i doubt its gonna happen. M$ is gonna make damn well sure it doesnt go multi plat

Or Smile and pull out that contract with Bioware they had signed...depending on the amount of money they get out of it maybe they would like an infringement but I doubt EA would like to pay it/deal with court against MS. MS has not only financial power but quite a bit of legal power in their team as well.

Lolwut? That's not even accurate from a Metacritic standard. Mass Effect is good, but highly overrated (like most RPGs this gen).

A) Why does he have to have Metacritic agree with his opinion?

B) You're countering his opinion with your own opinion, which doesn't make it any more true.

The opinion of most people would definitely disagree with that. Ask owners of any console, the majority would agree that Mass Effect is far from the greatest new IP this generation. So if you wanted to resort to Metacritic ratings and reviews, it still wouldn't be true.

And I'm allowed to give my opinion as well.

Really? The fact is there is hardly anyone qualified to make such a statement, considering that they would have to own all three consoles and have to have played all major new IPs. Obviously, if you only own a Wii or a PS3, you would disagree. The game has a 91 rating on Metacritic for "universal acclaim" so stop acting like it's so farfetched for him to make that statement. Just because you don't think it's the best, doesn't mean everyone else shares your opinion. I'm sure many people would argue that Mass Effect is the greatest game this generation, nevermind IP (heck, I think it's the best game on the 360, but that's just me). They're all great games, so I don't get why we're acting like Mass Effect isn't a true AAA title.

EDIT: IGN said it was the best game on the 360 last year as well

^ Who's acting like ME isn't AAA? You seem to be putting words into people's posts. AAA is something a game gets when review sites collectively give it 9/10 or greater, whether an individual likes a game or not is irrelevant to a game's status as AAA. So saying a game is highly overrated doesn't mean the person is denying its AAA rank. There's also world of difference between a game/franchise as being AAA and it being the best new IP of a gen. For my money Valkyria Chronicles is the best new IP this gen, closely followed by Uncharted. But notice I said "for my money".

The contentious claim above made the statement "best new IP this gen" without qualification, i.e. stated as if it was an objective fact. The closest you can get to being able to make an objective claim about the best new IP this gen is Metacritic (or other review consolidating sites). As flawed as they are as an objective measure, is there anything more suitable?

You might also look at sales, but on that count ME doesn't come close to being #1 new IP this gen. I don't think anyone is willing to agree that Wii Sports or Wii Fit is best new IP. We recognise the difference between quality and success when we take consumer popularity out of the equation, or at least reduce it's influence on the final outcome. Even if you take Wii out (which would make any claim a complete farce) ME isn't the best selling.

I don't know which new IP has the best Metacritic score, at 91 I'd imagine ME must be pretty well up there. Any other new IPs with better?

^^bioshock 94 at metrics....also LBP 95 at metrics.

Gears and LBP are better

Well, I won't claim to be terribly objective in stating that ME is the greatest IP of the generation - but stating my opinion as fact is just one of the things I do.

However, and granted the pool from which I've based this is relatively limited - but among the extended group of friends/gamers  I hang out with, as well as going through reviews, the main things that struck me about ME's popularity (above and beyond things like sales, and even metacritic score, which is pretty darn good) was the reverence that so many seemed to have for it. I've never been one to buy a game just because of reviews, or because a friend or two thought it was good. But everyone who had it thought it was amazing. People who I'd never seen recommend games out of the blue brought it up as a must-have. While many of the AAA reviews for games talk about how fun the game is, how great the graphics are, etc, their high praises always seemed to fall short compared to so many of the reviews for ME. The reviews said if you were a science fiction fan, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not playing. That it was an epic, groundbreaking labor of love that elevated it's craft to an artform.

I admit, there are a handful of games this generation that belong in the same league as far as the high praises they've gotten. (Though only a handful, and not usually the super-sellers) However my personal bias puts Mass Effect at the top of those.