Why Gran Turismo 6 Needs to be a PS4 Launch Title

The Playstation 4 is on a good start with a successful conference, a successful lineup, and good momentum coming from the rebound of the Playstation 3. Let’s not bring up the Vita-----quite possibly ever. What the PS4 needs is that killer launch title that can get the system going to a great start. Against popular opinion, one game can turn a system around. Donkey Kong Country allowed for the SNES to win the war, Final Fantasy 7 catapulted the original Playstation to new heights, Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow gave the Game Boy new life, Wii Sports jump-started the mammoth success of the Wii, and lastly we have Ocarina of Time 3D arguably giving the 3DS its first true breath of life back in the summer of 2011.

So all Sony needs to go is guarantee a good, good launch title.




Gran Turismo 6 must be that game.


GT6 was announced recently to become a PS3 game, continuing the trend that each Playstation needs 2 GT games. This racing sim franchise is the most successful in all of gaming, even with Forza nipping into its sales in recent years. Gran Turismo is the perfect game to showcase what Sony’s machines are capable of. Gran Turismo 2 through 5 were games that always tested the hardware and set the benchmark as to the way racing games should look, sound, and feel. GT3 remains in my opinion one of the best racing games of all-time---ranking way up there with Forza 3, and the underrated gems of Excitebike 64, Mario Kart 64 and (especially underrated) Burnout 3.

So why is part 6 just a PS3 title this year? They should pull a Twilight Princess and release it on both the current platform and the future platform to reach out to a wider audience and in order to truly flash the specs on the PS4. It only makes too much sense. When Twilight Princess pulled off the same technique, it became part of the 2006 launch of the Wii while becoming the swansong of the Nintendo Gamecube. It sold a total of 7 million copies---most of it coming from the newer system.

With the already-established base of 77 million, Gran Turismo 6 for the PS3 is an absolute no-brainer. GT5 itself sold 10 million copies, and the prologue sold 5 million to add to that. But in order to really get the gamers excited about the next big thing, GT6 should also coincide as a launch title. Some may argue that putting it on both systems would kill sales of the PS4, but the truth is we all know the PS4 is going to be expensive right off the bat so why not reward owners of the PS3 (whom have been through a roller coaster of emotions these past few years) with the same game? GT6 for both the PS3 and PS4 would be perfect because that way owners that aren’t ready to enter the eighth generation of gaming can still get their quality racing simulating fix.

Sony, it is very simple: your top franchise deserves to be on multiple systems, and Gran Turismo 6 most definitely should become a launch title.

The Fleeting Support of the WiiU

Nintendo, are you panicking yet?



Because I think now it’s about time.



EA has announced that they are not making any games for the Nintendo WiiU as of now. Literally, none. No Madden, no more Dead Space, no Mass Effect, no FIFA, no Battlefield, no Fuse, and potentially no more Need for Speed or Burnout. Not even NBA Live---okay, that was a joke. That being said EA has not made many good games in the past half-decade, but the issue isn’t that they aren’t making games for Nintendo’s latest machine. The issue is that the second- largest third-party gaming company has dropped support of Nintendo.



Nintendo, you need to pay attention. Right now.


The only company that makes more money off gaming revenue is you and Activision Blizzard...and your profits have been steadily declining because of the WiiU. Right before E3 strikes you have already lost support of one of the big industry changers in the gaming world—and the WiiU isn’t even a year old. Yes, EA's leaving Nintendo may or may not have something to do with Origins, but money talks and if the previous Madden had sold 2-3 million copies on the WiiU last year, then Origins would have been a non-issue.

Now, E3 is your one last final opportunity to show the industry that the WiiU honestly has a shot. While the 3DS had its rough start, it never had companies simply walk out and not believe in the machine.

If your very unique product wants to have a shot, it needs to convince the others that putting forth the extra effort will pay off. The 3D effects of the 3DS require a heftier budget (and more creativity) from third-party companies, but with the recent surging sales and quality of games it becomes an under-the-bridge issue when a sequel to an obscure Gamecube game continually is the best-selling game in the world (Did anyone expect 2 million in sales off of Luigi’s Mansion 2?). EA, despite the gamepad being a perfect device for a football game like Madden, didn’t see the point in having to make games differently. It is a business over art choice, and one that can be justified because motion-control gaming is simply a thing of the past.


