Dreamcast Game Released 6 yrs After Console's Death

I've recently become a big fan of the old 2D bottom up shooter. Basically, descendants of Space Invaders, who themselves have become relative relics.

I got hooked on the genre a couple weeks ago when I downloaded "Super Star Soldier" for the old TurboGrafx-16, on my Wii's "Virtual Console"

I have since discovered that my beloved Sega Dreamcast, now 6 full years out of production, was in fact the best system ever conceived for this particular type of game. For whatever reason, a couple dedicated companies decided to release a slough of shmup titles for the DC faithful.

And on Feb 22 of this year, one of those companies: Warashi released Trigger Heart Exelica (published by Sega)

The addition of yet another killer shmup to the Dreamcast library wouldn't in itself be newsworthy... if the Dreamcast hadn't been discontinued over a half-decade ago.

When combined with the insane number of homebrew games that have been written for Sega's swan-song console, no other system, to my knowledge, has kept up such an active afterlife.





Pick up a copy of the game here:



screenshot source: Dreamcast Scene

Got this from my friend James

Horrible song, but I love it a lot anyway.

Sony Banks on Free Peanuts Appeasing Peanut-Butter Starved Aussies

Or maybe it's vegemite they're feeling robbed of, but in any case, Sony has just committed the second biggest mistake console companies make before they descend into the pits of obsolete-ism...

...and that is, banking on free pack-ins to move their consoles.

After ripping out all the guts required to play PS1&2 games from the European and Australian PS3 machines, Sony has hoped that a free Blu-Ray version of "Casino Royale" would appease the growing number of frothing gamers spouting off against the hardware change. Folks with a more casual attitude about the industry are likely wondering why PS3 buyers are so ripped up over the loss of such a seemingly small feature in the first place. In my opinions, buyers, particularly those with pre-orders, have every reason to be right-pissed. Many folks plunked a sizable portion of cash down months ago to reserve a system that had been advertised with the capability to play their existing Playstation libraries. How many pre-order refunds is Sony willing to administer now that they aren't delivering with the original package that convinced folks to part with their cash?

None, of course, they'd rather chuck in a sub-par movie. They haven't even the charity to throw a game in with the package - just some flick that very few will ever watch more than once.

Of course, what is so humourous about this band-aid solution, is that failed console after failed console, (and there are a lot) have initiated their death spiral by opting to pack in extra games to attempt to compete with the price cuts of the competition. It never works, however, because nobody ever buys a console just because a game they can't even choose is included with it. They buy it based on how the entire library of games looks.

And they especially don't buy it when they can get a console from the competition for a cheaper price.

Of course, Sony can't even bring themselves to pack in an extra game... because in Australia, they're hoping to make back all the money they're losing on each console they sell, by charging a minimum of $99 per title. An outrageous price considering the games are going for half that cost in most of the Northern Hemisphere, and Aussies know it.

They're decision to go with a movie rather than a game might also have something to do with the fact that... if you're going to try to use a game to sell a console, it better be a good one. Oh shit... haven't got any good ones? howz bout a movie then?

Of course, with the $1000AUS price tag slapped on the Aussie PS3, does anyone actually believe that a free "Casino Royale" is going to be the deciding factor pushing the undetermined to finally part with the contents of their wallet?

PS3 to Sacrifice Some Backwards Compatibility for EUR Launch

Stinging from their lower-than expected sales in both Japan and North America, Sony has taken some cost cutting measures leading up to the March 07 release of the PS3 in Europe.

According to this PunchJump article, Sony has decided to sacrifice much of the expensive PS2 hardware compatibility on their machine, and rely on software emulation for PS1 and PS2 games.

"Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology."

David Reeves, President of SCEE

While software emulation doesn't always have to be worse than direct hardware compatibility, it's very unlikely that there will be any improvements on the older games. Abandoning a commitment to full PS2 compatibility is, in my opinion, a risky move by Sony, but definitely a sign of distress.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Sony would definitely have to look at scaling back some of its hardware muscle in order to bring the PS3 into a competitive zone for game consoles. It would appear as though they've begun to recognize that, but it may be far too little, just a tad too late.

Lack of backwards compatibility has been a major thorn in the side of Nintendo's console generations. Part of this is due to Nintendo's long reliance on cartridge media when everyone else had adopted CDs, which made compatibility between generations much more cumbersome... and it's only with the Wii that they've begun to get it right.

