Sony: Microsoft "writes cheques" for games thanks to first-party line-up insecurity

SCEA hardware marketing boss John Koller has told VG247 that Microsoft's apparent need to pay for exclusivity on certain products - such as the Lost and Damned - is borne from a self-perceived lack of strength in its first-party line-up.

[axeru777]

Yes, that seems to be the case

[euchreprof]

M$ is gonna be knocked out by this time next year. PERSONAL GUARANTEE!

PS: I even heard a rumor that Final Fantasy XIII was gonna get cancelled on the Xbox 360 due to lack of graphic power.

[solidsnakus]

wtf... ok, killzone is good but its not that good. theres a reason why halo 3 sold 10 mil copys you know.

[Shadow Flare]

This article is another case of 'yes, he's bashing the competition, but he's also completely correct'

[krauler]

that reason is in your face and down your throat marketing. Halo keychain or Halo Mountain Dew, anyone?

[THC CELL]

Halo is just a name

People are scared of play station 3
xbox player are cracking tho

it wont be long and that gap is closing people

there is a story on here
is ps3 extra power worth using

thats like asking is the next xbox worth the power and wait ?

[artzm]

Lol @ Sony Marketing. I think the PS3 is a great machine but this is just stupid. The thing is it isn't just first party titles that sell systems. Technically you could have a system without first party titles and as long as people are willing to develop for your system, you'll be good to go.

[SaiyanFury]

It's not even really news anymore. Microsoft has stated repeatedly that their single goal is to unseat Sony's presence in the games market. They are willing to go to any length to do so. Launching the system a year ahead of even the Wii, releasing a system with a proven faulty hardware design that even MS admitted to. Paying previously PS exclusive developers to make games on their system first. Their practises are clear to any who aren't blind. MS has almost negligible first party games, save HALO and Gears of War. Sony, on the other hand, has decided to forget about third party exclusives and have tightened their belt with their own internal studios to produce games not available anywhere else. MS thought they could buy this generation, but instead Sony studios have come together to deliver some amazing experiences not available anywhere else. True, third party exclusivity might be a thing of the past, but Sony continues it's commitment to us gamers with a plethora of exclusive games, that cannot be had anywhere else. It's a good time to be a PS3 owner.

[RumbleFish]

I don't care about M$ and I don't care about Killzone. I play MGO and GT 5 P.

[kwicksandz]

Yes they do. And its working out for them just fine!

Perhaps $ony should take a leaf from the MS book

[Aquanox]

Sony guys were mad about GTA IV DLC being Exclusive.

[Rofflecopter]

i doubt that aquanox. I could care less, didnt get it on my 360 anyway.. It was out so long after that i sold my copy of GTA4 back already.. just dont really care about GTA4 anymore.. im sure others feel the same.

[FlameBaitGod]

Agree with everything SaiyanFury said

[All-3]

That's why Sony has to buy developers <-- Am I right?

Guerrilla.. anyone?

Evolution Studios... anyone?

BigBig Studios... anyone?

Doesn't Sony utilize the --> Pub Fund <-- for exclusivity?

What does this Sony Pub Fund use for --> incentive?

Here's a hint --> $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$

QUOTE - Sony's Chris Eden spoke at GDC about a new program available for developers called "Pub Fund." In an effort to make the online service more lucrative, the Pub Fund deal has Sony matching development budgets of PSN-exclusive titles. "We're looking for a number of great games, and in return for exclusivity we'll match your development budget with guaranteed royalties," Eden said.

LOL.... gsus.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

But, but, but Sony doesn't doesn't write cheques or extend their moneyhat....

"“We don’t feel the need to write cheques necessarily with every publisher, like they did with the Lost and Damned and some other titles, because we feel very strongly in our first-party line-up."

-John Koller, SCEA hardware marketing boss

Straight from the horses mouth and the Sony fanboys cry!

Reality is that there is mudslinging on all side and taking a stab at someone else is just your own insecurities need to voice an opinion.

[Beast_Master]

Exactly Sony buys studios, they also create studios, they work with people like Jaffe, Insomniac, and sucker punch to remain independent but give them strong incentive to do exclusives for their platforms.

MS also buy's studios dumbas$ ever hear of Ensemble, or Rare or Lionhead? MS was in a position to buy Bungie and Bio-Ware but they didn't. Because they put out such a crap piece of hardware they couldn't afford to bring in their bread and butter developers.

Did someone on this board really say that exclusives don't matter, I wish I could be so dumb sometimes.

[KingME]

Yes Microsoft pays third party companies for exclusives. But what people fail to see is that it also cost money to have inhouse software houses. Those people have to be paid also, they have to do research, the drain resources as well as money to build those first party titles.

It's simply a difference in business models. It's no different from one company have 10 secretaries and another company using 10 temps. The company with the temps don't have to pay health care plans and deal with any of the other problems that fulltime employees bring. So, both processes has it advantages and disadvantages.

So, it would be nice if people weren't so narrow visioned and could see things form both directions. AS sony blabs out all this crap, why don't they also should us how much they spend on inhouse IP production vs MS' inhouse IP production.

[soxfan2005]

@krauler

"that reason is in your face and down your throat marketing. Halo keychain or Halo Mountain Dew, anyone?"

The Halo 3 marketing campaign is LONG since over, yet Halo 3 continues to sell extremely well.

[SoapShoes]

The difference is, it's much more secure having your own studios. Paying money for exclusivity doesn't mean everyone you want exclusive will be for it. Plus you could even lose exclusivity(like many Microsoft 3rd party exclusives have been lately) with loopholes through the contract and whatnot.

[The_Beast]

Thats becouse you guys have nothing good that comes out... as soon as a good title comes out you jump on it!!"OH MY GOD!! NEW GAME!!"

[-EvoAnubis-]

Hey, yeah, I've heard of Ensemble! They're the ones that made Halo Wars! Refresh my memory, Chuckles.....what did MS do with Ensemble after they finished it? I forget.

[KingME]

I agree with your statement. But why is the Sony guy talking about writing checks as opposed the strength of 1st party? The point I was trying to make was about writing checks, they're both writing check whether it be for their inhouse employees or jobs being outsourced.

[Saigon]

the npd numbers release this week...the fud articles are coming out of the wood works...this is like the 5th ps3 fail article...

[-EvoAnubis-]

I'd agree with that, but you have to look at what they're each getting for the money. MS tosses money at a 3rd party, they get a game with a bit of timed exclusiveness and maybe some DLC. Sony gets a game that will be exclusive forever because they own the IP, new dev tools that they can put into the SDK, and a new game engine that can be used for other games, which will drop the development costs for future games.

Sony has been investing their money very wisely, and MS has been simply tossing $$ around like rice at a wedding. This year it seems to be biting MS on the ass big time, meanwhile the results of Sony's investments seems to be flourishing.

[Blaze929]

sounds like a certain someone at Sony is simply hating....

[Frnicatr]

The N4G community is pissing me off.

The stories posted are lame now, there's only stupid stuff being posted and it has turned into the gayest PS3 fanbase ever.

I remember when the days when the N4G community was split on 360 and PS3, and now it's just lame as balls seeing anyone who supports the 360 get negative comments and a 10 to 1 ratio with agrees and disagrees.

[The Lazy One]

Both ways have risks and benefits. If you buy a studio, you are stuck with everyone in that studio on your pay role whether or not they continue making a profit. When you pay 3rd party studios to develop your games, you don't have to deal with any of the administration costs, and you can be more selective with both how much money you are spending, and what games you're spending money on. Take, for example, killzone 2. The budget for that game ballooned incredibly over the course of the game and doubled by the time it was released.

When M$ buys games, they know the amount they are going to spend on a game up front. They know it won't cost them any more to get the game on their system. That is a huge advantage.

Also, imo, I think M$ is restructuring their game division to go from a multi-studio single game model like sony (where 1 studio makes 1 game and there are many studios. Sony has 17 studios right now) to a few studio multi-game model (where a couple large studios make many games).

For example, Naughty Dog has approximately 90 employees (from wiki) and they are working on Uncharted 2. Rare has approximately 200 (from wiki) and has been releasing between 3-5 games a year since M$ picked them up, not including the work they did for the NXE.

Even still, only around 20% of video games ever make a profit (source: http://www.gamedaily.com/ar... In M$'s model, they try to find games that they expect to be in that 20% and invest in those. In sony's, they try to establish developers that will continue to make games in that 20% and invest in them. Both should get you games in that 20%.

It's really just a different way of going about things, and, as long as you're getting games either way, why should you care?

[CaseyRyback_CPO]

because games that Ms doesn't advertise, like Banjo and Lips have all sold less than 150k units.

The only great sellers for the 360 = Gears, Halo, and Halo and gears. all with over the top cgi commercials.

[agentace]

they advertised the sh!t out of lips, it was doing my head in every other advert was that or that other stupid game, in the movies or something, you just film yourself and it puts a background on it wtf?? thats not a game lol

oh and its nice to finally see sony take a jab at M$ but i hope they dont continue its really low desperate

[MmaFanQc]

you are retarded

[The Lazy One]

What does that have to do at all with my comment?

[CaseyRyback_CPO]

could have sworn it was poignant.

oh well.

[Ashby_JC]

Before you just start puttin up sales numbers do some research....it just makes you look ignorant and spreading BS

LIPS 410k units sold (that is double your sold under 150k claim)

BANJO and Kazooie N & B 500k units sold (again double your claim)

Not great sales but to say they each sold under 150k each is just WRONG!!

[Domenikos]

TRUE...

