so funny, i was just thinking about this this morning, and was going to post a topic about it. i've been slowly getting away from GS, as it's been frustrating waiting for reviews. GS is all i used to read. since many of their reviews come out so late, i've been "forced" to check out other sites for reviews, and now i find myself gravitating towards those sites as my first choice.

you'd think that they would make it a priority to get back to full speed as i'm sure they are aware that having a good place in a marketplace is not guaranteed. they are one of the leading sites for a young industry (online video game info) and it makes sense to capitalize off of their early to the party status.

too many people seem to be graphics snobs. seriously, what's wrong with these graphics? maybe my eyes aren't trained well enough to spot the glaring pop up and/or lack of particle who hah that must be occuring during this game. for me, it looks and plays great.

i'm not saying that graphics aren't important - they are amongst the top things i look for in a game - but to complain about the graphics on COD4 seems to be nit-picky. maybe i just remember what it was like to play Quartet on my old Sega 8 bit.

i guess everyone wants to be a game critic.

and you were a technology company, i meant :)

One overlooked reason for MSFT winning the battle for exclusives - $$$$.

MSFT has over $20 billion in free cash. Sony about $2 billion. MSFT makes roughly $14 billion/yr, Sony $2 billion. Why does this matter? MSFT has the luxury of thinking long term, Sony not as much (hence Sony's decision to dissolve their unprofitable hardware division).

MSFT has no need to make $$ now with the 360. Their goal is long term dominance of the living room. They will overpay for games, developers, exclusives, hardware failures (extended warranty) where Sony simply can and will not. MSFT wants their piece of your entertainment life and they are going to get it no matter what the cost. It is part of their long term strategy!

Seriously, what would you do if you had $20 bill in cash laying around? They are still supposedly a growth company so they aren't going to pay out dividends to stockholders. They have identified game systems as a driver of brand recognition andbrand loyalty (see system wars), and a source of future not even identified revenues.

Wise or not, they will continue to pour money into the 360 even if the losses continue. It doesn't seem as though Sony has that luxury.

Thoughts?

links: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=MSFThttp://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=SNE