It is just a bluff. I'm sure Activision makes plenty of money off of Sony...rragnaarActivision's profit margin over the past year was 1.06%. If PS3 is their poorest performing console, it's a safe bet they're losing money on it.
This all could've been done behind the doors. By going public, to me it seems nothing more than swinging their manhood around the industry.TriangleHardSo you figure this is the first that Sony has heard of these complaints from Activision?
Nintendo Looks Outside the Box - WSJ, May 28 2009
Nintendo Co., in a bid to keep up momentum for its Wii console, is pushing to increase the number of Wii videogames made by outside publishers, including combat and sports titles that target serious players.
Reggie Fils-Aime, the company's U.S. president, said in an interview Tuesday he hoped to increase the percentage of games made by outside publishers to about 70% of the Wii's library of games, up from about 55% now. That would be about the same ratio as the split for its portable Nintendo DS device.
He also said Nintendo doesn't plan to cut the price of the Wii, whose $250 price hasn't changed since its debut. "Price cuts are a short-term incentive," he said. "In the long run, you need software to excite people."
Since the company launched the Wii in November 2006, it has sold more than 50 million units world-wide, with much of its popularity driven by casual games that Nintendo created itself.
For example, the Nintendo-developed Wii Play has been the top selling game. It has sold 10.7 million copies in the U.S., more than three times as many units as the top game by an outside publisher, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock by Activision Blizzard Inc., which has sold 2.9 million copies, according to market research firm NPD Group.
But now Nintendo is putting more effort than ever in encouraging publishers to make games for the Wii to ensure a steady flow of diverse games. "In order to achieve high levels of sales of hardware, we need all genres in the market," said Mr. Fils-Aime.
As part of that effort, Nintendo is taking an unusual step in allowing videogame publisher Electronic Arts Inc. to release two sports games that take advantage of a brand new hardware accessory more than a month before Nintendo's own marquee game is released.
EA plans to sell Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 in North America and Europe, packaged with the Wii MotionPlus, an attachment for the Wii's wireless controller that makes it more sensitive to movement. In Europe, EA also plans to sell a second game, Grand Slam Tennis.
Both EA games will launch in early June, ahead of Nintendo's own game for the attachment, Wii Sports Resort, which will debut in late July. "We really liked what we could get from the MotionPlus," said EA's chief executive John Riccitiello.
Such moves are particularly important for Nintendo, which has had a relatively limited library of games by outside developers until recently. That's partly because most game developers didn't expect the Wii to become the industry's dominant game machine and were devoting resources to creating titles for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360.
Nintendo has also been hurt by the perception that the Wii's success benefits Nintendo's own games, and not other software publishers. Some game publishers privately gripe that Nintendo has an unfair advantage in part because it knows first what Wii hardware accessories are coming and can target games to best capitalize on the new equipment.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata disputed that perception in March, citing data by NPD that the best-selling platform for third-party games has been the Wii.
Sounds unlikely, I know.
[QUOTE="ymi_basic"]Yay! Someone with a contrary view ... and possibly a bit of sense.[QUOTE="btaylor2404"]I think he's got a slight bit of a point when it comes to babies. I have 17 month old twins and notice they play much better when my tv and games are off, so I just wait til they go to sleep. The non-stop action and noise seems to bother them.RunOut1724
The doctor is just giving his opinion. His opinion is just as valid (and imo, more so) than those of a bunch of game enthusiasts/addicts on a forum. As a former gamer, I am well aware of the time that can be wasted with the pastime. As a parent of young kids, I don't see how you can work, rest, and do what's needed to raise healthy, happy kids unless you severely restrict your gaming time (maybe a couple hours per week, tops). That is my opinion and probably that of your doctor. Obviously, you are fully within your rights to ignore it. Lots of parents smoke against their doctor's advice too.
His opinion is ignorant. To actually think that i would toss all of my games and systems is ridiculous. And just because we are a bunch of addicts doesn't mean we don't know what we are talking about. I don't know what time you put your kids to sleep but my son is asleep by 8 the latest. I don't work untill 10am so i can easily get in 4 or 5 hours of gaming if i wanted to a night. If i go to sleep at 1am and sleep till 9am thats a full 8 hours and im fine for the next work day. So now you can see how i can work, rest and do whats needed to raise healthy, happy kids without restricting my gaming time.
My son is about to turn 1 and so far i think me and my wife are doing a damn good job. We know a few others couples with kids around our sons age and 1 in particular is a terror and you can trace it back to his parents. The father kind of sits back and lets the mother do everything and they dont stay consistent with the kid and you can tell. He runs around and wont listen. My boy already knows what the word No means. If i catch him crawing somewhere he doesnt belong or picking up something i dont want him to and I say NO he will stop and cry. He doesnt like the word but he knows what it means and thats a good thing.
