Second Story Gamer

It’s not often you hear a company proudly say they will beat one of their competitors, but lose profusely to the other.  However, when your talking about the video game industry, a second place finish for Microsoft would definitely be a success, considering that the Wii is clearly an unstoppable juggernaut.  And, finally, it seems that Microsoft has come to those terms as well.

Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, Don Mattrick, said, “I’m not at a point where I can say we’re going to beat Nintendo.”  Of course this was an obvious statement, but it’s still nice to hear a high ranking official from a company being honest with us and saying that his company will not come out on top.  But before you Microsoft fanboys yell “Benadict Arnold”, know that he had some trash talk for Microsoft’s real competitor: Sony.

He said decisively, “We will sell more consoles this generation than Sony.”  Strong words.  We’ll just have to wait and see whether he’ll be eating them soon.  However, with the expected sales bump thanks to the recent price cut, I don’t expect these words to backfire for few years, at the earliest.

[via Edge]

Microsoft’s long rumored price cut for the Xbox 360 has finally been confirmed.  The Arcade SKU will be available for $199 starting September 5.  Of course this is a great move for Microsoft at the moment; Xbox 360 sales have been very stagnant the past few months.  However, many gamers have already called this a move of weakness that signifies the Xbox 360’s demise.  Here’s why they’re wrong:

History

First of all, historically, over 75% of console sales occur after the console is dropped to a price less than $200.  Microsoft even mentioned that in their statement announcing the price drop.  So if you take that percentage into account with the current 20 million Xbox 360’s sold, that’s a lifetime sales number of about 80 million consoles.  That’s a pretty damn good number especially considering the original Xbox’s recorded lifetime sales were about 24 million.  Actually, a lifetime sales figure of 80 million consoles would make the Xbox 360 the fifth best selling console of all time.  I’d say that’s a success for Microsoft.

Some people are saying that this drastic a price cut in less than three years of the Xbox 360 being available implies that Microsoft is giving up on the console.  Again, look at history, people!  The Playstation 2 was dropped to the price of $199 less than two years after the console was released and guess what: it became the freaking best selling console ever made.  Just because the Xbox 360 is available for a low price doesn’t mean that Microsoft will suddenly drop the console.  They are doing it to attract more consumers.  Which brings me to my next point…

The Economy and Wal-Mart Shoppers

Microsoft has been trying to attract casual gamers for years and this may be the perfect time to do it.  Right now, the economy is sliding downwards, which means sales at department stores like Wal-Mart are increasing as everyone is looking for a bargain.  So, for one second, imagine that your one of these people and your whining child is continually begging for a “video game player” this holiday season.  What do you do?  You drive your car to Wal-Mart and pick up the cheapest “Xboxstation” you can find and bring it home to your squealing kids.  Which system did you choose?  The Xbox 360.  Not only was it the cheapest, but that Wii thing that your kids were asking for was unavailable.  You then grin and go spend the $50 you saved on beer or something.

Ok, back to reality.  Do you see my point?  Wal-Mart shoppers are going to love this price and, believe it or not hardcore gamers, Microsoft has been attempting to attract this type of gamer for years.  And the current economy plus the price cut will help Microsoft finally get them.  Because even though these gamers won’t go out and buy a game every week, they are almost guaranteed to buy a Madden or Call of Duty every year.  And more importantly for Microsoft, they aren’t going to go online and complain about how they bought a console that has no hard drive on it.  In fact, they don’t know what the internet is.

Proven Fact

History + Wal-Mart Shoppers + a Bad Economy = Guaranteed Success

Given this information, there’s no way Microsoft can lose.

Everyone has had the Resident Evil experience: you start the game by hating the controls, but then realize that the control scheme is the way it is to keep the game suspenseful.  Well Capcom has just guaranteed you will not have that experience for Resident Evil 5, as they have announced they are creating a more Gears of War like control scheme for the shooter.

Resident Evil 4 had a control system where you could not move when you fired, which players think is much too outdated for todays’ games.  Expect the new system to have a lot more duck and cover and less stop and shoot. However, like I said, the stop and fire method built suspense beautifully.  Will Capcom be able to keep that level of immersion and make the game less annoying to play?  Resident Evil fans will find out when the game releases in March of 2009.