[JokesOnYou]

micro owns less studio's so they have less overhead

sony owns more studio's so they have more overhead

micro can afford to write cheques so they pay for more content

sony can't afford to write cheques so they are pissed because micro can afford to write cheques

simple stuff whats all the fuss about?

JOY

[gameplayer]

Spending $10M for an in-house studio to develop a game or paying a third party $10M to develop a game for you... two different approaches, same outcome...

[thePatriot]

you need to have first party to be insecure about it.

[slayorofgods]

It is true that Sony has been making more better video game decisions than Microsoft for about two years now. It really shows because their game studios reward the art form of making video games; as opposed to the Microsoft money guru's that are more talented in numbers and figures than anything that has to do with the video game industry.
Unfortunately, the initial launch of the 700 dollar PS3 still proves to be one of Sony's biggest roadblocks. During that time the 360 successfully gained a foot hold in the U.S. and alot of gamers became too invested in their 360 purchases to be able to start all over on a new system despite the marketing strategies between Sony and Microsoft. If Sony didn't drop the ball when they released the PS3 there is no question in my mind that they would be way ahead of the xbox 360 by now.

[slayorofgods]

you have a quite the brassy rumor of "FF13 is going to be canceled on the 360" I'd love to read this story or see a link, but I somehow believe that this is only wishful thinking by you.

[Sarick]

It ruins the industry when a company cuts a check for exclusive or timed exclusive rights.

Why?

#1 It pushes the devs into one console if not permanently. This is especially true on timed exclusives. When a game is fresh and hits the market on one console only the owners of that single console can enjoy that title. By the time the other console gets it all the hype has died. This results in less profits simply because it's OLD news. Then the company thinks. "WHY didn't this title sell as well as it did on the 1st Console?" Duh, because it's OLD NEWS. What's sad is the console maker who wrote the check yells "WE HAVE A HIGHER ATTACH RATE!"

Sheesh, what do you expect getting your hands in the cookie jar before anyone else? Simultaneous multi-console releases are where the sales are. That way both sides are hyped the same when it's launched FRESH.

#2 It makes the DEV's more wasteful, less inspired to make a quality product. They already got paid for the game why make go that extra mile to increase it's ratings?

[jessupj]

Why has no one said or realised this. I'm getting very annoyed at people yelling "but sony rights cheques too!". It's a very redundant arguement.

So here is the simple truth...

Sony invests money in it's exsisting studios to create new content for the ps3.

Microsoft flashes cheques infront of developers to restrict access to already exsisting games from the ps3.

So in other words, instead of ps3 and 360 owners sharing the "cake", microsoft buys the cake and gives it all to the 360 fans and doesn't give any to the ps3 fans. Sony creates an entirely new cake so no ones losing anything but ps3 fans are still gaining something.

Feel free to rebute these facts because anything you say I will have a logical answer for.

[JokesOnYou]

Literally what both you are saying is that its OK for sony to buy an indenpendent studio/3rd party who would have made games for both platforms but now its OK for sony to buy them and make them 1st party which means they will ONLY make games for sony and thus limiting the enjoyment of those games to ps3 only owners is fine.

BUT

Its terrible for micro to buy a "exclusive" or "timed exclusive" or "extra" DLC because it limits the people who gets to experience that content or it will be old news by the time it goes to ps3 lmfao, SO WHAT? Thats the whole point of selling 2 different consoles. Aren't both companies STILL keeping content from the other platform? They both have the exact SAME result meaning one platform owners miss out, actually it could be said micro's timed exclusive approach is better strategy if you believe ALL owners are *entitled to 3rd party games because ps3 only owners still eventually get the opportunity to play it, but I still like to know how micro is bad for cutting "cheques" and its OK for sony to "buy out" devs, they're one in the same, and save me the BS about cutting checks leads to less innovation or being lazy= all devs work for money but they are responsible for thinking of innovative ideas, it does matter if they make a game for micro or sony if they fail to innovate just because their getting a great paycheck then thats their fault.

jessupj you said: "Feel free to rebute these facts because anything you say I will have a logical answer for"

Well I really like to hear your "logical" response because it seems you have a "un-logical" double standard. Also you need to work on your analogy's sony isn't "creating" a whole new anything, they simply brought a dev to do it, which again is the same thing micro does the ONLY exception is micro hired them temporarily so their free to still bake "cakes" for other restaraunts(platforms).

JOY

[Kinetix]

Because 1 First party microsoft game beats 3 first party sony games in sales. So there's no need to have so many in house studios.

[lloyd_wonder]

bubu but GT pwnz haloe

"Debuting on the PSOne, figures for the original Gran Turismo stand at 10.84 million units (Japan 2.25 million, North America 3.99 million, Europe 4.29 million); on the same format Gran Turismo 2 sold slightly less at 9.34 million (Japan 1.71 million, North America 3.96 million, Europe 3.65 million).

The series move onto the Playstation2 with the release of Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec currently stands out as the largest title in the series, shifting an unbelievable 14.36 million copies (Japan 1.89 million, North America 6.88 million, Europe 5.58 million). The muted release of Gran Turismo Concept Series and Gran Turismo 4 â??Prologueâ? still managed to shift close to 1.5 million units each, while the release of Gran Turismo 4 currently stands at 6.25 million worldwide (Japan 1.09 million, North America 1.94 million, Europe 3.12 million)."

http://www.totalvideogames....

Not to mention all the other great first-party franchises Sony has, and they're sitting pretty.

[DARK WITNESS]

lol... i can't wait to see some of the replies you get back.

where is my bottle of coke ?

[Cyrax_87]

So you'd rather buy a console with one good game with high sales then a console with multiple good games but less sales? Way to point out your fanboyism.

[PotNoodle]

Last time i checked Gran turismo, as (sarcasticly) said above has sold alot more than ALL of microsofts first party console games put together.

I personally don't give a crap, keeping me satisfied with my xbox is going to take alot more than knowing the game is selling well. I need more and better quality of games, hence the reason i choose my PS3 as my main gaming system.

I'm not taking anything away from the xbox i like the system, i like its games, i'm not saying it is a bad system, but as a gamer - the PS3 offers _me_ more, better games, so i naturally lean towards that system. No fanboy rubbish here.

Come on, seriously you lot - one minute it is "The PS3 has no games" - next minute it is "The PS3 games don't sell well" - does that really matter to YOU? Does it effect your enjoyment of the game?

Each of sony's first party games may not sell as much as halo (with the exception of gran turismo) but all them put together all add up to much more than halo - so i'm sure they're happy, considering they profit on pretty much all their first party games very quickly (I.e littlebigplanet became profitable within the first month, not many games can say that) and do nothing to market them.

"So there's no need to have so many in house studios. "

There isn't? Just because sony are in last place so far this generation doesn't mean they're going to drop all their internal studios, the same studios that did so well for them last generation and earned them all that money.

[I did not murder him]

Show me the money.

I like to have some of these games Sony talks so highly about. IF Sony is so confident where are my games? I'v been hearing about the same games since 2006 save me the all the inhouse studio jive.

Playing LBP and Super stardust is getting on my nerves.

Hit me up on some LBP lol PSN: masseffect1

[Shadow Flare]

"Where are the games?"

Firstly, look at the 360 this year. Secondly, im not going to spout off the list of ps3 AAA exclusives because you should know them already. Go to a shop, find the game section and open your fanboy eyes you idiot

[I did not murder him]

Having a life woks wonders on emotional problems.

Don't like MGS4 or R2 what else? oh nothing IMO.

[SL1M DADDY]

As pointed out by some of my esteemed colleges, you might want to take a look at the cold hard facts before making silly comments like the one you made here. Halo is good and regardless of genre helped usher in a good day for those of us that love FPS's but in terms of game sales, GT has grabbed hold of Halo's proverbial arse and wiped the market clean in terms of sales. Perhaps after Halo 4 MS will be able to talk smack but until then, not so much.

[Death]

but I'm not sure this is a fair nor accurate comparison. Comparing 7 releases across 3 generations of consoles to a game that has had 3 releases across 2 console generations is already a bit off, but you are also comparing Halo on 50 million consoles to GT on close to 300 million. If you compare games released on the competing consoles (PS2/PS3 vs. Xbox/Xbox 360) Sony has 30 million copies of GT http://www.pcworld.com/busi... vs. Microsoft's 23 million copies of Halo. Considering the incredible differance in user bases, that is pretty impressive.

-Death

[ultimolu]

So sales is what makes a game excellent and fun to play.

Thank you for playing on the wheel of sales!

[silvacrest]

i kinda agree and disagree

yes, it is un-fair to compare a 7 game franchise to 3 but when you have people spouting off rubbish like Kinetix did someone has to set him straight

but to be honest what gamer cares about sales? can you play sales? does sales entertain you?

[SL1M DADDY]

Of course it's fair. It's as fair as comparing two console that released a year apart and claiming a lead in sales to the earlier released one.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. ;-)

In all honesty, sales do not make a game great and regardless, both titles compared here are good games.

[Microsoft Xbox 360]

That's the reason why H3 got many sales. Xbox owners don't have much to choose from. It seems to me like you're trying to pass that as a good thing. If that floats your boat, go ahead and enjoy that number game.

[Death]

The Xbox 360 library is still larger than the PS3's. How do you figure Halo sells because there are no games?

-Death

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

Last I checked, a game selling massive amounts means a lot of people enjoyed it and there is likely a huge community.

Doesn't make it the better game for everybody as everybody has their own tastes. I would pick the console that has the type of games and community I enjoy being part of. Take your pick, but none is better than the other.

