!!!!!


December numbers are useless to predict trends. They're magnified. Cut the december numbers to roughly 1/3 (which would be normal sales month), and the PS3 outsells the 360 by like 60K units. Yes, its a turnaround, but not enough.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

If every month had a Christmas, PS3 would be on pace to catch Xbox in only 38 months based on this month's numbers!

Cute comments aside, the trend is certainly worth noting. Absolute no one in these discussions two months ago thought that the PS3 would be able to pull even with the 360 in monthly sales by December. Not only has the PS3 caught the 360, it has actually surpassed it with no system seller games being released while the 360 had arguably its biggest name franchise released this fall (which BTW, has sold between 7 and 8 million units).

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

On the same note, the Wii went from only outselling the PS3 by 600K units in october, to outselling it by over 2.5Million units in December. Thats a turnarount of nearly 1.8 MILLION UNITS!!!!!

December numbers are useless to predict trends. They're magnified. Cut the december numbers to roughly 1/3 (which would be normal sales month), and the PS3 outsells the 360 by like 60K units. Yes, its a turnaround, but not enough.

Agreed. The sales numbers will be smaller as we move out of the holiday season. The number isn't as important as the sharp change in where the sales are taking place. I agree that 60K/month more worldwide isn't enough. But since Sony does have some of its bigger, more recognizable name titles coming in the foreseeable future, I don't believe that status quo will be a word we use much in regard to this discussion.

Also, the Wii increase has more to do with supply increases than any demand increase. The same demand has always been there for the Wii. That's not the same as the PS3, which had very low demand until the price changes and new unit were introduced at the end of the summer.

CES 2008 next week should provide a glimpse of any changes that Sony or MS may make.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

If true, this is another blow to the PS3. According to an Xbox site (which is why I don't necessarily take it at face value), Metal Gear Solid 4 is coming to the 360 after all. It will be a timed exclusive on the PS3 for about a year, but some fans (myself included) who might have bought a PS3 for MGS4 will instead just wait for the 360 version:

http://xboxfamily.com/xf/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1123&Itemid=2

An excerpt:

Metal Gear Solid 4 is coming to the Xbox 360. This is not a rumor. This is straight (http://ads.clicksor.com/go.php?cpx=cpc&uid=2025514801&pid=85400&sid=124806&curl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.etoro.com%2FB51_A721_TClick_SU.S.A-L-5.aspx) from a Konami distribution representative’s mouth. The game is already in production and has been since early 2007. Complete details after the jump:

No, the rep will not be named, but this is pretty concrete. Speaking to a Konami rep at an undisclosed distribution meeting, I was told, after a lot of nagging, that yes indeed MGS was in development for the 360. The rep stated that Metal Gear Solid will be released for the Xbox 360 between 12 to 14 months after the PS3 version hits shelves. This is not a rumor.

It's never been out there so blatantly. That site's credibility goes to pot if it ends up being untrue.

I believe you can now officially toss that site's credibility in the dumpster. As has happened so many times before, Konami firmly states that there are no plans of any kind to put Metal Gear Solid 4 on the Xbox 360.

http://ps3.thegamereviews.com/story-342-Rumor-Killer-No-MGS4-on-360-says-Konami.html

TheGameReviews.com had the opportunity to speak with Konami’s PR about this latest rumor, and unsurprisingly, Konami is baffled by claims that Metal Gear Solid 4 is going multiplatform. In a rush to get the word out, it seems that those who broke the story talked to everyone except Konami, who made this statement "For the record, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a PlayStation 3 exclusive and there are no plans to develop an Xbox 360 version of the game."

[Synovia]

" Konami firmly states that there are no plans of any kind to put Metal Gear Solid 4 on the Xbox 360."

Is that kind of like Petrino (or Saban) saying he had absolutely no plans of leaving the Falcons (or Dolphins)?


Sony paid for a (timed) exclusive. Saying its coming out in a year totally undermines that. Of course they're not going to say that, Sony would eat them alive.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Is that kind of like Petrino (or Saban) saying he had absolutely no plans of leaving the Falcons (or Dolphins)?

Sony paid for a (timed) exclusive. Saying its coming out in a year totally undermines that. Of course they're not going to say that, Sony would eat them alive.

Yes, it's the exact same situation as the ones you describe. :rolleyes:

As far as the exclusive part, there's no evidence at all of any timed exclusive for the PS3. It's PS3 exclusive. If you have a link where Konami or Sony states anything of the sort, feel free to post it.

[dawgfan]

As far as the exclusive part, there's no evidence at all of any timed exclusive for the 360. If you have a link where Konami or Sony states anything of the sort, feel free to post it.
Where did he say anything about timed exclusive for the 360?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Where did he say anything about timed exclusive for the 360?

Thanks. Mistyped. He said it was a timed exclusive for the PS3. I'll correct it.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Interesting new rumor coming out of the Sony/PS3 camp. Sony is considering a subscription-based format for the online games where you can play any/all of the PSN and classic games for one monthly fee rather than having to purchase each game individually (rumor suggests $5-10/month). Sounds very similar to GameTap in format.

[Synovia]

Thanks. Mistyped. He said it was a timed exclusive for the PS3. I'll correct it.

No, I did not. I said that Konami denying it doesn't change ANYTHING.

Its an exclusive. We don't know if its timed, or not. We don't know how much (if anything) Sony paid Konami. We don't know contract terms.


Assuming ANYTHING based on Konami denying something is ridiculous. PR departments are there for a reason.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

No, I did not. I said that Konami denying it doesn't change ANYTHING.

Its an exclusive. We don't know if its timed, or not. We don't know how much (if anything) Sony paid Konami. We don't know contract terms.

Assuming ANYTHING based on Konami denying something is ridiculous. PR departments are there for a reason.

It's a PS3 exclusive and that's been made clear several times over by Konami. MGS4 is not going to be on the 360 in any form. I'm not sure how much clearer they can make it. There are situations where companies issue 'non-denial denials'. This is not one of those cases.

[Eaglesfan27]

No, I did not. I said that Konami denying it doesn't change ANYTHING.

Its an exclusive. We don't know if its timed, or not. We don't know how much (if anything) Sony paid Konami. We don't know contract terms.


Assuming ANYTHING based on Konami denying something is ridiculous. PR departments are there for a reason.


Exactly and this is almost the exact same thing MBBF kept saying about Bioshock and it remaining a 360 exclusive. Funny that he argues against this logic now.

[Balldog]

Apples to oranges. Servers are provided by the individual game companies and the service is free. Tough to refund something you never collected.

You missed my point but I figured you would, your Sony blinders prevented you from seeing it.

Are people going to go out and buy a PS3 because they couldn't get onto Xbox Live for one day? No. Microsoft could've easily said, "hey the servers got overloaded but we fixed the issue. Sorry." Instead they've went ahead and are offering a free game to users, seems way beyond what is the norm to me and well more valuable to users than a credit for one month's service.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Exactly and this is almost the exact same thing MBBF kept saying about Bioshock and it remaining a 360 exclusive. Funny that he argues against this logic now.

So you believe that MGS4 will still be coming to the 360 despite Konami's outright denial? I certainly don't think that Bioshock is coming to the PS3 at this point.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Are people going to go out and buy a PS3 because they couldn't get onto Xbox Live for one day? No. Microsoft could've easily said, "hey the servers got overloaded but we fixed the issue. Sorry." Instead they've went ahead and are offering a free game to users, seems way beyond what is the norm to me and well more valuable to users than a credit for one month's service.

I would prefer a credit to my account rather than having no alternative but to accept the game offer, but that's my preference. I clearly stated earlier in the thread that some form of an offer was better than no offer at all that the support personnel was quoting to customers early in the outage period. MS did the right thing by making some form of amends.

[Eaglesfan27]

So you believe that MGS4 will still be coming to the 360 despite Konami's outright denial? I certainly don't think that Bioshock is coming to the PS3 at this point.

I still think it is possible. As you pointed out when talking about Bioshock, PR departments spin this stuff all of the time.

Konami will say they didn't have any plans to release a 360 version now when they are contractually obligated to say so, but once that obligation is gone, they'll say they have reconsidered and are releasing a 360 version of the game. As I recall, you only finally accepted that Bioshock wasn't coming to the PS3 when there was an article talking about Microsoft securing publishing rights. Until then, you kept arguing the same exact things that are being argued now. Right now, the 360 has a significantly larger install base than the PS3 and there is no reason to think that MGS 4 won't come out on the 360 at some point, particularly when a Konami rep may have leaked such info.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I still think it is possible. As you pointed out when talking about Bioshock, PR departments spin this stuff all of the time.

Konami will say they didn't have any plans to release a 360 version now when they are contractually obligated to say so, but once that obligation is gone, they'll say they have reconsidered and are releasing a 360 version of the game. As I recall, you only finally accepted that Bioshock wasn't coming to the PS3 when there was an article talking about Microsoft securing publishing rights. Until then, you kept arguing the same exact things that are being argued now. Right now, the 360 has a significantly larger install base than the PS3 and there is no reason to think that MGS 4 won't come out on the 360 at some point, particularly when a Konami rep may have leaked such info.

Fair enough. There's certainly no solid evidence to support any of that at this point, but I suppose anything can be passed through a chain of logic to make it so. I don't think Sony will secure the publishing rights in any form, so as I said before, this rumor will continue without end, no matter how little foundation it has at this point other than speculation.

[RainMaker]

Cute comments aside, the trend is certainly worth noting. Absolute no one in these discussions two months ago thought that the PS3 would be able to pull even with the 360 in monthly sales by December. Not only has the PS3 caught the 360, it has actually surpassed it with no system seller games being released while the 360 had arguably its biggest name franchise released this fall (which BTW, has sold between 7 and 8 million units).

I actuall think it would be expected. 360 has been out much longer and already sold units to most hardcore gamers. The fact they are still able to somewhat compete numbers wise with the PS3 is astounding considering how much more they've sold. If I was Sony, I'd have hoped by now that my console would be crushing the 360 monthly due in part to the fact that most people already own one.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I actuall think it would be expected. 360 has been out much longer and already sold units to most hardcore gamers. The fact they are still able to somewhat compete numbers wise with the PS3 is astounding considering how much more they've sold. If I was Sony, I'd have hoped by now that my console would be crushing the 360 monthly due in part to the fact that most people already own one.

It should of course be noted that the one year head start without competitors is mainly the difference at this point. With the sudden shift in the HD movie market today, that's not likely to last long. The PS3 pulled ahead of the 360 worldwide the past two months without the benefit of any blockbuster title. With Blu-ray now all but officially the HD movie standard in all three regions as of today, the market forces are likely to change very quickly. Certainly the very last thing that Microsoft wanted to see happen just happened two days into 2008. It's certainly not a good start to the New Year.

[RainMaker]

It should of course be noted that the one year head start without competitors is mainly the difference at this point. With the sudden shift in the HD movie market today, that's not likely to last long. The PS3 pulled ahead of the 360 worldwide the past two months without the benefit of any blockbuster title. With Blu-ray now all but officially the HD movie standard in all three regions as of today, the market forces are likely to change very quickly. Certainly the very last thing that Microsoft wanted to see happen just happened two days into 2008. It's certainly not a good start to the New Year.

I still don't think the HD/Blu-Ray battle will be a huge deal down the road. It's a declining form of media, everything is going to be shifting to digital in the next few years. This isn't like BETA/VHS wars. Plus I still don't think all gamers are looking for their video game system to be their movie player.

Nonetheless, whatever helps you justify your purchase.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I still don't think the HD/Blu-Ray battle will be a huge deal down the road. It's a declining form of media, everything is going to be shifting to digital in the next few years. This isn't like BETA/VHS wars. Plus I still don't think all gamers are looking for their video game system to be their movie player.

Nonetheless, whatever helps you justify your purchase.

Obviously, most analysts disagree with that assessment. This will significantly help both stand alone and PS3 sales. There's little question about that. It's a very big deal.

[Daimyo]

No doubt that the PS3 won the HDM war for Sony, but I don't think you can say that winning the HDM war will win (second place in) the console war for Sony. The PS3 is no longer the best BD player available. It lacks some key features such as support for DTS HD and ANY bitstream audio output ($500 Panasonic DMP-BD30 beats it). Its also not the cheapest BD player (Samsung <$300). Further now that BD has the format war behind them you have to think there will be a huge push to get standalone players under $200 so that they actually have enough mainstream appeal to compete with DVD and all the other HD options. The cheaper standalone players get the less the PS3 gains from its BD player.

Its also ironic that the feature you tout as making the PS3 the best BD player is a standard feature on all HD-DVD players (internet connection for updates is required of all players in the HD-DVD spec... its just optional for BD players).

[BrianD]

So what happens now to the big announcement that was going to be made regarding the 360 next week? Does it still make sense to introduce a new model with a built-in HD-DVD player?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

So what happens now to the big announcement that was going to be made regarding the 360 next week? Does it still make sense to introduce a new model with a built-in HD-DVD player?

MS and HD-DVD have cancelled their entire appearance at the CES 2008 conference, so that's not going to happen as a formal announcement there. It obviously makes little sense to make a built-in at this point. To be honest, I think that's a blessing for MS. They need to continue to concentrate on growing the 360 and its installed base. That's more important than HD-DVD.

[RainMaker]

MS and HD-DVD have cancelled their entire appearance at the CES 2008 conference, so that's not going to happen as a formal announcement there. It obviously makes little sense to make a built-in at this point. To be honest, I think that's a blessing for MS. They need to continue to concentrate on growing the 360 and its installed base. That's more important than HD-DVD.

I agree. I wish they'd stop screwing around with the different 360 packages they sell and just sell one with all the parts we need. They are so big on selling too much stuff or too little with their console. My friend had to buy the arcade system and then a few add-ons. His other option was a higher package that had crap he didn't need.

