TJ announces his nuptials the previous week, finally marrying his live-in girlfriend of 10 years. All that, and many parables that had to be cut from the podcast lest it last 90 minutes.
That said, there’s plenty of news this week:
Let us know if you spent $50,000 on a virtual spaceship.
Metal Gear Solid 4 was a solid release for the PlayStation 3, the exclusive title that gives Sony an edge over the competition. This was Sony’s Halo 3 title and it needed to be a big success in order to keep gamers confident in the Sony brand.
Sony is reporting a 300% increase in PlayStation 3 sales over last month, mainly due to the desire for people to own Metal Gear Solid 4. Remember, this isn’t an increase in game sales, this is an increase in console unit sales, providing evidence that MGS4 sold consoles.
While Grand Theft Auto 4 seemed to sell a few consoles but, overall, didn’t impact console statistics during its release, this exclusive PS3 title has done just the opposite. Perhaps because of its exclusivity? Xbox 360 consoles have been in the hands of the consumer for a few years now, most of those consumers actually purchased GTA IV (as expected and reflected in sales) but not a lot went out to purchase the console. They already had it or didn’t care to own it for a game like GTA IV.
While many people purchased Metal Gear Solid 4 because it’s “Metal Gear,” you can see from the trailers that the game looked impressive, felt complete and contained a lot of great action. You’ll get a great sales pop the first few days on a title with a huge fan base but to sustain the growth and sell consoles you’ve got to provide a well known title that doesn’t suck.
MGS4 doesn’t suck by any reviewers score; it’s not perfect, but what game is? MGS4 delivered what it was said to deliver with very few bad experiences and that’s all you can ask for a console moving title.
So, what next? Sony has promised us that MGS4 is just the first of many titles to blow our minds. Resistance 2, Little Big Planet and what of that MAG game they showed off at E3? 256 players? We won’t hold our breath for that title, but Resistance 2 and Little Big Planet, combined, may move a few more units.
It may not be about the games today that move the next round of PlayStation 3 consoles, it’s about the promise of the games tomorrow with titles like MGS4 to hold us over until then.
Gaming Podcast 197 explores our inner child in terms of buying peer pressure, our thoughts on some analysts and, of course, reactions to user responses. Also, we’ve got news, as you may have guessed and it includes:
This week’s question of the week, do you fall for game sequels, are you just drawn into them over and over again? Which ones?
Many of us, Wave Race fans have been looking for a Wii wave racing title for a year now with no talk of expanding the franchise. We’ve got a Wii Fit board, we’ve got motion controls, the only thing we’re missing is Wave Race.
Apparently a Wave Race style game can be found in Wii Sports Resort “power cruising” mode. This experience is supposed to be more involved than initially thought and provide us with our Wave Race fix, can that be true?
Every mini-game series Nintendo releases is a stripped down almost-cooked version of a real game. They tend to be a controller prototype to show off the motion control concepts. Why would “power cruise” be like Wave Race in depth when the game is about the entire “Wii Sports Resort” experience. Is every mini-game going to be a full blown title?
If so, this wouldn’t be a “mini” game experience! The entire concept of mini is thrown out the window if the title is really a bunch of mini-games plus a full Wave Race franchise title. Perhaps the “deep” title their talking about is simply a mini-game with a few more buttons and nobs to twist? The big issue with the pack-in mini-games tends to be very basic games with few modes of play, difficulty settings or other options.
(Thanks, Kotaku)
Congratulations TJ!