Too Little Too Late For Microsoft?

So the screaming, ranting, and raving can indeed produce results, especially in the gaming industry. Similar to what happened when Mass Effect 3's ending was too much of a downer for the general public, Microsoft decided to backtrack all their controversial changes and just become a regular ol' system that allows you to share games and purchase used games with minimal issue. Microsoft's battle against gaming pirates and Gamestop will ceasefire for at least another day. Gamers spoke up and Microsoft responded.

On one hand, Microsoft did a good job in changing and altering practically the entire system to calm the flames of anger. You don't see Nintendo doing something like this when there was backlash towards their designs of the Wii....and the 3DS....and the WiiU. So with them listening it definitely gave them some respect points.


That being said...



Microsoft, what on earth was your problem? They didn't just present us with bad news that didn't sit well with consumers--they did it in a most disgusting manner. They had a douchebag My-Way-or-the-Highway persona that not only spread around the internet faster than you would believe, but actually increased the stock of the Playstation 4. They insulted the military, didn't even consider countries with weaker internet service, and pretty much insulted anyone not in agreement with the online policy----by offering us the XBox 360.

This past month pretty much secured Microsoft's reputation as the anti-consumer company that sticks around because of its decade head-start on the competition far far back in the day. There was nothing attractive about the XBox One except for the lineup of games, which could have won it E3 if it had not been boggled with the bad taste of bad news and bad press.

And now we have the XBox One that we prefer, at a whopping $100 more than the PS4--when both are similar in power (And rumors suggest the PS4 is actually stronger). So now your system is more expensive, and its backed by a company that you aren't sure you can truly trust anymore. This XBox should be called the 180 because of the total panoramic shift in features in a span of a couple weeks. And the sadder thing is that it will take forever before the gaming industry actually learns that the DRM and mandatory online isn't around anymore. Remember how long it took us to realize the WiiU was a new system and not a mere extension?

Answering the question of the topic at hand, this is definitely too little, too late for consumers. The PS4 is riding the great momentum of the PS3 inches from handily taking 2nd place in the Seventh Generation and remaining the best-selling system amongst the big three in the past three years. As for Microsoft, a good bundle of their fans are so disappointed a good number of them have shifted sides towards Sony. After all, outside the extra shooters both game lineups are very, very similar.

Here is the final breakdown: The Playstation 4 is the XBox One except arguably more powerful, a better and a more diverse first-party lineup, a cheaper price, and its being supported by a company that had not attempted to stab you in the back multiple times within the past few months.





Microsoft, you have some major marketing and PR work to do.

How Retro Studios Cost Nintendo the E3 2013 Victory

Nintendo could have won the E3


They really had a chance.

However, they took the easy route and limited Retro Studios down to just two options: a new Metroid or another Donkey Kong Country game. And one can only assume how much influence Nintendo may have had on that decision---after all Donkey Kong Country Returns did outsell the entire Metroid Prime Trilogy combined and the company really needs another hit on their hands. And Retro decided to go with another Donkey Kong Country.

What killed us gamers and Nintendo fans was that the project was a massive secret for quite some time and added to the mystery by actually hiring people from other game companies---including top dog Naughty Dog. The possibilities were endless. Say what you will about Nintendo and their decisions, they have an incredible first-party lineup of franchises that are beloved and can use a facelift:

Metroid (Other M really hurt it)

Earthbound (Nintendo needs an RPG and now)

Star Fox

F-Zero (Please....please..this one especially......)

Star Tropics (Here is a video to remind you)

Wave Race

Excitebike

Mario Party

Mario Tennis

Wario Land

Even The Legend of Zelda could use a nice facelift from Retro Studios. This Texas company has saved and/or improved three franchises within the next decade, from Metroid to the Donkey Kong brand. They have the talent, they have the patience, and the attention to detail to be able to transform lesser-known or downfallen franchises and make them relevant again. Critics know this, gamers know this, and Nintendo knows this. This is why it hurts that instead of one of the series I mentioned above, we get:












And I get that Nintendo wants to play it safe. I understand that. But Nintendo's recent success in the past decade has been because of their wild card factor. Their gambles, their surprises, their attempts to try something new. The Wii overall was a gamble, the 3DS was a gamble, Smash Brothers Brawl was a shocker when they added Snake and Sonic, Metroid Other M was a shocker, Goldeneye 007's spiritual sequel was a surprise, NBA Jam Wii was a surprise, Kid Icarus on 3DS was a shock, and there are many other smaller examples sprinkled throughout. This is what we expect, this is what we anticipate. The crazy uncle factor is what has separated them from Sony and Microsoft in this entire millennium----which have become neck and neck even with this upcoming holiday season.