Arguably, one of the major reasons the PS2 was able to so fully dominate the home gaming market, was that it played PS1 games so well. This feature is immeasurably popular with users who have amassed a sizable collection of games, and would like to continue playing them long into the next generation. Sony did this better than either Nintendo or Sega could. Sega's console demise was largely predicated on their explicit refusal to offer this feature on any of their consoles. When combined with the shortness of each console lifespan... it inevitably spelled death.

What will make the absence of this feature more stinging to European gamers is that the feature exists on both Japanese and North American units. They will undoubtedly feel as though they're being fed a disabled console, and will quite likely opt to obtain theirs second-hand from eBay, if they're really that eager to get one at all.

What could prove even more disastrous for Sony about this decision, is the fact that Europe, (and particularly Great Britain) quite arguably have the most developed retro-gaming communities in the world. One of the most reputable retro-gaming magazines of the same name is from England. In other words, if there were ever a large geographic grouping of people who would get right pissed at not being able to play their existing older games... it's the one Sony is trying to feed this new limpy machine to.

And with the £424.99 price tag... it leaves one to wonder whether they cut the price at all, after abandoning the compatibility feature, or whether Sony opted to continue ahead with their original price, and hope to recoup some of the horrendous losses suffered after their previous Christmas launches.

They'll reportedly save $40 per console by opting for software emulation over hardware. Of course, the cost of developing games for third-party developers will now increase should they wish to sell their games in Europe or Australia. Part of the reason the cardinal rule of "not changing hardware configurations for consoles - ever" was developed is so that game developers are saved the cost of having to test their games on a multitude of different specs. It's the main cost advantage consoles have over PCs. Sony has seemingly taken steps to eliminate this, not only with the initial complexity of their hardware, but now with new variations of it.

Additionally, how much Sony loses when Europeans and Aussies tell them where they can stuff their little "magic box" is anyone's guess at this point.

Great follow-up article on the Aussie launch here.

Merrill Lynch Weighs in on Wii Predictions

And predicts the Wii a winner by the end of this hardware cycle. A very interesting claim by one the best known investment firms on earth, considering that nearly every game industry-focused market analyst seems to be jumping on the Wii-doomsday bandwagon.

The maverick prediction from Merrill Lynch may have more to do with their ability to produce independent market research... rather than depend on round-about funding from interested parties such as... uh... Sony.

No proof of any of that sort of stuff of course... but were I a Sony exec... I'd be doing everything possible to maintain third-party game developer confidence in my system. And that would certainly not place me above such tactics as paying off "research firms" to make "predictions" on which system would be around for the long-haul.

Not convinced Sony is capable of such dishonesty? Take a boo at this little blog, apparently created by some average Joe and his "cousin Pete" to convince their parents to buy them a Playstation Portable system for Christmas.

Read about Sony getting busted for making the phony blog here.

What this humble industry observer finds so hilarious, is how many times the big players make the same mistakes over and over again. Its as if new executives keep taking over the helms of the companies after the old ones jet off with their multi-million dollar buyouts and stock option selloffs, and the replacements refuse to peruse through the pages of the company's history.

ScreenDigest, the "research firm" predicting the triumph of the PS3 states the following reason as the main plank of their argument:

"...unlike Nintendo Wii, PS3 as well as Xbox 360 offer access to another type of entertainment, other than gaming."

The "other type of entertainment" ScreenDigest is referring to is the larger hard drives on the PS3 and XBOX, possibly enabling movie file and MP3 playback. As well as their Blu-ray and HD-DVD drives respectively.

So many flags pop up at this argument. The first thing these "analysts" should have done is look up a wikipedia article on the demise of some previous "multi-media systems, such as the infamously powerful-for-its age, 3D0.

The marketing strategy for this powerhouse, in competition with then, industry titans, Sega and Nintendo, was identical to what we're now hearing from Sony:
"For a significant period of the products life cycle, 3DO's official stance on pricing was that the 3DO was not a video game console, it was a high-end audio-visual system and was priced accordingly, so no price adjustment was needed."

source

What makes the situation even more precarious for the PS3, is that a price drop would be nearly unfathomable in the next few years without a serious downgrade in hardware capabilities. The PS3 is already said to be selling for as much as $300-$400 below cost. And even this only brings it into the price range of a medium priced PC.

