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| Megacorps are bad for gaming; Sony, EA, Activision, MS, and their ilk | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 24 2006, 09:29 AM (6,746 Views) | |
| sheath | Nov 6 2009, 02:47 PM Post #241 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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After being caught with blood all over their hands and mouth Sony said: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-industry-needs-new-ip-to-survive Sony's senior vice president of Worldwide Studios Europe, Michael Denny, has said that new intellectual property is essential for the games industry to grow and survive. Speaking at Develop Liverpool today, the exec responsible for overseeing projects such as EyePet and Heavy Rain said that new consumers need new experiences, and without fresh product the games business would stagnate. "There's been a lot of debate in the trade press about whether we as an industry can afford or should afford the considerable investments necessary to produce, market and support new IP," he told the audience. "For me the answer is clear, simply, we must support new IP creation to survive as an industry. Consumers crave new things. If we want to stay relevant in an increasingly competitive marketplace, we have to continue to produce new experiences." One of Sony's most exciting projects is Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain, said Denny, a title that pushes new boundaries in emotion and storytelling in videogames. "New IP is truly the lifeblood of the industry and Sony's commitment to producing new IP will continue. "We believe we have a promising line up of exclusive new IPs for the year ahead and one that is particularly special to me and reflects a growth of emotional connection and story-telling, is Heavy Rain." Denny's comments echo those of Square Enix's Yoichi Wada, who told GamesIndustry.biz last week that without new IP the business would not be viable as an entertainment medium. Rod Cousens, CEO of Codemasters, also said last week that if the games business does not remain committed to new properties and experiences, it risks driving away consumers to other forms of entertainment. |
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www.gamepilgrimage.com Buy the games of yore before they are no more
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| Belpowerslave | Nov 8 2009, 01:28 PM Post #242 |
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Administrator
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http://www.examiner.com/x-16887-Las-Cruces-Xbox-Live-Examiner Dude, read the comments on some of his more inflammatory articles...it's hilarious how angry the Sony fans get. To be fair though, he's not exactly playing fair...but it is funny to watch. ;) Bel |
| Whip Ass Gaming | |
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| sheath | Nov 8 2009, 03:39 PM Post #243 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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Whew, I'm glad you posted that. I seriously almost enabled comments on my new pages just to see if it drew traffic. Traffic indeed. |
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www.gamepilgrimage.com Buy the games of yore before they are no more
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| Belpowerslave | Nov 9 2009, 02:10 AM Post #244 |
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What's so funny is that this guy is basically doing what most of the media was back in the PSX/PS2 days...but A) there just weren't enough Xbox and GC owners who cared enough to fire back and B) the GC owners were usually too young to read and the Xbox owners were busy playing games instead of shilling for their console. Now that the tables have turned, the Sony fans are getting a taste of something that they've never encountered before...and you can see just how well they're handling it. Cracks me up that this guy is pulling this, and that there are actually Sony fanboys bored enough to attack someone on something as inane as an Examiner article. ;) Bel |
| Whip Ass Gaming | |
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| sheath | Nov 10 2009, 07:14 AM Post #245 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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For very backhandedly helping the early demise of the Dreamcast. For paying off the NFL so you won't have to compete with a superior product, and for so many other reasons, I hope this isn't the last downsizing EA experiences. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/ea-details-job-losses-and-cancelled-projects EA details job losses and cancelled projects Electronic Arts has detailed the radical business changes – first announced last night – which will see it lay off 1500 staff by the end of March 2010 and reduce the number of blockbuster titles it releases each year. Speaking during a conference call to investors, chief financial officer John Brown clarified that 900 positions in game development will go, 500 jobs in publishing and 100 at corporate level, in a bid to to save USD 100 million annually. "Laying off employees and closing facilities is never pleasant," offered John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts. "We have a lot of compassion for those impacted but these cuts are essential for transforming our company. Our operating expenses will be reduced by at least USD 100 million compared to our current run rate." Although solid details on teams affected have not yet been addressed, it's believed Black Box, Redwood Shores, Tiburon and Mythic have all been hit, and the publisher has said it will close "several" facilities down entirely. "We think the cuts we have made are very, very aggressive. We've cut teams, we've cut corporate, we've cut overhead, we've cut publishing but not to the point of hampering ourselves," added Riccitiello. As well as letting staff go, EA plans to reduce its portfolio of titles, with Riccitiello suggesting that around 12 unannounced projects in various stages of development have been cancelled. "Electronic Arts has a core slate of games label and sports franchises that we will iterate on a either annual or bi-annual basis. And I think you know what those major titles are - all of them are selling or have sold in their most recent edition 2 million units or more," he detailed. "After that, we've got The Sims and Hasbro, and frankly anything that doesn't measure up to looking like it can pencil out to be in very high profit contributor and high unit seller got cut from our title slate from this point going forward. "So it is really, in a way, if you could array our title slate up knowing what we did about what we would have otherwise brought to market, we cut the bottom third of it." |
