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http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=2470
The seventh generation is an exciting time. There are major changesundergoing as we live and breathe. Gamers that frequent the internetare as testy as ever. Before you take the dive, make sure to show up inyour flippers, attach your snorkel, brand your humor on your chest andput your preconceived notions in your back pocket. Alright, let’s jumpin!
Bye Bye Jackie Boy
Gamers do not agree. Where there are opinions there are disagreements.Every gamer has a loud mouth and an argumentative typing finger. Therewas only one thing everyone could come together for. There was onebinding element that would put aside all differences, like gettingalong with family begrudgingly on Christmas. We all wanted lawyer JackThompson to leave gaming alone. He was the culmination of years ofgovernment interference and bad mouthing about the violence in gaming.He represented the worst of the contradictions, hypocrisy and mistruthsthese heathens put on our loving hobby. Gaming to them (and himespecially) was a DVD case filled with a loaded gun and a crack pipe.His attacks on developer Rockstar were especially damaging.
Oh how the mighty have fallen now. Thompson not only pissed gamers offconsistently, but seemed to use unethical ways of going about hisattacks. A very sensible judge saw about disbarring good old Jackieindefinitely and now gamers everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief. Wecan also go about disagreeing with each other again. Good times!
The Halo Killer
It was sure to happen eventually. Publishers everywhere spent most ofthe last generation and the first few years of this one coming up withthe one first person shooter that could knock Halo off its perch at thetop. Combatants fell left and right by completely embarrassingknockouts in sales. There was Killzone, Black, Half-Life 2, Brothers inArms, Doom 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Call of Duty 2, Rainbow SixVegas, and numerous other pretenders to the throne.
Then it finally happened. In the same fall 2007 shopping season thatsaw the release of the record-breaking Halo 3, Infinity Ward’s Call ofDuty 4 showed up with a vicious left and a monster right hand to winthe FPS Title belt by decision after a gruelling 12 rounds. Criticallyand commercially it outperformed its opponent. A year later and it hasupheld its title, but there are new contenders and seasoned veteranslooking for a rematch. Now the question is who will be the Call of Dutykiller?
The Battle for Rock N’ Roll
You’re one of three things. You’re either a Guitar Hero shred-head, aRock Band groupie, or you just don’t give a crap and should skip thissection altogether. Guitar Hero was a novel concept by Harmonix thatwas loosely lifted from peripheral-based note memorization games madeby Konami. Publisher RedOctane provided the peripherals and held thename to the franchise. You use a cool plastic guitar with buttons tohit notes as they drop from the top of the screen to the bottom. Thesongs were taken from popular rock n’ roll music. It was an instant hitand classic. Guitar Hero II followed it the next year.
Harmonix and RedOctane were then acquired by different entities. MTVNetworks acquired Harmonix and entered in a publishing deal with EA.RedOctane and the Guitar Hero name were picked up by Activision. Thedilemma awarded gamers with two similar franchises that continue topush boundaries while simultaneously mimicking and one-upping eachother at every turn. Activision has Guitar Hero by Neversoft and EA/MTVhas Rock Band by Harmonix. This is continuing as I type and willprobably not settle any time in the near future. Do notice which twomonster publishers are putting their muscle behind these games. Thisbrings us to…
ActiBlizzard, Electronic Arts and the Dog-Eat-Dog World
It’s a dangerous playground being a third party publisher nowadays.You’re either the hunter or the prey. You’re the acquisition or thestudio formerly known as. You’re ActiBlizzard and EA, or you’reeverybody else.
As the costs of gaming development continue to rise at an uncomfortablerate, more and more studios are looking at the big picture. They caneither make smaller, manageable projects or sink in large, unprofitableendeavours. There isn’t an awful lot of wiggle room there. EA openedthe floodgates in every publisher's eyes - they will chew you up if youaren't careful. It is a safe turn, but it’s a loss of independence andfreedom. Activision and Blizzard saw about merging their alreadymonstrous brands for a combined mega-publisher effort to become topdog. Both have taken in countless studios that needed new homes in thisscary HD world.
Suddenly it’s not just the small fries that seem to be affected.There are efforts by EA to bring in Take Two, who happen to publish oneof the biggest franchises on Earth. There were rumors circulating thatUbisoft could be next. The gaming community is under the same mindsetas EA. It’s either “Sony needs to acquire Level-5” or “Nintendo has tobuy Sega”. The affliction is all reaching and may continue to squeezetighter until we’re all one utopia under the sky. Scary thoughtsindeed. *shudder*
The Wada Megaton
The E3 2008 conferences were a great thing to watch. Best naps I havehad all year. The announcements were ho-hum and the crowds desperatelyneeded a Red Bull. Yoichi Wada comes out to give a few quick snippetsof info at the end of the Microsoft conference, and leaves the stage…ordoes he? As Don Mattrick of Microsoft begins his closing speech, Wadavery rudely interrupts him. He mouths the now infamous words “One morething” and leaves the audience with…THE trailer. FF XIII would be onthe Xbox 360.
