Halo 3 Will Put Xbox 360 Further Ahead of PS3

Halo 3 Will Put Xbox 360 Further Ahead of PS3

By: Rob Enderle
April 11th, 2007


Halo was the game that made the original Xbox; it was the one thing
the PlayStation 3 still lacks - the game that defines the playing
experience. While there are a lot of good games out for the Xbox 360,
including Halo 2, it will be Halo 3 that will possibly go the farthest
to define the power of that platform. Halo 3 is one of two games
enabling Microsoft to push the limits; the other is Shadowrun, which
will directly connect PC gamers to Xbox 360 gamers.

Both of these games are, if you will excuse the term, game changers.
Halo 3 is the first massive multi-player on-line game for the console
and Shadowrun the first to connect PC gamers and console gamers
together for online play (though it is limited to a max of 16 in-game
players at a time).

Changing Game

Designed from the start is voice capability. While not new to console
gamers, most of us who play MMOGs on the PC side have had to use
teamspeak, or some other out of game technology, to use voice. Getting
an entire team on TeamSpeak is rarely possible.

Voice adds a great deal to combat in that you don't have to stop to
chat and it is much easier to give commands or warnings verbally then
it is to type them on a keyboard. One interesting side note is that on
a panel I had last year on gaming, the reason game developers didn't
put voice into MMOGs was because of the number of men who liked to
play female characters and felt the male voice spoiled the experience.

Having played with TeamSpeak and a few guys, I can tell you it is
rather disconcerting to suddenly find out the girl you have been
playing beside isn't a girl after all. It will be interesting to see
whether the guys playing girls get the tools necessary to either make
them sound feminine, choose to play as males or simply make believe
they have deep, ***y voices. Personally, I'm hoping for the middle
choice.

For a console MMOG, the huge advantage is that you can push the
hardware to its limits. This is a problem with PCs where you have to
assume the lowest common hardware base, which may be a modem and a
Pentium 3 with old graphics. With Halo 3 the game developers can rely
on the fact that gamers are on broadband, have Xbox 360s and all have
the same controllers. This means we should see things in this game we
rarely see on PCs, short of the new DirectX 10 Vista stuff that we are
still waiting for.

This should give us powerful visuals and much quicker, console-like
game play, which will be a new experience for MMOG players. The fact
that everyone should be on broadband should reduce network lag but
I'll bet, when there are a lot of folks shooting in close proximity at
the same time, lag will be nearly impossible not to feel.

Still, both games appear first rate based on early reviews and they
provide a level of play the other consoles, and most PCs, can't
deliver right now.

Can Sony and Nintendo Keep Up?

Nintendo is playing to the beat of a different drummer right now and I
don't see these latest efforts from Microsoft having much impact.
Nintendo is more physical and tends to play to a younger crowd.
Nintendo also has a very attractive price point so they should be able
to sleep easy while continuing to enjoy an impressive sales ramp.

Sony is in trouble if these games take off. They don't even do multi-
player that well yet, MMOGs are well out of their reach and they have
effectively blocked every attempt their PC unit has made to work with
their game platform. This creates the very real possibility that Sony
PC users will be more likely to choose an Xbox 360 over Playstation 3
if they want to experience cross-platform play.

This is the same with the Media Center - the Xbox will extend a Sony
Media Center but a Playstation will just treat it as another PC with
limited capabilities. This seems like they put interdivisional rivalry
in front of competitiveness and that's just silly. And, if Shadowrun
is good, and it looks like it is very good, that's also going to hurt
Sony a lot.

Next Steps

There are a number of Xbox derivative products that are likely coming.
Xbox has no mobile solution yet, which is a likely future product. In
addition to the PC, vendors have been asking for a seat at the Xbox
table and with the advancements in emulators and virtual machines,
coupled with some impressive performance capabilities from next
generation PC platforms, this is increasingly possible. They could
also do a stripped down Xbox, which would have the multimedia
capabilities but not play games, or license the interface to someone
else who could bring one of those qualities out.

The advantages a software company has are flexibility and hardware
partners. With these new games and the most recent Instant Messaging
announcement, they are in fact showcasing that flexibility. Next,
prepare for them to start using their other advantage over the next 18
long months.

"AirRaid" <airraidfighter@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1176579107.616275.304270@o5g2000hsb.googlegro ups.com...
> Halo 3 Will Put Xbox 360 Further Ahead of PS3
[SNIP]

Honestly, do you think there are any Halo fans who have *not* already
purchased an Xbox 360? Last time I looked, Halo 2 was still the most
popular Xbox LIVE game on the Xbox 360. If you know any Halo fans who do
not currently own a 360, ask them what they have been waiting for during the
past two years. It isn't as if the 360 was $600 with a lack of AAA titles
like the PS3.

