With EA canceling NBA Live 07 for PS3, 2K Sports has a real opportunity to position itself on next-gen. Gamedaily.com spoke with VP of Marketing Erik Whiteford (right) about the company's battle with EA Sports (there's a fair amount of trash talking!), their next-gen strategy, plans for the football and baseball categories and more.
When Microsoft initially unveiled its achievements system for the Xbox 360, it was seen as not only a way to show off your gaming skills, but as a means of lengthening the enjoyment and value that every game has to offer. "I'm going to get every achievement for every game I own!" cried enthusiastic gamers, eager to rack up the points and enjoy video games in an entirely new light.
Then the Xbox 360 launched and Perfect Dark Zero asked players to gain 1,000 kills with the sniper rifle. The dream was dead.
I have to admit I am addicted to achievements. Its one of the better points of Xbox Live.
Also all the compalining about the $50 yearly fee for Xbox Live has to stop. Its worth every penny.
ps3 online gaming is free, and so is pc.
why should 360 be different? it does not offer a better service and everything on there is too expensive.
Nope PC is dead, PS3 sucks for online service so 360 has the rights to charge for offering teh BESTZ
lolololo
PC dead? Please...
Here, let me direct you to the open zone --->
Anybody that defends MS charging for online play is a douche.
that's why sony are incorperating their own system! i'm not bothered about gamerscore, but i do like to hear the achievment unlocked sound when i get it! plus, it's good when you complete a level or game!
but it's how they are put into the game that counts! becoz pdz had a 1000 sniper kill, it does'nt mean that the system failed, just that rare did'nt really think about it properley! great concept imo
I am happy however that the PS3 achievemnets will onyl eb for home. It makes game develoipers lazy. I can't believe Sony are implementing their own. It's completely destroying one of their underlying ethics that work.
I have found achievments to do pretty much what they said (means of lengthening the enjoyment and value that every game has to offer)....if the game is to my liking that is.
Perfect Dark Zero was a horrible experience and I had no need to get achievements in it. But other games like COD2, Gears of War, COD4, Mass Effect, Lost Odyessy, Bioshock and others I have played far more then I probably would have had their not been acheivements.
I loved these games but I tend to move on once I "finish" a game. With acheivements I never really "finish" the game until I get all the (single player) acheivements so I tend to play it a lot more times. Having a goal out there that can be acheived and marked as acheived does motivate me. I never played a game on the hardest setting in the past because there was no need. You beat it, the end. Now its like "did I get the acheivement for beating it on the hardest difficulty? No. I can beat that on the hardest, that wasnt so bad." and I play it (unless I think I have no hope of beating it on the hardest, or the game just doesnt hold my interest).
Acheivements are a little thing, but I think they were a stroke of genius. Not that MS was the fist to do it. It seems like the old Madden and NCAA games (when they were good) gave you ingame achievments and trophies. I see it as an expansion on that. Soon PS3 will have achievments as well. So people other then me must enjoy them.
That said the article is correct that not all developers use them correctly and there are a lot of cheap or unmotivating achievements that I tend to skip (like MP or absurdly long collect-a-thons that you cant complete without multiple replays of the same level)
Adding achievements was a dream come true tbh, it's best thing added to next generation.
Again like every other comment, your oblivious to almost the last decade of gaming, again your an idiot.
Achievements have been around for a bunch of consoles usually targeting games like they now do, but in the wake of achievements there were Rewards, where you would actually get something useful out of it instead of some gamer points to add to your gamer points.
Achievements have been around since the dawn of gaming, just in a much simpler form. Being able to put your initials in the high score list on arcade games was often enough draw to motivate gamers to practice up or keep playing... of course some guy named a$$ seemed to always have the high scores everywhere I went :)
Still, I think the best draw for an achievement is some type of in game reward. Flag collecting in Assassins Creed was just a waste of time.
I remember a lot of arcade high scores belonging to "@ss," "poo," "suk," "dik" and the like. :)
I thought it would be easy to get all the achievements. But I realized I couldn't do it. I have 15000 plus achievement points out of maybe 56000. The worst was Blue Dragon, I finish the game and only got 60 achievement points out of 1000. But hey as long as the game is good achievement points is just a nice bonus. When I purchase a game I really don't think about achievement points.
Electronic Arts would be wise to buy 2K Sports, or so says industry analyst Michael Pachter for Wedbush Morgan Securities. The suggestion came amid the move from Wedbush downgrading Take-Two Interactive's stock from "hold" to "sell" Friday. Take-Two Interactive owns 2K Sports as a subsiderary.