For the record i rarley play games during the day. I mostly game at night when everyone in the house is asleep. I was the same growing up. I usually have a day or 2 during the week to watch my son and while i have him i am constantly giving him attention. Ill hold his hands and help him learn to walk. Or i will take him for a ride and go walk around the mall or take him in the backyard with our dog. So before you make any ignorant calims assuming cause im a young parent i must just sit around playing videos games and im not paying attention to my kids just know you can be a good parent and a serious gamer all at the same time. Yes it is possible!
Just a warning for you man... two kids = twice the work. Please come back to us a year or two after your second child is born. I'd like to hear an update as to how well those 4 hour gaming nights are going over as far as your wife is concerned.I don't think time is wasted anymore with videogames than with books.Oilers99I disagree in general, but I particularly disagree for parents with young kids. I can read a couple books a month in those 10 minutes before I pass out in bed from exhaustion each night. Who can really play a videogame in 10 minute bursts then turn it off and immediately get some sleep? Also, I'm pretty sure the wife would greatly prefer me lying beside her at night rather than punching away on a controller in some other room.
IMO you're not being as good of a "non-gamer" as you could/should be. Seeing as how you're still mucking around the Gamespot forums. Apparently you have nothing better to do with your life either?Mash_AffectAnother post that I can agree with. My monthly visits here ARE too much.
[QUOTE="ymi_basic"]Yay! Someone with a contrary view ... and possibly a bit of sense.[QUOTE="btaylor2404"]I think he's got a slight bit of a point when it comes to babies. I have 17 month old twins and notice they play much better when my tv and games are off, so I just wait til they go to sleep. The non-stop action and noise seems to bother them.Oilers99
The doctor is just giving his opinion. His opinion is just as valid (and imo, more so) than those of a bunch of game enthusiasts/addicts on a forum. As a former gamer, I am well aware of the time that can be wasted with the pastime. As a parent of young kids, I don't see how you can work, rest, and do what's needed to raise healthy, happy kids unless you severely restrict your gaming time (maybe a couple hours per week, tops). That is my opinion and probably that of your doctor. Obviously, you are fully within your rights to ignore it. Lots of parents smoke against their doctor's advice too.
I don't think time is wasted anymore with videogames than with books.
It's something done to either relax or enrich, something that one should dedicate some time to. It's less important than raising your children properly; most things are. However, this isn't a case of being told by a psychologist that someone needs to spend fewer than four hours a day on videogames, and more time with the kids. It's being told to give it up altogether, which makes little sense.
I think he's got a slight bit of a point when it comes to babies. I have 17 month old twins and notice they play much better when my tv and games are off, so I just wait til they go to sleep. The non-stop action and noise seems to bother them.btaylor2404Yay! Someone with a contrary view ... and possibly a bit of sense.
The doctor is just giving his opinion. His opinion is just as valid (and imo, more so) than those of a bunch of game enthusiasts/addicts on a forum. As a former gamer, I am well aware of the time that can be wasted with the pastime. As a parent of young kids, I don't see how you can work, rest, and do what's needed to raise healthy, happy kids unless you severely restrict your gaming time (maybe a couple hours per week, tops). That is my opinion and probably that of your doctor. Obviously, you are fully within your rights to ignore it. Lots of parents smoke against their doctor's advice too.
[QUOTE="ymi_basic"][QUOTE="streak000"][QUOTE="ymi_basic"]Exactly. It's simply impossible to write a good story that includes beating an alien with a crowbar. Imo, it's impossible to write a good story that involves aliens at all. Same is true of zombies, demons and sorcerers btw. As long as games are limited to action, fantasy, and sci-fi plot lines (which they probably always will be) where it's necessary for the main protagonist to kill and destroy everything for the greater good, then I'm probably not going to be interested in the least.[QUOTE="GTALoco"]I just want to blow **** up and beat aliens a crowbar. streak000
On a related note, I was playing Ninja Gaiden Black (xbox) and my wife happened to walk in just as a cutscene began that involved a ridiculously busty chick wearing what looked like an S&M style leather corset and thong ... as well as a gratuitous amount of body oil. I'm no prude, but I still found this quite embarassing since I was unable to skip the effing scene. It's pretty hard to defend the few redeeming qualities of videogames to a non gaming wife who has just seen that. The stories are indefensible.
I don't agree. It is indeed possible to write good stories about aliens and zombies. Didn't you like the first 2 Alien films? Or the first 2 Living Dead movies? They're not Oscar calibre scripts, but very worthy nonetheless.
I thought Bioshock had a good story, and yet you spent the majority of your time fighting zombified humans. KotOR had a great story, yet it involved a lot of alien killing. These are just 2 of the many possible examples. So I disagree that it's impossible to write good stories for videogames. It's just that good narratives are not in particular demand among the gaming public, so developers just don't bother hiring proper writers most of the time.
