50 replies to this topic

[Hell Girl]

Unlike the Hansists who can only claim, "SONY WINS!", "BEST GRAPHICS EVER!" without actually being able to explain to everyone how they've come to that conclusion, I have the ability to assess and give a perfectly honest and unbiased opinion on what I think of the E3 Conferences (shit talking aside). These conferences I find to be important because in such a short time, it gives everyone a glimpse on what each company will be focusing on in the next year or so. Huddled in a small corner of my mind, the console gamer in me wishes to be impressed by new and amazing things so I can get back into console gaming. Yet time and time again, ALL consoles have failed to match the quality of PC gaming (which is why I went back to the PC). These pre-E3 conferences will define yet another year on whether or not I even pick up a console controller (or soon-to-be waggle device) again.

So as someone who is not fan-affiliated with any specific console, my thoughts are...

Microsoft undoubtedly won yet another E3 Conference showing, and they continue to remain the champion in this aspect of E3. Every year they show that they are willing to make the changes they need to remain competitive and to retain the status of market leader of the current generation of consoles.

They had a good showing of games that made the Xbox gaming a success to this day. I liked that they spent more time showing something off instead of spinning numbers. WE ALL KNOW they've defeated Sony at ever angle in console gaming, there isn't a need to spend 20 minutes talking about it. I liked that they showed a lot of game play to some interesting looking games instead of reeling in a useless trailer of CG and canned or scripted game play footage.

Sony on the other hand seemed to focus more on games that looked flashy but it didn't appear as if you were doing much. Uncharted 2 for example. Talk about OBVIOUSLY scripted. There was nothing that Drake was doing that actually indicated that you (the player) dynamically changed the landscape of the setting or even controlled the action. It was when you progressed to a specific point that the background action kicked in to say hi. The action being displayed was extremely *artificial* and looks to be yet another one-pump chump of a game, like it's prequel. A true "rinse and repeat" game. However graphically it does look nice for a PLAYSTATION brand game, but you can still sense the little sandboxed scenes they pieced together, to give THEM more control on how each scene plays out so they can dress it up more for the gamer.

God of War 3 wasn't any much better. Firstly it looks comparible to an Xbox 1 game, namely Ninja Gaiden. I am sure upclose it shadows any Xbox 1 game. But during game play, it really doesn't set itself much a part. Much like Uncharted 2 was, you can see how scripted GOW3 is. They've become careful to only show a certain amount of objects on screen and tone down the action as it looks like the PS3 is struggling yet again to keep up with performance. It tries hard to look and feel 'epic' however it falters in execution. Hack and slash games aren't my favorite kind. But you would think that by now they'd learn how to add something new to the genre. Instead you've got the over used QTE's going on to make the game look flashy, but it'll drag you out of the experience of the game. QTE's were fun when it was first used, but we're in 2009 now. Can they not come up with something better? There were some impressive scenes in the game, but coincidentally those scenes were the one's the player were NOT in control of.

Unfortunately these PS3 exclusive games seemed to be the best they have to offer in the future, and they don't seem offer much in dynamic gameplay. ScriptStation 3? Seems so.

Now take a look at a REAL game. Splinter Cell Conviction (game of the show) definitely showed us the awesome ways they've made the game appear to be both cinematic and playable without sacrificing either one and without taking the player out of the game. Unlike other games such God of War 3 and Uncharted 2, Splinter Cell seems to give you full control over the actions taking place. And not just the actions of the characters, but the environment as well. You shape how things around you play out. It retains the classic Splinter Cell feel but with huge improvements and additions. I like how much darker the game seems (and I mean darker in the sense of morbidity). For a moment I kinda cringed when Sam was beating the shit outta the man in the opening game play sequence. They were talking about being in full control of that part of the game. That was very impressive and in a way, touching. (Had this been a Sony developed game, it would have been no doubt a limited QTE). What makes Conviction stand out against titles like Uncharted 2 and GOW3, is that Conviction seems to have taken the main character out of his normal element, smeared him through the worst parts of life and then throws him back into the game as a changed man with his own mission. THIS is what dynamic is all about. Unlike all the MGS's, the Uncharted's, the GOWs, Conviction takes a huge risk by taking the series into new directions.

Overall, MS (and 3rd parties) have shown games that are a lot more dynamic in nature, where as Sony has shown games that as very static (scripted).

Then we have the waggle battle.

