Makes a lot of sense that the PS3 could be a lot more successful in 3 years or so.. as for "dominating" the market, that ship has sailed already. The Wii isn't just going to disappear so soon. Overtaking the 360 could happen, but that's it.
It's actually pretty sad to see all of the potential that Sony has lost with the PSP as it is right now. Just picked mine up last Christmas, and i know this has been said a million times, but why aren't there more ps1 titles available?!?!?
Youve got this huge homebrew scene going with it, and yet Sony shuns it.
Sony, take your strengths and expand on it. You cant cripple Nintendo's empire by copying them, much in the same way the PSX succeeded by going against the grain Nintendo had set forth in the 80's.
@Altima NEO:Given that the homebrew scene spawned the massive piracy, Sony is and will never welcome homebrew now. Homebrew will never make Sony enough money for the trouble.
NEWSFLASH SONY, if you think you have problems selling software now, just wait until you fuck over the 50 million people out there with UMD-based PSPs.
The PSP GO! will be the next Virtual Boy if you don't let people redeem every single UMD game they own for download through PSN.
@Archaotic: Yeah I know but do you really think they're going to let us redeem our UMD purchases?
The only thing I can think of Sony doing is giving away a handful of free games (our choice) when they launch this thing. Otherwise, it'll be dead in the water.
I don't know yet, you don't know yet, Crecente doesn't know yet. The only people that know are probably Sony's people, and the R&D heads for the major PSP-supporting third parties. Let's wait and see.
@Archaotic: I find it kind of suspicious that nobody is talking about the delay FF Dissidia got from June 09 to September 09. Wonder why they did that?
The reason he only brought up Monster Hunter was because he was speaking at a Capcom event, and Monster Hunter Portable is one of Capcom's big games for the second half of this year.
Have you been payin' attention this past few weeks? The PSP is getting a TORRENT of new games this year. :P
As I said elsewhere in this thread, developers wouldn't suddenly start developing dozens of new PSP games for no reason, with piracy being as bad as it is. They clearly know something we don't.
@Archaotic:We have follow Kotaku posters who have said Sony paid the devs and that's the only reason, the only thing we don't have is a offical leak stating it's true, but given that in Nov of last year, Ashcraft posted a topic that got 400+ replies with graphs showing that devs running from PSP development like rats leaving a sinking ship, I'm highly likely to believe it, along with that being the reason a UMDless PSP is all but in stone.
Sony definitely approached developers and tried to evangelize them back to the platform, probably using the success of Crisis Core, God of War and Monster Hunter as signs that games can do well.
The UMD-free PSP was the final straw that drew everyone back in though. This is probably the fastest turnaround for a system previously thought to be dead in all of gaming history.
@Archaotic:I don't think the UMD-less PSP is going to take off like anyone wants it to, not even if it's a DSI level upgrade (Which it's seeming like).
And dropping UMD is just one more huge slap in the face when it comes to Sony formats, That's not going to win them any friends when they decide in 2-3 years that it's once again time for yet one more brand new Sony format.
If they're dropping UMD, it means they're moving toward a wholly digital distribution method. I don't think that their next handheld will suddenly go back to another proprietary format if they build up infrastructure for a fully DD handheld.
@Archaotic:The 100% DD way of delivering games is going to hurt them at a time they don't need to hurt. They need to just ride out the PSP for two more years and kill it or at the very least slowly get people used to it, which given the adoption rate of PSN, Xbox Live and Wiiware is really low.
Building and shipping kiosks is going to cost them a butt load too.
Well, as I said, they won't just drop UMD immediately. It'll be a slow trickle until UMD games fade out entirely. But we'll see. We still don't even know if the thing is real yet and everybody's concocting crazy doomsday scenarios in their head.
I say we should just be happy publishers are SUPPORTING the damn thing again.
Yea, I love Kotaku, but even I have to say the title was the old "bait and switch", was it not?
On topic, the PSP has been underutilized. I have both the PSP and DS lite. I have been a firm Sony supporter(of the product, not necessarily the company) , but I feel like the PSP could have been so much more,. at least there are some decent titles making their way to shelves this year.
The man can not shut his fucking mouth for anything in the world and I don't know why. But maybe the reason the Sony Line-up for the PSP hasn't met expections was they were too busy trying to market the accursed machine as a Red-mage like media player from the start and priced it as such when the chosen format they wanted to use for the media suffered all the earmarks of one of Sony's typical attempted format wars.
