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Hickboy
05-24-2002, 08:13 PM
LOS ANGELES--For the software publishing industry, video games are a numbers game. And for now, Microsoft is on the losing end.

That's the upshot from the Electronics Entertainment Expo, the game industry's main trade show, where new games for Microsoft's Xbox have largely been limited to "me too" titles--games already appearing on other consoles. Microsoft has said it expects to have more than 200 games for the Xbox by the end of the year, but less than two dozen of those will be exclusive Xbox titles from third-party publishers.

Sony, by contrast, is touting high-profile exclusives from game publishers. "Grand Theft Auto III," the top-selling video game for the past few months, will remain available only for Sony's PlayStation 2, with publisher Take Two Interactive Software scrapping previous plans for an Xbox version. New versions of Eidos' "Tomb Raider" and Electronic Arts' "Medal of Honor" franchises will also be available only for the PS2, as will upcoming online and offline updates of the "Final Fantasy" series from longtime Sony booster Squaresoft.



Game publishers say it's a simple matter of economics. With Sony having sold more than 30 million PlayStation 2 units worldwide and the Xbox just edging up to the 4 million mark, they have to put their money where the market is. The result is that even the biggest Xbox supporters are producing two PlayStation 2 games for every Xbox title.

"We love the Xbox; we love Microsoft," said Jeff Brown, vice president of corporate communications for leading games publisher EA. "The worst thing that could happen to EA is to wake up one day to find Sony out there by itself. But when you make decisions short term, you have to look at the installed base. It's pretty clear if you're running a business selling games, you're simply going to sell more units on the PS2."

Console makers can try to tip the balance by offering marketing assistance to game publishers and even helping to pay development costs, but such efforts only go so far, said Luc Vanhal, president of Vivendi Universal Publishing. Vivendi earlier announced that "Malice," a game Microsoft touted as an exclusive at the Xbox's public unveiling, will also be available for the PS2.

"Microsoft is much more aggressive going after exclusive deals," Vanhal said. "They realize they really need to give an incentive to publishers to focus on the Xbox.

"But it still comes down to economics," Vanhal said. "It costs quite a bit of money to develop a game. I need to recoup that money, and it's easier to do that when you're selling to a market of 30 million."

Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said publishers have found it more expensive than many had expected to produce multiple versions of a game.

"There's a significant investment to having multiple retail packages," said Hirai, who kept E3 buzzing by declaring victory in the console wars. "At some point you have to say, 'Time out: Does it make sense for me to do a PlayStation exclusive? How much value do I get from doing other versions?'"

Publishers say the recent round of console price cuts will help Microsoft build an installed based for Xbox more quickly. Leading retailers have reported sales increases of up to 800 percent for both consoles since the Xbox and the PlayStation 2 were each lowered to $199.

But Microsoft also needs to break out of the commodity market that game consoles have become, they say. Despite clear technological advantages enjoyed by the Xbox, especially its built-in hard drive, Xbox games so far have pretty much played like those for competing systems.

"I believe the marketing mistake has been in letting people believe the Xbox is the same product as the other consoles," said Bruno Bonnell, president of Infogrames. The game publisher recently dealt another blow to Xbox by announcing plans to publish a PlayStation 2 version of its upcoming game based on "The Matrix," despite Microsoft having invested $1 million in recent Infrogrames acquisition Shiny Entertainment to fund development of the game.

"Xbox has a lot of features nobody's really taken advantage of yet," Bonnell said. "If someone built a game that fully utilizes the hard drive, the voice capability, people would see there's a real difference. The best evidence is the price: Microsoft knew they couldn't get people to pay extra for better technology, because they don't have a case yet for how that improves the games."

Don Coyner, Microsoft's director of marketing for Xbox, said it's typical for developers to need time to fully exploit a new console. He's confident that "Blinx," a Microsoft-created jump-and-run game that allows players to record and replay segments, will show developers how a hard drive can improve game design.

"'Blinx' is really the first game that takes full advantage of the hard drive," Coyner said. "Console developers are not used to working with a hard drive. It takes awhile for a developer to think about what it can do, and it takes someone who sees the potential to take advantage of it and really push gaming concepts forward."

Nintendo's survival strategy has been to come up with its own system-selling franchises, including characters such as Mario, Pokemon and Zelda. Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs for Nintendo of America, said Microsoft could learn a thing or two from the Nintendo approach.

"We're worried about Microsoft," Kaplan said. "They've spent all this money building an online network, and they've lost focus on the games. Microsoft is doing technology, versus investing in content, and content drives this business."


Link (http://news.com.com/2100-1040-922551.html?tag=fd_top)

faceoff508
05-24-2002, 08:41 PM
Nooooo, stupid people! So dumb so dumb!!

BCan
05-24-2002, 09:05 PM
I like the idea that many games are now coming out as PC/XBOX titles, as there are more in common with these platforms, than XBOX with any console. As much as MS hate people saying it, the XBOX is basically a PC in a Box.

There needs to be more of a move by PC game manufacturers to develop XBOX games, rather than the traditional console development teams. Time that EA and the rest put a few PC techies in their console development teams so that they can use what the XBOX has to offer.

I guess its like CD's, there are Super CD's and Dolby Digital 5.1 CD's(DVD Audio), which sound a lot better, and you may have one of these players. But most CD's are the standard kind, so won't sound any better, or barely any better. Sadly, economics plays out and most CDs are standard, console games are developed like they were for the OLD generation consoles.

dougi3000
05-24-2002, 09:27 PM
just blame the media.

The media all news stations, all multiconsole gaming shows, all general tech shows, all newspapers reports "bad news for MS" because in today's society "it is cool to hate MS". If the media doesnt report bad MS news for the public the public will think "that news station is corrupted by MS".

