Microsoft versus Sony in Console Spat

Cry "Flamewar," and let slip the boys of fan!

It's pretty hard to stay out of the flame wars when you see yet another smug Microsoft employee's cheesy grin with more waffle to get all the spotty kids over excited. A summary of Microsofts E3

Another Halo franchise addition
GeOW 2: A sequel
Final Fantasy XIII: Stolen
A Wii-like avatar system: Stolen

All mixed in with various other sequels/stolen games. Where's the innovation Microsoft ?

But the problme is that s what we want, innovations great (ask Ninty) but i still want my Halo, GeOW and my stolen exclusives! how anyone can complain about this is beyond me,

and as for FFXIII who has lost out here? as far as i can see Sony is the only one who has lost in the exclusive stakes but PS3 and 360 fanboys a like can come together in Sqeenix JRPG Goodness as its not gone from PS3 its jsut simply avaliable to a greater audience. and i for one think thats a good thing for the consumer,

as for new innovation, MS brought us Viva Pinata, Hard Disks in Consoles, Media Centre Built Right in, XBOX LIVE!!! anyone with a Wii will tell you innovation isnt just about making a new waggle device and surfing it untill the entire globe owns one, innovation can come in many different forms and MS has brought its fair share to date.

Sorry, I'm getting just a bit sick of hearing about how MS is "stealing" their new avatars from Nintendo, as though Miis are something wholly original and novel that Nintendo developed out of whole cloth. Avatars are nothing new, Nintendo didn't originate them, and, assuming that you neither want to abandon anthropomorphism nor venture into the "valley", you're going to end up with something similar to a Mii. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that there are numerous avatar systems out there on other platforms (PC, etc.) that both predate and resemble the Mii, yet no one is calling Nintendo out as thieves.

As far as sequels go...give me a break, Sony and Nintendo lean on sequels even more than MS so thats a fairly moot point.

And who did MS "steal" Final Fantasy from, hmm? Didin't, by your own faulty logic, Sony "steal" Final Fantasy from Nintendo in the first place? Sounds like "all's fair" to me...not to mention he layout of the PS controller, which they still use today, have they no shame? Motion sensing, *cough*...Hell, Sony is the freaking Ali Baba of the console world...I suppose MS "stole" the idea of "stealing" FF from Sony, the cheeky monkeys...

I agree Roi, it seems like the entire world is developing some sort of Nintendo worship program,
For which Nintendo didn’t do anything first they just thought to incorporate it, Mii`s have been around as you say forever, just in different worlds and even in gaming Pogo MiniMe`s for starters.

All companies take ideas and why for the love of god everyone calls it theft I have no idea.

I've had this opinion for ages. Nintendo didn't actually invent anything their fanboys claim they did. All Nintendo have done is popularise certain things.

I'm going to put the current wave of Nintendo love down to nostalgia and latent Sega-fanboy hate for Sony. Most console players of old grew up on Nintendo and Sega, with Sega gone from the hardware market, these old console gamers have latched onto Nintendo as a figure from their childhood.

As with all childhood figures with attached positive memories, Nintendo can do no wrong in the eyes of these people.

Things need to level out into a fairer playing field. While the likes of Namco are really trying hard to cater for Xbox, the American side of things seems rather half-hearted to put it mildly. MS grab GTA/FF/Combat Air Ace/Ridge Racer etc, why can't PS3 at least get Gears? Instead it's a poorly coded Unreal/Orange Box, oh and various loudmouths (Newell/Rein) badmouthing the PS3. Not one single Xbox game was designed/coded with just the Xbox as target machine, just a mad rush to market to get a slice of the new online market share. Give me the old Nintendo/Sony/Sega wars anyday.

Yes, lets force developers to develop for platforms not of their own choosing, that sounds like fun. Oooohhh, and while we're at it, lets force the Japanese to buy Xbox 360's, I mean its only fair, right? We have to level the playing field, the Japanese are being really unfair about this whole not buying Xboxes thing, its gone on long enough. Can we get some UN Sanctions in effect here or something? I understand those are highly effective.

Or somthing more of a barter, perhaps?
How about say...250k NTSC-J 360's shifted in exchange for...Ridge Racer back as a Sony exclusive, with my personal blessing...
Saaay, Final Fantasy's not even out yet, of course the price...what is it they say about "if you have to ask..."?

Yes becuase that was much fairer!?

Sony "Stole" FFVII, hardly anyone one bought a Saturn outside Japan and Nintendo had no games..

hmm sounds familiar?

Doesnt matter whos in the battle, someone wins and someone loses, thats business its not fair or unfair, and nothing wrong with some healthy competition.

Sure MS has had Hardware problems from day one and it was a bad problem, and sure Nintendos "innovation" = a million and one crappy games, and yes the PS3 has very little quality titles now and lined up in comparison to the 360 but overall its a good gen war to be in, as the consumer will buy whatever the consumer wants and the wars between these companies only makes it better for us to get the games we want on the console we want.

In my opinion the most successful console this gen thus far based on a customer point of view is the 360 it gives you the (hard)Core games, Casual, Online, Media Functionality, a Large selection of games, and a company who does believe in its product.

its the same consoel war just MS has taken Segas place.

I don't think that any of the big three (interesting how the names have changed from what they used to be..) are innoncent in this, but Microsoft in particular are historically guilty of seeing a competitor's success and throwing money at it until it's theirs too.

Yes it's business, and as such I'm glad I'm not a businessman.

Hey Roi, why is is that, as a self procaimed `neutral` who hates fanboys, you show your mild mannered side agains Xbots but blow up like some 13 yr old when someone says something anti-Microsoft? You're really, really not neutral at all, yer know?

The Dreamcast WOULD have succeeded had Sega had the same cash as MS to throw at it. Tey wouldn't have resorted to buying their way either, years of hard earned IP backig them. As for forcing the Japanese to buy an Xbox, why on earth would they want one anyway? They did not like the original monstrous Xbox, they didn't like the manner in which it was dropped overnight, and they don't take to the western taste in games. Guns cars and...erm, guns. Microsofts attempt at the `colourful, vibrant` platformer genre ? Blinx. And this gen? Viva Pinata, bought by about 12 Xbox owners. Now we have motion sensors and cute avatars in a blanket bombing campaign to try and win the console world. Microsoft have their niche; loud, brash games involving cars and guns. But their marketing strategy of old has surfaced, the Windows way.

Way to reply to my post without replying to me there...

Never said I was neutral (and you can't seriously pretend you qualify), and I certainly don't cut "Xbots" any more slack than I do Sony fanboys. (sorry, I don't have a cute name for them, coming up with one and using it seems fanboyish and juvenile to me) In fact, I would have to say that I've been one of SS4's (and two others I won't mention because they straightened up a bit) harshest critics from the beginning, for obvious (to me at least) reasons.

In any event, I am an anti-fanboy of idiocy, which is what the suggestion that developers could or should be forced to make games for a console they don't want to amounts to. I'm also a fanboy of the Free Market...I certainly wasn't suggesting that the Japanese be forced to buy Xboxes (I find it endlessly amusing that you bothered to counter that argument) it was merely a tool to attempt to show the potato artillery how dumb his suggestion was, if anything it was the anti-Free Market aspect of it (and the aformentioned idiocy) that triggered my response, not that it was "anti-MS".

I concur.