When your attempting to be jack of all trades, your going to drop the ball somewhere and Sony dropped it twice, first games, then making sure that the games weren't so easy to get in order to make sure that Joe Gamer would pay for them instead of risking making a $299 paperweight. Failure in both of these areas crippled the system in such a fashion it's never recovered from.
The only real winner on the PSP was Capcom, which is now taking that and attempting to use it to make it more money..on a rival system.
@Archaotic:They are. But Monster Hunter 3 is coming first. If the PSP was where it should be, that wouldn't be the case, at least not on a home console.
PSP's doing fine; especially in the case of Monster Hunter, which is a Japan-focused series. Sony's probably pissed that MH3 isn't on PS3, but I really don't think MH3 is going to do THAT well compared to Portable 3 REGARDLESS of the platforms.
MH is just a better-suited franchise for portable systems, especially considering the fact that the Wii version has recurring fees just to play online.
@Archaotic:The Wii verison has fees because Capcom has to run servers, but also because they like money. Nintendo's biggest failing, although understandably is they don't have server farms and a huge Xbox live set up, something that along with pushing along motion control development is going to cost them millions of dollars and partly where I'm sure a chunk of their income is going.
PSP is doing great system sales wise, but the attachment rate is shit. When only one game on your system has broken the 3 million mark when you've got a 50+ million install base, something's wrong.
Yep. Piracy's a bitch. That's why I'm hoping everything I've been hearing behind closed doors about the next PSP is true, so piracy will start to lessen. It's a damn good handheld, and it's depressing to see so many people treating it like a candy store with a broken front window.
Clearly, though, with all the new game announcements over the last few weeks...developers know something we don't.
@Archaotic: If they drop UMD they're going to fragment the hell out of their userbase. Its pretty much a guarantee that parents will not buy the new PSP for their kids if it requires all this work just to download games for it.
And whats gonna happen to all the people that want the new PSP but don't want to re-purchase all of their old games?
If the info we have on the PSP GO! is true, Sony is making another massive mistake that might cost them all the market share they currently have in the portable space.
Well, I think a lot of people are getting ahead of themselves when it comes to the PSP Go. They're not going to IMMEDIATELY drop the UMD like a bad habit, that would be stupid, AND it would cost them severely in the retail sphere.
What's likely going to happen is that for the first year or so, publishers will be able to release games either JUST on PSN, or on PSN AND on UMD, for the companies willing to spring for the printing costs. After a while, UMDs will fade out though and retailers will sell redeemable code cards for DD games, like Microsoft did for Lost and Damned.
Did he really say thet he works "at Playstation"? Does he not know the name of his company? Or is "Playstation" now some sort of abstract concept that one should work towards, like a life goal.
@kawaiipandax: Playstation started as its own division under Sony Music to keep from being completely associated with Sony as a whole. So technically he wouldn't be wrong saying he worked at Playstation.
@Azza: "ya'llllllllll..." /facepalm. Besides that I guess I was 4 in '95 to add to the "I was four years old during this year..." discussion. Didn't get a system till '99 with the N64... :/
Wow, a fresh round of bullshit from David "I still can't shut my fucking mouth." Reeves and he's not even out of the door yet. He can not retire soon enough.
Look, it is indeed very, very viable that in 3 years the PS3 could be on top of the roost, but in three years we are going to be looking at the next gen Xbox and Wii platforms too. Nintendo's pouring billions of dollars into motion control development and making sure that the Wiimote stays alive and kicking, developers are finally starting to get over the fear of having to spend real money on Wii development, for all the folks who hate motion controls, they are here to stay.
And Microsoft is following Nintendo's tracks, Newton will be the primary control method behind the next 360 and Live will be bigger and better, I think Microsoft is already planning for the massive upgrade to help move Live to the place it needs to be for the next console and BC will not be a issue, nor will RROD.
Sony however is stuck supporting the PS3 because they can't afford the loss of face..it's going to take about five years at the current growth rate before they've got enough first and second party development to make up for third parties which may have adopted a multi platform release mindset are still going to put their biggest effort behind the system that has the best dev kit, highest returns and perks (IE:Exclusive paid for DLC). So far that isn't shaping up to be Sony.
Ten year lifespans only work if you've got the marketshare and developer support to pull it off and watching Sony trying to make the stars line up perfectly so they can pull off a PS2 again with the PS3 is painful and foolish. They need to stop it already, focus on the games, the support for the games and reasons to play the games and let the market decide while taking every single lesson they learned from the PS3 and don't repeat it with the PS4.
