PixlBit

I was intially upset about the BC thing, but I let it go because it's gonna save me money on the actual console and it's really not that big of a deal, especially because of the new streaming system

The microtransactions thing has always bothered me, not the microtransactions themselves, but the endless bitching that comes with it. Don't want it? Don't buy it. It's really that simple. After all, can you really fault a business for trying to make money?

Call of Duty is a waste of disc, and what idiot said cloud gaming is the new era? Square Enix thinks every one of their games are just the best things out there, and as a result they think every game they put out should make a trillion dollars. Tomb Raider is doing great sales wise, what more do they want? Talk about your head being up your ass. And I've never played a MGS game. I know, shame on me.

The bothersome thing with Tomb Raider is they had a seperate group working on multiplayer which was completely unnecessary for Tomb Raider. That just added to the cost of development. They could have saved money without it and im sure it would have sold just as well. If they wanted to add DLC then they should have been single player DLC. MGS? Everyone has something they should have played but never have. If they say otherwise, they are lying.

I'm at that point where I don't even care if they have backwards compatibility anymore. It'll never be an all in 1 media hub like the b/c PS3. Let them shoot themselves in the foot for all I care. I won't upgrade for a very long time since that is the case. By then, it'll be cheaper, and have a solid library of games. EA, SE and Konami have their own issues to sort out. End result: publish decent games, and I will buy them. Maybe even brand new. What they do in their own companies doesn't even concern me anymore. Why complain about what you can't change? Like any business, they are only concerned with the bottom line. Speak with your wallets. It's time to grow up, video game industry.

Even not all PS3s were BC. It ended up being a non-issue. The biggest complaint I had was two. It was way to expensive for game console and it lacked games. It lacked good games like the Wii U right now but at least the Wii U isn't crazy expensive.

I just feel sorry for those gamers that will have to have 3 different consoles to play their Sony games. Unfortunately, the Wii U seems more like an upgrade than anything else.

but you need your Wii to play Gamecube games. That makes no sense since The Wii U uses pretty much the same exact hardware.

I agree with everything you've said here. But could I simply make a couple of points?

As for backwards compatibility, I buy games if they are on sale (digitally or physically) and keep them around in case I need something to play. Unfortunately, this has been going on for a decade now. (Yes, I have an unopened copy of Fear Effect beacuse of this.) Now I have another console generation coming out and a back catalogue of games that I won't be able to play on those consoles. Whose fault is it? Only mine. But I am a little upset that I'll have to leave all of my old systems hooked up until I finish everything up. (Not that my game room wouldn't look bitchin' because of it.)

EA gave me a free game, so no beef there.

I can only be angry with CoD's yearly releases if I also get angry with AC's yearly releases. And since I look forward to Ubisoft's new outings every year, I'll have to let Activision do their thing.

Who cares what American McGee thinks? I've seen one decent game released twice by American McGee. I'll dismiss him just as easily as he dismisses the coming thing.

Square Enix hurts us, they hurt us all. Just in different ways.

And so what if Snake has a new voice. I've seen video of myself from 10 years ago. I certainly don't feel my voice has stayed the same in that time. And it's been 15 for Snake. I say let them give it a whirl. Even Raiden worked out eventually.

Just some thoughts. Feel free to accept or dismiss however you like.

Solid Snake's voice change would make sense to me if he looked a lot different. He looks the same as in MGS4. If its somewhat similiar than ok but changing it up completely and him "looking" the same age as in MGS4 is odd. Some people think the reason is because there is a twist in the story, who knows?

As for BC, I see it just as convienence to have it. I have all my old consoles exempt for the Sega Genesis and not lazy to hook one up to play. That seems like that is one of the biggest complaints.

EA is an interesting topic to me.

I think some of the hate they receive is a little undeserved or blown waaay out of proportion.  It's not like they launched SimCity with the mindset of "Hey, let's make sure this doesn't work and that it will piss off the players and get us negative reviews and publicity, which in turn will cause our investors to bail on us, because this plan TOTALLY MAKES SENSE IN REGARDS TO...SOME SECRET EVIL SCHEME OR SOMETHING."  EA isn't Goliath and the boycotting/pirating-from-spite gamers aren't David, and some of them should probably get over themselves.

But on the flip side, I can't just let them off the hook, and I don't know if anyone else should be so willing either.  I think there's something to be said about trying to keep some of the players in the games industry small.  One of the reasons I wasn't looking forward to the new SimCity is that it just didn't feel natural, as if it were a poor imitation from what used to be a good studio (Maxis).  I might pick it up eventually, but having been a huge Maxis fan growing up, something just seems wrong about picking up one of their newer titles.  On a less personal note, however, we all have to realize that in cases like EA, Activision, et. al., games are still important, but they're a vehicle for profit.  Those companies' investors have to be pleased, and to me it feels like EA quit making games long ago to focus on making money.

