State of the First Party Publishers

[Dari]

Microsoft: Heavily reliant on third parties, except for Halo. Microsoft may have to buy another major publisher in the next couple of years

Nintendo: Regurgitates same shit every year and people eat it up. Too cheap and arrogant to start a new franchise.

SONY: Pushing new boundaries w.r.t. downloadable and packaged games. I will admit that I haven't played many of these games (e.g. Flower, etc...) but I hear enough about them to see that SONY must be doing something right. SONY also has a habit of creating new successful franchises with every new console.

 

[Cuda1447]

Wow? Really. Seems a bit biased to me, no?

 

[mugs]

Oh sweet, a fanboy thread.

Setting bias aside, I think NINTENDO is the top first party publisher. Who cares if they they don't start new franchises? They kick so much ass with what they have.

microsoft has a lot more than you give them credit for, but sony does have a lot of good stuff. I don't really care who publishes a game as long as I can play it.

 

[viivo]

I guess his other thread didn't turn into a flamewar like he was hoping, so a second try?

There's just so little substance and relevance in the OP, it's difficult to see how this discussion can progress other than URGgG SONY GOOD OTHER BAD URRRGG.

 

[Dari]

Oh sweet, a fanboy thread.

Setting bias aside, I think NINTENDO is the top first party publisher. Who cares if they they don't start new franchises? They kick so much ass with what they have.

microsoft has a lot more than you give them credit for, but sony does have a lot of good stuff. I don't really care who publishes a game as long as I can play it.

Play the new Super Mario Bros, just like the old Super Mario Bros. I will admit that I'm a fan of classics but Nintendo takes the exploitation to a whole new level. The only 'new' game that I've enjoyed is Wii Sports.

 

[BenSkywalker]

I'd say in terms of first party developers Nintendo kills the hell out of Sony overall. I think MS solidly trails, but Sony's first party was pathetic at best with the PS1 significantly behind Sega and Nintendo and we know how that turned out.

Even though I would have MS pulling up the rear, they are still far beyond what Sony had for a great deal of its dominant run. Halo, Gears and Forza are all very solid franchises that perform well both in the critical and commercial space- you can't really ask for much more then that.

Nintendo is so dominant in this area I have to ask how you can honestly not see it? They only remake the same old games? Is GT not an evolution of Pole Position? Unchartered an evolution of Pitfall? R&C an evolution of SMB? Rarely are there truly new ideas in the gaming market, and almost always those new ideas suck, badly. Being able to take a proven concept and make something that both the critics and fans adore is normally the sign of a great developer. If you wanted to get into evolutionary traits, Nintendo is dominating on that front also. Sony and MS are both pushing to get into a market that everyone laughed at Nintendo for creating in the first place. The variety of ways that have taken advantage of the control mechanics on the Wii and the publics response to them has been nothing short of astounding. You may or may not care for it, but trying to argue the point seems foolish at best.

For the record, I'd much rather play exceptionally well made rehashes over a bunch of new concepts and ideas being shoved into a game without close to the refinement of the more tested methods. IMO DQ>>>>>FF. It's also why I rarely play anything on the Wii, that doesn't cloud the fact that there is absolutely no doubt Nin's first party is utterly dominant by pretty much any broad based metric you could imagine.

 

[Dari]

I'd say in terms of first party developers Nintendo kills the hell out of Sony overall. I think MS solidly trails, but Sony's first party was pathetic at best with the PS1 significantly behind Sega and Nintendo and we know how that turned out.

Even though I would have MS pulling up the rear, they are still far beyond what Sony had for a great deal of its dominant run. Halo, Gears and Forza are all very solid franchises that perform well both in the critical and commercial space- you can't really ask for much more then that.

Nintendo is so dominant in this area I have to ask how you can honestly not see it? They only remake the same old games? Is GT not an evolution of Pole Position? Unchartered an evolution of Pitfall? R&C an evolution of SMB? Rarely are there truly new ideas in the gaming market, and almost always those new ideas suck, badly. Being able to take a proven concept and make something that both the critics and fans adore is normally the sign of a great developer. If you wanted to get into evolutionary traits, Nintendo is dominating on that front also. Sony and MS are both pushing to get into a market that everyone laughed at Nintendo for creating in the first place. The variety of ways that have taken advantage of the control mechanics on the Wii and the publics response to them has been nothing short of astounding. You may or may not care for it, but trying to argue the point seems foolish at best.

