NO MORE CONSOLES AFTER THE PS4 AND XBOX720. Believe it!!

Posted by Tiberius Jonez
email tiberiusjonez@gmail.com

The following excerpt was taken from the final paragraph of a story I wrote in November 2007:

'My belief is that by 2010, Microsoft and Sony will own a roughly equal 35% share of the gaming market, with the Wii holding a solid 30% market share. My reasoning is pretty simple; different management philosophies will determine the outcome for everyone. The real showdown comes in 2011-2012 when the next "Next Generation" begins.'

 -Tiberius Jonez, Editor of GameJonez, Nov 5, 2007 

FIRST OF ALL, I LOVE GAMES!

It's no secret that I love gaming. It is my favorite source of entertainment. When done right, gaming has the potential to offer up an amalgam of experiences unlike any medium to come before it. What other form of art or entertainment can you think of that has the potential to deliver an "audience" all the feelings of having been entertained, inspired, moved, tested - not just mentally and physically, but morally and ethically and still leave room for the simple reward or pain of victory or defeat?

Videogames are also an incredibly flexible medium. These complex experiences can run their course in the span of a few minutes or be sustained over a period of days, weeks or even months, allowing for infinite creative possibilities. What other medium can do all this? I challenge you to name one, because I can't.

I think there are two things that fundamentally distinguish videogames from other forms of entertainment. For one, videogames are possibly the only medium of entertainment where the audience is an active participant in the entertaining without ever having complete control over the outcome. And secondly, no other medium stimulates more senses. At any given moment, a good game may be simultaneously stimulating your eyes, ears, sense of touch, cognitive and problem solving abilities, emotional core and even your psyche. With all that going on, I
don't know how many neurons must be firing simultaneously in your brain, but I imagine a cat scan would look like a Kansas thunderstorm. To be sure, games today can be incredibly engrossing, but the medium does have it's fair share of problems, and they begin with...

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MUHHH-NEEE!!

It's true, the experiences videogames can give us are far richer in many ways than anything else out there. Unfortunately, I see several forces conspiring together to create an environment where we, as gamers, may have to be far richer to continue playing them.

I believe the gaming industry is at a crossroads of economics and content. To understand what I'm talking about, you have to first understand just how expensive it is to make games these days and how these guys make any money at all. So, let's take a look at a current example.

Activision's highly anticipated game "Destiny" from Halo developer Bungie, will be released on current and next generation consoles and will feature continuing development that will span ten years. To say the least, Destiny is an extremely ambitious project. The estimated budget for the initial release is slated at $140 Million, and that's assuming no significant delays or problems along the way.  According to the contract between Activision and Bungie, Destiny will be released first on the Xbox 360/720, and then the PS3/4 and, because of it's colossal budget,  it will need to sell approximately 5 million copies just to break even. By comparison, within 24 hours of being released, Activision's last Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game sold approximately 6.5 Million copies in the U.S. and U.K. alone. So, while I suppose it's technically possible Destiny could sell that many copies, you have to bear in mind that COD is a very well established franchise with a huge, loyal and rabid fan-base, and while Bungie does have an established track record of success, that was with the Halo franchise as an Xbox exclusive; Destiny is a brand new intellectual property (IP) being released on both platforms with no established track record on which to base expectations.

What do all those numbers really mean? They mean that at some point developers have to pass the cost of development onto consumers to maintain their bottom lines and deliver profits to their investors. Games now cost $60 and the pricing structure of the next generation of games has yet to be revealed. With development teams for next gen games numbering as many as 500 people, some analysts are predicting prices as high as $100 for a single game! If history is any indication, I seriously doubt prices will skyrocket that dramatically, but $70 seems like a reasonable expectation. Here's why...

SOME PERSPECTIVE

Historically, videogames have actually been quite inflation-resistant when compared to other forms of entertainment, especially movies. In 1981 I paid $2.00 to see a matinee showing of Raiders of the Lost Ark the weekend it opened. That same week I used my hard-earned snow-shoveling cash to buy Atari Football (screenshot below - yeah, that was actually supposed to represent football - and we were happy to have it!!) for the Atari 2600...which, as you can plainly see is one of the most simplistic games you could ever imagine by today's standards, and I paid $50 for it back then. Thirty years later a movie ticket in my area costs between $12 to $24 depending on whether you want to see a standard flick, a 3-d show or an IMAX film. So, let's just take the standard flick; an increase from $2.00 to $12.00 is an increase of 600%. Video games going from $50 to $60 in the same period represents an increase of only 20%...an absolute bargain by comparison...even more so when you compare today's Madden NFL to that Atari atrocity. I think I'm more than getting my extra ten bucks worth of product. If you had to pay $60 to see a movie, I suspect you'd skip the opening of the next big summer blockbuster. So, how have game prices stayed relatively flat for so long?

Atari Football - $50 in 1981
VS
Madden NFL 2013 - $60 in 2013

In the early 80's video games were exploding! They were new, exciting and represented the cutting edge of technology, but in many cases, the games were being churned out by "teams" of one or two people in a day or two for a few hundred dollars. So, as you can imagine, Atari and other developers had ridiculously HUGE profit margins built into that $50 price point, and people were happy to pay it. Nowadays, developers are lucky if they make $2 or $3 per game after all their costs are factored in, and game retailers typically pay $55 for a new game that they sell for $60. Their real profits come from used game sales. Game developers also don't have the luxury of the additional revenue streams afforded movie studios, like DVD sales, cable and public T.V. royalties, On Demand access fees and more.

