- Well it is an earthquake of a news story. The whole gaming interweb is on fire over this one and the Sony fanboys are going apoplectic. Yes Final Fantasy XIII is going on the Xbox 360Â and it looks amazing. Hardly surprising when you consider that Square Enix are in business to make money. But a major coup for Microsoft as they chip away at the Sony exclusives whilst building their own formidable catalogue of Xbox 360 only games. Expect Metal Gear Solid to go 360 soon. The balance of USPs moves inexorably further in Microsoft’s favour. The industry analysts must be having kittens.
- Music is coming to console gaming in force. We already have the successful Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. But soon we will have Microsoft Lips with motion sensitive microphone and iPod/Zune compatability. And from Nintendo, Wii Music looks like being the next Wii Fit, giving them a whole new demographic this coming Christmas.
- Online is replacing physical distribution at a dizzying pace. Far faster than any analyst predicted or the industry expected. Xbox live now has over 12 million new members with a new member joining every 5 seconds. And they have spent over a billion dollars on the site. But remember, this is still just the beginning.
- GTA is coming to the Nintendo DS and promises to very quickly become one of the most pirated games ever. The brand is big enough for T2 to make a profit from the game. But still far more people will be paying stolen copies than legitimately owned copies.
- Logistep catches peer to peer software thieves by pretending to be a peer. It then has all the IP addresses of users computers that automatically offered a game. Using whois they know how to prosecute. And this is what they are doing with many hundreds of prosecutions. Unfortunately Swiss law is lagging behind the technology which is causing a few problems. But these are bound to be solved and yet more game stealing criminals will feel the long arm of the law.
- Both Sony and Microsoft have made announcements to put far more films and TV content on their consoles as downloads as they both strive to become entertainment hubs. This leaves the Wii out in the cold with it’s lack of hard drive and HDTV. Nintendo will need to act soon if they do not want to be left behind.
- Jack Tretton of Sony says that the much delayed Home service will be worth the wait. The problem they have is that with each delay Microsoft Live stretches out a further lead. In content, in technology, in users and in income. Even after Home comes out Sony will be left with a mountain to climb.
- BT in Britain to invest £1.5 billion in high speed fibre optic broadband. About time too. The Koreans are years ahead of us. Copper cables coming into houses have finally reached their limit. We need to grasp the nettle worldwide and rewire with optical fibres. The interweb is the most important infrastructure of our time.
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Fast internet = more piracy. I’m surprised you’re not against the concept.
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Good luck to XBox owners if they receive Metal Gear Solid. As someone who’s played the series, I’m still confused regarding the storyline 😀
I suspect if this were to come to XBox, you would need large HD, or 12 disks to swap.
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Wii Music: the drums were more or less OK, but Miyamoto’s demostration was simply ridiculous. I don’t think is going to get close at all to Wii Fit unless they show something better.
Logistep: if the RIAA hasn’t been able to convict people in the US via their IPs, a tiny company isn’t going to do it in Sweden. Also, those P2P users should be condemned not for sharing but for sharing such a bad game.
And it’s not law that is lagging behind the technology. The distributors are the one lagging behind the people. The retail model is dead. The more they whine and don’t adapt, the more they implement draconian DRM schemes and sue their potencial customers instead of servicing them, the more they will suffer “piracy”. And the fact that you, Bruce, with your experience in the games industry, can’t see this, speaks volumes of why the situation is what it is.
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You say in one article that Nintendo risks being left behind yet in another you mention that Nintendo have access to a whole new demographic with WiiMusic.
Perhaps Nintendo don’t care about HDTV and downloadable films and the like? Why try to compete in a crowded market when they can simply gain access to “the 90%” of non-gamers?
Cheers.
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8 news stories 17.7b:
– FFXIII has gone from PS3 exclusive to crossplatform, so clearly every other PS3 exclusive will do the same. Nobody mention Bioshock.
-Microsoft and Nintendo are making music games. No mention of SingStar though, that’s sooo last year.
– Online is replacing physical distribution, obiously it’s down to Microsoft’s awesome Live service, nothing to do with games like Warhawk and GT5 Prologue, which are full disc releases also available to download online.
– Piracy is bad, shocker.
– It’s true, piracy is bad. Honest.
– Nintendo isn’t doing video downloads like Sony and Microsoft. Do they care? No.
– Sony say Home is going to be worth the wait. Clearly it’s going to make no difference, so why do they bother? Nobody’s interested in the revamped Store, the added in-game communication, or an online social and commercial space, all for free.
– The internet is getting faster, shocker.
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Bruce, I generally enjoy your posts. However, your curious need to take swipes at Sony is becoming a bit comical — it reminds me of the poor Black Knight in the Monty Python movie.
Goodness knows that there genuinely logical reasons why a person might like or dislike each of the console makers. But I’m afraid that when your criticisms are transparently and dramatically slanted, you slide into the fanboy realm. And while fanboy posts can be fun to read sometimes, they are seldom taken seriously by anyone other than other fanboys.
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Even during my short stay on this site, I have noticed this too Bruce. I can understand the Inquisitional stance you have towards software piracy, considering your involvement in the industry, but why this bias towards Sony? What have you got against them? Does it stem from the gold old days of working with Codemasters when Japanese software and hardware firms used to bully the rest of the industry pre-xbox? I wouldn’t blame you if you did, the one thing i love about the xbox’s is the stark abscence of manga looking game characters and their bizarre and often immature storylines that i have had spoon-fed to me since the mega-drive.
Come on Bruce, whats eating at ya’ when it comes to Sony?
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Bruce, have you seen the UK PC games mag (Total PC) that’s actually telling its readers to pirate games this month? It’s the most irresponsible thing I’ve ever read.