For the record, I'd much rather play exceptionally well made rehashes over a bunch of new concepts and ideas being shoved into a game without close to the refinement of the more tested methods. IMO DQ>>>>>FF. It's also why I rarely play anything on the Wii, that doesn't cloud the fact that there is absolutely no doubt Nin's first party is utterly dominant by pretty much any broad based metric you could imagine.

I did admit that Nintendo was doing well for itself but, aside from Wii Sports, they've done nothing innovative. One of the reasons I got a Wii was for the Virtual Console, but once I started playing these games from my childhood, I asked myself 'Why the fuck am I paying money to re-live memories that are better than their current incarnations?'. Hence, I stopped buying. Even the new Mario Karts are, IMHO, nothing compared to the SNES or N64 versions.

As for Microsoft, aside from Halo, none of their software really stands out from the competition. I think they may have to purchase another publishing house soon. But they better hurry because there is a lot of consolidation going on and the third parties are growing very large.

 

[mmntech]

Microsoft: Heavily reliant on third parties, except for Halo. Microsoft may have to buy another major publisher in the next couple of years

Nintendo: Regurgitates same shit every year and people eat it up. Too cheap and arrogant to start a new franchise.

SONY: Pushing new boundaries w.r.t. downloadable and packaged games. I will admit that I haven't played many of these games (e.g. Flower, etc...) but I hear enough about them to see that SONY must be doing something right. SONY also has a habit of creating new successful franchises with every new console.

Sony has the strongest first party lineup. Probably one of the strongest in years on any system.

Nintendo really hasn't been taking advantage of their stable of franchises lately. The Wii I think could be a lot better than it is but it attracts so much third party shovelware, it's not funny. A lot of the more popular first party games feel vary gimmicky, like Wii Sports/Resort and Wii Fit. We really need a Wii specific Zelda.

Microsoft, I'm not sure what's happened to them. Microsoft Games Studios just seems to have collapsed in the last couple of years. The death of Microsoft Flight Simulator was a major shock as it's long been consider to be their flagship title for PC. I haven't hardly anything coming out of them. Fortunately the 360 has the strongest third party support of all the systems.

 

[jrphoenix]

I did admit that Nintendo was doing well for itself but, aside from Wii Sports, they've done nothing innovative. One of the reasons I got a Wii was for the Virtual Console, but once I started playing these games from my childhood, I asked myself 'Why the fuck am I paying money to re-live memories that are better than their current incarnations?'. Hence, I stopped buying. Even the new Mario Karts are, IMHO, nothing compared to the SNES or N64 versions.

As for Microsoft, aside from Halo, none of their software really stands out from the competition. I think they may have to purchase another publishing house soon. But they better hurry because there is a lot of consolidation going on and the third parties are growing very large.

I think x-play awarded Fable 2 game of the year last year, the 3rd is on the way. Sony has some great first party games. It's a disappointment to see that many don't get the sale that Nintendo / Microsoft do. I guess that is the result of having such a large chunk of their install base in Japan. Japan's tastes are so different that Western fare... Most of Sony's efforts with their new franchises have been aimed at Western markets.

 

[Kromis]

For a software company, Microsoft sure as hell isn't pushing any new IPs. I really wish they did though.

I think they're not going to step up their game until Sony and Microsoft are neck and neck with each other. Which is rather disappointing.

I'd like to think of Microsoft as a 2010 Ford Mustang and Sony as a 2009 Nissan 370Z

 

[zerocool84]

Oh sweet, a fanboy thread.

Setting bias aside, I think NINTENDO is the top first party publisher. Who cares if they they don't start new franchises? They kick so much ass with what they have.

microsoft has a lot more than you give them credit for, but sony does have a lot of good stuff. I don't really care who publishes a game as long as I can play it.

This is exactly how I feel.

 

[mmntech]

I just wish MS would start churning out some solid PC titles again, like they used to.