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After a light two-week period, the ESRB hit us up with no less than 56 rated titles this week. I wanted to note that the ESRB has sent notice to game publishers that they now have the ability to choose when their gaming title will be published as being rated on the ESRB website. I guess some companies were getting a bit upset that major marketing campaigns built around secret releases of titles were getting blown up due to the ESRB letting the cat out of the bag early. It was a bit of a strange week, as a ton of the new submits belong to the PC division of a certain gaming publisher came across, the Next-gen consoles are starting to flash some signs of life including a heavy-hitter and a platform that was as good as given up for dead gets a rated game, and the weekly title of shame.
Apparently, Midway decided to submit their entire 2008 PC lineup to be rated, as the ESRB posted 14 PC titles this week. What is interesting is that several are the same (or offshoot) games that have been found on Xbox Live and Playstation Network. Included are Robotron: 2084 and Joust. Could this be more of the Games for Windows Live product that was promised back at CES 2007 and again touted at CES 2008? Probably not, seeing as how UNO (which we saw a working PC/360 connection in January 2007 and was announced as coming later in 2007) has never been released. Other PC titles from Midway were Gauntlet II, Primal Rage, 3 Peak Deluxe, 5 Star Generals, Crystal Balls, Gemslide, Go Wild, Mahjongg Pairs, MAHKI, PowerCell, Solitaire Classic and Target 21.
What can only be considered a string week for the next-gen platforms saw several anticipated games along with a steady stream of Xbox Live Arcade titles come down the pipeline. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 saw Silent Hill: Homecoming, Baja, Madden NFL 09, EA SPORTS Fantasy Football Live Draft Tracker and the heavy hitter SOULCALIBUR IV. A pretty good lineup of retail titles that don’t included any movie tie-ins. In addition, the Xbox 360 also had Cribbage, Rocket Riot and Ticket to Ride (one of this week’s XBLA title) all rated. Overall, it was a very strong week for the first time in a while.
The weekly title of shame goes to EA feeling the need to bring Madden 09 to the original Xbox platform. Since I started this article last year, only a handful of times has the platform seen a title (let alone a non-sports title) get rated. The last non-sports title was Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Lockdown, along with the 2K8 basketball (NBA and NCAA) and EA football (Madden and NCAA 08) titles from last year. That’s five titles in two years. I would think at some point (seeing as how Microsoft has already buried the thing) EA and 2K would abandon the original Xbox, as even the ESRB lists the thing under “older platforms”. So I am calling out EA to quit wasting resources on a platform that has essentially been retired and focus on the here and now.
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GamingNexus wrote:I would think at some point (seeing as how Microsoft has already buried the thing) EA and 2K would abandon the original Xbox, as even the ESRB lists the thing under “older platforms”. So I am calling out EA to quit wasting resources on a platform that has essentially been retired and focus on the here and now. Actually, EA Sports is known for supporting consoles long after they have been phased out. They supported the original PS1 after the PS2 had taken over, and they even made the comment a few years ago that they felt like they abandoned the platform too quickly. They've indicated that this time around they would support the older consoles long after they died, which appears to be what's happening here. This is probably a smart move, since they are guaranteed a certain amount of money each year. They don't exactly have their A-team working on these annual installments, and they're pretty easy and cheap to update from year to year. I bet we'll see EA support the Xbox for at least another year or two.
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When I wrote that I was thinking along the lines of EA using resources on an outdated platform that could be put to better use producing higher quality games....
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dkeener wrote:When I wrote that I was thinking along the lines of EA using resources on an outdated platform that could be put to better use producing higher quality games.... Yeah, I definitely agree. However, you have to figure that EA is a big enough company that they can have a few people focus on making a speedy update in just a month or two (at this point they aren't reinventing the games for the defunct consoles, they are just adding new players and fixing the stats). I doubt the next gen games would be any better if this group of coders was put on the project. Or maybe it would be better, I don't know, I don't play a lot of sports games. :) But it does make sense from a business point of view.
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