|
Writing this post is becoming harder than I initially thought. First my sholder issue, then after writing the first version of the post, my laptop decided it was necessary to do a restart after doing some software updates. I basically ignored the restart dialog to often :( Anyway, here is post 2.0, hopefully better than ever ... 
The benefit of going to a industry fair like the Games Convention instead of collecting those pieces of information piece by piece is pretty simple: you can experience the current state of the industry, in this case the video game industry, in a very condensed manner. Immediately compare what's cooking and what the respective strategies are. So here are my 2 cents on what I found during those 7 hours of instense market research ;-) PC gaming is becoming marginalInstead of following the latest industry trends, PC gaming is more and more becoming a niche market. No casual gamer would go for a PC (if we ignore things like browser games for a moment) instead of a console, just because it is far to complicated to use. At the GC this year, PC gaming has been separated from the mainstream console gaming physically as well as from the overall apperance. While any of the console makers and publishers tried to present their products in a colorful way, the color for PC gaming is obviously BLACK. Rather then addressing the average gamer with their products, those companies are more or less addressing the geeks with their very specific needs. The result is a very hardware rathe than content centric market. Sure, we all "love" the console wars and lve to argue about the specs of the various products on the market, but this is just a small aspect of what I call console gaming. The main focus is on the content, i.e. the games. In the PC world, there are only so many games that are used within the community, the rest of the time, people are focused on tweaking their computers, buying the latest accessories and moding their hardware in many different ways. Adding to this comments form various publishers during the last couple of month, it looks like that dedicated PC games become the minority. We don't need you anymoreAny idea why Nintendo decided not to be present at this years Games Convention? Sure, last years show wasn't impressive either, but why would you as the market leader decide not to showcase your stuff? If we take economical aspects out of the decision making process, my conlusion is pretty simple: they just feel they have the wrong audience here in Leipzig. If this is actually the case, I can only say how arrogant. Anybody checking out the Leipzig crowd these days can see with his/her own eyes that video gaming has become a product for the masses. It's no longer the 15 year old, skinny boy that you would normaly expect at such an event, you have families, older guys, and most important girls all over the place. Don't get me wrong, this is still a male domain aforemost, but due to the success of casual gaming and the overall success of video games, video gaming has become an entertainment industry compareable to music and video. Having that said, I think it is kind of strange to see the market leader ignoring this venue completely. On the other side, what would have been the announcements or what kind of great new stuff Nintendo would have been able to show us? Is Nintendo becoming slow and content because of their latest successes? We don't know, but not showing up in Leipzig was definitely a statement. Guitar Hero to the MaxAnother observation that was obvious for anyone with still intact acustic organ, the Guitar Hero phenomenon is finally at its peak and let's just hope that we will soon see a decline in this genre. Personally as much as I liked Guitar hero in the first place, the level how he industry is currently milking this cow is just bores me. It seems to me that the bigger the better is the nam of the game these days and I am just waiting to see titles like Big Band which feature a sax, a trumpet, keyboards, basically all the various intruments you can find on this planet. My guess, similar to those WiiFit boards that are hardly used more than once, games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour will only played a couple of times as you hardly find the time or place to play with 4 people. Anyway, why complaining, it fuels the industry and earns the money for doing other games instead. Ok folks, go and get those Rock Bands and World Tours. The Big LittleBigPlanetAs usual, Sony had a very diverse, and scenic appearance at GC this year. Like in the years before you had many different areas covering either some of the blockbusters like LittleBigPlanet, all games over 18 years, PSP games, PSN tiles and social games like SingStar as well as Buzz. It's always great to see this mixture of hard core gamers in combination with casual gamers in one location. And while you had a chance to play titles like Killzone 2 or Resistance: Retribution, you were able to actually talk to the folks behind the game, as various executive or assistant producers were presenting their respective games on the show floor and not just behind closed doors. Target group research at its best. They could immmediately see what works in the hectic place place this. Sony, well done. As usual I must say. And what about the other?Coming from last year's rather questionable performance Microsoft even went one step down. Just imagine having just a main stage with rather questionable performances and a couple of fish tanks positioned around the area were you can try out various music games which you now get from Microsoft too. Wowww. 4 years after SingStar you can actually get Lips from Microsoft now. Let me make a bet here: there will be no Lips 2. One of the reason why Microsoft really sucks in this area is because that they don't show any kind of persistance when it comes to those games. For those who think that SingStar was an easy success for Sony, keep in mind that it took more than just releasing SingStar and wait for the market to buy 13 million copies. Anyway, if you are interested in playing some of the "other" titles you had a hard time finding those. Being a paying Xbox Live customers you could actually play some titles in a little area behind the stage. For all others, sorry. Btw, did I mention that everything was colored in a brand consistent green and orange? And what about the games?Finally coming to the most important aspect of the Games Convention, let me give you my personal ranking of what I saw and played during those 7 hours. 