Did Microsoft Rip Off Miis? - And Other Hard Questions We Asked At E3

Multiplayer MTV writes: "Want to see some of the E3 coverage we aired on MTV? Check out this piece which aired earlier today and features top guys at Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony answering some of the tougher questions I asked them at E3.

* To Microsoft: Are Xbox Avatars cribbed from the Wii's Miis?
* To Sony: How did you guys feel when Microsoft announced that "FFXIII" was coming to Xbox 360?
* To Nintendo: What do you think of the hardcore fan's complaints about Nintendo's showing at E3?"

[BulletToothtony]

MS should've definitely should've tried to come up with something cool.. some spore type avatar or something.. it wouldn't had looked like the miis and wouldve been cooler to create.

But now it looks like they just copied nintendo..

[Boldy]

then everyone would be sayin it's a knock off of Spore. There's no real way of doing something like this without getting hammered by fanboys. Make the avatars look more realistic: Home knockoff. Make them more cartoony: Mii knockoff. Make them look like they took inspiration from anything: knock off.

[Megatron08]

I have to agree with Boldy not only that but avatars have been done to death so there is nothing you can really come up with that someone isnt goin to say its a a rip off of something else.

[f789790]

I doubt anyone cares though.

[panasonic23]

did sony copy ms xbl did sony copy ms achievement

[PirateThom]

Microsoft didn't invent online gaming or achievements, even though they try to make people (you) believe they did.

Dreamcast had online play.

Many games have had "awards" for doing tasks.

All Microsoft did was take these things and tweak them and call it new and innovative, when it's not.

[Tmac]

Yeah, educate yourself so Pirate doesnt have to do it for you.

[socomnick]

Segas multiplayer was designed by MS.

[ChickeyCantor]

" Dreamcast had online play. "
Hell even Snes had it ( no really it had online play in japan)

[PirateThom]

Well, doesn't matter SNES had it.

And Microsoft had nothing to do with SegaNet, the Dreamcast ran a version of a Microsoft OS, but SegaNet was entirely Sega.

[Xi]

Microsoft did develop it for sega. It's why they had such a good standing with one another, if you read the book about how the Xbox got started you see a bunch of interesting things.

It's also the reason peter moore got hired for the xbox devision, and why the xbox had sega launch titles like jest set radio future, and other remakes like shenmue, even though much more suited to the ps2.

Many of the members of sega also got jobs working at Xbox Japan.

[mistertwoturbo]

Online gaming? Something millions were doing with PCs in the U.S with games like Counterstrike, Unreal, and Starcraft.

And guess what!?!?!?!?! It was allllllllllllllllll free to play online.

[Leathersoup]

Well if you really wanna be nasty about it. Microsoft was the first company to "standardize" online gaming communications with Directplay being part of Direct X. That was before Dreamcast actually funny thing you should try to use the Dreamcast to "discredit" microsoft. The dreamcast ran on a Microsoft CE OS.
Pray tell... what exactly has Sony done that's been innovative lately? Rip off Second Life? Rip off Nintendo's motion control? Give you trophies?

[ICUP]

Is this a trick question?

[name]

Did microsoft rip off singstar with lips?

[wicked]

Karaoke Revolution was on the xbox and PS2 before singstar. I see LIPS as an update to this.

[Solid_Snake666]

where have you been these past days

[Smacktard]

Great, I can't watch the video cause I live in Canada. What the hell is the deal with that, anyways? Is it uploaded to Youtube, or can someone summarize the responses to the questions for me?

[panasonic23]

Karaoke Revolution: November, 2003 (PS2, Xbox, GameCube)
- Xbox Music Mixer: 1st December, 2003 (Xbox)

============================= ===================== =======

- Singstar: 21st May, 2004 (PS2)
- UltraStar: July, 2004 (Windows, Mac, Linux)
- Get On Da Mic: October, 2004 (PS2)
- Boogie: 9th August, 2007 (Wii, PS2, DS)
- High School Musical Sing It!: 26th October, 2007 (PS2, Wii)
- LIPS: TBA Holiday 2008 (Xbox360)

It's worth noting that the Sega Saturn can read Karaoke CD+G and has a STANDARD, inbuilt ability to adjust pitch and mute vocals (quasi-karaoke feature) of any present music disc.

