The Gaming Lounge: Beyond - Part 5

[Havok83]

I almost forget sometimes that the PS3 was released a year after the 360. Okay, so it wasn't an exclusive per se. My main point is that Sony has done an excellent job creating new franchises and continuing to generate new first party franchises.

You know whats funny? 5-6 years ago the PS3 was criticized for having no games with MS having all the exclusives on the 360. That was a serious knock against Sony and its ironic how that opinion has changed at the end of this console generation. I always felt alot of those "early" exclusives the 360 had were merely bc the PS3 wasnt out. Games like Bioshock, Lost Planet, Dead Rising, among others. The sequels ended up on the PS3 when developers went to work on the next title and in some cases ended up porting enhanced versions of the original games over.

Its really nothing MS could have done bc the era of 3rd party exclusives is dying. Throwing money at a publisher for exclusivity seems more like a waste of money, especially since it seems to mainly end up being just timed anyway. Where they failed was not beefing up their own 1st party owned library, something Sony has been building up for years

 

[Fading]

^ Well said, Fading. You made me wonder how susceptible to a lawsuit this would be.

And with Microsoft, we were having this discussion in the next Xbox thread. Will Microsoft deliver more exclusive titles and franchises next gen, especially considering that during the latter parts of this gen they lost 2 key exclusive franchises (Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect).

It's a 2 way street for me. Xbox has lost it's biggest franchise I cared about in ME. Halo, and Gears just never interested me. Fable 1, and Alan Wake look good, but not enough to warrant a console purchase (to me). Everything else appears on both consoles. Meanwhile there are several Sony franchises I couldn't imagine giving up (assuming I still choose to play console games). So even if MS increases it's exclusives, and becomes a must buy, I'd still buy a PS4 for it's exclusives. Nintendo...I love me some Zelda, but that's it. All of their other franchises I'd purchase are represented on whatever their current handheld is. Past that, I can just wait to stumble across a Wii, or Wii-U for $20 down the road, and Ebay the Zelda games.

That's just me though. I'm sure some Xbox, and Wii owners feel the same about Playstation.

 

[Nathan]

I still only have my 360 for Halo and Mass Effect. Beyond that, none of the other first party titles interest me. The rest I play on PS3 and PC.

 

[Havok83]

Its too bad MS failed with their Games for Windows push. I remember it being big with Halo 2, Gears of War and Shadowrun being among the first Xbox (360) games which made it over to the platform followed by Fable and then it kinda fizzled, getting scarce support from MS. I was surprised Halo 3 nor any of the Gears sequels made it over. Was shocked when Fable 3 did. I bought the first 3 games bc they were on PC, but dropping them and making them 360 exclusive didnt encourage me to go out and buy a 360. I just stuck with my PS3 and whatever games other publishers put out on PC

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Yea im not sure this patent thing will ever go through. Sony is a sinking ship, they know that and they cant possibly believe this would help right that. Their games div is one of their only profitable divisions.

 

[Solidus]

Sony is not a "sinking ship" too many just throw that around. Are they what the use to be? Hell no. Are they struggling? Hell yes. But they are not done and out, if worse comes to worse they will just have to refocus on what they are best at. Where they really have been hit is in their TV/phone/music departments. Apple and Samsung have really taken over and Sony is struggling with that. But I have a feeling they will turn it around. Hell people said Apple was done, and they turned themselves around. Rare? Yes. Impossible, hell no. Companies can be in bankrupcy and still turn it around.

And funny enough one of their divisions that have been hurting for years has made a record ammount is Columbia. They have made over 4 billion this year and continue to do well, Skyfall was a big part of that. It will take a while, but Sony is not down and out. I remember so many "experts" around here were saying Columbia was going to be belly up by the end of this year, quite the opposite happened. That and as you said their gaming division is very profitable, and doing well. PS3 finally tied the 360 in September. So I don't think that will go anywhere anytime soon. If worse comes to worse, it is possible Sony may just fully focus on what is doing well for them, and that would be their gaming. And possibly the movie/music (not devices) industry.

To me the real worry is Gamestop. They thrive mainly on used games, and we have to face facts, after this generation, most likely physical copies of games will be no longer, it will all be cloud/digital distributions. Then there will be no such thing as used games anymore. It's just inevitable. But I don't see that going on till the early 2020's.

It is risky of Sony to do this, but there was rumor that MS had done the same thing for the Next Box. So I dunno. Maybe they are working together, because if both do it, devs will be very happy, and there just may be no choice in the matter.

 

[Jick]

I like having my collection of games in my shelf. I'll miss that if that come to happen.

 

[Solidus]

I'll miss it too. Very much.

But it really is just the way it's going to go.

Most my hardcore PC buddies, already accept it. Steam is only what they use now. Soon the consoles will follow suit. And Sony is putting lots of money (as well as MS) into cloud based services. Which very likely the 9th generation will be.

 

[Nathan]

It's inevitable. The time will come where everything is digital.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

You know whats funny? 5-6 years ago the PS3 was criticized for having no games with MS having all the exclusives on the 360. That was a serious knock against Sony and its ironic how that opinion has changed at the end of this console generation. I always felt alot of those "early" exclusives the 360 had were merely bc the PS3 wasnt out. Games like Bioshock, Lost Planet, Dead Rising, among others. The sequels ended up on the PS3 when developers went to work on the next title and in some cases ended up porting enhanced versions of the original games over.

Its really nothing MS could have done bc the era of 3rd party exclusives is dying. Throwing money at a publisher for exclusivity seems more like a waste of money, especially since it seems to mainly end up being just timed anyway. Where they failed was not beefing up their own 1st party owned library, something Sony has been building up for years

And essentially that's the problem.