Technically, the relationship still exists...Capcom's never been 100% devoted to the Playstation brand, they always put games on other consoles. Dreamcast got a bunch of Capcom exclusives, and GameCube had the whole Resident Evil/Viewtiful Joe thing.
Their relationship was never as symbiotic as, say, Squaresoft and Sony were last gen.
Not to mention if you're mentioning Microsoft moneyhats, Capcom's kind of an odd choice to bring up...Capcom's been as fair as they can be to the PS3 this gen.
SQUARE is the one that deserves reaming over moneyhats. :P
@Archaotic:I won't ream Square over money hats because Square has always been about the money. FF7 went to the Playstation because it's development cost on the N64 was not worth it, compared to PS1.
FF13 didn't go multi platform so much because of Microsoft, but more because creating the software tools and graphical engine for it's trademark series on the PS3 cost SE so much money that they would have never made back the development costs on PS3 alone. And that's Sony's fault, for creating a beast of a system with a crappy SDK.
They went to PS1 because the cartridge size for the N64 made it impossible to develop FF7, period. It wasn't about the money, it was about developing the game the way they wanted to.
I'm not really talking about FF13 here, either. I'm talking about the sudden and random decision of Square to release NO GAMES on the PS3 WHATSOEVER while the 360 gets what, 5? I realize Infinite Undiscovery was financed and owned by Microsoft, but why not go multiplatform for games like Star Ocean or the new Front Mission? The FF13 DEMO sold 300,000 copies in Japan on PS3. Square is leaving money on the table by going 360-only, and it's biting them in the ass.
@Archaotic:FF7 was not impossible on the N64, but the development costs made it non-viable. I've got 25 years of game mags to thumb though and pretty much all the interviews at the time from all sorts of Sqauresoft people had the same tag line, it could be done on a cart, at least the FF7 they had in mind, but the costs made it such as they would have likely never broken even and carts were high as it was..no one was going to pay $100+ dollars for FF on PSone, nobody.
Sony came along, offered a system which a much cheaper format (And don't forget, Nintendo largely controlled cart prices) and yes, money and Square went for it.
SE's lack of support on the PS3 is largely due to Sony's hubris and SE's innate knowledge that they are the girl everyone wants to date. Microsoft has made huge, huge inroads with SE because of their approach, so I wager for SE upper management the money they lose on lack of multi platform releases is something they can bare and i'm sure that Microsoft has helped to make that clear because Microsoft is more willing to court SE then Sony is willing to keep them.
We'll see. I think Square's "We're king shit!" opinion is just as arrogant as what you're blasting Sony for right now. When every one of their new titles fails to crack 500k worldwide, there's a serious problem, especially if you look at the Japanese sales of multiplatform titles as of late.
Square should be looking at the sales of Yakuza 3, Resident Evil 5 and Advent Children Complete and frowning to themselves right about now. If they don't start supporting the PS3, then the mindshare they need to capture when FF13 DOES come out will be considerably less than it should be.
@Archaotic:New IP rarely ever sells well. And given that up till 2 years ago Microsoft was a complete joke in Japan, I think again they've made amazing progress. Given it's likely Microsoft covered most of the cost of all of those new titles, why should they care? They didn't lose anything and they learned lessons.
Microsoft needs third parties right now more then Sony does because it's the third parties who will allow you to build your first party studios later on. Sony's biggest fault this gen was they should have been building first party studios back in 2003 when they ruled the roost so that loss of third parties wouldn't hurt so much. Sony only really got serious about first party development back in 2005 and it takes a long freaking time to birth a AAA producing first party studio when you didn't start with one.
I think Square should be concerned about a loss of mindshare and market share, though. A business wants their products to reach the highest amount of people possible, no? That was one of their excuses for FF13 going multiplat.
Seems a little disingenuous to make that excuse, then not follow through with it on your other games. Clearly, "the most people possible" only applies when a game is going to 360, eh?
Microsoft has to spend money to bring the games to build it's install base right now. Even with the damage done to the Playstation brand by the assorted group of idiots at Sony, even with a high price tag, the units move.
Microsoft is cheaper, but does not have it's legs yet. It's where Sony was back in 1995. For me this is all viable business tactics and in the end, if it saves SE enough money for them to bring out a follow up to Chocobo Tales, Front Mission or god forbid, finally a real follow up to Saga that isn't ass, then I win. No matter what, as I own all the current gen systems, I win.
But I like to see someone willing to fight and Microsoft and Nintendo have put in way more fight this gen then Sony.
He's talking about Sony's first-party efforts on PSP, right? Because it's pretty insane to say Sony hasn't been bringing the quality when it comes to PS3 first party releases.
