Be Excellent To Each Other

If we're really lucky, Mirror's Edge 2 will be a Kinect game

Mirror's Edge 2 being a bone exclusive would upset me a great deal.

However, I've currently every belief that they will 'Warrior Within' it in some way. Either by making it open world (as every idiot has demanded ever), kinetic based, shooty or gritty.

If after release it turns out to be amazing? Then I'ld fine someway to play it eventually. A cheap seond hand console and copy in a couple of years time.

Oh wait.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Ahem, unlikely

Location, Location, Location?

Hence the 'oh wait'

The game can be £49.99 for the life of the console as well! Yay!

EDIT: Just had chills. What if Dark Souls 2 was an exclusive!? *shudders* Thank Nito it aint.

I wonder if this negative press will start people wondering about their exclusive contracts?

Fourth time I've seen that joke in recent weeks

I think that's somewhat unlikely, though.

One of the rumours was that Fallout 4 would be an Xbone exclusive. Fallout 3 sold 8 million copies, of which about half were on 360. So in order to compensate Bethesda for potential loss of income for making Fallout 4 an exclusive, Microsoft would need to write a pretty big cheque to cancel out those lost sales.

There's been persistent rumours that Microsoft as a whole is no longer subsidising the Devices division, which now has to be independently profitable. So I think we can't possibly be seeing too many of these third party exclusives -- it's just too expensive.

I could be wrong. And there might still be a handful, of course, and ME2 could be one of them. But I think many of the 'exclusives' will actually be timed exclusives, or DLC exclusives, or (even lamer) timed DLC exclusives, or (lamest of all) 'word-of-mouth exclusives' ie bribe the publisher to not talk about the PS4 version.

I'm still buying both.

Yeah I can't see them ever affording something like Fallout, but Mirror's Edge is a relatively cheap game to develop which didn't sell well but holds (ever growing) critical acclaim. EA gets some security by a down payment for exclusivity, which reduces the risk of development and both parties get some critics kudos*.
Kinda like how Nintendo funded Bayonetta.


* Unless they go put kinect in it.

NEVER joke about this. Playstation is its spiritual home anyway. Lets face it, those crazy Japanese are going to hate Xbone even more than they are currently indifferent to the 360.

Thinking about Microsoft's awful PR handling of this bad news -- the way it's had to give clarification after clarification, prolonging the negative news cycle -- I can only see two possible explanations:

1) it's so disconnected from gamers it doesn't realise this is bad news to most of us
2) it's so arrogant it thinks it can push the Xbox One into the market against this resistance through sheer force of will

Neither of these are pretty pictures.

That's unless we're all off-base and people won't care and they'll buy it anyway. That's a distinct possibility. Although as I think I said earlier, I wouldn't want to be a Game staffer on Christmas Eve having to explain the Xbone's online requirements to a harried parent who's heard exaggerated bad things on Facebook about how the camera spies on you 24/7. The negative narrative is mainstream, now, and thus much harder to ignore.

Japan sales figures:

Wii – 12.71 million as of 31 March 2013
PlayStation 3 – 6.3 million as of 1 April 2011
Xbox 360 – 1.6 million

This DRM thing. Microsoft have implemented it but apparently take no benefit from the resales that could be enabled (although, by reduced second hand sales opportunities, more first sale licences for Microsoft). Got me thinking how they got to that point.

Scenario 1.

Sony go to developers very early on and ask what they want in next gen. Developers say resales block. Sony say OK. Then Microsoft do the same thing. Are told that Sony is putting DRM in, and that Microsoft will see poorer developer relationships if they don't too. Microsoft agree. Turns out Sony has the same but hasn't announced it yet.

Scenario 2.

Sony go to developers at some point and ask what they want in next gen. Developers say resales block which Microsoft have implemented. Sony say GTFF. Few exclusives on PS4, and releases with significant delays arriving on PS4.


Either way, I'm amazed that Microsoft are a lone wolf in this and don't see some commercial benefit from this route. Plus we're comparing Xbone info to the no info we got on PS4. This will play out for some time longer (possibly years) before we know how the landscape really looks, I think.

I wonder how the Xbox marketing department feels about the US phone surveillance scandal breaking right now...

I always assumed it was the second one. I don't believe they honestly think that 'often online' is anything but a pain in the ass for gamers; and similarly that any kind of restrictions on what you can do with the games you've bought would be genuinely desired by the buying public. No, they're doing this to keep publishers happy and they're assuming that people's brand loyalty to the Xbox will be enough to force us to swallow it. Which they may well be right about, historically your 'core gamers' are terrible at following through on a planned boycott and everyone else will just see a new Xbox and want it. The fact that they've screwed up the actual announcing of the strategy is just internal incompetency for which I expect heads will roll (as quietly and subtly as possible) once the dust has settled enough to make it looks like that's not the reason.

