411 Games Fact or Fiction 05.17.11 PSN, Skype, Diablo III and More
Posted by Adam Larck on 05.17.2011
Is a new Hitman game a good idea? Is there any interest in the next Alan Wake game? Will Modern Warfare 3 sell as well as Black Ops? Is Microsoft buying Skype is a surprise? 411’s Justin Weinblatt and Stephen Randle debate these questions and more in this week’s 411 Fact or Fiction: Games!
Welcome back to another week of 411 Games Fact or Fiction. I'm Adam Larck, and I've perfected Portal 2. Debating picking up Brink this week, but I've been playing Mortal Kombat and a few other various games in the meantime.
This week, we have Justin Weinblatt going up against Stephen Randle. Let's see how these two do. Time for banner!
1.) The PSN will actually be online by the end of the month.
Justin Weinblatt - Fact: I was all set to go fiction on this one, but apparently the network is already popping back up in some areas. So, it looks like Sony will probably have everything back up by the 31st. The real question is, did they fix the underlying problems, or did they just patch things up with duct tape? The next few months are going to be big for the whole industry.
Stephen Randle - Fact: I think that Sony believes that if this goes on longer than a month, the backlash will only get bigger. The sooner they can get everything back to normal and get the "apology gifts" out of the way, the sooner they can start rebuilding consumer confidence. If the PSN isn't back online by the end of the months, and you can be sure that a great many resources are going into trying to hit that date, then some very big heads are probably going to roll.
Score: 1 for 1 - I made this question before it went live late this weekend. Honestly, I'm surprised it came up already. I figured it would have been up around E3 time.
Justin Weinblatt - Fiction: To me a Hitman game is like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. I enjoy it while it's going on, but have no desire to ever experience it again once its over. While I hope the game turns out well, I'm not sure that the franchise has anything left to offer at this point.
Stephen Randle - Fiction: I mean, vaguely, I guess, but I never really could get into the franchise. The series has an interesting concept for gameplay, but from what I've seen, a lot of the unique elements get lost and turned into a typical run-and-gun because of the vague and sometimes complicated strategies required to do things. But maybe they'll surprise me this time, because I remember really wanting to get hooked on the original Hitman.
Score: 2 for 2 - As long as the series was on hiatus, I thought it was going to be replaced.
3.) It's a big surprise that Microsoft picked up Skype.
Justin Weinblatt - Fiction: Microsoft buying out another company? Shocking. Utterly shocking.
Stephen Randle - Fiction: Microsoft, billion-dollar globe-spanning tech company, bought the rights to an established and popular application so they could shove it into every single operating system, computer, tablet PC, X-Box, and every other piece of hardware that comes off their production line and make even more money because they're the only ones with, as I've already mentioned, said very popular existing application? Never would have seen that coming!
Score: 3 for 3 - Honestly, I figured Google would try for this, not Microsoft.
4.) It's a good call by Warner Bros. to release the original Mortal Kombat games as a Kollection for $10.
Stephen Randle - Fact: Well, any promotion for the franchise can't hurt, and the incredibly low price point means that nobody's going to complain about the fact that Mortal Kombat 3 was mostly crap and introduced Stryker. I just like that at the same time as announcing their incredibly low-priced Kollection, they're also releasing a custom fight stick that will work with the games for the low, low price of…$130.
Justin Weinblatt - Fact: Most classic games run between 8 and 10 dollars, so getting 3 for one Hamilton is a pretty sweet deal. My only complaint is that I'd prefer MK Trilogy instead of the three separate games. I like my Mortal Kombat games with 10 palette swapped ninjas and ridiculously overpowered characters
Score: 4 for 4 - The collection should be good for new players of the series to check out the original games.
5.) You're excited that Alan Wake is getting a new game.
Stephen Randle - Fiction: No 360 here, no Alan Wake for me. Console exclusives suck, but I'll be okay with it when Uncharted 3 comes out in November. Quick, ask me if I'm excited for that one.
Justin Weinblatt - Fact: Alan Wake is a game that slipped under my radar, but I'm happy for the developers. The gaming market is tough, and it's always nice to a new IP succeeding.
Score: 4 for 5 - I'm more curious as to what systems this will come out for. The team said they're debating systems, so it may come to PS3 after all.
6.) You'll be part of the Diablo III beta test.