And so we come closer to the point of this whole story...what all this means to console makers, specifically Sony and Microsoft, and why I believe this is the last generation of consoles we'll ever see released. To understand where we're going you have to first understand where we are and what these two mammoth companies are trying to accomplish.

WHERE DO THE PLAYERS STAND TODAY?

In 2012, Microsoft reported earnings down $1.1 Billion from the same period a year earlier, but I wouldn't feel too sorry for them, they still reported a net profit of roughly $6.4 Billion, and with an interesting footnote; the Xbox division reported $98 Million spent for research and development in the final fiscal quarter alone, a clear indication that they've been seriously ramping up R&D efforts for the Xbox720. As creators of Windows, the most popular computer operating system in the world, Microsoft could literally afford to view their Xbox division as a hobby if they wished. They could pull up stakes today, leave the gaming space entirely and hardly feel it; but don't worry if you're an Xbox fan, Microsoft isn't going anywhere. Their plan, spelled out by Bill Gate's with the release of the original Xbox, was then and remains today to gradually transition the Xbox hardware from a gaming-only console to a unified "set-top box" that would eventually allow consumers to control everything from the lights and thermostats in their homes, to their use of the internet and all other audio/visual entertainment with one device, using only their voice as a controller; and Forbes agrees with me. Solid evidence that their plan is working came recently when Xbox live reported that 2012 marked the first year that the majority of people connecting to Xbox Live were doing so to take advantage of services other than online gaming.

Sony entered the current generation of consoles as the undisputed industry leader. It was estimated during the last generation of consoles that Sony's Playstation 2 controlled an overwhelming 70% of the global console market. However, due to a series of strategic missteps with the PS3 and perhaps by underestimating their competition, as I predicted in 2007, their lead has all but vanished and, depending on whose numbers you trust, they now find themselves in a virtual deadlock with Microsoft with each company now controlling roughly 35 to 40% of the market with a floundering Nintendo claiming the rest with the Wii and the thus-far disappointing Wii-U.

In stark contrast to Microsoft's $6.4 Billion profit of a year ago, Sony reported a staggering LOSS of $4.8 Billion in the Sony Computer Entertainment division alone...that's a swing of more than $10 Billion between the two companies!! Sony's electronics division hasn't been helping much by barely breaking even for the past 5 years. Sony as a whole reported a net profit of $404 Million.

Bloomberg recently reported Kazuo Harai, Sony's new Chairman, wants to generate 70 percent of revenue and 85 percent of operating profit in Sony's electronics from games, digital media, and mobile devices by March 2015. To say Sony has a lot riding on the PS4's success would be a massive understatement. While they are down-playing it publicly, internally, Sony execs know this might be their last best chance to make SCE profitable once again. The very survival of Sony Computer Entertainment could be on the line and the changes they've made in their approach so far with the PS4's release vs the PS3's release reflect a keen awareness of their precarious situation. From firing Ken Kutaragi, to announcing their console first, to embracing a more developer friendly x86 architecture with the new hardware, Sony is attempting to correct past mistakes in hopes of, at the very least, maintaining a level playing field between themselves and Microsoft.

FINDING AN IDENTITY

The biggest problem for Sony in the current generation is the fact that even though they entered the race a full year after Microsoft, they really did nothing to differentiate the PS3 from the Xbox360. As Forbes points out in their article, aside from a very few exclusive titles for both consoles, and the obvious differences between Xbox Live and PSN, for most consumers, both consoles occupied the exact same space and it was really just "a choice between blue pokemon and red pokemon."

But now I see a clear line being drawn in the sand between Microsoft and Sony that could actually end up benefiting everyone.

Sony made it clear with their "reveal" of the PS4 in February that they are getting back to focusing on games, games, games and eschewing many of the other entertainment features offered by the PS3 and Xbox 360. At the same time, recent rumors out of Redmond, Washington suggest that Microsoft has every intention of offering a powerful gaming system while continuing to advance their agenda of an all-purpose entertainment one-stop-shop of services that could eventually end the need for cable.

I see this as a possible win-win. If Sony is successful in reestablishing themselves as the best games maker on the planet, then they have a legitimate opportunity to regain their supremacy in that space.

If Microsoft were to successfully introduce a more inexpensive console that further expands their variety of entertainment offerings, while perfecting voice control and still being a good, if slightly inferior gaming machine to the PS4, they could fill a niche wholly separate from Sony. The end result could be a situation where consumers are adequately motivated to own both systems in order to have access to all the combined features on offer.

The danger for Sony lies in Microsoft's advantage of knowing what the PS4 is going to offer processor specs-wise and possibly being able to simply one-up them. If they can do that then the PS4 would be in trouble indeed. And if the new Xbox's gaming specs are only slightly inferior to the PS4 but they offer a bunch of other features that consumers want, that could also bode poorly for Sony as consumers will often sacrifice a small difference in graphics if their is a perceived value-gain with everything else included in the package.

