It took about 4 months, but the honeymoon is over.
Don’t get me wrong… I still happily have my Xbox 360 and Wii sitting here in my office. I haven’t done any(thing else) rash, like selling off more hardware. What I am discovering about myself lately is that my gaming preferences are once again on the move… and I’ve prioritized my PlayStation 2 and Virtual Console games over this generation’s offerings. Instead of playing Ghostbusters on my 360, I’m firing up Donkey Kong Country via the Virtual Console. Rather than spending lots of time with Little League 2009 on the Wii, I’m playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 on my PS2. Heck, I even spent some time tonight playing State of Emergency on my Xbox just to blow off some steam.
Weird, huh? Not really.
With as many great gaming experiences as this console generation has offered– from Bioshock and Call of Duty 4 to Uncharted and Super Mario Galaxy– I’ve been finding reasons to strongly dislike what console gaming has become. Perhaps it’s nostalgia rearing its ugly head. Perhaps I’m getting to that point in my life when things were “better back then”. Maybe I’m struggling a bit with adapting to the changes that console gaming has undergone in the last few years. Hell… it’s likely a combination of a lot of things. I’ve opined on some of these things before, but let me list some of the reasoning behind my disdain for this generation:
For starters, an unavoidable fact that comes with getting older is that you have more bills to pay and less money to play with. When you add the fact that the economy is in the worst shape that it’s been since console gaming first got its start, that means that– for some– gaming is becoming the odd thing out. I can tell you from personal experience that game stores used to love me because I was the classic impulse buyer. I had money to throw around and consequently did just that. I preordered games constantly. I would commonly drop at least $50 each week on gaming-related purchases. Now, with the economy being what it is and with more personal responsibility to account for, I spend considerably less each month. New game purchases have been downgraded to used game purchases, and release-day buys don’t happen much.
This generation’s pricing expectations haven’t helped me much, either. My PS3 ran $500 when I bought it, and that didn’t happen until early 2008. My Xbox 360 Elite ran me $400, and that was decided upon because I knew that I wanted the extra hard drive space. The Wii, which was my “cheapest” system, still ran $250. Buying all three consoles ran $1150. Now, compare that to the last console generation: at launch time, the PS2 was $300 , the Xbox was also $300, and the Gamecube was $200. That’s $800… some $350 less than what I paid to keep up currently. In the last generation, $350 would have been enough to afford 7 new games. SEVEN.
Software pricing, especially for the 360 and PS3, has been another sore spot. I know that I’ve touched on this before, but it’s worth repeating here. For about a decade, which spanned two console generations, consumers were paying $50 a pop for disc-based games. Nintendo 64 games were more expensive because of the media choice (cartridges cost more to make than discs), but PlayStation, Saturn, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube games were generally $50 a pop– unless you were buying Collector’s Editions of games (which I honestly don’t have a problem with). In many cases, games came to retail crammed with lots of great stuff like bonus levels and costumes, hidden characters, additional quests, “The Making Of” featurettes, and so on. While there was a fair amount of shovelware out there, there were plenty of games that were worth every penny of your purchase.
Then came downloadable content, which I just recently discussed.
I’ve already said my fair share as a staunch critic of the way that publishers are fleecing their potential consumers. What I will say here is that playing “older” games reminds me when developers tried to give players everything they had before the title went gold. There wasn’t the excuse that a feature could be left out for possible addition later. Games were complete then, unlike now. If there was DLC during the 32-bit era, who’s to say that the optional quests to find the Weapons in Final Fantasy VII would have been included on the disc when Squaresoft and Sony could’ve sold those quests for, say, $3 each?
Perhaps the most interesting personal observation I can make is that I’m finding myself harboring doubt about the future of console gaming for the first time. In all of the generations that have come before, I’ve always found something to be excited about… such as new technology, new games, new experiences, and so on. Now, I find myself wanting to go back to the way things were. I don’t necessarily want the changes and advances that the industry is pushing forward. I don’t want to have to download all of my games instead of buying them on a disc. I don’t want to have co-op or multiplayer action forced upon me if I don’t want it. I don’t want to be paying over $400 for a console again, no matter what the bells and whistles are that I am promised.
I can only wonder if we’ll ever know just how good we once had it.
I picked up three new games this weekend with the last of the petty cash that I’m going to have for a little while, thanks to working a an extra gig. I haven’t played them all yet– only one, in fact– but here’s the rundown:
Help Wanted (Wii): A lot of people tend to knock the Wii for having too many minigame collections, and I can certainly see why the complaints exist… but Help Wanted had such a crazy backstory and a few interesting minigames (such as milking a cow, which I find hilarious for some reason), so I bit on it for the $30 asking price. I’m not sure what to expect from this game, but any game that reinforces a dedicated work ethic upon pain of death via meteor collision seems like it can’t be all bad. I’ll have more on this soon, especially via Twitter for quick-hitting impressions.
Little League Baseball 2009 (Wii): I’ll admit this right now: I have a soft spot for the Little League World Series. I watch games on television when I can and it’s fun seeing kids pour their hearts and sweat into the purity of a game that’s been so tainted in the professional ranks by scandal. It’s the only Little League-licensed game out there, aside from the DS version– so I wanted to see how it was. I’ve played the MLB Power Pros games on the Wii in the past, and they’re great… but the meat of the game is played sans motion controls for the majority of the game modes. That’s not so here, plus there is an option for Classic Controller input, should I wish not to break anything here in the office due to wild waggling. We’ll see how this game is.