There is no question that Halo 3 is going to sell millions of
copies...probably to 90% of the people who currently own an Xbox 360. But I
don't think the game will sell *hardware*, and therefore it won't help put
the Xbox 360 further ahead of the PS3...unless the game is bundled with the
console and is accompanied by a price drop, which I don't see happening.

On the other hand, there are a lot of people still waiting to buy a PS3. A
price drop and/or a bunch of AAA titles, and you'll see PS3 sales take off,
whereas Xbox 360 sales have currently flattened out. Everyone who wants a
360 already has one. We won't see another spike in 360 sales until the unit
is dropped to a mass-market/casual gamer/"impulse buy" price level (which is
what happened with the PS One, PS2, and Xbox).

"AirRaid" <airraidfighter@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1176579107.616275.304270@o5g2000hsb.googlegro ups.com...
> Halo 3 Will Put Xbox 360 Further Ahead of PS3
>
> By: Rob Enderle
> April 11th, 2007
>
>
> Halo was the game that made the original Xbox; it was the one thing
> the PlayStation 3 still lacks - the game that defines the playing
> experience. While there are a lot of good games out for the Xbox 360,
> including Halo 2, it will be Halo 3 that will possibly go the farthest
> to define the power of that platform.

No, Halo3 will need to appeal to new gamers who haven't decied on a platform
yet, and not everybody gets excited by Halo.

I'd personally rather they came up with something original, instead of
another console FPS.

On Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:01:43 -0800, "Android"
<androvich@NOSPAMcomcast.net> wrote:

>
>Honestly, do you think there are any Halo fans who have *not* already
>purchased an Xbox 360? Last time I looked, Halo 2 was still the most
>popular Xbox LIVE game on the Xbox 360. If you know any Halo fans who do
>not currently own a 360, ask them what they have been waiting for during the
>past two years. It isn't as if the 360 was $600 with a lack of AAA titles
>like the PS3.
>
>There is no question that Halo 3 is going to sell millions of
>copies...probably to 90% of the people who currently own an Xbox 360. But I
>don't think the game will sell *hardware*, and therefore it won't help put
>the Xbox 360 further ahead of the PS3...unless the game is bundled with the
>console and is accompanied by a price drop, which I don't see happening.
>
>On the other hand, there are a lot of people still waiting to buy a PS3. A
>price drop and/or a bunch of AAA titles, and you'll see PS3 sales take off,
>whereas Xbox 360 sales have currently flattened out. Everyone who wants a
>360 already has one. We won't see another spike in 360 sales until the unit
>is dropped to a mass-market/casual gamer/"impulse buy" price level (which is
>what happened with the PS One, PS2, and Xbox).
>
i dunno. GTAA sold a shedload of PS2s, and i'm sure that by that
point most GTA fans had a PS2 already.

big games sell hardware, it doesnt matter if theyre sequels or new
franchises really.

the precedent is there, i imagine 360 sales will have a spike around
halo3 launch day. it won't be huge, but it'll be a fair whack more
than it's usual weekly sales numbers.
--

gamertag: Chrisflynnuk
http://live.xbox.com/member/Chrisflynnuk
Current eBay auctions: http://tinyurl.com/hutcb
360, DS, PS2 and Saturn Games For Auction.

"Android" <androvich@NOSPAMcomcast.net> wrote in message
news:ccednYPQ9p3RrrzbnZ2dnUVZ_rmdnZ2d@comcast.com. ..
>
> "AirRaid" <airraidfighter@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1176579107.616275.304270@o5g2000hsb.googlegro ups.com...
>> Halo 3 Will Put Xbox 360 Further Ahead of PS3
> [SNIP]
>
> Honestly, do you think there are any Halo fans who have *not* already
> purchased an Xbox 360? Last time I looked, Halo 2 was still the most
> popular Xbox LIVE game on the Xbox 360. If you know any Halo fans who do
> not currently own a 360, ask them what they have been waiting for during
> the
> past two years. It isn't as if the 360 was $600 with a lack of AAA titles
> like the PS3.
>
> There is no question that Halo 3 is going to sell millions of
> copies...probably to 90% of the people who currently own an Xbox 360. But
> I
> don't think the game will sell *hardware*, and therefore it won't help put
> the Xbox 360 further ahead of the PS3...unless the game is bundled with
> the
> console and is accompanied by a price drop, which I don't see happening.

Where are you getting your 90% number from? Halo 2 has sold over 6 million
copies to date and is still selling between 40,000-80,000 copies a month and
you think that a AAA title that sells in that quantity won't move systems?
Bull****!