Let me make a comparison to the movie industry in the 90s with Microsoft. In the 90s, the business strategy for Movie studios changed for a while. The major movie studios, instead of producing movies themselves, only distributed movies theatrically as a way of cutting costs for movies but seeing profit as they were backed by their deep libraries for home video sales. This worked for a while, but by the end of the 90s the studios realized that their libraries were thin.

It could be the same situation with Microsoft. They had paid for their exclusives, but now paying for exlusives is looking more and more useless in the long run.

It's a 2 way street for me. Xbox has lost it's biggest franchise I cared about in ME. Halo, and Gears just never interested me. Fable 1, and Alan Wake look good, but not enough to warrant a console purchase (to me). Everything else appears on both consoles. Meanwhile there are several Sony franchises I couldn't imagine giving up (assuming I still choose to play console games). So even if MS increases it's exclusives, and becomes a must buy, I'd still buy a PS4 for it's exclusives. Nintendo...I love me some Zelda, but that's it. All of their other franchises I'd purchase are represented on whatever their current handheld is. Past that, I can just wait to stumble across a Wii, or Wii-U for $20 down the road, and Ebay the Zelda games.

That's just me though. I'm sure some Xbox, and Wii owners feel the same about Playstation.

To be honest, I'm really intrigued by the Wii U's technology and I love Nintendo's games. If I have money, I may buy a Wii U when the new Super Smash brother's is released.

 

[Havok83]

I dont see it anytime soon especailly when alot of countries have bandwith caps and the games on future gens will presumably be even larger.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

^ Same here. There's too many issues revolving a digital only future. We may be a full generation or two away (in terms of people not games) from a digital only future.

 

[Solidus]

It's possible, they may do a combo of both, letting people chose for the 9th. Having the hardware version or just do the service. But by 2020 bandwidth will be much better. It will happen in some shape or form, but eventually that will be how its done.

 

[Soapy]

A town in Connecticut is going to collect and burn video games.

 

[zenith16]

An entire town??? wow. Well marking it down as a town never to head near by ever.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

A town in Connecticut is going to collect and burn video games.

The language of "Hey, I'm not saying that we're out to burn video games but its just a possible outcome" and "Hey I'm not saying video games caused the massacre but..." is UTTERLY disgusting.

 

[Nathan]

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Damn, iv got a few M rated games I won't play anymore, if I lived in that town id bring em to get burned and collect that 25 dollar giftcard.

 

[Iceman]

And the next time there's an arson attack I can use their own logic and pin the blame on them, depending on their facebook likes of course.

 

[Fading]

I don't see digital only by PS4, but maybe PS5. Next gen can continue the trend going on now of releasing physical, and digital copies side by side. They'll need to increase the harddrive size though.

Part of the problem is that the infastructure largely isn't there. A lot of areas don't even have broadband yet. Other's don't have internet, and a lot of ppl aren't tech saavy enough to know, care, or understand how the switch works. To switch over now would kill sales.

Personal feelings aside of losing my pretty physical copies . Right now, even with a fast connection, it took awhile to download Mass Effect. Even if the consumers connection is fast, Sony & Microsoft limit it. This gen we saw games filling out a BR. 1 or so MB a second is no gonna cut it when we start seeing 100+GB console games.

 

[zenith16]

I don't see digital only by PS4, but maybe PS5. Next gen can continue the trend going on now of releasing physical, and digital copies side by side. They'll need to increase the harddrive size though.

Part of the problem is that the infastructure largely isn't there. A lot of areas don't even have broadband yet. Other's don't have internet, and a lot of ppl aren't tech saavy enough to know, care, or understand how the switch works. To switch over now would kill sales.

Personal feelings aside of losing my pretty physical copies . Right now, even with a fast connection, it took awhile to download Mass Effect. Even if the consumers connection is fast, Sony & Microsoft limit it. This gen we saw games filling out a BR. 1 or so MB a minute is no gonna cut it when we start seeing 100+GB console games.

yeah it will be steady transition to it. and should not be rushed. so others can get used to it. other wise it will be like that time Sony was pushing for every one to buy a 3d tv. which a lot of us weren't digging and they had to drop cause of that. And mostly had some certain people miffed at them cause they bought into that.

 

[Solidus]

I don't see digital only by PS4, but maybe PS5. Next gen can continue the trend going on now of releasing physical, and digital copies side by side. They'll need to increase the harddrive size though.

Part of the problem is that the infastructure largely isn't there. A lot of areas don't even have broadband yet. Other's don't have internet, and a lot of ppl aren't tech saavy enough to know, care, or understand how the switch works. To switch over now would kill sales.

Personal feelings aside of losing my pretty physical copies . Right now, even with a fast connection, it took awhile to download Mass Effect. Even if the consumers connection is fast, Sony & Microsoft limit it. This gen we saw games filling out a BR. 1 or so MB a minute is no gonna cut it when we start seeing 100+GB console games.

I said in the 9th generation. The Wii U/PS4/X720 is the 8th generation no way will these consoles be like that.

 

[zenith16]

Fading is probably thinking that they will be test running some of that on the up coming next gen consoles and also cause of due system like onlive and steam have started they do trial runs on the current up coming ones to be better prepared for those you mention solidus. In other words refinement.

 

[Solidus]

Well Sony has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Gaikai which is their cloud based gaming service already. So for sure they will be testing it out, during this generation I'm sure. To allow for refinement and to make it work when the jump happens.

 

[zenith16]

yeah alot of them are looking into cloud service .. there only so much a hard drive will hold after all. and with the way they are designing them those box's can't become any bigger. they are headed in the opposite direction. A nd they can't pump out each generation faster then already have. when they just put out the most recent one that will just turn people off. there are already some of us that are hesitant about this one happening.