X06 announcements crammed into a single post
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Sep 28th 2006 at 7:15PM }
Microsoft's X06 event started off in a thunderous explosion of news, with pieces of informative debris raining down upon the unshielded denizens of the internet since yesterday. If you're feeling clueless or overwhelmed, allow us to subject you to a helpful hail of bullet points: - Peter Jackson reveals a new partnership with Microsoft Game Studios. The king of the rings and his newly established Wingnut Interactive studio will work on an original property for the Xbox 360, as well as an unnamed Halo title. One can only hope that the crappy-game-based-on-a-movie and the crappy-movie-based-on-a-game curses cancel each other out when it comes time to play Peter Jackson's Halo: The Game of the Movie of the Game.
- A new RTS, Halo Wars, is unveiled. Set in a time before the first Halo, the real-time strategy game is being developed exclusively for the Xbox 360 by Ensemble Studios. Many confused pundits take the opportunity to point out that the Xbox 360 does not have a keyboard or a mouse.
- Grand Theft Auto IV will have two "epic" downloadable episodes exclusively on Xbox 360. Rockstar and Take-Two promise that the new episodes will provide "hours" of new gameplay and will be available "just months" after the game's October 2007 release. The vague wording of the announcement fails to rule out the possibility that the PS3 could receive different downloadable episodes of its own.
- The next Splinter Cell game is console-exclusive to the Xbox 360 -- meaning handhelds and the PC are still fair game. Fewer people are upset by this than those who realize Splinter Cell: Double Agent isn't available on anything yet.
- Bioshock is exclusive to Xbox 360 and Windows when it releases "next Spring". The wording of the press release says nothing of the game should it release during any other season following Spring. Of course, nobody likes waiting ...
- Project Gotham Racing 4 is coming. And the surprise hit gamers with all the force of a linen sheet flapping in the wind.
- Rare is working on a new Banjo-Kazooie game. Presumably, players are still keen on collecting all the coins, apples, music notes, beans, feathers, diamonds, pearls, potions, rings, blocks, wrenches and / or yams mysteriously floating around the finely rendered landscape.
- Marvel Universe Online is announced for the Xbox 360 and Windows Vista. It's being developed by the folks behind City of Heroes -- perhaps you remember Marvel suing them for creating tools that allowed people to venture online as, err, Marvel characters.
- Doom and Sensible World of Soccer join the Xbox Live Arcade lineup. The classic first-person shooter was already available yesterday for 800 points ($10). The Amiga footie title has not been given a release date yet, though the press release insists on using the word "soon."
- The Xbox 360 HD-DVD costs $199.99 in North America and €199.99/£129.99 in the UK, France and Germany. It arrives in mid-November and will include the Xbox 360's Universal Media Remote and the HD-DVD version of Peter Jackson's King Kong. And with that, the circle is complete.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
J.Goodwin @ Sep 28th 2006 7:27PM
Ludwig, like Sony much?
Jason W @ Sep 28th 2006 7:30PM
Only 2 weeks after i guy a hddvd player MS says it will sell theirs for 1/2 of what I paid. Oh well. To tell the truth MS did more at x06 than I thought they would. I love Splinter Cell so am happy to have it for the xbox i own already.
Oh well. At least this post is better than the live blogging with all its snide remarks.
Chris @ Sep 28th 2006 7:31PM
Damn, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.
KineticOnline @ Sep 28th 2006 7:31PM
Ahh Wingut Interactive, i could have swore it was Wingnut Interactive but then who would be that stupid.
rockintom99 @ Sep 29th 2006 3:31PM
Wow, Bioshock is actually going to be finished? Good times.
Yeti @ Sep 28th 2006 7:44PM
I loved all of the Halo announcements, eagerly awaiting Halo Wars (been wanting a great RTS game on this for years, the PC mods wern't that good) Not sure on the Peter Jackson game though, hope some thought goes into it and its not just a cheaply done Halo the Movie game which will average 59% on ratings...
Thank god Rare has announced something great, PDZ is great IMO but too many people didn't like it, Kameo was fantastic and now Banjo is announced, Rare seems like its going somewhere!
Loving doom on XBLA, it was great listening to X06 too, go download it guys.
Amos @ Sep 28th 2006 7:48PM
That's great and all, but all I want is a fucking release date from Blue Dragon damnit. I don't even have a 360 yet, but I want one...for Blue Dragon (& Lost Oddyssey). There's other things I want it for as well, but those are the big 'uns, along with Mass Effect.
