| Set On Stun |

so close -- yet so far

We’ve all seen the sweet bundles Microsoft has been serving up since the COD:MW2 special edition. It was the ultimate “I Want That” console. Now spring is hear and we’ve got the FF13 special edition console and next month Splinter Cell comes out with another special edition bundle. In each instance the console comes with a 250 gig hard drive. So of course the question becomes ….

“Why can’t I get that separately like the 100 gig one?”

Well if you believe the rumor mill then hope springs eternal as of March 23. Unfortunately Microsoft refuses to confirm this rumor. In fact the word from Aaron Greenberg last month in a Joystiq interview was this,

“We did it with the Modern Warfare bundle, which, as people know, was a huge success, completely sold out. We’re excited to bring it back with the limited edition Final Fantasy bundle.” But that whole limited edition element is  “part of what makes it special,” he said.

To get directly to the point — “We’re always evaluating but for now we feel like the 120 is serving us very well as the standard offering, and then having the 250 as a limited edition is a good balance.”

250 gigs? You want it then you have to buy this!

Well gee Aaron that’s a bit unfair isn’t it? Special editions make them balanced? C’mon Greenberg! Especially when you consider the truckload of content Xbox live now offers and will continue to do so. It’s not entirely inconceivable that a gamer could fill that hard drive with full games (rather than own the disc version) movies, demos, TV shows and music. So for Microsoft to say that the only way you can get this is to buy one of these special edition console is in a word — stupid.

So to you Microsoft — WTF!

By the way, you may come across alleged versions of a 250 gig on some random sites but they’re bunk. Add to that you have a company that won’t allow you to say go out and buy a Western Digital 500 G external hard drive and use that for your console and well, once again, it’s stupid.  In a culture of consumerism wouldn’t it make sense to make it available so that you can then offer more stuff for people to then add to their monster hard drives? With that much space why you wouldn’t think twice about downloading GTA or Fable. But alas for now we’ll either have to shell out and extra 100 for a whole new console or be happy with the 120 gig.

Sony people in the house wave your Move in the air!!

So everybody sitting around at GDC and then Sony starts their presentation ….

Tough year … blah blah, great games Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2 blah blah ….Mag blah blah … God Of War 3 system seller million unit release blah blah blah… more stuff coming at E3 blah blah …. and then we finally get the big announcement ….

The PlayStation …. Move?

All that buzz about it being called the Arc well that was just the rumor mill at high speed. It’s being called the PlayStation Move System — as it was pitched during the presentation “from the tiniest twitch to the strongest punch, it’s ahead of it’s time”  The folks at GDC got a chance to try out this new peripheral first hand and reports are so far so good. Forget kicking balls and painting things, this motion controller had  actual games to show off and not just any games, they brought  PlayStation staple, SOCOM to the party.

In the contest of show me your stuff, Sony didn’t just blow people’s minds — they kicked Microsoft’s ass.

kicking balls? Puleeze -- we so got that beat

Here’s the breakdown

It sort of looks like a Wiimote  except for the weird glowy ball (changes colors too)  but make no mistake — this aint no Wii

• The controller has less buttons and is more streamlined
• It charges using a USB connection just like it’s big brother controller — battery sucking? Not
• The main controller and it’s nunchuck counterpart (known as the subcontroller) are not tethered by a wire.
• The colored ball — that’s your motion detector.
• The report from those who played SOCOM say the functionality blows the Wiimote/nunchuck combo out of the water. What would normally be a clunky interface is now a seamless transition with weapon and movements nicely paired out.
• Depth sensing — if you don’t know what that is well then you haven’t had a chance to not experience that with the Wii. The Move pupports that the glowing  sphere at the end of the controller along with the PlayStation Eye camera work together to solve that issue.

If you’re wondering — those are actual games that you’ll be able to use this new peripheral with. Along with games like cheating golfer tour (Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11) and Little Big Planet (retrofitted). Granted the promotional video is replete with cheese and then some but  this goes so far beyond what Natal showed us last summer.

Natal offers no controller at all but here’s the question — where’s your stuff?

PlayStation Move has

1. An estimated fall launch possibly ahead of Natal
2. A rumored starter package price of $100 (depending on if you already own a PS3 and what you’re planning to buy)
3. Titles that already look cooler than anything we’ve seen on Natal.

The path has now been paved. Come this holiday season the Wii will not be the only game in town and tapping into that casual gamer market when you already have the hardcore gamers as part of your core audience  will be a lot easier for Sony and Microsoft.  For Sony to use GDC to drop their Move bomb was a bold and absolutely brilliant move. These are the folks who you want to sell this system too more than anyone else because they’ll be the ones making games for it.

Tough act to follow? Without a doubt. So Microsoft — show us what you got.

First of all let m get this out of the way …

JP you ignorant slut!

Now moving on. Natal may sound like all that and a bag of DLC the way JP spins it, but who’s to say we’re not looking at the 21st century “power glove?” Yeah, yeah the big show off  of WinMo7 in Barcelona was all the shizzle for the new revolution in social media and gaming last week but guess what folks, behind the curtain is just a wimpy old Henry Gale trying to trick us all.

Developer Debacle — Natal Ain’t Got Nothing To Do With This

That alleged “gap” JP speaks of that Natal will create will only be filled if Natal has the ability to become the YouTube/game creator of gaming. And honestly we’re soooo far from this with a peripheral that doesn’t even have a firm drop date much less a price point . Addressing the bigger issue is if Natal (version 1) does not come built in with user friendly GUI then all of this is moot. It’s nice to think I can wave my arms around, make some cubist masterpiece and then disseminate it across all my social media but if the device I’m using is chock full of glitches then–

a. It won’t work

and b. Who care if it does? Who cares about my stupid picture in the first  place?