Ghostbusters (Xbox 360): I finally gave in and bought this game after some concern about whether I’d enjoy it despite not seeing Ghostbusters II. I’m still very early in the game, having only completed two levels, but I do have some impressions to share. For starters, as a fan of the original film, it’s great to have the cast reunited– if only through spoken dialogue. Although Bill Murray seems a tad inconsistent in the delivery of his lines, Dan Aykroyd really shines in his reprisal as Ray Stantz and Harold Ramis is as deadpan as ever– if maybe a little too flat– as Egon Spengler. The visuals on the 360 are nice enough, although there are times when the framerate takes a critical hit of its own; one instance in particular saw the framerate literally drop to less than 10 frames per second. Ten. Thankfully, these instances are not frequent, but you’ll definitely notice when they happen. The music tends to loop a lot, although it’s pulled right from the Ghostbusters original soundtrack. As for the gameplay, I’m not understanding all of the intricacies yet. It’s a third-person shooter that seems to draw inspiration from several different titles. PKE scans are reminiscent of Metroid Prime, for example. I still have a long way to go and am enjoying myself, but I think it’s more to uncover the story than it is to enjoy the gameplay that gets me there.
I’ll be keeping my eye on updates for the Wii Shop Channel and Xbox Live Arcade this week to see if anything leaps out at me. No new retail releases this week have my attention, so I plan on using this week to play catch-up and enjoy my new games and a couple of days off from show hosting. I’ll also be unveiling this week’s Retro Game on the Brain soon.
There’s no question that digital distribution of console-based video games is a successful business. Services like Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Store, WiiWare, and the Wii’s Virtual Console all serve as evidence of this. Not only can consumers buy smaller-scope titles like Rocket Riot, The Last Guy, and Tetris Party… but games that once required a cartridge, floppy disc, or optical disc to play, like Final Fantasy VII, Secret of Mana, and Fable are also available. As far as the latter kinds of games go, chances are that the purchaser either owned the original game at one time or still owns it and would like the ability to play it on this new console without having to go back to the “old way”. The smaller games generally have demos (at least in the case of XBLA) so that consumers can try them out before committing the funds (and hard drive space) to buy them outright.
I generally have no problems with how digital distribution is handled; however, with the unveiling of the media-less PSP Go at E3 and with recent news of a previously-announced disc-based game for the PSP now forgoing the disc and instead being released exclusively by digital distribution, I think that this trend is beginning to become worrisome. Consumers are gradually losing the tangible nature that video games have always had. Instead of having a cartridge or optical disc to let a friend borrow or to decide to sell if you don’t like it, digital distribution limits the accessibility of the game. If your friend wants to play it, he needs to buy it… or visit you at your place.
If my console breaks or my hard drive fails, it’s also a lot simpler to put a disc in my replacement console. Having to download digitally distributed games again consumes time and bandwidth. If you’re downloading a full game, which is usually several gigabytes in size, you’re talking about a considerable wait time before you can actually play it. Sure, download speeds are getting faster all the time, but that still doesn’t replace the immediacy of sliding a disc into the console and playing right away. With bandwidth caps gaining momentum among internet service providers, it’s also possible that going with a digital distribution system may wind up presenting conflicts with these caps.
Hard drives will also have to become much larger. If you were to go download-only on an Xbox 360 Elite, which sports a 120 GB hard drive, you’d be able to have 15-20 games at a time before erasing them to make room for others and them perhaps downloading the games again for replay purposes. Keep in mind that this is the Elite that we’re talking about. If you have a 60GB hard drive, you can have access to only 7-10 games at once. These limitations will lead to fewer games being bought; why buy a game when I’d have to basically throw away another one to make room? With discs, you can buy as many as you want and swap them in and out at will. With digital downloads, you have decisions to make and will eventually wind up sacrificing games for others.
Here’s my biggest personal gripe with this trend: If I am going to spend $60 on a game, I want a safety net. If I don’t like a game, especially one of many that I tend to buy on impulse, then I like having the ability to trade it in at a game store. I make something back on it and can use that towards purchasing something else. With digital distribution, if you buy it, you own it– no exchanges, no returns. While some may think that removing the tendency to impulse-buy games is a good thing, I don’t think it is. When the ability to trade games in or sell them after playing them or beating them is lost, chances are pretty good that that consumers are going to be a lot more selective with what games they spend their money on. I know that I would be. It’s one thing for $5 and $10 games to be offered via digital distribution. It’s easy to take a chance on a few of these because it’s a lesser amount of money… so if a game doesn’t turn out as good as advertised, the sting is less painful than if you drop $60 on a game that you wind up not liking.
Before the proliferation of GameStop, and their assimilation of the mainstream used game marketplace, there were independent stores that engaged in similar practices… along with individual retail chains like FuncoLand, Software Etc., Babbage’s, and so on. As the popularrity of console gaming increased, publishers seemed to have no problem with this. Now, in this console generation where consumers are spending more money on video gaming than ever before, publishers and developers want to shut used games down. One example of this: EA basically instituted a “used game tax” on NBA Live 09 by charging for the game’s NBA Live 365 function if you didn’t have the code for it when the game was bought new. Mike Capps of Epic Games has spoken out publicly about the evils of used games, all but equating them with piracy.
