If Microsoft left the gaming industry...

Before crying "flamebait", try to remember how the market changed when the Dreamcast died and SEGA exited the market. In all honesty, not much changed (although SEGA was/is missed by many).

With Kinect as the final grasp of life for the 360 (disagree? Then where are all of Microsoft's studios churning out new games and new IPs?), rumors of the XBOX branch splitting, and several key execs either leaving the company or selling their stock like Balmer did, Microsoft's XBOX brand might not be around as long as we thought and hoped.

But think: what IPs does the 360 have that can't be done elsewhere? Former exclusives Bioshock, Mass Effect, and Ninja Gaiden can already be found on non-360 platforms. Someone else can easily buy RARE or Lionhead, and Bungie belongs to Activision now. Gears of War is EPIC's, Forza is Turn 10's, Left 4 Dead is Valve's, and Alan Wake is Remedy's. You'd be hard pressed to find many games actually made by Microsoft, and those IPs that Microsoft does own (Halo, Fable) could easily become multiplatform.

Impossible? Well, that's what SEGA fans said about many of the Dreamcast's exclusives, and now almost all of SEGA's biggest franchises are found on non-SEGA consoles.

M4ndat0ry_1nstall (User) Contributor 1 bubbles 5 in CRank Score: 9480 "" PM Add as friend Track Ignore Report Exposing Sony's lies, hypocrisy, spin etc...

It is a well known fact many diehard fans of the PS3 are not well informed and see SCE as a charity and not a business. This blog is dedicated to exposing the hypocrisy, lies, truth, "spin" and arrogance of SCE and proving that they are in fact a business.

1) ACHIEVEMENTS AND TROPHIES:
Many fans believe that the universal trophy system available on the PlayStation 3 was not influenced, based on or copied from Microsoft's "achievement" system on the Xbox 360. This is in fact false. In 2006 Sony were posed with the question "Will you be implementing an achievement system similar to the Xbox 360 on the PS3?" just before the PS3s launch. This was Sony's response: "The short answer: no"
http://www.wired.com/gameli...

Read the full interview in the link. Sony had no interest in implementing a universal achievement like system on the PS3. In my opinion, that was until achievements became the deciding factor for many multi-console owners when it came to multiplatform games. And relying on developers to implement them into their own games just wasn't working out.

2) NO "RUMBLE" IN THE "SIXAXIS" CONTROLLER:
Some fans are still completely unaware as to why the Sixaxis had no "rumble" feedback. I remember reading all kinds of "spin" to justify the complete lack of rumble feedback in the Sixaxis which was even present in ALL last-gen controllers, spin such as this:

"Vibration in the Sixaxis would screw up the motion sensor"
"I don't even notice the lack of vibration"
"I'd take the motion controls over rumble"
"Rumble is a last generation feature"

The last quote is actually a quote from SCE themselves: "I believe that the Sixaxis controller offers game designers and developers far more opportunity for future innovation than rumble ever did. Now, rumble I think was the last generation feature; it's not the next-generation feature."
http://www.1up.com/news/son...

The real reason the Sixaxis had no "rumble" and was later discontinued in favor of the DS3, was because Sony were being sued by the company Immersion over patent rights. Sony lost to the tune of about $90 million. Sony insisted [at the time] that the lawsuit had nothing to do with why the Sixaxis was lacking "rumble", something we now know was a lie as the DS3 was announced shortly after the lawsuit settlement.
http://www.engadget.com/200...

Sony's shady "BUSINESS" practices don't stop there though, read:
http://www.engadget.com/200...

3) SONY DOESN'T "PAY" FOR EXCLUSIVES:
This by far is the biggest load of BS being spewed out by Sony and it's fans alike. If you are one of those people that believe Sony didn't pay Konami for MGS4, Square Enix for FF13 to be a timed-exclusive in Japan and Rockstar for Agent, then you are sorely mistaken.

A quote from SCEA on losing GTAIV: "It's just a question of how deep into your pockets do you have to reach to secure [exclusivity]? Desperation breeds deep pockets. Confidence breeds the opposite. When it makes sense, you do the deal. When it doesn't, you pass."
http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

Further proof of Sony paying for exclusives like MGS4 could be the fact that MGO uses Konami's own in store purchases, servers, online ID and registration process completely separate from the PSN. No other game, exclusive or multiplatform offers anything similar, a sacrifice Sony had to make to "do the deal".

This of course is only fiction, there is no concrete proof Sony paid for the above games like there is for M$ paying $50 million for DLC. However, take a look at this quote from Sony in 2007: "We have a very different approach to exclusives than some of our competitors," he continued. "We don't buy exclusivity. We don't fund development. We don't, for lack of a better term, bribe somebody to only do a game on our platform."
http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

Now take a look at this from 2009 titled "Sony Will Pay Devs for PSN Exclusivity": "Sony has declared a willingness to back up its aspirations for exclusive content with cold, hard cash. Its Pub Fund, just announced today, will match developer funding for exclusive games headed to the PSN."
http://www.ps3informer.com/...

