you are so very wrong... Atlus's JRPGS, Nocturne III, Digital Devil Saga, & Persona far out surpassed anything Square had ever created. Iv played their games since the late 80s and Atlus >>>> Square when it comes to JRPGs. For one, the games are actually a challenge.

[QUOTE="Blackbond"][QUOTE="jg4xchamp"] THis is exactly what i wanted to post....thank you sirthegoldenpoo

Here is a very sad truth for cows.

Cows will try to blame the 360 vs of final fantasy XIII on the delay, but if the game was on the 360 to begin with, it would have launched over a year ago if not sooner. Every single PS3 game has been hyped to no end years before release. The Dev time is almost double and ultimately not worth it to the developer. Next gen you will see these companies give in to the current economic recession and focus on the most synergistic platform.. the next xbox. The PS3 might be the best playstation yet, but Sony is no match for Microsoft when it comes to creating a profitable platform.

played them all.. have to say,

Mass Effect..EPIC

Fallout 3, long

Persona 4, I love atlus.

Fable II, different

EA continues to follow a failed market share strategy.... this is a the problem. Your the biggest studio, and you produce alot of games.. you have some big hitters like madden and other sports games that produce huge profits, on the other hand, your pour tons of money into hit or miss projects that result in low sales volumes. If you would have canned 6 of these games, put half the money into producing 1 really good game, you would have production costs, cut marketing and have the chance of a much bigger hit. EA is just fighting themselves at this point.

Yeah, I remember reading that EA is gonna do some cost cutting too. But since they aren't a console manufacturer the same strategy wouldn't really work for them.

It's incredible that with cash cows like Madden they're still loosing money. But maybe that's just cause they've made some heavy investments, once profits from heavy hitters like Sims3 are in the books and investments like Bioware start putting out games like ME2 and Kotor MMO I'd expect them to turn profit. If not, then they're screwed.

mr_mozilla

Your right.. The smaller companies have more drive, more reward to get the job done more effeciently. The thing is MS is still giving serious support to them while maintaing high standards.

EA owns dozens of studios, makes games every year, and they all sell millions upon millions.

Yet every year they post a loss.

I think that despite their success in sales, the overall costs of paying their studios employees salaries, maintaining the studio property, the massive advertising money needed to promote almost every game, and other expenses that come with owning multiple studios, the financial burden is greater then their titles retail success.

That is why MS is downsizing (now down to Lionhead, Rare, Turn 10, and Mistwalker). Less property and salries to pay. Instead they cut a checque and buy out 360/PC exclusivity, timed exclusivity or DLC exclusivity......for a fraction of the cost fo doing it in-house.

I for one think its a great long-term stragety. They are financially stable and buy out deals for a fraction of developing it with a 1st party studio.

-General_Ram-

Im an analyst. Attach rate / Game Sales are the driving factor behind the 360s sucess. The game sales / attach rate are like a giant bowl of Honey.. everyone can only hold out so long before they wants a piece. Do we need a better example then Square Enix? System sales definately matter less then game sales. In the end, its game customers that developers are selling to, not unplayed consoles. Casuals are HIGHLY OVERATED!

Sales determines preference, popularity, where the market is spending their money and their focus. If people say thats not important then somethings wrong.

In the event of the fierce PS3/360 rivalry, I think its very important to note that most multiplats sell better on 360. Now im sure cows play down sales and say:

quantity /=/ quality

I play games, not sales

Offcourse......we all play games and we never admit that sales = quality. The point is merely that one system is more popular then the other in terms of where the market is heading.

And like it or not, that means something.

-General_Ram-