THE END IS NEAR...NO MORE CONSOLES AND NO MORE GAMESTOP

And finally, regardless of what happens in the battle to dominate this upcoming generation, I believe this will be the last generation of true consoles for several reasons, and I'm not alone. One of the "experts" that agrees with me is well-known Wedbush Securities Industry Analyst Michael Pachter, who also  predicted in 2009 that there would be no more consoles after the Xbox360 and PS3. I didn't agree with that assessment at the time. I had already predicted in 2007 we would have a PS4 and Xbox 720 and that by the time they rolled out, Microsoft and Sony would be virtually tied in market share; and apparently I was clairvoyant that day, because I was pretty much spot on with one exception; I thought the next gen would arrive a year sooner, in 2012.

Now it's 2013 and the environment surrounding the industry has significantly changed, thanks in large part to the one thing that is always toughest to predict; the astounding rate of technological advancement. With the continuing improvement of streaming technology, cloud processing and Nvidia's GPU processor technology, six years from now it will literally be possible that the only hardware Sony and Microsoft will need to offer consumers is a controller(s) that will plug directly into your TV. The "consoles" will exist completely in the cloud.

One immediate result of this transition will be the almost-overnight destruction of Gamestop and all other brick and mortar videogame retailers, and trust me, nothing else would make Sony and Microsoft happier. Whether they admit it publicly or not, stopping the sale of used games and ending piracy stand at the very top of both company's long-term agendas. Streaming everything solves both of those problems instantly while greatly reducing publishing costs.

No more consoles means no need to manufacture hardware for every consumer. Factor in the elimination of all the costs associated with production, servicing, warranties, packaging, shipping, energy and real estate costs as well as all the salaries and benefits of the employees required to run all those operations; in the final analysis, I just can't see how both companies can avoid coming to any other conclusion...producing more consoles simply no longer makes good business sense.

So, enjoy your physical discs while you can because I don't think you will see them anymore after this generation.

I would love to hear your comments below.

As always, thanks for visiting GameJonez. Game on!!

Xbox 360 outsold PS3 in Japan Last Week

The end is nigh! Repent! Duck and cover! Pucker up and kiss your...ok, you get it. If the numbers from gamesindustry.biz are correct, the apocalypse is surely at hand. According to their report, the Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 in Japan last week, sparked by Namco Bandai's Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, which debuted at #2 behind Super Mario Galaxy, which sold nearly as many copies as the rest of the top ten combined.

The PS3 sold 17,434 units compared to Xbox 360's 17,673. Yes, it is a tiny difference of only 200 units, but considering Microsoft's well documented difficulties breaking into the Japanese market, it is huge news for them. The dramatic increase in sales for the 360 represents a nearly five-fold upswing from the previous week when only 3,718 units were sold. What will happen with Call of Duty 4 releasing this week? Oh yeah, they will probably ignore it.

Call of Duty 4 Review - Best Shooter to Date!

I've been playing Call of Duty 4 for the better part of the past two days, and I can tell you, it is one amazing game. Infinity Ward has returned the series to it's rightful position of genre defining leader.

Taking the risk to move the series' setting out of WWII and into modern day has proven to be a brilliant decision. The modern weapons and settings combined with the modern graphics and hard-hitting story telling make this a showcase for what shooters can be when they are designed by the most talented game makers in the world. Multiplayer is just as good as, if not better than, the campaign. Tons of game play variants and the excellent "perks" system give the online play a depth and exhilaration factor of the highest order.

For a full review of the game, check out this full length write-up from IGN. In the meantime, take my word for it...if you own a PS3, Xbox 360 or decent gaming PC, go buy Call of Duty 4 right now! I promise you won't be disappointed.

Xbox 360 Family Timer

Xbox 360 is great, and I spend a lot of time on mine. I also spend a lot of time on my other consoles too, so don't get riled up! But for kids, too much time spent gaming can be a bad thing, especially if it interferes with school work, or developing those all important social skills, like actually holding a conversation.

Microsoft recognizes the potential for game addiction and will offer a "family timer" feature beginning sometime in December, just in time for those all-important Holiday sales. Set a daily or weekly time limit for your kids Xbox 360 play, attach a password to it, and viola!, you're machine will automatically shut down when the time limit is reached. We assume you will be prompted to save your game before the console unceremoniously goes dark, although there is no confirmation of this yet.

Microsoft has been trying to soften their image as it relates to kids and gaming for some time, but I suspect this particular feature came straight down from daddy Bill Gates himself.

I Love the Xbox 360, but I'm Not Biased!!

Just as any other journalist covering the world of gaming, I am occasionally perceived by readers as biased towards one system or another. This past week, after I posted the story "Why The Xbox 360 is Crushing the PS3", I received a few emails accusing me of being biased towards the Xbox 360. I even received a comment attacking me personally on a level so juvenile it doesn't warrant further discussion. I rarely feel the need to defend myself or my opinions, but in this case I felt it necessary to set the record straight on a few things.

While I admit the title of the piece was somewhat inflammatory, the fact remains that throughout the story I provided MANY links to other sources supporting my thoughts on the subject. Not one person that called me "biased" offered any shred of evidence to support a counter view. Apparently, they disagreed with me but didn't know why.

