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Activision CEO wants Xbox 360 & PS3 at $199
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick believes the PS3 and Xbox 360 must be priced at $199 within the next two years in order to obtain mass appeal. Speaking with Reuters, he believes the Wii has set a standard of expectation and that consumers notice price over tech specs. He goes on to say that "all will need to be at that $199 price point" in the next two years and that the Wii will likely drop to $129 within a "few years."As the top third-party publisher, Activision depends on console manufacturers selling their product at whatever the cost. The more consoles sold, the more money they stand to make from software sales. The $199 price point does sound consumer friendly and we know the Wii could do it tomorrow (coincidentally, it's the cost of two Gamecubes taped together), the Xbox 360 might get there sooner than later... but the PS3? That's a stretch. [Via GameDaily]
Codemasters' goal: a new MMO every year
Codemasters is the UK-based company that runs The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online in the European market and produces many single player games including Clive Barker's Jericho, Operation Flashpoint, and Overlord. Codemasters' Ron Cousens said in a recent interview that the company wants to "position itself to do maybe one MMO launch per year."When discussing that and other gaming-related bits, Cousens also suggested that the MMO genre will grow stronger on consoles.Given the success of The Lord of the Rings Online in Europe (it's #2 behind World of Warcraft), Codemasters is one of the big kahunas for online gaming in the region. Still, one MMO launch per year is extraordinarily ambitious. And with regards to consoles, we think Cousens hit the nail on the head. Age of Conan and The Agency are hitting the XBox 360 and the PlayStation 3, respectively, and despite vague denials from bigwigs, the evidence says Blizzard has its eye on consoles as well.
Disney's Mike Goslin stresses importance of low system requirements
Disney Online's Mike Goslin (of Toontown Online and Pirates of the Caribbean Online fame) said in an interview with Worlds in Motion that it's important for MMO projects to "support as low a minimum spec PC as possible." PC gaming is often criticized for being too expensive. You can buy an XBox 360 for $350 or a PlayStation 3 for $400, but a desktop PC equipped with the hardware necessary to smoothly run the very latest games usually costs $1,000 or more. That's a barrier to entry for many would-be PC gamers. Supporting low-end hardware isn't just important for children's and family games. A while back SOE CEO John Smedley told WarCry that "the biggest thing that hurts [Vanguard] is the high system specs." If the MMO genre is carrying PC gaming on its back, shouldn't MMO developers do everything they can to make their games accessible to a large audience?
WoW is the "train driving PC gaming," says John Carmack
Game maker John Carmack, famous for developing landmark PC titles Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake, sat down for a chat with Gamasutra earlier this week to discuss the state of the greater PC game industry. Normally, the shooter visionary wouldn't have much to say that would be of interest to those of us with massively multiplayer games on our minds, but in a discussion about what sets the PC platform apart from consoles, Carmack specifically cited MMOs as one of the few remaining genres that continue to bring in new players to the table, referring to them as the "train driving PC gaming."While we agree with Carmack's assessment of the PC landscape today, we can't help but wonder how much longer the PC is going to be the exclusive domain of the MMO. With rumors of the next Blizzard MMO transitioning to consoles, NCsoft's plans to develop a new property for the PS3, and Nintendo getting into the MMO game, it looks like consoles are poised to play catch-up. The full interview will run on Friday, so we'll have to see if Carmack addresses this challenge later this week.
Phantasy Star Universe expands
Phantasy Star Universe's first expansion pack, Ambition of the Illuminus, launched in the North American market today. The update adds more single and multi-player missions and storylines, new character customization options, a new single-player game mode, some social environments, and retro environments originally from PSU's predecessor, Phantasy Star Online.Sega's PSU, like Square Enix's Final Fantasy XI, is one of the few highly successful console-centric MMOs to date. It has a complete single-player campaign and a persistent online world which can be explored by groups of up to six players.If you're playing PSU on the XBox 360, you can download the expansion pack for 1,600 points. If you're a PC or PS2 player, you'll have to buy the retail game disc. Japanese players have had access to the expansion since September, and Europe will have to wait until January to get its hands on it.
Blizzard's next-gen MMO(s) might appear on consoles
Blizzard has said time and again that World of Warcraft will probably not be released on consoles. But as we learned this year, World of Warcraft is not the only MMO on Blizzard's plate. They've been occasionally tossing up job adverts for people with various skills to work on "Next-Gen MMO" stuff. The folks at Blizzard have never fully embraced consoles and successful console MMOs are rare, so even though we knew Blizzard had some kind of console title in the works, there was no evidence that the next-gen MMO project(s) would be for anything other than the PC (and maybe Mac).Well, the latest of the MMO job adverts (this time for a physics programmer) requires would-be applicants to have "programming experience on both console and PC titles." This leads us to believe that Blizzard is either making an MMO that will be released for both the PC and one or more consoles, or that it's producing multiple MMO titles with the same physics engine and that the PC and consoles will get different games ... or both.Either way, it's a tantalizing hint at what's to come.
