Re: The Pre-E3 2014 Thread | Wishes, Predictions and Rumors

[TripOpt55]

You will be missed during the chat. I will keep you updated for sure.

Also too late tonight, but I will be checking out that podcast tomorrow Ham. I love E3 Predictions.

[pspiddy]

Who all here plans to use the chat here during e3? I do even though I'm disappointed Greenie won't be here to talk shit to.

Also, I'm hoping the 3DS and Vita have big showings this year. Nintendo, as a whole, is blah and the development cycle for PS4 seems crazy, so a handheld focus to compete with phones and tablets would be nice.

If Destiny is all that shows up I'll be disappointed. Oh, and FTL announcing on 3DS and Vita would be my only plausible dream announcement. Putting it on android would be too much. I would have to throw my damn phone away if they did that.

[Rainjar]

[volvocrusher]

If you're hoping for Sony to pay attention to a portable at E3, prepare to be disappointed

[A Roguish Ham]

I'll probably be recording or working so no chat for me.

[TripOpt55]

Merely mentioning the Vita is like putting chum in the water for Greenman.

[volvocrusher]

I love the Vita, but that's why I'm so hard on the thing. Sony's handling of it is just awful.

[TripOpt55]

I was mad at Sony because I love the thing so much and wanted more from it, but I'm not sure I can be mad about it anymore. They made the best portable hardware ever. They put together a really good launch line-up for it. The system sold like shit. Third-parties didn't help at all in regards to software. They realized making big exclusives for it was like flushing money down the toilet and stopped for the most part. From what I understand the thing makes them money and they will probably just continue to let it be a port machine. As much of a bummer as it is, I'm not sure they made the wrong choice given how things played out.

[Krubixcube]

Merely mentioning the Vita is like putting chum in the water for Greenman.

I "lol"ed at this.   

[volvocrusher]

I can agree with that to an extent but when Sony didn't bother with it much the first E3 after it came out, they didn't do as much as they could have to make it catch on post launch. They let the 3DS take Monster Hunter and Square's exclusives outside remakes. And they hardly advertised the thing. I just felt like after launch they put the Vita on cruise control and didn't realize it wasn't working until it was too late.

Maybe everything would have turned out the same but when I see them pull Crash and Spyro off after an error rather than making them a legit part of the PS Store, I can't help but feel they can't even get it right as a port machine. Maybe Activision was just being ducks with those two properties but Vita's still getting ports like Walking Dead late. The thing feels like wasted potential even as nothing more than a port machine

[TripOpt55]

And like I said I still am not sure they made the right choice. Nor do I think they handled everything great, but I don't think they've handled it as poorly as some think.

I think the advertising was a problem. As for the first E3 they were releasing Gravity Rush right around that first E3. They had LBP, Killzone and Tearaway in development internally. And Soul Sacrifice I think. The launch developers weren't going to turn around and have games out right away or anything close to be announceable at that E3. They even had three of those launch developers shut down after the Vita launch (Sony Liverpool, BigBig, Zipper). I feel like they knew pretty early on that the Vita wasn't working, so I disagree there too.

I know nothing about the Monster Hunter deal, so not sure how that and SE's stuff played out. Did they really "let" them go to 3DS? If so they certainly fucked up there.

I think what I would have liked to see was them make up small Vita teams at some of their best devs like they did with Media Molecule to develop games before the system ever launched (not for launch but in development before launch). That would have been ideal. I'm still not sure it would have changed much, but it would have shown a more serious commitment to the system.

[volvocrusher]

Yeah I would have loved for it to be a haven for mid tier games like Tearaway. Just wish it got a hit game to get the ball rolling there.

Though I still disagree on E3, I even remember you asking "That's it?" or something to that effect after Sony went over the Vita in their conference. They had games in development, yeah, but outside that cancelled Bioshock game I don't remember anything new get announced. They weren't giving it more momentum.

[TripOpt55]

Oh yeah. I was pissed at the time. I said that in my first post about this here. But I'm saying in hind sight, what was Sony supposed to announce? They had like six launch games internally. Plus Gravity Rush, Resistance and LBP within 6-8 months of that. Killzone was already announced as well to come down the line. Sony needed third-parties to help pick up the slack. Hell Activision didn't even make CoD. Sony had to find a dev to do that last minute which is why that was such a shitshow.

Just imagine if PS4 had no third-party support this first year. It'd be a disaster in comparison to the Vita's line-up (edit: well disaster is an overstatement).

[volvocrusher]

Yeah, that is a good point.

[TripOpt55]

Let's say we take a look at a conference each day this week. Microsoft really f-ed up last year, but I think they have been righting the ship fairly well since. What should they be doing at E3 to help them get back on track? What would you like to see from them?

[SanAndreasX]

The Vita looks, if nothing else, like it will be a home to mid-level Japanese games, kind of like the PSP ended up being. There isn't much Sony can do to change that beyond throwing money at developers, and they're not going to do it because it wouldn't be a good investment on Sony's part. The bigger developers and properties, like Capcom and Square Enix, are probably going to go to the 3DS first and foremost, because that's where the money is.

That said, I'm finally going to bounce for a Vita. I will be getting mine once Tales of Hearts R drops.

[SanAndreasX]

Let's say we take a look at a conference each day this week. Microsoft really f-ed up last year, but I think they have been righting the ship fairly well since. What should they be doing at E3 to help them get back on track? What would you like to see from them?