The Hansists will insist that Sony's Testiglow Dildo is superior to MS's Natal. As I stated before, they are wrong on ALL counts. Unlike the trash Sony (and even Nintendo) shown us, with Natal you are NOT LIMITED to having a dildo in your hand(s). That dildo is what makes the Sony (and Nintendo) technology work. And you have to deal with it (and it's limitations) from this point on. Where Natal shows its superiority is that it accepts BODY gestures (and voice commands). Hans wants you to believe that traditional games cannot make use of it. What he doesn't not want you to know is that you can STILL use even a normal control pad (or other device) while the camera continues to accept your body gestures because the whole system isn't limited like the others. What does that mean? It means the one thing Hans bitched about Natal, will do BETTER for the kinds of games he would want to make use of it over the Sony dildo. You can sit there with a normal Xbox Controller playing a game like ODST while still taking the time to make hand or other body gestures during gameplay. Try to play a game like Killzone 2 with the Sony Dildo. Whoops! Sony limiting the gamer again!

So while I deplore the use of motion sensors for gaming -- and I doubt ANYTHING good will come from it (software wise) from any of these companies any time soon. The FACTS are, MS made Sony's attempted at a motion dildo obsolete yesterday. And they've shamed Nintendo for tomorrow. I actually felt sorry for Sony when they whipped that thing out, like a real-life head shake. They were out staged by MS (again) and I think the guys whipping it out, knew it. But at least they put on their part of the show.

I've highlighted the parts of the conferences that caught my attention the most. But my overall take on the conferences:

Winner: Microsoft
MS wins because they've put on a better show and provided the platform with the most potential for growth. It feels as if they've been giving MORE to the Xbox (and Live) platform while Sony has been taking away from the PS3. MS's outlook appears to be a lot more positive for the future and they did a great job in saying, "you don't need to launch a new console to launch a new experience" (or something like that) taking a swipe at Nintendo. Although I heavily disagree with the whole "Motion" thing. Their version of it has much more potential that what Sony or Nintendo revealed. ODST looks interesting in the way you play through different perspectives of the battle, it looks to be richer in story than the previous Halo games. Alan Wake (graphically best looking console game at E3) looked amazing and has the atmosphere nailed up the wazooters. Forza 3 looks to be spanking the GT series again with superior gameplay, options and more. MS had everything covered which I believe has stolen a lot of Sony's conference thunder. MS announced things first (3rd party wise too) and all Sony could really do was make a passing mention of those same games or come off as "me too!"

Runner-up: Sony
As always, Sony is the runner-up during these conferences. At least THIS year they put on a much better show than before (and a lot less embarrassing too). I thought Mod Racer was a good game (the best game they demoed), I'm actually gonna buy that game. Their other games looked good in presentation but all of them seem to have a kind of limitation to them. There was too much emphasis on Trailers and less on showing actual gameplay. It's nice that they're keeping up on PSN, but it still has a GhettoNet vibe to it. I don't think I like the PSP GO thingie. I'm sticking to the original. Overall I think the most beautiful game shown was the new Trico and by beautiful I mean art and direction wise, not technical. I say this because of the Panzer Dragoon vibe it has borrowed. However it was still a scripted trailer which gives Sony too much control of what is or isn't shown.

In a small way, these conferences were more about who would disappoint me less. Sony and MS both showed good things, MS showed better things. MS disappointed me less overall.

Best game demoed: Splinter Cell Conviction.
Best game graphically (technical): Alan Wake.
Best game artistically: Trico.
Best use of waggle (even though embarrassing): Natal.
Worst (software) on display: Just name any Nintendo title.
Worst new hardware: Wii Vitality sensor. "It recognizes your pulse."

E3 Conferences Overall: Average.

So will I pick up a controller again? For a limited time yes. Splinter Cell Conviction, Alan Wake and ModRacer will get me to play a console game again.