Yeti @ Sep 28th 2006 8:01PM
Just need to post again about how great Assassins Creed looks, absolutely amazing. Ubisoft is one of the best developers out there, seriously, splinter cell, rainbow six vegas, assassins creed, 3 terrific games coming out shortly, can't wait.
GamerZero @ Sep 28th 2006 8:26PM
MS are getting too much love what with the 360
looking better day by day.
Just as well I have one.
I'm luuurvin' it!
FSK405K @ Sep 28th 2006 8:31PM
Lol, you've hit it on the head on the Movie of the Game of the Movie of the Game stuff. My thoughts exactly.
FSK405K @ Sep 28th 2006 8:38PM
Doom on 360, eh? Is it original Doom, Ultimate Doom, or jDoom?
rootdown @ Sep 28th 2006 9:31PM
Does anybody remember the Street Fighter game of a movie of a game?
If you do, I'm sorry for bringing it up.
mike @ Sep 28th 2006 9:33PM
Umm... Peter Jackson said himself that the Halo game he's making isn't based on the Halo movie he's producing.
"Given the fact we are making a little movie called Halo at the moment, and we're in partnership with the nice guys at Bungie, we decided the Halo universe is the best place for us to start," said Jackson. "It's not Halo 3 or four. It's not the film. But it is based on that amazing world."
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6158890.html
EclipseCDN @ Sep 29th 2006 7:20PM
I'm not a fanboy, but I have to say -- The 360's software lineup is looking more deversified and of a higher quality than anything else out there, even the loveable Wii.
solomonrex @ Sep 30th 2006 9:57AM
Is Assassin's Creed basically Splinter Cell: Middle Ages? Is it even playable yet to know?
And while we're here, Is x360 going to get any better platformers? After addressing the JRPG shortage with Blue Dragon, they need to loosen the stranglehold Sony has on platformers (not that any are announced in the next gen - Do we really want to see Daxter in HD?)
Mike @ Sep 29th 2006 9:13AM
Hmmmm, $200 for the HD-DVD. Add that to the price of the premium and that comes to $600. I wonder what other console costs $600.
J.Goodwin @ Sep 28th 2006 10:46PM
It's Ultimate Doom, but with the high rez of Boom. No GL though, just the standard textures and sprites in a slightly higher resolution.
J.Goodwin @ Sep 28th 2006 10:47PM
If you don't have the HD-DVD player, you still have an Xbox 360. If you don't have BluRay, you don't have a PS3.
Butt_Weavil @ Sep 28th 2006 10:49PM
This was what i have been dreading ever since MS got into the console business. You know they paid off all these developers to make these games exclusive. After all, it's not like they don't have they money to. Now imagine if they keep on doing this and kill all the competition because they can simply pay off devs. Who could afford to put out a successful system if microsoft just simply pays off all the devs for exclusivity? We need competition to keep the market healthy and to encourage changes and improvements in games.
Imagine what next gen will be like if the Xbox is the only system available. Do you think they are going to go all out and make the next box greater than the previous one, or they'll just half ass it because they don't have any incentive to with no other systems on the market?
GalileoAce @ Sep 28th 2006 10:56PM
That was a rather negative post about what was a rather positive collection of announcements...
BklynKid @ Sep 28th 2006 11:39PM
Here is Assassins Creed for anyone who hasn't seen it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOk5j-iGuTM
James @ Sep 28th 2006 11:57PM
Looks like SOMEONE woke up on the wrong side of their barcelonian bed this morning!
It was a great press conference (that's three for three, counting E3 and TGS) - but your interpretation of it is a little off. Or perhaps it’s your presentation of it... whatever lol
A) Peter Jackson is not creating a game based on the halo movie (we obviously don’t need one since the movie is partially based on the first game, and events before it). He wants to create something interactive that exists somewhere between what a traditional video game is and what a movie is. He is simply using the halo universe as his first go-around since, well, he now knows plenty about the halo universe (which is very rich and not as derivative as everyone clueless likes to pretend) AND attaching the name "halo" to anything certainly helps get attention and at least a few million gamers willing to try it out (probably even some would buy it for that reason alone).