@Archaotic: Speaking of SCEJ... what have they produced lately? is WKC a SCEJ game? Is Demon Souls theirs?
Anyhow I think this has been coyly left out to open debate and cause more of a stir... but I'm sure Reeves must have meant the PSP lineup.
I think the 1st party PSP-lineup through the years has been pretty good though... I don't own a PSP but there are many games I'd want to play on it (with quite a few of them being 1st party). I really want to try Patapon, looks awesome.
The games Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has released thus far (on consoles) are Genji (we don't talk about Genji), Folklore, White Knight Chronicles, Demon's Souls, and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which is a fucking demo.
I agree though, he was talking about Sony's PSP lineup which was, until two months ago, looking pretty bleak for this year. They seem to be reviving it in a BIG way though.
@Archaotic: Yeah the headline is misleading. They are only talking about their PSP first party support but the headline makes it seem as if Reeves said that Sony as whole PS3/PSP/PS2 hasn't met expectations.
Well, it IS David Reeves, so if he said something stupid like that, I wouldn't put it past him. That man's more of a "stupid quote" machine than Peter Molyneux, Kaz Hirai and Ken Kutaragi put together.
@Brian Crecente: Crecente, I think it might have been better if it read 'Sony's PSP Line-Up', so as to avoid confusion. I agree with Reeves, though-- the official PSP games have been less than stellar. However, I picked up a PSP1001 the other day from Gamestop and got five games-- Phantasy Star Portable, Star Ocean: Second Evolution, Ace Combat X, Liberty City Stories and Castlevania the Dracula X Chronicles. All these games are fantastic (though Rondo of Blood is a bit boring-- downloaded a game save so I could just play mobile SotN immediately, hah).
The third party line-up for the PSP is actually not too bad. I for one can't get into the Nintendo DS because most of the games lack a certain sort of depth, depth that I've become accustomed too since playing Final Fantasy on the Super Nintendo, all those years ago. All the games I purchased reflect that depth, and I'm extremely satisfied with them... now Sony just has to step up to the plate.
Give Rondo of Blood another try. It's certainly slower paced than SotN (which is fucking amazing, love it!), but it's also MUCH more rewarding when you complete a level because of how HARD it is.
And if you're a Final Fantasy fan, just wait until later this year. Kingdom Hearts, baby.
@Archaotic: I'll give it a try. I haven't heard anything about Crisis Core-- it was there on the shelf but I avoided it because it seemed like another attempt to cash in on FF7 and I'm sick of that IP.
Crisis Core is good. Unlike Dirge of Cerberus, it's a fun game AND the story is decent. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep will probably be a better game altogether though.
Dissidia's fun too, I imported that a while back. Spent a LOT of time on it.
@indyit: From what I've read about Demon's Souls, it is a 2nd party title at worst (From Software title). There isn't any excuse to not release it outside of the Asian regions (and as such, I continue to wait for a US release despite the English version existing).
SCEE and SCEA have been really carrying the PS3 this entire generation. Japan has been resting on its laurels while they continue to struggle in 3rd place. Demon's Souls is practically localized for the English-speaking regions of the world, so the reason they haven't released it officially in these territories is beyond me. Even on a smaller release, they would still profit from the game that is completed.
I think what Sony needs to do is do exactly what Microsoft did last year. Focus a portion of their E3 presser, or another press conference early this year, entirely on JRPGs. Give a US release date for White Knight Chronicles and Tales of Vesperia and Demon's Souls. Announce Dark Cloud 3 or Wild ARMs 6. Just PUBLICIZE RPGs on the system, since a good chunk of PS3 owners bought the damn console thinking there'd be real JRPGs like Final Fantasy on it, and look where that's gotten them.
@ryangreen02: Yeah I guess you can call it second party although I've always been confused on what that means... but yeah I don't get it either... why isn't it out here??
@Archaotic: Forgot about Genji (with good reason I suppose) and Folklore seemed nice I guess... but yeah didn't warrant the buy for me (at least not from what the demo showed)... I used to love the stuff SCEJ provided and bought most of it. Guess I'm just going to twiddle my thumbs and wait for the next news on Team ICOs game.
They did change the article's title after a bit. It didn't say "PSP" at first. My dream is that Shuhei Yoshida has jump-started an SCEJ renaissance, and that we'll start seeing the fruits of his labors at E3 or TGS this year. Maybe a new Wild ARMs, Dark Cloud 3, Legend of Dragoon 2, a PSN sequel to Jumping Flash...
