GDC 09: MS Shows off New Developer Tools

Last year, Microsoft used the annual Game Developers Conference to put on a show, complete with Epic Games designer Cliff Bleszinski using a fake chainsaw to tear his way through a wall in the announcement of Gears of War 2. This year, crazily enough, Microsoft is using the Game Developers Conference to focus on the game developer. That includes everyone from the top dogs down to the little hobbyists with a new Dream-Build-Play competition, an update to Games Studio Express, and an improved professional development kit.

If you thought game makers have eked every last bit of juice out of the Xbox 360, Microsoft is about to give them the tools needed to take at least one more step. A new piece of debugging hardware, called the Xbox 360 Development and Test Kit hardware is on its way to professional developers soon. This new piece of hardware has 1 GB of RAM inside of it -- more than a retail Xbox 360. This will give developers some extra room to work with while making a game that will allow them to push the limits of the Xbox 360 memory while still running debugging software that would normally eat up space on the dev kit.

Microsoft is also announcing a third Dream-Build-Play design competition. The last two produced games like CarneyVale: Showtime, Weapon of Choice, and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. For the 2009 competition, Microsoft is offering a cash prize and the opportunity to win an Xbox Live Arcade publishing contract. Beginning April 6, interested developers can submit their unique games. Winners will be announced this fall.

Expect those games to be amongst the best community games yet. In fact, you should expect all community games to get a boost in quality soon. Microsoft is preparing to release the next version of its free development tool, XNA Game Studio 3.1. New features being added include Avatar support, video playback, and support for Xbox Live parties. Don't be surprised if you download an XNA Community game in the near future and see your Avatar waving back at you. In our demo of the new features, Microsoft even showed us some free animation rigging tools that will be made available so that, using XNA game creation tools, anybody can create custom Avatar animations for their games.

Professional developers (i.e. not those making Community games) will also find new tools for downloadable content support.

"The level of innovation and the number of submissions we receive each year to Dream-Build-Play has increased exponentially because the development community is becoming increasingly familiar with the XNA Game Studio," XNA General Manager Boyd Multerer said. "I'm really looking forward to seeing what developers are able to create with the latest Live features and updated tools at their disposal."

Expect to see Games Studio Express 3.1 and its new features roll out this spring or summer.

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Critic Comparison: Which Console Has The Most Acclaimed Games?

Inspired by Edge Online’s study I gathered data comparing Metacritic scores across the current three consoles: PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 to compare the number of games lauded and loathed by critics.

Games are arranged into four groups. “Great” is defined as a game with an aggregate review score of 85 or greater. “Good” is for games that fall between 84 and 70. “Mixed” games include titles with differing opinions and average reviews. Scores in the range of 69-50 are classified as “mixed”. Finally, games with a score lower than 49 are considered “awful” with generally unfavorable reviews.

This study includes all games, retail releases and downloadable titles, rated by Metacritic to date.

Consoles

As seen in the above graph, the Xbox 360 has the highest number of games in the “great” and “good” categories. However, the Xbox 360 also has the greatest number of total games. The next graph takes this factor in consideration.

Let’s look at the data a different way to analyze the spectrum of a console’s library. Since the number of games on each console varies this graph looks at the percent of titles (i.e. number of games in a category divided by total games) that fall into each category. In this case if you were to pick a random game from the PlayStation 3’s library there is a 60% chance critics would be rank it “good” or higher.

Handhelds

The Nintendo DS and PSP have been on the market longer than any of the consoles, but few handheld games fall into the “great” category. The majority of the games, nearly half of all released titles, are in the mixed category. Compared to today’s console games this is a significant margin. Are critics too demanding on handheld games?

Previous Generation

For a frame of reference, this set of graphs depict last generation’s consoles using the same comparison rules. The PlayStation 2 has triple the number of Gamecube games and nearly double the amount of Xbox titles. Unfortunately, not all of the software is up to par. The PS2 has the smallest percentage of games in the “great” category, but there are over 150 of them which is significantly more than any of the other consoles.

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Sony: Killzone 2 will make Xbox gamers try PS3

Feels confident in the game's performance against Halo Wars.

Speaking to GameDaily, Scott Steinberg, VP of Product Marketing at SCEA has bullishly claimed

that Killzone 2 is not only taking gamers from the sidelines to the PS3, but also tempting Xbox

360 gamers to try out the PS3.

"We feel that Killzone 2 is a tremendous exclusive," said Steinberg. "It's an exclamation point that demonstrates the distance between the PS3 and other systems. The game is 40 Gigs and could not be done on anything else. It will move people from the sidelines, and from what we've seen from blogs, will push 360 owners to try out the PS3. I think it's going to be a major launch for us and this historical PlayStation brand."

Regarding the performance of the game, Steinberg says that despite going up against strong competition it has done well.

"There wasn't a clean playing playing field, I'd like to say," noted Steinberg. "We had to compete with Halo Wars and Resident Evil 5. We knew we had to execute and deliver a great game. I think looking at the stats, I feel comfortable on our performance against Halo Wars and we ultimately delivered on our promise."