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www.gamepilgrimage.com Buy the games of yore before they are no more
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| sheath | Nov 13 2009, 01:43 PM Post #246 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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Oh lessee, how did the PSthree do this last month and last week. Last week the PS3's worldwide margin over 360 was only 30k units. My previous prediction of PS3 overtaking 360 in six years is looking pretty aggressive right about now. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/npd-wii-regains-hardware-top-spot-following-us-price-cut NPD: Wii regains hardware top spot following US price cut The Wii has recalimed its spot at the top of the US game hardware sales charts in what was overall a 19 per cent industry revenue decline from the same period last year, according to results released today by the NPD Group, Nintendo's home console sold a total of 506,900 units in the NPD's four week October tracking period following a late September price cut, up from 462,800 sold in September's five week chart. Sony's PlayStation 3, which sold the most of all home consoles in September at 491,800, dropped to 320,600 in October. Despite the sharp decline in monthly sales, the PS3 still managed to outsell its main competitor, Microsoft's Xbox 360, which sold 249,700 units. "Compared to last month, which was a five-week month as compared to four weeks this month, Wii, PSP and NDS sales increased on an average sales per week basis, while the PS3 and Xbox 360 declined," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. According to NPD analysis, year-to-date unit sales for January through October are down ten per cent over the same period in 2008, with only the Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS seeing an increase. "Recent price cuts helped spur a one to two-month increase in unit sales, and this month's Wii sales reflect that boost, but the other platforms have not sustained the sales momentum post price reduction," said Frazier. "It will be difficult to discern the impact of the price cut into November and December just because those are always the two best months for the industry anyway, and we'd expect to see a sizeable lift in hardware unit sales as a result of seasonality." Slumping hardware sales had the biggest impact on the game industry's overall 19 per cent revenue decline from October 2008. Revenue generated specifically from hardware sales was reported at USD 380.74 million, down 23 per cent from USD 496.96 million the previous year. The full hardware sales chart follows. * Nintendo Wii - 506,900 * Nintendo DS - 457,600 * PlayStation 3 - 320,600 * Xbox 360 - 249,700 * PlayStation Portable - 174,600 * PlayStation 2 - 117,800 As much as I despise VGChartz (ZOMG!) I have to use them in this instance for a broad perspective. http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=5859 ![]() As expected last week the sales of all three home consoles increased this week. The Wii is up 20%, the PS3 up 10% and the 360 up 58% The impressive increase in 360 sales is down to a large boost in the US which follows a number of retail promotions, it will be interesting to see how the 360 sales figures hold up in the US once those promotions finish. The PS3 continues to push on and again this week is up considerably on the disappointing 2008 figure by an impressive 41%. The year on year - year to date increase is now nearing 8% and the PS3 should enjoy its best holiday sales by some distance this year. The Wii continues its 2009 trend of being down on the 2008 figure, this week it is down around 15% based on the corresponding week last year and over 20% in the year on year - year to date totals. The 360 undersells the corresponding 2008 week sales by around 8% but still it manages to show an improvement in 2009 over 2008 totals for the year to date. Next week will be very interesting as in 2008 we saw the Wii really start to take off with 647k sales, the 360 managed 307k and the PS3 posted 215k. Will the Wii get anywhere near that next week? How close can the 360 get and by how much will the PS3 beat the 2008 number? We shall see. |
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www.gamepilgrimage.com Buy the games of yore before they are no more
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| sheath | Nov 17 2009, 01:55 PM Post #247 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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Megacorps are good for the game business, no really! http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/report-ea-will-close-pandemic-studios-today Report: EA will close Pandemic Studios today Pandemic Studios is to be closed by EA today, according to reports. Sources close to the studio have told Kotaku that almost all of Pandemic's 200 staff are to be laid off today and the studio closed. Some staff will apparently be incorporated into other EA development teams and Pandemic IPs, included The Saboteur, will be passed onto EA's Montreal studio. It was rumoured last week that Pandemic would be one of the studios affected by EA's cost cutting plan - a part of which is to reduce the company's headcount by 1500. It wasn't known if the studio would see lay offs, or if it would be closed entirely. Pandemic was formed in 1998 and, following the releases of Full Spectrum Warrior and Star Wars: Battlefront, purchased by EA in 2007. EA has yet to confirm the studio's closure. GamesIndustry.biz has asked for comment on the reports. |
