...over the last decade, even with how bad Sony has handled things since E3 2006.
Microsoft does have a good chance and after the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) the buzz for a couple of key titles has started and is getting stronger. These two titles are Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey two very exciting Role Playing Games (RPG's) from legendary game developer Hironobu Sakaguchi. For those who do not recognize the games, he is the creator of Final Fantasy, probably the greatest RPG series world wide.
Soon bundles will be released in Japan that will be very inexpensive, one bundle contains the 360 Core, Ninety Nine Nights and Project Gotham Racing 3 (PGR3) and the other will contain Blue Dragon. Probably the most exciting is that both of these will be priced under the Nintendo Wii and well under the price of the Playstation 3.
Now that isn’t the only way to beat Sony by under cutting console prices, you need games, and even the most underwhelming consoles in history that have had good games have been successful, such as the Nintendo 64. Great consoles who failed to get good games have died very quickly, such as the Dreamcast.
Microsoft has been very busy getting some key franchises and developers locked into exclusive contracts and those games they couldn’t, they made sure if someone else has them they will have them as well.
Probably the biggest game in the North American market is Grand Theft Auto, it was a huge system seller for Sony and really being the only console for all of the GTA games helped Sony in a huge way. Well this time Grand Theft Auto will be on the PS3 and Xbox 360 at the same time and so far Rockstar Games has announced they will release exclusive downloadable content for the 360 version (this will probably happen with the PS3 as well, but as the PS3 online service is still up in the air, developers do not have the online developer tools yet, it is uncertain).
Assassin's Creed was PS3 exclusive for a while (worst kept secret ever), which was a definite system seller, but is now coming on the 360 and at the same time. Splinter Cell 5 a recently accidentally announced game by UBI Soft is now a 360 exclusive. Viva Piñata, a huge game and cartoon series by Rare looks to lock in the Pokemon crowd; Banjo Kazooie is coming, and many more games. I could keep listing games, but you get the point.
One of the biggest game franchises for the Playstation has been the Final Fantasy series by Square Soft. Square is no longer being exclusive with the series to Sony and is developing other Final Fantasy games for Nintendo Wii and the Xbox 360. This does not help Sony or Nintendo.
Microsoft also has the only proven online service for a console. Something Nintendo and Sony are trying to copy and have failed in the past to provide and this generation are putting their own spin on things, which could certainly backfire and hurt their online plans for their games with 3rd party developers. Actually it already has with Tony Hawk and Virtua Tennis for the PS3; both have dropped their online plans because of the lack of online development tools with the PS3 developer kits.
The online service is important for older games and new arcade games. Microsoft has this locked in with Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Marketplace with millions of downloads 55 million so far, Microsoft is certainly comfortable with their online service. Nintendo hopes to be successful selling older Nintendo and other older console titles, but with the really horrid online system Nintendo has used in the past makes this iffy at best. But I hope it works two words Kid Icarus.
Sony really seems to be putting their online faith with the developers, which might be a bad thing. Most developers have used Microsoft’s SDK to create online games and really do not want to get creative when in the game market; you really don’t want to waste time. They did announce that older games would be streamed into the Playstation 3, but when they announced Sega and other games would be as well it was quickly denounced by Sega as not at this time.
Of course all of this means nothing because the Wii is not out yet and the Playstation 3 is not out yet, you cannot deny the huge monster that is the Playstation, but this time around Nintendo is a real player with the Wii after the less then spectacular but fun Game Cube and Microsoft putting money after more money to make sure they are the winner this time.
I think that this time people should not just say that Sony will win because of the Playstation. That was said about Sega and Nintendo and look what happened with their global domination. The extreme pricing of the Playstation 3
is a factor that cannot be denied and the lack of consoles for the next several months and especially with the game developers increased costs to make games, Sony has a fight on all fronts. Microsoft is bunkered down and setting phasers to kill and the question now is do you want to bet on the crazy kid or the up and comer who is hungry?
Wii60 sounds better to me then anything.