Nintendo’s arrogance, ridiculous patience, and inability to reach out to potential suitors is starting to churn out weaker profits and fleeting support. EA is the first to go (for good or bad intentions in mind, who knows), what makes you think they won’t be the last? This E3 is starting to become more important for Nintendo. It has those three days to steal the show and try to gain any sort of momentum towards the extremely vital 2013 Holiday Season. Otherwise, it may have to face a new name:


The Dreamcast 2.


P.S. EA is a very dick company, so this news also isn't a surprise.

How Link Wound Up on the Wrong System

Super Nintendo Specs:
*CPU: 16-bit 65816 (3.58MHz)
*RAM: 128KB (1Mb), 64KB (0.5Mb) Video RAM
*Graphics: Dedicated graphics processor
*Colors: 32768 (256 on screen)
*Sprites: 128
*Sprite Size: 64x64 pixels
*Resolution: 512x448 pixels
*Sound: 8-channel 8-bit Sony SPC700 digitized sound

WiiU Specs:
*Tri Core, 3 GHz PowerPC-based 45nm CPU, very similar to the Xbox 360 chip. The CPU features 2 MB cache, 1 MB for Core 0, and 512 KB for cores 1 and 2
*2 GB RAM: 1 GB is allocated for games and is shared between the CPU and the GPU, while 1 GB is allocated to the operating system.
*Custom 40nm AMD GPU with 32 MB embedded eDRAM and unified shader architecture
*25 GB Blu-ray based disc
*8 / 32 GB internal flash memory
*Dedicated 120 MHz audio processor, 6 channel audio for console, 2 channel for controller
*512 MB separate on-board flash storage for the OS only

Now, there is a reason why this article started out with specs of both systems. One of these two systems is regarded as one of the greatest systems ever made and contained one of the greatest video games ever made known as Link to the Past. Now, for those that have yet to know this, Link to the Past was not only arguably the greatest game ever made up to that point, but was also the biggest game to ever be released. It was leagues ahead of anything we had seen before way back in 1992. As a matter of fact by the time I got my first Super Nintendo back in 1995, the game was still the biggest and baddest in the market.

So now we are flash forwarding to today, with Link to the Past 2 finally being announced. But it won’t come out for the WiiU, a powerful system that can really use some good news and a way to make use of its weaker graphical capabilities when compared to the upcoming systems. Instead, its coming out for the Nintendo 3DS. Now about a year ago I would have agreed with this decision since the 3DS was needing some good news. But now, the 3DS is on the right path with a good variety of games that had come out and are on the way.

The Nintendo WiiU is in trouble. Not 3DS trouble, but deeper trouble. It is threatening to become the next Dreamcast if something doesn’t change soon. What better way to bring the WiiU back into the spotlight than getting a sequel to one of the most beloved adventure games in history? What better way to make the WiiU relevant than releasing a sequel to a beloved game that has a mere 1 MB in memory?

Nintendo, think of the possibilities! Think of just how much content you could pack into a 2D-action adventure game on an HD/Blu-Ray Disk system! You have the chance to take the already-long adventure of Link to the Past and quantify its length and depth by an exponential amount. You can make a Zelda game that can contain 15 Link to the Pasts and then some. I am pretty sure the entire world would prefer a 2D Link game on a blu-ray-like disk as opposed to a smaller cartridge. You can include all the necessary enhancements like day/night, month/year features, etc. P.S. the controller would have been perfect for item movements and the monitoring of maps.

You guys used to be about pushing the envelope and seeing what you can pull off with what cards you are dealt with. I had discussed this before, but Nintendo used to have the biggest games around, from the original Mario Bros. to the original Zelda to Link to the Past to Mario 64 to Ocarina of Time, and lastly Wind Waker. Notice most of our "larger" titles had been Zelda games. But in recent years, this envelope hasn’t been pushed. Even if the hardware isn’t that much stronger than the PS3, New Super Mario Bros. U could have been much bigger (My idea can be found here), and the same goes with Nintendo Land. Link to the Past 2 with the minimal graphical requirements could have been a 100-hour adventurous marathon. Instead, it’s a 3DS title as the WiiU winds up with a Wind Waker remake being one of their biggest releases of the upcoming holiday season.

Nintendo, you dropped the ball here. Link to the Past 2 should have been a massive, massive 2D adventure that is worthy of carrying the legendary Link to the Past title.

Instead, it will just become another handheld Zelda game that will make us ponder how much bigger it would have been if it had gotten the upgrade.