Macho Posturing

Saw this story on Eurogamer today.  Apparently Kaz Hirai (SCE President) thinks that Sony is the ‘official’ leader of the gaming industry.  This status is conferred upon the illustrious lords of Sony, not because of retail sales figures (in which they are being thoroughly spanked), or install base (the smallest of current generation consoles), but simply in terms of an anticipated longevity.

It would seem, in fact, that Hirai-san does not even see Nintendo and Microsoft as competitors.  Nintendo, he claims, is in “a different world”, which I guess is how you address a company that has nearly matched sales of your best selling console in a third of the time.  Microsoft, on the other hand, “lacks longevity”, and I suppose is beneath contempt in this regard.

My favorite quote from the article is as follows:

“We don’t provide the ‘easy to program for’ console that [developers] want, because ‘easy to program for’ means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so then the question is what do you do for the rest of the nine-and-a-half years?” -Kaz Hirai

It’s very simple.  You WANT developers to be able to take advantage of what the hardware can do.  What that means is that for the rest of the nine and a half years, while PS3 developers finally learn to master the console and push it to its limits, Xbox 360 developers will have mastered the console years before, and can concentrate on Design.  If there’s anything we should have learned from this generation, it’s that you don’t get great games by forcing the developers to work against the tools you give them.  The fun comes from a great, polished design and execution.  Sony should be working as fast as they can to make it EASIER for developers to harness the PS3s power, not treating it as some kind of gauntlet to be overcome.

Cool Stuff in 2009

Every year I look back at the delightful array of titles and happenings in the previous year, and I can’t for the life of me remember what’s happening in the upcoming year.  Of course, there are always suprises, usually coming out of the Indie woodwork, but it’s helpful to come up with a list of stuff I’m excited about for 2009

• Cave Story (Available in English for PC/Mac here, this indie title finally gets its day in the sun on Wii)
• Halo Wars
• Heavy Rain
• Halo: ODST
• Resident Evil 5
• Star Ocean
• Brutal Legend
• Bioshock 2
• Puzzle Quest: Galactrix
• Deus Ex 3!!!
• Alan Wake
• Beyond Good and Evil 2!!!
• Mass Effect 2
• Overlord 2
• God of War 3
• I Am Alive
• The Sims 3

So all in all, I don’t know what Peter Molyneux is talking about.  Maybe he only gets excited by games he makes.

Game Sales in 2008

You can go here and interpret for yourself.  Side note:  I intend to do another round of “Who’s the best developer of 2008″, but I need to do some forensic database reconstruction first.

Interesting Notes:

• In terms of volume, the top 5 game sales of 2008 are all first party Nintendo Wii titles
• Sony has only one game in the top 20 (Grand Theft Auto IV on PS3)
• GTA IV sold nearly twice as many units on the Xbox 360 than on the PS3
• 2/3 of the games for Xbox 360 in the top 20 are titles primarily played online
• Of the 13 games for Nintendo Platforms in the top 20 (DS and Wii), only one (Guitar Hero 3) is not a first party Nintendo title.
• Games for Xbox 360 outsold games for PS3, PS2 and PSP combined in 2008 with over 84 million titles sold
• On average, as of 2008, the average Xbox 360 owner has more games than any other system (just over 10).

No Son of Mine

If you’ve played Oregon Trail (as I understand almost all Americans have at one point or another during grade school), this will likely amuse you:

No Son of Mine Plays Oregon Trail Like That

A Snippet to tantalize:

I once completed the trail having survived three broken wagon wheels. It took me 10 days to find an Indian to trade with for the third wheel, and I still scored 6,000 points. The other day, I saw you quit the trail immediately after your wagon capsized in the Kansas River. You lost only an ox and a hundred pounds of food. I drank myself to sleep that night.

Michael Nelson Price, whoever you are, you are one strange dude.  And a tip of the hat to you sir, for that.