The most recent one.

Kudo Tsunoda, Don Mattrick and John Schappert went from EA to Microsoft.

Peter Moore (anyone else?) went from Microsoft to EA.

One could argue that their making good switches, going from one large company to another, and not losing position in the process. One could argue that because of what they do, they already have good relationships with the other company and capitlized on that. Could be they're quite familiar with the other company too; EA supports two Microsoft platforms after all (Windows and Xbox 360).

But it just seems... I dunno, weird. Not incestuous or anything, but still, wierd.

Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division not only turns its first consecutive profit, but projects to be profitable all year.

Best Buy, for reasons undisclosed, is dropping the 80g PS3; is this forshadowing a new model? Or is the 40g doing that much better?

In Japan, Sony axes the 20g and 60g PS3's (finally), noting the new hardware configuration of the 40g will help pave the way to cost reduction and profitability.

Sony is now reported to be producing PS3's at less than half their original cost (~$400 rather than $800+).

GTAIV is coming out soon and is cross-platform. Its also expected to out-perform Halo 3, and is probably will be one of the biggest system movers this year.

Things are shaping up nicely. I fully expect by the end of the year we'll see incredible pricing and bundles for the PS3 and 360, with another round of good sized price cuts. I'm sorta hoping that Sony does at least a $50 price cut coupled with a bundle. Microsoft? I hope they do at least a $50, if not $75 price cut, across all the 360's with an updated bundle for all SKU's. Things seemed primed and pumped for the console makers to start getting serious about expanding past the small "core" audience and trying to get more mainstream (where the PS2 and Wii reside, marketwise).

Story here.

Wow? Wow.

And I wonder how much of that success is because the game is now on multiple platforms to boot? Guitar Hero II is on the PS2 and 360; Guitar Hero III is available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, PC and (believe it not) Mac. GHIII also boasts an impressive 5 million downloads for songs to boot!

With those kinds of numbers, going exclusively for one system is looking more and more like, well, insanity. And I'm quite all right with that. The success of multi-platform games takes away the potential for excessive and abusive amounts of control on the part of console makers because publishers have multiple options ("You're not the only platform in town, you know."), and puts the focus back on game, not platform.

I'm happy ;)

Lets go back in time to the original Playstation and Final Fantasy VII.

Does Square owe Sony for their success?

Or does Sony owe Square for their success?

My vote? Sony owes Square. Sony was a new upstart. Square had their pick of Nintendo, Sony and Sega (and, to be honest, PC). Square was already a highly respected developer/publisher with established franchises that any console maker would give their right arm for. The Final Fantasy games would've been massive sellers on any system they would've been on, and given that console a massive boost in Japan along with the US.

Much like, say, Microsoft, the Xbox and Tecmo/DOA and Ninja Gaiden, Bioware/KOTOR and Jade Empire, Bungie/Halo (yes, I know MS bought Bungie, but Halo was well under development before they were bought and was going to be a huge hit on the PC and Mac). Upstart console gets a great game from an already respected developer that would've done just as well anywhere else. The growth of that developer is linked to the growth in the market, not because of the console maker was so kind to allow them to make games for it.

Hirai said publishers need a platform to develop for when criticized by Activision. True. But console makers need publishers and developers in order to make their system worth purchasing; doubly so when there's actually good, healthy competition (as opposed to Nintendo's NES monopoly days and they requred every licensed NES game to be an exclusive along with strong-arming retailers).

Read this.

I can't think of single more compelling thing to help explain fanboyism.

I'd bet money that its addictive, too :)

Read it, post your thoughts and I'll comment after a few have gone up.

Bonus points if you can point out things publishers can do or are doing to make up for it.

Link here.

I'm pretty thrilled. The last time they did a ".5" update they introduced a cross-factional hang-out called Pocket D (i6.5). This? i11.5 is looking freakin' awesome (well, that's what we're calling it - not sure if everything will be at once or not). City of Heroes is significantly better than when I started playing 2 years ago, and the past year's updates (i9-i11) have been nothing but awesome. This seems to be mostly a Quality of Life upgrade, and I'm perfectly fine with that. Small wonder I have a hard time tearing myself away from City of Heroes to play other games (even ones full of Win like Guild Wars).

------------------------

The City Vault
We gave a sneak peak of the new "City Vault" feature at the recent San Jose Meet 'n Greet. The City Vault is coming soon to the City of Heroes website and will showcase the millions of interesting Heroes and Villains found in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. It will allow you to search for characters by a number of different criteria, and then view those characters, including images of different costumes, powers, badges, friends, stats by zone and other fun information! As we have previously announced, you can manage what information will be displayed through the City Vault for your characters via several in game options.

We will have more details about the City Vault Beta soon.


Double XP Weekend and Server Hardware Improvements
We have another Double XP Weekend coming! Currently we are targeting February for this event. It will be the same format as we have run previously: a weekend long fest of double rewards of experience gain, influence or infamy, and prestige! Double XP is always popular and usually drives our online numbers to record heights.

To better address performance issues that tend to arise under such conditions, we are investing in server hardware upgrades. Technology is always marching forward and we are making this investment back into the game to take advantage of the latest tech and help create the best gaming experience possible for our players.

