690°

GamesCom 2013: Did Microsoft Just Win The Conference Showdown?

VideoGamer: "There was a lot of talking, but not a lot was actually said. Sony and Microsoft's press conferences were perfunctionary more than explosive - the latter being kept only for those in attendance - even with the announcements of PS4's release date and Microsoft's commitment to making sure that FIFA is played by every human being, ever..."

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3900d ago Replies(9)
NYC_Gamer3900d ago

Won what?I believe both events weren't ground breaking and could have benefited from huge exclusive software being revealed.

MWong3900d ago

I wasn't too impressed with either conference. I wanted to see more reveals than what we saw.

gaffyh3900d ago

I think the big thing at MS was FIFA 14 being free, but that's not much compared to the slew of indie games, plus Vita price cut, plus release date, plus 32 countries at launch etc.

ShinMaster3900d ago

If you buy a PS4 and FIFA separately, it would still be cheaper than the Xbox One with free FIFA.

Just saying.

Saigon3900d ago

@ShinMaster

You said the right thing. Though MS made that announcement it reallys mean nothing when it comes to nickel and dimes. The PS4 with FIFA 14 still cost less than the inclusion of an Xbone with FIFA 14. I watched the sony conference and I am a little mad most people have yet to talk about what was really shown. Sony showed the UI in action. Sony also showed a slew of 1st party games that were in development, some that were really good and I wish they showed more of those games.

But I honestly think regardless what Sony showed there would have been issues because MS and Nintendo did not have a conference. MS showed nothing in their 40 minute closed conference but gave a lot of information. Sony showed a slew of information along with the Vita and PS4 remote play. I guess to each their own.

JeffGUNZ3899d ago

@ Shinmaster. The Xbox One is more expensive due to Kinect being bundled, simple as that. Free Fifa on top of that is a solid move by MS.

MWong3899d ago

@ JeffGUNZ
A solid move from M$ would be bundle the Kinect with the XBone and reduce the console price. I honestly thought at GamesCom M$ would release a standalone console version of the XBone. Why because the Kinect isn't mandatory anymore.

I can buy a PS4 + Fifa 14 + DLC & I get a free 14 day trail period of PS+ all for the price of an XBone.

sweendog3899d ago

@shinmaster
Also once you are done with FIFA on the ps4 you can trade it in. No such luck with xbox one as everybody has it. I was stuck with project gotham on 360 for years.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 3899d ago
bigfish3900d ago

Im not going to even bother clicking on the story

whoyouwit043900d ago

I bet you would've click if it said sony.

SpecialSauce3900d ago

good for them they need it and a lot more

avengers19783900d ago

They were both pretty boring to me. But at least I know when I can get my hands on my pre ordered PS4, November 15th can't come soon enough.

4Sh0w3900d ago (Edited 3900d ago )

I thought Microsofts great lineup and hands on approach was refreshing and easily better than what sony did which seemed to be relying on indie support and "goodwill" for not introducing drm. Thats nice but Im more interested in seeing something big from ND or Santa Monica.

Hey is this it or are they going to show more tomorrow?

walkincarpet3900d ago

MS did a great job getting themselves out of the way and letting the games do the talking. Sony had some good but set themselves up for disappointment by teasing exclusives and only revealing basically indies. Also Sony keep attacking MS as if they were back in middle school while MS is focusing on making up for its past blunders. MS wins this one, but Sony helped them.

Underworld3900d ago

Couldn't disagree more. In no way did Microsoft win. What did they announce? Fifa free with pre-orders in Europe, Fable and some exclusive content for The Division. Can't remember what else.

Sony's was much better. Not as good I was hoping but still good. Yeah, it would have been nice to see more of The Order and an Uncharted 4 reveal but we still got a lot.

Some things:

PS Vita price drop
Assassin's Creed 3 free for PS plus
Remote play shown with AC
Shadow of the Beast
War Thunder
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
Rime
A lot of indie games (positive or negative)
LittleBigPlanet Hub
Borderlands 2 for Vita
Minecraft
More Killzone
More Infamous
Spoke about some of the features and apps
Release date

That's a lot.

JeffGUNZ3899d ago

@ Underwolrd.

Give us a break, if you think Sony did a better job then MS here, you're a blatant fanboy. Sony will release a fantastic system, but MS just had a better presentation. So everyone else in the gaming world is wrong but you, huh?