@Archaotic: I haven't played any of the Wild Arms games after 1 and 2, due to a friend's warning... am I missing out on anything? I don't know if anything can top 1 and 2, they're in my opinion the best all-around RPGs of all time.
3 is decent, 4 is probably the worst in the series, and 5 started the series back on the up-slope.
Kinda like Suikoden, if you think about it. The PS1 entries were the series' best, the third iteration tried new things and met with mixed, but generally positive reactions...the fourth one went WAY out of left field, changed everything, and pissed everyone off, and the fifth tried to in some ways revive what the old games were such big fans of.
The PS2 remake of WA1 is awesome too, though the graphics are absolute shit by today's standards.
@Archaotic: I heard in the remake, Jack's abilities get totally murdered. Is that true of the rest of the characters? Does the depth suffer? I may try and pick it up anyway, if I can find it. To be honest I never even knew it existed until recently, when I was reading the wikipedia article on the series.
Do you have the Rocking Heart album? If not, look up 'Windward Birds', 'Battle VS Lord Blazer', and 'There's Only One Family Named Schrodinger' on YouTube. Effing AMAZING remakes, you won't be disappointed.
I actually had Battle with Lord Blazer as my ringtone for a while. Jack's Fast Draws are...different in Alter Code F, but I wouldn't say they were murdered. They're just different. Cecilia is exactly the same as she was before, but Rudy no longer uses swords. Just his ARM, and his subweapons are now special ammo FOR said ARM.
The new characters are awesome, though, especially Zed. Zed is the man. Sadly, he's the last character you get. But he's still awesome!
04/30/09
Additional generic overreaction comment.
04/30/09
04/30/09
I ask myself that every day. I've ranted about it twice on OLC already; did one this morning, in fact. =/
[www.onelastcontinue.com]
04/30/09
Youve got this huge homebrew scene going with it, and yet Sony shuns it.
Sony, take your strengths and expand on it. You cant cripple Nintendo's empire by copying them, much in the same way the PSX succeeded by going against the grain Nintendo had set forth in the 80's.
04/30/09
04/30/09
The PSP GO! will be the next Virtual Boy if you don't let people redeem every single UMD game they own for download through PSN.
04/30/09
Let's wait for them to ANNOUNCE the damn thing first before we spend our time immediately dooming it to failure, mmkay? :P
All of these rumors could be entirely fake. We don't know yet.
04/30/09
The only thing I can think of Sony doing is giving away a handful of free games (our choice) when they launch this thing. Otherwise, it'll be dead in the water.
04/30/09
I don't know yet, you don't know yet, Crecente doesn't know yet. The only people that know are probably Sony's people, and the R&D heads for the major PSP-supporting third parties. Let's wait and see.
04/30/09
04/30/09
As far as I can tell, the game was never officially dated, we just have retailers like GameStop giving "windows" for release.
The last English trailer for Dissidia still says "Summer 2009".
04/30/09
What about PSPs?
04/30/09
04/30/09
The reason he only brought up Monster Hunter was because he was speaking at a Capcom event, and Monster Hunter Portable is one of Capcom's big games for the second half of this year.
Have you been payin' attention this past few weeks? The PSP is getting a TORRENT of new games this year. :P
04/30/09
And still, MH is only "one" game, and the amount of games being released for the system doesn't "fix" things. I figure you'd know that.
04/30/09
As I said elsewhere in this thread, developers wouldn't suddenly start developing dozens of new PSP games for no reason, with piracy being as bad as it is. They clearly know something we don't.
04/30/09
04/30/09
Sony definitely approached developers and tried to evangelize them back to the platform, probably using the success of Crisis Core, God of War and Monster Hunter as signs that games can do well.
The UMD-free PSP was the final straw that drew everyone back in though. This is probably the fastest turnaround for a system previously thought to be dead in all of gaming history.
04/30/09
And dropping UMD is just one more huge slap in the face when it comes to Sony formats, That's not going to win them any friends when they decide in 2-3 years that it's once again time for yet one more brand new Sony format.
04/30/09
If they're dropping UMD, it means they're moving toward a wholly digital distribution method. I don't think that their next handheld will suddenly go back to another proprietary format if they build up infrastructure for a fully DD handheld.
04/30/09
Building and shipping kiosks is going to cost them a butt load too.
04/30/09
Well, as I said, they won't just drop UMD immediately. It'll be a slow trickle until UMD games fade out entirely. But we'll see. We still don't even know if the thing is real yet and everybody's concocting crazy doomsday scenarios in their head.