Which brings us to the second reason the "multi-purpose-game-console" model never works. The market demographic Sony is targeting with their console is definitely the type of gamer who has some kind of a PC. It's also the kind of person, who many years past, discovered that their PC was in fact, a marvelous multi-media device. Many of them have likely even gone so far as to move at least one of their PC's out of the office or bedroom, and into the living room, or wherever they watch movies or listen to music.

So why do these game-company execs never ask themselves the question... what can our console do that a PC hasn't already been doing for years?

And when the price of said console begins to enter the realm of the PC, which the PS3 certainly has done, like the 3DO and Phillips CDI before it... that's precisely the question consumers begin to ask themselves.

Sure the PS3 graphics are great... but there's a very good reason why those graphics haven't really generated the excitement Sony would have liked them to - high end PC's have been producing similar graphics since before the PS3 launch, and by now, with some of ATI's crossfire cards, as well as NVIDIA's dual polygon munchers, a brand new, smokin' hot gaming rig with a good solid dual core processor is capable of spitting out eye-candy surpassing even the might PS3. This is of course, inevitable as it always has been. Regardless of what the consoles come up with in their latest generation, the PC market simply moves exponentially faster, and it's impossible to keep up in terms of hardware muscle.

Nintendo seems to have finally figured this out, and has focused on decent gameplay, rather than eye-candy, and it's paying off.

And as for non-gaming related activities, I've had no problem getting Divx movies to play off the SD flash card which can be inserted in the Wii. I've also had a great time streaming music straight of the web through the Wii's surprisingly functional Opera web browser. I've sent email, read forums, posted on this blog, played online games, and watched youtube on my Wii

All of this of course, is separate from Nintendo's own Wii-based news channel, sourced by the Associated Press, in addition to their weather channel updated continually by the weather channel.

Not only can I store photos on my Wii, I can plug my camera into it, and run slide shows right off my camera. After that, of course, I can add music to the slide shows, or edit the photos with a scaled down photo editor... all on my "game" console.

Then of course, there's the whole issue of the controller itself... which looks far more like a media-center remote than the clunky two-hander packed in with the PS3.

So many other factors demonstrate the versatility of the Wii, and the hilarity of Sony's attempt to market the PS3 as the new magic media box. Primary among them, is the size of the two consoles, and perhaps more importantly, the noise generated by both of them. The PS3, a hulking behemoth which in many ways, puts the godzilla-coffin housing the original XBox to shame, emits so much fan and HD noise that you better hope your sound system can drown it out. An entire sub-industry has propped up in the past few years in the PC market based solely around balancing the noise generated by the increasing number of fans required to cool CPU's as they get faster and hotter. That Sony would abandon all concern over this issue for their "media-box" is more than simply a trivial oversight.

The Wii on the other hand, might be mistaken for an external hard drive from afar. Its optical drive makes a bit of noise while loading games, but its fan is virtually silent. This is in part due to the low power consumption of the Wii, and the lower, but more stable hardware capabilities, which simply generates less heat.

Of course, none of that will have whole lot to do with the success of the Wii. Ultimately, the price of the unit, in conjunction with the consistency and quality of its games will determine that. The additional frills are designed to entice users to turn the Wii on more times per day, and for that function, they'll likely continue to be successful as long as Nintendo continues to be creative with what they add.

Regardless of how great PS3 games are... development will cease if developers can turn a profit because the console's install base is stunted, because either not enough people could afford to buy the unit, or not enough could see a reason why they should.

But then again, we wouldn't want Trip Hawkins to be the only one to have learned this the hard way, would we?

Microsoft Looking for Ways to Thump Game Development Staff?

According to this article, from Gamasutra - Microsoft has recently taken on in a relatively mysterious capacity, and old stalwart from our favourite "friend" of workers in the game development industry - Electronic Arts.

Don Mattrick's job description is vague, "advisory," and temporary - which of course, is CEO-eze for "downsizer"

The timing of Mr Gates' latest HR acquisition is predictable. The production costs for his XBOX 360 and its components/software is smack in the middle of the three industry contenders. Sony's PS3 in the high end of the spectrum with software developers complaining of the expensive development costs associated with righting for the systems ground-breaking (and yet untested) "Cell Processor."

The XBOX 360 is nowhere near, however, the low costs associated with the more accesable Wii. The Wii's games are by now means revolutionary graphically, and the plus side of that factor is how familiar the technically inferior hardware is to programmers. Real eye-openers might be possible on the PS3, but with a stunted console install base, combined with higher per-unit production costs - developers are undoubtedly realizing that to turn a profit on PS3 games, they would have to sell 2 or 3 times as many as they would were the game done on the Wii instead... and that ain't easy when there's fewer people who could even play the game in the market.