What followed from there was fire and brimstone coming down from thesky, rivers and seas boiling, 40 years of darkness, earthquakes,volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave, human sacrifice, dogs andcats living together, mass hysteria! At least that’s what it felt likeas the majority of the gaming internet melted as traffic overloadedjust about anywhere this news popped up on. It gave new definition tothe word megaton and more importantly, showed just how different thingswould be for third party publishers this generation. This was the strawthat broke the camel’s back, following Dragon Quest IX, Devil May Cry4, Monster Hunter 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV as other notable offenses.The third party exclusive mentality died that day in the hearts of HDconsole owners everywhere and truly put the fear into the remaining fewbelievers.
The Big Red Failure
You’re getting home from a harsh double shift at your mediocre deskjob. You have one thing on your mind, spacing out in your gaming world.You turn on your Xbox 360 expecting to join a hectic massacre onlinematch in Gears of War. Huh? Why’d the lights just flash red? Uh oh.
This is unacceptable and will reverberate in the industry for a longtime, ensuring no console manufacturer ever blunders this bad again.The Red Rings of Death will forever be known as the poster child ofhardware defects, and no amount of warranty will ever shake thestigmatism that will be stamped on Microsoft’s ass until they finallyget it right with their next console.
Microsoft was in a“damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. On one hand, theyhad to get out there earlier than the competition to carve a section ofthe pie for themselves. On the other, it caused their hardware tosuffer in design so badly it’s taken over a billion dollars to rectify,not including the massive brand damage they have sustained. No amountof money will recover the tarnished name of Xbox. Only better hardwareand lots of time will heal those wounds.
Get a Second Job! The PS3 is Coming!
Oh the infamous day. 2006 was the final big boy Electronics andEntertainment Expo (E3) before the whole event went through it’s not sowonderful transformation. Sony was the top dog going in and thenext-gen ball was firmly in their grasp. We knew the hardware would bepacking heat. We saw outstanding video of the new Sony (and friends)line-up. We just never thought we’d be paying through our teeth for theblack behemoth. Thankfully Ken Kutaragi was there to remind us afterthe fact that not only was this not a $600 bad dream, but that weshould work those extra hours just so we could afford one. In the end,consumers spoke up by not opening up the wallets and Sony figured outthey couldn’t sell at Lexus prices in a Toyota world.
World War III: HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray
Now here was a competition with depth. The PS3 and Xbox 360 were notonly battling over gaming but were battling over the introduction anddomination of two competing high definition movie formats. You hadToshiba’s HD-DVD format piggybacking on the Xbox 360 and Sony wasleading a dual charge to take over on two fronts. The war was short andugly, but the better of the two emerged victorious. It was always ameasure of Sony fighting harder and taking it more seriously. Blu-Raywas an investment in their future, while Microsoft lazily offered thealternative. Sony took the ultimate chance by building their nextconsole around this tech, and it paid off in spades. Unfortunately, itcost them the other side of the war, but to a different competitor witha unique vision and strategy that both warring gargantuans never sawcoming.
The Ocean is Bluer on the Other Side
Once upon a time, there was a mighty giant named Nintendo. ThisNintendo turned from a savior to a tyrant. All of the peasantpublishers did not like Nintendo after years of abuse. From a far awayland comes Sony. Sony is the new savior, and enjoys a bountiful reignas king after turning the commoners away from Nintendo. A humbledNintendo learns from its mistakes and seeks a new way to gainfollowers. A light bulb goes off in Nintendo’s head. Why botherregaining lost followers? There is an entire world to conquer, andNintendo will draw its attention in that direction. The olden folk willfollow.
It was a lesser known business strategy called disruption. Search theblue ocean and spend less time in the bloody areas of the water. Itworked well. Specs and prices were set moderately. Software was uniqueand appealed to new demographics. The hardware gave new ways to playunlike anything before it. Now the followers have returned, a new worldis for the taking and Nintendo is all alone to collect the spoils.Thank the most ambitious software series to come along in a good longwhile, Touch Generation and the Wii series. It has brought in fish thatwere uncatchable previously, because the pole was too short and thebait was all wrong. Nintendo learned how to fish again.
On theflip side, Sony has been in a trench war with Microsoft and the twocontinue to beat each other, copy each other and basically try theirhardest to be the winner by becoming just like their opponent. Sony’sconcentration on “future proof” technology and an HD movie formatblinded them from the real prize, namely gamers and future gamers.
Don’t Break Your Hip Wii Bowling Grandma!
The most surprising, unexpected and shocking event to come about allgeneration, and possibly ever, is the realization that gaming isexpanding beyond its traditional audience into the every man, the everywoman, the every boy, the every girl and the every geezer. You maythank or spit on Nintendo for this depending on your feelings aboutsharing your favorite hobby with your Uncle Carbuncle and Aunt Judith.Gaming’s reach is continuing to grow too, with software that can barelybe considered a game, but it's exactly what the doctor ordered saleswise.
Your nursing homes are stocked with more Wii consoles than Bingoboards. Daycare babies are swinging more Wii-motes than rattles.Nintendo’s heart and soul, Shigeru Miyamoto, recently suggested thatelementary schools use their newest software, Wii Music, to teachchildren the basics of music. The DS is packing software to improveyour brain functions and enhance your cooking. The Wii is keeping youfit and allowing you to play sports in the house. Nintendo has trulygone out with the image of gaming for everybody, and it seems everybody(and their soccer mother) is getting on board. How about you gamer?
By Nicholas Keil
11/4/2008 |
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发表于 2008-11-9 19:50
发表于 2008-11-9 20:47
发表于 2008-11-9 22:30