g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets
  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
     A stream-of-consciousness Web journal, containing
     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.


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Saturday, January 5, 2002
02:05 - Salon Predicts a Long, Humiliating March of Death for the Xbox
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/11/15/xbox/index.html?x

(top) link
A very refreshing article to read, at least for me. It focuses on the Xbox's future as a function of the games that are and will be available for it, and how game developers are reacting to it as a platform. We get a good glimpse into the creative distinctions between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft (well, Microsoft's purchased game-developing subsidiaries), and what it is that makes a game into a killer app that will sell the console unaided.

Halo is upheld as the big, central Xbox title-- but the article forgets to mention that it will be available for PC and Mac shortly, which is a very significant point. Halo, the only game that people universally admire the Xbox for, is not even an exclusive for the platform.


Munch's Oddysee, the only other game to get much attention in the article as having the potential to capture gamers' imaginations, is described as being successful largely because it plays just like certain other wildly popular platformers from the past. Namely, it "...feels a lot like Shigeru Miyamoto's Super Mario games, but with internal organs for heroes."

It goes on to describe a ton of games that are being developed for the PS2 primarily because it's the clear winner in developers' eyes-- but also because Sony is more of a company that developers trust with their creative visions. According to Greg LoPiccolo, VP of product development for Harmonix Music Systems, "FreQuency is an extremely innovative game and we knew that we were going to need an innovative publisher to 'get' our vision and to take the product to market properly. Sony is a company that has always been progressive in this regard."

So a console's success is not based purely on its specs, and different console-selling companies do in fact have real (or at least perceived) differences in their creative atmospheres and visions. This isn't "Company A vs. Company B vs. Company C". It's Steven Spielberg vs. Stanley Kubrick vs. the present-day George Lucas.

I'll leave it up to you to decide which of the three companies I mean those to represent.

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© Brian Tiemann