So to keep people happy and reading/watching the news, they have to report bad news for MS no matter what happens.

wweomaniac
05-24-2002, 09:38 PM
I read that too and I sorta agree that MS doesn't have enough exclusive games.. but at the same time, I don't agree. The ex games that ms has are all wicked!!!!!!!!!!

Brute Force??
Star Wars KOTOR???
Project Ego??
Tom Clancy's SPlinter CEll????
Unreal Championship???
deus ex 2????????

I can name a few more really cool ones.

Holy ****. these people don't know anything. All nintendo exclusive games are crap. Theyre all mario sunshine... yoshi and zelda. gawd. metroid prime is only one player! gawd.

yeah... i guess ps2 has wicked ex games.

BCan
05-24-2002, 11:14 PM
SW: KOTOR isn't XBOX exclusive, it is also PC as well!!

AlBoogy
05-24-2002, 11:35 PM
"We're worried about Microsoft," Kaplan said. "They've spent all this money building an online network, and they've lost focus on the games. Microsoft is doing technology, versus investing in content, and content drives this business."

Im sick of these god damn nintendo employees commenting on Microsofts situation. Worried about Microsoft huh? Truly a moronic statement. Kind of like them saying "only a console on its dying legs would lower the price so soon after its release",,, what do you know, 4 days later, they lower the price on their console.

JohnB
05-24-2002, 11:39 PM
Guys I think the best thing to do is email these people about their lame reports. Let them know how we feel here are XBA! That's what I'm gonna do!

Crazy Joe
05-25-2002, 12:49 AM
Originally posted by BCan
SW: KOTOR isn't XBOX exclusive, it is also PC as well!!

since when? do you have a link? maybe you are thinking of Star Wars: Galaxies..

RadRider
05-25-2002, 01:27 AM
Sorry Gortholamew, Star Wars: KOTOR is coming out on pc. Just go look up previews at any decent gaming site and you should see it.
Even when a game is announced as "PS2 exclusive" or "Xbox exclusive", that doesn't usually cover the PC also. For some reason, console "exclusive" games often appear on the PC as well. Don't ask me why.

shpankey
05-25-2002, 01:51 AM
This is a play on words. He says the Xbox *ONLY* has two dozen titles for exclusive. Notice his choice of words. Everything about the way it's worded is meant to downplay. What if he said 24 titles? Sounds a lot stronger now.

Then in his contrast for the PS2, he only lists three exclusive titles but makes it sound like much more.

His very own reasoning just doesn't add up. He never does a direct comparison. But reading his own words, why would 3 exclusive titles for PS2 be so much better than 24 exclusives?

Also, he fails to mention that in almost every single case, the Xbox version of a game is better than the PS2 counterpart.

Why is it "bad" for the Xbox to have a game that is also on/coming for PS2 when it has the better version but it's ok for the PS2 to have a worse version? And in a lot of these upcoming cases, the PS2 is getting the game *AFTER* the Xbox version. Does he mention that? No.

Also, now we are starting to see a game developed for the Xbox then a watered down port coming to PS2 unlike the early days when the port was going upwards to the Xbox and being enhanced.

So tell me, why exactly will someone want to wait and extra 1-3 months for a watered down PS2 version?

This guy is anti-Microsoft... and he sees everything for Sony in rose colored glasses.

CoMATOSE
05-25-2002, 08:48 AM
at least the exclusive games we have r actully good.....:rolleyes:

Veno
05-25-2002, 08:59 AM
The xbox version of KOTOR is comin out this year in november or somethin, and the pc version is comin out next year in spring.

stingu
05-25-2002, 11:26 PM
This reminds me of the Liberal media bashing Republicans/conservatives. The media is always "anti-corporation" and they have always bashed Microsoft. So, get used to it cuz they will continue to do. It's there pathetic nature.

Look at the clear facts: Sony's exclusive games are only AAA and not AAAA like Microsofts' exclusive games.

Give it time . . . as the developers get to understand the system the games will get better. Xbox' user base will continue to grow as well.

Rowdie
05-26-2002, 01:52 AM
Originally posted by BCan
SW: KOTOR isn't XBOX exclusive, it is also PC as well!!

yeah, that means it's xbox exclusive. :cool:

JohnB
05-26-2002, 02:32 AM
Originally posted by shpankey
This is a play on words. He says the Xbox *ONLY* has two dozen titles for exclusive. Notice his choice of words. Everything about the way it's worded is meant to downplay. What if he said 24 titles? Sounds a lot stronger now.

Then in his contrast for the PS2, he only lists three exclusive titles but makes it sound like much more.

His very own reasoning just doesn't add up. He never does a direct comparison. But reading his own words, why would 3 exclusive titles for PS2 be so much better than 24 exclusives?

Also, he fails to mention that in almost every single case, the Xbox version of a game is better than the PS2 counterpart.

Why is it "bad" for the Xbox to have a game that is also on/coming for PS2 when it has the better version but it's ok for the PS2 to have a worse version? And in a lot of these upcoming cases, the PS2 is getting the game *AFTER* the Xbox version. Does he mention that? No.

Also, now we are starting to see a game developed for the Xbox then a watered down port coming to PS2 unlike the early days when the port was going upwards to the Xbox and being enhanced.

So tell me, why exactly will someone want to wait and extra 1-3 months for a watered down PS2 version?

This guy is anti-Microsoft... and he sees everything for Sony in rose colored glasses.

Wow what a great break down of his article, I sent that guy who wrote that article an email with your post. I left your name and the forum itself anonymous. But yeah I'm just trying to slap that guy with some intelligence.

Mercury
05-26-2002, 05:04 AM
I am very impressed with the comments made here regarding that article. They are well thought out and mature. Not to mention correct!

That article is nothing but basic anti-xbox propaganda.