[via IGN]

Epic’s Gears of War 2 franchise senior producer Rod Fergusson has been chatting with Gamasutra about the technical capabilities of the Xbox 360 and he revealed some interesting information about the console’s technological potential.  He thinks that Epic is “approaching the upper end” when it comes to the console’s graphical capabilities.  However he added that “there’s room to grow” for titles shipping in a couple years - that is, those starting to be developed now.  His full statement was:

I mean, I’m not the technical guy… all I know is that with the two to three more years of optimization that we’ve had, we’re much further along than I think, three years ago, we thought we were going to get.

So I think we’re certainly approaching the upper end of it, as far as what developers are able to do with it, but just looking at all the demos we saw today — ours and others — it’s clear that all the games just keep improving, and keep pushing that bar.

I think it’s just a matter of, you know, it’s a slow cycle; you only get a kick at it every couple years, and so it takes a while for people to see that progress.

There will be games in development that won’t ship until 2010, and I’m sure they’ll look killer, just because, again, they’ll have more time with it, and learn from mistakes and optimizations of others. So, I don’t know; I think we’re getting up there, but I still think there’s room to grow.

So Epic is reaching the roof of Xbox 360’s technical abilities, but does that necessarily mean other developers are as well?  Epic is one of the best developers of graphically intensive games (Gears of War) with their impressive Unreal Engine 3.  However, other developers who are less focused on graphics may not be close to the Xbox 360’s potential yet.

Another interesting point to make of this is that Epic points out 2010 specifically.  This gives more steam to the rumor that the next console cycle will be releasing in 2010 or 2011.

[via Interview with Gamasutra]

At the moment, all of the Xbox 360’s available in the country of Japan are, very unusually, sold out, thanks to Tales of Vesperia fevor.  But Microsoft has promised that shipments of Xbox 360’s will be returning to Japan in a few weeks time except these consoles will be different - they’ll be a helluva lot cheaper.

Microsoft has announced that they will be cutting the price of these Japanese Arcade model by 8000 yen ($75.50) to 19,800 yen ($182), effectively making it the cheapest console in Japan, including the Wii.  The Wii is sold for 25,000 yen and the PS3 is priced at 39,800 yen.

The Pro and Elite SKUs will be reduced by 5000 yen each to 29,800 yen ($274) and 39,800 yen ($367) respectively.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft takes this drastic of a price cut in North America too, because we all know a price drop is coming soon.

[via Reuters]

Heads up: more Halo franchise branching news coming at you.  This time, Microsoft has hired Corrinne Yu, Director of Technology over at Gearbox, to be the Principle Engine Architect for Microsoft’s Halo Franchise Team.  That’s right, Microsoft has created a separate team for the ever budding Halo franchise.  Microsoft said, “As the Halo franchise continues to flourish, Microsoft Game Studios is growing its internal team to develop future Halo projects.”

What’s the most significant news to come out of this.  Well first of all, this confirms that Microsoft will definitely spinning off the Halo series (don’t make it like this, please).  However, this news may destroy the rumor that Gearbox is developing Halo 4, because Microsoft wouldn’t take anyone away from a team developing that big of a game.

Also, this points to Microsoft using Unreal Engine 3 for future Halo games, as that is what Gearbox specializes in.

Rumor has it that Yu has been signed to the so-far untitled, Peter Jackson Halo game, which is still apparently in the planning stages.  Hopefully, this signifies that the project is underway and maybe we’ll see it soon.

[via Kotaku]

Rumor has it that the third version of the Nintendo DS will be hitting shelves early next year.  This new DS will have slightly larger screens, but the biggest new feature is that both of the screens will be touch screens, allowing for players to use their stylus to interact with both the top and bottom screens.

This rumor seems completely ridiculous, but it kind of make sense when you think about it.  This new DS would be compatible with all older DS software (just use the bottom touch screen).  However, it would open up a whole new bag for game design and I think Nintendo would save a big feature like this for the real successor to the DS.

Even if this is real, don’t expect to hear any news of this till next year.  Why would Nintendo want to hurt their holiday sales?

[via Kotaku]