Seece said:
Reasonable said:
Seece said:
Reasonable said:
Makes sense. I get the feeling they'd have made this move earlier but were tied in with Sony owning the IP.
I hope the new IP is a good one and they get a warm welcome on 360 as I've always enjoyed their games myself.
Given the current wisdom seems to be develop for PS3 then move the code to 360 they should be well set up for success.
Interesting they have confirmed they will remain committed to PS3 exclusives, too. I guess that means at least Resistance 3 but if their multi-platform title sells well on 360 then surely they'd focus more on being fully multi-platform going forward.
No doubt this will get the expected responses from the overly biased few - from 360 fans gloating to PS3 fans moaning - but it makes sense to me.
One final point, with this plus the fallout from IW / Activision EA are suddenly getting some neat partners, no? And with Bungie going to Activision I'd say MS needs to consider either building up more 1st party or seriously commissioning some more exclusives as it feels like only Nintendo / Sony right now are well set up to deliver a steady stream of exclusives.
Note the last paragraph isn't a knock on MS, just an observation on how much the developer ecosphere has been changing recently.
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I hope you don't get knocked for this, Microsoft are seriously lacking right now. At one point this gen they will have to sort it out.
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me too! I mean it as a serious observation. The 360 has been a big success for MS in my view but looking at it impartially they need to be careful they don't loose too much steam around core titles going forward.
I'm sure they're building a lot of stuff for Natal, and it looks likely they can depend on Epic and Valve for some decent titles - but they can't count on them. Valve could decide to push their entire back catalogue on PS3 if they choose to, they own the IP after all, and Gears aside Epic could easily support PS3, too. They have Mass Effect, but anything else from Bioware will be multi via EA now. They have the studio looking after Halo but really I think they need more.
Nintendo and Sony are going to keep pumping out exclusives until the end of their consoles lives, and MS are looking a little lean on ability there, relying on deals with companies who could just as easily decide they want to go multi-platform and build their brand acorss more gamers.
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It wouldn't be a problem if the 3rd party games they bought/agreement actually stayed exclusive. That would make the library stong enough Bioshock, Splinter Cell (bound to happen), Valve, GTA DLC ect, but gamers KNOW they're going to go to the PS3, so think why bother.
So when next gen starts, and Microsoft buy a bunch of 3rd party exclusives, non "720" owners arnt going to be so quick to pick the console up, they'll just wait for them to enevitably go to the PS4.
I do honestly believe they're going to sort this out soon though, they must know it's an issue.
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Playing the 'what if...' game, if I was MS I'd:
1 - focus on Natal launch and making sure it is well supported with titles
2 - use Reach/Gears 3 to keep the hardcore happy into mid 2011
3 - back a few exclusives like Alan Wake
4 - use the back end of the generation to build up more 1st party capability to support the next Xbox
After this gen most third parties are probably going to assume a split market again, and accept supporting multiple consoles much earlier in the gen - and current trends clearly show that relying too much on third parties only seems to last so far into a consoles lifecycle if the competition keep up with you (which has been the case).