The unfortunate thing about this console generation is that digital distribution gives these companies a realistic way to put an end to used games in the future. Sure, we’ll still be able to fill in holes in our retro collections, but as time goes by and if digital distribution takes hold, consumers will have to buy downloads at whatever price the publisher sets, rather than an independent source. Moreover, retail companies like Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and others could very well lose out on a portion of their revenue since hard copies of games would no longer be available in-store. I cans ee a scenario where you could buy a download code while you’re out and about, but you still have to come home, enter the code, and wait for the game to download before you can play it.
I understand and realize that a full-on move to digital distribution is not imminent at this point in time, but I honestly believe that the industry will be watching the PSP Go as a device that doesn’t support any tangible media. If consumers buy games and accept the fact that there won’t be UMDs any longer– and thus no way to trade, borrow, or sell games– then it’s likely that we’ll see a move forward in this direction. We’ll also get to see how Xbox 360 games sell via digital distribution. Granted, they won’t be brand new releases, but it will be interesting to see how consumers take to downloading full games at several gigabytes each.
No matter where this current trend leads us, it’s one that troubles me greatly. Perhaps it’s fear of change, but I think that the reasons stated within this entry lend at least some perspective on why I’m not a proponent of digital distribution. Call me old-fashioned, but when I spend my hard-earned cash on a new game, I expect to be able to play it with as little delay as possible. I expect to be able to open the wrapping (unless I buy the game at GameStop, where their new games are already opened for their customers), read the manual and get excited for the game, and then pop it in and prepare to hopefully be satisfied with my experience. That’s the way it’s been for decades, and there really aren’t enough good and viable reasons why this should change. If publishers and developers want to stem the cycle of used games, perhaps they need to release better games and attempt to use the DLC system for what it was intended for– to extend the lifecycle of a game by adding things to it– instead of microtransacting consumers and giving us yearly sequels that make past games expendable.
The retail system is fine as it is. It’s the developers and publishers who are breaking it, and that is what needs to change.
One of the great things about the Nintendo Wii is its Virtual Console feature. It’s possible to download emulations of games from classic gaming platforms from the Commodore 64 on up to the Nintendo 64. For this inaugural Retro Game on the Brain entry, it’s time to talk Baseball.
Baseball was one of the first games available for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and it’s an extremely simple baseball game. There are only six teams to choose from, and there are no stats, substitutions, or different gameplay modes. While gamers today may scoff at such a bare-bones version of baseball, it can be argued that the gameplay core of this game was the inspiration for later NES baseball titles, such as Namco’s R.B.I. Baseball and Tecmo’s Bad News Baseball. Of course, these later titles added more features, such as Major League Baseball licenses, stats, and some sort of seasonal play; however, if you look at the pitcher vs. batter representation in Baseball and compare it to the later games, you’ll see a striking resemblance.
The classic pitcher versus batter matchup.
Baseball’s appeal lies in its simplicity. The gameplay here is by no means perfect, but it manages to deliver a fun and fast-paced experience that literally anyone can get into. There aren’t any batting cursors here; instead, players can adjust where the batter stands in the batter’s box and then time swings to get decent conact with a pitch. There aren’t any pitching icons here, either; push up on the D-pad to throw a changeup, left or right to add a curve to a pitch, or push down to deliver the heat. Stats don’t play a role here, either. Instead, the game revolves around skill and a bit of luck. You don’t know who is pitching or who is batting, so it doesn’t matter if your pitcher is up to bat… he can still crank a pitch out of the park if the timing of the swing and placement of the batter are just right. When you hit a home run in Baseball, it’s a satisfying experience because it’s a result that is driven solely by the controlling player instead of being based on relevant stat bonuses or penalties.
Double down the line!
Perhaps Baseball’s biggest gameplay blunder lies in the computer-controlled fielding that’s not quite consistent. At least once during a game– and usually more than that– fielders will misplay batted balls rather badly. Grounders sneak past infielders, outfielders misjudge fly balls and sometimes get stuck while in pursuit of a base hit, and these instances will usually drive you crazy. It’s possible that these misplays are meant to keep games close or to simulate rallies and changes of momentum in a game, but that’s rather doubtful. A direct side effect of this problem is that players should not expect many– if any– shutouts. In fact, Baseball games usually end with some pretty high run totals. One other minor gameplay gripe is that computer-controlled pitchers have a strong tendency to attempt too many pickoff moves. Come on… how many throws to first are you gonna make before throwing the next pitch? Eight?
Why did the right fielder just stand there?
An interesting factoid about Baseball is that it’s actually a coin-op conversion of a Nintendo arcade game called Vs. Baseball. Vs. Baseball actually rewarded or penalized players based on events that occurred during the course of a game and affected how long they could play before another token or quarter was needed. When a player inserted a coin or token and started the game, there was a Points display on the screen that would gradually count backwards towards zero. The points would increase every time the player-controlled team scored runs and would decrease quicker if the opposing team team plated runs. If the points ran out, the player would have to spring for another credit. For obvious reasons, the Points aspect of the game never made it to the home version of the game, for obvious reasons. Aside from omitting the Points system, though, the home version of Baseball was a very close rendition of the arcade game.
The Vs. Baseball coin-op.
There were plenty of baseball games for the NES that followed this game. Jaleco’s Bases Loaded series was notable, plus LJN (aka Acclaim) published a Major League Baseball game of its own. Konami’s Base Wars allowed robots to play baseball, seeming to draw inspiration from Atari’s robotic football arcade game, Cyberball. SNK went on to publish Baseball Stars (which later spawned a sequel), along with a Little League Baseball game. These are just a few of the notable NES baseball titles; unfortunately, Baseball and Bases Loaded are the only two of these games available on the Virtual Console so far.
