What do Quake 4, Gun, Burnout Revenge, Tony Hawk American Wasteland, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006, The Godfather, Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion, Peter Jackson's King Kong, Final Fantasy XI, Madden NFL 06, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and Call of Duty 2 have in common? Well, obviously, they're all coming out for the Xbox 360. They've also all come out for pretty much every other system known to man, from the PC to the Playstation 2 and Gamecube. And, oh yeah, the original Xbox as well. On average, they also cost ten dollars more than any of their port counterparts. No offense, Microsoft, but I call bad strategy on this one.Sure, the Xbox 360 has some games coming its way (or that have already been released) that are completely original, such as Kameo and the much-hyped Perfect Dark Zero. The problem, though, is that when you remove the ports from the list, there are very few original and 360-specific games that can't be had anywhere else. When you're selling an entire, and expensive, system, this is a critical element that can not be ignored. Especially when I can play the same games on the much cheaper Xbox sold by the same company that I already own!
Ultimately, the 360 seems to be falling into the same trap that Sony's PSP has fallen into; that of harnessing the power of the system to take games from other consoles and place it on their flagship. It might look good on paper and the game developers might be big fans of the idea, but those two facts do not make good business. The further we get into the launch of the 360, the more the entire experience seems to have been rushed. Having a few more titles under the belt that were made specifically and exclusively for the 360 would certainly have done wonders to help with that perspective.
Bottom line - The 360 needs system defining games and experiences and it needs it now. The one positive aspect of being so severely short-supplied on launch is that you're not dealing with that large of an install base yet. Take advantage of that and make the gaming experience of the second round of buyers significantly better than that of the first.
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I agree that more exclusive titles are needed. They're on the way though.
It seems like a game rush at launch but when you dig deeper into the 360 you find much more. XBL arcade games are becoming very popular.
I don't think it's microsofts intention to blow our minds off with the hottest games right off the bat this time around. I think they're slowly capturing more of the casual gamer market. They want your parents and siblings to enjoy this machine as well.
We're going to see a steady flow of exclusive games, and yes ports make me squirm. I personaly will only play the High end PC ports. (ie. Call of Duty 2 and Oblivion).
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Oblivion and cod2 would be the best ports....and aren't on "EVERY SYSTEM KNOWN TO MAN"
what the hell.
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What is the point of this article? To pressure developers to put out games faster? We know whats coming out and thats about it. And the good stuff is a good ways off.
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the main selling point for me is Xbox live... I know that the games arent always as good or unique as someof the franchises on Nintendo or Playstation. But live creates infinite replayability. Especially since it allows me to pay with my cousins and friends.And having a Halo 3 in the future doesnt hurt either
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It's a combination of all the different titles that means that they appear everywhere...although Call of Duty 2 is on a LOT of them. That said, the point of this article is not to put pressure on developers to put games out faster...I certainly am aware of the dangers of doing that... but instead the point is to state that this is not something that needs to continue. With the Revolution and the PS3 on the horizon and the current-gen consoles still delivering solid gameplay, it's going to be more critical this time around than it ever was before.
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there are many other games coming out when the ps3 and rev will be released or right before.
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there are many other games coming out when the ps3 and rev will be released or right before.
every console launch doesn't have the best games ever...maybe one out of the bunch...but down the line
(a couple of months for 360) more titles are released
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I sort of agree. I don't mind ports as long as they come out for each consol at the same time, or near it. like tony hawks american wasteland, COD2 (i think), and quake 4. what i DONT want is them releasing an awesome game for the xbox, then releasing the same game for the xbox 360 2 months later with enhanced graphics and stuff. at least when they release them at the same time you can choose which system you truely want to buy it for.
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Name one system that has had large "original" title base at launch. To me, it sounds like your looking for a large base of games, a majority of them being at the hype degree of say Metal Gear Solid 2, Grand Theft Auto 3, Mario 64, Halo 2. Let me ask you something. Let's take, for example, the next Halo, and i'm not saying that this could have happened, i'm only using it as an example. Say it was completed, not rushed, in every aspect the developers had intended, and ready for launch. When they release it at launch, how many do they expect to sell at a maximum? At an ideal maximum, the number that would be sold would be equal to the number of systems purchased. Now let's move to the system itself. Forget that there was a shortage. If there was a system available for anyone at all, do you think that everyone who would ever want one for the life span of that system would buy it at launch instead? A company reaches it's general peak of systems sold between it's third to fourth year(meaning most everyone who is going to get one, will have one buy then, but that does not mean everyone, just the majority). Take the Playstation 2 for instance, which actually exceeded the average. The PS2 launched 600,000 systems supposedly. Recently an article was released that 100 million PS2's had sold since launch. Let's put the Xbox 360 in those figures. Would a developer wanna sell there next "Halo" at launch with 600,000 most likely sales? Or would they rather sell a ports for a while for 600,000 and growing *Possible* sales, and then sell there next *Halo* towards 100 million probable sales.(Don't take these figures to heart, i'm basically saying the number of systems grow nearly exponentially after years) Yeah, sure, releasing it earlier may cause a bunch of people to purchase more systems, but not even a few million extra. To thriving developers, it's more about giving the quality goods to the larger fan base that has proven time and again to come with nearly every system.
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DOA 4, Gears of War, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Enchant-Arm, 99 knights, Halo 3...Do I need to continue? How many games can an individual gamer afford anyway?
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"Every system known to man"??
Even the genesis? =D
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