Several readers assumed I only own a Xbox 360 and said that if I owned a PS3 and/or a Wii then I wouldn't come to the conclusion that the Xbox 360 is leading in the current console hardware battle. To me, that kind of thinking is the absolute definition of bias. First of all, as I said in the story, I don't consider the Wii to even be in the same race as the PS3 and 360 for several legitimate reasons. Inferior processor power, much lower price (though not as much so now with the $279 Core Xbox 360 now available) and the fact that Nintendo is admittedly targeting non gamers with the Wii are all reasons to separate it from any discussion of competition between the PS3 and 360.


However, for the record, I own all three consoles. Those are my controllers at the top of the story. Specifically regarding the PS3, I bought one shortly after it was released and sold it a few months later due to the severe lack of software. Honestly, I got sick of looking at what was essentially a big black paper weight. But now that there are some quality titles on the horizon combined with the much lower priced 40GB model, I recently got a new PS3 (pictured above next to my 360 and PC).

My basic assertion that the Xbox 360 is presently in the best position of the three going forward had nothing to do with bias and everything to do with recent history, present sales, future software expectations and developer support. It's not my fault that Sony is more concerned about pushing Blu-Ray than giving gamers what they want...namely games. Just as it is not my fault that Nintendo is more interested in quick profits than they are in giving hardcore gamers what they want...eye candy and good online gaming.

Microsoft is not perfect...by far. I hate Windows Vista and have no urge to put it on my Gaming PC. I fully documented their issues with faulty 360 hardware and the steps they have taken to resolve them. But those issues don't change the fact that when you examine their gaming operation as a whole, they are presently doing the best job giving gamers all the things they want and expect from a modern gaming console; quality hardware, a huge library of excellent games, the very best online gaming, digital distribution of movies and television programs and more.

If anyone can show me that I'm wrong, I am always open to being enlightened. But let's be clear...understanding the facts and pointing them out, even (and especially) when it's not popular with some readers doesn't make me biased. It actually makes me unbiased. I don't have a grudge against Sony or Nintendo; quite the contrary. I want nothing more than for them both to be hugely successful, because I firmly believe competition is the only thing that drives innovation. If Sony and Nintendo start providing me with great games and experiences with their consoles, I will be the first to sing their praises. After all, I voted for them both in the only way an American truly can...with my wallet. And I actually voted for the PS3 twice. Doesn't that make me biased toward the PS3? Hmm.

Can the 40GB PS3 @ $400 Win the Console War for Sony?

I love gaming. That's not always a popular thing to say when most of your friends are over 35. I play games almost everyday. I read about games and write about them too. I even consider myself somewhat of an expert on the subject. I think 30 years of gaming experience qualifies me as an expert.

So, when one of my best friends (who has no interest in the Wii) recently asked me which Next Gen console he should buy, an Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3, I didn't hesitate.

"Xbox 360 all the way!", I told him. I gave him all the reasons why too, and they all make perfect sense. There are more games for the 360 than any other new console, and some of the games coming out over the next two months appear to be among the best in the history of gaming. You have something for every kind of gaming fan...first person shooters, driving games, adventure games, role playing games, and all the major sports. Online play is great and now with the new three year warranty, you don't have to worry about the possibility of the dreaded red ring of death.

"What about online?", he asked."You have to pay for Xbox Live and Sony is free, right?" Yes, Sony's online service is free but it isn't nearly as gamer friendly as Xbox Live. Live is only $49.99 for 13 months which comes down to a little more than $4 a month. Let's face it, if you're considering paying $400-$600 for a console, you probably aren't worried about $4 a month, especially if that $4 gets you the best online gaming in the world.

"But what about Blu-Ray?", he asked. "I've heard Blu-Ray is great and the games are better."

Of course, I had to correct him here. "Well actually, so far all the games that have been released on both consoles have looked and played better on the 360. If you specifically want a Blu-Ray Player, then yes, you should definitely consider buying a PS3," I explained. "But if you are talking about the better gaming machine, then that's the 360. There just aren't enough decent games for the PS3 to justify paying five or six hundred bucks for it. Maybe in 2009 the PS3 will be worth the money. By that time, there should be a lot more good games for it and it will cost significantly less. Plus, by that time, we may have an idea whether HD DVD or Blu Ray is going to be the accepted High Definition DVD format"

Then last week, Sony threw a big wrench in all my reasoning by confirming the November release of a 40 Gigabyte PS3 priced at $399.99. Yes, they were forced to compromise by completely dropping PS2 backwards compatibility to reach that price, but it is a move that, in my mind, they needed to make if they were serious about getting back into this console race before it is too late.

I'm not saying I'm about to jump off the Xbox 360 bandwagon...far from it. I still believe the 360 is the best pure gaming console on the market now and for at least the next six months. But I did feel the need to call my friend and ask him just how important Blu-Ray was to him down the road? If you think Blu Ray is something you're ready to invest in, then it is difficult to ignore the PS3 at $400. But if it's just about the games, I still say go with the 360.

I myself already owned a PS3 and sold it after two months because I just got sick of looking at the thing and having nothing good to play on it except Resistance:Fall of Man, which was good but not great. After a while, 95% of my gaming time was spent on the 360. So, yeah, I sold the PS3 and used the money to finance a new gaming PC, and I've never regretted the decision.

Now that this 40GB version of the PS3 is becoming available AND there are some truly good looking games like Uncharted:Drake's Fortune and MGS4 on the near horizon I am ready to get back on board and set up another PS3 alongside my 360. I already have the HD-DVD player for the 360, and my wife and I both love it. But it is aggravating that we can't get all the movies we want in High Def on HD DVD. ALL High Def players should be combo players if you ask me, but since those are still priced at $1000, having one of them in our living room is only a dream at this point.

