I wish developers would really take a hard look at the experiences they are creating when it comes to online play. “Fear 2″ most recently comes to mind. I think I would have gladly traded in their “add on” multiplayer for more game play, story and polish. “Fracture” also jumps out. This game could have been a great single player experience. Instead we got a “decent” single player game and a crap online experience. Throw “Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway” onto that steaming pile as well. The single player game was pretty good, but the online play was horrible!

Then you look at a single player experiences like Bioshock and Dead Space and understand just how great a game can be even without the online play. Mario seemed to do just fine all these years with out online play. God of War I & II managed just fine with out it as well.

Maybe it’s just me nitpicking but I long for the days of great single player games that didn’t need an online component to make them good. Maybe, just maybe  these developers are killing their own games with this insistence on adding in the multiplayer element when those resources would have been better off being used in the single player?

Here is the official press release for your viewing:

CAPCOM^® ANNOUNCES LOST PLANET ^®2

4-player co-op, new interlinked episodes, and deep customization take Lost Planet^® to a New Level

SAN MATEO, Calif. — February 25, 2009  Capcom® Entertainment, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today announced that Lost Planet® 2 is being developed for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®, following an exclusive announcement on Xbox LIVE that happened Monday, February 23. Lost Planet®: Extreme Condition, the landmark third-person shooter that debuted on Xbox 360, went on to sell over 2.2 million units worldwide after its release. This next riveting installment will offer deeper insight into the world of E.D.N III and the uncertain fate of future mankind.

Lost Planet 2 picks up 10 years since the events of the original adventure and the landscape has evolved dramatically. With the success of terraforming activities, the planet’s ice has begun to melt, giving way to lush tropical jungles and other new environments. The story has advanced beyond Wayne Holden as players will now follow the exploits of their own customized snow pirates on their quest to seize control of E.D.N III.

Players will move their heroes through different stories creating a truly unique and interactive experience. With this concept, gamers will have the opportunity to engage in the story in a more dynamic way as plot threads evolve from various perspectives.

The strongest features from the first game will return in Lost Planet 2 making fans feel right at home. In addition to the anchor actions that made the gameplay in Lost Planet a true 3-D experience, Lost Planet 2 allows gamers to gain tactical advantage with a wide variety of added actions that the series has to offer. The game will also contain a new entry to the enormous Akrids which were a fan-favorite in the first Lost Planet.

Capcom has spent a considerable amount of time reviewing community feedback and incorporating it into Lost Planet 2 creating a game that both new and returning fans to the series will love. The game takes advantage of Capcom’s most highly advanced software development tool, the MT Framework 2. This is the first game to make use of the new technology – a technology that builds on the advancements made in the original MT Framework.

Beyond the deep single player mode, Lost Planet 2 is loaded with one the most extensive multiplayer campaign seen in a shooter to date. The intense and action packed campaign mode comes with the ability to form teams of up to 4 players online to clear mission objectives with friends.

More information on Lost Planet 2 will be revealed in the upcoming months. In the meantime, please visit the official Capcom press site at http://press.capcom.com

Edit: It should also be noted that although this announcement came exclusively on Xbox LIVE today it is not “officially” known if this is in fact an Xbox “exclusive” game or “timed exclusive”.  I have reached out to Capcom for clarification.

Given the community grumblings I had heard and experienced around the demo for Resident Evil 5 I wondered if the demo itself might have done more harm than good. So, I recently put out a poll on a few gaming community sites (www.couchmercenaries.com & www.o35s.net) looking for feed back on the success or lack of success the Resident Evil 5’s demo had with gamers. It’s a small sampling, and certainly not a definitive answer, but the results themselves absolutely show something went wrong for Capcom’s RE5 demo.

The survey sampling was simple. I asked the question: Did the RE5 demo change your mind? Here are the results from sampling and the answer choices:

• 8% voted for “I was going to buy it and still plan on buying it.”
• 0 % voted for “I was never going to buy it but now think I will buy it.”
• 12% voted for “I was never going to buy it and still will not buy it.”
• 80% voted for “I was going to buy it, but now will not buy it and may or may not rent it.”

Now this certainly doesn’t represent all of gamers and I am sure other communities would be skewed differently. However even with this small pool one can clearly see some telling facts. The demo managed to keep just 8% of its originally planning to buy consumers and failed to win any new buyers. Even more damning is the fact that the demo actually cost Capcom sales as 80% of those individuals who were going to get the game and now will not be buying a copy.