So now with all the wild cards hiding and the safe games being revealed what do we see? Sequels. Mario Kart 8. Link to the Past 2 (May I remind you, on the wrong system too). Mario 3D World. Smash Brothers 4 and 4.5. Yoshi's Island 2. Pikmin 3. Shall I continue? I mean, some of those games sound exciting....but these are obvious sequels to games that we knew were going to happen. But what about:

Star Fox 6 (Last game: 2006)?

F-Zero 7 (Last game: 2004)?

Star Tropics 3 (Last game: 1994)?

Super Metroid 2 (Last 2-D Incarnation: 2004)?

All we needed was one of these games to show up with the crop of usual and expected sequels and its wild card status could have won it E3. With Microsoft being absolutely stupid and Sony saying all the right things but missing games (Did it even show any non-Kingdom Hearts exclusive games???) Nintendo had the chance to shine with a purebred lineup of games. Instead, lots of apologizing, lots of 2014 sequels, and no major surprises to look forward to from Retro Studios.

Every major system has/needs its major go-to company for the peak of quality gaming. Microsoft had Rare before being forced to depend on Bungie (and losing them..), Sony has the mighty Naughty Dog (Which practically saved the PS3 in recent years with Uncharted and The Last of Us), and Nintendo is used to depending on themselves--with some success and some failure. This must stop, its time to give this mantle to a company with a superior track record in recent years. That company is Retro Studios. Give them the keys to all the franchises and prevent them from taking the easy route. Donkey Kong Country Returns 2 is the easy route.

And this is why Nintendo lost.



No Wild Card in their hand.

The Insanity of the 2013 E3

E3 2013.

Holy mackerel, you are frustrating.

This is quite possibly the most intense, most dramatic, and most cutthroat E3 we have seen in quite some time. While usually companies shy away from each other and focus more on why their machine is the best, this time Microsoft and Sony’s conferences were directly linked and jabs were most definitely exchanged---with far more coming from the Sony. Now the gaming world has become more cluttered and more confusing because we have one machine with a good-looking lineup but an ishload of issues, and on the other hand you have a machine that has none of the restrictions but----still a little more lacking on the games. Then there is Nintendo, being avoided once again, but somehow still being exactly where they want to be----except wishing for more sales.




The Microsoft conference perfectly resembled its status as a gaming giant---broken, inconsistent, not much noise, and with a sour taste in the background. It had a good lineup of sequel—er, games, and had a few new interesting IPs as well as some nice surprises (Killer Instinct). But…but…..we still can’t forget all the nonsense this company is throwing at gamers, all the insane restrictions that will be on the system. Lastly, how on earth can one get over the price tag? $500 for a system with DRM, required online, and no backwards-compatibility? Please. And one can only wonder if the Xbox Live, which is $60 to start, will be required to do the online connection. You might wind up spending up to $700 from the start for a two-controller Xbox One with one launch title.



But Sony had remained hum about the entire used-game and DRM material as well, leading to speculation and fears. But Sony, who most likely won the show by the way, delivered such a heavy sigh of relief people don’t realize (or don’t care) that you now have to pay for online gaming, something that was going to be expected inevitably. Oh, and it is not backwards-compatible. But that bad news easily doesn’t hold a handle to the potential issues of Xbox One. PS4 will play used games, will not require an internet connection, and is going with the very reasonably priced $400 price tag to even combat the WiiU’s heavier $350 price tag.

While the line-up wasn’t as pretty as Xbox One’s lineup, do remember they did announce a few games during their exclusive conference weeks earlier. Besides, Kingdom Hearts 3 (which should be the biggest game of all-time) definitely made up for the smaller list of software. And the other besides, most of Sony’s exclusive developers are still churning out games for the PS3. That being said, more and more of Sony’s announcements are gearing towards games that are actually also coming out for the Xbox One.


In terms of Day One, it totally belonged to Sony. Sony knew the right price, knew when to deliver the bad news, and didn’t dwell into stupid territory unlike what has happened to Microsoft. They knew how to connect with their audience with their consumers, and were able to satisfy their simple needs: games, nice price, and no stupidity. Microsoft even had the audacity to transform Killer Instinct into a game with cell phone game-like qualities—forcing you to pay for the characters. So even if the lineup of games are seemingly shared with the competition---for $100 less you can get a system with the same games sans the first-person shooters the Xbox systems are known for.  It was now all up to Nintendo to attempt to steal some of the fire.