[RainMaker]

Obviously, most analysts disagree with that assessment. This will significantly help both stand alone and PS3 sales. There's little question about that. It's a very big deal.
I think it helps standalone a lot, but I don't think it'll be a dramatic jump for the PS3. Blu-Ray players are getting much cheaper these days and the one in the PS3 is average at best. I just don't see it becoming the huge selling point. People want a video game system, and the Blu-Ray is simply a nice extra.

[Cringer]

I think blu-ray is winning out because it has a prettier name. Not because of the PS3.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Another rumor circulating in advance of CES 2008. Sony is working with Tivo to release a system update for the PS3 that would effectively turn it into a fully functioning Tivo box. It would communicate with any other Tivo boxes in your home. Tivo already has implemented 'Tivo to Go' functionality that allows Tivo users to watch shows recorded on their box remotely on their PSP. The PS3 functionality would allow PSP users to remotely stream recorded shows directly off their PS3 as well as any Tivo boxes in the home.

[Pacersfan46]

It's a PS3 exclusive and that's been made clear several times over by Konami. MGS4 is not going to be on the 360 in any form. I'm not sure how much clearer they can make it. There are situations where companies issue 'non-denial denials'. This is not one of those cases.

Yes, just as they claimed MGS:Sons of Liberty was a PS2 exclusive ..... at least until the Xbox saw a updated version a year later, right? :rolleyes:

I would prefer a credit to my account rather than having no alternative but to accept the game offer

What? Lets see, $50 a year ...... 365 days a year, and you couldn't get on for 1 day ..... you really want that nickel that badly? The game is worth much more than any prorated dollar amount that they'd put on your account.

-- Steve --

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Some really discouraging info from Surfer Girl about the upcoming Ubisoft games............

http://softrockhallelujah.blogspot.com/2008/01/disaster-ubisoft-and-kingdom-of-delayed.html

The videogame based on Lost was so terrible that when the company sent it to Sony for approval, they refused, saying "no, your game is too boring and has no gameplay, we don't want it on the Playstation 3." This videogame will beat records at being bad and will bomb really hard.

The next Splinter Cell game has been redone three times over already. Developers just can't seem to include good gameplay in it. That's part of why it got delayed. Same can be said about Rainbow Six Vegas 2. The story was abysmal and it was supposed to be a prequel to Vegas in the early stages of development. Developers then said it made no sense at all, because the first Vegas game finished with a "To Be Continued" screen. They delayed it to work on the story and add some maps.

Far Cry 2 has also been delayed because it was terrible. The game does not look like NEAR what has been shown. Even with the best PC available to the developers, the game just does not match what has been shown so far. Far Cry 2 is both bad and requires one hell of a machine (PC) to run.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Many rumors are swirling that Microsoft is going to partner with Toshiba (which will supposedly help them in the Japanese market?) to make a 360 with an integrated HD-DVD. Bill Gates has said an "important announcement" will be made at the CES show next week.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=178311

Another rumor that has apparantly gone down the drain. No mention of a HD-DVD 360 console in Bill Gates' speech at the beginning of CES 2008. Not sure whether we'll ever know if it was never true or if the Warner move to Blu-ray effectively nixed any ideas of building a system with a drive that would likely be obsolete by the time it was released. Either way, it's probably best that this didn't come to fruition.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Yes, just as they claimed MGS:Sons of Liberty was a PS2 exclusive ..... at least until the Xbox saw a updated version a year later, right? :rolleyes:

As far as the MGS that you mention on the Xbox, that game didn't do well at all. If anything, the situation you mentioned is one of the reasons that Konami likely won't go down that path. That experience with the Xbox reportedly left a pretty sour taste in their mouth, hence the reason that MGS3 didn't follow a similar path.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Looks like XBL users may get some money back anyway. Class action lawsuit filed on behalf of XBL users to get a refund for outage time. Total lawsuit is asking for $5 million to be distributed to XBL members.

http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9840766-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Microsoft sued over Xbox outage
Posted by Ina Fried

Microsoft now faces a lawsuit over recent problems with its Xbox Live online gaming service.

Three Texas residents filed a lawsuit Friday on behalf of themselves and others who have had trouble connecting to Xbox Live in recent weeks.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Houston, claims Microsoft's outages represent a breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation for which the software maker is liable. The suit doesn't claim specific damages, but notes the amount is in excess of $5 million.

In the suit, the plaintiffs allege that Microsoft should have known strong holiday sales would tax its servers. "Microsoft knew the increase in subscriptions would increase game-play on its servers, yet failed to provide adequate access and service to Xbox Live and its subscribers."

Microsoft has apologized for the outage and said it would allow Xbox live subscribers to download a free game.

A Microsoft representative was not immediately available for comment.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Some 360 and Wii gaming news......

The next Bioshock game will be a prequel. It should be released sometime in 2009.

http://loot-ninja.com/2008/01/06/bioshock-2-a-prequel/

The Bully port for the 360 finally has a release date of March 4th. Bonus content info is included.

http://loot-ninja.com/2008/01/05/rockstars-bully-for-xbox-360-named-dated-and-priced-info-on-bonus-content/

Three new TV commercials for Super Smash Bros. Brawl are up for viewing........

http://loot-ninja.com/2008/01/06/super-smash-bros-brawl-japanese-tv-spots/

[Daimyo]

Another rumor circulating in advance of CES 2008. Sony is working with Tivo to release a system update for the PS3 that would effectively turn it into a fully functioning Tivo box. It would communicate with any other Tivo boxes in your home. Tivo already has implemented 'Tivo to Go' functionality that allows Tivo users to watch shows recorded on their box remotely on their PSP. The PS3 functionality would allow PSP users to remotely stream recorded shows directly off their PS3 as well as any Tivo boxes in the home.

We're probably going to buy a second TivoHD unit this year so that would be huge for me and make the PS3 a no-brainer if true. Given your ties to Sony, I'm hopeful you have good info here! :)

However, I'm not sure how it would work. Modern Tivos aren't designed to control cable boxes and depend on CableCard... Does the PS3 actually have a CableCard slot? (let alone an RF input to accept a cable feed?)

What I assume you mean is not that it would not be a "fully functioning Tivo box" but instead a Tivo media extender of sort... it wouldn't actually record anything or let you watch live TV, but would let you access and watch content recorded on real standalone Tivos. That would still be very sweet... I'd value that at about $100-150 which still make the PS3 a solid value for me ($200 for the BR player + $100-150 for the Tivo extension + $50-100 to be able to play Rock Band and FF13 = $350-$450).

[Daimyo]

DOLA, a quick search shows that people have been using PS3s with MythTV and USB decoder cards for a while now. Maybe Sony could release a USB peripheral with a RF input and a CableCard slot to give full Tivo functionality? Seems unlikely, but one can dream right? *shurg*

http://digg.com/gaming_news/Turn_Your_Playstation_3_into_a_PVR_TiVo

[dawgfan]

As far as the MGS that you mention on the Xbox, that game didn't do well at all. If anything, the situation you mentioned is one of the reasons that Konami likely won't go down that path. That experience with the Xbox reportedly left a pretty sour taste in their mouth, hence the reason that MGS3 didn't follow a similar path.
Except the two situation aren't close to being comparable. Then, the Xbox was a dstant 2nd to the PS2 in install base, and the version released for the Xbox was simply an expanded edition of a game that had been out on the PS2 for a year. It's not a big surprise that it didn't sell all that well.

This time around, it's the 360 with the big lead in install base, which makes a big difference. Many 360 owners will be content to wait for the 360 version to come out rather than feel compelled to buy a PS3 to play it.

[Eaglesfan27]

Surprising info from Gates' address. Sony owned MGM will be releasing some of their classic hits on Xbox Live for download. Also, Gates announced a bunch of ABC and Disney content will be available for HD download from Live. With all of the additions, they report they will have more HD available for download than most cable companies.

Also, they report that they sold more than 2 billion dollars worth of hardware than Sony last year and 1 billion more than the Wii. Furthermore, Game sales bested the Wii and PS3 combined.

Other point of interest to me is that IPTV via the 360 will start in mid 08 with UK being the first to get it.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6184327.html

[MizzouRah]

Surprising info from Gates' address. Sony owned MGM will be releasing some of their classic hits on Xbox Live for download. Also, Gates announced a bunch of ABC and Disney content will be available for HD download from Live. With all of the additions, they report they will have more HD available for download than most cable companies.

Also, they report that they sold more than 2 billion dollars worth of hardware than Sony last year and 1 billion more than the Wii. Furthermore, Game sales bested the Wii and PS3 combined.

Other point of interest to me is that IPTV via the 360 will start in mid 08 with UK being the first to get it.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6184327.html

Wow, a post that doesn't annoy the hell out of me. Kudos or Kodos.. to you!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Surprising info from Gates' address. Sony owned MGM will be releasing some of their classic hits on Xbox Live for download. Also, Gates announced a bunch of ABC and Disney content will be available for HD download from Live. With all of the additions, they report they will have more HD available for download than most cable companies.

Not sure why that was a surprise. First, Sony does not own MGM. They own 30% of MGM's outstanding stock, which is not a controlling interest. Second, that agreement has been in the works for three months. It's been all but a done deal for some time now.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

EA announces that they have acquired Bioware and Pandemic..........

EA COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF VG HOLDING CORP. – WELCOMES BIOWARE CORP. AND PANDEMIC STUDIOS TO THE EA GAMES LABEL

Original Intellectual Property Under Development Includes Dragon Age, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Saboteur and Many More

Chertsey, UK., January 7, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that it has completed its acquisition of VG Holding Corp. and has officially welcomed BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios to the EA Games Label. The addition of these studios vaults EA into a competitive position in the RPG, action and adventure genres. The two studios have been recognized for creating some of the highest-quality games in the industry and will bring ten new franchises to EA, based on six wholly-owned IP.

Frank Gibeau, president of the EA Games Label, will oversee the studios within his organization. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk of BioWare Corp. have each been named as Vice Presidents of EA and Co-General Managers of BioWare Corp. Pandemic Studios’ Andrew Goldman and Josh Resnick have each been named Vice Presidents of EA and Co-General Managers of Pandemic Studios, while Greg Borrud has been named Vice President of EA and Chief Production Officer of Pandemic Studios.

“BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios are two world-class studios and bring strong, highly compatible cultures of creative excellence to the EA Games Label,” said Mr. Gibeau. “Their strengths in the RPG, action and adventure genres further broadens EA’s portfolio, and reinforces our commitment to creating the world’s greatest interactive entertainment.”

“Our new EA partnership is already proving to be both positive and productive,” said Mr. Resnick. “Pandemic Studios prides itself upon its creative independence while being the best place for top industry talent to work. These values continue to be upheld by all levels of EA and we couldn’t be more excited about the future of our studio and our games.”

Mr. Muzyka added, “EA has shown great respect for the creative integrity of our studios and BioWare’s core values of quality in our workplace, quality in our products, and entrepreneurship. Operating as a city-state within the larger EA studio family, our talented teams at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin are empowered to continue delivering powerful emotional experiences through our story-driven games.”

In connection with the acquisition, EA will issue equity awards without stockholder approval pursuant to NASDAQ Marketplace Rules 4350(i)(1)(A)(iii) and (iv). These equity awards, which EA had agreed to grant at the time it announced the acquisition of VG Holding Corp., will consist of promissory notes payable in shares and restricted stock units, or “RSUs,” with respect to an aggregate of approximately 2.8 million shares of EA’s common stock and will be granted as retention incentives to five employee founders of BioWare and Pandemic. Approximately 2.1 million of the 2.8 million shares underlying the promissory notes and RSUs will vest over time, provided that, among other things, the respective recipient continues to be an employee or service provider to EA (or one of its subsidiaries) through each applicable vesting date. Approximately 700,000 of the remaining RSUs vest based upon the achievement of enumerated performance objectives tied to the release of new products, provided that, among other things, the respective recipient continues to be an employee or service provider to EA (or one of its subsidiaries). EA also assumed outstanding VGH stock options to acquire, on an as-converted basis, approximately 1.2 million shares of EA stock, which are widely-held by employees of VG Holding Corp., BioWare and Pandemic.

[sterlingice]

Ew...

SI

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Ew...

SI

Yeah, I kind of thought that as well. We'll pray for the best and expect the worst.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

FYI......another Sony confirmation from the floor of CES 2008 that Metal Gear Solid 4 is a PS3 exclusive............

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3165279

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I put up a list of PS3 exclusive and multiplat releases for the upcoming year already. Here's the list of 360 exclusives. Some have dates while the TBA listed games may/may not be 2008 releases. I went ahead and listed them all just to provide a full list either way.

Kingdom under Fire: COD (January 8th)
Culdcept Saga (February 5th)
Lost Odyssey (February 12th)
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic: Elements (February 12th)
Supreme Commander (February 18th)
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (March 24th)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (Q2 2008)
Banjo Kazooie 3 (June 2008)
Left 4 Dead (June 2008)
Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures (Q3 2008)
Fable 3 (Q3 2008)
Halo Wars (Q3 2008)
Sabotage (Q3 2008)
Alan Wake (TBA)
Crash Time (TBA)
Dead Island (TBA)
Elveon (TBA)
Guilty Gear 2: Overture (TBA)
Huxley (TBA)
Infinite Undiscovery (TBA)
Ninja Gaiden (TBA)
Operation Darkness (TBA)
Postal 3 (TBA)
Project Offset (TBA)
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (TBA)
Tales of Vesperia (TBA)
Too Human (TBA)
Universe at War: Earth Assault (TBA)
Warhound (TBA)
World in Conflict (TBA)
Axiom Overdrive (TBA)
Braid (TBA)
Castle crashers (TBA)
Ikaruga (TBA)
Metal Slug 3 (TBA)
N+ (TBA)
Omega 5 (TBA)
Rez HD (TBA)

[Daimyo]

You don't think its misleading that your Sony list included multiplatform games mixed in and your Xbox list is only exclusives?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

You don't think its misleading that your Sony list included multiplatform games mixed in and your Xbox list is only exclusives?