The Digital Continuum: Don't Fear The Re: Console
Massively Multiplayer Online Games have always been the slaves to their PC masters, rarely able to exist on anything other than the PC platform. That isn't to say there haven't been partial attempts in the past such as Final Fantasy XI, but since launch that game has been developed for three different platforms including the PC. Developers still have yet to create a console MMOG that becomes as financially successful as some of the more popular PC titles. In all reality, it still remains easier to make and maintain MMOGs for PCs. The reason MMOG developers find creating and sustaining their games on the PC easier is the very problem with a console exclusive. When creating any Massively Multiplayer Online Game for the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3 that problem happens to be that as advanced as those consoles are they do not offer the flexibility of a PC. A large part of Blizzard's longterm success with World of Warcraft comes from the depth of the community tools and game customization. It's the wonderful ability to alter your user interface and the incredibly addicting habit of alt-tabbing back and forth from game window, forum posts or online game guides. I'm personally unable count the number of times I've been playing City of Heroes windowed while listening to various albums, simultaneously browsing news, guild forum posts or maybe just checking my email. You may be able to get a browser onto your PS3 and you might manage custom music on both the 360/PS3 but in the end would it be as easy as a keystroke to flip back and forth between both of those functions?
LotRO reps talk demographics, casual play, console plans
Yesterday Gamasutra published a five page interview about The Lord of the Rings Online with Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel and Adam Mersky.According to the interview, one third of LotRO players are over 35 because the license drew people new to MMOs -- people who came for "The Lord of the Rings first, the MMO second." Fans of LotRO often claim the game's community is more mature than that of competing games. "Sometimes game communities can be rough, just because of the nature of the competitiveness and the nature of the age range of people playing, and this is a pretty mature, fun place to be a part of," said Steefel.Steefel and Mersky also talked about the challenges of dealing with gold farmers, what the real definition of "casual games" might be, the pluses and minuses of adapting a famous work of literature, the competition, and Turbine's option to produce massively multiplayer games for consoles. As is the case with most Gamasutra interviews, the discussion is an excellent read if you want an inside look.
Anatomy of a Fanboy: "We have seen the enemy, and he is us."
David Keating has decided that it is high time to put his degree in counseling to use, and to write up the anatomy of a fanboy. Now, this isn't the first time anyone has tried to break down what makes us hate the Dreamcast, and love the Atari Jaguar, but it's a nice little read that has the right mix of both intellect and well ... fanboyism.Yes, that's right, we're saying that Keating, who writes for a gaming website called myarcadeplanet.com, has caught the fanboy gene himself. However, in order to study the enemy, one must become him, and Keating has done a good job of that.We're not saying he's torn a hole wide open into the fabric of the internets, and turned fanboyism on its ear. However, it's a nice ride and has us realizing why our hackles get raised whenever someone slams the TurboGrafx 16.
Blizzard just says no to consoles (or do they?)
Our friends at Joystiq have pointed out an interview with Blizzard's VP of business development, Itzik Ben Bassat, at GameIndustry.biz. In it, he again confirms yearly expansions -- though he didn't let slip any details on what we might see in the next one. However, he has some interesting things to say about gaming consoles, summed up in this quote:Consoles are becoming sophisticated PCs which sit in the living room... We'll have to see how all this develops. Maybe in five years you won't need a console because you'll have one PC which delivers content all over your house.No plans to bring World of Warcraft to the console market, then? Bassat says there are no plans to bring the game to consoles, though Blizzard is keeping a close eye on the next gen machines, especially their online services. And he has nothing but good to say about Xbox Live Arcade:I'm very impressed, I'm impressed by the people who do it, and the service is very easy, very intuitive. I love it.Is anyone else getting mixed signals here?
Blizzard developer says WoW unlikely for consoles
Pro-G caught up with Blizzard game designer Jonathan LeCraft, and got a little bit of an interview out of him (they promise a full-length interview on Thursday). The interesting bits: "You really do need a keyboard to play WoW" Wii-controlled WoW "got to be pretty easy to PvP against" WoW on consoles not in the plans, although they do keep it "on the radar" Blizzard has the "capacity" for another MMO, possibly in a different license (if you're reading this, blue: Diablo MMO plz) Do you think there is any way WoW could work without a keyboard? I don't really see it happening myself. And what MMO would you most like to see Blizzard come out with next?