[The Lazy One]

GT5P has 3 million units sold with an average 250k sold per month. Halo 3 has 9+ million sold with an average 500k+ sold per month.

Just saying :-X

farewell bubbles.

[agentace]

ok so lets go with this stupid logic thats sales make something great, lets all go worship the Wii

[jjl]

I'm going to wake up tomorrow and see this news flooded with over 100 comments...

[agentace]

already nearly double that

[OrganicMachine]

the more people know about your game, the more will buy it..

Microsoft got marketing covered..

SOny has a lot of great first party games but lack of advertising, the less people know aobut your game, the less will buy it.

[krauler]

halo bed sheets!

[maxcer]

two of my buddies own PS3's and I have asked them repeatedly if are getting KZ2. I only own 360 but i want to try the game out but they still have not picked it up, the same goes for meatalgearsolid4, and LBP. These are supposed to be the best games on PS3 yet they don't have any of them.oh well, i can't force them to buy games they know nothing about

[Grown Folks Talk]

I was the only one who saw the Killzone 2 slo mo bullet commercial every 5 minutes on tv. The games don't sell because the PS fanbase has too many " I'll get that after I beat this./I want __, but __ comes out at the same time." type of people. I can't count how many times i've heard stuff like "I'm not gonna get Kingdom Hearts 2 because I haven't beat the 1st 1 yet." In general, 360 fans buy what they want & play numerous games at once instead of having to beat something before they another game. (B4 everyone spouts off, it's a generalization. I know not every single owner is this way, but there are quite a good amount.)

[Omega4]

Well it obviously a very cost effective method, why spend countless amounts of money on maintaing an internal studio when you can get just as good exclusives for a fraction of the price just look how great Gears turned out for MS, and was it made internally......NO

I think the only insecure one here is Sony, i mean they havnt even released official numbers for Killzone 2, their 1st party game are obviously not as great as they thought they'd be. Cant wait to see Infamous and Heavy Rain numbers, it will be hilarious

[OrganicMachine]

sales don't dictate how great a game is..

Sales is because of advertisements like TV commercials, word of mouth, internet ads, posters, etc...

[Ichiryoka]

You are spewing garbage from your mouth by trying to rate the quality of a game by none other than... sales...

You sir fail at logic in every conceivable way possible.

[Cyrax_87]

At least inFamous and Heavy Rain will have numbers, I'll be playing new games all year while you sit there and count the copies of Halo and Gears sold. I thought we were over this whole sales argument, I guess not.

[Omega4]

Sales may not tell you exactly how great a game is, but it does show how many people actually WANT to play it

[lloyd_wonder]

So, this is about sales now? The point is that Sony has games that won't ever touch another platform besides the PlayStation.

What does Microsoft have? What incentive does one have to get a 360 if all or most of their games end up on another platform with more features? And on a platform that has tons of first-party support

http://www.computerandvideo...
http://www.evilavatar.com/f...
http://www.icgamers.com/art...
http://www.kotaku.com.au/ga...

[Unbiased1]

OMEGA

You do realise that Gears of War IP doesn't belong to MS but to EPIC?
MS invested so much money in promoting that IP and in future it is highly possible to see that IP on PS3.
THis is something Sony would never do. When ever Sony publishs some game they do it so that IP belongs to them.
MS published Ninja Gaiden2, first Bioshock and Mass Effect. NG2, Bioshock 1 and definitelly now Bioshock 2 are on PS3(same releaseday), most likely same will be with ME2.
So who is loosing? Is MS strategy really that good as you claim? think for a second about it.

[Omega4]

Why dont you think of it this way

MS buys timed exclusive -> hype build as everyone thinks its only one 360 -> releases with huge sales numbers -> MS get tons of $$$ from sales -> MS buys timed exclusive and it repeats

Sure you can say they come out on the PS3 in the end, but who cares??? NO ONE!! Tell me a 360 timed exclusives which released on the PS3 later on with numbers close to the 360's actually how about HALF the 360s. The thing about timed exclusives is that the console they release on first becomes the console where all the sales are and all the future sales for sequels as well

[lloyd_wonder]

Then how come Bioshock 2 isn't exclusive to the 360...?

[I did not murder him]

I kind of agree with you Sony has trouble marketing their games. It seems MS is trying to grow the industry and they do not wan't to compete with their associates because of greed or good business.
I don't think Sony should be worrying about what MS has its probably another hype trap MS lays every year around E3 it seems. Sony needs to figure out what they're going to do to better compete in a market they owned for the last two generations.

Sony has bigger things to worry about like how they're going to get the consumers to buy back into the brand with appealing games because as of now even Sony's own fans and supporters seem more interested in the 360 than the PS3. With that said why does it matter who's under Sony's belt if they have trouble selling 1st party AAAs?

[mastiffchild]

Omega-you think it would be "hilarious"? I thought you were better than that. You don't need to be so defensive either as nobody was attacking MS at all.

I play my multi plats on the PS3 anyway(controller and more faaith in the nardware and no risk of it scratching the disc to bits)so for me 360 exclusives are pretty important and DLC isn't enough to make me change that as Live isn't anywhere near that much better than PSN to make me decide to pay for online(I live in the UK so less features on it too). So my worry is that if MS aren't making exclusives what happens if one of their big ones fail?

At the minute while I don't think MS business strategy is best for gamers(it surely doesn't result in more games when you close studios to finance paying for a multi does it?)if it's best for them then who is anyone to moan? I just hope it doesn't come back ro bite us all on the arse AND MS do get some exclusives out this year-otherwise my 360 will be very bored.

Sales are important but they are more a guage of what's marketed well , is part of an existing franchise or of what sells best on a given platform(i.e would MGS4 have sold as well on 360?Like SF4 didn't etc while Gears and Halo sell by name alone-no rts would get near Halo Wars numbers on any console)or a particular region.

And then there's the big differnec between the Sony and MS models(apart from the view on making first party games)-Sony just want profit and MS want market share so differences in tactics are a given, no?

Nothing to get uppity over honestly.

[Omega4]

@lloyd_wonder
Why would it need to be when the majority of its sales will be on the 360 anyway, MS wont bother spending money when the 1st one was all they needed to guarantee the 2nd ones success on their platform

@I did not murder him
Exactly the problem is with Sony the make all these good 1st party games but no one buys them because they always forget to market them, and thats their main problem.

With less 1st games MS they can put more money into marketing the few what they have and make them more effective system seller than the multiple games Sony has combined

@mastiffchild
I really dont think one of MS 'big ones' will fail because if its big they will market it big and it will sell big

[poeo]

ok, Omega4, so... let's say Heavy Rain gets rave reviews, and is hailed as innovative and one of the best and most mature games this gen and so on... but then it gets disappointing sales. that scenario will make you LAUGH? you will get enjoyment out of seeing a great game fail financially?

WHAT kind of a gamer are you?

[cmrbe]

Agree with Omega4 there. This is why x360 fans shouldn't really talk about upcoming exclusive games on the x360 because there are really none to talk about.

This is what i have been saying all along. I rather Sony spend more money on creating new games then follow MS strategy of spending way too much money on advertising their games. Sony shouldn't worry about 3rd parties either as the majority will be multi-plat this gen. The Best MS can do is pay for them to be on their consoles as well as these stupid time exclusives and DLC deals.

Omega4. Would you rather play Gears and a new exclusive IP or play Gears and Gears adverts?. You are not the only one though. Alot of your fellow comrades would also pick the latter.

[ultimolu]

Guys, did you forget that Omega here works for Microsoft? He's part of the treasury! It's his job to bash the competition over sales and not judge a game based on the quality of the game!

Remember folks, quantity over quality!

/epic sarcasm

Why do you people even answer this guy? He lives in the land of sales. He doesn't care about the quality of games.

[maxcer]

well i guess Omega can't play 360 exclusives this quarter like halowars, ninjablade and starocean4. oh wait he can

[lowcarb]

Wow you were just attacked by 20 fanboys and held it down nicely. bubbles to you all

[Argento-Nox]

@Death

Yet multi-platform day 1 sales of games like SF4, RE5, Fallout 3, GTA4 etc., negate what you have to say. None of us wants hand-me downs a year after they've been out, especially when Sony has great 1st party titles coming out in the same time span.

Sony has acquired more than a few 3rd party exclusives lately; Quantum Theory, Katamari, Ace Combat 7, Yakuza 3, WKC, Shin Megami Tensei etc. MS does a great job advertising, but now they'll eventually be advertising 3rd party games they've lost like Bioshock 2, Deadrising 2, LP2 etc.

Want to make a bet day 1 sales of those lost 3rd party 360 exclusives will be on pretty much on par?

[Hyrius]

It's true.

[Revvin]

Microsoft are just great at marketing their games while Sony have been pretty poor. Look at the hype around Halo 3 and yet I can't be the only one a little disspointed by the graphics and not overawed by the multiplay yet Killzone 2 is a fantastic game but if you took two life size cardboard cutouts of Master Chief and a Helghast soldier into a town centre and asked people to identify them more people would recongise Master Chief and be able to identify the brand he belongs to. Microsoft have cruised through this gen on a wave of hype, boastful interviews and talking the competition down.

[-MoOkS-]

$ony's PR is just as bad as the droids on this site.

Microsoft actually cares enough to secure eclusives for it's xbox 360 owners. $ony on the other hand, lets long time playstation exclusives go onto the 360, where they become more successful, and forces bluray down your throats making the console inaccessible to people with less money to waste.

