Possibly reading our “Where’s the exclusives, Lebowski?” piece yesterday, Microsoft PR boss David Dennis has spoken to IGN at CES, touching upon the apparent lack of 360-only titles scheduled for release this year. Sure, we mentioned a new Forza and Gears of War (and even dragged in Crytek’s Codename: Kingdoms) but, truth be told, we struggled to rattle off a strong line-up of AAA games set for an exclusive release on the Xbox 360. Reiterating that Microsoft will not abandon its hardcore following, Dennis stated:
Obviously we’re very excited by the success of Kinect but we have no intention of abandoning the Xbox 360 audience that bought in originally.
We’re very aware of the key role the enthusiastic core audience played in making the Xbox 360 what it is, and we’ll continue to support and develop (titles) like Halo and Gears of War.
Interestingly (though hardly surprising), Dennis also mentions that some 360 exclusives remain unannounced. As do some Sony ones, of course.
Check out the article (link below, as always) for more information about additional improvements to Xbox LIVE (it appears they’ve been bolstering the service in the background to support the likes of Reach and Blops), along with some titbits about integrating Kinect more with the 360 Dashboard, and (for all you popularists) having more than one hundred friends.
Source: IGN
jimmy-google
MS will of course have unannounced games being worked on, when they get released is another matter. How many games announced at E3 over the last couple of years by Sony or MS (that aren’t motion games) have actually been released?
MS probably have games like a new Banjo, Alan Wake, Halo and maybe a few new IP on the cards but for everyone of them Sony will have someone like Media Molecule working on a new IP and possibly another exclusive from Quantic Dream, new Sly game and possibly even a Jak & Daxter game (Heroes on the move and the Sly Collection do point to new games for these franchises on the horizon) and as games like Killzone 3 get finished developers have to start work on something.
If they’re waiting until E3 then it all seems a bit late when we could have already seen LBP 2, Motorstorm A, Infamous 2, Killzone 3, Playstation Move Heroes and Team Ico Collection released on the PS3.
There will also be a lot of people waiting to throw back all the comments made about the PS3 having no games to the 360.
monkeyspoon
Sly 4 is already announced and I expect Naughty Dog have a team doing a Jak game.
mugsybalone
Do Microsoft really need a catalogue of upcoming first-party titles? Obviously, they’re a nice addition, to provide revenue streams directly to MS, but it’s not as if a lack of exclusive titles would cause 360 owners to abandon the console in droves and refuse to buy any more games at all, surely? They’ll just buy the latest CoD or FIFA iteration. Microsoft already have a healthy install base for the 360, so I guess they don’t have to pressured into announcing a new AAA 360 exclusive at every opportunity.
monkeyspoon
If the PS3 is having every game that comes out on 360 plus loads of exclusives then people will start abandoning 360 and moving to PS3. Why limit yourself from getting the best games.
l C0D3 M0NK3Y l
Hey Microsoft… actions… not words… put up, or shut up. :)
beeje13
‘In development’ they could have started the other day for all we know.
It looks as though MS doesn’t want to spoil kinect’s party, but keep a bit of momentum going so it doesn’t die out.
Scythegpd
TBH I’m not too fussed abut this. Sure MS may not have many games announced yet but there’re so many PS3 exclusives I want to play already that I don’t think I’ll have the time to play them all anyway (especially as I’m *hopefully* in the last stages of my degree, I’ll see next Thursday … in which case I’ll be inundated with work anyway).
All the games I need to play already, combined with Gears3, more than full up my itinery. Sure it seemingly might not be the best year (so far) for the 360 but that’s the joy of owning both.
Not to mention that, after buying the Helghast Edition, my wallet would prefer the 360 having no other “must buy” games above all the PS3 ones
InternationalGamer
Their Unannounced ”hardcore” titles better not be a Kinect FPS.
I still feel MS betrayed and took a shit on its hardcore audience, I hope they start releasing good games that are ment for the core buyers.
icuyesido
They seem to have put so much focus on Kinect and it’s content, they’ve overlooked there larger audience, the hardcore gamers, yeah they’re bound to have a few things up there sleeves but it’s not looking good.