E3 was supposed to be the staging point for the next Bungie bombshell but Microsoft was said to cut it to save time. Bungie had big plans to reveal some stuff they were working on and really take best in show for E3. Was it really cut because of time?
This sounds fabricated, cutting a huge announcement because of time constraints makes absolutely no sense. Imagine a firework show where you cut the grand finale because it would push the show over by a few minutes. Just dropping a title name or a 30 second teaser video would have taken a minute at most, we’re not looking for long winded explanations, just the facts.
Perhaps the real reason was Microsoft had it in their back pocket if people found the Netflix and Final Fantasy XIII news hum drum compared to anything Sony or Nintendo were to show off. Reacting dynamically to the news, perhaps they realized Sony didn’t have any epic announcements and Nintendo just showed up to hint at their future accessories. Microsoft’s haymaker of an announcement wasn’t needed to win the show this year.
Or, maybe the low turn out to the event just wouldn’t build enough hype for Microsoft’s big announcement. They could find a better outlet to turn on the hype and get people jazzed for the next Bungie product. Three years ago there is no doubt Microsoft would have come out fighting with all their weapons; this year Final Fantasy XIII was enough to show consumers that Sony’s lost their exclusives.
After the noise of E3 fades we’re sure to hear more from Bungie. We feel bad for the employees of Bungie who were ready to make the announcements on their work in progress. Sometimes, saving it for later is the best thing you can do; think of the anticipation that will build!
(Thanks, 1up)
@The Lund Report: September 2011 NPD:
No surprise in terms of MSFT domination: they made sure they had a platform easy to develop software for => biggest game library => biggest sales numbers.
@Catwoman requires online pass to play in Arkham City
One thing needs to be remembered: people can still (and should!) vote with their wallets.
The only way this is a bait and switch is if they advertise Catwoman and not mention the extra costs.
@Battlefield 3 is ‘mission accomplished’:
I guess this is bound to happen, as games become more and more complex. Testing time should be extended accordingly, but that would add delays to shipping dates.
@EA defends cop killing in Battlefield 3
Link changed to:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/battlefield-3-PC-gaming-FPS-cop-killing-ESRB,13667.html
I all these kinds of controversies, people forget that players control an imaginary character, pointing an imaginary gun and shooting at other imaginary characters.
For f|_|cks sake, we used to “shoot” each other with toy guns since we were kids, half of us being the cops, half being the robbers (thank you, Jordan). And us kids were pretty real, no anti-alias or hardware tessellation required :P.
@Legit Forza 4 users banned for “pirated” copies:
I always love when a DRM scheme turns to crap: legit customers get the bad user experience, while pirates get the clean one. When will they learn …
@Xbox Live Accounts scammed for FIFA DLC
Oh boy … he should also talk with his kids. As for phishing, well, what can I say, keep your eyes peeled.
Jonah, excellent point in terms of phishing at the user support level, and hinting that some companies do bad support. Thumbs up, I never thought of that.
@QOTW:
Oh … I don’t do that. Sorry. I always try to find out something about the game.
@Catwoman requires online pass to play in Arkham City:
Personally I don’t care about this because I only ever buy new games. I also don’t think it’s entirely a bad thing because it will pull people away from buying into the used games “scam” which these stores are making lots of free profit from and give more money to the developers to keep making quality content.
@Battlefield 3 is ‘mission accomplished’:
I worry about this because I think there will be a lot of problems on release which will never get fixed. Have you read that Battlefield review copies will not be sent early due to the Day 1 patch? I hope this isn’t as catastrophic as I think it is.
@QOTW:
The first and only game I ever bought a game I knew nothing about was Need For Speed Prostreet, back when I was about 11 years old and the only gaming experience I had was about 2 hours in Need for Speed Underground 2. I sigh whenever I think back to that day and I remember that I would’ve bought a crappy movie license game if it hadn’t been for my small familiarization with Need For Speed.
The issue with Catwoman is less that she’s DLC but that her DLC status makes her irrelevant to the main story. She was advertised as though she’d be a major player, the artwork makes it look like a Batman-Catwoman adventure, and to find her relegated to this side story with Poison ivy while Talia al Ghul is cast as a would-be love interest is where the real Bait and Switch charges are coming from. It’s not the $10, it’s simply not the story we were sold. They sold us one thing and delivered another, that’s a bait and switch.
xbox live accounts scammed! That’s kind of scary. First play station and now that. How do we know if our money and privacy are secured when playing online? And the statement Mivrosoft issued is just even more concerning. The least they can do is look into what happened instead of just denying it.