Microsoft ripped off the EyeToy as much as Sony ripped off the:

Dreameye:
- Released 14th September, 2000 for Dreamcast
- Able to be used as a stand-alone camera (3 Megapixels)
- Bundled with a microphone headset to be used for webcam/chat
- Planned games were scrapped due to the early demise of the Dreamcast.

As for Avatar's, there is no denying their origin, but they improve upon the function of Mii's tenfold. As for gamer profile personalisation ?

Dreamcast VMU Icons > Gamercards > Mii's > Avatars

Let's clear some repetitive bullshit up because without expanding upon previous ideas we'd all still be playing Pong and Space Invaders

[ChickeyCantor]

Welcome =)

[Harry190]

Lips: Singstar
you're In The Movies: Eyetoy
Dashboard: Look at Apple interface.

But that does not mean it's bad because in the end they are bringing those features which are considered 'good' to their faithfuls.

[wicked]

But surly it is good to take old ideas and games an bring them up to date and on this generation of consoles.

[Xi]

Is actually MIcrosoft music mixer which re-branded, it came out before singstar. Kkaroke revolution for both xbox and ps2 came out first, and both singstar and lips are knockoffs.

Apple ripped off the dashboard from MS then implemented it first, it's a well documented case when it occured. MS had shown the features 3 or 4 months prior to launching vista, it got delayed and Apple then used the same design taking credit for it... The same thing they did to creative labs with their Ipod.

If you want to play the "who ripped off who" card, you have to play it chronologically, Singstar may have popularized the music karoke thing, but it wasn't the first. Home is a rip-off of sims/second life, mii's are a ripp off of some dress you interent avatar thingy.

[juuken]

Is this a trick question?

[Pain]

........and the 2d home rip-off aswell yea...yea that's it the hole time.....

@Pog below WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAA WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA M$ Dont Copy! My M$ they Innovators!!!.....

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. sniffle's...

[power of Green]

They forgot to ask about Sony's movie service and Wii multiplayer and store etc... the fucin list goes on and on. The bottom line is MSFT is leading the way in innovation and Sony has yet to come up with something that has or forces the competition to follow suit. lol

[jlytle1234]

when the ps3 become fully divx certified, microsoft followed and became partially compatible.
And the avatar is an obvious answer to home and the mii.
Also if you paid any attention to e3, microsoft is going after the nintendo casual gamer markert.
All 3 companies do things to entice people to join their legions. Sometimes it advances the gaming market and sometimes it hurts it.

[wicked]

Isn't the same a Sony putting Miis in HOME? or are they some how different?

[themyk]

sony is putting avatars in home.

realistic avatars are all over the place.

it's different when they look 98 percent the same as a mii.

the second you see a mii you think nintendo. if you saw a home avatar you would just think it was an avatar.

[Xi]

avatars are the personification/characterizati on, and logical step, of one's gamercard first and formost.

However in the cartoony and "childish" design, then yes.

It's loose loose for MS though. Had they decided to show more realistic characters it would've been considered ripp-off of sims/second life... like home. Now they're branded as ripping off mii's.

Honestly, I wont care as long as I can dress my avatar up in a spartan outfit.

[power of Green]

Online console Multiplayer
Online console video/stores
Console HDD's
Console features
Console Guid/interface

On and on Who asks about all these things?.

Looks like everybody can "copy" but MSFT despite MSFT's competition modeling their platforms based on the Xbox design lol.

Just grumping because they forgot to ask about Sony's online features and services seeming simular to MSFT offerings as Avatars seem simular to whats on the Wii. That goes for Wii too; it also has things at its core software offerings modeled from the Xbox lol.