The biggest coup for Sony over the past six months was probably getting Disney/Pixar to sign exclusively with BluRay. We have a young son and love Pixar movies ourselves, so that is a factor when making movie buying decisions.

All in all, I don't know if this 40GB PS3 at $400 can help Sony win the console war this generation because there are still many unanswered questions surrounding the future of their online gaming service and a general lack of good game titles in comparison to the 360. But if Sony can manage to get a stream of quality titles to PS3 owners and at least offer an online gaming service that can compete with Xbox Live, then this new price point certainly has the potential to get them back in the race in a big way!

Halo 3 - Job Well Done!

For those of you in a hurry I'm not going to waste a lot of words giving you my opinions of Halo 3. No, instead, I am going to sum up the best way I know. Simply put, Halo 3 has surpassed almost every high expectation I had for it before release.

Graphically, it is a stunning game, especially in terms of set pieces. Many of the areas in which you find yourself cause you to take pause, in slack- jawed awe. Your first experience in Mombasa is a glorious gaming moment to be sure. Other times, you'll be joyfully going along laying waste to countless enemies, when you'll unintentionally look up into the sky only to be caught up in the splendor of an aerial battle taking place many miles above the planet's surface.

Halo 3 does a great job of offering a tailored experience as well. If you are a shooter noob who has never touched a controller, you can still beat the game on the "Easy" difficulty level. And if you are a well-worn veteran of countless fragfests you will still find a mighty challenge in the "Legendary" difficulty level.

My only complaints about Halo 3 are pretty nitpicky things. Some of the level design (I'm looking at you Cortana) is a little confusing and some of the faces of your human allies aren't exactly up to par with the rest of game's graphics. But really, other than that, there is not a whole lot to complain about with Halo 3.

Multiplayer is an absolute blast. 4 Player cooperative play through the campaign is fantastic fun. Matchmaking is everything gamers have come to expect from the Halo franchise...in other words, it is unparallelled. The new theater options allow for after-the-fact viewing of complete play sessions, repleat with options for fast forwarding, rewinding, viewing from any angle and editing and saving for later sharing with friends via Xbox Live. It truly is a feature that should find it's way to all online multiplayer games.

As a fan of the original Halo who was sorely disappointed with Halo 2, I can tell you that Halo 3 has been a thrilling ride and I am impressed with the job Bungie has done delivering an engrossing story, fabulous settings, excellent gameplay and options galore. If this truly is the end for Master Chief, I don't think he could have wished for a much better send off.

Halo 3 Beta opens May 16th

You've got your copy of Crackdown ready and you've been chomping at the bit for this news to arrive. Well, finish whatever you have to get done now and clear your calendar because the Halo 3 beta is coming, and it's coming on May 16th.

Bungie made the announcement today and Halo players around the world wept in gratitude.

The announcement squashed rumours that there would be two different beta start dates for those who had got their beta keys either through the Rule of Three promotion or through purchasing a specially marked copy of Crackdown. Access to the beta will be rolled out simultaneously worldwide at 1 p.m. GMT (5 a.m. PDT) on May 16, and will end on June 7 at 7:59 a.m. GMT (June 6 at 11:59 p.m. PDT). Those who have not yet obtained a Halo 3 beta key can still sign up by buying a copy of the Xbox 360 game Crackdown.

There will be three maps available to play--Snowbound, High Ground, and Valhalla--which will "represent a mixture of large- and medium-scale combat environments." New vehicles will include the nimble Mongoose all-terrain vehicle, and new weapons will be available, such as the "new and improved" Assault Rifle, the Brute Spiker, the Spartan Laser, and Spike Grenades.

For those who absolutely can't wait for May 16 to see the game in action, Bungie has released a "Vidoc" titled "Is Quisnam Protero Damno" that shows off the multilpayer portion of Halo 3 in action. The video is now available at Bungie.net and on Xbox Live Marketplace

The game will be releaseed in three different versions in November. The Legendary edition is going to be $129.99, the Standard will retail at $59.99; the Limited edition will be $69.99.

So, which version of the full game do you plan to buy in November? For $130 you get a plastic helmet! wOOt!

RedOctane denies Guitar Hero 2 X360 Controller Recall and addresses 'issues'

Reports of a Recall on Guitar Hero 2 Xbox 360 Controllers at Target stores were erroneous. Turns out it was just a big misunderstanding. However, that doesn't mean there aren't necessarily real issues with the controller.

Red Octane responded to reported issues with said guitar controller to Joystiq. Red Octane states, "In regards to the controller, we're currently in the process of having our internal QA and production teams look into this possible issue, and are working to quickly isolate this if there is one. In the meantime, we suggest our fans try to replug in their guitars without holding down any buttons or the whammy bar, and that may help immediately resolve the issue."

In regards to the Target "recall," Red Octane confirmed that there never was and still is no recall. The Target street date lock out caused the system to ring up as "Recall for Sale." As things stand currently, there is no recall and Red Octane is looking into the issue of possible faulty Xbox 360 guitar controllers.

We'll update you when RedOctane gets some answers.

Read the full story here.