If you’re a fan of retro baseball games like I am, then I do encourage you to give Baseball a second look. For just $5 and 17 blocks of space on your Wii, you can take a trip back in time to see how other baseball games were influenced. It’s not a perfect game, it’s not a feature-laden game, but it is a solid version of baseball that’s actually a lot of fun and tests your skills rather than how numbers influence your performance.
Look for a new Retro Game on the Brain soon… but for now: Play ball!
It must be nice for prominent players in this industry to be so bullish. Despite recent downward trends in sales and despite the worst economy that the world has seen in generations, the video game industry is determined to think that this recession won’t affect them. We’ve seen resistance to price drops, a company actually raising prices for the re-release of a platform that’s been dead last for months, expansion of DLC and less content on actual game discs, and even the possibility (or threat?) of tacking on a paid subscription service to a popular FPS franchise.
Are you kidding me? Come on. Really?
Look around you, game companies. Look at the number of states with double-digit unemployment rates. Look at the number of foreclosures that are happening almost every day. Look at the renewed upswing in the cost of gasoline. Look at how some of the biggest companies in the United States are going belly up. In spite of government predictions and the usual spin… the reality is that we’re still in a recession, people. The amount of disposable income for the average person is gradually decreasing. Unlike we saw during the last console generation, when consumers were buying multiple consoles and had a larger amount of money to spend on entertainment, we’re seeing pullbacks now.
So, tell me… what makes you think that (allegedly) removing content from games in order to try and extend revenue via DLC is a beneficial idea? It wasn’t that long ago when developers would fill a DVD or CD to its limits with features and content. We got all of our extra costumes, bonus stages, and other stuff as part of a $50 package. Sure, there was no way to extend the life of the game via DLC then, but we still generally got more for our gaming dollar than we get in this generation. We never saw missions, gameplay modes, or extra costumes held out of games before… but we do now. Allegedly. Even in downloadable games, we’re seeing incomplete efforts that ask us for additional funds to unlock the rest of the game. (I’m looking at you, Taito.) I’ve said it before, and I’m going to reiterate it here: Downloadable content, despite a few bright spots, has been this generation’s epic failure. In many cases, it’s little more than a extra revenue stream for publishers which allows then to hold game content that we would have gotten for the standard price of admission five years ago hostage.
I know that I talked about price drops when I discussed May’s NPD figures, but it’s worth mentioning again since the issue of the poor economy and the gaming industry’s “out of touch” approach to the situation are at the epicenter of today’s entry. Nintendo’s NPD victory in May was a hollow one. Looking at the numbers for 2009 so far, Nintendo Wii sales are sliding southward– even if those numbers are still better than those of its competition in Microsoft and Sony. When decently-selling games like Wii Fit, EA Sports Active, and Punch-Out!! can’t move consoles, perhaps a change is in order. On Sony’s end, I can understand the potential damage from dropping the price on a console that they’re already losing money on, but poor installed userbase numbers are eventually going to cost Sony– especially in the third-party publisher field. Something has to be done to not only help spike sales of the PlayStation 3… but to also give the exciting 2009 exclusive releases a chance to succeed. A worse move for Sony was to price the PSP Go for $250, which is $80 more than the dominating competition in the Nintendo DSi. Yes, it’s got on-board memory now, and yes, you no longer need UMDs… but so what? Lastly, while Microsoft neither gained nor lost in May, you have to wonder whether the Xbox 360 has reached its maximum audience already. Aside from Halo 3: ODST (which I’ll get to shortly) and maybe Modern Warfare 2 (which isn’t an exclusive), Microsoft hasn’t yet shown much for 2009 that will possibly generate an upward trend in hardware sales. In all three cases, price drops of some sort make sense… but all three companies will argue that sales are fine and that consumers will come around in this challenging time. Right.
Finally, we come to the issue of game pricing. Just when you think that $60 was already tough enough to take, we get a blatant cash grab in Guitar Hero: Smash Hits and the potential of a $60 Halo 3 expansion disc in Halo 3: ODST. I know that I just talked about Smash Hits in my last entry, but it’s solid evidence of how publishers think that any game is worth full price– when a fair number of them most certainly are not. Bungie and Microsoft recently did an about-face when talking about ODST and the $60 price point, citing that the game is now much more than an expansion. Maybe the truth is that Microsoft knows that Halo fans are willing to pay $60 for a new game in the series, no matter what it is. Much like Activision knows with Guitar Hero– or Square-Enix knows with Final Fantasy– consumers will pay for the name, and not necessarily the game. It’s a dangerous assumption to make, however; especially in a recession, when games are harder to afford.
I understand completely that this is a business, and that all of these companies are out to make money. Price cuts in hardware and software or the revision of a cheap and easy revenue source in downloadable content aren’t easy choices to make. On the other hand, these companies need to stop turning a blind eye to the recession that’s going on around them. If you continue to raise prices or insist that price cuts are definitely not the answer, there is a growing risk that an industry that has grown in leaps and bounds over the last 14 years will regress back to the niche hobby that few would admit to and fewer would spend big money on. The need to not only attract new consumers, but to also retain ones that are still fresh into gaming, is paramount to the continued growth and success of this business that so many of us know and love.