And remember, $ony is bribing developers to make there games exclusive for the playstation store, just so they can keep up with the 360 marketplace. Hypocrites much?

[PotNoodle]

Giving them money and development support to make the game that they couldn't afford to make otherwise =! Giving them money to only keep their game on one platform.

I'm not saying sony don't buy exclusivity, it is more than likely that sony paid something for metal gear solid 4 and haze (ugh) but what they are saying is that they don't _need_ to do it due to their massive amount of first and second party studios.

It is pretty sad that i have to say this on any post i talk good about console with, but this isn't fanboy rubbish i'm talking - this is an opinion. I enjoy both, but i'm not blinding by either.

[-MoOkS-]

The captain of the fail boat called, He wants to know why you aren't onboard yet. ROFL

Thats $ony's poor excuse to make it look like they aren't buying exclusives. I guess they decieved you though...

EDIT -

blackbeld, GTA used to be exclusive to PS. It went on the 360 and is now more popular on the xbox.

GTAIV 360 sales - 7.5 million
GTAIV ps3 sales - 4 million

[blackbeld]

@MoOks...... Sony is clever to put more money in there own first party development and create more new games!!!

Microsoft don't have enough money to do that or they are to cheap!!! Buying for DLC that is pathetic!!!

GTA4 sell almost same on 360 and PS3!!! Microsoft is stupid like they're fanboys the BOTS!

[Insomnia_84]

He's just saying what everyone already knows.

[PotNoodle]

1) GTA was never a playstation exclusive, it always came out on the PC and the xbox under a year later.

2) "GTAIV 360 sales - 7.5 million
GTAIV ps3 sales - 4 million"

Rockstar themself said in an interview that the sales were pretty much half and half, with them leaning slightly towards the xbox 360 which was published here on N4G with links to the official press release.
__

Forget it, i don't even know why i bother coming into this section. I really didn't know you had to act like a schizophrenic idiot to be taken seriously in this section.

You lot will enjoy your systems alot more if you start ignoring everything that doesn't concern you as a gamer.

[blackbeld]

@deathrow22 ..... Dude you fart fake numbers just like Microsoft......Greensberg..

So pathetic.... go play you're Gaylo and Gears of farts game.. That's all you have or can play on your crapbox 360

[ultimolu]

What, did you crap that out of your butt as well -MoOks-?

Sony is saying something that is absolutely true. That's what we've seen Microsoft do on a daily basis. Doesn't take common Science to know that.

You're just angry because the truth is right there in your face.

And you're just as bad as the idiotic bots around here who can't even say 'no' to a defective piece of hardware.

Get a life dude.

[slayorofgods]

Be careful where you pull up your statistics, they almost look like something you pulled off of vgchartz. Sorry to burst your conformation biased bubble but it is true like everyone is saying that the two platforms sold almost evenly on GTAIV sales

[cmacdonald]

I didn't mind MS lending R* 50 million to finish the game. Ultimately that money went to making the PS3 version better and it didn't cost Sony a dime. PS3 version didn't have any pop in so it ended up the one to get also.

[Argento-Nox]

Sony also gets an exclusive rockstar game due to their compromise with letting GTA4 go multi-platform.

[Shane Kim]

Hahaha, well it was uncalled for, but funny nontheless.

[Kinetix]

I would rather have 1 great game than 3 mediocre ones.

[cmacdonald]

Great selling game or great game?

[Cyrax_87]

Lol, so games with a metacritic of over 90+ are now mediocre?

[Narutone66]

1 reliable console than 3 or more defective ones.

[d0nT wOrrY]

even with "cheques" they don't have any games for their sheeps this year? FAIL

Xbox360 die moth*erf*cker die

hahaha

[lloyd_wonder]

I agree with the insecurity comment. Even if Microsoft did solely depend on their first-party studios-- they aren't competent enough to keep the 360 afloat.

Sooner or later though, these big publishers will just say no thanks

[cmacdonald]

When the ps3 userbase gets large enough yes. Sales just don't happen at the same pace for games like bioshock and oblivion a year later. Developers will be asking for a crapton soon for timed exclusives.

[Immortal Kaim]

meh... Have fun arguing your point to justify your purchase to a bunch of strangers...

[mastiffchild]

In fairness he doesn't do any bashing of MS at all. the article also fails in not revealing exactly what he was asked to ptompt this or whether it was part of a speech outlining what Sony do and why.

We all know MS have been free with the cheques , and not always to bring games to their console, but also to strategically hurt sales of PS3(SE deal is best example). However, alls fair in business and nowhere does anybody question the right of MS to do this-and if they need to then perhaps his reasoning is correct. Imagine if say the next Gears game and ODST suck and don't sell in the vast numbers MS expect-then what do MS have to force the 360 on gamers?

I love Gears and Halo3 apart, love the Halo series but the quality wasn't there last time out in either compared to earlier outings-at least not for me. While Halo3 sold huge numbers does everyone really think it's a better game for it's time than it's series forerunners?

So, he points out that an over reliance on a couple of franchises has caused MS to branch out into paying for games to go multi etc-and, the only thing I think is actually wrong, advertising multi plats like they're exclusive to 360.

Personally I found it hard to take when MS were closing studios last year while still shelling out big bucks for DLC-but again that's their business and if they come up with new games for my 360 come E3 I'll be a happy bunny as Sony already have my PS3 looking busy for the next 12 months and beyond. TBH, I worry that MS might just gve us more of the FF13/Tekken style announcements come E3 which would be disappointing when what their console needs is a broader base of exclusives.

But whatever, this is old news and hardly earthshattering at that-it's just what we already know and someone from Sony giving a possible reason for it, and nothing set in concrete or libellous.

[Why o why]

...a winner. Great point +1

[DARK WITNESS]

have to agree, good point and good comment.. the only one really worth replying to.

bubble to you.

I 100% agree. I like my 360 alot, but i do feel the same. I am really not sure what to expect from this years E3, but i am not holding my breath. MS could supprise us and they could disappoint us.

[GamerPS360]

This guy is no diff than Greenberg?. He should stop talking non-sense stuff and focus on PS3.

[HDgamer]

30 million for ads or 30 million for a new game. Do the math, fanboys lose in the end.

[Kinetix]

Well it's pretty obvious most people would rather have 3 defective consoles than 1 reliable on. And yes great selling game, after all without sales where can you go. 90+ score/w no sales doesn'y exactly help your company grow.

[cmacdonald]

what people? Are you saying the 360 has inflated sales because of multiple purchased 360's? Well then the gap closes of functional units and the one year head start means there really isn't much of a difference except the much higher price of the ps3.

[GEESE]

But is that news? That has been Scumsofts strategy since the start of this gen.
No innovation, no originality. That's M$....but money talks, and Software houses will sell there grandmother for the right price.

[Hobadoon]

Yet you have PSN slowly building up to XBL's features. Gimme a break, man.

[Sir Ken_Kutaragi]

Don't let those PONDLIFE SCUM get away with the 24/7 SONY bashing!!! :-/
But then again you don't have to say anything or go down to their Level, just keep doing what you do and i'm happy!!! ;-P

Oh well E3 09' soon, lets see what Micro$luts have stolen??? Zzzzzz

[timmyrulz]

I dont see what the difference is, MS write cheques out for devs to make games exclusive for them, Sony writes cheques out for the studios to make exclusive games for them

If anything MS are getting more bang for there buck, saving money on overheads (rent on buildings,gas, electric), salaries etc etc and whats more they sell more than the rivals at a fraction of the cost.

Fanboys may hate it but it makes more economical sense which at the end of the day is why these companies are in business, to make money

[cmacdonald]

But MS is just throwing away money, Sony makes money on 1st party sales if we take the royalties out of the picture.

And the games will never go multiplatform. This gen has showed games don't sell consoles, price does.

[Why o why]

Im sure none of us here are share/stockholders in either company. Just think of it from a gamers standpoint. I want games throughout the year if possible not just at the end. Why should people have to wait until e3, almost half way through the year, to know whats around the corner. Trust me IF MS announce another multiplat that was an exclusive like last year then people will realise that they give checks because the do indeed lack in the 1st/2nd party area. Its good that ms are getting a better library for their customers but it only ends up being a 'me too' procedure as ultimately MS dont have control of the IP's. Whats funnier is that people think sony have shown too much as if they have nothing more to show whereas MS will somehow have a glut of things to show. Only the honest gamers on N4G will admit that the lack of 1st/2nd party devs is hindering their own gaming.

When sony only had a few million units out there it was more financially viable to make 360 exclusives. Now its different and all the 'only on xbox' comes with a question mark with a majority of the titles so whats that telling us. Yes they are paying for timed. Yes it was working. Will it work for ever???? I doubt it. MS's plan just seemed like a successful but short sighted one imo

[Argento-Nox]

@Timmyrulz

How is throwing 50 million dollars towards GTA DLC more sensible than giving that money to Assemble or MS flight sim studio to stay afloat?

Please enlighten me with a good explanation for why MS is losing studios and re-structuring companies like Rare, while they frivolously throw money towards DLC and timed exclusives (TOV, NG2, Bioshock 2, Dead Rising 2, LP2 etc.)?

[ShabzS]

i cant believe the hypocrites over here.. if ms made a comment like that u'd all be : F U M$... these kinda statements are just dissapointing from gaming veterans like sony..

stop talking trash about the other guys ''insecurities'' and concentrate on your console!!