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

Some 360s don't have a hdd so that doesn't exactly count.
Online multiplayer- wasn't that done before? I mean, microsoft didn't innovate with it, but I recall Sony had online multiplayer with the ps2 back during Socom.

And I remember Star wars battlefront 2 and maybe 1 had it.

Oh and Pog, fanboyism is a health condition. It slowly rots your mind and makes you biased.

Try to be unbiased kay?

[syanara]

does it really mattter if MS is innovative? i mean if u think about it all 3 comapnies copied something off another does it matter who copied more or less? will that change the fact that this is what each company is doing?

[Atomic]

this is a proof the 360 is for 10 years old little kids. lol
we , PS3 owners we won't have kiddy gimmicky characters in HOME.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

LOL

Funny you say that when the Sony diehards go ga-ga over Little Big Planet and HOME is nothing but a doll house for mal-adjusted adults.

[Atomic]

"doll house for mal-adjusted adults"
HAHAHAHA what kind of buffoon comes up with a sentence like that ??

and LOl , you didn't get the memo , but in little big Planet you can create everything , even mature themed levels if you want.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Buffoon? Once again you insult instead of debate. What exactly is it then? You dress your little doll up in clothes and give it a hairstyle to walk around in a virtual world. You can get all your dolls together and look at your dollhouse and all the pictures and trophies you have hanging on the wall in your doll house.

The avatar idea of MS is the same kind of thing, it's basically dress up for your virtual dolly.

Yes, Little Big Planet you can create everything. I bet if you made a rotating penis you would be censored. Look at the rating of the game and understand that any user generated content will have to be acceptable to that age. It hasn't been rated yet but if $ony are going for the casual market with it then it will be a T rating at the most.

[dro]

YES. But u should all no by now that in the world of competition people copy each others idea and make the different, the ps3 copies achievements but made it different just how ms copied wii miis and made it different. its just like the games we by every games copy ideas from other games but make it different battle filed had the ranking system then cod4 changed it and added it to their game just like many fps would be doing in the future. when ur in competition competition that is how it is so ps3/360 fan bois dont be bias and blind to see that ur company u support does not copy other companys.

[ChickeyCantor]

Define: ripping off.
The whole bizz works like this, else we would not see any improvements at all.

[power of Green]

Hmmm... Dissagree's....

[SonySoldierEternaL]

someone would have to be delusional to believe any of the BS you write on a daily basis. as if you serve any purpose other than to annoy others.

[NegativeCreep427]

POG is so f*cking annoying and so delusional because that is what can happen to a F*cking geek like him whose only personal view of the real world is through his bedroom window.

[themyk]

he said they didn't have to talk about bungie. and he was worried about keeping people in their conference for too long.

but they had enough time to show all the big third party games. what a slap in the face to bungie. you could totally tell he wasn't expecting that question. and he looked like a complete idiot.

that was awesome.

[zapass]

what else do they know about?

[FantasyStar]

Pretty much. I have little problem seeing them do this because it adds a taste of Miis to every 360 out there. It's always good for a system to have more features cause it makes the system better. You can say that Sony copied Microsoft's Xbox Live, but don't we as gamers benefit from this? It's not like Sony covered up the fact they copied off of Xbox Live, hell back before PS3's release they even said they're going to try and aggressively compete with Microsoft's Online Service with something similar of their own. It's called "respecting the competition" and even though Sony did copy from Microsoft, Sony respects Microsoft as proud contenders and ever since the race for the best online service has begun.

BUT according to that link, Microsoft is sounding they came up with the idea long ago. That's disrespect for Nintendo and it's that kind of trash that's not ok and is a problem outright.

[Tyrael]

I don't think Miis, or anything along those lines, deserve anything beyond a second thought.

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

And This my honest opinion.

Microsoft did make a rip off of miis.

They look too eerily alike.

It's nice to hear though that the decided to add customizable clothes to the Ms avatars.
SO that makes it a bit more original in its own.

Even though it seems that Home will be doing that.

Who cares, if all the consoles have a version of it, We should all be effin happy.

[shikwan]

Did Sony rip-off Nintendo??