Except Nintendo, much like Microsoft’s sequels entourage and Sony’s PS4 future policies played it safe----extremely, extremely safe. Nintendo’s lack of risks can probably be attributed to the recent slow starts of the unique systems of the 3DS and the WiiU. Nonetheless, their presentation suffered immensely because of the franchises playing it far too safe and close to the punch. Retro Studios’ ultra-secret project was nothing more than a sequel to Donkey Kong Country Returns. The cryptic messages of Retro turned out to be a game so safe it was unexpected. We were dreaming of potentially a Retro Studios Metroid, Star Fox, F-Zero, maybe even Zelda. As of now, as of this typing, the DKC game is all we got. Something has to be brewing; otherwise, it would have been the most anti-climactic gaming thing since Halo 2. But do remember that the last Smash Brothers was revealed the day AFTER the original Nintendo conference all those E3s ago.

The new Mario 3D game was too safe, the 3DS sequels to SNES classics are too safe, the Pokemon games were way too safe, the entire damn conference was too safe. Even the background to the presentation was safe—as the lifeless presentation slowly revealed title after title. The only reason why the safeness isn’t that big an issue is because Nintendo still churns out the best first-party titles, even if Sony has barged in a little in that debate. Pokemon is still the best RPG series out there, Mario and Donkey Kong own the platform genre, Mario Kart owns the racing genre (good-looking eighth installment by the way), and lastly---there’s Smash Brothers.---which has sold 24 million copies within just 3 games. Nintendo knows this, and they need to save the WiiU. So it makes sense. However, no surprises. No price cut, no Ambassador Program like in the 3DS, no returning IPs, nothing.




Except Mega Man on Smash Brothers 4. That was a pleasant, pleasant surprise. A few more of these and they could have won the conference.


All in all, the conference was a budding realm of controversy, jabs, and surprises. In the poker game of the gaming industry, Nintendo is the one that folds on a hand of two pairs, Sony is the one that doesn’t take advantage of its royal flush, and Microsoft is the one that raises the pot while holding a pair of clubs. There might be a few new surprises and revelations within the next couple days after the publishing of this article, but for now there is no clear winner, we just have a clear loser:


Us gamers, whom are still probably just as confused as to where to spend the money this holiday season.

The Disappearing Appeal of XBox Gaming

So are we watching the resurgence of a former champion in Sony?


Or a total collapse of another company in the gaming industry in Microsoft?

It is like the eternal sports question, is it a comeback or is it a collapse?


Sony’s return to prominence has been happening for the past couple of years, as the PS3 has cranked out a variety of gems and allowed itself to leapfrog the Xbox 360 into second place in the seventh generation market share. Although the Vita is still a mess, the PS3 has remained relevant, and the former ugly image associated with Sony is slowly drifting away.


On the other hand: Microsoft is in major trouble.


They may not even see it yet.


The 360 hasn’t come up with a major original hit in quite some time. The Halo appeal has drifted, the other major Microsoft franchises has seemingly disappeared, third-party games are beginning to do better on the PS3, and Japan is still positively avoiding the company like the plague (The 360 has already been outsold by the Vita in lifetime sales over in the Japanese gamespace). But none of this can possibly prepare you for the potential backlash of the Xbox One.



Required Online.



Think about this for a second. They want your Xbox One to be online---at least once a day or your game will experience issues. So this pretty much ruins your Xbox experience if you are overseas fighting, if you are in a cruise ship, if you are on vacation in a hotel, in an area with very poor online reception, in an area that had just been hit by a disaster, or if you had just moved to a new place and await for cable to arrive. There are dozens of other scenarios in which this new requirement would make for gaming to become an absolute chore on the new Microsoft machine, but then I would drift off-topic.


And wait…what if Microsoft’s servers went down?

What if Xbox Live got attacked?


The fact is this: Microsoft is alienating its entire audience and fanbase: hardcore and casual. Casual gamers would have absolutely no idea how to maneuver around life with the Xbox One restricting your damn game from playing if it didn’t touch the internet in 24 hours, and the hardcore most likely won’t appreciate the fact that you can’t share the games at launch, can’t re-sell the games at launch (and possibly beyond), you have to wait 30 days just to share certain content with someone else, and can’t even play Xbox 360 games in this new machine.


Gaming is supposed to be simple.
Gaming is supposed to unite people together.


United gaming is essential, which is why the SNES remains one of the best systems ever (the slew of excellent 2-player games), why the N64 survived (Became the ultimate party system until the invention of the Xbox Live), why the PS2 won the war while the Gamecube faltered (Online gaming was best here, and Nintendo didn’t embrace the internet—leading to a last-place finish), why the Nintendo Wii was at one point on pace to shatter every sales record known to man (I had pretty much declared the Wii the winner two years ago because of how freakin' big a sales lead it had) and why the Xbox 360 was able to survive in 1st/2nd for so long with the weakest 1st-party lineup (Xbox Live was wonderful in recent years).