[Why o why]

He wasnt talking about 'haemorrhaging' or 2 to 1 sales or some nonsense. Personally I would prefer Both companies kept the competitions names out of their mouths unless its a compliment. I do hate this crap BUT the question posed is a fair one and the response is also fair. He didnt say that Sony themselves dont give cheques he is just stating what we all know. Id still prefer he'd keep his mouth shut or deflect the question. The first question I'd ask greenberg is

'We know you're making millions and millions and you feel you are kicking sony's butt but Where are the FCUKING GAMES and i dont mean LIPS2-Banjo singalong edition .' :)

Notice to sony.....show some more class even if you are telling the blatant truth

@ CBaoth

that would actually be quite good. Id jizz in my sh!ts if i saw that:)

[CBaoth]

if I wasn't so damn lazy, I'd photoshop Koller, Balmer, and Greenturd's heads on the 3 stooges and edit the song "D!ick in a box" from SNL in.

[timmyrulz]

"But MS is just throwing away money, Sony makes money on 1st party sales if we take the royalties out of the picture."

Not every game that sony makes is making money, take killzone 2 for example, the game had a 60 million dollar budget, that coupled with the studio's debtors has not been covered by the amount of sales the game has achieved

[cmacdonald]

KZ2 was 30 million, they just need to sell 1.5 million copies to break even at $20/copy and I'd bet they are there already. Halo 3 only cost 50 million and 30 was advertising.

[Alcon]

I think the hole thing did cost around 50 million $, but that is also to help make the engine, not only the game. But nontheless, some people forget that a game in the US costs about 60$ while in the Europe (at least in my country) it costs 60 or allmost 70 Euros (thats 79.6$ and 92.9$) so do the math, to break even in Europe alone (taking the avarage price of 86$(thats 65E)) it means it must sell 580k copies of the game.

With such high price points, almost every dev makes (on any console) a lot of money when they get past the million mark (1 milion x 60$ is 60 million $, or 1 million x 65E(average price) is 65 million Euros wich is 86.2 million $!!!), and remember that not all games cost as much to make as KZ2 did. So take for instance LBP (wich I think did cost a lot less to make), wich sold about 2 million (x 60$ thats 120 million$, I know you have to deduct all the marketing,salaries, and what not, but in the end with 'only' 2 million copies sold, they made great profit.
People must stop thinking a game has to sell 5 million copies to be profitable. They know this very well, and I think that is why they don't spend millions on marketing, because they know that the game they release will probaly sell at least 1 million, wich will make a lot of revenue (granted not as much if it sold 5 million, but with 2million it's very decent)

[Dawn_Of_Ashes]

i bet aaron bigfaggot from ms will come out sonner or later about that

[cmacdonald]

You bet, he will be sporting bling around his neck and throw 1000 dollar bills in the air screaming "I don't care"

edit: oh wait, they just announced e74 errors are covered by the 3 year warranty and refunding those that paid for repairs.

Make that 1 dollar bills.

[rjgbyrne]

Any of the big games developed for Xbox had MS help so they might as well had their development time applied. Sony have thrown so much money at Killzone 2 and other exclusives that MS would have spent much more wisely... fact is they are obviously sour that Lost & Damned ain't going to PS3. Silly thing is MS is making profits while PS3 is not out of the RED yet... check their corporate slashing and cutbacks. I do hate this bashing of consoles but if I had money at the moment to invest MS would get it far before Sony.

[madjedi]

Its the unreal 3 engine, unreal 3 is nothing, and please provide a link showing ms helping 2k boston(i believe) with bioshock, if anything it may have been the architecture of the 360 not the unreal 3 engine, that would be epic's department not ms.

Unfortunately you fail to realize that ms is cutting people also, unfortunately alot of companies are atm they do that in hard times.

So other than lair how many games has sony thrown money at the didn't sell well.

Lets see we have resistance 1 and 2(actually insomniacs), uncharted 1 and 2(coming up), Motorstorm 1 and 2, k2 dropped 1-2 months ago i would be very surprised if it wasn't already at 1-2 mil. Since sony has made so many new ips and sequels, i would guess that they are selling well enough for sony to approve their creation.

Sony makes new ips with its money and they sell and ms is wiser by buying off dlc and timed exclusives so that ps3 owners have to wait 6 months on a game or dlc for a game from a year ago, and ms is the wiser one lol.

You can have the dlc and timed exclusives, the ps2 is 9-10 yrs old and still going, the ps3 looks to also have a long lifetime, i'll take 8-10yrs of new quality 1st party ips over timed exclusives and dlc everytime.
As for ps3 owners being sore of the lost and damned dlc being exclusive zzz, now fallout 3 dlc thats another story at least for me.

Lastly this business model is too expensive to maintain throughout its lifespan, 2 yrs from now when the consoles are at 50-60+ mil each imo.

Do you really think ms will be able to justify the price for 6 months of not being on the ps3? Or 3rd parties taking a chance that ps3 owners will ignore their games because the 360 has dlc the ps3 version doesn't.

[LiquifiedArt]

And M$ never "Helped" develop the UE3 engine. lol. EPIC has been doing this for many years.

[Argento-Nox]

@rjgbyrne

MS has lost 1.1 billion due to RROD, prior to actually fixing and refurbishing 360's affected by it (isn't it nice E74 is now covered as well?). Exactly how much software sales do you think it'll take to recoup those losses that MS swept under the fiscal rug in late 2007?

Yeah, I'm sure Sony is just crying over selling practically 1:1 with the 360 for GTA4, while having a better attach rate. Sony must be in complete agony about getting a exclusive rockstar title for letting GTA4 go multi-platform. MS only had to shell out $50 million for the two GTA4 DLC, while they close studios and re-structure others. Great job MS, keep up the good work!

[jtanga]

this is really true!!!! amen to that!!!

[ShiNe-Box-]

LOL @ Omega coming up with all kinds of bullshit excuses in the gamer zone. Never thought I'd see a elementary school dropout on N4G!

Developers are starting to give Microsoft the middle finger because MS doesn't have the same market share of 2007. That and developers would rather work on a console that doesn't max out in 3 years!!!
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!!!

No wonder Alan Wake is taking so long. They can't figure out how to make the graphics better than Gears2. Remedy's already abandoned ship and said that aiming to top Uncharted graphics would result in an even later release date!!!
AHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA H A HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH HAAH!!!!!!!!

[xg-ei8ht]

Good evening professor falken.

I am not falken, falken is dead.

According to your user accounts, many of them on n4g.

How about a nice game of COD4.

Fine.

seriously though.

It's true, but i think everyone knows this.

And does anything care?

As long as your playing the game you want, on your console of choice, doesn't really matter.

[felidae]

scared eh?

[Mike134nl]

The guy needs to stop complaining and do his job,
So far the marketing department of sony has heavily under-performed.

If sony also had enough checks guys what they would be doing.

[I Win]

Sell over a million since launch there were just talking about America NPD sales here it is!.

http://www.n4g.com/industry...

[ultimolu]

Sony once again speaks the truth.

[jtanga]

this is really true!!!! amen to that!!!

[paracardium]

Funny cause it's true...poor,poor MS. I guess the oonly thing about that console that's any good is the beta testing for the real gamers.

[Kinetix]

All sony is doing with all these in house studios is looking for the next gran turismo, god of war or their own halo. Why would ms drop money on studios when they've got their smash hit. Step outside the shoes as a gamer for a sec and think about it as a business man/boy.

[madjedi]

And even halo can be milked to death, if ms relies on only halo and maybe 1 other game to heavily, they are likely to burn that game's fanbase out. Infamous tries to be like neither nor is uncharted.

[divideby0]

yep....keep writing those checks MS.....

truth is, if MS pockets were not as deep, they wouldnt been able to put up ONE BILLION BUCKS to cover their lying rears about faulty hardware AND they wouldnt have enough $$ to secure exclusive titles, hence they would have not gained as much market share.

whereas Sony just puts out AAA hardware and stays their course..

[Cajun Chicken]

Yep. Noticed that since the very start of this gen and now developers have got wise and see more money in two systems or over.

Regret chucking away Digital Anvil, FASA and Oddworld Inhabitants exclusivity now MS?!!???

[ElementX]

What about sony paying indie developers for psn exclusivity? Sure, call it "assisting with development costs", but you know what it really is.

[PirateThom]

Yep, it's writing cheques, but here's the key difference:

Sony aren't approaching the big publishers like Take 2 and Square Enix, Sony's made an invitation to indie devs to keep their games only on PSN, these devs are making games and, if they choose to keep their game exclusive to PS3, Sony are paying them, essentially funding development allowing them to self-publish on PSN.

Microsoft are approaching publishers, buying exclusivity, timed exclusivity, DLC, whatever they can get. The publishers Microsoft are approaching are the one's who don't need the cash and could make a ton of sales on both platforms.

I'm not saying Sony haven't gone to big publishers with bribes, but the PSN thing isn't remotely in the same league.

[Alcohog]

Microsoft's first party studios do pretty much blow compared to Sony's, there is really no denying that unless you are wearing some super thick Microsoft goggles.

[RedVsBlue]

Sony whining about Microsoft & instead of focusing on their side of things shows their insecurity about being in third place

[bigboss911]

I would bet my Ps3 that if Call of duty 4 never came to Ps3 that other games would sell better. I have had people on my friends list that play Cod4 and nothing else. I even asked them if they got Kz2 yet and they replied that "they are addicted to Cod4". I even wonder sometimes if they have any other games at all. I didnt find the game that amazing. I only played the game online for about 24 hours and leveled up to 51 or 52, I cant remember. After that i didnt find it interesting because, it was always the same. I sold it to get Kz2, and ive played that more than any Fps this gen. I dont care about sales or anything like that. I only got a Ps3 because my ps2 broke and Mgs4. All the other games Ive played this gen is just a plus.