[pwnsause]

no, but nintendo ripped them off, BIG TIME. Remember before the PS1 even existed, how they s**Ted on sony?

[jlytle1234]

yeah, you need to go read some history. Nintendo and Sony were going to do a joint venture and call it the nintendo playstation. Nintendo wanted to stay with cartridges and sony wanted to go with discs. Nintendo dumped sony and did their own thing. The N64. Sony kept their idea and made the playstation. That ended up costing nintendo the final fantasy franchise. Final Fantasy wanted to do games on discs and not cartridges. So they dumped nintendo for sony.

[shikwan]

Nintendo was trying to put games on disc years before they struck a deal with Sony who could make it possible.

In '91 Nintendo dropped the deal because Sony had too much power in it. They did backdoor Sony on their technology and went with Sony's partner; Philips.

But Sony continued with Nintendo's plan & technology...and name; Play Station. Sony/Nintendo made another deal to include carts and CDs in the system but Sony screwed them and PS1 was born.

PS1 is Nintendo's idea but Sony's tehnology that wouldn't have been created by Sony if Nintendo didn't approach them.

[jlytle1234]

i think you missed the whole point.
you are accusing sony of ripping off nintendo on the ps1.
nintendo asked sony to develop a cd addon for the super nintendo.
sony also planned on making a home entertainment system that would play snes games and use the cd format sony developed.
Sony and nintendo made a contract. finally when nintendo decided to read the contract (apparently for the first time) they learned that sony would have the rights and control of the disc format so they cancelled the contract.
So sony decided to take what they had created and make it a complete console.
Sony didnt rip off nintendo. the product that became the sony playstation was of sony's own design.
Nintendo left sony and went to phillips. they worked out a deal with phillips and didnt go with a cd drive.

[MainEventX]

I think microsoft should have done a lil something different since sony and nintendo both had customizable avatars.

[NegativeCreep427]

LOL!!!

Does a bear sh*t in the woods???

[CrizzleC24]

All success is measured in originality and innovation. Good artists borrow,great artists steal. All artistic theft is measured in time and distance from original product. If sony made a game like halo 2 and called it halo 2 then it'd be illegal. If you change sony's game to killzone and change the aliens from convenant to helgast then its legal.

Its all within realms of separation, If sega made a game called mario, it'd be illegal, even if it changed the name to sonic it'd still be illegal. But when you change the character from a Italian plumber to a fast moving hedghog then its legal (despite all the same mechanics and styles including but not limited to same brick powerups, spikes secret areas bright vivid areas and instant death if not at full power).

[Greedy Genius]

my speakers are kinda messed up(blew out) so can sum1 plz tell me what they said

[JeepGamer]

Does Microsoft look at something successful and attempt to emulate it? Of course they do. They've only been at it for just about as long as they've been making software, why should their console be any different?

[Hellraizer]

there were 3d avatars before the miis, even from Microsoft themselves (for the live messenger)

[jlytle1234]

no its not a rip off. they took the concept and implemented them much better than nintendo did.
They took the casual gamer kid friendly look and combined it with serious gamer features like the 8 person party feature.
And as im hearing they left the gamer pic for those who dont like the avatar system.
Its not a rip-off when its something that people are going to expect their console to offer. Like online services, hard drives, and movie stores.

[kewlkat007]

I remember getting one of these before the Wii was out...

http://www.meez.com/

so many sites started with these and even on AIM...

Every Core Function of anything is always there when someone else tries it.

Take a look at Sony's HOME and you will see Second Life and similar to the Sims cept on Consoles. Sony didn't create 3-D interactive world.
Do I care no but the core function is there from other things.

To me a rip-off is like an Exact Model of something made to resemble that same product it copying but cheaply made.

[DFresh]

It totally copying from the other competitors.
Just like MS ripped off the iPod w/ the Zune so does this new XBL Update.
Avatars = Copying Sony's Home
Characters = Copying the Mii
Dash Board = Resembles the PS3 Dash Board
MS = no innovation just copying others to gain a profit.