Quantum Physics
EA: "Wii" Understimated Nintendo
2007-07-29 5:43 AM PDT
Speaking at one of EA"s investor meetings yesterday, John Riccitiello called 2007 the publisher's toughest year yet.
He stated, "The transition was tough because we typically have two to three platforms and a five year period... One of the biggest challenges, of course, was that not a lot of people anticipated the success of Nintendo that they've shown with their wand controller and their Wii. That got ahead of us a little more than our expectations."
After this, the CEO talked about how jumping on the "powerhouse console" bandwagon (PS3 and Xbox 360) wasn't the best decision, after seeing how successful the Wii has been.
Despite this, the publisher still has the largest market share of sales on the Wii besides Nintendo. At the moment, only two of their sports franchises have made it to their "new generation" debuts on the Wii.
To me, I love this. EA is regretting their decision and publicly admitting that they underestimated the Wii and how it has become an important game console amongst developers. I believe EA just opened the door for some other guys to pop in and admit their mistakes too.
That isn't to say anything derogatory towards the PS3 or the Xbox 360 (Riccitiello explained how the PS3 still has a world of possibilities), but when looking at today's sale charts, its rather obvious how much of a jump the Wii has made since it's release. (Whether you like the Wii or not.)
This fall Rock Band, Madden 08, and NBA LIVE 08 will be released for the Nintendo Wii. Let's hope EA compliments these statements by ensuring that these games truly show what the Wii and EA are capable of.
Warning: Please make sure that all comments are on-topic and relevant to the article. No swearing, spam, or external links that are unrelated. Any comments that break these rules may be deleted or edited without prior notice.
~Thanks to Steve Wysowski GN Writer~
~Gamernode.com~
He stated, "The transition was tough because we typically have two to three platforms and a five year period... One of the biggest challenges, of course, was that not a lot of people anticipated the success of Nintendo that they've shown with their wand controller and their Wii. That got ahead of us a little more than our expectations."
After this, the CEO talked about how jumping on the "powerhouse console" bandwagon (PS3 and Xbox 360) wasn't the best decision, after seeing how successful the Wii has been.
Despite this, the publisher still has the largest market share of sales on the Wii besides Nintendo. At the moment, only two of their sports franchises have made it to their "new generation" debuts on the Wii.
To me, I love this. EA is regretting their decision and publicly admitting that they underestimated the Wii and how it has become an important game console amongst developers. I believe EA just opened the door for some other guys to pop in and admit their mistakes too.
That isn't to say anything derogatory towards the PS3 or the Xbox 360 (Riccitiello explained how the PS3 still has a world of possibilities), but when looking at today's sale charts, its rather obvious how much of a jump the Wii has made since it's release. (Whether you like the Wii or not.)
This fall Rock Band, Madden 08, and NBA LIVE 08 will be released for the Nintendo Wii. Let's hope EA compliments these statements by ensuring that these games truly show what the Wii and EA are capable of.
Warning: Please make sure that all comments are on-topic and relevant to the article. No swearing, spam, or external links that are unrelated. Any comments that break these rules may be deleted or edited without prior notice.
~Thanks to Steve Wysowski GN Writer~
~Gamernode.com~
Keiji Inafune too busy for Dead Rising s...
2007-07-27 9:13 AM PDT
Keiji Inafune loves Dead Rising. It's a good thing, because he's the producer of the game, and possibly (hopefully) the series. Unfortunately, a sequel may be a long way off, because Inafune simply doesn't have the time now that he oversees production at Capcom.
Here's what he had to say regarding the zombie-slaying adventure:
"This is something we hear a lot from the press - Dead Rising 2, and we're not making it right now, but it is something I would love to make. I would love to be able to take some time off from my business-side responsibilities just to be able to produce it myself - that's how much I love the game and would love to do it. But there are a lot of things that come into play. There's staffing, there's scheduling - who's working on what - then there's budget and money, where's the money coming from? So there are a lot of small things to work out before that would even be possible... If it was announced, I might be the one back in Japan making it. That's the title that they're considering back in Capcom Japan that I would want to produce the most, out of anything they're thinking about. That's how much I really love it. But I'm very busy."
Don't get too busy, Keiji. Zombies will come after you.
[via GameInformer]
~Thanks goes to Eddie Inzauto, GN Writer~
~Gamernode.com~
Warning: Please make sure that all comments are on-topic and relevant to the article. No swearing, spam, or external links that are unrelated. Any comments that break these rules may be deleted or edited without prior notice.