1. LittleBigPlanetI was more than curious what the game feels like after all the hype around it. Does the concept of LBP really work out as intended? Sony Computer Entertainment let the crowd play one complete level of the final game as well as getting a short tutorial of the all so important create part of the game. To make a long story short, this game really rocks. I have never played a coop multiplayer before that has all the features of a platformng game as well as the competitiveness as LittleBigPlanet. What really makes this platform game different are the overall look as well as the addition of a real physics engine. And guess what, this game is one of the best casual games I have seen so far. It doesn't have the simplicity of most casual games at the same time not making it impossible for newcomers to get into it immediately. The create part of LBP is definitely not for everyone. It is for sure more compley than the play part, but still easy to use. As basically all the levels that come with the game are built using the same engine, you'll get a very powerful editor including hunderts of dfferent objects and tols to be used within your own level. Just think of it as a hugh Lego box where you do almost everything you can think of. The good thing about the editor is the fact that you can start small and grow over time. After experiencing the game myself I see the potential of this new franchise and I just hope that the consumers can really imagine what LBP feels like. In order to gt this part right, Sony is spending quite some efforts in the marketing arena just to make sure that the market is prepared for this new experience. If that works out well, LBP is for sure the hardware seller Sony wants it to be and you can expect a lot of followers in the near future. Welcome to Game 3.0 2. Killzone 2Another hype ttile coming from Sony is Killzone 2 for PS3. Yeah, the inital trailer was a target render and we will most probably get something that doesn't look exactly like the initial trailer. But honestly, who cares? Killzone 2 is one of the best looking shooters I have ever played. And it's not that typical Unreal Engine look we all no from Gears of War or UT3, which looks artifical and so much like a computer game. Killzone just looks so real and great that it is sometimes hard to focus on the actual gameplay. At least in the beginning. 3. Resistance 2 and Motorstorm 2I have draw here. Couldn't really decide which one I would like more. Resistance 2 is definitely going to be a great shooter. But don't expect it to be the visual killer like Killzone 2. It's clearly more focused on the action part and more of the mature version of Ratchet & Clank than anything else. R2 will be a hugh success for sure, but don't expect it to be the innovator. Motorstorm 2, very similar to Resistance 2, is the typical second iteration of a franchise: bigger, better, simply more of what worked already well the first time. The new playground pretty much works as intended and it's up to be seen what other features will be included into the game. As we all know, splt screen support is just one of the new add-ons. 4. The various PSP titlesNot sure about the real success of PSP software titles these days, but expect some new great titles to arrive soon: Resistance: Retribution, Loco Roco 2 and Patapon 2 are definitely 3 great titles for our little handheld. Resistance for PSP just looks gorgeous like God of War on PSP and the controls are just perfect given the limitations of the PSP. Loco Roco 2 is not just more of what we already got in the first part, no i actually introduces a lot of new stuff and it will for sure tie me to my PSP as much as the first part did. Patapon 2 on the other side is definitely a refinement of the first part which had its issues if you ask me. Expect the 2nd part to be more convenient and approachable. Remember, how David Reeves started off the press conference on Wednesday with a song from Bob Dylan? Writers and critics
to prohezize with your pen
and keep your eyes wide
the chance won't come again
and don't speak to soon
for the wheels still in spin
and there's no tellin' who
that it's namin'
for the losers now
will be later to win
for the times they are a-changing I guess that really summerizes what we have seen from Sony this year at Games Convention. What they showcased is a very convincing and compelling set of products which I've hardly seen with any of the competitors. And this is all in the vicinity of the next couple of month. With Heavy Rain we already saw one of the big titles of next years season and I am sure there are many others we don't even know of, both on PSN and Blu-ray.
|
Then there is a new attachable keyboard for the DualShock 3 controller which should be ready when Home will be launched here in Europe. Just wondering if this is the reason for the several delays ;-) One of the cool features of the keyboard are dedicated function keys for your friends list and message box and you can enable a touchpad mode to simulate a mouse by using the whole keypad as a unconventional touchpad. Will be interesting to see how this works in reality. Btw, the keypad uses Bluetooth as the wireless technology and the USB port of the Dualshock as a power source.
Update: 2008/02/29: Just in case you haven't read the 
Almost every PLAYSTATION 3 user has at least one fake account nobody wants to talk about for obvious reasons. People fear that Sony is going to shut down those accounts or at least disable downloads from territories other than the actual store belongs to. 
Right now we are tolerating such practices and and SCED is not planning any activities within the foreseeable future. But that doesn't mean that this couldn't change in the future ...
Sony owned the Formula 1 license since almost a decade now. It looks like that those days are over, at least for the next couple of years. Forumla One Championship Edition seems to be the last Sony F1 game for a longer time. That's one of the statements Clemens Wangerin, Head of the Sony Studio Liverpool made in an 