The quick down and dirty of this brings the conclusion that demo was far more damaging for Capcom than beneficial. While the game certainly will still pull decent sales given its fan base following the final numbers will undoubtedly be much smaller than anticipated. One has to wonder if Capcom will scale back on demo’s for some of their more high profile games.

Looking purely at NPD numbers while the PS2 has declined in sales since its hay day it still is a pretty significant player in the market. Just looking at a snap shot of 3 months of NPD sales figures from 2008 you clearly can see there is still a significant amount of people buying up new PS2’s.

January 2008 – Playstation 2 sold 264,000 units

July 2008 – Playstation 2 sold 222,000 units

December 2008 – Playstation 2 sold 410,000 units

The PS2 now resides as the cheapest home console and most likely is its driving force for staying relevant in the monthly sales totals. You couple that with a vast back catalog of games, continued support from 3^rd parties and a poor economy and you see the recipe for the PS2’s success. You piggy back the fact that the machine costs make it a cash cow at this point for Sony and one can’t really see an argument for killing it off.

You can’t see an argument for killing it off unless you factor in their desire to push consumers to Blu Ray and the PS3. Sony has begun trying to push in that direction via lack of support towards the PS2, etc… but it’s a very slow move. This is where things get tricky for Sony. Sony wants to convert all those PS2 buyers into future PS3 buyers. However, the PS2 adopters we see today most likely are bargain shoppers looking for a cheap, good gaming experience. The PS3 is not that solution as it stands and Sony would potentially be pushing roughly 200,000 unit sales over to their rival console makers whom offer up much more inexpensive Next Gen offerings. That scenario is the last thing Sony wants to see happen. Given Sony isn’t in a position to offer up a large price cut, the potential PS2 buyers are going to be no closer to buying a PS3 now than they were before hand. Sony is trying to push the value proposition but really in my opinion this is a losing argument in face of a “dollars and cents” consumer. When and if Sony can bring the PS3 to a price point that it will convert those potential PS2 buyers still remains to be seen

One thing is for sure though. Sony can’t and won’t kill of the PS2 anytime soon. I guess the only real remaining questions for debate are: When will Sony decide to actually stop production of the PS2? And how long can the PS2 stay viable?

So for now, we all should at minimum expect to see Mass Effect 2 coming to the 360 and PC again.  I would throw caution to the wind on speculation of a PS3 version.

“[In Q4], BioWare will release Mass Effect 2 on multiple platforms,” he said during a Tuesday earnings call.

The original 2007 Mass Effect was an Xbox 360 exclusive published by Microsoft Game Studios. EA’s acquisition of BioWare opened up rumors that the franchise could go multiplatform.

Mass Effect also appeared on PC.

Riccitiello did not specifically mention the PS3 in his statement, but the nature of EA as a multiplatform third-party publisher would suggest that “multiple platforms” would include Sony’s machine in the equation.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/mass-effect-2-multiplatform

Moving past the initial question of will the controls make a difference, one also has to ask why Capcom would release a demo that didn’t contain the control scheme if they (per their own admission) knew so many wanted it via feed back?   My own take on this, is that Capcom has made a huge mistake in releasing this demo with out the control scheme built in.   I don’t think they needed to rush out a demo for this game.  I think sales for it would have been just fine with video clips.  Now they have to recapture a significant chunk of fans who were turned off to the game play due to a missing element that will in fact be there come launch day.

What do you think?  Can Capcom over come this misstep and gain back sales with the current demo in place?

OXM report on RE5

Edit: Update to the story.   I had been informned that the OXM interview is in fact incorrectly stated by the Capcom person in the video and the game will NOT ship with any shoot and move style mechanic.  I since then confirmned the report with Capcom PR, who indeed confirmned that no shoot and move mechanic will ship with the game.

In light of these facts and the out cry from many will this hurt RE5 sales?   I again ask the question, did Capcom need to put out a demo and should they have?

A Microsoft representative has informed Joystiq that the public availability of the Gears 2 Gold Lancer was made in error. Yesterday, we reported that the exclusive Collector’s Edition weapon had appeared on the Xbox.com Marketplace for all to wield.

According to the rep, everyone who obtained the Gold Lancer from the Xbox.com Marketplace will have the item removed from their games in an upcoming fix, in order to keep the weapon exclusive to Gears 2 Collector’s Edition consumers. “We’re currently attempting a fix that will expire all codes that were unexpectedly released in error through Xbox LIVE Marketplace,” the representative noted.

How Microsoft will remove (or possibly disable) the art asset file and differentiate between legitimate owners and those who grabbed the guns as they fell off the back of the truck is unclear. A request for clarification on how or when the fix would be implemented has gone unanswered, but we’ll update you as soon as we know more.