"It is clear to us that Take-Two's sports business would have tremendous value to EA, as it would give EA a monopoly on football, basketball, baseball, and hockey," Pachter said. His analysis concluded that EA might purchase 2K Sports for as much as $200 million dollars, but he noted, "It is arguable that EA would benefit by as much as $1 billion if it were to obtain an exclusive; this does not mean that it is willing to pay $1 billion."
Just the thought of it reinforces in my mind just what a travesty this would be. EA is turning out to be the absolute Wal-Mart of video games. Not like I don't shop at Wal-Mart myself, but when I'm, looking for something special and unique unto itself or brand I don't go to Wal-Mart, but if it's something cheap and made for 'the masses' then I do. Get my point? Please EA, just move along and don't touch anything on your way out of the door.
If EA buys out 2K sports, then I'LL COMMIT SUICIDE!
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(in gta, not real life)
Here is the list of the latest review scores from Famitsu.
The complete list:
Motorstorm (PS3, Sony): 8 / 8 / 8 / 6 - (30/40)
Sonic The Hedgehog (PS3, Sega): 8 / 7 / 7 / 7 - (29/40)
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Xbox 360, Capcom): 9 / 9 / 9 / 9 - (36/40)
Sonic The Hedgehog (Xbox 360, Sega): 8 / 7 / 7 / 8 - (30/40)
Seiken Densetsu 4 (PS2, Square Enix): 7 / 8 / 8 / 7 - (30/40)
Madden NFL 07 (PS2, EA): 7 / 8 / 7 / 5 - (27/40)
Monster 4X4: World Circuit (Wii, Ubisoft): 7 / 6 / 7 / 8 - (28/40)
A Ressha de Ikou HX (Xbox 360, Artdink): 7 / 6 / 7 / 7 - (27/40)
Metal Gear Portable Ops (PSP, Konami): 9 / 10 / 9 / 9 - (37/40)
Tales of The World: Radiant Mythology (PSP, Bandai Namco): 8 / 7 / 8 / 7 - (30/40)
Nounai Aesthe: IQ Suppli DS (NDS, Spike): 7 / 7 / 6 / 6 - (26/40)
Heisei Kyouiku Iinkai DS (NDS, Bandai Namco): 6 / 9 / 7 / 6 - (28/40)
Need for Speed Carbon (PS2, EA): 8 / 8 / 7 / 7 - (30/40)
Need for Speed Carbon (PS3/Xbox 360, EA): 9 / 9 / 8 / 8 - (34/40)
Need for Speed Carbon (Wii, EA): 8 / 7 / 6 / 7 - (28/40)
Need for Speed Carbon (PSP, EA): 8 / 8 / 7 / 8 - (31/40)
School Love! (PS2, Views): 6 / 6 / 6 / 6 - (24/40)
Intelligent License 2 (PSP, Now Production): 7 / 9 / 7 / 8 - (31/40)
NBA Live 07 (PSP, EA): 7 / 8 / 7 / 7 - (29/40)
Hamster to Kurasou (NDS, Interchannel): 6 / 6 / 5 / 5 - (22/40)
The most important rating is that Lost Plant scored a full 6 points higher than Motorstorm. That is so huge. Sony has really been pushing Motorstorm as a reason to buy a PS3.
Yeah, 30/40 for Motorstorm is definitely not good news. That is like a 75/100 here. 75 for Motorstorm?? The last time I checked, when a game got a 75 rating that meant it sucked. I thought this was supposed to be the killer app that sold more consoles. You don't sell consoles with 75 scores. Lost Planet got the equivalent of a 90.
Motorstorm is sooo awesome, NOT. I guess it doesn't look or play well like all of the other PS3 games.
Does anybody know how they score the games and in which order for catagories, e.g sound , graphics
There are 4 people reviewing the game and each scoring the game out of 10. The 4 scores get added together to givea total out of 40. Hope that helps. :)
Isn't NBA Live 07 still on 360?
I guess next gen sports are better positioned on the 360. With also Fifa 07 and PES6 only on 360 up to Christmas 2007.
Those were the best football games bar-none!! Madden is just awful! I bought it and returned it with two weeks because it could not hold a candle near 2K. Can't wit till that damn 5 year contract is over!! damn you NFL for your stupid business move with EA!!
just stay clear of NBA 07' from SCEA. THAT GAME just sucks. i traded it in for NBA 2K7 for the PS3, and 2K7 is way better.
They set the bar high and make sure their games look good no matter what system it's running on. I wish every developer had this kind of attitude. I agree HyperBear that NBA 07 was not anywhere near as good as NBA 2K7.
Sony's NBA game is by far the best gameplay and graphics wise basketball game out. NBA2k7 really isnt on the same level at all. Make me regret my 360 purchase. Returning FTW!