[Zondaro]

Microsoft: A-
* No nonsense press conference that focused on games
* Exclusive DLC still keeps coming to the 360 (MW2 DLC First?!)
* Next-gen esq level of motion control shown
* Social networking integrations: Twitter, Facebook, Netflix video parties
* Showed marque titles in racing, shooting, RPG, and casual genres
* Good mix of games coming out this year and next
* MGS coming to 360, last exclusive 3rd party game is now on the Xbox


Nintendo: C
* Lots of stuff from last year shown again
* Vitality monitor? WTF?
* Mario Galaxy 2! oh, coming next year
* Too much time spent waxing their Wii sales numbers, we get it... you're big badasses
* Solid DS titles shown/announced
* Metroid: Other M! But Team Ninja? Also, coming next year
* No big tent release for this fall outside Wii Fit 2


Sony: B-
* Top tier exclusives shown for PS3
* Gawd awful magic wand motion controller demo that went on way too long
* Momentum sucking PSP Go announcement... $249!?
* PSP games announced! Cheaper dev kits!
* God of War 3 was super impressive on all fronts, but March 2010 release
* Big tent releases this fall: MAG, Uncharted 2, PSP Go
* GT5... with damage, but not even a release year announced, 2010?



Favorite game demo: Splinter Cell Conviction
Most amazing tech: Project Natal
Biggest WTF Moment: Wii Vitality Monitor
If I Could Only Buy One Game This Fall: Forza Motorsport 3

[Green Goblin]

Quote

The Hansists will insist that Sony's Testiglow Dildo is superior to MS's Natal. As I stated before, they are wrong on ALL counts. Unlike the trash Sony (and even Nintendo) shown us, with Natal you are NOT LIMITED to having a dildo in your hand(s). That dildo is what makes the Sony (and Nintendo) technology work. And you have to deal with it (and it's limitations) from this point on. Where Natal shows its superiority is that it accepts BODY gestures (and voice commands). Hans wants you to believe that traditional games cannot make use of it. What he doesn't not want you to know is that you can STILL use even a normal control pad (or other device) while the camera continues to accept your body gestures because the whole system isn't limited like the others. What does that mean? It means the one thing Hans bitched about Natal, will do BETTER for the kinds of games he would want to make use of it over the Sony dildo. You can sit there with a normal Xbox Controller playing a game like ODST while still taking the time to make hand or other body gestures during gameplay. Try to play a game like Killzone 2 with the Sony Dildo. Whoops! Sony limiting the gamer again!

Nailed it.

[TheTone]

Nice Mina. Although i harbor little interest in Mod Racers, i'd be there if they add a hop turn "a la mario kárt".

my quick rundown:

Winner: Next gen console gamers.

Loser: Nintendo and their 70million wii-ites. Check your fucking pulse to see if you're still alive bitches. Some boring shit right there.

Sony and MS were very close. MS announced 10 exclusives titles and showed gameplay we'd not yet seen in them. Sony showed us what we wanted from their exclusive titles. Sony's wand was just, plain, abject failure in my eye though, while MS's motion sensor will kickstart the me-too's in two E3's time.

Sony had some KICKARSE games to close their conference. The flip side to that though is we will likely not see some of those until late 2010 (so that means ANOTHER E3 for GT5 and TRICO and maybe even GoW3). While MS will have Splinter Cell (downplay all you like guys but this is some sick gaming), Forza3 (sickness), Left4Dead2 amongst others. And the XBL update is in line with the progression it's made every year since it's launch.

But no matter how badly i'd like to score MS's conference higher, i'm drawn back to TRICO and Uncharted 2. Just stunning.

I'm most looking forward to ACTUALLY PLAYING Alan Wake and TRICO. Alan Wake looked EPIC. massive world. Demons. Day/night cycle which means exploring in the day and fending off demons at night. it's plain sickness.

anyways. that's all for me.

[Hans]

Sony wins.

Mina loses for writing that long winded post that no one will bother to read.

[Hell Girl]

Hans, on 02 June 2009 - 10:59 PM, said:

Sony wins.

Mina loses for writing that long winded post that no one will bother to read.

Quote

Unlike the Hansists who can only claim, "SONY WINS!", "BEST GRAPHICS EVER!" without actually being able to explain to everyone how they've come to that conclusion...

Mina wins.

[TheTone]

i read it Hans.

[Lunar Aura]

Microsoft: B-
Sony: C+
Nintendo: SEE ME AFTER CLASS

[Damian]

I am a little biased since i only watched the Nintendo show and just read/youtube about the others. I am mainly an RPG fan. So I am judging mainly on the rpg's shown.

MS: No RPG's

Sony: FFXIV Cant really judge because only little was shown. Note: The only MMORPG i really liked was WoW

Nintendo: FF:CC:CB I must be the only one here that likes this game but whatever, i like the metroid esque jumping and the very unique gameplay it has. I am a big pusher of new gameplay and this game has it.
Golden Sun DS: Looks really nice, the second of the series was much better than the first so i have hopes for this one.
M&L 3: Didnt like the second so low hopes for this one, probably not getting it.