5 "Solid" reasons why Metal Gear Solid 4 will come to Xbox 360

I recently posted a brief story about Ace Combat 6 no longer being a PS3 exclusive in which I flippently speculated that with all the PS3 "exclusives" that have been lost recently, how long will it be before MGS4 is announced for the XBox 360? I got flamed for my trouble, so I decided to do some more research and try to determine if there really is reason to believe MGS4 will come to the Xbox 360.

The more research I did, the clearer it became that Metal Gear Solid 4 might very well end up on the Xbox 360. Before you start flaming hear me out.

In response to my speculation, one of the aforementioned 'flamers' on Digg.com who goes by "patmos" said , "Hideo has already came out and officially stated that the MGS 4 will not be ported over. Its a fact. Its life."

Well, actually, that's not true, at least not that I could document and I did a lot of searching for such a statement. Hideo Kojima has only been quoted ONCE (that I could find) saying specifically that Metal Gear Solid 4 would not come to the Xbox 360, and that was in this article. That statement was made nearly a year ago. Since that time a lot of things have changed pretty dramatically and so, for several reasons, that statement has to be taken with a grain of salt.

#1) Lack of PS3 Demand - Konami's growing trepidation over the PS3's small installed user base has fueled the fire of MGS to 360 speculation since that quote from Kojima-San. At that time, noone knew that Sony was going to have such a hard time getting people to buy PS3's. It was widely assumed that the PS3 would sell out everywhere for quite some time after launch. Of course since that time we know the truth that Sony is having a very hard time moving PS3's world wide. Despite the fact that many outlets are reporting the PS3 as having the largest initial European launch ever, the fact is they still haven't managed to sell out their allottment of only 220,000 units in the region. That, even after making the European market wait an extra six months for their PS3s; a move that should have boosted demand, not lessened it.

#2) PS3 Production Problems - During an interview with EA's Larry Probst, Newsweek reported the PS3 is going to have production issues through 2008. Assuming demand for the PS3 does in fact pick up, will Sony even be able to take advantage of it in time? The father of the Playstation brand, Ken Kutaragi doesn't seem to think so. In a recent interview with MCV where he laughed off competition from Microsoft and Nintendo in one breathe, in the next he conceded that Sony is still struggling with the production of the PS3’s Blu-Ray drive saying, “Right now, it is an issue, because we can’t manufacture enough blue laser diodes for our PlayStation 3s." Blu-ray diode production problems pushed back the PS3's European launch to March 2007. And while it did launch on time in Japan and North America, its day-one inventory was drastically cut from 2 million units to just 100,000 units in Japan and 400,000 units in the US and Canada.

#3) Plausible Deniability - The fact is Konami has NEVER flat out said Metal Gear Solid 4 is not coming to the Xbox 360. When asked to clear up the speculation several months ago, they did anything but. They gave only an open-ended statement "Konami has no plans to bring Metal Gear Solid 4 to the Xbox 360 at this time." As long as the door is left cracked open like that, Konami can always announce a 360 port without losing face. If they knew for a fact that they were absolutely not releasing such a high-profile game on the 360, they would just end the speculation, but they have clearly chosen not to.

#4) Hideo Kojima doesn't write the checks - Make no mistake, Hideo Kojima does NOT have final say on whether or not MGS4 comes to the Xbox 360, that is completely up to Konami, and it will be a purely financial decision.

#5) Kojima-San is eyeing the 360 and PC - Kojima-San has repeatedly said that he is eager to develop on the Xbox 360 and PC.

From his last GamePro interview:

GamePro: "Is MGS4 still planned as an exclusive PS3 game? Do you have any interest in Xbox 360 development?"

Kojima: "Well, yes, I do have strong interest in creating something for the Xbox 360. In the US and Europe, it is selling, and I think it will sell a lot this year as well. I'm a fan of Gears of War as well, it's very interesting. Frankly speaking, I want to create something on the PC. It's a multi-platform [format]. I've been regularly studying work on the PC anyways, and I want to provide something as a world-wide platform because of the consequences with timing on the PlayStation platforms, MGS4 is actually for the PS3 only so far."

Unlike his statement from a year ago, he now leaves the door ajar for the possibility of MGS4 on the 360.

Conclusion - So, is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot coming to the Xbox 360? Obviously that can't be definitively answered at this time, but I am going to go out on a limb and predict that it will. There are just too many reasons to believe, and not enough reasons not to. It won't be two years after the PS3 release either, it will be no more than six months after the PS3 version.

Ok, now you can start flaming!

It should be noted that I personally own both a PS3 and an Xbox 360 and I think they both have their own strengths and weaknesses. I don't care which one sells more consoles as long as I get good games for both of them!

Ace Combat 6 coming to Xbox 360, Metal Gear 4 next?

Confirmed in the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu, Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation is making its way to the Xbox 360 as well as the Playstation 3. Yet another PS3 "exclusive" lost to the competition.

At this rate, it seems like it's only a matter of time before Metal Gear Solid 4 jumps ship. Hideo Kojima has already made numerous statements to the effect that he wants to make a game on the Xbox 360. At the very least Sony has got to be nervous about the possibility.

If it was announced that Metal Gear 4 was coming to Xbox 360, would it change your plans to buy a PS3?

Exigent - embracing and changing the future of gaming!

