411 Games Fact or Fiction 08.04.06: PS3 Cancellations, E3 Announcements, Xbox Live!, Halo 3, and More!

Posted by Tommy Coloma on 08.04.2006

Sean Garmer and Ron Snyder give us their insights on the gaming industry in this week's Fact or Fiction.

Welcome to another edition of Fact or Fiction Games. This week's participants are Sean Garmer and Ron Snyder. Today they will be talking about developer confidence in the PS3, the death of E3, Sonic's place in the world, Street Fighter II on Xbox Live!, region free systems, and Halo 3.


1. The cancellation of WWE SmackDown! Vs. RAW 2007 for the PS3 was due to the lack of confidence THQ has in Sony's new machine.

Sean Garmer: FACT. I think it was partly that, and also you have to take into account the fact that the PS3 has been labeled "hard to develop for" so you have to wonder if it was just too much for Yuke's and THQ, and they decided to just not deal with it. They already have a next-gen version of the game for a much cheaper and easier to develop system, in the XBOX 360. So they could have felt that it wasn't really necessary to make a PS3 version of the game, especially when they are still making this year's version on the PS2 and PSP. This probably wasn't going to be a game that would make people go crazy to buy a PS3 anyway. Don't forget the price factor of the PS3 may also have contributed to a cancellation. I mean why would you want to pay 600 dollars for a system, just to get a game that can already be bought on the previous system for a lot less money? A graphical upgrade is not worth the money or the effort, in my opinion.

Ron Snyder: FACT. The Xbox 360 version was almost complete and the PS3 version was barely off the ground. SVR 07 wasn't going to generate much buys anyway. Many people will still buy the PS2 version (like myself) and still enjoy a good wrestling game. THQ will still make a profit off the game for the other systems. Maybe this time next year, they will have a better outlook on the PS3 hardware and develop SVR 2008 on the system.

Score: 1 for 1


2. The evolution of E3 into a "more intimate event focused on targeted, personalized meetings and activities" is good for the gaming industry.

Sean Garmer: FICTION. The only good thing about this is that the big companies get to save themselves some money. What about the gamers? The people that these games are targeted for. Making this an intimate thing causes E3 to lose a lot of luster. It was something that you could realistically say to your friend "hey we should go to E3 next year." Now, it's like "well I guess we will have to read those game magazines or the Internet to find out the new stuff that's coming out." The appeal of E3 was the fact that in one event we found out information on most of the games that would come out in the fiscal year. Now it may not be like that and we will have to wait for every game company to have their own little show to know what games are going to be good or not. I don't like the idea, and hopefully, maybe in a few years they will change their minds.

Ron Snyder: FICTION. Think of all the booth babes they are putting out of jobs. In all seriousness, making this a media only/special invite only event makes no sense in the long run. You mean to tell me that Nintendo wasn't happy when 2 years ago we saw the first clips of "twilight princess" and around 20,000 fans went bananas? Please. The media doesn't care about the next Final Fantasy game, but the thousands of fans/cosplayers do. The fans made E3 the spectacle that it turned in to, not the media. The game companies may save money by making it small, but having lines going out the doors to play a demo level of "Mario Galaxy" gets the fans excited about the final version of the game which will be available in the next few months. The fans won't get as excited by reading it out of a magazine. All the media will be there, but we never hear about any coverage on major networks (unless you have G4). It makes no sense to me.

Score: 2 for 2


3. The release of a new Sonic game is still just as special as the release of a new Mario game.

Sean Garmer: FICTION. As a person that used to love Sonic dearly back in the day it was really cool when a new Sonic game came out. Now with the string of bad Sonic games that have been released it tarnishes the appeal of Sonic. Back in the day, it was almost a no-brainer to go get the new Sonic game because you pretty much knew it was going to be good. When a Sonic game comes out now, the feeling isn't the same because mainly you are hoping for the game to be decent. I think the problem is that unlike Mario, Sonic has not been able to branch off into other sports or forms other than pinball. I mean we don't see Sonic Baseball or Sonic Kart. It just doesn't happen because that wouldn't be as appealing. I also wonder why we haven't had Sonic included in a Super Smash Brothers game. That would be a good way to bring back some old Sonic fans. Since SEGA has become a third party developer it seems they have forgotten how to make an original Sonic game. They try to do too much instead of going back to the simple gameplay that got them rolling. Mario went back to its roots on the DS, and maybe if SEGA did the same with Sonic, it could work.