4) SONY'S "BLACKLISTING" OF KOTAKU:
I'm not sure if many of you are aware or even care that Sony has blacklisted Kotaku. Those of you who are aware and believe that Kotaku were blacklisted due to their "pro-360 and anti-PS3" stance, you would actually be wrong. According to Kotaku, Sony "blackballed" them for leaking info about Playstation Home which Kotaku labelled as a rumor, effectively trying to silence them.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/to...

Next gen, Are we ready yet ?

With speculations about Nintendo releasing their new console next year a very important question forces itself at us,Are We Ready yet ?!Well there are two answers for that: No & Yes. You probably wondering now( is this guy an idiot or what ) let me explain to you first why it is yes,For Nintendo fans it's absolutely necessary to release a new console as soon as possible.Let's face it the Wii became outdated and practically dying,And as we all know by now there are massive rumors about a new console might appear in less than a month from now on E3 that will be slightly powerful than the current Playstation & Xbox ( slightly is a very disappointing word as it was the same case for the Wii to the PS2 – Xbox and it got outdated very fast than PS3 – Xbox360, and this will happen again with it's successor ) with 6 inch screen integrated in the controller, those to be considered the main features up till now,So it's a big YES,We Are Ready for Nintendo.

But that's not the case when it comes to Playstation and Xbox next consoles,We still haven't had full of the current gen. yet, A lot of great games yet to come,the current services are great,online multi-player is great.And graphic wise the PS3 hasn't reached it's maximum yet. And we still yet to see big titles which will be released no sooner than Q3 2012 like: The last Guardian – Hitman 5 – MGS:Rising and others, Do we want this games to be the last good thing this gen? of course not. That was regarding the gamers,but what about the developers? Are they ready yet? NO they are not, they are not ready more than the gamers,Why?! Let's see, this current gen started in 2005-2006 but when did we really start to see good looking games with minor or almost not noticeable bugs-glitches? Games that made us drop our jaws when we first saw it and said WOW, it was in late 2009, 3-4 years after the start of this gen. and with games like: Uncharted 2 – Arkham Asylum , And then followed by some other brilliant games such as: BF:BC2 – Mass Effect 2 - Heavy Rain, and more, I know someone would ask: What about GTA4 – Modern Warfare – MGS4 ? yes they are great games and so successful but the question is: Did they really show what the current gen. consoles are capable of? The answer is: Not as much as we thought at the time, Not even half of the potentials this gen. capable of.

Every gen in my opinion walks through 3 phases: 1- The introduction phase 2- The Live phase 3- The dying phase. The introduction phase as i mentioned earlier took 3-4 years to appear, shouldn’t the Live phase which we currently on take at least 150% time more than that? Devs. have just started to master designing the games of this gen. let's give them some time to show us more incredible work and amaze us for a few more years,So I think a 2014 is a great date for next gen consoles to appear, that will give us more time to enjoy what we have and will give devs. more time to prepare for the next gen. and I assure you, We won't get bored of the current gen. before then.

A Gaming Freelancer's Thoughts

So, I've been a gamer for...what has it been now, nineteen years? Yeah. Nineteen years. Playing video games has always been number one or two on my hobbies list. Always competing with reading books.

Books, and now subsequently writing, have been a huge part of my life. I love words and I love imagining new places. Everything is left up to my mind. I don't think anybody can picture a world from a book in their mind quite the same as others. As such, each experience is unique and special.

While games deliver that world. They immerse you in it from the start and let you see everything in it's visual splendor. This is why I'm loving games more and more with each generation. I'm not one of those people who puts graphics above all else (it's fine if you do)...that's not my priority at all. I mean, my favorite games are the Dynasty Warriors. Which happens to be based off of my favorite book, Three Kingdoms, but I digress.

What was I talking about? Right, graphics.
Graphics these days are amazing because I'm able to be immersed into the world even more. I mean, did you SEE Enslaved (based off of my second favorite book, Journey to the West)? I didn't enjoy the game play...but OH MY WORD, THE SURROUNDINGS WERE ALMOST ORGASMIC.

Anyways. I've always been a pretty big failure due to my procrastination and desire to play games or read rather than take care of responsibilities. As such, I haven't entered college yet. I haven't known what I've wanted to do.

Recently, though, I decided. I want to do something in writing. Writing that involves the gaming industry. Why not take my two favorite hobbies and smash them together? I've written about games before, but never for money.

Now, thanks to my fiancé and doing some freelance work on the side, I feel encouraged to get into college and get myself a degree in creative writing or some crap.

I've finally decided what I want to do and I'm extremely happy knowing it's something I love. It's something I won't dread going to do.

And an explanation on the picture...I feel like I took the left path, then decided to cheat and now I'm starting to head towards the other one.