LittleBigPlanet 2 [review] kicks off Sony’s PS3 exclusive push for 2011 in a matter of days now, and it’s going to be swiftly followed by the wonderful Killzone 3 [hands-on]. These two games alone will keep many gamers busy for a good few months – the former especially.
But that’s not all that’s lined up for the PlayStation 3 this year – look out for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, inFamous 2, The Last Guardian, Motorstorm: Apocalypse and Resistance 3 as big hitters, with the likes of MLB 11, Disgaea 4, PlayStation Move Heroes, SOCOM 4, Sorcery, Twisted Metal and a new Yakuza bringing up the rear.
It’s an impressive line-up, arguably, in fact, the strongest set of games that Sony and their third parties have pushed out this generation – something presumably spurred on by competition from the currently on a roll Xbox 360. The problem on that count, though, is that Microsoft don’t really seem to like talking about anything lined up themselves this year apart from (the admittedly massive) Gears of War 3, Forza 4 and a few other titles that run the gamut between potentially mind-blowing and ‘still codenamed’. We want to know what’s coming.
Sure, there’s the rather vague Panzer Dragoon-esque title, a new Steel Batallion, a Kinect survival horror from SEGA and the Crytek developed Codename Kingdoms, but what we want are the likes of Halo, guys, the stuff we find familiar and can get excited about. Halo sells consoles, it ignites gamers and – yes – we’ll happily settle for a HD remake of Combat Evolved this year if you’re taking a year out.
Exclusives are big business, the whole concept of having games that only play on your console (we’re, for the sake of this blog, ignoring PC and Windows phone releases) goes towards how one console manufacturer sets themselves apart from the others; and on that aspect alone it seems Sony have got this year all sewn up, at least going off what we know from the two houses.
For the first time, too, some might say – the PS3’s had a rather uneven release schedule ever since it was released with delays and misfires peppering what has actually at times been an underwhelming few years – but for the next twelve months we’re struggling to find what Microsoft are up to.
Maybe it’s the new emphasis on Kinect that’s absorbing all their energy. Certainly, the brand new motion control device has meant that the 360 has seen far more TV-time than anything else this Christmas – the games are fresh, massively fun with mates and require no grasp of traditional games to enjoy: put your Granny in front of Kinect and fire up Bowling and she’ll be off – the line-up has actually resulted in a solid set of highly playable games that are far weightier than we first thought. Dance Central is, by all accounts, bloody fantastic.
But are Gears of War 3, Forza 4 and some unknown quantities going to be enough to convince Microsoft’s hardcore following that they’re still the company’s focus? Of course not – and we don’t think for a second that there’s only going to be the games mentioned (and don’t forget that there’s still loads of multi-format games coming out) – and Greenberg’s already talking about how 2011 will be big for Xbox 360 exclusives. But that’s the point of this article – with Sony having already announced a good deal of their 2011 exclusive offering (and they’re still not talking about Starhawk) we have to wonder why Microsoft are being so cagey with their games.
Are they holding off for a massive bout of list-wars E3, or is there something else set for Los Angeles that’ll blow us all away…? Microsoft, we’re all ears.
Kovacs
As I mentioned in the Breakdown article (http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2011/01/01/tsa%E2%80%99s-top-100-of-2011-the-breakdown/), only a diehard 360 fan can say that, Kinect excluded and based on what we know right now, 2011 is looking like a great year.
Jaffa-the-Cake
I think that 2011 will show the real shortcomings of microsofts 360 strategy. They’ve been far too reliant on paying huge sums for 3rd party exclusive content and while thisbmay have worke in the short term it has meant they have neglected their first party titles and so push for sequel to only 2 or 3 games and rely on them year on year ( gears of war, pgr, halo) this has resulted in saturation and it seems MS has run out of ideas and is too preoccupied with Kinect to take notice.
BIGAL-1992
The main ngame plan that Microsoft normally use, is that they use the big hitters (Halo, Gears of war) in order to sell consoles, as well as the fact that they’re quick of then mark to get timed-exclusive deals with thid-party publishers (Activision, Bethesda). But Sony go for new IPs and large-scale sequels to bring in the cash, which is where the two are different. Microsoft’s approached has worked in the past, but I’m starting to get worried that it’s staerting to feel like a rinse-and-repeat approach that’s outstayed its welcome.