Stephen Randle - Fact: Well, I'll try, but I have horrible luck in getting into betas, the only one I've managed in the last few years was LEGO Universe. Which wasn't bad. Anyway, it's not like I need the beta to decide if I'm totally going to buy this game the day it comes out, I just want to play Diablo III. Now. You hear me, Blizzard?
Justin Weinblatt - Fiction: With few exceptions, I'm not that into beta releases. I'd rather wait for the kinks to be worked out before I play a game. Besides, my current computer can barely run solitaire properly, so doing any actual gaming on it is out of the question.
Score: 4 for 6 - I would like to, but I'm not too concerned about if I do or not since I'm still not a huge PC gamer.
Bonus Question.) Modern Warfare 3 will sell less than Black Ops did.
Stephen Randle - Fact: I think that Modern Warfare 3 will do worse than Black Ops did. Black Ops faced little direct competition when it released. When Modern Warfare 3 launches, EA plans on pitting Battlefield 3 against it. While Battlefield 3 will likely finish a distant second to MW3, it will take away some amount of fans. Plus, history is against Activision here. Their business model has wrung the life out of every other major franchise they've ever had. Eventually, even the mighty Call of Duty series will start to fade.
Justin Weinblatt - Fiction: I can't think of any reason why that would be true. Even if it's not made by the same guys, Activision is still going to put their full promotional force behind the game, and I'm fairly sure it'll sell millions (…and millions) of copies, topping Black Ops just like Black Ops topped MW2 and MW2 topped…whatever Call of Duty game came before that. Don't look at me like that, I was playing WoW back then. There were no other games.
Adam Larck - Fact: I'm sure it will sell huge like previous entries in the series, don't get me wrong. I just don't think it will sell as big as Black Ops. I think Infinity Ward angered a lot of its fanbase when they let glitches and exploits continue to happen without caring about fixing them. Honestly, it will still sell big, but fans that remember the last game may stay away unless IW can prove they fixed everything.
The pair finish this week 4-for-6. What do you think? Agree or disagree with their answers? Let us know. See you in seven!
Adam, I think you swapped my answers with Randle's for the bonus question.
Posted By: Justin (Guest) on May 17, 2011 at 12:31 AM
I would confirm that.
Posted By: Stephen Randle (Registered) on May 17, 2011 at 01:59 AM
I think MW3 will be the last in the series to top the prior game (i.e. Black Ops). It's Modern Warfare. That name alone will rake in the dough no matter what. I think this'll be the plateau (sales-wise) for the series. After that, CoD will see diminishing returns.
Posted By: Vince Osorio (Registered) on May 17, 2011 at 03:51 AM
Those paying $10 for the MK games will realise just how badly the series has aged.
$10 for 3 old games is a good deal though
Posted By: Guest#0798 (Guest) on May 17, 2011 at 09:14 AM
"I'm more curious as to what systems this will come out for. The team said they're debating systems, so it may come to PS3 after all"
I don't see this happening. Microsoft will pay money to keep it as an Xbox exclusive.
And MK for $10? SWEET!!!
Posted By: Toddo (Guest) on May 17, 2011 at 10:18 AM
Question: How many of the current members of Infinity Ward are the people who made COD4 and Modern Warfare 2? Remember that roughly 30 IW members resigned en masse to form Respawn.
Posted By: WadeMcg (Guest) on May 17, 2011 at 10:21 AM
I'd be astonished if Modern Warfare 3 doesn't outsell every other game in the series. The big question isn't whether it will outsell Black Ops or not, but whether it deserves to. We won't know that until we get some more news on the tech, but the fact that it includes fewer missions than either of the other Modern Warfare games (and at least one of these is bound to be a training area or some sort of non-combative scene-setting stage) isn't a good sign. Battlefield 3 looks to be the better game, but MW3 will outsell it by a landslide just because it's Call of Duty. However, unless the engine is overhauled radically, I can't see the following COD games having the same levels of success.
Posted By: Frie (Guest) on May 17, 2011 at 12:22 PM
I hope they take it back to the basics like Cod 4, because it's still the best in the series. The maps, weapons and perks were all perfect. I find with MW2 and Black Ops they tried to hard to put everything in it. Lets take it back to the simple fun loving FPS we all fell for. You know the I shoot you, you shoot me. None of this I shoot you, oh nope there's dogs, or harriers or stealth bombers or care packages or choppper gunners.... ECT.
Posted By: Jared (Guest) on May 17, 2011 at 05:53 PM
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