In the UK both Killzone 2 and Halo Wars were released on February 27, with Killzone 2 going on to claim the No.1 chart position ahead of Microsoft's Halo RTS.

Blow’s next game “different in almost every way from Braid”

Braid developer Jon Blow has told UK mag Total PC Gaming that his next project will be a complete departure from his time-bending smash.

“I’ve got a lot of projects that I’m always thinking about, and I’ve got one that I’ve started that’s very different in almost every way from Braid,” he said.

Despite Blow’s apparent desire to get away from Braid, the game’s been good to its creator.

“[Braid has] made more money for me than if I had been working in a high-paying job for all the time I was developing the game,” he said.

“It has been very profitable.”

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Why Mass Effect 2 Won’t Be Coming To The PS3

With the news surfacing about BioWare -- who is now wholly owned by Electronic Arts -- formally announcing Mass Effect 2 for the Xbox 360 and PC, it has become rather obvious that this wasn’t heading to the PS3 and here’s a few possible reasons why.

First of all, back when BioWare wasn’t owned by Electronic Arts, Microsoft had already published the first game for the Xbox 360 with intentions (much like Gears of War) to maintain a new franchised trilogy for the Xbox brand. People can argue semantics, publishing and trademark rights all they want, but consider Col. Sheppard the tertiary mascot next to Master Chief and Marcus Fenix.

It was reiterated time-over and again that Mass Effect was going to be an Xbox 360 trilogy. And even while Casey Hudson denied plans for a PC rendition of Mass Effect in an interview with Gamer 2.0, it was obvious the big bad MS wasn’t going to let gold slip through their fingers…especially considering that the Games for Windows platform is utter crap and needed something good in its library.

The fact that Hudson lied about the PC version could prompt some gamers to believe that Mass Effect 2 could still be heading to the PS3. However, the difference is that the game was already designed from the ground-up for the Xbox 360. Realistically, PS3 owners wouldn’t get their copy of the game until 2012. By that time BioWare would be starting (or finishing) alpha code for the third game. Would it really be sensible to port over a game that old to a system that’s already selling less third-party software outside of Japan, than the 360?

You can call it PS3-bashing but it’s just reality, folks; sales for Turok, Blacksite Area 51, Grand Theft Auto IV and Smackdown Vs. Raw prove this. Heck, anyone who follows NPD data (which is due out soon for the month of February) knows this.

The reality is that there’s just not enough incentive for BioWare to port over a game that wasn’t designed for the other console in the first place. EA is obviously aware of this; it's no different than Sega keeping Yakuza 3 on the PS3, since that was the system it was designed for, originally. It would take too much money, time and resources to port over a game that already has a niche install-base on a specific platform (i.e., Square’s wasteful efforts to get Final Fantasy XIII on the 360).

Now it would be shocking if EA decided to have BioWare release Mass Effect 2 for the PS3 a few years later. At this stage in development, though, it’s highly unlikely.

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Target receives new PS3 SKU to release after GDC

According to a reader tip, Target stores are receiving a brand new PS3 SKU. The DPCI item number for the new product is 207-23-0009 and it will be available on March 29, a few days after the end of Game Developer's Conference.

The new SKU, confirmed by our tipster's photo, bundles the now-standard 80 GB console and two Greatest Hits games: MotorStorm and Resistance: Fall of Man. Those who have managed to keep track of the various SKUs will find this package awfully similar to a bundle launched in Europe in 2007. Heck, all it does is add Resistance to the now-defunct MotorStorm bundle.

Unfortunately, our tipster says this new bundle doesn't come with a price drop. The SKU will retail for $399, the same price as the current low-end PS3. Yes, the addition of two free games makes it a better value, but this bundle can't replace the "price drop" analysts have been predicting (and publishers have been begging for). Either this is a Target-specific bundle, or this will be one of the most unexciting PS3 announcements to date.

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PlayStation 3 Price Drop Rumor: March 22nd is The Day

How big is 2old2play? We're big enough to have a community scouring the field looking for important exclusives and we're here to break a big one. Okay, we're not exactly field reports, we're just got lucky...

Last night one of community members was in an EB Games store and an employee mentioned a PS3 price drop occurring Sunday March 22nd just in advance of the Game Developer's Conference (GDC). He went on to say that Sony will be issuing a press release on the Saturday before the drop and that EB was already prepared for the upcoming price-drop.

The current "rumor" is that the PlayStation 3 80GB console will retail for USD $300. That would be a $99 price reduction in the console, bringing it closer to reach for many gamers. However, be prepared for Sony to refuse to comment or straight out say this is untrue, it wouldn't be the first time they've pulled that stunt. It's in Sony's best interest to hide the price drop from gamers because we'll halt purchasing of the PS3 until the price drop occurs.

It's in your interest, however, to halt thoughts of buying a PS3 until March 22nd. If we're right, you'll be saving yourself enough money to buy at least one PS3 game with your new purchase. This price drop would come on the heels of third party developers saying PS3 needs a price drop or they're prepared to start pushing Wii development more, especially considering that's where many big publishers are making all their money.

Is this enough of a drop in price to make you consider a PS3 buy? Is this the right time of year for a PS3 buy? Thoughts?

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