Jumpstart your vintage video game console museum
So there are video game console auctions, and then there are video game console auctions. This one would definitely fall into the latter category, boasting "Über 90 Telespielkonsolen" (over 90 video game consoles) and encompassing most of the glorious achievements and glorious failures of the video game industry. Sure fire winners include a Magnavox Odyssey, Virtual Boy, Neo Geo Pocket, Intellivision and Atari Lynx, with a NES clone thrown in there for good measure. In fact, the collection could probably be better defined by what's not included, which other than the exception of current-gen consoles is not a whole dang lot. Make sure you peep the read link for all bazillion consoles from their various angles, and if you've got a few grand laying around -- and can stomach the shipping cost from Hamburg -- why not give it a shot?
Rumorang: Warhammer Online heading to consoles
A recent EA Mythic job listing has renewed speculation that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) is being co-developed for consoles, likely Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The listing calls for a 'Warhammer Console' producer who will lead the production and design of a "title being developed across next generation console platforms for the online MMORPG market." While WAR is not explicitly named, it's certainly implied. With this revelation, comes a mess of questions: what effect, if any, would console versions have on WAR for PC? Would the projects be wholly separated? Or would bits and pieces from each version be sacrificed to simplify cross-platform development and keep the overall budget down? [Thanks, Ves]
Wii woes: some win, some lose, some sing blues
Wrapping paper has been torn open, ribbons unraveled, and bows ... unbowed. Did you score yourself a next-gen console? We noticed while driving around the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex that some enterprising entrepreneurs decided to sell PlayStation 3s out of the back of their car trunks for $800. However, no one was lining up to buy 'em. A sad sign advertising Wiis for sale was discarded in the ditch near the same sellers, leading us to believe that they'd run through their supply of Wiis.Further confirmation came when we found this article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in the form of a play detailing the trials and tribulations of finding a Wii this holiday season. Did you have as hard of a time? We checked a few area retailer shelves, and they all had the same story: accessories galore, consoles none. What about you?
Have gamer cake and eat it too
Mmmmm, cake. We've seen some impressive gamer cakes, but the crew over at You NEWB compiled a ten layer list of frosting covered confectionary goodness. Sure, we've covered the Super Mario cake before, but #2 pays homage to sibling site Engadget. The pictures are cool, but it would be nice to actually find out how to make these things. Cake post 2.0: How to design what you see. Any geek cake makers in the house? How we long for an homage to us in cake form ... yummy, yummy cake.
Sid Meier keeping eye on Civilization for consoles
In a recent interview with Gamespot, Sid Meier, the man who built an empire with Civilization, says a version of the strategy masterpiece may finally make its way onto consoles. While promoting Civilization Chronicles on Gamespot, a compilation set of Civilization games I - IV, Meier responds to EA's successful porting of classic PC genres like RTS' to consoles by saying, "Yes. I think the latest consoles have the processing power to deliver fun experiences with the bigger strategy games. It's definitely something we've been keeping our eyes on and we'll let you know where we'll go from here."PC Civilization addicts can still seek treatment, but for those who think quitting is for losers, Meier says they'll keep making more Civ as long as the fans want it, he also says they are looking into digital distribution for Civ IV campaigns and other "ideas." No announcement of a Civilization V. Love the Civilization, now let's talk about that sequel to Alpha Centauri ...
Surprise of the day: HDTVs top holiday shopping lists
Okay, so it's probably not exactly shocking, especially considering the skyrocketing sales of RPTVs in the most recent quarter, and the (presumed) riots over cheap LCDs and plasmas on Black Friday. But the fact still remains that even though Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft are off tooting their own (console-based) horns, consumers are still eying those big screen televisions above all else. Reports suggest that TVs don't seem "very complicated, and they're not terribly expensive," which makes sense considering the plummeting prices of HDTVs over the past few months. Notably, the holiday's dust collectors are none other than "DVD players / recorders," presumably including those still pricey HD DVD and Blu-ray units. So if a svelte new set is atop your holiday wish list, rest assured, you're not alone.
Europe to suffer another PS3 delay?
