Maxis was EA's golden child a few years back when The Sims first made a big impact.
Now that the shine has been taken off that franchise a little they gut the studio that created it.
Same with the C&C guys I guess.
It just bugs me that EA will keep the rights to these IPs but let go of the talented people that made them great games in the first place.
would coincide well with the release of both Halo Reach and Fable 3.
So that makes sense.
14 games at launch is a good number. I was expecting 4 to 6 but 14 should cover both family/casual titles and a few hardcores as well.
All Rare needs to do is release Viva Pinata 3 for Natal and I'm good.
Nice.
In my opinion there is absolutely no room for mediocre games in this current market.
There are just too many great games to get around to.
Exclusive or not this looks average to me. I expect it to not do well.
I just hope that EA are not putting most of their eggs in Bioware's basket.
The last thing we need is the suits cracking the whip with that development studio.
Good games take time ya know?
Thats really disappointing for me, as Pandemic were one of my favorite developers last gen.
God I hope these people can get other jobs within the industry.
Smart move by Microsoft to associate themselves with what will probably be the biggest game of the year.
I'm sure they will be trying to push the sales of the 250gig MW2 bundle while they are there.
Nothing worth getting upset about. Just business.
RuPaul.
I like the Xbox as well, but c'mon! the price of Microsoft's add ons for the 360 really are quite high.
Lets not kid ourselves here.
That was a very astute and nicely put comment.
Well done.
I can't believe they really work!
I figured they were just some cheep hunk of plastic.
Ubisoft are you paying attention? night vision trigoggles with Splinter Cell Conviction please.
Agreed.
I wonder if they are too late to acquire the poor man's Bioware, Obsidian Entertainment?
If I was head of Microsoft Games Studios I would be kicking myself every day for not locking up Bioware.
I don't really know what MS's plan is for further developing their first party.
Studios like Mistwalker and ruffian would be great to add diversity to their exclusive line up.
Surely they have also looked long and hard at Epic.
Whats the hold up Microsoft?
But I highly doubt that it will.
I'm sure Microsoft know how important Mass Effect is to the Xbox360.
I think MS also published the first game so perhaps some kind of exclusive agreement was reached before the EA buyout.
MS have a strong relationship with both EA and Bioware.
I could be wrong but I don't think it's gonna happen.
I think you have summed up the Fable series quite well.
The first for me personally was a bit of a mixed bag but was definitely better when The Lost Chapters was released.
As I have said above I have yet to play Fable2 but I will get the GOTY edition witch I hope will be better that the original release.
Fable has a art style and sense of humor that I think are unique, and I think the series deserves to be a success.
Quietly looking forward to Fable3 as I am yet to play the second game.
The strategic elements sound promising.
And the if they can get it working well with Natal it could be a very unique experience.
I just hope they keep the exploration and combat on the controller, The strategy and judgement aspects I could see working well with Natal.
I simply cannot wait any longer for Mass Effect 2.
All the different outcomes and possible story arks that could occur over the Mass Effect trilogy boggles the mind!
I mean think about it. The choices made in ME1 roll over into ME2 and then again into ME3.
I can think of five big decisions made in ME1 that could make a difference to the rest of the trilogy just off the top of my head and I know there are more than that in the game.
The repla...
"revitalize several of their intellectual properties."
I'm thinking...
Black.
Def Jam.
SSX.
Sim City.
Full spectrum Warrior. (Pandemic)
Now that I think about it they could reboot a few Pandemic IPs. Mercenaries and Destroy All Humans deserve to be good games.
Very talented people will probably be let go during this round of layoffs.
I'm sure they will all find work with other developers.
I personally hope one or two new independent studios come out of this.
Still can't help but feel bad for those effected.
I think I saw somewhere the the total number is something like 1500 jobs?
Thats probably enough to start another 3rd party studio.
Perhaps Microsoft Games Studios could use some extra hands in first party Xbox 360 development.
As long as Activision don't snap them up just to work on Guitar Hero 12 or something.
Once agian we see nothing but hate from most posters on this site.
The price point and game support were both points made against Natal in other articles.
Now we have some details saying that it's gonna be a reasonable price with a strong games line up, and its still getting venom from the haters.
I don't get it. Natal looks and sounds promising to me. It's got strong support from both first and third party developers, the price is looking like a non iss...