Rumor Mongering

Ever since I began writing this blog, I've managed to stay pretty up-to-date on industry news and trends by keeping abreast of the major sources of news and rumors (e.g., Penny Arcade, Kotaku, Joystiq). I know that prior to this great undertaking, I didn't have the knowledge base that I do now. If, a year ago, someone had told me something along the lines of, for example, "The next God of War game is going to come out for the XBox," I may not have seen the obvious flaws in that equation; most notably, that Sony owns the God of War IP and therefore no God of War game will be released on a Microsoft console as long as Sony is still in the business of making consoles for itself. These are the sorts of distinctions that might not be made by a layperson who doesn't spend all of their time combing gaming-related web sites and their affiliated message boards. Suffice it to say, that type of rumor will never prove to be true; it stems from misunderstanding and is primarily harmless.

Another kind of rumor, more devious, is that created or perpetuated by those with a good working knowledge of the industry and its idiosyncrasies. A good example of this would be, for instance, "Final Fantasy XIII is going to come out for the XBox 360." Since FF is developed and published by a third party company, it's entirely possible that it could come out for multiple platforms. In this iteration of the series I think it's unlikely to happen for other reasons, but it isn't a logical impossibility based on property ownership and rights management. These rumors are harder to discern, and they sometimes end up being (or becoming) true. For example, there were rumors that DMC4 would be multiplatform, and lo, so it has become.

Then there are the rumors that don't make any sense at all. I was at a baby shower (of all places) on Sunday and found myself engaged in conversation with a gentleman on the subject of the 360, Wii, and PS3. When I mentioned to him that I own a PS3, he urged me to sell it on eBay or otherwise try to recoup some of the money I spent on it. He explained to me that Sony has stopped production on the PS3 and is discontinuing the system, and, moreover, that only five games are going to be produced for the system before Sony stops supporting it entirely. Unsure of how to respond to so much incorrect information coming in at once, I simply observed: "That information is incorrect." He shrugged his shoulders and responded, "You'll see. Don't say nobody warned you six months from now when your PS3 is completely obsolete." Ouch!

Fortunately, no one will have to miss out on God of War III, because I hear it's coming out for the XBox 360.