I say we should just be happy publishers are SUPPORTING the damn thing again.
04/30/09
On topic, the PSP has been underutilized. I have both the PSP and DS lite. I have been a firm Sony supporter(of the product, not necessarily the company) , but I feel like the PSP could have been so much more,. at least there are some decent titles making their way to shelves this year.
04/30/09
Wake me when the price drops, thanks.
04/30/09
When your attempting to be jack of all trades, your going to drop the ball somewhere and Sony dropped it twice, first games, then making sure that the games weren't so easy to get in order to make sure that Joe Gamer would pay for them instead of risking making a $299 paperweight. Failure in both of these areas crippled the system in such a fashion it's never recovered from.
The only real winner on the PSP was Capcom, which is now taking that and attempting to use it to make it more money..on a rival system.
04/30/09
They ARE making Monster Hunter Portable 3, you know...
And just be glad Reeves is gone. I know I am.
04/30/09
04/30/09
PSP's doing fine; especially in the case of Monster Hunter, which is a Japan-focused series. Sony's probably pissed that MH3 isn't on PS3, but I really don't think MH3 is going to do THAT well compared to Portable 3 REGARDLESS of the platforms.
MH is just a better-suited franchise for portable systems, especially considering the fact that the Wii version has recurring fees just to play online.
04/30/09
PSP is doing great system sales wise, but the attachment rate is shit. When only one game on your system has broken the 3 million mark when you've got a 50+ million install base, something's wrong.
04/30/09
Yep. Piracy's a bitch. That's why I'm hoping everything I've been hearing behind closed doors about the next PSP is true, so piracy will start to lessen. It's a damn good handheld, and it's depressing to see so many people treating it like a candy store with a broken front window.
Clearly, though, with all the new game announcements over the last few weeks...developers know something we don't.
04/30/09
And whats gonna happen to all the people that want the new PSP but don't want to re-purchase all of their old games?
If the info we have on the PSP GO! is true, Sony is making another massive mistake that might cost them all the market share they currently have in the portable space.
04/30/09
Well, I think a lot of people are getting ahead of themselves when it comes to the PSP Go. They're not going to IMMEDIATELY drop the UMD like a bad habit, that would be stupid, AND it would cost them severely in the retail sphere.
What's likely going to happen is that for the first year or so, publishers will be able to release games either JUST on PSN, or on PSN AND on UMD, for the companies willing to spring for the printing costs. After a while, UMDs will fade out though and retailers will sell redeemable code cards for DD games, like Microsoft did for Lost and Damned.
UMD isn't going to just disappear overnight.
04/30/09
04/30/09
04/30/09
HOLY SHIT. I got one in '97 for my 4th birthday or something and that#s gone quickly >_<
04/30/09
04/30/09
04/30/09
04/30/09
....I hate you...so...much...
04/30/09
04/30/09
it's still crazy to see people with a 90's birth date. mind-bottling i tell you.
@Azza: also, who the hell gets a game console for their 4th birthday?!?! when i was 4, i'm pretty sure the coolest thing i got was a "snorks" t-shirt.
04/30/09
04/30/09
Didn't get my NES until Christmas of '87 (I think it was), and even then it was a gift to me AND my younger brother.
Kids these days. Spoiled rotten!
04/30/09
Look, it is indeed very, very viable that in 3 years the PS3 could be on top of the roost, but in three years we are going to be looking at the next gen Xbox and Wii platforms too. Nintendo's pouring billions of dollars into motion control development and making sure that the Wiimote stays alive and kicking, developers are finally starting to get over the fear of having to spend real money on Wii development, for all the folks who hate motion controls, they are here to stay.
And Microsoft is following Nintendo's tracks, Newton will be the primary control method behind the next 360 and Live will be bigger and better, I think Microsoft is already planning for the massive upgrade to help move Live to the place it needs to be for the next console and BC will not be a issue, nor will RROD.
Sony however is stuck supporting the PS3 because they can't afford the loss of face..it's going to take about five years at the current growth rate before they've got enough first and second party development to make up for third parties which may have adopted a multi platform release mindset are still going to put their biggest effort behind the system that has the best dev kit, highest returns and perks (IE:Exclusive paid for DLC). So far that isn't shaping up to be Sony.
Ten year lifespans only work if you've got the marketshare and developer support to pull it off and watching Sony trying to make the stars line up perfectly so they can pull off a PS2 again with the PS3 is painful and foolish. They need to stop it already, focus on the games, the support for the games and reasons to play the games and let the market decide while taking every single lesson they learned from the PS3 and don't repeat it with the PS4.