Not when I clearly stated that point in the other post.

[MJ4H]

A list of upcoming games for the year on Wii. This is not an exhaustive list. I tried to include games that caught my eye for one reason or another only. I may have missed a couple of bigger games due to unfamiliarity.

Notable Wii Games on the Horizon

JANUARY
PDC World Championship Darts 2008
Wii Chess
Endless Ocean
No More Heroes
Bomberman Land
MX vs ATV Untamed

FEBRUARY
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Dragon Quest Swords: TMQatToM
Baroque
de Blob
Dream Pinball

MARCH
ATV Thunder Ridge Riders & Monster Trucks
The Wizard of Oz
Ninja Reflex

Q1 no specific month
Harvest Moon: Tree of Peace
Mario Kart Wii
Samba De Amigo
Sega Bass Fishing
Sega Superstars Tennis
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Target: Terror
We Love Golf

APRIL
MLB 2k8

MAY
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Q2
Lego Indiana Jones
Top Spin Tennis
WALL-E

Q3
Deca Sports

Q4
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

2008 no specific quarter
Dr. Mario's Virus Buster
Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles: The crystal Bearers
Mario Superstar Baseball
Pro Evolution Soccer Wii

TBA
Alone in the Dark
Bob Ross: The Joy of Painting
Chocobo's Dungeon Toki-Wasure no Mekyuu
Disaster: Day of Crisis
Kirby
Monster Hunter 3
Okami
Opoona
Pirateology
Project Rygar
Red Steel 2
Rock Band
Sadness
Samurai Shodown Anthology
Spore
Wii Fit
Wizardology
Sam & Max

[Butter]

A real tennis game could be absolutely dynamite on the Wii. I see 2 in the pipeline, so I am happy.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Surprising info from Gates' address. Sony owned MGM will be releasing some of their classic hits on Xbox Live for download. Also, Gates announced a bunch of ABC and Disney content will be available for HD download from Live. With all of the additions, they report they will have more HD available for download than most cable companies.

As I mentioned before, this wasn't a surprise to anyone. Sony CEO Stringer announce today that Sony will have similar HD downloadable content of both HD TV shows and HD movie content. Due to their current agreements through the Blu-ray association (Paramount and Universal are expected to quickly switch over to Blu-ray), Sony will have all major release movies available in their library. A full announcement of the functionality will be made in early March.

[Big Fo]

A list of upcoming games for the year on Wii. This is not an exhaustive list. I tried to include games that caught my eye for one reason or another only. I may have missed a couple of bigger games due to unfamiliarity.

Notable Wii Games on the Horizon

(long list)


Lots of good stuff coming early in the year. Endless Ocean, No More Heroes, Smash Brothers, and Dragon Quest: Swords are all games that I'll buy coming out in the first two months.

I'm more hopeful than optimistic for a few others like MLB2k8 and Sega Superstars Tennis but if the games turn out to be good I'm in. Pro Evo is coming out in March I believe, I'll definitely give that a shot given how disappointing the 360/PS3 version was.

Spore and Civilization Revolutions sound promising but I'd rather have those on the PC and DS respectively. Portable Civ oughta be so full of win.

Mario Kart (I know they say Spring but I doubt it will come out within a few months of Smash), Disaster: DoC, and WiiFit will be nice later in the year.

I wonder what else Nintendo is working on that they haven't told us yet, you gotta assume Animal Crossing is coming but that doesn't do much for me. There's no info out there for what Intelligent Systems (Advance Wars, WarioWare, Paper Mario, Fire Emblem), Retro Studios (Metroid Prime series), or EAD Tokyo (Super Mario Galaxy, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat) are working on.

[Noop]

None of those XBOX360 games excite me at all. It seems like everything is a first person shooter nowadays. What happened to japan style rpg's with an in-depth story? I guess I will stick with sports this year.

[Noop]

Prototype looks interesting.

[Daimyo]

I don't really see anything on the PS3/Xbox lists that interests me (FF13 would if it was there). As for the Wii it looks like a pretty solid list.

Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, Rock Band, and Wii Fit are each a must buy. I'll pick up the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy titles assuming favorable reviews. Lego Indiana Jones will probably be a nice diversion when it hits $20-30. Dr. Mario, Civilization, and Spore are very intriguing if done well (not holding out much hope on the latter two). Pro Evolution Soccer totally depends on the controls and could elevate to must buy status if they're good.

[Pacersfan46]

FYI......another Sony confirmation from the floor of CES 2008 that Metal Gear Solid 4 is a PS3 exclusive............

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3165279

Yes, a timed exclusive is still an exclusive. Just for information. I've heard, seen, and been through all this before. For sales purposes nobody is allowed to slip the information out that it won't ALWAYS be an exclusive title to PS3.

Just like the Resident Evil series was a Gamecube "exclusive" and then they put a spin off game on the PS2. It wasn't part of the main story so it was allowed contractually. Either you're new to following the game industry, or you're blind. Possibly both. Things like this are standard procedure, and happen all the time. A quick change to the name, and slight content change. Wah-La. Different game. All contractual stipulations are avoided.

On your Xbox list .... Fable 3? Damn, guess they didn't take so long to make the first one. Those sneaky bastards slipped in and made 2 and 3 while we thought they were making the original Fable. Bravo Dene, and Simon Carter. Pure genius!

-- Steve --

[Malificent]

Alan Wake could be really good - from the creators of Max Payne, which was one of the most fun games I've ever played.

[sterlingice]

When did anyone post that Rock Band would be available on the Wii? I never saw that news. I thought there was going to be a hangup until N had a better storage system for DLC.

SI

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Anyone able to get on Xbox Live last night? Microsoft is continuing to have some major down-time issues on their online service.

http://loot-ninja.com/2008/01/08/xbox-live-day-19-of-crappy-service/

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Alan Wake could be really good - from the creators of Max Payne, which was one of the most fun games I've ever played.

At the current development pace on Alan Wake, the new Max Payne game currently under development for the PS3/360 may be out before Alan Wake.

[wade moore]

Anyone able to get on Xbox Live last night? Microsoft is continuing to have some major down-time issues on their online service.

http://loot-ninja.com/2008/01/08/xbox-live-day-19-of-crappy-service/

I was signed on for a bit with no problem.

[Malificent]

At the current development pace on Alan Wake, the new Max Payne game currently under development for the PS3/360 may be out before Alan Wake.

Holy shit, there's a new Max Payne coming out? That may be the final push towards me getting a 360.

[KWhit]

Anyone able to get on Xbox Live last night? Microsoft is continuing to have some major down-time issues on their online service.

http://loot-ninja.com/2008/01/08/xbox-live-day-19-of-crappy-service/

I was on just fine.

[astrosfan64]

When does the december console sales number thread get started?

[MikeVic]

A list of upcoming games for the year on Wii. This is not an exhaustive list. I tried to include games that caught my eye for one reason or another only. I may have missed a couple of bigger games due to unfamiliarity.

Notable Wii Games on the Horizon

JANUARY
PDC World Championship Darts 2008
Wii Chess
Endless Ocean
No More Heroes
Bomberman Land
MX vs ATV Untamed

FEBRUARY
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Dragon Quest Swords: TMQatToM
Baroque
de Blob
Dream Pinball

MARCH
ATV Thunder Ridge Riders & Monster Trucks
The Wizard of Oz
Ninja Reflex

Q1 no specific month
Harvest Moon: Tree of Peace
Mario Kart Wii
Samba De Amigo
Sega Bass Fishing
Sega Superstars Tennis
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Target: Terror
We Love Golf

APRIL
MLB 2k8

MAY
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Q2
Lego Indiana Jones
Top Spin Tennis
WALL-E

Q3
Deca Sports

Q4
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

2008 no specific quarter
Dr. Mario's Virus Buster
Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles: The crystal Bearers
Mario Superstar Baseball
Pro Evolution Soccer Wii

TBA
Alone in the Dark
Bob Ross: The Joy of Painting
Chocobo's Dungeon Toki-Wasure no Mekyuu
Disaster: Day of Crisis
Kirby
Monster Hunter 3
Okami
Opoona
Pirateology
Project Rygar
Red Steel 2
Rock Band
Sadness
Samurai Shodown Anthology
Spore
Wii Fit
Wizardology
Sam & Max


Rock Band?? Link to news announcing this?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

When does the december console sales number thread get started?

December NPD numbers should be out pretty soon.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Holy shit, there's a new Max Payne coming out? That may be the final push towards me getting a 360.

It's stricly a rumor at this point, but there's a lot of signs that it's in the works. Probably won't be until 2009, so you have some time to wait.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Japanese sales numbers are in for week ending January 6th........

Wii: 243K (+79%)
PS3: 70K (+32%)
PS2: 35K (+40%)
360: 13K (+63%)

Wii is still riding the recent supply surge in Japan. PS3, PS2 and 360 all post substantial percentage gain in sales over the previous week.

[MJ4H]

Rock Band?? Link to news announcing this?

I just copied the info from nintendo world report so I didn't know it was controversial at the time. However, I did a little research and it turns out the announcement was that Rock Band would be out on every "important console" or something similar. Now, of course there are the snobs that don't think the Wii is an important console (which is riduclous since it has the largest install base and will most likely be widening that gap over the near future), but they are later quoted as saying positive things about the Wii hardware. This has lead to some conclusion jumping about Rock Band eventually coming to Wii. Not confirmed, though, apparently.

[MikeVic]

I just copied the info from nintendo world report so I didn't know it was controversial at the time. However, I did a little research and it turns out the announcement was that Rock Band would be out on every "important console" or something similar. Now, of course there are the snobs that don't think the Wii is an important console (which is riduclous since it has the largest install base and will most likely be widening that gap over the near future), but they are later quoted as saying positive things about the Wii hardware. This has lead to some conclusion jumping about Rock Band eventually coming to Wii. Not confirmed, though, apparently.

Ok, I'll wait then. I really want to play and none of my friends with a PS3 or 360 want to spend the money on it. I was going to look for it on PS2, since I have that... but I'm hoping it's out on the Wii. :)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

The whole Xbox Live fiasco continues to grow. Moderators of the official forums are now deleting complaints from the forums. This open letter was deleted from the forums, which was honestly seemed like a pretty reasonable critique of the situation.

I won’t pretend that this is a completely original idea and no one else has ever raised the question of why Xbox Live is a pay service. In fact, I used to be one of the people who argued against them and supported Xbox Live. But, with recent Xbox Live troubles and news, it’s becoming significantly more difficult to do this. Having taken the time to really look at the state of Xbox Live is making me have to start agreeing with the people who I used to argue against.


Let’s start with the recent Xbox Live downtime. It is, quite frankly, absolutely unacceptable for a pay service. Until a few days ago, my brother had a two week period where he could not recover his GamerTag from Xbox Live. That’s two weeks of no Xbox Live access whatsoever. He tried deleting the profile of his Xbox and recovering it again, but this didn’t work either. Now he couldn’t even access his game saves or earn any achievements. Although I had my account on my Xbox, that’s not to say everything’s been great. Like the rest of you, I’ve been experiencing a lot of trouble with Xbox Live. Inability to join games, sign in to Xbox Live, load the dashboard blades, sometimes problems bad enough to freeze my 360 entirely until I pulled out the Ethernet cable.

Yes, we’re getting a free Xbox Live Arcade game as compensation for nearly 3 weeks of Xbox Live downtime. Woohoo. No details have been given, and as a result I suspect that this free game will be a specific title or list of titles which Microsoft will choose. I feel that at the very least we deserve to be either refunded for a month of Xbox Live or given a free month on top of this. Think about it, if your cell phone service had trouble for a month, dropping calls, refusing to dial numbers, etc., you wouldn’t be satisfied with a free cell phone game. The first step would be a refund for that month and then some sort of compensation for the inconvenience on top of that.

Connection troubles aside, there’s other reasons why I feel Xbox Live shouldn’t be a pay service. As of March 1, 2008, Xbox Live Diamond will become an additional $6.95 fee. No thanks. Not only was this service close to worthless, but to charge for something that was supposed to be a benefit of paying for the Xbox Live service is absurd. It was pathetic as a freebie and to think anyone is willing to pay for this is ridiculous.

Next up, Xbox Live is full of ads. Even when you first boot up your Xbox 360, you’re greeted with ads on the Xbox Live blade. While this may not seem like a huge issue, how would you feel if your internet service provider, who you pay a fee to, placed ads on the desktop of your computer (which you also paid for)? Gold members should at the very least be given an option to disable these ads.

Xbox Live also feels the need to wrap content in restrictive DRM schemes that limit users’ access to the items they’ve purchased. Worst of all, this is done without proper warning of just how restrictive it is. Xbox Live Arcade titles and dashboard themes are unusable when not connected to Xbox Live unless you are on the same Xbox they are purchased on. So, as a reward for being a loyal customer and upgrading to the Halo 3 edition of the Xbox 360, all the content I purchased on my previous content is now unusable when I’m not signed into Live on the account I purchased them from. This means that when Xbox Live is having trouble or when I’m on vacation or anywhere else I don’t have steady high speed internet access, I can’t play the games which I have paid for.

Despite the fee for Xbox Live, networking is almost entirely peer to peer reliant. There are no dedicated servers for games, something which has been long available to PC games with no online fee. The average residential high speed internet connection often does not have an upload bandwidth capable of properly supporting large amounts of players. This results in lag and allows for exploits relying on network manipulation, for example the standby cheating which plagued Halo 2.