Ron Snyder: FICTION. Sonic was cool at first but I stopped after Sonic 3. Having Urkel be your voice actor on your cartoon doesn't help either. As Sean says, sonic is not as multi-dimensional as Mario is. The only thing Sonic could be good in is a pinball game, and that game sucked majorly, so he is not even good at that. Putting Sonic in a racing game like Mario Kart would make no sense because he would be slower in a car than on his own feet. If SEGA makes another Sonic game, they better get back to what worked: Sonic running as fast as possible. Lose all the extra characters (except Tails) and keep the focus on Sonic vs Dr. Robotnik (or is it Eggman?). It works for Mario, it works for Castlevania, it can work for Sonic too.

Score: 3 for 3



4.After all is said and done, Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting will be the most purchased game in Xbox Live Marketplace this year.

Ron Snyder: FACT. Street Fighter has lasted this long, so why not? I can't see another game topping this one in sales on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Street Fighter fans rejoice.

Sean Garmer: FICTION. Street Fighter may have lasted a long time but there is a game coming out for the XBOX Live Arcade that has already sold 700,000 units worldwide on the PSP. Lumines Live is gonna be the hot ticket on the arcade just because this puzzle game will not only have the things from the original game but an exclusive mission mode and multiplayer that could be up to four player. The game will also be in HD and it will have special packs with skins, music, and videos people will be able to download. Street Fighter 2 might be a classic, but Lumines is super addictive and the multiplayer is going to bring people into it even more.

Score: 3 for 4


5. A region free system is much more attractive than a non-region free system.

Ron Snyder: FACT. It's working on the DS and Nintendo may use this on the Wii. Sony is also making the PS3 region free. It makes gaming sense.

Sean Garmer: FACT. Of course it is, I've never bought an import game but there are many people who have and getting the ability to play a game first before anyone is a cool thing. If you make a system that is region free it allows people to get import games without having to worry about making sure their system can play the game. It saves people the big hassle of getting a mod chip and all that. Either way the person bought the game, who cares if he lives in the United States and bought the Japanese version? What matters is that they bought the game. Making the Wii and PS3 region free is a very smart idea because it allows people to play games that they may never have gotten the chance to play. Especially, on the Wii because of all those back catalog of games. That means we could finally get to play the original Fire Emblem games and others that were not as fortunate to hit state side. This helps the PS3 mostly with their Blu-Ray discs because then people can just purchase a movie from anywhere and it will work on their system. Region-free rules, it is just that simple.

Score: 4 for 5


6. Halo 3 really will be the final Halo.

Ron Snyder: FICTION. Halo keeps Xbox alive. Mario, Sonic, Master Chief, they are all faces of their respective game systems. Halo 4 may take longer for release, but there will be another Halo, even if the franchise has to take a back seat for 2 years. Bungie has a cash cow in Halo, why stop at 3 games?

Sean Garmer: FICTION. I say that only because Microsoft and Bungie would be stupid to let this series sail away in the sunset, when it is the biggest draw on the system and makes them the most money. Bungie compared Halo to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and while that is a fair comparison there is a difference between games and movies. With movies, they can say that there will only be a set of three films and for the most part we are fine with that because they usually bring closure to the series. However, with games people don't care about that unless it's an RPG that is all about the story. Halo has a story that is compelling and that draws you in, but more people play it for the multiplayer aspect than anything. I think Bungie might try to stay true to their word and make Halo 3 the last game. However, they will eventually get coaxed into making another game and I wouldn't put it past them to make a prequel either.

Score: 5 for 6


For three weeks in a row, we have been...



Yet another score of 5 for 6. I feel that there will be a shakeup next week. Am I psychic? Find out next week!