04/30/09
04/30/09
04/30/09
04/30/09
04/30/09
04/30/09
04/30/09
...until MS came along with its chequebook...
04/30/09
Technically, the relationship still exists...Capcom's never been 100% devoted to the Playstation brand, they always put games on other consoles. Dreamcast got a bunch of Capcom exclusives, and GameCube had the whole Resident Evil/Viewtiful Joe thing.
Their relationship was never as symbiotic as, say, Squaresoft and Sony were last gen.
04/30/09
04/30/09
Not to mention if you're mentioning Microsoft moneyhats, Capcom's kind of an odd choice to bring up...Capcom's been as fair as they can be to the PS3 this gen.
SQUARE is the one that deserves reaming over moneyhats. :P
04/30/09
FF13 didn't go multi platform so much because of Microsoft, but more because creating the software tools and graphical engine for it's trademark series on the PS3 cost SE so much money that they would have never made back the development costs on PS3 alone. And that's Sony's fault, for creating a beast of a system with a crappy SDK.
04/30/09
They went to PS1 because the cartridge size for the N64 made it impossible to develop FF7, period. It wasn't about the money, it was about developing the game the way they wanted to.
I'm not really talking about FF13 here, either. I'm talking about the sudden and random decision of Square to release NO GAMES on the PS3 WHATSOEVER while the 360 gets what, 5? I realize Infinite Undiscovery was financed and owned by Microsoft, but why not go multiplatform for games like Star Ocean or the new Front Mission? The FF13 DEMO sold 300,000 copies in Japan on PS3. Square is leaving money on the table by going 360-only, and it's biting them in the ass.
04/30/09
Sony came along, offered a system which a much cheaper format (And don't forget, Nintendo largely controlled cart prices) and yes, money and Square went for it.
SE's lack of support on the PS3 is largely due to Sony's hubris and SE's innate knowledge that they are the girl everyone wants to date. Microsoft has made huge, huge inroads with SE because of their approach, so I wager for SE upper management the money they lose on lack of multi platform releases is something they can bare and i'm sure that Microsoft has helped to make that clear because Microsoft is more willing to court SE then Sony is willing to keep them.
04/30/09
We'll see. I think Square's "We're king shit!" opinion is just as arrogant as what you're blasting Sony for right now. When every one of their new titles fails to crack 500k worldwide, there's a serious problem, especially if you look at the Japanese sales of multiplatform titles as of late.
Square should be looking at the sales of Yakuza 3, Resident Evil 5 and Advent Children Complete and frowning to themselves right about now. If they don't start supporting the PS3, then the mindshare they need to capture when FF13 DOES come out will be considerably less than it should be.
04/30/09
Microsoft needs third parties right now more then Sony does because it's the third parties who will allow you to build your first party studios later on. Sony's biggest fault this gen was they should have been building first party studios back in 2003 when they ruled the roost so that loss of third parties wouldn't hurt so much. Sony only really got serious about first party development back in 2005 and it takes a long freaking time to birth a AAA producing first party studio when you didn't start with one.
04/30/09
I think Square should be concerned about a loss of mindshare and market share, though. A business wants their products to reach the highest amount of people possible, no? That was one of their excuses for FF13 going multiplat.
Seems a little disingenuous to make that excuse, then not follow through with it on your other games. Clearly, "the most people possible" only applies when a game is going to 360, eh?
04/30/09
Install base.
Money.
Microsoft has to spend money to bring the games to build it's install base right now. Even with the damage done to the Playstation brand by the assorted group of idiots at Sony, even with a high price tag, the units move.
Microsoft is cheaper, but does not have it's legs yet. It's where Sony was back in 1995. For me this is all viable business tactics and in the end, if it saves SE enough money for them to bring out a follow up to Chocobo Tales, Front Mission or god forbid, finally a real follow up to Saga that isn't ass, then I win. No matter what, as I own all the current gen systems, I win.
But I like to see someone willing to fight and Microsoft and Nintendo have put in way more fight this gen then Sony.
04/30/09
...at least if you don't count SCEJ.
04/30/09
Why shouldn't we count SCEJ?
04/30/09
04/30/09
They've released, like, three games this generation compared to SCEA and SCEE doing nearly 10 each? SCEJ is a joke.
Hopefully Yoshida and Ueda can smack some sense into them before they become completely irrelevant.
04/30/09
Anyhow I think this has been coyly left out to open debate and cause more of a stir... but I'm sure Reeves must have meant the PSP lineup.