So for me the winner of E3 was clearly Nintendo by default because they were the only ones showing rpg's.

[Bitchwax]

MS: A
Sony: B-
Nintendo: Vitality Sensor

[Green Goblin]

Microsoft: A-
+ Forza Motorsports 3 -- Cockpit view, Improved graphics/physics, rollover, way ahead of that other "sim".
+ Left 4 Dead 2 -- A true sequel to an already great game.
+ Alan Wake -- beautiful and spook.
+ Splinter Cell: Conviction I like pace and openness of the world now.
+ Metal Gear Rising wasn't even touched on at Sony's conference, Sony's last 3rd party exclusive falls.
+ Project NATAL -- More than another waggle rip. Read IGN's Burnout NATAL hands-on.
+ 1080p videos and games on demand
+ Community aspects (twitter, facebook, Netflix)

- Beatles segment was dumb.
- Halo: ODST looks terrible. Full price for an expansion pack?


Nintendo: F
- Everything



Sony: C+
+ Uncharted 2: Beautiful and exciting
+ The Last Guardian: Pretty but gameplay segments of the trailer left me wondering
+ PSP Go games: Metal Gear + Resident Evil

- PSP Go price: $249?
- God of War 3: Terrible graphics and gameplay looked untouched from GoW2 + March 2010 release = embarrassing
- MAG: Looks like complete shit. TERRIBLE. The audience was pumped to see the 256 player battle...but once they saw how ugly and dull the game was, they clearly didn't care anymore. Only giving it and inspirited, obligatory clap as the guy got off stage.
- Gran Turismo 5: finally has damage but not on all cars, no rollovers, physics that are far behind Forza 3, and when is it launching? 2010?
- PS3 Waggle: Shitty, shitty demo. Guy couldn't even hit the ball to start with. Then they had the bow and arrow segment which Nintendo had shown a better, FULL GAME of at their conference a couple hours earlier.



Favorite game trailer: The Saboteur
Most amazing tech: Project Natal
Biggest WTF Moment: PS3 waggle wand demonstration.
If I Could Only Buy One Game This Fall: Forza Motorsport 3

Edited by Green Goblin, 02 June 2009 - 11:20 PM.

[border]

The Winner of E3 is -- 2010. Nothing worth fighting over until then Battle postponed into next year. In the meantime, Assassin's Creed 2 and Modern Warfare will be around to delight owners of HD consoles.

The Loser of E3 is -- Wii. It didn't have any of the strong 3rd party showing that was desired or expected, it has no significant holiday exclusives, and the only interesting stuff is (again) not until next year. Rehashing NSMB for Wii is absolutely unbelievable. Reminds me of that nasty part of the GameCube era where they started porting GBA games onto the Cube, for some godforsaken reason.

Splinter Cell looks interesting, and like it might be the first Splinter Cell that I really enjoy playing. At the same time I'm starting to worry about how automated Ubisoft's games are becoming. You just mark the guys to kill and the game does it for you? I have no idea how people can mock QTEs yet applaud stuff like that. I suspect the next Prince of Persia will have a "Win Game" command.

WAGGLE -- Don't really care that much. The Sony/Nintendo implementation strikes me as better because you actually do get buttons and sticks to use. Reducing everything to a gesture or voice command is not going to simplify things....it's only going to make them more confusing. Waggle wands will work best for games, NATAL will work better for user interface. I'd rather skip all the motion crap altogether, but if forced to chose I'd rather have the setup that is ideal for real games. I suppose it's a good thing that both of these projects will likely bomb anyway, or arrive so late in the generation as to make them mostly irrelevant.

[TheTone]

@ border. i stopped reading when you basically dismissed Splinter Cell Conviction, Modern WareFare2, Letf4Dead2, Forza3 at al as "not worth buying/fighting" for.

let the fanboyism go for just a few seconds or sony will have you wait until 2011.

shit is embarrassing yo. you only just got killzone 2 remember? and i doubt you niggas even played that as much as me.

edit:
and if you hate automated gameplay then you should avoid uncharted as the plaforming elements are basically on rails. has anyone missed a jump in that game? ever? does it stop it from being a visceral joy? sc:c will be THE SHIT. 24 mixed with jason bourne. only gay people would take offense.