Wake up, people, before it’s too late.
I should have known.
In fact, when I was in line to pick up my copy of Guitar Hero: Smash Hits on the day of its release, there was also one lone copy of Ghostbusters for the 360 sitting next to the seemingly endless number of Smash Hits copies. I had a bout of insecurity, asking myself if I was doing the right thing. $60 isn’t exactly chump change. I had already made the trades at GameStop to be able to afford the game… so it wasn’t like I could have backed out of a purchase altogether. Besides, if Ghostbusters is, in fact, a direct sequel to the movies, I never saw Ghostbusters II and therefore wouldn’t have understood the story… right? Right?
I tried to maintain my excitement as I drive home with my new game. After all, Smash Hits had all master tracks on the disc… and some wrist-breaking songs from before Guitar Hero went south as a franchise. I was especially looking forward to checking out Play With Me by Extreme, Bark at the Moon by Ozzy Osbourne, and The Trooper by Iron Maiden. During the drive home, I attempted to justify the expense to myself, but I had a feeling that I was in for some major disappointment.
My feelings were accurate.
Paying $60 for Guitar Hero: Smash Hits means that you’re part of the problem. You’re basically telling Activision– who’s already done this kind of thing once by charging full price for another Guitar Hero expansion disc with its Rocks the ’80s compilation back in 2007– that it’s OK to overcharge for a repackaging of the same game that we’ve already paid for at least once that has little or no advantage over past games. In some ways, Smash Hits is worse than Rocks the ’80s; Smash Hits offers nothing new in terms of content and has charting and instrument mix issues. If you want to sell this to me for $30 or even $40, that’s fine… but $60 is a money grab that I was impulsively stupid enough to contribute to.
Let’s talk about the content of the game. There are two big selling points for Smash Hits. One is that the disc contains many of the more popular or notable tracks from earlier games in the franchise and centralizes them. These tracks, unlike the Wavegroup covers that we got for many of the tracks in Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, and Rocks the ’80s, are all master tracks. The other selling point is that these songs are all recharted and scored for full band support, including vocals, drums, and bass guitar.
Now, come on. Songs that we’ve already played, in spite of the fact that the covers have been replaced by masters, don’t equate to a $60 game. Neither does the new charting and instrument support. Sorry. It also has Neversoft’s GH Tunes support (which I never used in Guitar Hero World Tour or in Guitar Hero Metallica)… but that’s still not worth $60. Guitar Hero Metallica had more tracks and most of its material was new to the series. World Tour implemented band support for the first time, had many new tracks, supported DLC, and introduced GH Tunes. These two games make valid arguments for fully-priced entries in the series; Smash Hits doesn’t come close. Even Rocks the ’80s introduced new tracks… but Smash Hits does not.
Have we done this before?
Once you get into Smash Hits, the progression feels a bit like that of Guitar Hero Metallica in that you open up new tiers by earning enough stars through earlier tiers. That’s fine. There are tracks in Smash Hits that I’d rather not have played again, anyway, so being able to skip around them in order to progress through the game is great. If I want to, I can go back and play them to increase my score after I’ve unlocked everything else. After making your way through the game, though, you come to a stopping point; in order to unlock the last tier– which arguably has some of the best songs on the disc– you are required to have played all of the other songs on the disc. I can see if you’re playing on Expert difficulty, as the game should be challenging you to do everything but the kitchen sink to win, but forcing players to trudge through all of the earlier songs to get to the last few when playing more casually is weak. What’s worse is that Encore performances for each tier only happen when you’ve played all of the songs in a tier first, instead of playing a tier until you’ve accumulated enough stars to move on; it’s almost as if Beenox (the development team behind Smash Hits) said, “We know there’s not a lot of replay value here, so let’s force players to play everything… it’s make the game longer.” What a genius idea. Actually… no. No, it isn’t.
Then we come to playing the songs themselves. There are two significant issues to that pop up in a fair number of tracks. The first issue lies in the charting. While some of the charting changes are decent, others are questionable in that you don’t know which guitar you’re being charted for. When playing Message in a Bottle by The Police, the charting towards the end of the song alternates between lead and rhythm guitars. May I ask why? What’s worse is that the songs have been edited differently, so they almost never end the way you remember or expect them to. Several tracks end rather abruptly (like Boston’s More Than A Feeling). Queen’s Killer Queen has you strumming to a keyboard rather than guitar in the first few measures. Now, if you remember playing the same song in the original Guitar Hero, you’ll recall that Harmonix made the decision to just have players wait through the piano solo and play along with the actual guitar when it came in. Yeah, it can be tough to have to sit there and wait if you want action, but hearing just a keyboard or piano playing as you strum a guitar is just broken; it’s like hearing a cow say, “Oink!”
Why am I strumming a piano?
The other issue lies in the instrument mixes. Some instruments sound terribly distant at times. This is the first time in the series that I’ve noticed something like this. Sure, you can go into the Options menu and manually adjust the instrument mix, but if we’ve never had to do this before, why now? Is it because these are master tracks now, and the balance is off? I guess it’s possible, but it’s weird having to strain to hear certain guitar parts.
I’ll admit that I only own a (wired) guitar, so I don’t have any band experience in Smash Hits. Perhaps having these songs playable for four parts will make the game worth it for some players… but I honestly don’t see how. Also, if you’re a vocalist, good luck with some of these tracks. Even though I (kind of) sing for a living, I’d never attempt some of these.