Tapewurm3900d ago

simple and best answer to the title question: Hows abouts NO!

Tapioca Cold3900d ago

it's funny how everyone on here is beating around the bush... I can totally see it. No one is mentioning it.

I am a Sony guy but it's funny to see the sony fanboys all disregarding the one BIG exclusive.

It looks fantastic.

TITANFALL

kremit-213900d ago

Except it will also be on PC and 360

CrimsonSquall3899d ago

Not only is it also on PC, but when the developers have been interviewed about it coming to more platforms they never give haste to say no. Also, it's published by EA so if theres any indication that it may come to PS4, it's that.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 3899d ago
iamnsuperman3900d ago (Edited 3900d ago )

I disagree. I made my view on the FIFA thing here http://n4g.com/user/blogpos... but they didn't really announce anything but that. Sony announced and showed game after game showing support for indies. It is a shame that they didn't showcase more AAA titles but it is nice to see these indies get a focus and the fact they are coming next year

3900d ago Replies(2)
deep_fried_bum_cake3900d ago

I agree. They seem to have announced that they are giving FIFA free and reaffirmed what we already knew about indie development. I'm not really sure what else they had.

On the Sony side, I have to say that I was surprised by the large Vita focus but pleasantly so. They announced some nice looking titles like Rime. I did go through the conference wondering when the big PS4 games were coming but overall the conference left me with a positive impression.

MajorLazer3900d ago

Most are, what the N4G community love to say, 'timed exclusives' but with an added twist of 'exclusive debut'

Gamer6663900d ago

The indie message is getting old and oversold...

And if I look at my games collection, I don't find indie games are the types I keep going back to...

They definitely provide some ground breaking ideas. But, I don't want to have to weed through hundreds of shovelware indie games to find the few I actually like...

Both announced some new games but neither announced megaton games. Both announced DLC content, but I give the edge to MS with exclusive Division DLC. Sony announced their launch date and MS announced the launch titles, guess the reverse will be true at TGS - Then we can compare real shipping titles and launch dates. MS did announce a unique thing... A new third party release bundled with pre-ordered consoles, which is probably going to help European pre-orders.

So, I give a slight edge to MS.

T23900d ago

You give a slight edge for dlc over shadow, rapture , and rime ? Wow you really dont play many types of games I guess

Saigon3900d ago

I think the problem is that people don't understand indie games are what define the future of games in general. You may disagree with that but in some form of light it is true. Most of Sony main studios were originally indie companies that made a concept that Sony liked and they adopted the concept as a whole along with the game. Perfect example as of recent is MM makers of LittleBigPlanet. If I am not mistaken ND was once an indie company and Sony not only adopted the concept ND created but the company itself. Notice how whenever an indie company is bought by a major publisher the original founder or co founder seems to always leave and start another indie company. Its a rotating process. I support Sony's decision, because I understand where it could lead. And to not leave MS out, they are adapting this concept also.

Gamer6663900d ago

@Saigon.

Almost all development studios start as indies.

I do realize that indies are important, but it seems right now as if they are more important then established studios that constantly deliver great games... Naughty Dogg, Guerilla, 343, Visceral, Twisted Pixel, Sony Santa Monica, Rockstar Boston, UbiSoft Montreal, EA Vancouver, etc.

You have to remember that the AAA franchises are typically $100 million dollar adventures. By not giving focus to these huge investments gamers may end up in a situation where there are only indie games that only cost a few $100,000 to create. There has to be balanced so that great games like Killzone, Halo, CoD, BF, God of War, Gears of War, etc. still are released.

Saigon3900d ago

@Gamer666

I actually disagree with that statement about AAA games needing big budgets in order to be successful or considered AAA. the big budget didn't really occur until last generation and this current generation. The prices to produce games were extremely out of whack the last two generations. In such that we received less games overall this generation than the previous, at least by my knowledge. Look at some of the acclaimed games that were released without a big budget, but received countless awards. Most of them were indie games with small budgets. A perfect example is bastion and flower and oh there are so many to list. We've hit the ceiling on the cost of big budget/AAA games and now it is time to revert. Not meaning not to provide a good budget to create a AAA game, but applying a reasonable budget for these games. Studios shouldn't have to go out of business because they couldn't meet the demand of other AAA games.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3900d ago
pompombrum3900d ago

Well Sony were boasting preorder numbers, I'm pretty sure Microsoft didn't. That in it's own right is a victory when you can start talking high numbers.