This whole PS3 delay game has really become something of an amusing sideshow at this point: after so much bad press concerning nearly every single aspect of the console, you'd think that Sony would do everything possible to ensure that things run smoothly from here until launch, and yet word on the street is that Europe may be victim to still another postponement. It should be noted we have no independent confirmation of the following information, but Spanish gaming site MeriStation is reporting that Ken Kutaragi recently admitted that supply problems for Japan and North America could force the European PS3 launch to be delayed until May -- which would mean that Japanese and American consumers might have their systems nearly six months before the eager gamers in the rest of the world. Now keep in mind that Kutaragi also supposedly said that Sony has not modified its European launch plans at this time, so right now we're only looking at a "what if" scenario. Still, this rollout has been plagued with nothing but problems since day one, and as much as we'd like to see Sony pull this one off considering the shaky condition it's currently in, we're starting to think that these little issues and public gaffes may add up to big problems.[Thanks, Mercenary]
Immersion survey suggests Sony better get ready to rumble
Press releases are boring. We go through literally hundreds of them a day, and for the most part, they're self-serving documents full of half-truths and inflated claims about products and services. So imagine our delight when we stumbled upon this little doozy of a release from marketing firm Ipsos Insight, which details a study done on behalf of the Immersion Corporation concerning gamers' preferences and purchasing plans with regards to the trio of next-generation consoles. You probably remember Immersion as the company that successfully sued Sony over the use of computer-controlled vibration technology in its PlayStation and PS2 Dual Shock controllers, and since Sony has apparently neither paid Immersion the $90 million it owes nor licensed the rumble tech for its SIXAXIS PS3 gamepads, the release comes across as a thinly-veiled reminder that gamers really, really like playing with input devices that shake and buzz in their sweaty hands. Not only does the (completely unbiased) poll report that 72% of the 1,075 respondents agree vibration feedback enhances their game experience, it goes on to note that 59% of those surveyed would prefer rumble on the PS3 controller, while only 8% care about motion / tilt sensing (sorry, Nintendo). As if these numbers didn't paint a clear enough picture of the message Immersion is trying to convey, two further questions spell it out even more explicitly: when asked if the lack of rumble capabilities would affect their buying decisions (apparently 74% of those polled weren't even aware of the "no rumble" policy -- clearly no Engadget readers amongst that bunch), 5% said that it would definitely cause them not to buy a PS3 and 32% claimed that they were less likely to pick one up for this reason and this reason alone. Now obviously Immersion knew exactly the results that it wanted before it conducted this "study," and probably phrased the questions in order to get the most desirable data set, but even non-statistics majors like ourselves could have figured out that gamers accustomed to the fun of Dual Shock would be in for a letdown the first time they picked up a rumble-free SIXAXIS controller. Okay, Sony, the cards are on the table, and even if these numbers are skewed, you know full well that you can't be the only player in the game without a little vibration action going on. So what's it gonna be: are you going to keep hoping that some appeals court finally overturns the numerous prior decisions against you, or are you going to shell out some dough just like Microsoft and Nintendo did, and finally give the majority of your target audience what it wants? To us, it doesn't really seem like much of a choice at all.
The latest PS3 developments, condensed
With next-gen console news being released at such a fast and furious pace these days, it's starting to feel a little bit like Joystiq around here, so instead of reporting and analyzing every little snippet of new information in separate posts, we've rounded up the latest and greatest PS3 revelations into one tight bit of prose. Since pricing is such an important issue to most consumers, we'll start there -- but unfortunately, the news ain't good. You probably already heard that those lucky gamers in Japan will be able to pick up their 20GB boxes for the equivalent of $428, but despite all the hoping and praying you've been doing, Kaz Hirai has reaffirmed that the recent price cuts apply to Japan only -- though he threw the rest of the world something of a bone when he also announced that everyone will be getting an HDMI port on his/her low-end system. Speaking of high prices, Impress is citing "multiple sources" in predicting that most Japanese PS3 games will cost in the neighborhood of ¥8,800 to ¥9,800, which is between $75 and $85 here in America -- ouch, that's like a whole month's allowance for us, and well above the going rate for 360 games. As long as we're dwelling on the negatives, we should also mention that not only will HDMI cables be absent from the box, both Hirai and Ken Kutaragi are leaning away from even including component action with either package. Now on to the good stuff (sorry, there's not much). First of all, it's been confirmed that all PS3 games will indeed ship region-free (though it's up to the developers to code in multilingual support, and Blu-ray movies will remain region-locked) and secondly, the inclusion of Dolby Digital and Dolby TrueHD (7.1 channels) is a done deal. Finally, and perhaps least importantly after all these downers, is the fact that the Wii-inspired, rumble-free controller has officially been dubbed "SIXAXIS" -- though without the shakin' action, we imagine that many of you could care less what they chose to call it. Anyway, that's all for now from the exciting PS3 frontier, but keep your broswer tuned to this channel, as we'll have just a little more Sony-related amusement for you later today.Read- No price drop [Via Gamesindustry.biz]Read- Japanese game speculation [Via IGN]Read- Region-free, no component [Via PS3 Fanboy]Read- SIXAXISRead- Dolby