Taking that one step further  if the developers don’t have the tools to make the games they want to make for this device then all we’ll be stuck with is a bunch of gimmicky BS casual gamer games that will pile up like a stack of old gameboy cartridges at a yard sale next to Buzz and Woody. The same developer issues apply to WinMo 7 software and even more so when you consider the simplicity that developers now have in making iPhone apps versus the headaches they may encounter with the Microsoft version.

New and Improved OS

Allegedly Microsoft’s new OS will mix Xbox Live gaming, Zune multimedia, personal media (photos and videos), social media utilities, productivity tools and third-party apps organized into “Hubs.” So that social platform that my octopus loving counterpart envisions looks like it would all be there right? And somehow, Natal, in it’s infancy will be part of this? No &^%$#&*(* way.  The way this new OS reads is like social media and gaming for cats –

“Oooh shiny thing, Oooh dress my avatar, Oooh play bookworm, O0000h nap”

Sure you can use it -- just not on that phone

Join the club or else!

One word, a word that will kill this entire fantastical notion — EXCLUSIVITY!

What do you mean I can't play Fusion Frenzy online anymore?!

For all the folks out where who are still playing  Star Wars Battlefront, and Halo 2 online well, that will end soon.  Come April 15 (tax day) Microsoft is pulling the plug on the online component for their old green machine games. Forget the fact that Halo 2 is still one of the biggest online multiplayer success stories ever the company has deiced that with a new decade comes time for a change. The original machine, almost 10 years old itself still has a lot of titles out and  some of those may still  get a decent amount of online play.

But,  Xbox says, “We’ll continue to evolve the service with features and experiences that harness the full power of Xbox 360. To reach our aspiration, we need to make changes to the service that are incompatible with our original Xbox V1 games.”  That’s from XBL manager Marc Whitten.

Translation: If you and your two buddies  are planning to do some Halo 2 multiplayer  April 16, then you’re SOL.

Is this a bad thing for Microsoft? Not entirely. The fact that their on demand service, which they offered up last year, let’s you download old Xbox games that may or may not have that live component, then you’re basically stuck with whatever the single player version is. So it’s kind of pointless to make these games available if you remove half a chunk of the usability that you would  get from the online play  like with Halo. What Whitten says makes sense though. If they’re trying to transition to strictly 360 titles then why hang on to the support  for games that go back several years for a system from the last decade?

Who’s Playing These Ancient Games?

The real question to  Microsoft is does it really take that much effort to continue offering live support for original Xbox games? If not then why shut it down? And even more importantly why offer these games as part of your classic library if you’re going to expect gamers to spend $20 or $30 bucks, memory space but then not allow them to  play the game online? It seems a bit … stupid. Solution — don’t offer those games.

Looking at the the current games in the XBL on demand library  you’ll see that most of their downloadable old (Xbox 1) games are primarily games that were single player hits. So essentially for this online gaming element,  we’re talking about folks who have some semblance of a videogame library and still own some of these original box titles or for some reason still use the original Xbox and buy “new” games at bargain bins and Criag’s list. As to how big of a market that is 5 years into the 360’s existence, who knows?

From a customer reputation standpoint they may lose favor with those old school gamers but it looks like Microsoft feels fairly secure that they’re not going to irk that many folks with this decision and they’re still giving them a few months to relive the old game glory days before pulling the plug.

It’s been a while sine we’ve been down this road. In recent gaming history many of us remember the initial debacle over Nintendo’s decision to rename what was once called The Revolution to the now widely accepted Wii. When we first heard the new name a collective WTF could be heard throughout the industry.

• How would even market something that?
• It has weird spelling?
• How do you say that?
• It sounds obscene (that one never went away)

All of those issues obviously dissolved when it became clear that the console would become the videogame equalizer and essentially bring the casual gamers and non gamers into the fold by offering them a simple, easy way to game. The Wii is one of those situations where despite the initial uproar the product succeeded.

See, I'm waving it like an Arc at the Sphere

The PlayStation what? Are you Serious?

So this begs the question — does the name of a device or console really matter? You could say ask Zune owners  but this directly relates to the rumor mill’s recent spin of Sony’s potential name for their motion controlled peripheral.  Names that have been bandied about include the Arc and the Sphere. Both are groovy kind of sci-fi, techno names and certainly roll off the tongue better than Microsoft’s motion control device that already has the name Natal (Nah-Tahl). Even better though is that in creating marketing material for a device with a name like that becomes very easy. And even it doesn’t immediately connect with consumers if the product is worth using or actual delivers on it’s promise of motion controlled awesomeness then the name becomes irrelevant. Of course Sony is quick to deny that the device has any name just yet. What are you scared of Sony? Just pick a name already.

Think of it this way, what’s the common vernacular for the consoles right now? PS3, 360 and Wii. No one uses the full name and it doesn’t matter because once the product succeeds and becomes part of the framework then you just accept the name. Rant all you want about if it’s a stupid name but tell that to all the people who ridiculed the Wii name only to be seen months later waving that wiimote around with wild abandon. Goofy name or not, a big profit margin does wonders for erasing that feeling of doubt over whether you picked a good brand name. So in gaming does a name really matter? Not so much. If it does what its supposed to do and does it well everyone will just have fun and move on.