Gamer6663900d ago

Yeah, that means your headed back to being cocky and arrogant...

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 3900d ago
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140°

Microsoft Seemingly Closes Bethesda France

As part of its plans to cut 1,900 jobs, Microsoft has reportedly shut down operations at Bethesda France, letting go roughly 15 people

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insider-gaming.com
Hereandthere2h ago

Microsoft should have left them stay 3rd party

PassNextquestion1h ago(Edited 1h ago)

Bethesda France was made up of roughly 15 people... they couldn't of being doing much

Bethesda France mainly did publishing and marketing within the region

Profchaos1h ago(Edited 1h ago)

Bethesda France focused on publishing and marketing in the region. And 15 people lost their jobs as part of the closure.

I wonder if this is part of Microsoft's strategy to abandoned physical media or possibly gamepass advertising makes their roles redundant you don't need to market a game as hard when the majority of players get the game as part of a sub which already promoted upcoming games

Tacoboto1h ago

It's France too, there's a high likelihood only 1-2 people on the team even had an Xbox.

Profchaos56m ago

Possibly guven all the leaks we know the Xbox brand is really struggling in the region.

XiNatsuDragnel23m ago

Tbh Microsoft I think Bethesda being 3rd party same with Activision would probably more competitive than thus scenario imo

90°

Sony Could Increase Your Game's Difficulty If It Sees You Complain About It

Sony has recently published a new patent that wants to dynamically handle the games' difficulty and gameplay based on the player's emotions.

jznrpg2h ago

This is something I might use. Sometimes I play some good games but they don’t have difficulty option and are a little too easy.

Profchaos2h ago

Souls games will be like that players struggling make it harder

PassNextquestion1h ago(Edited 1h ago)

I think if used correctly it could work well

280°

Xbox's Preservation Step Sets A Much-Needed Example, Especially For Nintendo

Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"

purple10111d ago

Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”

Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever

Nice one ☝️

Zeref10d ago

It's better than what Nintendo and Playstation is doing. It might not be perfect but at least they are TRYING. Unlike the others.

DarXyde10d ago

Trying? Take off the blinders for a moment, mate.

1. A failure to preserve games is just that: a failure to preserve games. Don't try to sugarcoat it: NO ONE is doing it properly. Better than awful is nothing to write home about.

2. At the time of this comment, isn't it the case that you need an internet connection to play Xbox games even if you buy physical discs that are hardly in circulation anymore? I don't have a Series X and I can't verify, but I think that is correct. I'm fairly certain you can at least play PS5 games at version 1.0 (not much of a win really when many games require day one patches). I think Microsoft's all digital, licensing approach is by far more aggressive than anyone else's. They really try to push you to game pass where you lose your entire library by umm.... Skipping a month of payments.

I don't think anyone is doing it right whatsoever. Don't get me started on Nintendo, who goes after anyone looking to preserve their games better than they ever would with extreme litigation.

Don't be a simp for any of these companies. Get it together.

PhillyDonJawn10d ago (Edited 10d ago )

@DarX never speak on Xbox again. You lost all credibility with your internet connection comment. Smh you have 0 clue and misinformed yet speaking on something you don't no squat about.

Einhander197210d ago

What has Sony done exactly? You guys keep deflecting to Sony but I am not actually seeing any results, and ai am certain nothing that you can come up with even comes close to what Microsoft has done and what they have tried and failed to do, like tie all your disks to your account on xbone.

Microsoft removed their whole indie section when they moved to the xbone because they were going to only allow games on the service that came from a publisher, id@xbox started after xbone launched and it only exists because Sony embraced indie and Microsoft was forced to cancel their plans and reverse course.

And every single game that was part of games for windows live including disk games (I have gta 4 on disk that won't work) so hundreds of games that use that DRM no longer work unless the company themselves patched it out which of course very few did.

MrBaskerville10d ago

Not trying. Tried. they killed of the backcomp program years ago. They set something up again, but sounds like it's more of an attempt to save the current library on whatever they are planning next. With luck they save everything and more, but let's see. I could see them killing off parts of the OG xbox and 360 libraries. Can't imagine that they would allow us to play Forza 5-7 in the future.

With that said, I do like what they've done and really wish they could have done more.

shinoff218310d ago

Zeref

So killing off physical media is trying what exactly. Ms don't really give a fk if you think they do your kidding yourself.