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www.gamepilgrimage.com Buy the games of yore before they are no more
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| sheath | Nov 19 2009, 07:07 AM Post #248 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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And yet Sony is still bullish with their predictions: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-targets-profitability-by-fiscal-2013 Sony targets profitability by fiscal 2013 Sony Corporation has targeted the end of March, 2013, for a return to profitability, according to a statement with a 10 per cent return on equity expected by that date. The company has already achieved 80 per cent of its planned cost savings this year, which when complete will total JPY 330 billion (USD 3.7 billion), and will focus its efforts on it three core business segments of TV, game and digital imaging. In the PlayStation space the corporation wants a return to profitability for the fiscal year ending March 2011, while it plans to generate higher revenues by further cost reductions, greater hardware and software sales and the development of PlayStation Network services. Meanwhile the LCD business is expected to be profitable in the same time frame, targeting a 20 per cent market share, while the company is looking to maintain its market-leading position in the digital imaging space. Among its plans for new business growth is the 3DTV space, with plans to launch "3D-related products for the home, including TV, Blu-ray Disc players/recorders and 3D gaming on PlayStation 3 in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011." The corporation's share price was down 2.2 per cent to JPY 2470 (USD 27.73) at the close of the Tokyo Stock Exchange today. |
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www.gamepilgrimage.com Buy the games of yore before they are no more
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| DarcSeven | Nov 25 2009, 08:56 AM Post #249 |
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I'm gonna sing the DOOM Song.
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Pandemic Says Fuc... Goodbye to EA An Office Space parody has never been more appropriate. |
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Just call me Steve. ;) Twitter Page http://ds7gamestalk.blogspot.com/ | |
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| sheath | Nov 29 2009, 02:30 PM Post #250 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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I finally got it to load, that is pretty nice regardless of whether or not those are guys from Pandemic. The only thing I'd like to see more is an EA symbol placed on the copier/fax to represent what should really die. |
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www.gamepilgrimage.com Buy the games of yore before they are no more
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| sheath | Dec 2 2009, 03:29 PM Post #251 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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*Rumour* Rumour Given popular history's proficiency for calling Sega "stupid" for releasing the SegaCD and/or 32X, because it introduced a new medium to existing hardware, where in history does the idea of removing a medium from existing hardware fall? http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=228684 Third party peripheral company Logitech is working on a UMD drive add-on for the PSPgo, a source has told CVG. Neither a price or release date was given, but we were told that the device will plug into the PSPgo, allowing users to play their UMD games on the portable. "The only problem is that it'll make the PSP a little bulky", said our source. Logitech's UK office told CVG: "We're not aware of it, so it may be something the US office is working on." We're awaiting a response from it and Sony. PSPgo is able to store and play games from either its internal memory or a memory stick. The news remains rumour for now, but if true, we imagine a UMD reader would insert into the PSPgo's memory stick port on the left side of the console, as did some hard disk add-ons that were released for the older PSP models. Developer talk at the Tokyo Game Show in September hinted of a plan by Sony to release another iteration of the handheld, a PSP-4000 that would support Sony's UMD format, for release in 2010. The lack of a UMD drive is, among other things, a widely criticised aspect of the new PSPgo, rendering built up collections of UMD games useless for its owners, who'll have paid a whooping £225 for the pleasure. We'll keep you informed on this. |
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www.gamepilgrimage.com Buy the games of yore before they are no more
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| Belpowerslave | Dec 2 2009, 04:11 PM Post #252 |
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Administrator
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I guess this wouldn't be too bad as you could just keep it at home and then dump the games you've bought to the system...you wouldn't have to lug it around, would you? Does Sony allow you to dump games you've bought to the PSP Go? Bel |
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| sheath | Dec 2 2009, 05:33 PM Post #253 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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The PSP Go does not allow UMD games to be dumped, downloaded, or otherwise translated to the system. |