> On the other hand, there are a lot of people still waiting to buy a PS3.
> A
> price drop and/or a bunch of AAA titles, and you'll see PS3 sales take
> off,
> whereas Xbox 360 sales have currently flattened out. Everyone who wants a
> 360 already has one. We won't see another spike in 360 sales until the
> unit
> is dropped to a mass-market/casual gamer/"impulse buy" price level (which
> is
> what happened with the PS One, PS2, and Xbox).

Xbox 360 is outselling the PS3 in North America and you're making another
claim pulled out of your ass that everyone that wants a 360 already has one?
So the Xbox 360 getting AAA titles won't help it sell but it will help the
competition sell consoles, nice logic there, LOL... Bull****!

On Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:13:00 +0100, "Sparkle" <MR@spark.com> wrote:

>
>"AirRaid" <airraidfighter@gmail.com> wrote in message
>news:1176579107.616275.304270@o5g2000hsb.googlegr oups.com...
>> Halo 3 Will Put Xbox 360 Further Ahead of PS3
>>
>> By: Rob Enderle
>> April 11th, 2007
>>
>>
>> Halo was the game that made the original Xbox; it was the one thing
>> the PlayStation 3 still lacks - the game that defines the playing
>> experience. While there are a lot of good games out for the Xbox 360,
>> including Halo 2, it will be Halo 3 that will possibly go the farthest
>> to define the power of that platform.
>
>No, Halo3 will need to appeal to new gamers who haven't decied on a platform
>yet, and not everybody gets excited by Halo.
>
>I'd personally rather they came up with something original, instead of
>another console FPS.
>
what, like Killzone 2?
--

gamertag: Chrisflynnuk
http://live.xbox.com/member/Chrisflynnuk
Current eBay auctions: http://tinyurl.com/hutcb
360, DS, PS2 and Saturn Games For Auction.

"Chris F" <chris@asifimtellingyoulot.com> wrote in message
news:hne2239ogb4i4c6n8gf5q9clsgu1a7d6ap@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:13:00 +0100, "Sparkle" <MR@spark.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>"AirRaid" <airraidfighter@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>news:1176579107.616275.304270@o5g2000hsb.googleg roups.com...
>>> Halo 3 Will Put Xbox 360 Further Ahead of PS3
>>>
>>> By: Rob Enderle
>>> April 11th, 2007
>>>
>>>
>>> Halo was the game that made the original Xbox; it was the one thing
>>> the PlayStation 3 still lacks - the game that defines the playing
>>> experience. While there are a lot of good games out for the Xbox 360,
>>> including Halo 2, it will be Halo 3 that will possibly go the farthest
>>> to define the power of that platform.
>>
>>No, Halo3 will need to appeal to new gamers who haven't decied on a
>>platform
>>yet, and not everybody gets excited by Halo.
>>
>>I'd personally rather they came up with something original, instead of
>>another console FPS.
>>
> what, like Killzone 2?

No, I meant like Boom-Boom-Rocket or whatever that nasty piece of ****e is
called.

> Where are you getting your 90% number from? Halo 2 has sold over 6
> million
> copies to date and is still selling between 40,000-80,000 copies a month

40K a month??? Maybe 2nd hand on eBay.

On Apr 14, 4:01 pm, "Android" <androv...@NOSPAMcomcast.net> wrote:
> Honestly, do you think there are any Halo fans who have *not* already
> purchased an Xbox 360?

Yes.

I know quite a few, personally. They're college or recently post-
college, still playing Halo 2 on their original Xbox units, and
getting ready to pool their funds for a 360 for Halo 3's release.
Play Halo 2 online, you'll hear the odd player who is waiting for Halo
3 before making the leap to the 360.

I realize this is all anecdotal, and the bump may not be huge, but the
effect of H3's release won't be insignificant on 360 hardware sales.

On Apr 14, 4:01 pm, "Android" <androv...@NOSPAMcomcast.net> wrote:
> "AirRaid" <airraidfigh...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:1176579107.616275.304270@o5g2000hsb.googlegro ups.com...> Halo 3 Will Put Xbox 360 Further Ahead of PS3
>
> [SNIP]
>
> Honestly, do you think there are any Halo fans who have *not* already
> purchased an Xbox 360?

Faulty logic, my man. Have you considered the fact that plenty of
people who want Halo 3 might be waiting for the initial batch of
poorly manufactured 360s to finally be completely weeded out? Or that
they may have decided to wait to see what the PS3 would have to offer
in competition? Maybe they are waiting for a price drop, waiting to
get a 360 after they get an HDTV, or are a little strapped for cash
for the moment. I think the image of people who like Halo as slaves
to Microsoft is a little cliched. And pray tell, if the PS2 was still
moving units consistently over the last couple of years without any
Halo-level titles (in terms of mass media exposure), what makes you
think Microsoft won't be able to do the same with a new Halo title?