B) I think everyone should chill on the idea that the Halo RTS is going to be a 360-exclusive. That LOTR rts for the 360 proved you could properly shoe horn a pc rts into a console without completely failing. It wasn’t perfect, but then, many games not ported between platforms and control schemes aren’t anyway and are still great fun. I imagine if someone as good as Ensemble Studios actually builds an rts FROM THE BEGINNING/FROM THE GROUND UP for a console, they might actually make it work. It probably will never be able to appease the pc rts fans that demand an entire keyboard of options; but then it never was going to. I for one wouldn’t mind simplified controls so I could spend more time on my tactics. Simplified controls are not necessarily a bad thing anyway. Let's take a wait n see - the LORT rts on 360 at least warrants us some patience. I am pretty sure with each new generation we want something new and innovative - so why are we making a fuss when someone is actually NOT doing something the way its ALWAYS been done? Sometimes I feel that PC gamers hate it when consoles “invade their turf” and do something successfully that they feel should be kept to their ‘elite society.’ Get over it…
C) I am pretty sure the Bioshock exclusivity means just what it says. The 2K games site doesn’t list any other platform, and neither they nor the developer have disagreed with MS's statement (as others have when MS was mucking with the definition of "exclusive") At the very least, it might do an oblivion, but really - does anyone expect these types of games to sell well on the PS3 a year after they have sold well on the 360 and PC? It seems to me that most PS3 gamers (who don’t also PC game) don’t seem to buy these types of games as much as the type that the playstation-consoles typical get) I doubt anyone looking forward to playing Bioshock who doesn’t want a 360 plans on playing it on anything other then their PC.
D) I don’t feel like responding to anything else right now, except to say that its odd that people think MS needs more platformers, yet when they announce Banjo - everyone kind of roles their eyes. OF course they did the same thing with Viva Piniata; and now people are actually taking it seriously.
Yeti @ Sep 29th 2006 1:40AM
From everything i've seen of Assassins Creed, its a very different game compared to Splinter Cell, in short:
Assassins Creed is more open, you can ride horses on open, huge lands and the towns seem more open, its faster paced and you can hop around on walls, alittle less realistic compared to Splinter Cell, set in Middle ages. Attacking is more direct, using melee weapons and such.
Splinter Cell is more closed, and you have to use shadows to hide and time your attacks and act slow, the climbing and acrobatics seems slower and more realistic, set in modern time. Attacking is supposed to be avoided.
Though they're both Assassin type games, they're different in gameplay. Can't wait for both though.
gamerx @ Sep 29th 2006 8:23AM
lol Ken Kutaragi prolly wet his pants after what went down at X06, the 360 is now dancing circles around the PS3 ;)
maximus @ Sep 29th 2006 8:59AM
"That was a rather negative post about what was a rather positive collection of announcements..."
Well he's spot on. If MS do dominate gaming then that's not good news in any way shape or form for gaming. Any industry that's dominated by one huge organisation with endless pockets isn't a healthy one, just look at the office environment and the stranglehold MS have on that. I love my 360 but i want Sony to stay at the top, otherwise there's no incentive for MS to innovate or competition to drive prices down and quality up.
MS waved their cheque book around and XBox fans rejoice, what a sad state of affairs.
gamerx @ Sep 29th 2006 9:27AM
@ #23 maximus,
by your logic, Sony's dominance of the past two generations has not been "good news in any way shape or form for gaming" either.
you need to realise monopolies in the video games industry are very different from monopolies in other industries.
for one, companies never have time to slack off just because they dominate the marketshare. do u honestly think Sony has not been trying their best to innovate, drive prices down and quality up during the last 5 years? ill give u the answers: Eye Toy, PS2 down to $130 from the launch $300 pricetag, and a huge amazing list of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party games.
PS2's dominance is the reason you now have the Nintendo Wii's innovation and the 360's very competitive features.
This industry needs market leadership. otherwise if the marketshare is split roughly evenly among the companies, all you will see are crappy cross platform 3rd party ports and no exclusive original games such as the ones PS2 owners have enjoyed for years.
maximus @ Sep 29th 2006 11:37AM
The difference is we're talking about one of the biggest, richest and ruthless companies in the world in MS. Can you honestly tell me that they haven't squashed the competition, bought out other companies and basically strangled the PC environment with windows?
Sony did fantastic to get to the position they're in at the top of gaming but if MS get there then Sony haven't got the resources to fight them in the future, especially if Blu Ray doesn't come out on top.
The Wii has come about because Nintendo realised they had to do something different or risk disappearing from the console business like SEGA. The 360 is so aggresively priced and featured because MS want to stampede their way to the top, they can afford to lose money on every system sold until they achieve dominance. Sony can't, Nintendo can't.. the playing field is totally unbalanced because of MS's overwhelming financial position.
Fronz @ Sep 29th 2006 12:50PM
Wow, I thought X06 was pretty solid, decent at worst. Lighten up...