One would think that the fee for Xbox Live would entitle users to extra content to justify the fee. However, Microsoft allows companies to charge often high prices for nearly every single piece of downloadable content for games. This setup for the Xbox Live Marketplace encourages developers to either purposefully withhold content or release games lacking content with the intent of later releasing and charging an additional fee for the rest of the content. Xbox Live’s content setup may even discourage free content. Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney is quoted in a 1Up Podcast as saying that “We’ve been wanting to give them away for a long time, but actually Microsoft has been pushing back on us for that.” The video game magazine Game Informer supported this in a 2007 issue where they also claimed that Microsoft forces companies to charge for content they wish to distribute. I do not doubt this to be the case, as free content for online PC games has long been the standard. Call of Duty 4 currently has a new downloadable map available for PC users which is absent from the 360 version.

So, what exactly is Xbox Live offering its paying customers? A unified friends list? The same feature has been available to PC gamers through free applications such as XFire and Steam. Put simply, the features of Xbox Live simply do not justify its price when considering the free services offered by the competitors and the robust structure of online PC gaming.

Although I’m sure many are likely to disagree with me and simply respond with “if you don’t like it, don’t pay,” it’s not quite that simple. Without an online service, my games and the console itself lose much of their playability and worth. I also lose contact with my friends who still use Xbox Live. So unless I’m willing to cut off contact with my friends and make my system no longer worth playing, no longer paying for Xbox Live isn’t really an option.

I’d like to hear the thoughts of the rest of the community. I feel that now, in light of the recent Xbox Live downtime, is a good time to start changing Xbox Live for the better.

[stevew]

That's it....I'm selling my fuck-box 360 immediately.

[Big Fo]

When does the december console sales number thread get started?

Hopefully forum users wait until the NPD numbers come out next Thursday instead of posting dubious numbers from vgchartz.com

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

That's it....I'm selling my fuck-box 360 immediately.

Not sure why you'd do that.

The open letter that I posted mentioned how 360 owners are somewhat up a tree in that regard. Once you're in the community, a lot of your gaming is tied directly to the XBL membership. You really can't play a lot of the game features without the XBL membership. It's a nice thing for Microsoft as it ties the user into a revenue stream with no alternative. The argument in the past has been that the online service is what's being paid for with the XBL fees. With the multitude of online services on the Wii and the lack of any downtimes on the PS3 online gaming, I'm not sure how much longer that argument is going to hold up. I wouldn't be surprised to see Major Nelson doing more damage control in the coming days.

[BrianD]

It seems odd to hear people talk about how bad the XBL service is and how it isn't worth what it costs. For the time (years?) before when there weren't connection problems, people were commenting on how much better the XBL service was than any other service and how the integration of all the different services made the relatively small monthly price easily worthwhile.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

It seems odd to hear people talk about how bad the XBL service is and how it isn't worth what it costs. For the time (years?) before when there weren't connection problems, people were commenting on how much better the XBL service was than any other service and how the integration of all the different services made the relatively small monthly price easily worthwhile.

Agreed. Before this year, the XBL and Xbox service was generally held in high regard. This past 12 months has been tough with the technical RROD issues that forced MS to offer extended warranties. Throw in the dramatic increase in waiting time for repairs and the XBL outages over the holidays and it's obvious that they've seen better days in regards to quality and service.

In regards to fee-based online gaming, MS made the bed that it's in right now. If you're going to charge a fee and claim the best and most reliable service, you better deliver on that promise. You're going to be held to a higher standard because you're charging the consumer for that higher standard. A box of fresh clams on a dock could have figured out that there'd be an increase in demand on XBL during the holidays. They'll likely prepare better for the next holiday rush, but that doesn't help their PR problems right now.

[BrianD]

In regards to fee-based online gaming, MS made the bed that it's in right now. If you're going to charge a fee and claim the best and most reliable service, you better deliver on that promise. You're going to be held to a higher standard because you're charging the consumer for that higher standard. A box of fresh clams on a dock could have figured out that there'd be an increase in demand on XBL during the holidays. They'll likely prepare better for the next holiday rush, but that doesn't help their PR problems right now.

But how many years have they been delivering on this promise? People clearly have a reason to complain at the moment, but the overall service record is pretty clean. This is clearly a black eye for them, but how they handle this situation will show what kind of company they are. A few hours of downtime could be recovered by a free game, but they may be past the point of where a free game can cover things.

I also find it funny to hear people say that they should have expected an increase in demand during the holidays. Does anybody really think they didn't expect and plan for increased demand? The fact that they didn't properly plan for the level of increase they got doesn't mean they didn't plan for any. I find this kind of binary thinking funny. Didn't all of the consoles get an above average holiday push this year?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

But how many years have they been delivering on this promise? People clearly have a reason to complain at the moment, but the overall service record is pretty clean. This is clearly a black eye for them, but how they handle this situation will show what kind of company they are. A few hours of downtime could be recovered by a free game, but they may be past the point of where a free game can cover things.

I also find it funny to hear people say that they should have expected an increase in demand during the holidays. Does anybody really think they didn't expect and plan for increased demand? The fact that they didn't properly plan for the level of increase they got doesn't mean they didn't plan for any. I find this kind of binary thinking funny. Didn't all of the consoles get an above average holiday push this year?

For a lot of gamers this holiday season, this may be their first XBL experience as they may not have owned a MS console before now. Past performance isn't going to mean a whole lot to those people. MS probably has a bit more leeway with long-term users, but even that goodwill can recede as the problems continue.

In regards to increased demand, there's a big difference between other consoles and MS consoles online. MS has the set up where you have to log in to play a lot of the games as part of their copy protection scheme. The PS3 doesn't have that setup. As a result, there's going to be a lot more users logged into MS consoles just because they have to do so to play some of their games. The PS3 uses servers that are run by the game companies, so even if there are a lot of PS3 playing online, it's spread over many different servers that are used to serve the demand of that specific game rather than an entire online community.

[Daimyo]

Every service has downtime and its ridiculous to expect zero downtime. XBL isn't a hospital or nuclear power plant! Sounds like for most users the downtime was only a few hours, but even if it was down for a whole day that is still 99.7% uptime over the year which is pretty good for a service like that.

The real problem is the few who experienced or are still experiencing extended downtime. MS really needs to step up with more than a free game for those people. I can't imagine they won't refund payment a prorated portion of the monthly payment for people who had an outage more than 24 hours. What sort of compensation is listed in the SLA for extended outages?

[BrianD]

For a lot of gamers this holiday season, this may be their first XBL experience as they may not have owned a MS console before now. Past performance isn't going to mean a whole lot to those people. MS probably has a bit more leeway with long-term users, but even that goodwill can recede as the problems continue.

Of course goodwill can recede. That is why it is important to see what Microsoft does with this situation. If they deal with it well, people will remember this as a small problem that could be expected being a member of such a popular community. If they deal with it poorly, people may have second thoughts when it comes to the xbox 720 or whatever is next. Most people aren't going to return their consoles over this, so service levels will be judged by more than this period even for new customers. This is obviously a negative situation for Microsoft, but it remains to be seen how negative this is.

In regards to increased demand, there's a big difference between other consoles and MS consoles online. MS has the set up where you have to log in to play a lot of the games as part of their copy protection scheme. The PS3 doesn't have that setup. As a result, there's going to be a lot more users logged into MS consoles just because they have to do so to play some of their games. The PS3 uses servers that are run by the game companies, so even if there are a lot of PS3 playing online, it's spread over many different servers that are used to serve the demand of that specific game rather than an entire online community.

Do you really have to log in to play some of their games? I have friends who claim to not even have their Xbox on the network and they have never mentioned being unable to play a game.

The plan of having servers run by the game companies is a mixed bag compared to the XBL system. Problems can be localized to individual games, but you are also requiring proper service levels from multiple entities.

[astrosfan64]

Do you get part of your cable fee refunded to you if your cable goes out at your home? I doublt MS is going to do this.

[astrosfan64]

Of course goodwill can recede. That is why it is important to see what Microsoft does with this situation. If they deal with it well, people will remember this as a small problem that could be expected being a member of such a popular community. If they deal with it poorly, people may have second thoughts when it comes to the xbox 720 or whatever is next. Most people aren't going to return their consoles over this, so service levels will be judged by more than this period even for new customers. This is obviously a negative situation for Microsoft, but it remains to be seen how negative this is.



Do you really have to log in to play some of their games? I have friends who claim to not even have their Xbox on the network and they have never mentioned being unable to play a game.

The plan of having servers run by the game companies is a mixed bag compared to the XBL system. Problems can be localized to individual games, but you are also requiring proper service levels from multiple entities.

THere are no games you have to log in and play. That is an untrue statement by mizzou

[Butter]

Do you get part of your cable fee refunded to you if your cable goes out at your home? I doublt MS is going to do this.

If it's a long enough outage, yes I would expect some kind of refund.

[stevew]

re log in:

If you bought halo 3 maps on your previous console, you would have to sign into live in order to get them usable on your new console. Also same would apply to any arcade games.

[Deattribution]

Every service has downtime and its ridiculous to expect zero downtime. XBL isn't a hospital or nuclear power plant! Sounds like for most users the downtime was only a few hours, but even if it was down for a whole day that is still 99.7% uptime over the year which is pretty good for a service like that.

The real problem is the few who experienced or are still experiencing extended downtime. MS really needs to step up with more than a free game for those people. I can't imagine they won't refund payment a prorated portion of the monthly payment for people who had an outage more than 24 hours. What sort of compensation is listed in the SLA for extended outages?

It was much longer than a few hours, it was 2+ weeks (and counting for some) that it was complete shit for alot of people. It was completely worthless to me from the weekend before christmas all the way til Jan 2nd.

And the log in issue is more than just being able to play online, especially if you needed to recover your gamertag like I did. Because all of your saved games are tied to your tag, basically there is no point in playing anything without being able to save anything or load anything from your profile.

They messed up, and there isn't another way around it. Of course (and this isn't directed to anyone particular) for many people in this thread, anything that isn't pro-360 isn't worth reading or is 'just a rumour'.

[stevew]

Live is like 4 bucks a month, while it being out is highly annoying, it's nothing like your cell phone(50-60 bucks) being out. A "free game" is adequate compensation, but they should probably consider giving the option for one free month. Or at least offer a choice of 800 point games(value of 10 bucks)

[Arles]

The whole Xbox Live fiasco continues to grow. Moderators of the official forums are now deleting complaints from the forums. This open letter was deleted from the forums, which was honestly seemed like a pretty reasonable critique of the situation.
First, I do think that MS should look at additional compensation (ie, a free month) for people with extended outages. However, this open letter reads like someone with an agenda using his outage as a platform to go above and beyond. It's obvious the writer doesn't like Live being a pay service - and his opinion seems to have been the same on Dec 7 as it is on Jan 7. It's just now that MS had an extended outage, he has a bigger forum. Microsoft could refund this guy 3 months of his service and two weeks later he would be on the same forum complaining how Live should be free.

[CraigSca]

Mizzou B-ball fan - when's the next price cut on the PS3? I'll need to get one for The Show, but I'd rather wait and save a few bucks, if possible.

[Daimyo]

Do you get part of your cable fee refunded to you if your cable goes out at your home? I doublt MS is going to do this.

I do if the outage lasts more than 24 hours and I call to request it. I think that's pretty standard. Why would you pay for a service that they do not provide?

[BrianD]

And the log in issue is more than just being able to play online, especially if you needed to recover your gamertag like I did. Because all of your saved games are tied to your tag, basically there is no point in playing anything without being able to save anything or load anything from your profile.


I have no experience with this, so forgive me if it is a stupid question. Is your gamertag something that is stored on your machine but saved on Live for backup purposes? And without this tag, your saved games are worthless? So for whatever reason, your local tag got messed up which caused you to be unable to access saved games, or probably save any new games? If that is all true, that seems like a pretty bad design idea. The odds of losing the tag while the Live service is down should be pretty low (unless the service being down makes corruption more probably), but it is pretty crappy to let offline gaming being disrupted by not being able to play online.

[Deattribution]

I have no experience with this, so forgive me if it is a stupid question. Is your gamertag something that is stored on your machine but saved on Live for backup purposes? And without this tag, your saved games are worthless? So for whatever reason, your local tag got messed up which caused you to be unable to access saved games, or probably save any new games? If that is all true, that seems like a pretty bad design idea. The odds of losing the tag while the Live service is down should be pretty low (unless the service being down makes corruption more probably), but it is pretty crappy to let offline gaming being disrupted by not being able to play online.

Your saved games are saved to your specific profiles, so in this instance, all of my saved games were saved to my xbox live profile, and I had recently used my live profile on another console before all the issues popped up. So, to again use my saved games, and my profile on the current console I needed to recover the profile so that I could get on xbox live, and also log into the profile and use save games ect. To do this, my options are to go through the recover process - which was having problems along with the live service, or if I had a memory card I could of moved it using the memory card apparently (this was something I learned after the fact). It made the situation much more frustrating, if it were just no online play, I wouldn't of really cared.

As far as the free game being mentioned in other post, I think that's plenty sufficient, but I still found it disappointing that MS *had* to know it was going to be the busiest time ever for live, and they were completely unprepared - even a week before Xmas.

[dawgfan]

They messed up, and there isn't another way around it. Of course (and this isn't directed to anyone particular) for many people in this thread, anything that isn't pro-360 isn't worth reading or is 'just a rumour'.
Um, I think you're mistaking the reaction that many people here have for Mizzou B-Ball Fan's obvious Sony spin as being "pro-360".

[Deattribution]

Um, I think you're mistaking the reaction that many people here have for Mizzou B-Ball Fan's obvious Sony spin as being "pro-360".

Um,Nope, I'm not. If that were the case, this thread would be Wii vs 360 vs PS3.