Fool me once, with Rocks the ’80s, shame on you. That disc with the last one that Harmonix worked on under the Activision label before they moved on to MTV Games and developed Rock Band. I don’t know who to blame for that fiasco, but that was two years ago. Unfortunately, if you fool me twice, as Activision and Beenox did with Smash Hits, then shame on me. I knew even when waiting in line that I wasn’t going to be happy with this game, but I still bought it. Sure, I didn’t know that there were going to be problems like the ones that I’ve addressed here– which made the experience worse– but I knew deep down that this wasn’t going to be worth the asking price. Now all I can do is hope that my words and experience will prevent others from doing the same impulsive thing that I did.
I’ve been sounding the alarm bells for quite some time that the recession-laden economy would take its toll on the console gaming landscape, and the NPD sales results for May do nothing to dissuade my position. In fact, if you read Anita Frazier’s analysis of the May numbers, you’ll find that it’s getting harder and harder for her to keep putting a happy face on the results.
If you predicted that Nintendo would come out on top again in May, you really didn’t take much of a risk in your prediction. Combined sales of Nintendo DS and DSi hardware again led the pack in May, moving about 633,500 units. The Wii continues its slowdown with less than 300,000 (289,500) units sold. Xbox 360 hardware sold 175,000 across all SKUs, followed by the PlayStation 3 (131,000 units), PlayStation 2 (117,000 units), and the PSP (100,400 units and likely to continue to decline until the PSP Go launch).
Allow me to put my Michael Pachter hat on here:
- Nintendo: While Nintendo can be happy with another dominating month, Wii sales continue to decline… and that’s despite the release of Punch-Out!! in May, a game that Nintendo heavily promoted. While it can be argued that a price cut for the Wii isn’t needed since it’s still far and away the best-selling console around, you could also argue that a price drop could stimulate sales of the platform and generate a new round of interest. It’s also worth noting that supply is now surpassing demand by a decent margin, something that’s still relatively new for the console’s life cycle. I don’t expect a Wii price cut anytime soon, but I would not be shocked to see one in time for the fall… especially if sales continue to ebb.
- Microsoft: Xbox 360 hardware sales were unchanged from April to May, which is certainly better than monthly declines that we’d seen starting in January. That consistency, along with the platform’s ninth straight month of outselling its HD competition in the PlayStation 3, should be regarded as positive news. An interesting question to pose at this stage of the 360’s lifecycle is whether or not the hardware has peaked. Although Project Natal may stimulate sales when it eventually hits retail, E3 didn’t really showcase any other blockbuster reasons to run out and buy a 360. Yes, Alan Wake and Halo: Reach may be responsible for a couple of sales spikes in 2010… but I think that sales will continue to stay steady or even decrease without an additional price cut or other major incentive. Microsoft is doing a good job of pleasing current 360 owners, but I can’t say with any certainty that they’re doing enough to pull in new consumers.
- Sony: The good news for Sony in May was that the PS3 actually saw the only month-to-month increase in unit sales. Granted, the increase was only about 4,000 units… but that’s equivalent to more than $1,5 million in extra hardware sales revenue for the platform in May versus April. The other platforms weren’t nearly as fortunate; PlayStation 2 sales slipped 55,000 units, while PSP sales dropped nearly 16,000 units versus a month ago. Sony’s decision to stay the course in terms of the PlayStation 3 price point will continue to mean generally poor results in comparison to the other current-gen platforms. If you consider the fairly strong software year– at least in terms of quality– that the PlayStation 3 is having and appears to continue through the rest of 2009, it’s arguable that the high price point continues to hold the PS3 back from favorably competing with the 360 in the HD arena. If and when Sony does drop the price in 2009, though… the PS3 could quite possibly outpace the 360 in terms of hardware sales through the rest of 2009 and into 2010.
Turning to software sales for a moment, how about the runaway success of UFC 2009 Undisputed? The game moved over a million units combined across the 360 (679,600 units) and the PS3 (334,400 units, outpacing inFamous as the PS3’s best-selling game in May). THQ has a new cash cow, and, if I was Vince McMahon, I’d be extremely nervous about the future of WWE video games in light of the success of Undisputed. The WWE is rapidly becoming little more than a niche activity, and it’s arguable that the WWE will see licensing offers begin to decline in value. I could see THQ letting go of the WWE license in order to conserve cash, in fact. I think that’s a very real possibility.
The successful launch of EA Sports Active on the Wii is also noteworthy, as it sold almost 346,000 units in May. That number compares favorably with what Wii Fit sold (nearly 353,000 units) and demonstrates that exercise activity games are here to stay on the console. In sharp contrast, a game that should have easily been a big seller with the core Nintendo crowd– Punch Out!!– only sold just shy of 157,000 units. That’s less than what Mario Kart (158,300 units) sold, and Punch-Out!! is a brand new game. Nintendo apologists may argue that Punch-Out!! performed adequately with an 8th place finish in software sales for May, but I expected far better results from a game that Nintendo fans should have quickly identified with and picked up early. With this success of EA Sports Active and Wii Fit and the mediocre showing of Punch-Out!!, isn’t this another indicator of how Nintendo has lost the “hardcore” gamer? I think that’s possible.