To each their own. However even if you like stories about blowing up aliens, zombies, demons and sorcerers, you have to admit that they offer a very limited range of the overall story spectrum available to movies or books. You also have to admit that a huge part of the adult public simply will never be interested in this stuff.Oh, you're right. Aliens and zombies are a miniscule part of the overall spectrum. Not only for movies and books, but also for games. Have you played the Longest Journey games? They feature better writing than most films coming out today, and don't feature any monsters at all.
The problem is, many, if not most, gamers actually want to mindlessly slaughter monsters and aliens without worrying about the narrative in the least. So my point was that although there is potential for gripping, engaging narratives in videogames, the quality of storytelling doesn't seem to be important to majority of gamers. Therefore, the developers just don't bother.
Just one last thing. Did you not like the Alien films (Alien and Aliens)? I thought they were fantastic horror and action films respectively, and both enjoyed extremely favourable critical reception. Same with George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. These films are enjoyed by a lot more adults than you seem to think. They are considered classics.
Sure, I find movies like Alien entertaining. However my favorite films and books do not involve fantasy nor supernatural nor even necessarily much action. A mix of real people in real situations with some real humor thrown in is more my taste.[QUOTE="ymi_basic"]Exactly. It's simply impossible to write a good story that includes beating an alien with a crowbar. Imo, it's impossible to write a good story that involves aliens at all. Same is true of zombies, demons and sorcerers btw. As long as games are limited to action, fantasy, and sci-fi plot lines (which they probably always will be) where it's necessary for the main protagonist to kill and destroy everything for the greater good, then I'm probably not going to be interested in the least.[QUOTE="GTALoco"]I just want to blow **** up and beat aliens a crowbar. streak000
On a related note, I was playing Ninja Gaiden Black (xbox) and my wife happened to walk in just as a cutscene began that involved a ridiculously busty chick wearing what looked like an S&M style leather corset and thong ... as well as a gratuitous amount of body oil. I'm no prude, but I still found this quite embarassing since I was unable to skip the effing scene. It's pretty hard to defend the few redeeming qualities of videogames to a non gaming wife who has just seen that. The stories are indefensible.
I don't agree. It is indeed possible to write good stories about aliens and zombies. Didn't you like the first 2 Alien films? Or the first 2 Living Dead movies? They're not Oscar calibre scripts, but very worthy nonetheless.
I thought Bioshock had a good story, and yet you spent the majority of your time fighting zombified humans. KotOR had a great story, yet it involved a lot of alien killing. These are just 2 of the many possible examples. So I disagree that it's impossible to write good stories for videogames. It's just that good narratives are not in particular demand among the gaming public, so developers just don't bother hiring proper writers most of the time.
To each their own. However even if you like stories about blowing up aliens, zombies, demons and sorcerers, you have to admit that they offer a very limited range of the overall story spectrum available to movies or books. You also have to admit that a huge part of the adult public simply will never be interested in this stuff.I just want to blow **** up and beat aliens a crowbar. GTALocoExactly. It's simply impossible to write a good story that includes beating an alien with a crowbar. Imo, it's impossible to write a good story that involves aliens at all. Same is true of zombies, demons and sorcerers btw. As long as games are limited to action, fantasy, and sci-fi plot lines (which they probably always will be) where it's necessary for the main protagonist to kill and destroy everything for the greater good, then I'm probably not going to be interested in the least.
On a related note, I was playing Ninja Gaiden Black (xbox) and my wife happened to walk in just as a cutscene began that involved a ridiculously busty chick wearing what looked like an S&M style leather corset and thong ... as well as a gratuitous amount of body oil. I'm no prude, but I still found this quite embarassing since I was unable to skip the effing scene. It's pretty hard to defend the few redeeming qualities of videogames to a non gaming wife who has just seen that. The stories are indefensible.
every halo game, nuff saidErnieboiiDefinitely not. No bots = no fun. Halo is okay with 4 players, but 2 player versus play without bots is just boring (almost as boring as co-op).
I agree with the comments about the original Perfect Dark and Timesplitters, although TS2 was significantly better than TS3. TS3 had a few nice features, but the gameplay was slowed to almost the Halo pace, and some of the weapons were lamed up for sake of "balance."
I'm not a fan of the trend to balance weapons. If the placement is strategic, I have no problem with outright superior weapons (so long as it is not absolutely impossible to overcome them.)
Weapon balancing is just one of numerous trends that have come about as a result of online gaming. I wish someone would cater to the splitscreen crowd (which is still probably just as popular as online... but gets nowhere near the attention.)
Maybe TS4 will be the best splitscreen multiplayer game of all time... unfortunately, I expect free-rad will compromise the game for online play in much the way that they did for TS3.
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