Profchaos10d ago

They are not trying this team is established for forward compatability the team is. It interested in preserving Xbox or 360 games.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 10d ago
isarai11d ago

Is that why Hellblade 2 is digital only?

Zeref10d ago

Just because it's digital only doesn't mean you can't preserve it. Just put it on an external and you have the exact same functionality of what a disc does.

MrNinosan10d ago

Guess you're trolling, but if you actually think that's how it works, I'd recommend buying some braincells.

mkis0079d ago (Edited 9d ago )

Volitile vs nonvolitile data. A disc will not corrupt either. A drive can be corrupted.

Einhander197211d ago

This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.

No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.

Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.

11d ago Replies(3)
Einhander197210d ago

Anyone remember xblig which Microsoft removed their whole 360 indie section removing hundreds of games from people?

10d ago
10d ago
Zeref10d ago

Do you know you can put your games on an external and preserve them that way? There are no benefits to discs. ZERO. Idk why some of you are still obsessed with them.

DarXyde10d ago

Because games like Persona 5 exist. It's STILL V1.00. On Playstation, that's a win because 1.00 is installed on the disc—no need to download anything.

If a game does not require any updates, it's all on the disc.

Extremely low bar in the modern era, of course. It's not much of a win by any stretch.

But for now, physical media does have a purpose, at least on Playstation.

Einhander197210d ago

That is factually not how game licensing works, try plugging your hard drive into someone else xbox, It's not going to work, and it won't work if the licensing servers ever go down.

Einhander197210d ago

Anyone remember games for windows live.

I have around a dozen games, some on Steam itself that will not work because Microsoft shut off the licensing servers.

BehindTheRows10d ago (Edited 10d ago )

I do. I STILL have games (Gears of War being the big one) I cannot access because Games for Windows LIVE is total garbage and no one has held Microsoft accountable.

Zeref10d ago (Edited 10d ago )

You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership.

Chevalier10d ago

"You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership."

Damn how many times do people got to explain your idiocy to you? You can take a copy of Persona 5 like someone used as an example and play that game on ANY console WITHOUT logging in which means I can lend the game to a friend without internet and they can play my game. Can you lend your hard drive to anyone without logging in for them to play? NOPE. That is a huge difference and if you think otherwise then sorry you're an idiot.

Tacoboto10d ago

"No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft."

Ubisoft is literally erasing games people bought from their libraries... My PS1-3 discs are useless on modern hardware. Nintendo's re-published and resold almost their entire Wii U library, and the eShop is completely dead with no BC mechanism in the Switch software. Microsoft publishes everything they make today day one on Steam and Xbox/Windows. Sony only brings to PC the titles they think you might want some years later and Nintendo won't even design a functional long-lasting joystick.

You're absolutely trolling and not serious if you think Microsoft today is the worst offender.

shinoff218310d ago

Yay steam

Not everyone fks with computers though. The disc is still the best way as a console player. Period.

Tacoboto10d ago

How do Sony and Nintendo feel about these discs from 2001-2013?

Don't be stupid, you know Xbox is the best at this today.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 10d ago
Hofstaderman10d ago

Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?

crazyCoconuts10d ago

Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.

Xeofate10d ago (Edited 10d ago )

That is not their plan, their plan is to transfer users accounts to the cloud.

Phil Spencer himself said as much a few months back, plans could have changed but I think people are reading way too much into one statement where Phil said he would allow Epic on xbox because he wants to be able to sell xbox games directly on other platforms. Aka, instead of selling Sea of Thives through PSN he wants to have an xbox store to sell his games on PlayStation without giving PlayStation any money.

Again, it's extremely unlikely that Phil plans to put PC on xbox and licensing would prevent them from just giving out other publishers games purchased on xbox copies of thier games on PC, Microsoft does not own their games.

crazyCoconuts9d ago

The thing that doesn't align with the cloud strategy is the giving up on exclusives. You'd still need strong exclusives for cloud streaming - it's still a "platform" , just with a lower upfront hardware investment. I feel like they've learned what PS learned with PSNow long ago. We're not ready to stream games and it's only gonna lose them money to try at this point

FinalFantasyFanatic9d ago

I would love that, I'd buy up some of the Xbox games if they could run on PC, like the Rare Replay, Lost Odyssey and Dead or Alive Ultimate, probably a pipe dream though.

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