With the overall decline is hardware sales continuing, concern is quietly building that the momentum that video gaming has been building in recent years has finally started to subside. Console gaming, in general, has never been so costly as it’s been in this generation… and as this continues in spite of soaring unemployment rates, renewed gas price increases, and dramatically decreased amounts of disposable income for the average person, these high prices could quite possibly cause the long-awaited bursting of the video game bubble. Fingers are being pointed within the industry as to who shoulders the responsibility for the stagnation of console gaming revenue, but the blame can be spread equally. A recessionary economy will struggle to support any console over $300, and the slowing adoption of high-definition televisions is a correlating factor to limits on HD console successes. At the same time, charging $60 for games after a decade of prices that were generally $10 cheaper is hard to swallow… and the emergence of a greedy downloadable content model that tempts publishers and developers to purposely ship software with fewer features, only to grab extra cash by charging for those features as DLC, is perhaps this one of this console generation’s greatest failings.
Will the trend continue in June, after the E3 announcements and with gas prices soaring back to $3 per gallon? We’ll see in a month.
It’s been a little while since I updated, I know. I’ve been battling a rather nasty bug lately and had to have my dog put down this past weekend. Murphy’s Law, indeed.
There are things going on behind the blog that are positive, though. Let me share a little bit with you, in quickie format:
- After more than 6 months away from writing, it looks like I’m going to be back in the biz shortly. I have at least one gig lined up, and another is possible. I’ll be working to set a realistic but fair schedule to fit in gaming, writing, and a social life. It’s going to take some adjustment, but I am looking forward to the challenge.
- Speaking of gaming, I’ve been doing quite a bit of that during my sick time. I just picked up Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 for the Xbox 360 and it’s sucked me in, just like last year’s game did on the PS3. There are a few issues with this year’s game, such as a gross overcalculation for adverse weather conditions, an overly-difficult new putting system, and some questionable presentation choices… but, at its core, Tiger 10 not only brings most of what made Tiger 09 so great– but new additions like Live Tournaments and the new Tournament Challenge mode make this year’s game another tough one to put down. How much so? I downloaded Map Pack 2 for Call of Duty: World at War this morning, but never got around to trying it because I was so into my golf game.
- I’m still quite Twitter-active. While I don’t always have the time to write a full-bodied blog entry, it’s extremely easy to write 140 characters at a time. Most of my tweets are gaming-centric, but not all. Check out my Twitter feed to see what I mean.
- Lastly, thanks to Twitter, I have a new weekly feature that I’ll be bringing to Consoleation starting very shortly. Consoleation Retro Game on the Brain will tackle one game per week, talking about it and why it has such an effect on me. Some will be obvious choices, but other ones may turn you on to some titles that you may not remember or possibly glossed over. I’m hoping that this new feature will spark some comments and conversation.
So… while I’m convalescing, there is some good news for both myself and for Consoleation. I hope that you’ll enjoy the new content!
During a week when video gaming took center stage, Activision was behind two significant public relations blunders that are sure to accelerate the company’s plummeting degree of popularity among gamers.
On Wednesday, Activision filed suit against Double Fine, the Tim Schafer-helmed development team that is putting the finishing touches on Brutal Legend. The goal of the suit is to prevent the game from being released, at least temporarily. Although Activision makes some interesting charges in their case, such as claiming that Double Fine missed a major deadline and then asked for more time and money, the timing of the suit is highly suspect. To file suit during E3, and during a time when the game’s hype is beginning to reach fever pitch, reeks of sour grapes. After all, wasn’t Activision the publisher that decided not to publish Brutal Legend in the first place, therefore leaving it orphaned and without further funding? I can understand if Activision were to pursue litigation at a different time, or with a different goal in mind… such as claiming that they are owed a portion of the game’s sales rake because of the investment that they initially made in the game; however, suing to basically kill the game before it hits retail is not a good PR move. If Activision was so incensed that Double Fine had missed an important deadline, why did they not sue Double Fine earlier?
As if this move wasn’t enough to incense gamers– and retailers, who had already been collecting preorder revenues on Brutal Legend which may now have to be refunded– Activision CEO Bobby Kotick decided to complain to the media (again) about the lack of price cuts for video game hardware. There was some speculation (including from myself) that Sony could steal the show by dropping the price of the PlayStation 3… but that didn’t happen. The big problem with someone like Kotick whining about this issue and crying “recession” is that Activision isn’t exactly doing much to make buying games easier for cash-strapped consumers. Instead, Kotick continues to hold the line on $60 games while inundating consumers with more expensive plastic peripherals than any one person needs. Activision continues to sell Guitar Hero games with instruments for triple-digit retail prices, and the new Tony Hawk game is going to come with a plastic skateboard and retail for around $120.
How is it fair to ask console hardware companies to strip away their profit margin when Activision is doing nothing to practice what it preaches? Look at this Kotick quote:
“Of all the things that the hardware companies need to be doing right now, it’s recognizing the difficulties of the economy and pricing their hardware appropriately.”
Why can’t software companies be held to a similar task? It’s not that consoles aren’t being bought that’s a major problem (so far); it’s that games are at least $60 each– and some of those $60 games can equate to only a few hours of playing time. Let’s also not forget that downloadable content (DLC) is a secondary revenue stream for software that, if used correctly, can lead to ongoing revenue for months after the shelf life of a game. I completely understand the rising expenses necessary for making a video game; however, double-dipping and not only charging $10 more per game than what consumers paid last generation, but also charging extra for downloadable content that either unlocks what’s on the game disc already (Street Fighter IV, Ace Combat 6) or adds modes to a game that arguably would have been there to begin with just a few years ago (Resident Evil 5’s Versus mode is the nasty example here), is blatent fleecing of what’s generally been a loyal customer base.