I'm starting to worry that Sony would have started bleating about being DRM free by now if they could...

Japanese Sales Figures (up to July 2012)

Nintendo Wii - 12,433,321 sold since December 02, 2006
PlayStation 3 - 8,112,613 sold since November 11, 2006
Microsoft Xbox 360 - 1,554,547 sold since December 10, 2005

The number of people I know that I consider "informed" but that are saying things along the lines of "I don't trade-in" and "publishers deserve the money, screw second-hand and first sale doctrine" is highly distressing and doesn't bode well for CODers and Santa voting against it.

Sony will have some version of this; guarantee it.

Yeah but it's Sony; half the time it won't work and the other half it'll be hacked.

We're going to find out tonight / early tomorrow morning - I think they will put *something* in place but they have outright said the console does not need to be connected to the internet so with that I don't think what they propose can be as bad as Microsoft.

I also believe Microsoft think they can push this on people because they cant to - and a lot of people are trying to say its exactly how itunes works (which it isnt really) but thats the model that Microsoft sees and wants to capture.

I also think that Sony are going to spend some time in their press conference today talking about DRM / etc and even if its all positive they are going to 'waste' time on it and Microsoft are not going to touch on it at all - expect most of Microsoft's conference to be just games (with some TV and Sport thrown in) and them not to talk about the Kinect spying on you / that you cant resell your games / and that you need to be online [deal with it (*)]

(*) - wonder what Adam Orth is up to now :-)

So you think the Japanese are going to buy Xbones? Or devs are going to ignore the lucrative Japanese market? Neither seems likely to me.

Sony said the PS3 would have two HDMI outputs and output games at dual 1080p.

I think they will have the ability for publishers to do everything the xbox one supports by default if they wish too.

That will cause the opposition to the DRM to faulter. The geek public to in fight and the battle to be lost, as titles geeks want get purchased regardless. Ala sim city.

Booo!

Of course, they could come out say "No DRM, No spying, and lots of games!" and then everythings right with the world. Pie in the Sky.

I can't claim that my thought process got anywhere beyond the basics, but some thoughts as to why that may be the case:

- If Sony region lock games, then the developers can give Japanese base different treatment if it were considered important. What is the split of Japanese game sales between 'Japanese games' and 'worldwide games' anyway? I always assumed, maybe incorrectly, that the game market in Japan is quite insular.

- However, developers don't give a rats arse about whether consumers buy on Xbone or PS4 anyway, and so if the lack of exclusives meant that Japan moved more towards the Xbone to get the release, no skin off their noses.

- Sony could be guilty of the same corporate arrogance as Microsoft. Microsoft trailed the Xbone with a presentation of which 75% of features won't immediately, or ever, be of value outside the US. Sony could be assuming that lack of exclusives (if my basic made up scenarios were in anyway true) the japanese market still won't move to Xbone anyway.

In any event, I think that this is all rather inconsequential in some way.

- Kids (an increasingly lower percentage of the market, I assume) won't be reading about DRM when deciding what shinyshiny to ask for at christmas

- Day 0 sales aren't overly relevant, and at year 2 (say) the price of the consoles will likely mean a large percentage of Adult gamers will own both, as they do now.

Significantly, not without backtracking on the firm "you don't need to take the console online" statement Sony has already made. A lot of what MS is doing can only work with frequent call-home security checks from the console to the cloud.

Not to say Sony can't backtrack, of course.

I think they can. You don't need to take the console online, but certain games are online only (even for single player).

They don't need to backtrack far. Xbone is effectively bricked without an internet connection, the PS4 isn't. However, each developer could put in a check in requirement in their game at start up (facilitated by Sony) and have the same effect.

Or not backtrack and shoot themselves in the foot with something else instead.

This is more Sony biased but I do think covers what we know right now

Considering how much time I spent playing Indie games this generation, that final point about Sony's focus versus MS's disdane (if not just idle promises) could be a big factor in my choice.

According to my profile I've played almost 300 games on the 360.
About 25% of those were used games and >50% of the new games I bought were funded through trades.
I've been an Xbox live member for 8 years now and have had a family membership for the last 2 years.
I've had 5 360's (2 RROD replacements) and have 6 controllers a steering wheel and had a Kinect for a while.

I dread to think how much money I've thrown at Microsoft over the last 8 years playing games. On a games console.

Unless something drastically changes the revenue stream for MS that was Trousers is all dried up.

