[penny-arcade.com]

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Yes I would have. I am a liar and a bad person. Oh well.

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By the way, you guys... just saying here... we should get a new rallying cry. We totally seem like we're just ripping off the Horde. I am a big fan of "FUCK THE HORDE" as our cry, but it evokes the image of an Alliance that is perhaps too narrowly focused. Hmmmm....

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It's honestly gotten to the point where I am actually excited for WoW Gamefuel. I'm a WoW player, so being able to extend the Alliance vs. Horde rivalry into the real world makes me giddy (FUCK THE HORDE!), and I know it will taste good. But honestly, is it not depressing to be excited for a new flavor of soda? I get worried sometimes.

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The DS and 360 are honestly the best bet when it comes to SE new IP's as they are aiming at the largest group of people. They need games with low production costs and high profit in order to keep going. Plus this seems like it's yet more new IP. Isn't "NEW IP" something Kotaku readers scream about every single day? Of course, given the fate of Clover and other SE new IP, those screams rarely translate into sales among the core.

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I won't get into the DS thing now...that's a couple of 500-word posts I just don't have the energy to type at the moment. Let's just leave that side of it at this: I like the DS and am glad Squeenix is throwing so much support behind both the DS and PSP (which are both seeing some fairly robust releases in 2009). Though I continue to be dismayed by certain aspects of the DS which allow third-party devs to "take the low road".

As far as the 360 goes...best for who? Western audiences and that's it. There's still not a significant enough worldwide sales margin separating the 360 and PS3 to justify the type of "fuck you" Squeenix has been throwing PlayStation 3 owner's way.

Furthermore, what the hell happened to wanting to keep their catalog spread out more evenly this gen? Square knows they're a king-maker in the industry...and thus far the only system to see no significant announcements beyond the initial Final Fantasy 13/Versus 13 is the PlayStation 3. Where's Star Ocean 4? (The trailer was on the PSP release of First Departure for God's sake) Where are our original IPs? They've been making them non-stop for the 360 with no signs of slowing down...and this goes back to before Sony even fired a shot with the PlayStation 3.

Forgive me for venting (and going off on a tangent) here, but I'm really getting tired of certain third-parties treating PlayStation 3 owners like second-class citizens. The Last Remnant development is troubled (or money-hat, take your pick)...so we'll likely never see it outside of the 360. The 360 gets Tekken 6 as well, yet we have to wait a fucking year to suit their schedule...despite it being built on PlayStation 3 hardware. Fuck that. And fuck Microsoft...I can't think of a single company less deserving of success in this industry. And the fact that so many Japanese devs are willing to hand it to them on a platter just boggles my mind.

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Microsoft learned early on that unless they were really willing to go the extra mile with third parties, they would likely lose out to the PS3 not only in Japan, but everywhere. And so they have. I firmly believe Microsoft has spent a crap-ton of money and if not money, they've offered other things to third parties which has turned a lot of heads..and your seeing the result. FF13 on 360. Tekeen 6 on 360. Games that were once Playstation only staples now being ported over and what's more, the Playstation version delayed till both can be launched at the same time.

Sony did the same thing once, but not to this level, they courted third parties, they built special relationships, they spent a lot of money and time to win over the major players and when they did, the minor ones followed. Microsoft knew that and so, they are playing by the rules Sony set in stone. You have to understand, this has little to do in the grand play of things about video games, but more to do about media entertainment as a whole. Microsoft..and Sony's final goal is not just a game system it's a set top media box that all forms of Sony or Microsoft entertainment streams from one end and the other..your money, billions of it to their HQ's. In order to do that, you need to win the video game war, because then you have a foothold to begin doing just that.

The PS3 is a prime showing of what Sony or Microsoft's final goal is, a all in one superbox that has a high install cost, but gets it's hooks into people by doing it all and once it's there, it never leaves and people cheerfully upgrade it every four years. However..Sony jumped the gun, believing that after two blockbusters, they could finally begin the steps to controlling the living room.

They..made a mistake to say the least.

Also, Sony has dialed back it's love to third parties in favor of building it's 1st and 2nd party studios up, likely seeing what Nintendo has done and how much money it can make AND save you, compared to courting a load of third party developers who will always stay true to what will make them the most money.

Microsoft has picked up the slack and due to the fact that it can take years to develop enough 1st and 2nd party developers, Sony is now paying the price, with the same fix Nintendo is in, AAA games months or years away while all the third party games end up going multi- platform or worse, 360 only.

Sony is very likely to blame for creating the current settings which has third parties treating PS3 owners like second-class citizens, they jumped the gun by now making sure those third parties were firmly on board till their own 1st and 2nd parties could pick up the slack.

All Microsoft is doing is the same thing Sony did back in 1995 to Nintendo. History repeats itself again.

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You're spot on in your observations about Sony's first- and second-party development, though.

Microsoft's tactics involve buying into IPs through development funding, etc. Sony and Nintendo have rarely (I won't say never) engaged in the same type of franchise cock-blocking. This is scary primarily because once Microsoft goes down (and they will given time...I don't see their methods as sustainable) they have the potential to take a ton of third-party IPs they partially own along with them. Catalogs will be torn to pieces as developers find themselves unable to make certain flagship titles for anyone else. We've already seen it happen with Halo, Gears, and Rare's catalog as a whole...and with Japanese devs willingly offering up their bungers to Microsoft it's only going to get worse.

I won't deny that Sony has some major problems/flaws (all of the big three do) but lets not lose sight of their strong points too. Microsoft has its pros as well, but in terms of their approach...well...I could easily see it leading to a second industry-wide crash if they take control of the market for any length of time. And in an era where "only if just the right things happening" is a scenario which has been repeating itself shockingly often, I won't say it's not become a more realistic possibility to me.

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Sony, as I said has noticed this and is doing the same thing BUT, they didn't make sure the front line was in place for the time it will take. This could be a good thing for Sony if they play their cards right but also a bad thing, as third parties will be less then willing to take a chance on the PS4 when Sony has pretty much said "Do as you like but we aren't matching the toesucking Microsoft's giving you guys." when it comes to PS3 development and could result in PS1-Hit, PS2-Hit, PS3-Miss, PS4-Miss, PS5-Hit.

On the development funding thing, sure at the current level it's not something you can keep up endlessly. However, you really don't need to, typically a third party is more then happy to give you the 2 or 3 AAA titles you cover the development of and -then- pay you back even more by making a game multi-platform or for your system only. And people will go where their games are and where the people go, developers go.

Microsoft's biggest issue however is making sure that the millions they hand out are well used in development. They can hurt themselves more then anything if the money they hand out is taken by developers who pay them back with poorly developed titles.

I honestly can't see a crash coming from "Buying IP's" A crash is more likely from developers pricing themselves out of the market by charging 400 dollars and above for superboxes. A -mini- crash of sorts could happen if piracy gets too wide spread on a platform, had Sega not drowned in red ink, the fact that people could copy their games with disgusting ease would have surely cut the Dreamcast's life short by three years.

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Or you end up working really hard on the "wrong" console (FFXIII, et al) and the higher-ups decide that the years of work and cash are going to be worth the potential returns and decides to make it multi-platform which ends up increasing the amount of work and waters down the quality of the end product(s), which was already looking rather thin because the one project is actually three different products at the same time.

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