If Sony had these problems with their online service, it would be marked down as 'another Sony screwup' and there'd be another 5 pages about it.


The majority of the stuff Mizzou B-Ball post isn't even from himself, with most of it being from other sources - and everytime he post something about the PS3 someone has to pull their tallywacker out and say WELL LOOK AT MINE! the 360 can do this, and is gonna have this, and do that, why didn't you say anything about that?!? And OBVIOUSLY it's a timed exclusive, because I know so, you're obviously spinning it! If you're so concerned with making sure the 360 gets the same 'coverage' to this minute audience, post it your effin self.

It's really sad. Especially since these threads have useful information in them, it's convenient to be able to read alot of this stuff centralized, and even the opinions can be interesting for perspective - but they degenerate into 1 vs 100 every month.

[Galaxy]

Any idea on why I can't connect to Live. The test says my IP Address failed. Now it was working fine two days ago.

[Deattribution]

Any idea on why I can't connect to Live. The test says my IP Address failed. Now it was working fine two days ago.

If you're using a router, try restarting it (unplugging). That has helped before.

[Pacersfan46]

And OBVIOUSLY it's a timed exclusive, because I know so, you're obviously spinning it![/I]

Actually nobody has said they KNOW it's a timed exclusive, just that past experience says that it's a serious possibility.

He's the only one acting like he knows anything 100% on that.

-- Steve --

[Atocep]

Um,Nope, I'm not. If that were the case, this thread would be Wii vs 360 vs PS3.

If Sony had these problems with their online service, it would be marked down as 'another Sony screwup' and there'd be another 5 pages about it.


The majority of the stuff Mizzou B-Ball post isn't even from himself, with most of it being from other sources - and everytime he post something about the PS3 someone has to pull their tallywacker out and say WELL LOOK AT MINE! the 360 can do this, and is gonna have this, and do that, why didn't you say anything about that?!? And OBVIOUSLY it's a timed exclusive, because I know so, you're obviously spinning it! If you're so concerned with making sure the 360 gets the same 'coverage' to this minute audience, post it your effin self.

It's really sad. Especially since these threads have useful information in them, it's convenient to be able to read alot of this stuff centralized, and even the opinions can be interesting for perspective - but they degenerate into 1 vs 100 every month.


I'm amazed that anyone could possibly read these threads and conclude that the fanboyishness comes from the 360 side. People that don't own any of the consoles have posted on how turned off he can make people to the PS3 with his pro-Sony movment.

You're right, most of the stuff he posts isn't from himself, but his analysis of what he posts has an obvious pro-PS3 and anti-MS spin to it. There is absolutely no way of denying that. What happens then is people do come to call him on the spin and it always ends up being another Sony vs Microsoft debate. Its inevitable on this forum whenever anyone is an obvious fanboy of something.

And 1 vs 100 is obviously because there's 100 Microsoft fanboys floating around on this forum ready to defend the name of Bill Gates at the drop of a hat...

[dawgfan]

And 1 vs 100 is obviously because there's 100 Microsoft fanboys floating around on this forum ready to defend the name of Bill Gates at the drop of a hat...
I'm pretty sure if you check the history of Deattribution's posts in these threads, you'll find that he also comes across as a Sony fanboy, so I think his perspective is skewed.

[dawgfan]

Um,Nope, I'm not. If that were the case, this thread would be Wii vs 360 vs PS3.

If Sony had these problems with their online service, it would be marked down as 'another Sony screwup' and there'd be another 5 pages about it.


The majority of the stuff Mizzou B-Ball post isn't even from himself, with most of it being from other sources - and everytime he post something about the PS3 someone has to pull their tallywacker out and say WELL LOOK AT MINE! the 360 can do this, and is gonna have this, and do that, why didn't you say anything about that?!? And OBVIOUSLY it's a timed exclusive, because I know so, you're obviously spinning it! If you're so concerned with making sure the 360 gets the same 'coverage' to this minute audience, post it your effin self.

It's really sad. Especially since these threads have useful information in them, it's convenient to be able to read alot of this stuff centralized, and even the opinions can be interesting for perspective - but they degenerate into 1 vs 100 every month.
OK, whatever chief. There's 100 MS fanboys here and 1 Sony fanboy. Right.

[Daimyo]

I'm hope I'm not being counted as an MS-fanboy just because I've been critical of Mizzou B-Ball's posts. I do not own a 360 and have no plans to pick one up in the near or midterm.

[Big Fo]

Apparently Soul Calibur 4 is going to have Yoda and Darth Vader as playable characters?

Soul Calibur 4 CES Trailer (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29535.html)

[SirFozzie]

File under WHAT THE FUCK.

Apparently Darth Vader is PS3-exclusive, and Yoda is X360-Exclusive.

What. The. Fuck.

[TroyF]

I was lucky and didn't happen to use my 360 when there was any downtime. If I had? I'd have been pissed off and turned on the PS3 or Wii. Then I would have went back to the 360 the next day. (I'm playing through Orange Box on the 360 and NBA2K is getting a ton of time as well, so it's still the system I spend the most time on)

If this had been Sony, there would have been zero anger from me. It's a free service they provide. If it happened to have downtime, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal.

All things being equal, I still think that XBox Live is superior to the Sony or Wii console menus. I like the way it's layed out, the amount of content I can get and the options I have. to me, it's worth the money each year. Were Sony or the Wii to come up with a pay requirement for the same service, I'd skip it. Live is better. Not being a 360 fanboy, just stating my beliefs at the current moment. It's also the fact that I'm not much of a multiplayer person. (Obviously, LittleBigPlanet could change all of that when it is released)

MS will get their servers fixed and this will be forgotten about in a couple of weeks.

As for the 360 vs. Sony vs. Wii fanboy debate, I find that fascinating. I know people will put me in the 360 fanboy category. This is because I think it has the superior games, the best controller and the best online service of the bunch. It's also because I predicted the PS3 would be a monumental failure in its first year.

Overlooked will be the fact that I own all three consoles, that I have multiple games for each and that it doesn't matter one little bit "which" console wins. I'm in a position where I'll get the best games for any system. (yes, I am a geek) Does anyone really think I'd pass up a series of terrific PS3 games and focus in on a handfull of average 360 titles because of my hatred for Sony? Please. . .

This isn't 100 vs. 1. Mizzou isn't valiantly defending himself against the psycho 360 owners. He simply has a MAJOR Sony slant and gets pissed when he gets called on it. You bash the entire "timed" release arguement for example. Go back a couple of months and look at how many things Mizzou was posting about Bioshock coming out for the PS3. OMG, there is a line of code that says PS3 in it, it's coming out, you just watch!!!!!!! I didn't even reply to that, because I really didn't care.

[stevew]

Sucks Yoda Does.

I want Darth m'fn Vader Dammit!!!

[Deattribution]

I'm pretty sure if you check the history of Deattribution's posts in these threads, you'll find that he also comes across as a Sony fanboy, so I think his perspective is skewed.

Riveting response, I feel like I'm on the IGN 360 boards.

Search away, maybe you can find a few post for me that I lost while you're collecting a check from Microsoft. Infact, feel free to find that Sony bias, since I know for a fact all of my post concerning this matter have been about the fact these conversations are so skewed as if Sony has absolutely no chance and have screwed up everything. Not to mention, you have many more post in these threads than I do, chief.

I own 2 360's (three if you count the bricked POS waiting for possible repairs that aren't covered because it's 1 ring instead of 3) and a Wii, and I'll buy a PS3 when it becomes a smart purchase - but I also can realize that it's been only a year, and I felt the same way about the 360 til about it's second year. I like my 360's but I know it's not the greatest creation ever, and nothing can ever compare. It all just comes down to who creates the most appealing games that I want to play.

As far as the 100 vs 1 comment, surely nobody took that as literal to mean 100 people. At the same time, whether Mizzou-B is right or not, everyone piles on, and he's the only one posting anything positive in here towards Sony, and I know it isn't because Sony hasn't done anything at all right. That's not to say everything he post is right, or even accurate - but c'mon.

As far as the Bioshock thing, there was nothing indicating it was going to be a timed exclusive, just like there is nothing indicating MGS is. It's hypocritical to say it's okay now, but complain about it when it was Bioshock.

[dawgfan]

Search away, maybe you can find a few post for me that I lost while you're collecting a check from Microsoft.
My paycheck comes from Midway.

You're dreaming if you think this site and these threads are home to a wealth of 360 fanboys. The posts "piling on" Mizzou B-Ball Fan are there to call him on his obvious spins in favor of Sony. When you move beyond those posts, you'll find people criticizing MS as well. If you feel that Sony hasn't made a lot more mistakes in this generation of the console wars than MS has and thus doesn't deserve to see a lot more criticism in these threads, more power to you. I disagree.

I'll ask you this - is gstelmack (who works for a multi-platform publisher) a 360 fanboy? Eaglesfan27? TroyF?

[Deattribution]

I've never said they haven't made more mistakes than MS. They've made plenty, most are related to their price point more than anything else though in terms of impact. Beyond that, it's a pretty cut and dry system release. It just happens to be amongst heavy competition. Not every system gets out of the gates like the Wii, and the Wii did because of it's friendly price in addition to it's innovative play and being bundled with the perfect party game (my house hold still plays Wii sports regularly and we've had it since launch day).

And I haven't directly called anyone a fanboy, I don't think I need to - I certainly don't come in here defending myself everytime someone says the words 'PS3 fanboy'. Everyone makes their fair points at times. Just not everyone gets credit for it.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

FWIW......I think the labeling of any poster as being a 'fanboy' or otherwise is fruitless and doesn't achieve anything. I personally try to address the topic of discussion (whatever it might be) rather than any agenda that I might perceive of a given poster. The one exception might be MattJones4Heismann, because he's openly claimed the title of 'Wii fanboy' with great pride in previous posts. :)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Microsoft issued an official response to the XBL problems.

http://kotaku.com/343152/microsoft-says-xbox-live-outage-due-to-server-strain

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Reuters is reporting that Sony will cease production and shipment of 20 and 60 GB PS3's in Japan. The 40 GB machine will be the only unit for the time being with other units eventually added to meet customer requests. My guess is that the 80 GB will be added once the 20 and 60 GB machines' remaining stock is cleared out. Probably will result in a short term boost to sales on those models for those that want to pick up the fully BC models.

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSTKV00294220080110

[TroyF]

FWIW......I think the labeling of any poster as being a 'fanboy' or otherwise is fruitless and doesn't achieve anything. I personally try to address the topic of discussion (whatever it might be) rather than any agenda that I might perceive of a given poster. The one exception might be MattJones4Heismann, because he's openly claimed the title of 'Wii fanboy' with great pride in previous posts. :)

MJ4H is one I have respect for. He openly admits where his priorites are and which system he's a proponent of. And you'll note that nobody has said a word to him about it.

On the other hand, an individual who claims he's unbiased, yet is clearly in favor of one system (and there is NO doubt on this point) gets a lot of crap.

See how that works?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

MJ4H is one I have respect for. He openly admits where his priorites are and which system he's a proponent of. And you'll note that nobody has said a word to him about it.

On the other hand, an individual who claims he's unbiased, yet is clearly in favor of one system (and there is NO doubt on this point) gets a lot of crap.

See how that works?

You phrase your post like I was somehow pointing out a problem with MJ4H because of his bias. Couldn't be further from the truth.

I'm assuming you're implying that I've somehow claimed a total lack of bias in these discussions. That couldn't be further from the truth. A majority of the people in this thread carry a bias towards the 360, but that doesn't mean that their opinion is any more/less important than anyone else IMO. A poster's bias doesn't inherently make their points right or wrong. The points that they make and the basis of support for those points are what determines how accurate their perception of a given situation is.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Market analysts Hickey and Pachter discuss the effect of the possible end of the HD movie format war on the game console market:

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/bluray-to-unlock-true-value-of-ps3-accelerate-sales-price-cut-by-yearend/19030/?biz=1

[Big Fo]

File under WHAT THE FUCK.

Apparently Darth Vader is PS3-exclusive, and Yoda is X360-Exclusive.

What. The. Fuck.

Rumors are that the missing character on each platform might be downloadable (for a small fee of course) later on. Great to see Namco taking a page from the three console manufacturers and getting every last cent out of the people they can.

[dawgfan]

A majority of the people in this thread carry a bias towards the 360...
True and false - I believe a majority of people carry a bias towards the 360, but I don't believe most of those people had a predisposed bias towards the 360 going into this generation of the console wars - their bias was earned by what they felt the 360 did right and what the PS3 did wrong.

I fully admit that while I was at MS, I had a predisposed bias towards the Xbox vs. the PS2. Once I stopped working for MS (in late '04) my predisposed bias lessened, and then it lessened even more once I started working for a multi-platform publisher (Midway). I was fully prepared to get on board with the PS3 this generation, but Sony's mistakes have put the kibosh on that so far. I was prepared to embrace the PS3, but so far I've felt no compelling reason to do so.

I'm also a big, big fan of the Wii, though I also think it's more of an indirect competitor to the 360 and PS3.

[Calis]

Rumors are that the missing character on each platform might be downloadable (for a small fee of course) later on. Great to see Namco taking a page from the three console manufacturers and getting every last cent out of the people they can.

I'm not sure why people are shocked by this, Namco has already done this before..with this series no less.

[MizzouRah]

A majority of the people in this thread carry a bias towards the 360 because of my SONY fanboyism attitude.

Fixed.

Everytime I read his posts in these threads, my hatred for the ps3 grows. It's an odd thing, but what can I say?

[Bee]

Fixed.

Everytime I read his posts in these threads, my hatred for the ps3 grows. It's an odd thing, but what can I say?