Edited by anthony, 02 June 2009 - 11:40 PM.

[Hell Girl]

border, on 02 June 2009 - 11:26 PM, said:

The Winner of E3 is -- 2010. Nothing worth fighting over until then Battle postponed into next year. In the meantime, Assassin's Creed 2 and Modern Warfare will be around to delight owners of HD consoles.

The Loser of E3 is -- Wii. It didn't have any of the strong 3rd party showing that was desired or expected, it has no significant holiday exclusives, and the only interesting stuff is (again) not until next year. Rehashing NSMB for Wii is absolutely unbelievable. Reminds me of that nasty part of the GameCube era where they started porting GBA games onto the Cube, for some godforsaken reason.

Splinter Cell looks interesting, and like it might be the first Splinter Cell that I really enjoy playing. At the same time I'm starting to worry about how automated Ubisoft's games are becoming. You just mark the guys to kill and the game does it for you? I have no idea how people can mock QTEs yet applaud stuff like that. I suspect the next Prince of Persia will have a "Win Game" command.

WAGGLE -- Don't really care that much. The Sony/Nintendo implementation strikes me as better because you actually do get buttons and sticks to use. Reducing everything to a gesture or voice command is not going to simplify things....it's only going to make them more confusing. Waggle wands will work best for games, NATAL will work better for user interface. I'd rather skip all the motion crap altogether, but if forced to chose I'd rather have the setup that is ideal for real games. I suppose it's a good thing that both of these projects will likely bomb anyway, or arrive so late in the generation as to make them mostly irrelevant.

Good feedback.

Tho on the QTE part. At least pre-setting a command isn't required to accomplish a goal, it's an option. QTE's, when you come across them, are required to deal with giving you no options.

[border]

Modern Warfare 2 is not really worth fighting over because it's multiplatform. Unless you really want to get into some retarded argument about timed-exclusive DLC or whatever. I'm only interested for the singleplayer, so I don't care.

Left 4 Dead 2 strikes me as a grossly overpriced mission pack. I'm disappointed at Valve going for such an easy cash-in (and not having any other projects to show). I'll wait until they have a big Steam sale on it (most likely won't happen until 2010).

Forza 3 leaves me pretty cold, as do all sim-racers.

The most interesting Xbox-exclusive for 2009 is probably Shadow Complex. Despite the embarassingly glitchy demo, it could be really sweet if they do it right.

Quote

At least pre-setting a command isn't required to accomplish a goal, it's an option.

When the automated commands are clearly superior to what any normal human could accomplish, it's not really much of an option at that point. They're going to be designing the game with the expectation that people will be using them, so I'd suspect trying to go without them will be like shooting yourself in the foot. Hopefully they'll have a "pure" mode or something for people that would prefer to do things on their own.

Edited by border, 02 June 2009 - 11:49 PM.

[Tiny Tim]

There was no winner because there were not any big enough announcements.

There was a loser though. Nintendo. Absolute crap.

Sony almost lost it for me with the announcement that the PSP Go is $250, but since they're keeping the old PSP around its not an issue.

[A Homeless]

Fuck Nazi AdMina, on 02 June 2009 - 10:40 PM, said:

I have the ability to assess and give a perfectly honest and unbiased opinion on what I think of the E3 Conferences (shit talking aside).

I stopped reading there. It's plain obvious what came next.

[Rocky]

Tiny Tim, on 02 June 2009 - 11:55 PM, said:

There was no winner because there were not any big enough announcements.

There was a loser though. Nintendo. Absolute crap.

Sony almost lost it for me with the announcement that the PSP Go is $250, but since they're keeping the old PSP around its not an issue.

Yep, no real megatons at all and most of the games shown have been known for ages now.

Nintendo wii sales slowdown will continue, because quite frankly they haven't got anything new or interesting and the fad is dieing, the metoo implementations from ms/sony will saturate the market too.

[Hans]

FF14 and Rockstars new game are megatons.

[RedWoods Mom]

I dont give a shit about "megatons" I give a shit about games to play, and Sony won that for me easily.

[border]

Could waggle die off almost completely before the next generation? Man, that would be sweet. If Wii subsides and then Natal/SonyDildo tank because they obviously have all the odds stacked against them (expensive late-era peripherals without software support).....

Ehhhh, I'm just dreaming. But it's nice to dream.

[RedWoods Mom]

Nah, waggle will be in the box for the next gen of all consoles.