This dynamic would have worked in Microsoft's favour had the Wii not been such a quick-start out of the gates... and now Gates is finding himself having to make moves to identify with the newer and expanding section of the market being generated by Nintendo.

And bottom line, that means lowering production costs to increase profitability to a level that will help shorten their losses while they attempt to increase their install base.

At least, this is what's going through the heads of Microsoft's executives, and so as all good CEO's do when they want to re-assure investors - they begin laying off workers while attacking the compensation levels of those who are allowed to remain.

And what better way to facilitate that process, than to hire the best in the biz as an advisor?

Hence the news about Don Mattrick's hiring.

If past moves by EA are any indication, then Microsoft workers can expect efforts to eke out from them, increased unpaid overtime hours during so-called "crunch-times"

Consumers can expect a number of new creative ways extract from them, user fees on "value-added" components of the game they already paid for.

It's really too bad that they'll try to pull the savings out of the workforce instead of recognizing that the mistake has already been made - and it lies in their emphasis placed on the so-called "Graphics Arms-Race." What they fail to recognize, is that the success of Nintendo's Wii is not in how little it pays it's production staff - but how their decision to release a more competitively-priced, accessable piece of hardware, more in tune with the wallets of the market is what will eventually sell games and turn a profit. The ironic side of Nintendo's strategy is that programmers writing for the Wii, giving its comparative hardware limitations, will be forced to find more innovative ways to make games enjoyable. This means focus on gameplay, rather than using spasm-inducing eye-candy as a crutch behind which programmers can hide because their gameplay sucks.

Sony, with their PS3, in so many respects, are making the same mistakes Sega made with the Sega CD. Too much reliance on flashy visuals, and to hell with how fun the game is.

And ultimately, Sega learned that eye-candy is only nice to look at for so long, and then you want to eat it. And if it tastes like shit, then you certainly won't be taking any more bites anytime soon.

Spending even fewer resources on game development, undoubtedly to be the key recommendation from EA's Don Mattrick to Microsfot bigwhigs, will only sour the taste of their eye-candy.

_____________________________________
February 23, 2007

Microsoft Hires Ex-EA Exec In “Advisory Role”

According to a news report in the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft has hired ex-Electronic Arts executive Don Mattrick in an “advisory role” to work on strategy for the company’s PC and Xbox games divisions.

Mattrick was previously considered as heir apparent to current Electronic Arts CEO Larry Probst, but left the company in 2005 after expressing disdain for the idea of running a public company. Mattrick was one of the co-founders of Distinctive Software (DSI), the foundation of what is now EA Canada. His final role at the company, before leaving, was as worldwide president of studios.

Although he has experience of handling high profile franchises including The Sims, Need for Speed and SSX, Mattrick’s exact role at Microsoft is unclear. His role is not full-time, and he will be based in Vancouver rather than Microsoft’s Redmond offices.

The Wall Street Journal article quotes Microsoft’s Peter Moore as saying that Mattrick will assist with “a broad array of tasks including helping [Microsoft’s] own game studios", indicating that Mattrick's long development and production history are likely to be utilized to increase efficiencies.

Ailing Wii?

Jason Harman said...

Aaron, Here's a question for you to answer next blog:

Computer And Video Games asks the tough question: is the Wii's magic gone? After the flurry of excitement around the launch, lackluster ports and a persistent inability for Nintendo to keep units on the shelves has made it hard for gamers to sustain their enthusiasm for the system. It doesn't help that most of the good games slated for this year won't be out for months. In some cases, there's doubt they'll even make it out this year: Reggie Fils-Aime appears to be backpedaling on Metroid Prime 3 by Christmas, which would be a shame. GigaGamez has additional commentary. Are you still as excited about the Wii as you were when it launched?

http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=158325
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Here's a link to the most recent article I've read regarding the sales numbers put up by the Wii. I think it's pretty foolish for any industry commentator to put their neck out and make any predictions at this point. I know a lot are reserving comment cause it's just too up in the air to tell. So many systems of done well at launch, like the Wii has, and then tanked in the next few months due to problems with 3rd party support, etc. Sega's swan-song Dreamcast is the best example of this kinda stuff, although there were a good deal of other factors contributing to its early demise as well.