Little known fact...MBBF actually works for Microsoft and is a viral marketer using reverse psychology. :D

[MizzouRah]

Little known fact...MBBF actually works for Microsoft and is a viral marketer using reverse psychology. :D

:D

He's not all bad, he IS a Mizzou fan.. but seriously man...

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Fixed.

Everytime I read his posts in these threads, my hatred for the ps3 grows. It's an odd thing, but what can I say?

As has been mentioned before by other posters, anyone who uses the comments of a message board poster as a justification for liking/disliking a consumer product instead of using the actual merits of said product likely needs to take a step back and reassess the situation.

I'm guessing the rough non-conference start for the basketball team has you a bit grumpy. :D

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

True and false - I believe a majority of people carry a bias towards the 360, but I don't believe most of those people had a predisposed bias towards the 360 going into this generation of the console wars - their bias was earned by what they felt the 360 did right and what the PS3 did wrong.

I would agree with that, though the criticisms of the PS3 tend to be based more on release and early problems just after release than anything they've done in recent months. The PS3 has been the unquestioned whipping boy thus far overall. It's been kicked more than the neighbor's dog, and most of it over the first 9 months was well-warranted. It's taken them a year to finally get their sales figures going. They (Sony) obviously didn't anticipate that, though they should have considering most knew exactly what the problems were on release.

[wade moore]

I would agree with that, though the criticisms of the PS3 tend to be based more on release and early problems just after release than anything they've done in recent months. The PS3 has been the unquestioned whipping boy thus far overall. It's been kicked more than the neighbor's dog, and most of it over the first 9 months was well-warranted. It's taken them a year to finally get their sales figures going. They (Sony) obviously didn't anticipate that, though they should have considering most knew exactly what the problems were on release.Never a 2nd chance to make a first impression...

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Never a 2nd chance to make a first impression...

Absolutely. They had to actually work hard to screw up the first few monts as badly as they did.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

New screen shots of Lost Odyssey..........

http://www.gamersyde.com/news_5746_en.html

Interview with MS head of global marketing (long)..........

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6184535.html

Sony has reduced manufacturing costs of the PS3 to $400 (was $800 at release).........

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jan2008/gb2008018_681920.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_global+business

Analysts Applaud Efforts to Shrink PS3 Chips
Stringer's promise to raise Sony's overall margins to 5% by the Mar. 31 fiscal yearend appears easily within reach. And margins should continue to improve as Sony's video-game division, Sony Computer Entertainment, trims the console's manufacturing costs and revs up output.

Nikko Citigroup's Kota Ezawa estimates the games division will lose $1.4 billion this fiscal year, following last year's $2.1 billion loss. And while he doesn't expect the business to be prosperous until late 2009, Ezawa applauds Sony's efforts to shrink the PS3's chips and tweak its design. Already such changes have cut the cost per machine to around $400 now, from above $800 just before it went on sale in November, 2006, he says. (The PS3 with an 80-gigabyte hard-disk drive retails in the U.S. for about $499.) "We think the biggest factor here is that simplification has become possible through a reduction in the parts count, leading to a reduction in costs," Ezawa wrote in a Dec. 27 report.

Warner's shift to Blu-ray is a gift for Sony's videogame business. The console's sales have picked up in recent months after Sony cut the price in October, introduced a $399 model in November, and lowered the fees it charges game developers in a bid to broaden its games offering. But it still trails Nintendo's Wii, which also launched in November, 2006. Last year in Japan, for instance, Nintendo's Wii console outsold Sony's PS3 3-to-1, according to Tokyo market researcher Enterbrain. Macquarie Securities predicts Sony will ship just 9.2 million consoles this fiscal year, not the 11 million the company has forecast.

[sterlingice]

Apparently Soul Calibur 4 is going to have Yoda and Darth Vader as playable characters?

Soul Calibur 4 CES Trailer (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29535.html)

That is really odd. They are really out of context. Spawn was a little out of context in SC2 but not badly. This just seems random.

SI

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

That is really odd. They are really out of context. Spawn was a little out of context in SC2 but not badly. This just seems like a perfect way to sell a few more copies of the game to people who wouldn't otherwise buy it.

SI

Fixed.

[CraigSca]

New screen shots of Lost Odyssey..........

http://www.gamersyde.com/news_5746_en.html

Interview with MS head of global marketing (long)..........

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6184535.html

Sony has reduced manufacturing costs of the PS3 to $400 (was $800 at release).........

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jan2008/gb2008018_681920.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_global+business

Cool. Maybe they can put the $20 Emotion Engine back in.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Lots of info about Resistance 2 just released in a preview. Online 8-player co-op campaign mode and 60 player multi-player battle maps are the main feature sets. Summary points of article are listed below............

RESISTANCE 2 preview(Game Informer)

EDIT 1: Huge cooperative game... 8 player story-driven campaign along side single-player campaign. 60 player Competitive modes... Huge United States Landscapes as backdrops.

EDIT 2: "It is, in short, a tour de force for the untapped might of the PlayStation 3"

EDIT 3: Narrative stays with Hale the whole time... not Rachel. Hale shot down in Iceland, escapes to US and becomes part of program called Sentinels...

EDIT 4: Chameleon.. Stalker with total cloaking ability

EDIT 5: Overcoming stigma that boss encounters don't work in FPS games..

EDIT 6: Eight player coop over PSN, two player local

EDIT 7: CLASSES! Unique character with one of three basic templates... tank with heavy weaponry, special ops for distance (bullseye modified with zoom), medic

EDIT 8: Online matching... standard difficulty discarded for scaled challenges for team skill..

EDIT 9: Partially randomized geometry... levels are different with each playthrough

EDIT 10: again... 60 players online. want sense of epic b attle.. dont want fast-furious gameplay to be focus, more focused on squad v squad.

EDIT 11: will log into smaller four-to-eight man lobbies for each squad... encouraging communication and camaraderie, squad will be tasked witha particular objective. careful level design aims to deliver intense combat zones or small team conflicts that flow within arena of larger battle.

EDIT 12: Dedicated gaming community with stat servers for faster matchmaching than any console game of 2007. full-featured profile pages through myresistance.net will incorporate social networking concepts. open clan and party system to encourage community...no player invites needed.

EDIT 13: Aiming to deliver mobile-phone-quality sound for headsets.

EDIT 14: Futher tapped power of PS3... more enemies onscreen, better AI, better lighting and shaders. More comples normal mapping and detail mapping combine to deliver textures that look amazing from afar and at extremely close distances.

EDIT 15: AI getting a lot more attention.. will scaled on-the-fly to players perspective and viewpoint... aka enemies cloesr to the player will actually have more spohisicated AI routines than those further away. assailants in your direct field of view received heightened intelligence. easily more cunning than before

EDIT 16: listened to complaints... working on solution to long checkpoints and health system. not positive what final solution will be.

EDIT 17: "Our time playing was a blast"... each character class contributes in a unique way and "we loved the strategy-laden medic"... unique sense of teamwork

EDIT 18: Mysterious "Cloven"

EDIT 19: "Resistance 2 will be too epic to dismiss as anything but one of the biggest, boldest, and most high-reaching titles of 2008. It's a game that won't be ignored."

[MizzouRah]

As has been mentioned before by other posters, anyone who uses the comments of a message board poster as a justification for liking/disliking a consumer product instead of using the actual merits of said product likely needs to take a step back and reassess the situation.

I'm guessing the rough non-conference start for the basketball team has you a bit grumpy. :D

No, it's just to the point now, that I usually just skip over your posts in these threads.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

No, it's just to the point now, that I usually just skip over your posts in these threads.

I know. You're from the St. Louis end of the state. It must take you all day to read some of these articles, especially without pictures.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Article that discusses the specifics concerning the British Telecom deal with Microsoft.............

http://www.tech.co.uk/digital-home/general/blogs/2008/01/10/iptv-for-xbox-360-disappoints

[Kodos]

I broke down and bought a used 60 GB PS3 off of Amazon. Resistance is the first game that I picked up. PS3 should arrive next week sometime. Reading the problems with the emulation for games that I have and still haven't played convinced me to make a move to get the full backwards compatibility while I could. :)

[Galaxy]

Any idea of why when I play online, the controller keeps disconnecting. It's not the batteries (3 bars). The globe just went dead, then I would have to reconnect it every 3 seconds.

[RainMaker]

FWIW......I think the labeling of any poster as being a 'fanboy' or otherwise is fruitless and doesn't achieve anything. I personally try to address the topic of discussion (whatever it might be) rather than any agenda that I might perceive of a given poster. The one exception might be MattJones4Heismann, because he's openly claimed the title of 'Wii fanboy' with great pride in previous posts. :)
Come on, you've been trying to justify your purchase of a PS3 to everyone here for a long time. You bought the wrong system, it was a bad choice, no big deal. Heck, some people here bought BETA VCRs back in the day.

[MJ4H]

I still had mine until about 5 years ago.

[MizzouRah]

Come on, you've been trying to justify your purchase of a PS3 to everyone here for a long time. You bought the wrong system, it was a bad choice, no big deal. Heck, some people here bought BETA VCRs back in the day.

LOL!!!!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Come on, you've been trying to justify your purchase of a PS3 to everyone here for a long time. You bought the wrong system, it was a bad choice, no big deal. Heck, some people here bought BETA VCRs back in the day.

Total flame bait aside, I've been quite happy with my PS3 and use it quite a bit. The discussion has nothing to do with justification of any sort. I wish I could say the same about my Wii purchase. I still haven't played that console for a couple of months now.

[Fidatelo]

I still play my Wii more than my Xbox 360, and I haven't even gotten going with Mario Galaxy yet (still playing Zack and Wiki).

[Mizzou B-ball fan]That's because the 360 is garbage, if you had a PS3 you'd play it so much your wife and dog would leave you.[/Mizzou B-ball fan]

[MJ4H]

I think my DS purchase was better than my Wii purchase, but I'd have never considered a DS before getting a Wii. The Wii showed me what I'd been missing with Nintendo.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Xbox Live is moving into the 4th week of server problems. The rumor spreading around is they have run into some deeply embedded server code limitation problems that may require a full rebuild of the server system. Unfortunately, due to the class action lawsuit they are facing, no date for a possible fix will be publicized.

http://kotaku.com/344463/major-nelsons-live-update-is-no-more-live-updates

Major Nelson's Live Update is No More Live Updates

As Xbox Live limps into the third week of 2008 still experiencing slow-downs, and occasional outages, salvation has come in the form of a legal excuse not to explain why the service remains so dodgy.

According to Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, he is no longer allowed to update us because Microsoft now faces a class action lawsuit over the outages. Hryb apologized, but said any future updates will need to come from "the lawyer."

That means no more Twitter updates like "LIVE is looking pretty good now....how is it for you guys-n-girls?" or "I want to thank you all for (mostly) being so understanding during the tough LIVE time. Some of you did decide to cuss at me...but ok.".

The response by gamers over on his Microsoft site is getting quite hostile, hostile toward Larry Hryb and each other and the guys behind the suit. It's unfortunate that this has happened, because the only thing worse than having issues with a very popular service, is not being able to talk about when a fix is coming.

How about you all, are you still experiencing any Xbox Live issues?

[Big Fo]

Total flame bait aside, I've been quite happy with my PS3 and use it quite a bit. The discussion has nothing to do with justification of any sort. I wish I could say the same about my Wii purchase. I still haven't played that console for a couple of months now.

Well, you can't say good games haven't been coming out.

Starting in August: Metriod Prime 3, Fire Emblem, Ghost Squad, Guilty Gear: Accent Core, Guitar Hero 3, Lego Star Wars Complete Saga, Mario/Sonic at the Olympics, Medal of Honor Heroes 2, Mercury Meltdown Revolution, MLB Power Pros, NiGHTS: Journey into Dreams, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Super Mario Galaxy, Tiger Woods 08, Trauma Center: New Blood, and Zack and Wiki.

Now, not all of these are great, insta-classic games (although a few are) but they're all at least pretty good and cover a wide variety of genres.

I've read posts saying you don't like Wii Sports, that you don't like traditional Nintendo first party games, and don't seem to be willing to try any of the several good third-party games that have been released, why not sell the Wii, make a few bucks and buy games for the only console that seems to interest you? Better than posting that you haven't been able to justify your purchase over and over.

[Kodos]

The Wii must be Mizzou's parallel of my Dreamcast fiasco. Worst purchase I ever made.

[Big Fo]

The Wii must be Mizzou's parallel of my Dreamcast fiasco. Worst purchase I ever made.

You gotta be shitting me. The Dreamcast was awesome until the games stopped coming 2-3 years in.

[MikeVic]

Well, you can't say good games haven't been coming out.

Starting in August: Metriod Prime 3, Fire Emblem, Ghost Squad, Guilty Gear: Accent Core, Guitar Hero 3, Lego Star Wars Complete Saga, Mario/Sonic at the Olympics, Medal of Honor Heroes 2, Mercury Meltdown Revolution, MLB Power Pros, NiGHTS: Journey into Dreams, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Super Mario Galaxy, Tiger Woods 08, Trauma Center: New Blood, and Zack and Wiki.

Now, not all of these are great, insta-classic games (although a few are) but they're all at least pretty good and cover a wide variety of genres.

I've read posts saying you don't like Wii Sports, that you don't like traditional Nintendo first party games, and don't seem to be willing to try any of the several good third-party games that have been released, why not sell the Wii, make a few bucks and buy games for the only console that seems to interest you? Better than posting that you haven't been able to justify your purchase over and over.


I stopped following along closely in these threads, but if what you're saying is true about mizzou's comments regarding what he likes and doesn't like... why the hell would you get a Wii in the first place?

It's like if I said I don't like Metal Gear, Gran Turismo, FPS on consoles, RPGs, Halo, and couldn't care less about graphics... yet bought a 360 or PS3.