Just my two cents, but I think both sides - the gamers and the biz - have some things to think over.

It is a good point that EA didn't do it on purpose. I do think investors have their hands in it too much. I think 2K is the best publisher that does what it wants and doesn't allow its investors be too pushy.

I'm sort of from the camp that's 50/50 with micro-transactions. While I'm not "thrilled" so far, it hasn't gotten to the point you need this "extra stuff" to beat & enjoy the game. However, I am afraid eventually it could get worse and there may even be games in the future the are broken & unplayable without the best dlc gun, best dlc armor, or best dlc sword. However, I'll be happy if I'm wrong!

 EA has published good games but let's be honest, they are wallet raping hustlers too. However, I wouldn't say they're worse than capcom and when it comes to outright lies, gearbox is king of the bullshit!

 It's difficult not to find dirt on game companies so sometimes you just gotta choose your battles carefully. Aka, put your money on games that are generous with content or ones that are trying to innovate. Support good games and refuse to buy shit games!

 As for American McGee? I enjoyed Alice Madness Returns but I think him turning his nose up at the PS4 is a bit pretentious.

 However, "the press" has this way of warping what people say and blowing it out of proportion. I will also concur not every game publisher can afford to keep up with "modern technologies". Making AAA games has become as expensive as creating Hollywood movies.

I think EA knows they will be treading a thin line if they make DLC needed. It should always only be optional. That is when I will backlash hard on them. I think people focus to much on EA when Capcom has been just as bad and sometimes worse.

Good luck cutting back on games.  I've been trying to do that for years.  In the end, I just buy more games using less money.  

I don't have too many things annoying me lately.  The most recent annoyance is Fallout 3 crashing on me at the worse times.  It happens more on the dlc parts than the main game. 

I only encounter a big a couple of times but they didn't make have to restart. I got pretty lucky, especially putting over 100 hours into that game. It will be hard for me to slow down on games. I have to do it gradually. I have spoiled myself too much.

I can't imagine what the price would end up being for a PS4 with PS3 inside. A lot of people who bought into early adoption with PS3 ended up making a good investement because they were able to replay their old games. I didn't feel a need to do this because "new" was supposed to be "better". Newer games with better graphics and game engines, and all in HD were supposed to make you forget about the PS1 and PS2. But the lesson learned was HD does not equal better games necessarily. The quality of games, innovation and imagination ended up popping up in the indie scene. We didn't need 1080P and blu ray to make good games. Actually the only reason I felt compelled to go back and play old games was because I felt their quality had improved over time compared to new games, liken to vintage whine. I don't necessarily replay old games because of nostalgia, but because old games are sometimes better than new ones. I like HD games and all, but as more games start looking the same in HD, the more bland they will become. We will get over the "shiny" new coat of paint factor right away. That's what kind of worries me about Sony and PS4. Way too much emphasis on graphics. Do you all remember the Dreamcast? Yeah, just saying.

I think Sony is on a better track. I see the focus more on innovation than people are giving Sony credit for. The controller is more different since having dual analog sticks. I am actually excited for the social aspects and like the potential for what cloud can do and what they showed off. What did the PS3 do? It did nothing but play blu-ray movies but more importantly the PSN. I am excited to see how that evolved. Sony is embracing the indie seen pretty hard on the PS3 and even the PS4 from what I read. Hell, them getting Hotline Miami on the PS3/Vita shows me they are making some great picks. I love that game and will buy it again to play it on the go.

Alright, the Dreamcast comparison wasn't right. They are embracing indie games. I will buy Hotline Miami as well as Guacamelee this month. Sony will need to do more than just chest bump on graphics to interest me this time. What happened to those wierd ass commercials they used to do, before that Kevin Butler guy? 

I agree with all except one. The PS4 should have backwards compatibility, and so should the xbox 360. Graphic's aren't going to take as big a leap as they did last gen, so people will be weary anyway, and if they're losing all of their games they aren't going to buy the console, it's that simple. This is especially concerning since neither microsoft nor sony are really focusing on core gamers with their marketing.

 As for Square Enix, they have become a terrible developer. Fucking dreadful. However, they are an astonishing publisher, releasing great games like Sleeping Dogs, Just Cause 2, Deus Ex Human Revolution, and their only mistep recently has been Tomb "Fuck Gameplay I want to be a film" Raider.

