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Gears of War 2 Won't be Announced at GDC
The original Gears of War stabilized an entire holiday season for Xbox 360. The system was still young and it needed a triple-A title that showed what it could do, both in terms of gameplay and visual fidelity. Gears of War was the answer. Now we're two years removed from the release that introduced us to Marcus Fenix and his band of destructive brothers. Typically with games of this magnitude a worthy sequel can be chugged out in two years time, meaning that we should see our next Gears of War make its way onto our 2008 holiday schedule.
However, unlike what most press sites will tell you, we're going to say that the game will not make its debut at this year's GDC. To say that it will is a natural assumption. It's a big show and people are expecting Microsoft to offer up some exciting game properties to satiate the insatiable appetites of their audience. Gears of War 2 fits in with those plans, but we're saying that we won't see the game for a few more months yet. Right or wrong? Only time will tell. Stay tuned...
Microsoft Won't Release a Blu-ray Player
Blu-ray emerged the clear leader in the HD format war after this year's Consumer Electronics Show when Warner announced that they were going Blu-ray exclusive. That leaves Xbox 360 owners, who only have the option to buy an HD-DVD add-on, wondering what to do. Microsoft has said they'll look into releasing a Blu-ray add-on if the consumer demand is high enough but we don't see that happening in 2008.
As it stands, the Xbox 360 has two HD solutions for movies; HD-DVD and Xbox Live Marketplace. Adding a third, especially before the HD-DVD format is totally done and the digital download service hasn't had a chance to truly flourish, is unnecessary this year. Cross your fingers if you want Blu-ray but don't hold your breath.
Microsoft will Continue to Try to Break into Family Gaming
If there's one piece of the Xbox 360 puzzle that has been missing since the system's inception it's the near total lack of a catalog of solid family games. Sure, there are two Viva Piñata games, but the first was too tough to break into for casual gamers and the second was just plain bad. Then there's Scene It? which is something that people have been able to buy for nearly a decade in stores, so there's no real novelty there. Sneakers was the flop to end all flops and Music Mixer, well we all remember how Music Mixer turned out.
We predict that Microsoft will still make valiant efforts with family-oriented games continuing to be announced through many of the large game shows, but they'll continue to struggle with consumers. Whether it's because of poor marketing (Scene It?) or the games themselves are poorly made (Sneakers), Microsoft will continue to fail when it comes to pleasing an entire family of players.
Not Every Big 2008 Title Releases in 2008
A lot of people like to point to the PS3's 2008 lineup as the head of the pack. Xbox 360 has its own set of heavyweights…except we're predicting that at least a handful of them don't make it out by the end of this year. Here's a short list of a few of the games that have the sort of ambition or history to make us second guess their release stability: Alan Wake, Fable 2, Resident Evil 5, Fallout 3, Last Remnant, APB, Huxley and Age of Conan.
We'll Stop Getting Three Red Lights E-Mails by December 2008
The Three Red Lights problem has been an epidemic that has infected Xbox 360s since the day the system was born more than two years ago. The feeling of plugging in your system, hooking up your audio/video cables and having the Three Red Lights appear when you press the power button is heart wrenching to be sure. Then there's the lengthy repair process that goes into getting a new console and even though Microsoft has uncharacteristically admitted their folly, it's still a serious hassle that we as consumers should not have to go through.
Every week the Xbox 360 team records our podcast in which we read off name after name of those who have lost their 360s to this infectious disease. Just recently, however, we've started to get requests from listeners asking us to change the name of our podcast, suggesting that it's too negative and paints an unfair picture of Microsoft's system. We always respond by saying, "The day we stop getting Three Red Light e-mails is the day we rename our podcast." Well, we're stepping out on a ledge to say that the Three Red Lights epidemic will have quelled by December 2008. By that time all Xbox 360s bought before a certain date will have fulfilled their destiny and kicked the bucket. Millions of gamers will have gone through the pain of repairing their system. It will be a great day indeed.