Here's what he had to say regarding the zombie-slaying adventure:
"This is something we hear a lot from the press - Dead Rising 2, and we're not making it right now, but it is something I would love to make. I would love to be able to take some time off from my business-side responsibilities just to be able to produce it myself - that's how much I love the game and would love to do it. But there are a lot of things that come into play. There's staffing, there's scheduling - who's working on what - then there's budget and money, where's the money coming from? So there are a lot of small things to work out before that would even be possible... If it was announced, I might be the one back in Japan making it. That's the title that they're considering back in Capcom Japan that I would want to produce the most, out of anything they're thinking about. That's how much I really love it. But I'm very busy."
Don't get too busy, Keiji. Zombies will come after you.
[via GameInformer]
~Thanks goes to Eddie Inzauto, GN Writer~
~Gamernode.com~
Warning: Please make sure that all comments are on-topic and relevant to the article. No swearing, spam, or external links that are unrelated. Any comments that break these rules may be deleted or edited without prior notice.
Microsoft exec predicts the PS3's future...
2007-07-27 9:09 AM PDT
Microsoft executive Andre Vrignaud must fancy himself a modern-day Nostradamus, because he has made an extensive prediction about Sony's future. More specifically, he has predicted that the PS3 will be getting another, low-end SKU no later than Thanksgiving of this year (good old Black Friday shopping).
He says:
"The old 60 GB SKU is being cleared out for $499 as quickly as possible - as you might recall, this was the supposed "price cut" that Sony announced. In reality, once supplies are gone in the next couple of months it'll be gone forever. However, that doesn't leave Sony in a good place. A single, $599 SKU would be untenable; if they don't move significant hardware this holiday they'll basically be dead for this generation.
My prediction is that you're going to see the creation of a new, low-end SKU this holiday. It'll likely remove integrated WiFi, memory card reader, and most controversially, all backward compatibility. (Remember, there's still some back-compat hardware in even the new "software only" back compat SKUs; removing the remaining CPU is a significant cost savings.) You'll see a new WiFi dongle made available. And finally, this low-end SKU will likely come with a smaller 40 GB hard drive. The low-end price will be set at $399, with the higher-end 80 GB SKU dropping to $499.
So there you go - nothing magic about the current value SKU. It's just a classic retail technique of clearing the channel for new SKUs. Now we just need to wait a few months for the announcement - it'll have to be before Thanksgiving, so I'd expect October."
These predictions don't sound too far-fetched to me. What do you guys think?
~Thanks goes to Eddie Inzauto, GN Writer~
~Gamernode.com~
Warning: Please make sure that all comments are on-topic and relevant to the article. No swearing, spam, or external links that are unrelated. Any comments that break these rules may be deleted or edited without prior notice.
Please feel free to comment.
He says:
"The old 60 GB SKU is being cleared out for $499 as quickly as possible - as you might recall, this was the supposed "price cut" that Sony announced. In reality, once supplies are gone in the next couple of months it'll be gone forever. However, that doesn't leave Sony in a good place. A single, $599 SKU would be untenable; if they don't move significant hardware this holiday they'll basically be dead for this generation.
My prediction is that you're going to see the creation of a new, low-end SKU this holiday. It'll likely remove integrated WiFi, memory card reader, and most controversially, all backward compatibility. (Remember, there's still some back-compat hardware in even the new "software only" back compat SKUs; removing the remaining CPU is a significant cost savings.) You'll see a new WiFi dongle made available. And finally, this low-end SKU will likely come with a smaller 40 GB hard drive. The low-end price will be set at $399, with the higher-end 80 GB SKU dropping to $499.
So there you go - nothing magic about the current value SKU. It's just a classic retail technique of clearing the channel for new SKUs. Now we just need to wait a few months for the announcement - it'll have to be before Thanksgiving, so I'd expect October."
These predictions don't sound too far-fetched to me. What do you guys think?
~Thanks goes to Eddie Inzauto, GN Writer~
~Gamernode.com~
Warning: Please make sure that all comments are on-topic and relevant to the article. No swearing, spam, or external links that are unrelated. Any comments that break these rules may be deleted or edited without prior notice.
Please feel free to comment.
No Brumak for you! 360 misses out
2007-07-27 9:06 AM PDT
Xbox 360 owners may not be happy to hear that all of the juicy additions planned for the PC version of Gears of War will not find their way back to the original game. The 360 version will remain Brumak-less, not to mention missing out on extra missions, a map editor, and better visuals.