As the linked article above shows however, the Wii, when compared to Nintendo's previous two machines, is holding its own pretty well. In addition... for the first time in two console generations, it's outperforming both of the other titans by a considerable margin. Another major difference which separates the Wii's initial performance from that of the N64 and the Gamecube, is that Nintendo is beginning to attract more 3rd party support in it's first few months, rather than lose it as has been it's tradition. And remember, Nintendo is a company which over the last decade has held it's own based on the merits of it's own software, and in a market where its two largest competitors have the financial capacity to post record losses for not just months, but years, just to stay in the game.

I certainly can't say that the Wii will come out on top as the market dominator over the other two systems. What I can say, is considering the circumstances and challenges faced by Nintendo, they're certainly doing the best they can with what they've got.

The Green Gamer's Choice

Some interesting stats on power consumption of each console. And yes... yet another testament to the engineering feat accomplished by Nintendo in their latest console - not so much in terms of pure hardware power, but rather in terms of the physical layout of the internal components, durability, etc...

I'd be very interested to see what a cheaper, re-packaged, downsized version of the Wii would look like should one ever be released. I can certainly see a new version incorporating CD and DVD playing capability, perhaps some expanded internal flash memory capacity... but in terms of the over shape of the package, I can't see a lot that could be improved upon. And that is extremely rare for the the first edition of any video game console.

Warrantendo

Called up Nintendo today for the second repair-related issue since I bought my Wii on launch day. This time, about my Wii-mote which seemed to have lost its ability to register motion.

Got put straight through to a tech person in Richmond immediately. He gave me some instructions which basically amounted to: "give it a good smack." Apparently, there's a gyro of some sort, not unlike the ball in an old pre-optical mouse which can get jammed if sent through particular motions. The quick remedy is to smack your controller around a bit in order to "dislodge it"

I was a bit hesitant to hit it too hard, since I didn't want to end up with a controller in worse shape than it was. Couldn't seem to dislodge any gyros.

So the techie asked if I wanted to cruise over to Nintendo headquarters, where'd they'd take a look at my Wii-mote, and swap it out right there if it couldn't be fixed. Would have normally been put off by the drive out to Richmond, but had always wanted to get a look inside that big Nintendo building I'd always seen off the highway, so I went for a drive.

Got there, and was greeted by a larger-than-life sized statue of Link at the door. The techie I talked to on the phone came up to the front desk. synced my wii-mote to their console, and gave it a good smack. Sure enough... that had been the problem.

"Looks like I didn't hit if hard enough," I said.

"No worries," he shrugged. "Go ahead and keep those batteries I put in there for you. Hope the trip out here was worth it... even if to just look around the building."

Can't praise Nintendo customer service enough. Which is pretty bizarre, since most gigantic companies these days are a nightmare to deal with if you're looking for anything other than a profit-generating service from them. I've now had to repair one controller, and replace my entire Wii console, and I've never found Nintendo to be anything but immediately responsive, unquestioning, and completely lacking in bureaucratic red-tape.

Now if only Telus or BC Ferries could take a couple lessons from their book.

Wii Controller Certainly not Indestructable

Been a pretty shitty day for home electronics and schtuff.

Decided to update some of the light switches and power sockets throughout the house today. Have been doing so since we moved in periodically with a good deal of success. Today however, was a different story. Replaced a combo outlet, (switch and outlet) and when I flicked the breaker back on... discovered that I had a short which prevented the breaker from being re-set. Have hauled the whole works out about three or four times, and even called my dad for some advice... and nothing has worked. goddammit.

Went upstairs to blow off some steam on Wii boxing... and during the 2nd round of my third fight, my right hand froze as the Wii-mote locked up. Not sure if there's something internal broken, or what, but I guess I now get a second shot at testing out Nintendo's warranty service. Shouldn't be any problems if it's as smooth as my first go-around.

Corny Cornell

Friend James called me up the other day and left a message on my machine that Cornell had quit Audioslave. I had heard as much on CFOX a day earlier. So I called James back up and said...

"Yeah man... I heard that on the radio the other night. and uh... I'm not sure anyone cares."

Honestly, I'm not. I liked Audioslave more than any of my friends did, and I don't even really care that much. Maybe cause it doesn't come as much of a surprise. They haven't released an album in quite a while, except for the solo acoustic Cornell put out last year.

And then there's Rage's Reunion this April.