Console Wars, Exclusive Rights and Non-Madden Football, Oh My!

2007 has started with a bang in the video game world.

Console Wars

Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Wii were released within a week of eachother in November of 2006. The PS3 is in the same position the first XBox was in during the last 'next-gen' release of 2000-2001. While the PS3 may be a more powerful machine on paper, the world is still waiting for it to show it's true capabilities when compared to the XBox 360. (The Wii is not considered 'next gen' or even a part of the 'Console Wars' for a few reasons I will cover later in this article.)

I will be the first to admit that I was a Playstation Fanboy. I got the PS2 on Launch Day (for Christmas) and I was excited as hell! I didn't realize until it was too late that there were going to be flaws in launch systems. Yet, I still managed to fix it and it still works (with enough coaxing) today.

I was planning on purchasing a PS3 in March 2005 and then that date moved to March of 2006. Then I was planning on buying it in November 2006 after they delayed the PS3 by nearly 2 years. Then came the release of the console price and the release of two seperate consoles! $500-$600 for a Sony launch product had me scared out of my mind for two reasons.

1) It was a launch day piece of hardware that would be even more limited than the 1 million that shipped for the PS2. Launch hardware is (as I learned with the PS2) is not a smart purchase unless you like fixing things.
2)$500-$600! There is an exclamation point there because that is what every person once interested had above their head. Like a game of Metal Gear, we all had panic in our mind and started running around as if the world had just exploded! $600! WTF?!

Blu-Ray had captured our hearts and minds with it's huge 50GB capacity. The limits of video games seemed vanish from the concept of such a large media. I was amazed at the possibilities and became enthralled in Hideo Kojima's words that Metal Gear Solid 4 would need to have Blu-Ray in order to hold the entire game. Wow, a 50GB game?! This was unreal, amazing, something new and sexy that I just had to try out! But then something happened. $600 happened.

Blu-Ray is great and exciting, but did I really want to put my money towards a system that was going to be using a proprietary piece of software media? DVD's have been proven on the XBox and PS2. They have been proven as the preferred movie format. So, why would I want to trust Sony? Why would anyone want to trust Sony? Fanboys and young-easy to influence-kids were targets. I had for the first time in my gaming life felt betrayed by a company and system that I had worshipped for almost ten years. God had died in the form of an un-proven piece of $600 hardware. For the believers out there, I wish you well. And for those of you thinking about converting, I would wait until we see what this once powerful god really has to offer. I for one am very happy with my 360. I purchased it only a month after my dream died with a $600 price tag stuck on it and there have been no problems (knock on wood).

Exclusive Rights

Metal Gear Solid 4 had also died in my heart. The hope to finish the saga of Solid Snake which I began nearly 20 years ago had vanished with the PS3's price tag. But then, out of the blue came this wonderful rumor. The prophecy said that there was a possibility that MGS4 would be realeased on the 360.

WHAT?! OMG OMG OMG!

Yes, that was essentially what went through my head.

It caused me to start looking into Exclusive Rights for console games. Halo for Microsoft and MGS for Sony. This is how it has been for over 5 years and we all seem to get along. I'll put it this way...

If Sony Fanboys were Israel and Microsoft Fanboys were Palistine, we had finally reached a long lasting peace one that would be un-impeded by the forces of darkness because we had our precious little pieces of what we claimed was ours, MGS and Halo.

Now the barriers and happiness were threatened! MGS going to the 360 seemed like a betrayel to those waiting for their PS3 only because MGS4 would be exclusive. I left the PS3 boat and found my promised land for $200 less (at least). Then I found out that God would be coming to my side of gaming as well! This was a happy day.

This made me realize that exclusive titles hurt gaming. We are forced to pick between a game and a system much of the time. MGS4 or 360? Halo or PS3? It was a sad test of our loyalty to one side of a "pick which parent you want to live with."

My solution is to make all games available for all systems. I just read recently about attempts to make Unreal Tournament 3 cross-bred for 360 and PC. This could obviously make it possible for PC gamers to crush those with controllers into the ground, but it was a good step towards my solution. If they could only make games that would branch from PS3 to 360 online there would be one gaming nation. Much like the one we enjoyed with the NES of yester-year. World gaming peace is within reach but Exclusive Rights are standing in our way!

Non-Madden Football

While the world looked at Madden as the quintessential game to mimic for longevity (other than Final Fantasy) there had recently been a horrible transformation. Madden, the best football game in the universe had become Madden, the only football game in the universe. They (EA Sports) purchased the exclusive rights to the NFL. This meant that 2K Sports was being robbed of their competition with EA Sports. 2K Football had finally measured up to Madden during the 2K5 installment and then, all of a sudden, it was gone. The NFL was off-limits to 2K Sports and EA Sports was given to opportunity to get lazy in their innovation of the game and sport.

Madden became the only choice. The only difference between Madden 06 and Madden 07 are rosters and the '06 and '07 titles.

The return of 2K Sports is coming in Summer 2007! All-Pro Football 2K8 is slated for release and the world of unhappy football gamers is smiling at the possibilities. There will be no NFL teams and few, if any ex-NFL players to use in the game. Some people are turned off by this immediatley. However, my way of thinking is that this gives a longevity to the game. People don't need updated rosters because the players are not 'real'. There is no attempt to make stats 'realistic' because there is nothing to compare them to! All-Pro Football 2K8 is going to force football games amazing. Against the wishes of the mighty EA Sports, they will have to start working for their once taken for granted throne over football gaming.