Outsourcing, it's a dirty word to many American's afraid they are losing their jobs to lesser-qualified workers overseas. Most of us as "techies" have had some kind of experience with outsourcing. Remember the last time you called the customer service department for any major computer hardware or software company? You probably dialed a toll free 800 number from Anywhere, USA and ended up discussing your problem with Farookh Singh in New Dehli, India. In theory, there is nothing wrong with this and many of the people you will deal with in such an instance are very competent and well-trained. However, whether or not you end up having a positive experience during your call is really irrelevant to the company that outsourced their CSR positions to India; their primary objective is to save money.

Which brings us around to gaming. With the costs of game development skyrocketing into the $20-$40 MIL range on some Next Gen titles, many game developers are outsourcing parts of their development process to offshore companies like Exigent in India to offset these costs. It is a rapidly growing segment of the development community and many of the games you will play in the future will be a product of this trend.

Ishaan from Flame War Advance recently sat down and spoke to several of the higher ups from Exigent and they shared a spirited discussion on several topics including:

- The relationship between video games and technology.

- Evolution of art design in games.

- The ugly truth behind screenshots.

- The decline of console gaming.

- Developing on the PS3 vs Xbox 360 vs Wii vs PC

-Microsoft's Game's for Windows (Vista) agenda

Ishaan's "interview" is posted in two parts. You can read part one here. It is a discussion with Exigent's Chief Creative Officer, Paul Steed, who’s an industry veteran and has worked at Origin Systems, EA, Id Software, Wild Tangent and Atari. Paul’s credits include some true gaming classics, including Quake and Wing Commander. He also developed Betty Bad and is not only a regular speaker at GDC, he’s also on the advisor board for the event.

Part two is is a conversation with Jesse Rapczak, the VP of Production at Exigent. Jesse was the co-founder of Artificial Studios, who developed the Reality Engine, which was licensed by Epic in 2005 (Reality Engine/Unreal Engine, get it?). With him, were Albert and Nisha (two of the lead artists on the team).

Both of these "interviews" were conducted in a very relaxed manner and as a result they are very revealing and honest conversations that I found fascinating. They are a tad lengthy but well worth the 15 minute investment of your time.

I hope you enjoy them.

Great work Ishaan!

Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer

Finally...we've been waiting and it's finally here!




Whether or not the final game will look like this, I don't know, but i am hopeful that Rockstar can meet their own expectations. Either way, you know it's going to sell a bazillion copies worldwide come October.

Spiderman 3 The Game - trailer

It's Spiderman, it's cool, it's webtacular, and it's coming May 4th. Check out the trailer below. This trailer is for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. The PS2, Xbox and Wii will get a slightly different game.



My Spidey sense is tingling with anticipation!

Nintendo Wii Hits the High Seas - on Cruise Ships

To the list of Nursing Homes, hospitals and bingo halls you can now add cruise ships to the places that the Nintendo Wii can be found entertaining the geriatric set.

Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) today announced it is the first cruise line to offer guests a chance to experience Nintendo's red-hot Wii on board its ships. Wii systems are currently on all NCL America ships and will be rolled out on the rest of the NCL fleet by next month. The systems are equipped with Wii Sports, Wii Play, WarioWare: Smooth Moves and Excite Truck.

"With its active, engaging and inviting game experiences appealing to every age from kids to parents to grandparents, the Wii from Nintendo is a natural fit for Freestyle Cruising," said Colin Veitch, NCL's president and CEO. "With the addition of Wii to our on-board activities, we can now offer bowling, boxing, golf, tennis and baseball across the entire fleet. Cheering, yelling and high-fives will be highly encouraged."

Whoohoo, take THAT Grandma...I own you!!

Max Payne Creator and his Dream Team coming to Next Gen

Samuli Syvähuoko, one of the co-founders of Remedy Entertainment, the company responsible for the hugely successful Max Payne franchise, has formed a new development studio called Recoil Games and begun development on a new Next Gen game.

Syvähuoko has assembled a virtual super group of game designers and artists to get Recoil off to a fast start. The company's founding team members each have an average of ten years of experience in the game industry and hail from a virtual who's who list of developers including Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Guerrilla Games (Sony), Remedy Entertainment, Treyarch (Activision) and Ubisoft both in Finland and internationally.

Recoil's hook is they plan to create games based around a disaster movie kind of theme to create games on an extra-large scale. Sounds risky, but interesting.

From the company's press release:

"Established in January and based in Helsinki, Finland, Recoil Games Ltd. focuses on the creation of action games with the scope, feel and ensemble cast of disaster movies. This is a large untapped area of the industry and Recoil plans to lead the way with its innovative Cinegames design techniques. These games will feature huge stories, and require a large ensemble cast-often working together-to solve the many varied challenges, including internal human conflict, another area most overlooked in today's action games. These games will be released for current and next-generation consoles and PC."

Recoil's first game will be an original IP (intellectual property) utilizing in-house technology as well as licensed third-party tools and is targeted at the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

It will be interesting to see if a team of such uber-talented people can all work together on a common goal without getting sidetracked by individual agendas. If the game ends up having half the attitude and fun of Max Payne, it'll be one worth watching.

Netflix delivering movies to your Xbox 360 Elite?

Yep, it could be happening. Netflix founder Reed Hastings has joined the Microsoft board of directors this week, indicating a cozy relationship between the two companies. While no actual business deals between the two have been announced, a partnership could benefit them both greatly in the current marketplace.