Connectivity is what makes Microsoft’s systems—why on Earth would you damage this?

Xbox Live is usually synonymous with good online gaming. All we want is a next-generation system with good games, good third-party support, and good online capabilities. It is such a simple formula. Nintendo doesn’t follow this because they don’t have the Sony/Microsoft budget so they do a smoke-and-mirrors technique of trying to change the rules. The Playstation 3 learned that great games push great hardware sales. The Last of Us is the latest example of Sony truly digging deep into its first-party weapons to continue the positive upswing.

It is so obscenely simple. We want games. Games. Games. Games. The WiiU would not have been such a disaster if it weren't for the total lack of games. No television/gaming connections, no extra random features, and especially no pointless and irritating restrictions that makes a simple hobby known as gaming become a fight for justifiable expensive entertainment. And what are the chances that with these constraints Microsoft can quietly jack the price of the games themselves? Up to this point, anything is possible.

Microsoft managed to shatter any momentum it could have had at the expense of the flailing Nintendo WiiU and the also-questionable Playstation 4 (Sony, don’t think that I have forgotten that your stance on DRM remains ho-hum). Now, the WiiU doesn’t look that bad because you can actually share the games, while Sony isn’t pushing for the stupid daily online requirement.



Microsoft, you are ridiculous. You lost a potential buyer this year.




And I am pretty sure you are going to lose many more if you continue down this path.

The Bond Villian Syndrome of Sony and Microsoft

Nintendo is like James Bond, a flashy character that's seen better days now he is tied up and inches away from being killed. This is it. The only way to get out of this alive is through other factors beyond his control.






Sony and Microsoft are the Bond villains that have successfully mounted a comeback, successfully had their plan in motion, and now have James Bond on the ropes, inches from his death. All they need to do is pull that one switch. Yet, inexplicably, they delay their death blow, allowing for James Bond to escape.

This is what essentially has happened in the past couple of weeks. Both the Playstation 4 and the XBox One have had their opportunity to unveil their system, and pretty much strip every last ounce of hope from the Nintendo WiiU. Instead, with a series of ridiculous decisions we now find ourselves seeing some hope in Nintendo---while uncertainty faces the gamers that want the next-gen systems but aren't sure how much they have to actually sacrifice.

Let's start with the issue of Backwards Compatibility: there is none. Sony's success with the PS2 as well as the only reason the PS3 had any playing time can be attributed to the ability to play games from the past. The sixth generation saw the PS2 as the only backwards compatible machine as it overtook the Gamecube, the XBox, and the Dreamcast quite easily. The PS3 had an extremely rough start because of its pure lack of games--but with the ability to play PS2 games (at first, not later in the seventh generation) definitely helped a little.

And then there's the XBox One, also not backwards compatible. Now, we have layers of advancements in gaming and production technology and we still can't find a way to play older games? What about downloadable games from the PS3 and XBox 360 days? What happens to those? Well, Microsoft and Sony are still a little iffy on the subject. The answers remained mixed.

And now there's the DRM issue. Nintendo not only has the ability to play Wii games (and games even older, but that feature remains extremely limited and extremely far from reaching its potential) but it does not believe in the DRM technique. The DRM technique is basically charging people money for using someone else's video game----that or not even have the chance to play it unless you buy your own copy or play it over at someone elses' house. Once again, Sony and Microsoft were mum about the issue.

So now begs the statement: why? Why? Why? Why?

Sony, you had it. You are riding so much momentum it looks like a tsunami sometimes. And yet, somehow, you not only manage to minimize excitement of the PS4, but gave the WiiU a good shot. Why on earth did you eliminate backwards compatibility? The PS3 had an amazing underrated arsenal of games that gamers realized only way too late and too deep into the lifecycle. You could have continued sales of PS3 games as well as PS4 games if you had made the smallest of efforts and allowed us to reach into the past. And remaining quiet about the DRM is issue is quite scary.

Microsoft, you also blew it. Your conference came off as company that wants to do everything, which means focusing less on games and gamers. Did gamers really want to hear about the exclusive content of the NFL? Not really. And now you are required to be online at least once a day? Required online connectivity with the Kinect at the helm is a hacker's dream come true, not to mention a conspiracy theorists' nightmare. So instead of us being excited for the upcoming E3, we are now worried about what we might see: Required online, potential DRM features, no backwards compatibility, and a strong potential for a heavy price tag at launch.



Nintendo, you escaped, for now. It is up to you to take advantage of the small breathing room that has just occurred.