Foxhound_Solid
Gamers are wise. They now know that MS will pay through the nose to prevent things being multi at the same time. However we all know if you wait everyone else gets the same thing, improved, with more thrown in. Im looking at you Mass Effect 2……
If MS dont have any boomer exclusives to reveal and they are simply going for the Wii Crowd with Kinect, 2011 will also belong to Sony. Simples….
Tuffcub
How could you forget Avatar Kinnect? A groundbreaking exclusive the Microsoff announced mere weeks before launch.
Hmm.. announcing casual titles weeks before launch rather than hyping things .. hmm… so.. that means… all MS have is a dustbin full of “Mr Poopypants Goes To The Market” casual Kinect titles.
Mystery solved.
kivi95
well it’s not a game more like a chat room.
Porcupine_I
no, its a GLORYFIED chat room :-D
TSBonyman
The emperors new controller has left them somewhat empty-handed.. :)
jayjay119
it’s not a controller, you are the controller. That’s obviously the reason. Kinect is not such a focus there is no point making anything other than games which can work with that, which cuts out… well virtually everything.
The PS3 certainly may have been a slow burner, but it’s certainly on fire now.
jayjay119
* Kinect IS such a focus (is what I wanted to say!)
TSBonyman
um.. that’s what i said.. kinda :)
tonycawley
I reckon they’ve got a huge blockbuster up their sleeves that they’re going to release this year. They’ve got to have. Something uncharted-like.
jayjay119
Their equivalent of uncharted as I understand it was meant to be Alan Wake… which tanked!
R4U Eldave0
Whilst is wasn’t as good as Uncharted, I found Alan Wake to be excellent…. and also nothing like Uncharted :P
jayjay119
The equivalency is entirely metaphorical, whilst Uncharted took off and is not Sony’s flagship series, the same cannot be said of AW. It may have been good but it wasn’t receieved nearly as well as MS had hoped!
R4U Eldave0
Ahhh that makes more sense. In which case, agreed! ;)
Foxhound_Solid
This year, humm, I think its all about Kinect for MS. I think that they are gonna stump cash. Sony strategy will pay off in the end. Halo, Forza and Gears wont last forever…..
kivi95
and it’s not even Bungie who is doing the next HALO.
cc_star
Sony’s strategy of buying developers so they produce content exclusive to Sony is looking a better direction than not buying developers and instead only buying a title, or an exclusivity period.
gawd knows wht people would have said about Microsoft if they’d have snapped up developers instead of just the odd game.
But for 2011 and beyond it looks like they’ve misjudged it as far as long term is concerned
However Microsoft might not care – any core game who want their machine has already bought a console and growth will come purely from none core gamers, and their strategy in that area looks like its paying off too
jayjay119
The thing is though, the core gamer is a fickle creature. They may have enticed a lot of people in the past few years, but now more than ever people are getting PS3s too. MS need to keep their core gamers happy otherwise they may just jump ship. And while the casual market is a money bringer at the moment, it’s not a market that will give you a steady, all year round income like the core will.
Juelz345
I don’t think 360 gamers are discontent by a long shot, not yet. While it would be nice for some more big exclusives to be on the way, i think it’s way too soon to say that MS is abandoning the core gamers at this point. And there are still some great multiplatform games coming out, and that’s what gamers should focus on. Good games are good games, regardless of exclusivity.
Boomshanks
Good games are indeed good games, but if one console has more good games than the other(through exclusivity) it will be more appealing to the audience
Tanzil
I hadn’t really noticed, but I suppose to really get the Kinect sales that we’re seeing they have to put a lot of grunt behind the kit. 2012 might be for MS like what 2010-11 is for sony
jayjay119
2010-11 was a good year was it not? Ok there was not many exclusives there but Sony’s prospects for last year seemed a lot brighter than MS’s for this.
citizeninsane45
Never a better time to be a PS3 owner. It was a slow burner but it’s all good now!
R4U Eldave0
I agree, I havent really played mine over the past 6 months with the exception of replaying the God of War series, but I will certainly be dusting mine off this year
Wing-Sabre
ill call it , a microsoft exclusive call of duty by (sledgehammer) ? :P