E3, Team Ico, Sony and a dying age. A general rant

[randombob]

Rumours have been floating around that Ico 3 will be showcased at this years E3. As much as I'd love to get excited about this, I am already prepared for disappointment.

Has anyone heard any news on whether Team Ico will be showcasing anything this year? Has anyone got any preditions they'd like to share.

On to my rant....

I'm sure you've read over the past few weeks that a host of Sony exclusive titles have been cancelled including The Getaway and Heavenly Sword 2 to name a few. I find this extremely strange as it's exclusive games that drive the console market and exclusives (done right) can bring in big business.

Sony in the wonderous days of the Playstation 2 realised this, releasing a bucket load of A grade titles including two of my favourite from the brilliant Team Ico, Ico & Shadow of the Colossus.

Granted they did not bring in the big bucks but I think it did something far greater... It showcased originality in a world of generic first person shooters and macho action titles, showing gamers that games can be more than the sum of their parts. This is something Sony needs to focus on in this current generation, beyond Little Big Planet.

Sony don't seem to be pushing the exclusive market hard enough, even when exclusives such as MGS4 bring the PS3 to the front stage. The focus is around the wonders of Blu-ray and reinventing the platform into a family friendly system fueled by the Wii's success.

Summing up this rather wordy pointless rant and not make it sound like I'm a complete Sony basher. I was blown away by the Playstation 2 era and the shear range of titles on offer. I own neither a PS3 or 360 at this stage because I've been waiting for some truely genre bending titles, I just wonder if those days are past, lost forever and every modern day game will become a 3rd rate Hollywood action fest created by money men instead of visionary game producers.


I welcome any thoughts.

 

[J'aen]

My name is Fallout 3 and I'm proving that good, original games still exist. Of course, I'm not the only one, as there are still tons of good, original games being made.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

Well, before another PS3 debate fires off...

1. Shadow of the Colossus made a lot of money.

2. The PS2 wasn't worth a wet fart until at least 3 years after its release. Nor did it become the object of utter praise that it is today until its 6th or 7th year because of the indisputable number of great games on it. It takes a while to build up a game library and if Sony tried to build 8 games at once they'd risk too much of a financial loss. They just have to take their time and choose their games carefully.

It goes without saying that, like gamers in general, those games will be about various things and of varying complexity. It would be weird if you were adamantly excited about every single thing coming out for any console.

 

[osaka35]

first party originality is a risky operation. The ps2 was pretty much on top and sony could afford to take a few risk. risk that paid off, but risk nonetheless. With the Wii so far in the lead, it's understandable that Sony is playing it safe and trying to back things that are safe bets, or known to bring in money.

basically, the ps3 will have to become a great deal more stable in sales before you see sony backing some of the more risky games.

 

[Takatchi]

I've already talked with a lot of friends who are excited about where the PS3 is going, and those of us who don't own one are looking into buying one. Yes, it's because of MGS4. Not because MGS4 will end gaming as we know it and establish some kind of utopia, but because it represents Sony's capability to field exclusive titles that don't pander to the gimmicks of SIXAXIS control or family-friendly "Watch your Blu-ray on me!" marketing schemes.

The PS3 is looking to be a healthy platform, and while a lot of people scoffed and rolled their eyes, I think dedicated gamers like me and tons of my friends are all looking forward to the future. Granted, we've been waiting for the price to go down and for new titles to be released, but with the market turning away from multiplatform releases and the list of games "You Want To Play on PS3" growing, I'm very much enthusiastic about where the gaming industry will go from here.

Mind you, I could be wrong and Sony will give up the ghost as soon as anything. That would be a sad day, because really, I think the PS3 is going to be the spear into the next era of gaming. We're kind of in that awkward stage where nothing's really new on the Wii or 360, so it falls to the PS3 to release "undiscovered" content and marketing. Frankly, it's one of the most powerful gaming platforms short of the PC, if not the most powerful, and it has the horsepower. It just needs gas.

 

[Ploppy]

I agree that Sony have made some [grave] errors in how they approached this generation, especially the lack of exclusives, as you pointed out. But I also think that problems like this are indicative of the fact that Sony are having to adjust to losing market dominance in this generation.

In the process, they have made some fairly poor decisions as they try to out-manoeuvre Microsoft and Nintendo and this has resulted in some... indecision on just what they need to do. If Nintendo's speciality is family/casual gaming and X-box's speciality is online play and live, Sony needs to get those exclusives and become the console of the core gamer. The console certainly has the potential to do it, but it's now up to Sony to stop chasing Nintendo and Microsoft and take advantage of the strengths of it's own console.

And besides, Sony were late entrants into this generation. It might take a while to realise the potential of the PS3 and bring about a 'Playsation 3 era.'

 

[LisaB1138]

Heavenly Sword should not have a sequel since it would involve stupid machinations to fix the ending. Had they wanted to do a sequel, they should have ended it another way. However, I will accept a full game of twing twang with Kai. That was the most fun and she deserves her own game.

I agree it will take time for the PS3 to hit its stride. It was slow coming out of the box, but I have no doubt it will become the go-to console in time.

The new game from Team Ico was just announced a few months ago when it was released they were looking for people to work on it. I doubt there will be much in shape to show at E3.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

Granted they did not bring in the big bucks but I think it did something far greater... It showcased originality in a world of generic first person shooters and macho action titles, showing gamers that games can be more than the sum of their parts. This is something Sony needs to focus on in this current generation, beyond Little Big Planet.

Sony don't seem to be pushing the exclusive market hard enough, even when exclusives such as MGS4 bring the PS3 to the front stage. The focus is around the wonders of Blu-ray and reinventing the platform into a family friendly system fueled by the Wii's success.

i am quite confident that they are pushing for exclusives as hard as they can. it is difficult to secure though when Microsoft has a greater install base. i believe you are confusing what is happening with what Sony intends. they just can't magically make everybody go exclusive.

as for as unique games goes, look to the PlayStation Network to fill that void. hell, some of their content is so outside of the box that they are not even really videogames. personally, i like the direction that the Sony studios have taken, with a lot of their more unique titles looking more like conceptual art pieces than videogames. Echocrome is a perfect example of that.

 

[randombob]

That's a good point, Echocrome does look very interesting, also Pixeljunk Eden caught my eye. Maybe it's the fact that I'm getting older that it takes a game with true artistic vision and story to spark my interest. At this time I'm happy to game on my flatmates PS3 and 360 but at the moment I don't have the desire to buy one (not that I need to right now)

I think more than anything I find it odd that if Sony are pushing to create interesting original titles, they keep these projects such a secret. I often loose patience on a project that may not appear years from now. I almost wish this generation weren't so focused on next gen high def graphics in order to push their product because such games have a far greater risk factor due to the long development times and the millions spent to create a game that could simply bomb, or just forget to include some gameplay. I'm not saying all next gen games are all style over substance but with much longer development times it could mean long waits for the consumer with very little payoff.

Out of curiousity, what exclusive titles do Sony have lined up for this year? I know of the major titles such as LBP, Motorstorm 2 and Killzone (although thats out 2009) What other major exclusives are on the radar?