I think the 1st party PSP-lineup through the years has been pretty good though... I don't own a PSP but there are many games I'd want to play on it (with quite a few of them being 1st party). I really want to try Patapon, looks awesome.
04/30/09
The games Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has released thus far (on consoles) are Genji (we don't talk about Genji), Folklore, White Knight Chronicles, Demon's Souls, and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which is a fucking demo.
I agree though, he was talking about Sony's PSP lineup which was, until two months ago, looking pretty bleak for this year. They seem to be reviving it in a BIG way though.
04/30/09
The headline is just bait. Read the article :)
04/30/09
04/30/09
Well, it IS David Reeves, so if he said something stupid like that, I wouldn't put it past him. That man's more of a "stupid quote" machine than Peter Molyneux, Kaz Hirai and Ken Kutaragi put together.
04/30/09
04/30/09
The third party line-up for the PSP is actually not too bad. I for one can't get into the Nintendo DS because most of the games lack a certain sort of depth, depth that I've become accustomed too since playing Final Fantasy on the Super Nintendo, all those years ago. All the games I purchased reflect that depth, and I'm extremely satisfied with them... now Sony just has to step up to the plate.
04/30/09
Give Rondo of Blood another try. It's certainly slower paced than SotN (which is fucking amazing, love it!), but it's also MUCH more rewarding when you complete a level because of how HARD it is.
And if you're a Final Fantasy fan, just wait until later this year. Kingdom Hearts, baby.
04/30/09
04/30/09
Crisis Core is good. Unlike Dirge of Cerberus, it's a fun game AND the story is decent. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep will probably be a better game altogether though.
Dissidia's fun too, I imported that a while back. Spent a LOT of time on it.
04/30/09
SCEE and SCEA have been really carrying the PS3 this entire generation. Japan has been resting on its laurels while they continue to struggle in 3rd place. Demon's Souls is practically localized for the English-speaking regions of the world, so the reason they haven't released it officially in these territories is beyond me. Even on a smaller release, they would still profit from the game that is completed.
04/30/09
I think what Sony needs to do is do exactly what Microsoft did last year. Focus a portion of their E3 presser, or another press conference early this year, entirely on JRPGs. Give a US release date for White Knight Chronicles and Tales of Vesperia and Demon's Souls. Announce Dark Cloud 3 or Wild ARMs 6. Just PUBLICIZE RPGs on the system, since a good chunk of PS3 owners bought the damn console thinking there'd be real JRPGs like Final Fantasy on it, and look where that's gotten them.
04/30/09
@ryangreen02: Yeah I guess you can call it second party although I've always been confused on what that means... but yeah I don't get it either... why isn't it out here??
@Archaotic: Forgot about Genji (with good reason I suppose) and Folklore seemed nice I guess... but yeah didn't warrant the buy for me (at least not from what the demo showed)... I used to love the stuff SCEJ provided and bought most of it. Guess I'm just going to twiddle my thumbs and wait for the next news on Team ICOs game.
04/30/09
They did change the article's title after a bit. It didn't say "PSP" at first. My dream is that Shuhei Yoshida has jump-started an SCEJ renaissance, and that we'll start seeing the fruits of his labors at E3 or TGS this year. Maybe a new Wild ARMs, Dark Cloud 3, Legend of Dragoon 2, a PSN sequel to Jumping Flash...
Just...something from Sony Japan. ANYTHING.
04/30/09
04/30/09
3 is decent, 4 is probably the worst in the series, and 5 started the series back on the up-slope.
Kinda like Suikoden, if you think about it. The PS1 entries were the series' best, the third iteration tried new things and met with mixed, but generally positive reactions...the fourth one went WAY out of left field, changed everything, and pissed everyone off, and the fifth tried to in some ways revive what the old games were such big fans of.
The PS2 remake of WA1 is awesome too, though the graphics are absolute shit by today's standards.
04/30/09
Do you have the Rocking Heart album? If not, look up 'Windward Birds', 'Battle VS Lord Blazer', and 'There's Only One Family Named Schrodinger' on YouTube. Effing AMAZING remakes, you won't be disappointed.
04/30/09
I actually had Battle with Lord Blazer as my ringtone for a while. Jack's Fast Draws are...different in Alter Code F, but I wouldn't say they were murdered. They're just different. Cecilia is exactly the same as she was before, but Rudy no longer uses swords. Just his ARM, and his subweapons are now special ammo FOR said ARM.
The new characters are awesome, though, especially Zed. Zed is the man. Sadly, he's the last character you get. But he's still awesome!