 EA annoys me because they buy up companies I like, run their IP's into the ground and then kill the company. Their business strategies are annoying, but hardly the worst, and they still publish great games.

 Other than that, I pretty much agree with everything. People should stop bitching about COD because the game isn't designed for them, it's designed for people who want to jump into a game and not think, and have some fun. If you don't like it, don't buy it. It's that simple.

Nobody has to lose their games. I don't see how anyone has to think that when they still have the console and the games when they get a new system. Sony has been pretty focused on their core audience. They deliver many amazing indie titles such as Hotline Miami, Stealth Bastard, and various other ones as well as games upcoming like Beyond: Two Souls, Puppeter, and The Last of Us. Microsoft yeah, seems more focused on casual gamers. Kinect is their major focus. While Sony might seem to pushing Eye Toy on us, I still see them delivering on the games.

Its nice to see we pretty much agree on all the rest of the issues. It is sad of everything Square Enix delivered that they can't sustain themselves in a very profitable way. What is also sad is they are all western developed releases.

Its a good point on COD. I somewhat think that if you change it up too much than you will alienate a large portion of the fanbase. A lot of people don't like change. Hence me with standard controls. I think a lot of people play Call of Duty like some people who play just sports games every year.

The way I see it with EA, if you're going to require that my internet connection is stable to play your game, you should require the same for yourself. They didn't say from the start that they would have connection issues, but at some point they realized there would be some and decided to release it anyways. That's what irritates me about them, they're asking the customer to give up more rights without offering them something that really makes up for it that said customer wants. That they're now selling the ability to play it by yourself for $20 instead of just updating that via patch only makes matters worse. That and like Blake said where they just buy companies and run them into the ground like they're doing with my favorite developer Bioware is what bothers me. But then again, I don't endlessly bitch about it, just when the subject's brought up.

I also disagree about the PS4 BC in one regard: If they're having seperate bundles, why not let us decide whether we want to pay extra for BC? Those who want it get it while those who want to save money can save money. Agree on everything else though. Square has become Square Eidos in my eyes, Activision's just doing exactly what the market's telling them to do, American McGee is being an ass, and Snake should not exist without David Hayter's voice.

Backwards compatibility isn't essential but I really am running out of room to keep all of my old consoles, I ve got over 10 now and the cartridge disks that accompany them are starting to spill over! I suppose it's just the way companies work, but it's usually just a ploy to charge you to owning them again, take my 3DS for example, I must have paid well over £100 just re-collecting GB, GBA, NES and Game Gear games! It is pretty sweet having them all on one system though so I can't complain too much.

I don't understand either why Square expected such huge sales for the new Tomb Raider. It's not like it's riding the coatails of a big hollywood movie anymore. Tomb Raider has been a stagnant franchise in sales for over a decade, I'm amazed it managed to sell so well.

I'm actually kind of glad they are replacing David Hayter in MGS. IMO, I think Hayter hasn't really done a great job voicing the character after MGS3. It's almost feels like he's been phoning it in, his performance just seemed really boring to me in MGS4.

On EA: It isn't the things they do to their own games, although that's bad enough. I'd have been royally pissed about SimCity if I'd bought it. I have no reason to patronize EA personally. I don't like sports games, I'm not overly fond of Bioware,  and everything else EA does is better done by someone else. So if EA were just hurting itself I wouldn't care. The problem is, they buy and kill one studio after another, and have destroyed a terrible amount of talent in the industry. Origin, Westwood, and Maxis come to mind, and I doubt Bioware will last another three years. The other problem is, EA's noxious practices spread like a superflu virus through the industry. EA was DRMing its games back in the 1980s long before Microsoft sought to do the same to its business software, if that tells you anything.  If there's something you hate about video game industry practices, chances are it originated with EA. Sadly, that is not hyperbole. And for all of its cash-grabbing and DRMing, EA still posts net losses of hundreds of millions of dollars per year, sometimes per quarter. They really need to rethink their whole business.

Activision, I don't have any complaints about. I simply don't buy Blizzard games or Call of Duty. The best I can say about Activision, is at least they only shit on their own properties, as opposed to EA shitting all over the entire industry.

I'm hoping that dumping Yoichi Wada will turn things around at Square Enix, and I've heard SE has enlisted Sony to help with Final Fantasy XV. I, too, am sad that they haven't been as prolific as they were on PS1 and PS2, but I also don't think they deserve all the hate they get, either. In the meantime, Namco and Sega have done much to fill the RPG void, as has Bethesda with Fallout 3 and New Vegas, so I'm not really suffering either.