[MikeVic]

You gotta be shitting me. The Dreamcast was awesome until the games stopped coming 2-3 years in.

Yeah, I agree here. But it all depends on what you like. As a 4-player party system it was king shit.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I've read posts saying you don't like Wii Sports, that you don't like traditional Nintendo first party games, and don't seem to be willing to try any of the several good third-party games that have been released, why not sell the Wii, make a few bucks and buy games for the only console that seems to interest you? Better than posting that you haven't been able to justify your purchase over and over.

Actually, I've consistently stated that Wii Sports was one of the best games on the console, though that's quite telling on its own merit. The third party lineup has been awfully rough outside of a couple of games. I made the mistake of thinking that a Nintendo console would finally somehow garner some AAA third-party titles. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case thus far.

I actually considered selling the Wii over the holidays. Unfortunately, there were people offering the Wii with 4 controllers and between 5-15 games for $500 or less online. Given that competition in the auction market, I likely couldn't make back my initial investment in what I had, so I held onto it. I have considered donating it to a local church or hospital as an alternative.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I stopped following along closely in these threads, but if what you're saying is true about mizzou's comments regarding what he likes and doesn't like... why the hell would you get a Wii in the first place?

It's not all correct, but you certainly make a good point. There's been several posters in these threads that have similar feelings about the Wii. I certainly ask myself the same question that you just brought up.

[Big Fo]

No More Heroes and Burnout Paradise both get 9's in this month's Edge (which has only given a 10 several times in the last decade), can't wait to play NMH next week.

[MikeVic]

Actually, I've consistently stated that Wii Sports was one of the best games on the console, though that's quite telling on its own merit. The third party lineup has been awfully rough outside of a couple of games. I made the mistake of thinking that a Nintendo console would finally somehow garner some AAA third-party titles. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case thus far.

I actually considered selling the Wii over the holidays. Unfortunately, there were people offering the Wii with 4 controllers and between 5-15 games for $500 or less online. Given that competition in the auction market, I likely couldn't make back my initial investment in what I had, so I held onto it. I have considered donating it to a local church or hospital as an alternative.

They still sell for decent money here it seems like... I find it hard to believe 4 controllers and 5-15 games for <$500.

[Eaglesfan27]

They still sell for decent money here it seems like... I find it hard to believe 4 controllers and 5-15 games for <$500.

No kidding, considering some were going for 300-400 on EBay before the holidays for just the base unit.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

They still sell for decent money here it seems like... I find it hard to believe 4 controllers and 5-15 games for <$500.

There were several wholesale sellers on eBay with those exact deals on December 17th. They obviously get the goods at a significant discount, so they can still make good money even at those prices. I was pretty sure that I could sell my used system for a pretty good profit until I saw those numbers. It was actually quite discouraging when I saw it. You can easily search the completed deal listing to see those listings.

[MikeVic]

Are you sure you weren't seeing bullshit like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Nintendo-Wii-Console-39-Games-2-Remotes-2-Nunchuks_W0QQitemZ220189800439QQihZ012QQcategoryZ62054QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[gstelmack]

My kids just LOVE the Hot Wheels: Beat This game on the Wii. They can't get enough of it.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

My kids just LOVE the Hot Wheels: Beat This game on the Wii. They can't get enough of it.

That's the thing. I think the Wii is ridiculously good for people with kids 5 and up. They aren't overly particular about the quality of the game and they just want to have a bit of mindless fun. My kid is only 10 months, so I'm not really in that demographic. I'm guessing my tune will be quite different in a few years once my little one reaches elementary age.

[Kodos]

You gotta be shitting me. The Dreamcast was awesome until the games stopped coming 2-3 years in.

Nope. I bought it because I fell for NFL 2K after seeing it in the stores. But I ended up preferring the gameplay of Madden on the PS1, so I ended up going back to that. Then I tried buying other games like Crazy Taxi to justify my purchase, but I ended up not liking those games either. I think a big part of it was that I hated the controller, and loved the dual shock (whichever version was in existence at the time).

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Wedbush-Morgan preview of December Northa American NPD numbers and market trends...............

December 2007 Video Game Sales Preview: Expect +28% Sales Growth
• We expect December U.S. retail video game console software sales data to be released after market close on Thursday, January 17. We forecast sales of $2.222 billion, +28% compared to last year’s $1.740 billion. This was an exceedingly difficult month to forecast, given that November sales of $1.3 billion were so phenomenal. Historically,December has never yielded results lower than 2x the results in November (at least since 2000), and we are prepared to be spectacularly wrong with our forecast should the historical pattern hold this month.

• Our estimate reflects $1.837 billion in sales contribution from new platforms (PS3, Wii, 360, PSP and DS) and current generation software sales of $385 million. We believe that PS2 software sales declined 41% year-over-year, as contribution from next generation software has more than offset the decline in current generation software sales. We
estimate sell-through of 1,450,000 Wii, 1,250,000 Xbox 360 and 875,000 PS3 consoles. For purposes of comparison, The simExchange prediction market forecasts 1,730,000 Wii, 1,450,000 Xbox 360 and 854,000 PS3 consoles.

• Sales growth over the first 11 months of 2007 was a robust 33%, well ahead of our forecast of 19% growth for the year. Notwithstanding last month’s up 62% on broad strength in video game products and a beneficial calendar shift, we continue to expect robust sales in December, with the sector appearing recession-proof. It is important to note that November included nine days of sales post-Thanksgiving, compared to only two days of sales last year, which likely accelerated some sales from December.

• Sony and Microsoft have already announced strong holiday sales of their consoles. Our console sell-through forecasts are consistent with these announcements. In addition, in December, Activision and Ubisoft significantly raised Q3 (Dec) quarter guidance.

• We think that solid software sales growth will continue into early 2008, as the holiday lineup includes high priced (and sold out) games like Guitar Hero III and Rock Band, and the post-holiday line-up is also quite strong. Werecommend that investors accumulate Activision, Electronic Arts, GameStop, Nintendo, THQ, and Ubisoft shares at current levels.

• For December, we expect the following revenue results:
o Activision -- $440 million, +74% y-o-y.
o Atari -- $14 million, -28% y-o-y.
o Electronic Arts -- $445 million, +45% y-o-y.
o Majesco -- $12 million, +11% y-o-y.
o Midway -- $18 million, -50% y-o-y.
o Nintendo -- $325 million, +37% y-o-y.
o Take-Two -- $72 million, +2% y-o-y.
o THQ -- $150 million, -5% y-o-y.
o Ubisoft -- $175 million, +91% y-o-y.

We expect December sales of $2.222 billion (up 28% compared to December 2006’s $1.740 billion). We expect next generation software sales of $1.837 billion and current-generation software sales of $385 million. We believe that PS2 software sales declined 41% year-over-year, as contribution from next generation software has more than offset the decline in current generation software sales. The rate of PS2 software sales decline decreased slightly last month (-23%) compared with -24% YTD through November. The degree of PS2 software sales decline over the next several months will likely be highly correlated to next generation console sales, with year-over-year increases in next generation consoles purchases likely to accelerate declining demand for current generation software.

We expect December sales to be driven by recent top selling releases Nintendo’s Super Mario Galaxy and Wii Play, Activision’s Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero III, Electronic Arts’ Rock Band, THQ’s WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed. December is usually a light month for new releases as most publishers try to release their biggest games before the holiday selling season. The top December releases were Electronic Arts’ Rock Band (PS2), Midway’s Unreal Tournament III (PS3), and THQ’s MX vs ATV Untamed (PS3, PS2, PSP, 360, DS).


Our forecasts for console hardware sales are as follows:

Wii 1,450,000
PS3 875,000
Xbox 360 1,250,000
PS2 975,000
PSP 1,075,000
DS 2,450,000
GBA 85,000

[Calis]

Nope. I bought it because I fell for NFL 2K after seeing it in the stores. But I ended up preferring the gameplay of Madden on the PS1, so I ended up going back to that. Then I tried buying other games like Crazy Taxi to justify my purchase, but I ended up not liking those games either. I think a big part of it was that I hated the controller, and loved the dual shock (whichever version was in existence at the time).

I never understood how they could've possibly thought putting the cord at the top of the controller was a good idea on the DC controllers. It made absolutely no sense.

The VMU's rocked though, that was a neat little thing I wouldn't mind seeing again, it was really handy in some games.

I'm a huge Dreamcast fanboy though. Loved the system, far and away my favorite of all-time. Definitely wasn't for everyone though, but was a haven for quirky games.

[stevew]

I almost bought a DC when they dropped to around 170ish bucks. It was some bundle with 2k Football and 2k Basketball in it. Glad I didn't, was going to wait for the PS2 instead. Although I never ended up getting that.

[Butter]

I almost bought a DC when they dropped to around 170ish bucks. It was some bundle with 2k Football and 2k Basketball in it. Glad I didn't, was going to wait for the PS2 instead. Although I never ended up getting that.

That's one hell of a story there, Steve. Next up: stevew regales us about the time he didn't buy the Pittsburgh Steelers. :p :D

[stevew]

yeah, that was a bit "one time at band camp-ish"

[Fidatelo]

I liked my Dreamcast, but it will forever haunt me with guilt. I bought the system used from Blockbuster, and then simply downloaded and burned every single game I ever played. I never ended up giving a single dollar to SEGA. Then the system tanked. I guess it taught me a lesson, but I still feel like an ass about it.

(I learned the same lesson, around the same time, with Will Smith. I've always purchased every one of his albums, but when Born To Reign came out I just downloaded it illegally. It was really good (to me anyways), but a few months later his label dropped him due to poor sales. Once again my piracy had helped to spoil something I enjoyed.)

[Chubby]

I liked my Dreamcast, but it will forever haunt me with guilt. I bought the system used from Blockbuster, and then simply downloaded and burned every single game I ever played. I never ended up giving a single dollar to SEGA. Then the system tanked. I guess it taught me a lesson, but I still feel like an ass about it.

(I learned the same lesson, around the same time, with Will Smith. I've always purchased every one of his albums, but when Born To Reign came out I just downloaded it illegally. It was really good (to me anyways), but a few months later his label dropped him due to poor sales. Once again my piracy had helped to spoil something I enjoyed.)


Yes, because your $15.99 would have saved the record label...

[Fidatelo]

Yes, because your $15.99 would have saved the record label...

Do you vote?

[TroyF]

I liked my Dreamcast, but it will forever haunt me with guilt. I bought the system used from Blockbuster, and then simply downloaded and burned every single game I ever played. I never ended up giving a single dollar to SEGA. Then the system tanked. I guess it taught me a lesson, but I still feel like an ass about it.

(I learned the same lesson, around the same time, with Will Smith. I've always purchased every one of his albums, but when Born To Reign came out I just downloaded it illegally. It was really good (to me anyways), but a few months later his label dropped him due to poor sales. Once again my piracy had helped to spoil something I enjoyed.)

I think you can relax on both counts.

1) The Dreamcast faded because of poor sales, but most people weren't pirating the software at the time. You were not theP norm. That system failed on its own.

2) As someone else said, I don't think your fifteen bucks cost Smith his music deal. Pirating is done more and more each year and artists still survive. Ultimately, Smith lost the contract because the album wasn't that good. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Kodos]

Ultimately, Smith lost the contract because the album wasn't that good. Nothing more, nothing less.


It was like his fans wanted Adidas and Smith gave them Zips.

[Big Fo]

Heh, I just stumbled across one of the worst articles I've ever read and I'll put it in here since it's not quite worthy of it's own thread IMO.

Basically the author's premise is that the game Mass Effect is going to destroy the youth of America. Read it and weep for the author's stupidity.

hxxp://www.townhall.com/columnists/KevinMcCullough/2008/01/13/the_sex-box_race_for_president

I know that they all probably assume they have better, much more important, urgent, timely, things to campaign on, but I sure would like to get their individual takes on the new video game that one company is marketing to fifteen year old boys.

It's called "Mass Effect" and it allows its players - universally male no doubt - to engage in the most realistic sex acts ever conceived. One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images they wish to "engage" and then watch in crystal clear, LCD, 54 inch screen, HD clarity as the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of.

The objections to such filth should be simple to understand.

Starting with the disgusting idea that one can "create" their own versions of what people look like, removing warts, moles, and bald spots while enhancing - shall we say - the extended features of the game's characters tends to objectify women, sex, and human relationships. Right? We can all agree on this?

Then there's the dishonesty behind the game' title. "Mass Effect" sounds like a war game with a deadly virus that is spreading unless the GI-Joes are able to defeat the evil and deadly substance and it's covert war plan. By it's design, kids could ask for it, or for their parents' Best Buy Card to go purchase it with nary a raised eye-brow. Generic, non-descriptive, and relatively harmless.

But it IS marketed for the X-Box 360, perhaps the most visually stimulating gaming system ever made. The software for such allows the blending of DVD video, component graphics, and the manipulation of actual pictures so that an alternate reality engulfs the fifteen year old boy playing it without much objection.

Now if I have trouble with my son taking his James Bond 007 games a little too emotionally, imagine the powerful effect that hormones add to the mix when the player's own character is copulating like jack rabbits with super-models, actresses, and anyone else they can spend the patience to create, name, and "put into play."

I hear the libertarian Ron Paul's answer already, "Government has no business censoring freedom of expression." Figures, he's a libertarian.

In the race for President there has been a lot of discussion about faith and it's impact on the lives of the individual candidate. Some pretty inane ones like Carl Cameron's less lucid moment this past week when he posed the inquiry about marital submission to Governor Mike Huckabee.

Yet here's a question that deserves to be asked, and in all likelihood will not be: "How much moral judgement should the President push into legislative issues that are likely to severely damage our children's innocence, function, and capability?"

I hear the nay-sayers claiming I'm being the wild and crazed Bible thumper I've always been - but its a worthwhile question isn't it?