Phil Spencer, admittedly, is doing a decent job undoing the damage Don Mattrick and Yusuf Medhi did to the Xbox brand. But every E3 since 2009 has been a big Kinect fest for Microsoft, and they also spend more time promoting stuff like Facebook and Twitter apps than they do games. That's seriously got to change.

But for me, personally? Beyond moneyhatting as total exclusives (not limited exclusives) Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Tales, Valkyria Chronicles, Fallout 4, a big Mistwalker RPG, or a follow-up to Ni no Kuni, there's not a damn thing Microsoft can do for me at this point. In terms of their first-party content, Microsoft is a very distant third behind Nintendo and Sony in my book, and I already have a PS4 to play the third-party content on. Halo, Gears, Fable, and Forza ain't going to cut it for me.

[SanAndreasX]

Oh, and I hope Netherrealm Studios has more to show on Mortal Kombat X at E3.

[volvocrusher]

Honestly, it's not so much what they do now as it is what they do in the future. For now, I just want to see new exclusives from them, and for them to keep that up in the future. They put the 360 on auto pilot around 2010, and I have a gut feeling they'll do the same with the XB1. As much as I love Halo, I'm not paying $400 for it if I'm getting very little beyond that.

[TripOpt55]

I honestly think I'm more optimistic now about MS/Xbox than I have been in a long while. Unlike with the faulty hardware issue on 360, they seem to be paying the price for their mistakes early this gen. A scrambling MS might actually address some of their shortcomings. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm a tiny bit hopeful.

And I hope those things they address are two things you guys mention. I don't foresee a situation where they can go into cruise control now. And instead of moneyhatting like you mention San, I hope they try and actually bolster their first-party development and in doing so give us a more varied line-up of games.

I have no idea what will play out with Sunset Overdrive, but if we put aside Uncharted which hasn't shown anything anyway, I think it is the most appealing upcoming exclusive any of three companies have announced for me. It looks like everything you'd want from an Insomniac game. An open-world Ratchet and Clank, but one that ties in a bigger platforming element right into the combat. Now Insomniac went with MS apparently because they let IG hold onto the IP rights. So I'm not sure if this just ends up everywhere else at some point, but it is a good indication that MS would help fund a game as colorful and silly as this one which feels outside their typical wheelhouse.

But more importantly they should be looking to create more content internally and build stronger relationships with independent partners (like Sony with some like Quantic Dream and Ready at Dawn).

Also if the rumor about a Master Chief collection is true with four games, that would look nice against Sony rolling out full-priced remasters of TLOU, Beyond and GoW: Ascension. I have no idea if that is the case though.

I actually think they rolled out a nice games line-up last E3. You eliminate some of the other mistakes, I think it was a good showing.

[TripOpt55]

Also random other thing I bumped into. Twitch TV put up a schedule for E3 with demos they will be showing or something. Here is a list of unnannounced games that were part of that schedule:

Bethesda (Unannounced title)
Deep Silver (Unannounced title)
Deep Silver (Unannounced title)
Ubisoft (Unannounced title)
Microsoft Studios (Unannounced title)
Microsoft Studios (Unannounced title)
Nintendo (Unannounced title)
Microsoft Studios (Unannounced title)
EA (Unannounced title)
Nintendo (Unannounced title)
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (Unannounced title)
Crytek (Unannounced title)
SCEA (Unannounced PS4/PS3 title)
SCEA (Unannounced PS4/PS Vita Digital title)
Microsoft Studios (TBD)
Nintendo (Unannounced title)
Square Enix (Unannounced title)
Ubisoft (Unannounced title)
Nintendo (Unannounced title)
Tecmo Koei (Unannounced title)

I suppose this wouldn't be all unannounced games at the show because some would probably be teased at pressers and not have demos or spots on a schedule like this.

[ajapam]

2 unannounced games for Sony, one cross-gen and one (probably) indie. Not looking so good for them. Hopefully they bring some great trailers, then

[TripOpt55]

Yeah that would be bad. I mean who knows how indicative this is though. But figured it'd be worth posting.

[volvocrusher]

I'm hoping Bethesda's Fallout 4, EA's Mass Effect 4, and Nintendo's include something Zelda, Metroid, and a new IP that looks really new.

[TripOpt55]

PoP has to be one of the Ubi ones! It must!

[volvocrusher]

Nah, it's going to be a surprise announcement that we'll be getting both last gen and current gen AC games every fall and spring now.

[TripOpt55]

I can see it now:

"The power of the PS4 and Xbox One has allowed us to render more realistic particle effects than ever before. Throwing sand in someone's face once a year simply won't be enough. But we also don't want to leave out those on last-gen consoles. It's going to be a very sandy Fall and Spring this coming year."

[SanAndreasX]

Hmmm. I guess the unannounced WB game wouldn't be Mortal Kombat X since they've already announced it. I'm pulling for Fallout 4 from Bethesda, Zelda Wii U, and hopefully Square Enix's game will be something cool from Japan rather than from Eidos.

[TripOpt55]

Okay today what are hoping for from the Sony Conference? What should they be focusing on?

[SanAndreasX]

Sony needs to be focusing on games. Hopefully games from Japan as well as ND and Santa Monica.

One little gem I wouldn't mind seeing from Sony is a PS4 update to Fat Princess. I think I honestly spent more online time playing Fat Princess than any other game released last generation, and I say that as someone who owns almost every fighting game under the sun and who had a Xbox Live Gold account until 2010.

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