You - got - owned -OOOHH!!'s blog

• 19Jun 08

  Why devs go exclusive

  This was originally one of my comments over at tiggerboy's post about console exclusives, but I thought I'd post it here as well. I've seen a lot of people say that studios are stupid if they don't go multiplatform, so here's my response to them. Some of these are obvious, but a lot of people don't pay attention to #4.

  4 reasons why devs go exclusive:
  
  1. Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo pays them a huge amount of money so they'll develop exclusively for their console.
  
  2. The studio is too small or underfund to develop for two platforms. Especially with the high costs of development now.
  
  3. The studio is owned by one of the aforementioned companies, and are forced to develop exclusively for the company's platform. For example, Bungie made Halo and was owned by Microsoft, so it was only for Microsoft's consoles.
  
  4. The studio is just experimenting and doesn't know if the title will be worth developing for more than one console. For example, when Epic made Gears of War, they were just experimenting with the Unreal Engine 3 being on the 360, and the possibility of developing on consoles. What if Gears wasn't that great, but they made it for PS3 as well? That means that they would've spent double the $ for development, even though it wouldn't have been worth it if the game bombed.

  • Posted Jun 19, 2008 12:32 pm PT
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• 14Jun 08

  Things Nintendo should include in the next update.

  Honestly, I'm somewhat disappointed in how Nintendo isn't issuing updates frequently. It's not that they should update it just because they can, but because they have many things that should be fixed, and so many features they can add. Here's my list of what they can add:

  Hard drive support via USB. Actually, it doesn't even have to be a hard drive, it can be a flash drive.

  Better SD card functionality. Instead of making it so that you have to swap game saves/data, channels, WiiWare and Virtual Console games on and off the memory card, they should make it so that the afforementioned files can be streamed right off the card. Sure, it'll be a bit slower than the internal memory and the (possible) hard drive, but an extra two to three seconds of loading shouldn't be a problem. It'll really open the doors to downloadable content.

  The ability to use the analogue sticks to control the pointer instead of always having to use the Wii Remote. Sometimes, this is the way to go. You just don't feel like pointing. Besides, when you want to play a Gamecube or Virtual Console game, you can just use the Gamecube or Classic controller to select the game from the Wii Menu, instead of going through the inconvenience of turning on the Wii with the Wii Remote, only to select what you want to play and then to never touch it again. Pointing shouldn't be tacked on. It's not that big of a problem, but it's so easy for them to do that it should have been there from the start.

  Quicker Wii Shop Channel. Why does it take 30 seconds to connect (usually more) if I have high-speed internet? My router is in the next room, and signal strength is strong. I absolutely hate this, and it should definately be fixed.

  The ability to see if your friends are online. And when they are online, it should notify you in the corner of your screen, just like MSN does. I already know that it's too late for them to integrate a great online service like Xbox Live, or at least PSN, so that's why I'm not expecting them to "get rid of teh frend c0dez!!" or "ADD VOICE CHAT SO WE CAN TALK TO EACH OTHER!!."

  And that's all. Feel free to add any of your wanted features/updates.

  • Posted Jun 14, 2008 4:03 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 9Mar 08

  Smash Bros Brawl is great, except for 2 things

  First off, Brawl is great. That's it. Enough said. Unfortunately, there are two things that are hampering my experience:

  1. Trouble connecting online. Whenever I connect to the Wifi network, it works with no problems. But when I try to get into a match, an error code pops up, and I'm sent back to the main lobby. It's the same problem Jeff Gerstmann is having with it. Heard it from his new site, giantbomb.com. I'm sure this is just a temporary issue, and it's most likely happening because there are so many people playing, as it is the first day.

  2. Control scheme sorta sucks. Don't get me wrong, after customizing the Wiimote and Nunchuck, they are pretty good. However, the Gamecube controller is the best way to play. If you don't like to play this way, YOU ARE WRONG. (UPDATE: You're not really wrong, I was just kidding) I'm going to need to pick up a GC controller.

  • Posted Mar 9, 2008 10:04 pm PT
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