If a pre-teen, teen, young adult, or adult male plays such a game in which the women DO submit without choice, are made to appear as Barbie streetwalkers, and perform whatever act can be imagined, what's to stop that same male from assuming that the women in his "other world" shouldn't be forced to do the same.

We now know because of the lengthy track record of serial killer after another that addictive use of pornography was prevalent in case after case - long before the switch got flipped and what their masturbatory imaginations have given into became what they were forcing real live human beings to do.

And because of the digital chip age in which we live - "Mass Effect" can be customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however, the game player wishes.

With it's "over the net" capabilities virtual orgasmic rape is just the push of a button away.

Yes there will be many snickers that I decided to bring this issue up in the Presidential cycle of 2008 but how refreshing would it be for a President to prove to the nation that his own manhood was not in question and put his pen and signature to a bill that dealt with such simulated sex excess in a way that was punitive to its creators to such a degree that they would never recover from it?

As technology continues to push the limits of imagination and interaction more and more the brain, the emotions, the feelings will integrate with physical responses in reality. And while the makers of such trash seem to be pushing our next generation of young men through the gates of hell as fast as is humanly possible, it needn't be that way.

Here's hoping that as the next President will be forced to deal with this continual emerging reality - and enemy that has set its site to our destruction from within - that we will have elected a man of such character that he will have precision in the clarity of his response.

How would that be for a bold and uncompromising "Mass Effect?"

Gotta love right-wing logic :D

[KWhit]

And because of the digital chip age in which we live - "Mass Effect" can be customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however, the game player wishes.

Holy shit. I didn't know that was in the game! Sign me up!

[wade moore]

So knowing nothing about this game - is anything he describes even remotely accurate?

[Eaglesfan27]

So knowing nothing about this game - is anything he describes even remotely accurate?

No.

[Cringer]

WHere the hell did that guy come up with that crap?

[Big Fo]

Another delay for Smash Brothers :(

Due to delays in the completion of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, we’ve had to change the release date of the game to Sunday, March 9th.

I deeply apologize to the people who have looked forward to playing the game for so long and ask that you hold on just a little longer. Thank you for your patience.

One theory I've read is that in some cases retailers have already sold more pre-orders (rivaling Halo 3 numbers) than Nintendo will be shipping and this will give them more time to press discs. Or maybe they are fine-tuning the online play, who knows, it's disappointing though.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

New news on the Bioware front. They have posted some job listings for PS3 developers. Given the recent 2K purchase of Bioware, rumor is that Bioshock 2 will be a multiplatform game.

http://www.2kboston.com/jobs_programming.php

[sterlingice]

I can't believe they're now doing previews of NPD numbers

SI

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I can't believe they're now doing previews of NPD numbers

SI

The 'Console Sales Threads' on FOF are reportedly increasing the demand for the previews. :D

[TroyF]

So knowing nothing about this game - is anything he describes even remotely accurate?

I think I missed those options.

If you are going to slam something, play the game first. Watch the movie first. Listen to the CD first. If you don't, you sound like a complete douche. What a moron.

[Deattribution]

New news on the Bioware front. They have posted some job listings for PS3 developers. Given the recent 2K purchase of Bioware, rumor is that Bioshock 2 will be a multiplatform game.

http://www.2kboston.com/jobs_programming.php

Didn't EA buy Bioware not 2k? And, Bioware doesn't even make Bioshock. With that said, 2k does own Irrational Games, which is now 2kBoston/Australia.

I think you got some things confused.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Didn't EA buy Bioware not 2k? And, Bioware doesn't even make Bioshock. With that said, 2k does own Irrational Games, which is now 2kBoston/Australia.

I think you got some things confused.

I think I've crossed up Bioware and Bioshock once before and was corrected. Thanks for the clarification.

[wade moore]

Isn't Elder Scrolls Bioware? If so, it has the 2K name tied to it (I just know because that and NBA 2k8 are the only games I have for my XBOX 360 right now).

[Deattribution]

Elder Scrolls is Bethesda Softworks.

[Bee]

New news on the Bioware front. They have posted some job listings for PS3 developers. Given the recent 2K purchase of Bioware, rumor is that Bioshock 2 will be a multiplatform game.

http://www.2kboston.com/jobs_programming.php

Did you actually hear/read a rumor or did you just make that shit up?

[SirFozzie]

Heh, I just stumbled across one of the worst articles I've ever read and I'll put it in here since it's not quite worthy of it's own thread IMO.

Basically the author's premise is that the game Mass Effect is going to destroy the youth of America. Read it and weep for the author's stupidity.

hxxp://www.townhall.com/columnists/KevinMcCullough/2008/01/13/the_sex-box_race_for_president



Gotta love right-wing logic :D

Combined with the "rebuttal to the rebuttal" where he used the word "Gamer-Nerds" about 90 billion times, and a real CHOICE paragraph from Penny Arcade, I created a thread for it. We have Whacko Jacko 2.0 :)

[MizzouRah]

I'm almost itching for a psp again. :)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Did you actually hear/read a rumor or did you just make that shit up?

It's been discussed on just about every daily video games news site. I just assumed with so many places discussing it that it didn't require multiple links. It shouldn't be a surprise given the sale of the company to one who emphasized multiplatform development.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

New sales number for week ending January 13th in Japan. The 50% (or more) decline in sales after the holidays peeks out its ugly head.......

Wii: 82K
PS3: 34K
PS2: 15K
360: 5.5K

A decent review of 2007 console sales in Japan from Kotaku. I'm sure we'll see a similar article for the NA market once the NPD numbers are released.

http://kotaku.com/339603/japanese-sales-trends-in-2007-line-riding-and-analyzing

Good write-up by Bill Harris concerning a recent Next Gen magazine editorial about the used game market.........

http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2008/01/poor-poor-pitiful-me-them.html

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I'm almost itching for a psp again. :)

I bought a Slim PSP a few months back. I didn't own a 'fat' PSP, but I did try out a friend's version. The Slim is MUCH better than the old version. Quicker loads and fits much easier in the hands.

[Bee]

It's been discussed on just about every daily video games news site. I just assumed with so many places discussing it that it didn't require multiple links. It shouldn't be a surprise given the sale of the company to one who emphasized multiplatform development.

Wow...who would have thought that many places didn't know the difference between Bioware and Bioshock.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Wow...who would have thought that many places didn't know the difference between Bioware and Bioshock.

Obviously that was my mistake in typing it up and I already mentioned that. So sue me.

[gstelmack]

Good write-up by Bill Harris concerning a recent Next Gen magazine editorial about the used game market.........

http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2008/01/poor-poor-pitiful-me-them.html

The part that Bill misses is that a big reason the 30-day return window was problematic was people would take the game home, play it, beat it, and then return it within that timeframe. You can't return a dress you wore once either for the same reason (ran into a big issue with this at Target: our daughter wore a new coat twice, and each time a snap popped off when we tried to take it off, and they gave us fits about us returning something we thought was defective).

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

The part that Bill misses is that a big reason the 30-day return window was problematic was people would take the game home, play it, beat it, and then return it within that timeframe. You can't return a dress you wore once either for the same reason (ran into a big issue with this at Target: our daughter wore a new coat twice, and each time a snap popped off when we tried to take it off, and they gave us fits about us returning something we thought was defective).

Agreed. They have to find a more standardized way of policing that kind of a situation before returns for lousy software can become a possibility. I know that Babbages used to have a 7 day "return for any reason" policy and a 30 day "exchange for the same game" policy. That's a move in the right direction, though you'd think that people would still have time in 7 days to play through the single player modes in Uncharted, COD4, Assassin's Creed and other games and still be able to return the games. Perhaps a 3-4 day window might be better, but I'm not sure.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Tons of new console info from Surfer Girl:

There are like 30-50 of 'em... So im gonna update em in fragments... I'll start with the first 10 and then work my way through em (They are in another language) so i have to convert em by hand in order to keep correct grammar and correct sentences.

-Factor 5 is working on Wii now, but is still busy with PS3. Their new PS3 title is called Turrican.

-Square-Enix is making remakes for PSN. The remakes will not always be 'complete' (referring to the 'total' game being put on PSN).

-Some big 3rd-party developers are working with Apple to develop or port games to Apple's 'multi-touch' media machines (Iphone, Ipod Touch etc...)

-Mario Kart Wii will be released this very Spring.

-There will be no extra downloadable content for Puzzle Quest on XBLA.

-Mass Effect 2 is scheduled for a 2009 release.

-Warren Spector is working on something that will make some people happy and some people not.

-Gears of War will be released around the release of RFoM2. Expect the game to be officialy unveiled on the GDC this year.

-Sonic Chronicles is expected to release this Autumn.

-New Sonic game for Next-gen console(s)... Will be on par (in how good it is) with other sonic game(s) on next-gen consoles.

-Big chance of the GoW-film not making it's way to the big screen because of crappy plot and other problems.

-2nd Heavenly Sword and 2nd Uncharted should release in the Autumn of 2009.

-Nintendo RPG that Nintendo Power is raving about (you know, next month's edition) is nothing more then Sonic RPG!

-New Twisted metal for the PS3 will be a PSN title.

-Tales of Vesperia will release on the X360 and the PS3 on the same date.

-Saboteur will not be released on PC.

-Hellgate: Londen won't come to consoles.

-The Nintendo Wii will get more 'raw power' very soon.

-More multiplayer customisations in GoW2 in comparison to GoW1.

-Multiplayer in Fable 2 is like the mp in Fable 1 but with more people at the same time.

-Sony doesn't have 20 unannounced exclusives for 2008... For the total PS3 lifetime they do.

-It's unlikely that Mass Effect 2 and GoW2 will ever be released on the PS3.

-The new Factor 5 Wii game has nothing to do with Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.

-Rockstar will unveil the releasedate of GTA4 in the coming month.

-Sony will give 'release-'date of Home and in-game XBM on the GDC.

-Metroid Dread never existed, another 2D metroid for the DS however.

-Nintendo has thought about other N64 ports for the DS but eventually desided not to.

-There was this early build for a DS Smash Bros but the game never got through that stage.

-Something related to FF13 will be released on the DS sooner or later.

-Golden Sun franchise will be continued, however, not on Wii.

-Retro Studios is working on a new IP for Nintendo. Not an FPS.

-There will eventually be a new Metroid for the DS. Not metroid Dread and not made by Retro.

-Blizzard is working on a new MMORPG that looks like it'll be WoStarcraft.

-Alan Wake is currently still planned for a Q3 2008 release.

-First ingame Banjo Kazooie 3 images will be released next month.

-Disney wants Kingdom Hearts 3 on the Wii. A PS3 port still remains a possibility. However, they are still in the brainstorming-process.

-The development of the game 'Eight Days' for the PS3 is going on schedule.

[gstelmack]

Agreed. They have to find a more standardized way of policing that kind of a situation before returns for lousy software can become a possibility. I know that Babbages used to have a 7 day "return for any reason" policy and a 30 day "exchange for the same game" policy. That's a move in the right direction, though you'd think that people would still have time in 7 days to play through the single player modes in Uncharted, COD4, Assassin's Creed and other games and still be able to return the games. Perhaps a 3-4 day window might be better, but I'm not sure.

To be honest, the flip side of this is that nearly every game has a demo now, with fairly wide distribution between the internet and cover discs, so there is a "try before you buy" for the vast majority of games, which should cut down on the need to return a game itself as "defective" (defective media is another issue entirely).

[Fidatelo]

"-The Nintendo Wii will get more 'raw power' very soon."

What the heck is that alluding to? Any ideas?

[MizzouRah]

I bought a Slim PSP a few months back. I didn't own a 'fat' PSP, but I did try out a friend's version. The Slim is MUCH better than the old version. Quicker loads and fits much easier in the hands.

Yeah, I'm sure I'll miss traveling with "The Show" once again this year. :)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Gameplayer.com is reporting that some parts of the 'Lost Odyssey' game for the 360 will only be accessable if the game is preordered.

http://www.gameplayer.com.au/Home/NEWS/NEWS/tabid/1482/Default.aspx?CID=aad0c9c3-c858-4e8c-8621-4925666133fb

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Devil May Cry 4 demo announced. It will come out on January 31st, one week before the actual release of the game.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

New Alone in the Dark game delayed until May. PS3 version likely will be delayed even further.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/17/alone-in-the-dark-delayed-until-may-ps3-even-later/

[MJ4H]

"-The Nintendo Wii will get more 'raw power' very soon."

What the heck is that alluding to? Any ideas?

Chainsaw attachment for the wii remote.

[SirFozzie]

Oh sheesh. Didn't the uber flop Magna Cum Laude kill this series once and for all? Now, Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust?

http://kotaku.com/346033/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust-coming-to-consoles-pc

[Calis]

"-The Nintendo Wii will get more 'raw power' very soon."

What the heck is that alluding to? Any ideas?

I think the only logical answer to this question is a new Power Glove.

That's what everyone has been clamoring for anyway.

[Fidatelo]

I think the only logical answer to this question is a new Power Glove.

That's what everyone has been clamoring for anyway.

Fuckin' A

[MikeVic]

No! It better be some sort of external storage thing so that Rock Band will come to the Wii.

[Synovia]

No! It better be some sort of external storage thing so that Rock Band will come to the Wii.



What, Rockband can't fit its songs on a 2gb SdCard?

[MikeVic]

What, Rockband can't fit its songs on a 2gb SdCard?

I think there's something where the SD cards can't be accessed to see Virtual Console games, so I thought it can't be accessed during games at all.

[sterlingice]

Two little tidbits that would really get me rabidly active rather than my current passive checking-whenever-I'm-somewhere about finding a Wii would be if Rock Band would get a release there and the above "-Disney wants Kingdom Hearts 3 on the Wii"

SI