Reasons cited by producer Rod Fergusson are the sheer size of the updates, as well as differences between the engines that the two versions of the game run on.
"There is no plan to provide the PC exclusive content to Xbox 360 gamers for a number of technical reasons. One is simply the size and scope of the new content which would be difficult to deliver as an update. But more importantly, Gears of War for Windows was not created with the same version of Unreal Engine 3 as Gears of War for 360. We wanted to take advantage of all the latest and greatest optimizations and features that are constantly being added to UE3 and as such, this new content is not easily compatible with the Xbox 360 version."
That kinda sucks for 360 owners who don't have a strong PC. The Brumak fight looks to be intense and awesome.
~Thanks goes to Eddie Inzauto at, your location for all the news for gamers to game apon Gamernode.com
Don't forget to visit us
Reasons cited by producer Rod Fergusson are the sheer size of the updates, as well as differences between the engines that the two versions of the game run on.
"There is no plan to provide the PC exclusive content to Xbox 360 gamers for a number of technical reasons. One is simply the size and scope of the new content which would be difficult to deliver as an update. But more importantly, Gears of War for Windows was not created with the same version of Unreal Engine 3 as Gears of War for 360. We wanted to take advantage of all the latest and greatest optimizations and features that are constantly being added to UE3 and as such, this new content is not easily compatible with the Xbox 360 version."
That kinda sucks for 360 owners who don't have a strong PC. The Brumak fight looks to be intense and awesome.
~Thanks goes to Eddie Inzauto at, your location for all the news for gamers to game apon Gamernode.com
Don't forget to visit us
Sony denies. Harai confirms. 60GB PS3 ph...
2007-07-13 5:15 PM PDT
The shock of hearing the news that the PS3 60GB model is being discontinued by Sony has the gaming world reeling in disbelief and shock.
Sony denied the statements made by Sony Europe boss David Reeves about the phasing out of the PS3 60GB in the US model by saying, ""Those quotes from David Reeves are not accurate. He said that if they had lowered the price in Europe, that territory would have run out of their current inventory by the end of July," according to NextGen.com.
But according to an interview conducted by VGTV, none other than Kaz Harai, President of Sony Entertainment, confirmed and reiterated the story - the PS3 60GB model, for all intents and purposes in the US, is dead.
Harai said, "The $499 price adjustment that we did for the 60GB version for the American market - we're no longer in production for that product. So once that product is gone from the retailer's shelves then we're back to the $599 [product price] only..."
The revelation that the price reduction of the PS3 is basically a "clearance sale," has not only angered the Sony faithful, but has given rise to some serious concerns about the competency of Sony management and how they are running the PS3 division.
For the taped interview, go to VGTV. The video was done by a Scandinavian website. Harai's statements about the PS3 60GB model occur approximately at the one minute and 40 second mark.
Comments
Comment: Warning: Please make sure that all comments are on-topic and relevant to the article. No swearing, spam, or external links that are unrelated. Any comments that break these rules may be deleted or edited without prior notice.
~All work goes to Frank Ling our GN Senior Editor
~Gamernode.com~
Sony denied the statements made by Sony Europe boss David Reeves about the phasing out of the PS3 60GB in the US model by saying, ""Those quotes from David Reeves are not accurate. He said that if they had lowered the price in Europe, that territory would have run out of their current inventory by the end of July," according to NextGen.com.
But according to an interview conducted by VGTV, none other than Kaz Harai, President of Sony Entertainment, confirmed and reiterated the story - the PS3 60GB model, for all intents and purposes in the US, is dead.
Harai said, "The $499 price adjustment that we did for the 60GB version for the American market - we're no longer in production for that product. So once that product is gone from the retailer's shelves then we're back to the $599 [product price] only..."
The revelation that the price reduction of the PS3 is basically a "clearance sale," has not only angered the Sony faithful, but has given rise to some serious concerns about the competency of Sony management and how they are running the PS3 division.
For the taped interview, go to VGTV. The video was done by a Scandinavian website. Harai's statements about the PS3 60GB model occur approximately at the one minute and 40 second mark.
Comments
Comment: Warning: Please make sure that all comments are on-topic and relevant to the article. No swearing, spam, or external links that are unrelated. Any comments that break these rules may be deleted or edited without prior notice.
~All work goes to Frank Ling our GN Senior Editor
~Gamernode.com~