TiVo and Amazon have joined forces with their on-demand service and Netflix could use a little help getting into people's living rooms with a physical set-top box. And who knows more about getting into customers homes than Microsoft?

The Xbox 360 Elite is expected to arrive in late April. Will Netflix Live be far behind?

ORB to revolutionize media streaming for Next Gen consoles

If you own a Xbox 360 and a media center PC, you may have already tried streaming music and video from your PC to your TV. And when you get it working, it's really really cool! However, it's more likely you decided to skip it when you saw the complicated process involved in making it work. Sony fans are even worse off. Let's face it, while the PS3 has the horsepower to play media, it lacks the elegant software to make it a fun experience. The Wii is no better than the PS3 for media streaming currently. That's all about to change for the better.

Orb Networks announced that you and others in roughly 17 million households with gaming consoles worldwide can now enjoy and share all of the digital media on their home PCs directly on their living room TV screen, using the company’s free MyCasting software as the bridge. The announcement is great news for gamers because the Orb MyCasting software works with all three Next Gen consoles, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. Steve Jobs is rumored to be scowling as the announcement comes just when Apple is beginning shipping its Apple TV. His buddy, Bill Gates can't be too happy either as Windows users now have one more excuse to hold off on that terrifying Vista upgrade AND Orb has just inadvertently handed Nintendo and Sony a tool that essentially raises their consoles closer to on par with some of the 360's best features.


How Orb Works with your game console:

Download Orb at www.orb.com (Version v2.00.0856 or higher) onto your always-on Windows PC at home. It takes less than 3 minutes to do. For the Wii and PS3, turn on the TV that is connected to your game console and open your Web browser. Using your remote control or controller, log onto your Orb account through your game console at mycast.orb.com. For the XBox 360, go to the media tab and select the media type (video, photos, or music) you want to play on your TV. Click “computer” from the list of options, and you will see a list of the computers running Orb on your LAN. Select one and then pick from the available video, photos, or music. That’s it. Now enjoy, watch and listen to any digital content on your home PC - videos, music, Internet TV and radio or any other online content you programmed in your Orb MyCast application: they are now all airing on your TV screen.

That sounds flippin' sweet! I'm heading to download the software now and will report in later this week with an update.

Top Ten strangest controllers of all time!

Techblog has added another useless but entertaining Top Ten list to the pantheon of David Letterman copycats. The Top Ten strangest controllers of all time.

The list is strange indeed and includes the world's largest and smallest functioning NES controllers, a full-sized train driving dashboard controller for the very lonely and a bloody chainsaw controller (pictured) for hacking zombies in Resident Evil. Can I get one of those for Gears of War? That would be utterly bad-ass!

Check it out, it's a fun story.

Microsoft still in denial of Xbox 360 Elite

Joystiq has posted a story today about Microsoft's continuing silence in regards to the worst kept secret in gaming, the Xbox 360 Elite (formerly referred to as "Zephyr")along with some corroborating evidence of it's existance.

We broke the story of the "Zephyr" (the original 360 was dubbed "Xenon" during development) with photos a week ago and Joystiq posted a story "confirming" its existence about an hour later. I have posted the full GameJonez story below as it originally appeared.

Why is Microsoft bothering to deny its existence? What is the point? Surely there is no strategic importance, unless the ad predicting it's April release is wrong and they are planning some kind of simultaneous release along side a major game, like Forza 2 or Mass Effect, or even Bioshock. Halo 3 would make the most sense financially, but I don't see them sitting on this for another 6 months.

120GB Xbox 360 "Zephyr" - It's Black! We have the Pictures
Posted Mar 20, 2007 12:00pm by Todd Melanson

In an apparent slip-up by the Halo Wars development team, it appears pictures of the long-rumored 120GB Black Xbox 360, dubbed Zephyr, have made it to the Net, largely unnoticed.

The first picture below appears on the Halo Wars community forums. The Devs had a recent get together with some Microsoft big wigs including Shane Kim to show off their progress with Halo Wars. Well, someone snapped some pics of the group playing the game and sure enough, right there under the flat panel TV sits a black Xbox 360 with a very different looking Hardrive than what comes with the current Premium 360.


click to enlarge

The second picture is zoomed in on the area of the 360 itself, and while it's a bit blurry, you can definitely recognize it as a 360, and it is black and the hardrive (white edge) is distinctly larger than the current 20GB version. Where the current 20GB version HDD is only raised in the rear two-thirds of the box and flush with the edge in the front, this hardrive is raised all the way across the end, essentially completing the 360 as a rectangular box.


click to enlarge

Clearly if Microsoft is serious about making downloadable HD movies a reality(and they are), a larger HDD is going to be crucial. While it is impossible from these pics to tell if this Zephyr 360 has an HDMI port in the rear, I would bet the farm that it does.

So, the next question is, how much and when?

UPDATE: Joystiq has posted a story revealing the new Xbox 360 in all it's glory. It will show up on store shelves in late April and retail for $479 (ouch babe!). It will include HDMI output and HDMI cables, 120GB HDD and of course, it's black!

So, how pissed off are the early adopters going to be (pretty pissed we think) and will this signal the absolute end of Sony's decade long run of dominance? 2007 sure is shaping up as an interesting gaming year so far!