[DARK WITNESS]

what you say is partly true, but Cod4 is multi platform and that does apply to both systems.

just to give you an example, Cod4 is still my most played game at the moment. I have a ps3 and i own killzone 2, but you know what... for some reason i can't really explain i find myself going back to cod4. I have not really bought any new games on my 360 at all this year. Just the dlc L&D. thats all, and i don't really feel like i need anything else until june when prototype and infamous are released.

so my money is not going towards anything on the 360 either.

I do not think Cod4 is everyone's cup of tea, just like killzone 2 is not either. which one you like is down to personal taste, but trust me there are people on the xbox who are just the same. i could go the rest of the year without another fps game till cod4-2 comes out and don't think i would be missing much ( i am not saying i would mind you ) but your prob right.

[fossilfern]

LMAO ! John has hit it right on the head id like to see what MS will have to say after this :)

[commodore64]

Perhaps they need to do some soul searching.
Was their arrogance worth being in third place?

[DelbertGrady]

I think this Jan Koller guy is aiming for fourth place. Nothing is impossible with this level of douchebaggery lol!

[commodore64]

lol... fourth place...

"...and in fourth place, ps3, placing just behind the ps3 in third place."

;)

[thereapersson]

Kind of reminds me of Aaron Greenberg's douchey behavior. That guy is the tool of tools when it comes to PR.

[123456789]

Halo 3 saved the 360. and GT5 will have Halo 3 sales. GOW 3 willn't come close and uncharted 2 willn't come close, but GT5 will

[Droid Smasha]

Sony "Wah wah wah we dont have the monies to do it too. Why do you have to kick our ass so hard this gen M$"

[Karum]

I also think that MS' goal is to have as much content as possible on their machine.

They want to try and have all the best 3rd party franchises on their system which is at a cheaper price, they think that if consumers see all the most popular franchises on their machine too they will be drawn in by the price of the console and you know what, they are right to an extent.

On top of that they want to get exclusive content to sweeten the deal and don't mind writing some cheques to get that. MS this gen are establishing themselves in the market and hopefully at some point they decide to invest more in first party studios and games. I mean they obviously looked at what Sony have done the last 2 generations and seen where they were successful and surely can't ignore the amazing games that Sony have delivered by investing in first party studios. I think MS would be foolish not to do the same thing.

[DARK WITNESS]

i have to say, i think i agree with what you say. M$ are still establishing and i think this is just part of their overall strategy. I mean lets me fair, most of these games that they have paid out money for, were old ps3 exclusives. it makes sense to go after the names that the old ps2 user base will know and recognise, just to push the xbox name in front of their faces a bit more. like you said, they are going after market share.

We know they are doing something with their internal studios, what that is exactly is not quite clear and weather we agree with it or not as gamers is another thing. M$ are not stupid, it may not be in our best interest as gamers, but if this strategy was not profitable to M$ i am sure we would have seen a change in their tactic or would be hearing of rumblings in that area anyway. Like you said, they must be watching sony and they are seeing what is coming out of their first party guys. They have the money to fight back so i am sure there is going to be more to it then we have seen. it just does not always come out in a month or two, these things.

just my thoughts anyway... who cares..

[Thoreau]

is it common for you to hate what you don't own. stop defending corporations you idiots, yeah, i called you idiots.

finally, posting sales numbers is pathetic. enjoy your chosen console.

[n to the b]

"stop defending corporations you idiots"

lol and what are YOU doing? how come I only see you commenting against the 360 fans?

[otherZinc]

SONY got their start by buying titles: Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy, etc...

See you SONY lovers forgot that or you think videogame players like myself didn't know that. I knew that because I lived it. SONY would pay if they didn't invest so much money into blu-ray in the PS3.

So I don't want to hear this stupid fanboy ****! Also, SONY doesn't have exclusive SONY content thats any good except Baseball, the other games are made by Insomniac, GG, & others.

[ironmonkey]

nope it just shows the choice they only had it was either banjo kazooie or halo 3 :)

[ironmonkey]

it hurts to read that headline doesnt it why you cryin its just a headline and what the hell is fony? not even a word son lol

[Bumpmapping]

Koller speaks the truth,M$ can't compete with there stellar first party lineup.Microsoft is in for a rude awaking this year E3 expect more DLC and two mediocre titles just like last year.

[TrueGamer71]

Of course, its just the way the world works.

Its business people..

[AngryTypingGuy]

Absolutely right. They currently cannot go toe-to-toe with first party development. They have to use their strengths - money. There's nothing wrong with buying exclusives, although I do hope they build up their first party studios eventually.

[bigboss911]

Thanks for answering and not flaming like most people lol. Yeah your right it does go for both. Its like people now get hung up in multiplayer, that they dont buy other games for months. I got the Mgs4 ps3 bundle, and I didn't buy another game till Resistance 2. This gen has proven for the most part, as long as the game has good multiplayer, interest does not die. I didn't get high speed internet till last year(poor me lol), I started playing online games and now I never watch tv. Actually I dont have any tv source in my room like satellite and cable. It does come down to personal cup of tea like you said. I dont like Halo, Resistance got old, Cod4 was great, but playing the same maps for forever got old. Killzone is different for me cause... well I dont know why. UT3 would be better if people actually played it and it had good servers. I like Fps cause of the competitive nature that it holds. Halo did well, good for them. I dont care cause I have a ps3. Why people always bring up Halo is beyond me. Im glad MS has something that will make Sony want to push themselves in making the best out of what they have. I have said before that friendly competition is better than this fanboycrap. The only reason why I jump on that wagon is because 360fans say that the ps3 sux. Why? i have no clue. IMHO<-- (see that before anyone flames me), Halo and Gears is the only reason to have a 360. I dont go around 360 articles randomly bashing 360 like users like "Whydis" does.... Yeah so MS bought exclusives and DlC... so what, dont care.

[Knightofelemia]

With the economy on life support and companies going broke everyday I wonder how much longer Microsoft can cut a check for these exclusives before the checks start to bounce.

[azmanmanz]

blank cheque probably.. mirosoft have no money. they get so many claim and sued lately.

[Chuk_Chuk]

To all those that say sales matter. What about the Wii games that have sold over 20 mil or so. doen that mean they are good?

[Hobadoon]

Don't ever compare a Wii game to a 360 or PS3 game. That's a horrible argument.

[lawrence360x]

i can't seem to understand why people still bi*ch about what platform is better . who really cares , as long as there is competition we all win . the one thing that really chaps my hide is when people bi*ch that M$ this evil empire that wants to rule the world and Sony is the sweet sweet little butterfly that is so small and we should feel sorry for them because they dont care about money only want to make people happy and they should be in first place because , well just because lol . remember back when the PS2 came out and there first 20 million were all faulty, I myself went through 2 of them before buying my XBOX 1 . Sony never paid to fix my 2 PS2'S that broke i had to pony up the cash myself to get them repaired but nobody ever talks about that . you think Sony or Microsoft for that matter give a crap about you or I , hell no they give a crap about one thing MONEY their loyalty is to there stock holder not us . I love my xbox , ps2 and soon i will have a ps3 but to make M$ or Sony happy but to make me happy because games make me happy

[lawrence360x]

I love my xbox360 , ps2 and soon i will have a ps3 but *NOT to make M$ or Sony happy but to make me happy because games make me happy

[Boink]

sony had a bank account like Microsofts, they would too.

these companies really need to tell their execs to shut the hell up, and let the PR people talk. THEY sorta know what they're doing.

[bob saget remix]

Just to let you know.

Microsoft- http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
Sony- http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
yep

[lawrence360x]

people that bi*ch about the ps3 and the 360 do so because people are well bi*ches lol that's just the way life is i complain about that people believe in god in this day in age and people complain about the opposite . people complain about tomatoes in their salad and others complain there's not enough tomatoes in their salad . you cant have one without the other

[Bladestar]

lol! Sony is mad a DLC like GTA sells more copies than most PS3 exclusive full games... not to mention that microsoft makes more money and return of investment with DLC than Sony does with full games.

"M$ can't compete with there stellar first party lineup" not according to popularity and true indicators like sells proven over and over by NPD and other charts...

[UltimatePS3]

Were not talking about sales of games you dumb sh!t, were talking about quality 1st party titles something MS doesn't have this year. Alloa me to put this into moron language, an example, anew console is released, it has 1 game2 million consoles were sold 2 million copies of 1 game was sold but the game was crap do you see what i'm getting at ya fukin d!ckweed Bladestar, you finially decided to come back to N4G after your big ban for being an utter Xbox elitist piece of trash, you will get banned again trust me!

[Bladestar]

"quality 1st party titles something MS doesn't have this year"... mmm.. who determines quality or what's a AAA title? SOny leg humpers such as yourself? mmm.. no thanks... Just like I wouldn't trust 10 people that believe eating $h!t is good and healthy.... I would rather go by the millions of people that avoid it.

Your definition of "quality" is not shared out side of your head and your little N4G world.

"you will get banned again trust me! " haha! dumb guy here can't tell where he is at... this is the open zone genious.

