Just to clarify, I'm a PlayStation and Nintendo fan.
I've seen a lot of people say 'The sooner Microsoft exits the industry, the better.' and I completely agree. Microsoft have done a lot of things that have not been good for the industry at all. I'll explain that later on. People who say that that MS needs to leave the industry, including myself, have been replied to with this statement: 'No, competition is good for the industry', and maybe a 'your just another fanboy' on top. I'm no fanboy, but I'm a huge fan of PlayStation and Nintendo. There is a bit of a bias (everyone has one) but I'm not letting that bias blind me. I want to explain why that statement is a not completely correct.
First off, you guys are making it sound like Sony and Microsoft or the only ones in this console race. You're forgetting one highly important company. Nintendo! The same company that has some of the most relevant 1st party franchises in gaming. That's not to say something like Uncharted and Halo aren't popular, but you can't deny that Mario is way more popular. Fair enough Nintendo aren't doing so hot right now, but if they have a decent restructuring, they can put the Wii U in the position that the 3DS is in right now.
I've said this before, but bad competitors do not do the industry any good at all. They make it worse. MS has been using the cheapest tactics in the book to make them seem better. Paying 3rd party publishers not to show PS4 games at E3, using high end PCs at E3, raiding the Nintendo Best Buy experience and damage controlling on sites like Reddit. Does that make you a good competitor? No.
You know what I said about MS doing things that aren't good for the industry?
Moneyhats, gimped multiplats, making too many games multiplats, encouraging the over saturation of FPS'. With the Xbox One, they tried to implement DRM and too much of a focus on multimedia (Sony tried it with the PS3, but it in the end, the PS3 has more exclusives than the 360, as the 360 did start focusing too much on multimedia). Yes I know they introduced the online pay wall, but Sony is doing it with the PS4. Fair enough PS+ is a good deal, but it's still a pay wall.
Anyone who was trying to defend MS because of the DRM from day 1 and says what MS was doing is the future is completely wrong. I don't want to require internet to play games. I don't want to be forced to get digitally copies. I want freedom. That's what consoles are for. Give me the choice to sit down wait for a game to download. Give me the choice to go out and buy the physical version of the game. Give me the ability to go offline with digitally downloaded games. Sony and Nintendo seem to understand that. MS don't. Look at CD's. Downloading music off of ITunes has been around for years, but CD's are still around and can be easily found. That simple.
Microsoft are just not good for the industry. I guess with the original Xbox and in some cases the 360 have put Sony and Nintendo where they are today, but they're not needed anymore.
"The Montpellier-based (France) indie games publisher Dear Villagers and Malmö-based (Sweden) indie games developer Greena Games, are today very delighted and proud to announce that the full version (v1.0) of their storybook city builder/strategy game “FABLEDOM“, is coming to PC via Steam on May 13th, 2024." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
Warhorse Studios has announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, the sequel to its popular first-person RPG set in medieval Bohemia. Here are the first details on the world, the story, and much more.
Finally!
2024 just got better!
It could be perfect if Warhorse decided and gives us a current gen update for the original game.
Gunfire has revealed gameplay of the Remnant 2 DLC 2 new archetype called the Invoker, as well as what abilities this class can do.
Hell Yeah!!!
The Ivoker´s set and skills looks badass! Some of his/hers skills buffs elemental damage. I can´t wait to try it out with the Ritualist archetype!
I agree. I think the phrase should be amended to say "GOOD competition is good for the industry". Microsoft has not been healthy for any industry that they've entered.
Remember PS2 online? Or PSN in 2006? It was horrible. HORRIBLE.
Xbox Live made online gaming happen on consoles. If you game online, you should be thanking M$ for their contribution. They pushed it and people took to it. SONY entered this gen with no clue that online gaming would actually become the norm. Want proof? PSN is still gimped.
I play a new 10 hour long singleplayer game every month or so. A little longer for the occasional RPG. The other 90% of my gaming each month is online...so...thanks M$!
Competition forces others to be better. I'm now waiting to see what M$ comes up with next gen to combat PS+. In both scenarios gamers win.
You really just blabbed a bunch of stuff and never brought anything home. You should make 3 points, give clarity on those points basically provide proof and specifics, then bring it home with a conclusion. This stuff, basically, could have been written in anyone of the news topics......... and it has.
You're not gonna win any of those gift cards with this man.
Very good blog. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not a MS hater in fact I really liked the OG Xbox and the 360 but as far as competition for competitions sake goes, evidently it's not a healthy thing at all, MS have been responsible for some of the most backwards and damaging policies to come about last gen, and going by their previous but now thankfully debunked DRM policies for the Xbox One, it's obvious that given the chance they would have continued to try and dictate to us what they say is good for the industry, instead of giving gamers what it is we actually want.
First things first, never start an article telling people that you're bias. The second people see you're bias, then your "poorly worded" statements instantly become bias nonsense that no one cares about.
With that being said, no one counts Nintendo in the race because they're pretty much doing their own thing. To this day the Wii U's online system is not up to par with what we had on the original Xbox in the early days of Xbox Live and a lot of multiplatform titles don't release on Nintendo platforms. It's almost to the point where buying a Nintendo system hinges on how much you enjoy Zelda, Mario, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, not how good the system may or may not be. Due to this most people ignore it as you pretty much need a Wii U and a PS4 / XB1 to play most of the games, as a good percent are just not releasing on the Wii U. Now if this changes the mentality will change, but that's another topic for another day.
As far as a lot of your M$ hate goes, yes they do bad things, but nothing is intrinsically evil either. Since I don't want to get into a debate about this, I will ignore talking about most of it and move onto your FPS remark. While you attribute the oversaturation of the FPS (I am going to talk about all shooters though, since a lot of people lump TPS games into this FPS hate, since there are a lot of shooters in general) genre on M$, did you ever stop to think how many shooters Sony publishes? Killzone (2 on the PS3, 1 upcoming on the Vita), Resistance (3 on the PS3, 1 on the Vita), Uncharted (3 on the PS3, 1 on the Vita) and these alone match Halo / Gears Xbox side.
Finally, M$ implementing DRM is just another push towards less freedom. Sony adopted the online pass system, though no one cared. M$ simply took it one more step and now they know better than to try it. With this being said, M$ now has to win people back, so we will probably see some nice promotions on their end, which might result in a better PSN or I suppose a less dated Nintendo Network.
Anyway, absolutes are never right, but that doesn't mean even the bad is really bad. For as much hate as you give M$, don't forget they brought in the wildly successful achievement system and really pushed Sony to offer a more complete online system (PSN), which may or may not have happened otherwise (look at the Nintendo Network...).