"Indie devs prove you don't need $100 million to make good looking games."
Name one that looks remotely as good as GTA4, which is the only game I know of, that cost $100M.
No.
Pretty simple question, really. If they were cheaper, we'd still be playing games on the Wii, and machines very similar to it, because the budget wouldn't be there to support anything better. If they were more expensive, the number of consumers would drop off and there might be less revenue, and potentially less profit.
The question in my mind, as of late, is: how will next gen games fare, when priced the same, but requiring twice the investment...
The 3DS data looks very similar to the Wii's annual performance. What I mean by that, is that it appears as though 3DS units were mostly purchased over the holidays, as gifts -- that's good, as all sales are, but those units are less likely to get software purchases over their lifespans than units purchased outside the holidays.
A unit purchased for oneself always trumps a gift unit, when it comes to software attachment. That's kinda a bad sign for the 3DS's...
Once again, the fact that "free is popular" is proven to the world. Wow.
I wonder how much time is spent doing newspaper crosswords, vs mobile gaming? Are newspaper crosswords taking over the gaming market? I bet they are. Look out, handheld gaming... newspapers are after your profit margins.
This was the funniest article I have read in a long time. I LoL'd so hard!
Who are these guys? How can they run a site that is, supposedly, for 360 fans, and yet slam the 360 so hard at every turn? They don't honestly believe these games compare to the PS3 games they themselves posted yesterday... do they?
They won't add a 2nd circle pad, because 3rd party devs won't use it, because they don't want to alienate millions of existing 3DS owners.
Same reason the PSP never did it, with its minor revisions. Also the same reason no DS game uses 16MB of memory, despite the fact that the extremely popular DSi has that much, etc. Same reason Wii games largely don't require WMP, and the same reason that no ex-post-facto peripheral has ever really taken off, including Kine...
I guess games journalists are hard up for hits these days.
3DS: near useless 3D, SpotPass, StreetPass + MiiPlaza/FindMii/PuzzleMii, single analog stick, sketchy download service, etc. etc.
...as compared to full PSN support + trophies, dual analogs, plus 100s of excellent, downloadable PSP games already available via PSN...
...and you're calling the *Vita* for having "gimmicks", in comparison to the 3DS? Wow. Next, people will be upset that PSN is free, when you could be paying $60/year for it instead...
I really only consider Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land to be worthwhile, given that I'm not at all interested in 3D ports of games which already own. Even those two are kinda "more of the same", although at least the 3D is decently well implemented in them.
What else is there, that hasn't already come out on another platform (i.e. Starfox 64, Zelda, Donkey Kong, etc.)? I'm really wanting to get another 3DS title, but.. I just don't see anythin...
Casual flightsim... interesting.
The flight model probably stinks, considering that MS laid off their entire flightsim division a couple years back. Hence... "casual". A shame.
Can't complain about free though. Still, if its not a good sim, its probably not worth the disc space to DL it. MS made the greatest flightsim for the longest time.. its a shame they stopped. I wonder how making a free game brings in more profit than the sim games wo...
Hmm, I bought one when they were discounted below the price of a DSi, over the holidays. I don't know if that's a good thing, or not. It is for me.
The DS/DSLite/DSi were great hardware... the 3DS just... doesn't seem much better, despite its vast tech upgrade. Why is that?
The OS is spiffy, Wii-like, very cool. It probably has about the horses of a GameCube under the hood... I guess its the lack of (3DS) games that really hurt it, for me. T...
Man. I thought 2012 was gonna be a break for my wallet, and maybe I might see the sun too.
Looks like another year of too much gaming. Ah well.
Vita is probably priced below its cost-to-make already.
I sincerely doubt the price will come down, considering its half the price of similar devices and has twice the power as well. If you don't think $250 is an unbelievably good deal for one, you are 110% high, and should check yourself in to rehab *right now*.
It should cost $400 at least. Apple would charge $800.
3G one has a GPS. That's basically why I'm getting it.
Does the WiFi one have a GPS?
Of course its possible.
The question is... is it profitable?
I agree with your analysis, but...
"While I believe the Japanese devs need to stay true to their culture and style, they also need to evolve somewhat."
Sadly, they cannot "evolve". Its a financial and social thing, not a choice they are making. Japanese games studios do not work like western studios. If they convert to the western style of games making, they will also lose their unique identity.
At the same time, Japane...
JRPGs, which comprise a huge portion of Japan's development, moved to handhelds because handheld game budgets are more in-line with the small dev houses in Japan.
On top of that, used sales hurt single-player-only games WAY more than MP-enabled games, and hence, hurts JRPGs more than most genres. Since the prices of new titles are not as high, and used handheld titles -- particularly cartridges -- retain much of their value, the used market is less of a problem on handhe...
Most Vita games allow saving games to a reserved area on the game cards themselves, so you don't actually need a memory card at all.
GameStop happens to require games to include a "delete savegame" feature for savegames on the card, or they won't stock the game. They need this feature to sell used games like they were "as good as new". Oh the irony.
CNET... clueless as usual.
They aren't really talking about the Vita, per se, and only 1 of the 3 folks in the broadcast actually was dumb enough to state that she didn't think the Vita would launch in 2012.
They think handheld gaming is dead because the 3DS was a bad product (overpriced, health warnings, bad launch lineup, underpowered hardware, weak battery, one analog, etc.). They believe the 3DS didn't sell well because of competition from other mobile devices, instead. They are compl...
I read your list, Tenkay23.
Good list, although I think you ranked a couple wrong (everyone will have their own opinion, of course). I think I own at least half of those games.
I spotted an error, if you care. #35, Dead Space Extraction is not a Wii exclusive. It's available on PSN, and comes with the PS3 version of Dead Space 2, as well.