[Man_of_the_year]

Your view of quality is considered opinion and not fact. if you want to base your argument on facts then you have to provide sources that use some means of measurement. I recommend metacritic or Gamerankings. If you look at either of those sites you will see that there are more "quality" titles for the 360 above 80+ than there is PS3. So your argument is null and void. however there are more exclusives out for the PS3 as of right now for the year of 09. But the year is far from over. maybe you should wait till the end of the year before you talk about how many quality titles the 360 has this year than Sony until the year is actually done.

[Obama]

What AAA lineup does 360 have this year then? Can't name any? Guess so.

And pp just pm me saying: "Shut the *uckup *itch you ps3 ass licker."

What a loser XD.

[FFXI101]

Sony fans "SOny leg humpers" while you are $uck on bill's ball and kissing his @$$(what does that make you..?)

[xXKingofStingXx]

What has this guy done?

You know it's only a matter of time before Aaron Greenburg has something smart ass to say that not only pisses of every PS3 fans but makes 360 fans feel ashamed to support a system that pays his salary.

Great going Koller!

[JD_Shadow]

Every 360 fanboyish blog (including those that SAY their not *CoughAnalogHypecough*) will blindly praise Greenie and slam this one to death.

[xXKingofStingXx]

But of course!

[bob saget remix]

My toy is better then your toy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! What a bunch of babies.

[dash--]

True very true

[tonywood24]

Sony should shut up and "STEP YOUR GAME UP!" I'm a Sony fan, who currently has no intention on getting a X360, but hate it when PS3 fans cry foul.

If Sony PS3 wanted Gears of War, then they should have paid for it..PERIOD! Microsoft did what they needed to for Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, and Final Fantasy. I ride with Sony (No fair weather fan), but can clearly see that they need to start firing people. Killzone 2..NO HYPE, Little Big Planet..NO HYPE, different colored PS3's...WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY? This irks me to no end, and MS spending money to make moves shows their dedication to the championship crown. All Sony has to do is bring down the price of the PS3 (NOW), exploit the Blu Ray advantage (Movies and games), do a lot more to prevent hostile "takeovers" (Imagine where the X360 would be WITHOUT Final Fantasy and GTA. There is no way Halo 3 and Gears 1&2 could have stopped PS3 sales, AND MICROSOFT KNOWS IT!) Sony, quit crying and start throwing some punches, or end up like Oscar De La Hoya. (A PAPER CHAMPION. WASHED UP AND LIVING OFF PAST GLORY DAYS.) It pains me, but someone has step up and say it!!!

[jjl]

In an ideal world where you could throw infinite money around like that I'm sure Sony would, but lets not kid ourselves.

[menoyou]

gotta agree with sony here. same applies to 360s marketing

[boss_killa]

yea i agree sony does really need to be more aggressive but i dont think they can do much with the economy's current state. it looks like they're just gonna wait it out and make they're move when the time is right. they cant do a price drop cuz they'd lose more money.

for some weird reason sony doesnt seem to be that worried about losing 3rd party exclusives(which is a bad thing). they seem to be content in accepting the fact that 3rd parties are all going multiplatform, without trying to secure some big guns. but then again, the ps3 does get all the multiplatform games & when you factor in sony's 1st party games it adds up to alot of choice and variety for ps3 gamers.

in the end i think sony has the best long term strategy.

[PSGamingInc]

Losing all of that marketshare really seems to have not only bruised the Sony Defense Force, but the Sony executives. Prior to the 360 and PS3 releasing if someone would have suggested Sony would end up fumbling away record amounts of marketshare this generation and end up sucking hind t** you would have locked them up in a mental institution.

Its still hard to believe just how bad Sony has FAILED this generation. Keep in mind that Sony not only had all that marketshare, but they had tremdendous brand recognition in the gaming market made possible by an entire generation's headstart in the console industry as a whole. That is what is truly amazing about all this, and what is sad is whats left of the Sony Defense Force seems to be the dumbest of the dumb. And its never, NEVER a good idea to combine dumb and desperate. Just ask Sony.

[JD_Shadow]

I stopped reading at "Sony Defense Force" (the first line).

[bviperz]

not selling. I could care less how much a game sells if I enjoy playing it.

[blakstarz]

OUCH!!!

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

Says the guy who's console is last place this gen and still pissed about losing GTA and FF.

[lawrence360x]

lol no, Sony have more money tide up in assets like other companies , M$ has way more money to use as in actual spending cash. All of Sony's money is tide up in stock , hell Bill Gates has more spendable cash then Sony 50 billion and still counting . What a wast to give all that money to one person , I don't like Microsoft OR Sony but i love my 360 and soon when i get it I'll love my PS3 . My loyalties are to the games and game makers like David Jaffe, Cory Barlog, Todd Howard, ken Levine, Hideo Kojima, etc. etc. etc. there are many many more but you get the gist . Aside from being game developers these guys are gamers first and foremost , you can tell because there games are awesome .

[xXKingofStingXx]

I'm sorry but, huh? Maybe i'm missing something but i think you got my name mixed up with someone else's post.

[BobbySaget]

Because we all KNOW that ONLY FIRST PARTY developers can create good games right?

Thus why the PS3 games Uncharted1, Uncharted2, KZ2, and MGS4, the games ALL OF YOU PS3 FANBOYS use to defend your console... are all 3rd party games. Had you thought before you mindlessly agreed with this article, you may have realized that.

Lets looked at the TOP sellers list for both consoles

PS3
GTA4 : 5.55 million
COD4 : 4.19 million
MGS4 : 3.91 million
RFoM : 3.57 million*
MoSt : 3.47 million*
AsCr : 3.34 million
COD5 : 3.16 million

* First Party

Xbox 360
Hal3 : 9.42 million*
COD4 : 7.25 million
GTA4 : 6.97 million
GEA1 : 5.87 million*
COD5 : 5.28 million
GEA2 : 4.77 million*
AsCr : 4.47 million

Not ONLY is Microsoft's top game a first-party game, but it also has more high ranked First party games. ON TOP OF THAT, EVERY SINGLE top first party game for Microsoft has outsold PS3's top first party games. In fact, Microsoft's lowest ranking first-party game has sold more than Sony's highest ranking first-party game.

The best selling First party-game Sony has as of now, is Resistance: Fall of Man. It has sold nearly the same amount of copies as 'Lego Indiana Jones: The original Adventure' on the Xbox 360.

So exactly what is the basis for John Koller's comments? His opinion?

His only example is that MS loaned "50 million" which the article says "the figure’s never been confirmed". First of all, a loan isn't the same as 'writing a check'. Not to mention MS only got an exclusive deal for the DLC, not for the actual game. Even if you subtract all of the DLC sales from GTA4's total 360 sales, it STILL ranks higher than the PS3 version.

Instead of all disagreeing with me, out of pure PS3 LOVE. Why don't you actually take this into consideration. This fool makes you all look like egomaniacs.

I used vgchartz for my sales numbers. I only listed the top 7 games, because after that the games started getting 'stupid' (IE: Indiana jones).

[grantps3]

who really cares.

sony has the best 1st party by a mile, but MS has pretty much nothing. If thats what they need to do, let them spend 50 million for DLC.

[supremacy]

@Omega4
0.10 -
@lloyd_wonder
Why would it need to be when the majority of its sales will be on the 360 anyway, MS wont bother spending money when the 1st one was all they needed to guarantee the 2nd ones success on their platform

@I did not murder him
Exactly the problem is with Sony the make all these good 1st party games but no one buys them because they always forget to market them, and thats their main problem.

With less 1st games MS they can put more money into marketing the few what they have and make them more effective system seller than the multiple games Sony has combined

@mastiffchild
I really dont think one of MS 'big ones' will fail because if its big they will market it big and it will sell big

@Omega4
well thats not entirely true and you and i both know this, there has been several key exclusives on the 360 that hasnt fair well, perfect dark zero? bunjie kazzoi? or whatever thats called, kameo? too human?
crackdown? even though it only sold a fair amount for what it was due to the halo 3 beta inclusion? but i brought it up because it was heavily marketed as well and didnt do the numbers.

my point here is lets face it ms just does somethings to get people thinking man... i have no choice but to buy it on this platform instead, one of the main reason, and many here will disagree with me why many buy 360 games over ps3 games is due to many things but one main thing is called "xbox live' community functions and friends?

the other is there is alot more marketing on ms's part like you stated earlier, this is evident.

another would be the user base? 20 million is great but 30 mill? is a much bigger number dont you think?

also you take into account the price differences between the 2 systems and then add up everything i just stated above couple with parents looking for a cheaper buy for their kids? and you get these kinda results.

another reason? viral campaigns and the media, i mean it doesnt help that sony believe it or not hasnt fair so well with the media all these recent years. heck some sites just showed how biased they were, and when rating good quality ps3 exclusives or ports bad, with little or no acceptable excuses.

all these things factor into sales especially now more than back then.

if you ask me, the only titles that really sell big numbers on the 360 are halo and gears, i mean unreal 3 didnt do anything, neither did virtua fighter? forza or the last few project gotham games?

sure call of duty, bioshock gta and the ocassional rockband/madden are always going to rack up the numbers no doubt. but everything else is either fair to moderate on both platforms. re5? sf4? ect.

last renmnant didnt do quite well either but i bet whenevr that comes out on the ps3 it will do its numbers atleast in japan.

look certain games sell better on certain platforms but also depending on the terretory ofcourse.

and thats with the userbase difference.

one thing for sure, is that i like sony's strategy this ensures more quality in your games and perhaps altering your experience as well.

as far as sales go? well they may not do halo numbers but they do fairly well, i bet god of war 3 is going to rip a hole open on the charts when it lands, its just one of those things you know certain games just have that broad appeal while others dont.

also when you compare exactly what games arent selling so well to those that are you are coming to find out that usually it is the more establsih game or franchise that generally gets the big numbers.

a gears and a halo will always get better umbers than say a brand new littlebigplanet with a spanking new genre compare to the norm?

now look at mgs4? that game sold well over 5 million copies thus far, and counting not only that but was also bundle to an expensive sku moving not only sales of its own but also the sales of the ps3 units attach to it as well.

gt5 prolouge? that sold well over a million in its first couple of months, and thats no different than say the lost and the danm if you ask me.

ms just wants to make a quick buck and move on, rather than fully ivesting in long term relations.

how do you think ms can afford does perpetual price drops? a lil combination of studio closures and xbox live money would do the trick just fine.

some of that other money they had dropped of the yahoo bid had to go to fixing vista and restructing finacial woaws in their r&d deparments zunes needed some help as well.

sony has to play their game just ms has to play theirs i suppose both you and the fanboys here make fair cases. no arguments here just pointing out some facts. and sorry for the long read.