That's a good point I'd forgotten about, even if both companies core functionality ended up being exactly the same there seems to be growing number of indie developers who've been burnt by MS' bullshit around XBLA so presumably will release on PSN instead this generation making the PS4 it much more attractive to me at least. Hell I'd buy a PS4 just to get whatever the next thatgamecompany's game is. Granted their deal with Sony ended with Journey so they could move over to XBLA but it seems unlikely.

Also to note, since the last UI redesign, I barely, if ever check what games have come out. They killed the joy in investigating, downloading and trialling stuff. Now I want to spend as little time in that ad-ridden mess as possible.

This has already started. Seems like there's a new high profile indie game for Vita (and occasionally PS3) appearing every other week now. Hotline Miami is out soon.

YES! Whoop.

The PS4 "can play offline" comment also doesn't mean you don't have the check the console in every so often. It's the same statement MS could have used with out trying to explain everything. Without confirmation from Sony we just don't know.

I'll be interested on seeing how Sony set out their stale on this it could be mega(depressing)!

I imagine there's far too much rolling around on the floor going on at Sony to do any kind of organising at the moment.

The exact quote was something like "you can take it home, never plug it into the Internet, and game all you want."

I hope they stick to this.

I still faithfully check for new demos/XBLA games every time I boot the console up and download anything that isn't specifically a genre I'm not interested in. In fact I still prefer the Xbox for that kind of thing because even though the ads are ridiculous it's still massively easier to work out what's available on the Xbox than the PS3. With the Xbox the store is integrated to the dashboard so getting a list of available games is just a case of scrolling to the relevant place; with the PS3 you need to launch the store as a whole separate app which is a pretty lengthy process. Also with the Xbox there's a specific section for Demos and one for Arcade games (which all come with a mandatory demo) so it's proper 'at a glance' to see what's new to grab. On the PSN store you've got to bugger about with category filters and even then it's not very clear what's a full download and what's got a demo version.

When the PSN stuff is still harder to deal with despite a recent redesign and even with all the adverts MS have crammed into the Xbox dash that's a red flag that your shit needs sorted.

The PSN store on the Vita has a tab for demos, PS+, PS1, Vita games, Vita add-ons etc. It's dead simple and easy to use.

I have a Vita by the way. It's bloody aces. I also have 6 full price games to play thanks to PS+.

EDIT: oh and I don't think the PSN is as bad as you make out. You might prefer one over the other but it's perfectly serviceable and easy to use.

I much prefer both the PSN store and the PS3 UI. Because both respect the user. Nothing in the current Xbox UI comes close.

And thats not considering that it's constantly chucking excellent games at me for free* as well.

* compare to gold.

PSN about 4 or 5 years ago when I used it was terrible compared to the Xbox marketplace , however from what I've seen of it recently it looks fine to me

First reveal. Kinetic sports rivals, no gameplay footage.

Hypothetical-ish scenarios:

If someone was to bring one to the cottage next year, we'd have to try and connect it to the internet every 24 hours (probably 2 or 3 times, assuming that it would have been last connected on the friday morning). However, if someone else brought some games along, we'd have to connect it every hour?

We've been doing diy in the living room all weekend, so for convenience, everything has been disconnected and moved out of the way. If someone else in the house had a XBone and wanted to play it, we'd have had to hook the internet back up at the end of the day so it could check back in. Again, bonus scenario, if they'd wanted to play games that weren't on their account, we'd have had to disrupt our diy every hour, to plug the internet back in?

If I bought a new game, from the shop, and for whatever reason I haven't installed it on my own console before I find myself at my mates house (maybe I decided to pick it up on the way over there straight from work). Is there a way I can install it on their console, and still have it as mine? Or would I forever have to check in every hour to play my own game on my own console?

Also, I'll be intrigued to see how long it takes before an irate parent storms into Game insisting that a game they've just bought from there is telling their precious little child they have to fork out another £50 (or whatever these things will cost) before they actually own the game. It'll also be interesting to see how long before kids start installing games on their mates consoles, then moaning at their parents that the game they've just bought doesn't work.

Can you do party chat on psn? If I switch it'll be annoying to lose that.

£429.

Below looked awesome.

Neogaf's CBOAT seemed spot on. Which means the DRM being worse than it seems will be true too. Yay.

No Mirror's Edge. Bittersweet.

Seems their approach will be to ignore all comments about DRM and just plug games. Will probably work for them. Bugger.

Kind of liked the look of titan fall. Very Cod but ok. That and halo is all I got to see though. BONE Price is high but probably acceptable. Let's see what Sony has now.