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www.gamepilgrimage.com Buy the games of yore before they are no more
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| Belpowerslave | Dec 2 2009, 06:26 PM Post #254 |
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Holy shit. Man, what was Sony thinking? It's more expensive than the regular PSP, too, right? Who in their right mind would pay for that thing!? Does it, at least, have more features...better battery life, bigger screen, etc!? Bel |
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| sheath | Dec 2 2009, 06:42 PM Post #255 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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Heck if I know, as far as I can tell it has a neato compactible controller section like some cell phones hide their keyboards. Drkstlkr commented on this in another thread somewhere recently. The facts are that the PSP Go is digital only, and Sony decided not to start porting UMD released games or allowing digital conversions. |
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www.gamepilgrimage.com Buy the games of yore before they are no more
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| sheath | Dec 3 2009, 11:36 AM Post #256 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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How do you know when your hardware is too complex for developers? Why when a third party hires the manufacturer's engineers to fix their game of course! http://www.destructoid.com/bayonetta-ps3-getting-fixed-by-sony-before-us-release--156600.phtml It's no secret by now that Bayonetta on the PS3 is little more than a less-than-stellar port of the leading Xbox 360 version. Long loading times, poor framerate and altogether murkier graphics stand out to make Bayonetta inferior on the PS3, but it's now being reported that Western PS3 fans might not suffer as much as Japanese ones. According to Gamekyo (translated by Wearetheinternetz), Sega and Platinum Games have "taken responsibility" for the slapdash port and have charged an engineering team from Sony itself with the task of bringing it up to par before the North American release. The team hopes to "guarantee" a version of Bayonetta that is equal to the PS3's considerable power. Here's hoping they resolve the issue. Bayonetta is looking like it'll be one of 2010's standout action games and it would suck if one version was crappier than the other. |
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www.gamepilgrimage.com Buy the games of yore before they are no more
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| DarcSeven | Dec 22 2009, 10:20 AM Post #257 |
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I'm gonna sing the DOOM Song.
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From IGN. Bayonetta (X360): 9.5 Bayonetta (PS3): 8.2 Geez. Thank god I own both consoles. 0.0 Not sure why I added to this thread, but this is just too sloppy even for me. |
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Just call me Steve. ;) Twitter Page http://ds7gamestalk.blogspot.com/ | |
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| sheath | Dec 22 2009, 10:28 PM Post #258 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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Hmm, excessive load times. With the only difference between the 360 and PS3 being the 8x faster DVD drive in the 360 and the large mandatory HDD cache installs per game on the PS3, I'm a little bit confused. It is too bad that this is the first time we've seen a dramatically inferior presentation of either version of a multiplatform 360/PS3 game. Unless somebody reveals more about the problem, that not even Sony could fix, we will probably never know. |
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| Belpowerslave | Dec 23 2009, 03:43 AM Post #259 |
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Administrator
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You gotta wonder if, when this happened, Sega just sort of took a step back and went "Hmmmm, maybe this is what they were talking about?". After all, the Saturn was said to be very difficult to program for and they were constantly fighting off horrible ports due to it...now they kind of see what it's all about. Still, how in the fuck this game loads so much, and for so much longer, on the PS3 with its mandatory HDD is a testament to just how hard Sega fucked this up on Sony's machine. With the HDD there's no reason it shouldn't have been whipping the fuck out the 360 version in terms of load time. As for it running faster and with less slowdown than the 360 version, I still think this is Sega's fault but it just goes to show you that when your system is easier to program for, you almost always get better results. MS was intelligent to go with a Windows-based programming platform for the 360: Not only is it easy to program for, but devs. can easily port that code over and improve it for the PC version...thus allowing for two possible revenue streams from one development cycle. Bel |
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| sheath | Dec 30 2009, 08:11 AM Post #260 |
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
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If Bayonetta has any sort of streaming data load from the disc it would have to be totally rewritten to compensate for the ultra slow Bluray disc access speed. Either that or the Bluray version would have to be entirely installed on the HDD. What is the biggest HDD install on PS3 so far, 4GB? From what I can see in the demo the game has an irregular load screen when you first start a level and then everything changes dynamically from then on. |
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6:26 PM Jul 10