[Petraeus]

Sony is too cheap to advertise and too financially in pain to pay for exclusives like we used to.

So now we are going to spin it to make it look like our old practices that we can't afford to do anymore are a "bad thing".

Please believe us won't you?

[Father Murder X]

You my friend has just said a mouthful. even though you are right you will be hated on and ridiculed!!!

[Neo604]

look at the ps3 droid, they only care for thier quality gamesss instead of Sony stock.
who cares if the pleasefixme is a shoddy console and games that you can get on any other consoles.
we xbots love to give our money to MS, in return we want more RROD and dics scratch so we can increase hardware software SALESSSSS!!!.

[bob saget remix]

I know I did.

[Silly gameAr]

But seems to be pretty accurate. Microsoft needs to use that money to build more first party relationships than throwing it away on timed exclusives and DLC.

[Socomer 1979]

It Just Is.

[HarukoHex]

god look at all the ps3 fanboys here, not even 1 ps3 game has outsold a 360 game, meaning BETTER GAME. does it matter if its not first party, no, what matters is its on the better system of this gen.
-hex-

[lawrence360x]

4-give me please lol

[Father Murder X]

The strategy is working. Bottom line is that despite shotty hardware. They are eating Sony's lunch. I love my Ps3 but right now the 360 is where the gamers are. I mean I think the they have a few franchises to work with:

Perfect Dark
Banjo
Halo
Gears
Forza
Project Gotham Racing
Kameo
Halo Wars
Viva Pinata
Crackdown--perhaps the most underrate game on the list. It is awesome.
Fable
Grabbed by The Ghoulies (just kidding)
Killer Instinct (possibly)
Ninja Blade (possibly)

I am not saying that all of these are blockbusters but most of these are decent for the most part. Microsoft picks and chooses what to get behind. i haven't seen a commercial for Ninja Blade yet!! Like it or not they are getting stronger with each generation.

For some reason Sony is not clicking with the gaming masses this time around. They have really put out some quality games but they haven't sold well and they have done some questionable things with game releases For one why would you release Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 within a few months of each other when they cater to the same demographics. Why release LBP in the fall season when the big games come out. If you are going to try something new and innovative it is not going to be when the blockbusters come out. They treated SOCOM like a step-child. Socom players are imo second only to Halo players in terms of loyalty and they release a half finished game. I really think that they underestimated Microsoft this time. Whoever is in charge needs to be fired. As for microsoft writing checks for games think about all those live subscriptions and microsoft point transactions that they profit from. Remember Sony doesn't make a dime from PSN subscriptions. If only a fraction of Xbox Live's 17+ million gamers pay 50.00 a year they are still making at least 100 million dollars. Hell if 5 million are paying 30.00-50.00 that is 150-250 million dollars. They are using that money to buy games. I mean that is good business. Sony needs to start charging for PSN and use the extra money wisely to offset the price of the PS3. It is a damn fine gaming machine and blu-ray player!! The possibilities are endless but the effort from Sony isn't there. Hell I have had 5 360's rrod on me but I keep coming back for more.

[commander]

www.news4fanboys.com

[cherrypie]

So?

So what if MS writes cheques to third parties? How is this different than Sony?

Sony buys studios? Do they do this without "cheques"?

I **PREFER** MS's method. Why? They leave Studios independant, and the studios come to MS -- without obligation -- to propose projects.

Think of Consoles like the Movie Industry. In both, there are three players Platform: Theater/Console; Promotion&Finance: Distributor/Publisher; Creator: Studio/Developers.

Sony's Model:
Own all three.

MS's Model:
(Primarily) Own only Two.

And, there are **LAWS** against Theater Owners (Platform) from owning Promotion&Finance (Distributors) and Creators (Studios) for a reason. What is that reason? They they have incentive to SHUT OUT new P&F and Creators(!)...

I dont want that!

I want an open platform, where the platform owner doesnt have an incentive to keep new Distributors and Studios from being able to make games.

This "oh noes! MS pays Producers on a per-project basis!!1!one!" bullshit is just naive fanboy stupidity.

[Shendow]

MS fanboys say Halo as much as you want, it is dead an whats taking its place is Gears (Even if its not a Halo good game)MS is using Gears as their next form of Halo. Killzone 2 was great but notthing to MGS4 and so far theirs notthing for 360 an alot of PS3.....So Halo right now means notthing an the only Halo thing coming is a add-on.

[Hobadoon]

To not have to resort to name calling but I'll try really hard in respect to you. Why on earth would you compare Gears 2 and Metal Gear 4?? That's one of the more ridiculous comparisons I've heard. They are two completely different games. Tell me please, how are you comparing them?

Sales?
Re-Playability?
Graphics?
Reviews?

I would really like to know...

As for Halo being dead?? Halo 3 still averages up to 400,000 people online everday playing at the same time (And how long has the game been out??). That's not even counting how many people come in and out during the span of that 24 hours (Check the lobby numbers). Please stop talking out of your ass. Wait till people see ODST's numbers. It's really going to be one big joke when that's the highest selling game this year and it's "only" DLC.

It's gonna spark the 360 something ridiculous...

[IcarusOne]

Some people don't mix well with words. Or thinking for that matter.

[mirroredderorrim]

*holds hands up while in the midst of the flames*

[Enigma_2099]

... them's fightin' words!

[boss_killa]

man i wonder what dumbsh't these company talking heads will say next..

from reggie.. to greeberg??.. to this koller guy...

all these guys should be fired.

[JD_Shadow]

I think it was actually REALLY smart by someone at SONY to say this.

Reason? Who else has said that MS did this other than blog sites? Not too many, IF any. Now that there is someone that is really in the public eye (even if it IS a PR guy), someone in the mainstream saying this type of thing will more than likely FORCE a response from someone about what was said. If they don't, then silence speaks volumes, but in this case, it would be the WRONG kind of volume.

Like someone said before, expect someone to respond to this. But this time, they have to respond VERY carefully. Like, they have to actually pick their words before someone even CALLS them looking for a response. Those who were accused of taking the money, too, will have to be careful of how they word their answers.

So, basically, Sony really dropped a bomb PR wise. They may have just opened Pandora's Box with this comment.

[xdye017]

How come PS3 droids know what's happening at microsoft corporation and X360 owners don't :/? All PS3 droids are analysts I guess. I can't believe your statement 'the xbox has no line-up'is going to be proven wrong, sorry. And if xbox has no line-up.......well right now 4 exclusives for xbox and only 1 exclusive for PS3 out so far. THE XBOTS ARE BUSY PLAYING GAMES.

[Iwasneverhere]

We are not interested in getting screwed by microsoft. Yeah we do know whats going on at microsoft. thats why we dont own xboxes. THANK YOU SIR MAY I HAVE ANOTHER? Your blind allegiance to microsoft does not make you a "real gamer". it just makes you a fool. THANK YOU SIR MAY I HAVE ANOTHER? You xbox guys like to get on here and call us fanboys for our console of choice? HA! "OH well us 360 gamers are all busy playing our games" HA! you spend just as much time on here as anyone else. that excuse is getting old. You say sony "fanboys" are rabid. Well I think they have good reason to be. Early on this gen you "xbots" had a valid point. 360 ports of multiplat games WERE better. 360 Had a better lineup of games. etc etc... but now the tables have turned and do you accept it? Nope. All I ever here from you guys is bullshat. You know your views are tragically skewed but its too late to turn back now right? I am NOT a sony fanboy a microsoft hater or anything else you may call me. My allegiance as a gamer lies with whomsoever provides the games I like. My allegiance as a consumer lies with the most reliable hardware on which I play my games. Thats all. So when your xbox gets back from repair just shut up and play it already. I know I was off topic again but I have been reading this stuff for months unable to respond and I have seen "xbots" say the same thing over and over and over again.

[SnukaTheMan]

people just crying that "sony will be on top this time next year"...Sorry...people know the ps3 is the weakest home console out there...killzone 2 didnt sell ps3's like they hoped and now its come down to revisionist views on sony and its failed console...cant wait till e3.

[jamba20]

to play all the sony exclusive titles this year and next year good time gaming or just for sony

[rob6021]

Does anyone else have suspicion he said this just now because behind the scenes Microsoft just bought off a huge 3rd party exclusive, maybe GTA5, dead rising 2? (Sony would know because they were invited to bid.)

[NinjaRyu]

I can take a guess at what one of those titles might be.

http://www.vgboxart.com/vie...

http://www.vgboxart.com/vie...

[devilhunterx]

Anyone remember that CONSOLE WARS skit