Our plans are to have all of the new hardware online before the coming Double XP Weekend. We will post more details of the server upgrade schedule, along with the dates of the actual Double XP weekend soon, so keep your eye on the City of Heroes website!


Valentine's Day Event
Also coming in February, we have an expanded Valentine's Day Event! We're adding a few new twists to the previous event and also have a very special surprise to go along with this romantic holiday. More details will be coming soon!


Smoothing the XP Curve
One thing that we constantly examine is the rate of advancement in the game. In a future version, we intend to smooth out the leveling curve by changing how much experience is given out for defeating opponents. The intent is to smooth out the "bumps" where players typically get stuck leveling up their characters. Keep an eye on coming patch notes for specifics.


Real Numbers
As a general quality of life improvement we will be adding new functionality in a coming version of the game to display the "real" numbers behind your characters and their powers. This includes a user configurable display of important characteristics such as movement rate, regeneration rate, resistances and many more! Additionally, you will be able to see how those statistics are affected in real time by buffs and/or debuffs affecting your character.

360

That the RRoD will be a thing of the past.

Another round of price drops; Core/Arcade to $200, Pro to $275-300, Elite $375-400. Won't complain if they go lower.

Restructuring of Live's price/feature tiering; Silver to include online play, Gold to have a few more perks, altering the features so Live for Windows Silver isn't so insulting.

Revising policies for the 360 concerning player created content, or at least making an exception for UT3.

For crying out loud, let Bungie make Halo for the DS please? Thank you.

Continued development/synergy between the 360 and the PC.

Big, I'm not going to get it wish - discontinue the Core/Arcade, send all current owners a coupon for a free 20g HD or a discount on the 120g harddrive. Repeal prohibition against requiring the harddrive.

Wii

For the shortage to come to an end. Sheesh.

Price drop to $200.

For the Virtual Console to include a subscription option, ala Gametap.

For Nintendo to get serious about promoting 3rd party publishers through advertising co-op, similar to Microsoft and Sony.

Continued development/synergy between the Wii and the DS.

PS3

Another round of price drops; 40g to $300-350, 80g to $400-450.

Restore BC to the entry level PS3.

A premium membership/subscription option for PSN, with revenue sharing for publishers.

Continued development/synergy between the PS3 and the PSP.

Firefox. PS3. Now. :D

PSP

Price drop to $129-150.

Greater focus on downloadable games; a 2g Memory stick is a LOT better than a single UMD.

Expand multimedia functionality of the PSP.

Firefox. PSP. Now. :D

DS

Price drop to $100 or less.

PS2

Price drop to $100 or less.

New, more compact form factor.

HDMI out with upscaling for DVD playback and games.

Aggressively market the system as the perfect family system/console. Focus on library and feature (DVD playback) the Wii doesn't have.

Still no 360, obviously.

I'm sure more than a few of you know I'm a Virtua Fighter fanboy. I bought it for the 360 even though I don't have a 360, after all. Well, because of my pay check and a bit of "There's no way I'm going to have done all that work and not get something for myself," I went out and got the Hori EX2 Virtua Fighter 5 stick.

First off: Its nice, light, and sits comfortably on your lap. A massive departure from my Street Fighter Anniversary Edition stick. The stick itself has a ball top, a short throw, and the expected 4-corner Japanese style mechanism with all the clicks you could hope for. The buttons are nicely laid out in a 3 top/3 bottom staggered arrangement and are nice and light; very responsive.

Secondly, and this is one of the reasons I got it; it works with Windows. I can't tell you how awesome that is for me. Just pop it into the USB port and off you go. Sadly, I doubt it'll work with the PS3 (which would've made it perfect), but oh well. Hmm... maybe try it with the Wii? :D

I downloaded the free client for Gametap, and it was pretty much as I expected it. Most of the ads shown were in-house ads trying to tempt you to subscribe to Gametap proper. And like most ads, I pretty much ignored them. I downloaded Vampire Savior, KOF95 and Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, and proceeded to put it through its paces. I did have to configure each game for the stick (Gametap recognized the stick, by name even, but didn't do any button mapping).

It took a little bit of warming up for me; its been a while since I've done much in the way of fighters. All the games played wonderfully, although its a pity there was nothing I was more familiar with to try. The stick played like a champ; not once did a move not come out that wasn't my own dumb fault. Nice, light, no need to force or manhandle the stick like you might have to do with some US ****arcade sticks. Just a light grip and everything from Dragon punches (f, d, df+P) to Zangief's Spinning Pile Driver (f, spin to u+P) worked great.

Thus far I'm very pleased with it. I'm looking forward to going to my friend's house (got two that have 360's and like fighters) and trying out VF5, DOA4, and whatever fighters they might have right now (including old Xbox ones). Hori is good about quality, and have sticks for the Wii, PS3 and 360. Because they all have USB, it stands to reason that Windows will recognize them too (no idea if they have Mac drivers or not). If you're into fighters, I can recommend their sticks heartily. This is my favorite stick since Hori's Tekken 2 sticks for the PS1.