Activision’s moves this past week demonstrate the myopic vision of Bobby Kotick’s Activision. He can’t see the big picture and how these two incidents hurt the company more than help it. The lawsuit againist Double Fine, despite any merit, automatically makes Activision look like the villain and having the sole objective of halting the release of Brutal Legend rather than seeking monetary damages for any alleged breach of contract or poor work ethic is being interpreted as saying, “Well, if we can’t release Brutal Legend and reap the revenue, than none of you can play it.” As for Kotick’s continued price cut cry, it’s not making him any friends. Hardware companies want their piece of the pie, retailers make no money on consoles anyway, and gamers don’t want to hear about expensive consoles from a company who sells exorbitantly priced software.
To close this entry, I ask you to read this piece on Bobby Kotick, written by Ben Kuchera. Although Ben takes a bit of criticism for his rather raw demeanor, I think that he’s right on the money– and he wrote this piece way back in January. It’s unfortunate that the business side of video games overshadows the fun and creative sides of the industry now, more than ever.
Now that the three major press conferences have concluded, it’s time to look back and see what went right and what went wrong.
Let’s start with Sony here. Sony’s press event was very impressive. Exclusive software surprises like The Agent, Final Fantasy XIV, and The Last Guardian dropped jaws everywhere. MAG was shown in playable form and had a full complement of 256 players at once, which is extremely impressive. Uncharted 2 and God of War 3 delivered as advertised and are two solid reasons to own a PlayStation 3. Sony’s ramped-up PSP strategy was apparent via a new hardware design (the PSP Go) and big games from franchises like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil. All in all, it was a great show; however, a seemingly thrown-together demo for Sony’s motion-sensing controller and the failure to announce any kind of price drop for the PlayStation 3 were disappointments. The motion wand may wind up working out for Sony, but many parts of the demo were rather embarrassing to witness. Unfortunately for Sony, as long as they continue to keep the price of the PlayStation 3 hardware so high, the console will continue to bring up the rear in console race. They can debut as many great games and innovations as they want, but the average consumer simply cannot afford the PS3 experience.
Grade: A-
I already talked about Microsoft’s press event, but it’s worth noting that there was still a lot of buzz today regarding what was unveiled a day ago. The show had starpower, surprises, and showcased a decent software lineup. Project Natal has the potential to be groundbreaking in terms of interactivity. I do want to reiterate my biggest complaint about the event, which was magnified by announcements from both Nintendo and Sony today. Microsoft’s software lineup for the remainder of 2009 isn’t exactly formidable. We saw a lot of future titles, like Alan Wake, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Final Fantasy XIII, and Halo: Reach… but those are all 2010 or beyond. I’m in the minority, but it felt to me like Microsoft was waving the complacency flag for the remainder of 2009. Compare that with Sony (MAG, Uncharted 2) and Nintendo (New Super Mario Bros. Wii and casual powerhouses like Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus) both offering huge games in 2009 and it’s not a good sign for ‘09. Pinning your hopes on Halo 3: ODST is risky. All in all, it was a solid show with little rhetoric and lots of showing without telling.
Grade: B+
For the second year in a row, Nintendo brings up the rear at E3. That’s not to say that there wasn’t anything good to come out of the event… we were treated to two new Mario games for the Wii to go along with a Nintendo and Team Ninja Metroid collaboration called Metroid: Other M. DS games included Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (September), COP: The Recruit, Golden Sun DS (2010), and a new Mario & Luigi RPG game. Unlike last year, Nintendo really did bring the games; however, Nintendo also brought a ton of bluster, self-congratulation, and the Wii Vitality Sensor, which measures your pulse. Satoru Iwata rambled on for what seemed like an eternity talking about philosophy between dropping the Vitality Sensor news. Cammie Dunaway continued to bore the audience with figures and rhetoric. Nintendo doesn’t seem to grasp what Sony and Microsoft have understood for awhile now: Acti0ns speak louder than words. It was an improvement over last year, but Nintendo didn’t do enough in my mind to leave people talking about more than what a boring event it was.
Grade: C
Now, to hand out a few awards. They’re not real awards, but it’s fun to give them out anyway:
- Biggest surprise: Final Fantasy XIV as a PS3 exclusive. We’re still waiting for Final Fantasy XIII, but that didn’t stop Sony from making the proud proclamation that Final Fantasy XIV is right on its heels and is going back to Sony exclusivity. That announcement takes some wind out of Microsoft’s sails after getting a taste of the Final Fantasy juggernaut. Honorable mentions: Project Natal (Microsoft), Metroid: Other M reveal (Nintendo)
- Biggest disappointment: No PS3 price drop. Sony’s press event was great, with lots of revelations and game footage. The best ending– and one that potentially could have put Sony over the top for 2009– would’ve been for Jack Tretton to end by saying, “And… oh, by the way… $299.” As it stands now, $400 is too prohibitive– even with Sony’s constant stream of awesome news. Honorable mentions: Microsoft’s 2009 software lineup (Microsoft), Sony’s motion control demo (Sony)
Now that the press events are over, it’s time to check out all of the games on display. It’s worth noting that, just because Nintendo had a weak show or Sony had a strong show, these trends don’t always project to year-end success. There’s still a lot that can happen between now and December. One thing is for certain, however– we have a lot to look forward to.