[dogbowl]

Green Goblin, on 02 June 2009 - 11:19 PM, said:

Favorite game trailer: The Saboteur

I really like the premise, in fact I watched Army of Shadows the other night. That's a very dark film about the French Resistance. I'm just a little worried that the whole "bringing color back to Paris" mechanic may end up being a bit corny.

[HIPPOPOTAMUS]

Hans, on 02 June 2009 - 10:59 PM, said:

Sony wins.

Mina loses for writing that long winded post that no one will bother to read.

Nailed it.

What a shock... Microsoft wins! Alan Wake best graphics! lolol

By the way, no decent looking female would ever type up a post of that length about videogames -- yet another reason Mina is a fake.

[tyrone]

MS undoubtedly wins. If you look at this rationally theres NO WAY you can believe otherwise without being a raging fanboy.

I mean, Natal embarrassed Sony's Wii mote 2 for starters. And Sony didn't show GAMEPLAY of anything new or cool that I saw. Ho hum, GT5, Heavy rain, Uncharted 2 again. The problem is we've seen all those lots.

MS had Alan Wake, Forza 3, SC Conviction, ODST, Natal, and Shadow Complex all very cool. And all DEBUTS.

The only way Sony could have competed is if they had never shown UC2, GoW3, etc before, and those were all debuting for the first time ever. Even though really, all but UC2 look kinda ass anyway.

Even if I was the biggest Sony fanboy I would admit MS won. I dont think theres any reasonable debate. Everybody saying otherwise in this thread is just a fanboy.

Edited by tyrone, 03 June 2009 - 02:05 AM.

[demi]

MS: Awesome games, shitty afterthoughts (twitter, facebook, natal)

Nintendo: zzzzzzz

Sony: PSP omg, PS3 maybe next year

[Enigma]

Sony had the best line-up for the conference, Microsoft and Nintendo tie for second place.

[GoTigers]

FF14 IS THE MEGATON?

[Xaro]

Hans, on 03 June 2009 - 12:07 AM, said:

FF14 and Rockstars new game are megatons.

I won't comment on Rockstar's game, it could be good.

FF12 is one of the worst MMOs on the market. It is guaranteed to suck. There will be no reason at all to play a sequel to a bad game. Square simply doesn't have enough money to make an MMO good.

[border]

GoTigers, on 03 June 2009 - 02:25 AM, said:

FF14 IS THE MEGATON?

Well, when you think about it true 3rd party exclusives are pretty hard to come by in this day and age. The 1st party pretty much has to publish and fund an entire game's development if they want it to be exclusive. Microsoft had Splinter Cell Conviction, but that's kind of a holdover from the days when you could buy out a major franchise (same deal with MGS4 last year). If the game's development had gone smoothly and they had hit their originally speculated release dates (2007 or 2008), it wouldn't have been a factor at E3 '09 and they probably would have announced a new multiplatform Splinter Cell (which is what happened with Metal Gear Solid). Even Final Fantasy 14 is probably exclusive only because the majority of 360 owners wouldn't have the hard drive space to install a huge MMORPG....it makes sense to give it to PS3 because you can't effectively market it to the 360 audience. They simply don't have the capability to play your game because their system either has no hard drive or their hard drive only has about 13 GB of free space (assuming they haven't installed any games, downloaded any Xbox Originals, expansion packs or XBLA titles).

The announcements of FF14 and Agent are only kind of a "big deal" because they are the last gasp of a dying trend. With the market split pretty evenly 3 ways, it doesn't make sense to put something on just one platform. When PS2 was dominating, you could make a PS2 exclusive because you got access to an install base of 50-80 million people. At the same time, Microsoft was handing out moneyhats like crazy and not giving a shit about profitability, so you could make Xbox exclusives without having to worry about the smaller Xbox install base. Right now positions are somewhat reversed, but the 360 doesn't have a PS2-level of dominance and Sony isn't interested in handing out too many moneyhats, so the number of exclusives seems to have gone down.

I think a lot of developers learned something from the end of the PS2 era -- at the time the PS2 had a huge lead, but for multiplatform releases the Xbox version would still sell comparably with the PS2 version (or at least enough to turn a nice profit on your Xbox port). So if you have a big title, the install base doesn't matter as much. Consequently, it makes more sense to port to as many platforms as you can rather than take a small payout from a 1st party.

Edited by border, 03 June 2009 - 03:01 AM.