Sometimes Dreams Do Come True

Just a quick blip today. I had to struggle mightily with myself in deciding whether or not it was right to push Killa's initial Bossa Nova Monday offering down the page. Finally, I decided that it is almost Tuesday, and that this news(?) is worth it.

As I mentioned last month in my Glister of Envy posting, I don't envy the 360 very much, but I do envy its Eternal Sonata (AKA Trusty Bell), the forthcoming Namco RPG based on Chopin's dream as he lays dying. I just read on Joystiq, however, that the ESRB rating for Eternal Sonata is out and it's been rated both for the 360 and the PS3. Good news? Clerical error? So how should I presume? I can only hope this indicates that Namco has had a change of heart on the exclusivity of this title. Maybe a timed 360 exclusive with a later PS3 release? Here's hoping!

DMC4 4 360?! OH NOES!

In a press release yesterday, Capcom announced that the next installment of their popular Devil May Cry series will not be exclusive to the PS3, as many people had speculated, but will instead be released simultaneously on the PS3, XBox 360, and PC.

After my surprise wore off, I channeled Martha Stewart and decided this is "a good thing."

A million years ago, I commented on this same phenomenon when someone reported that MGS4 would see an XBox 360 port. As far as I know, MGS4 on the 360 remains unconfirmed, but that could change at any time and I wouldn't be surprised if it did. Remember that MGS2 came to the XBox and the PC in addition to the PS2. The MGS4 "news" was hot on the heels of the announcement that Assassin's Creed, once touted as a PS3 exclusive, would be shared with the 360.

Those items weren't too alarming, though; MGS4 360 was an unconfirmed rumor, and Assassin's Creed, though a hot topic, is an untried original IP. It could turn out to be terrible for all we know (for the record, it won't; it's going to be OMG teh awesome). The PS3's sterling lineup of third-party exclusives was dwindling from the original robust list, but it still had Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII; Metal Gear Solid 4; and . . . Devil May Cry 4.

Let's assume we've reached an age in which the third-party exclusive is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Why is this bad? I still get to play DMC4, MGS4, Assassin's Creed, and every other game that has been announced for PS3 so far. Nothing has been taken away from the PS3; they've just been added to the 360 as well. I haven't lost anything, and I'm not meanspirited enough to begrudge anyone else these great games. And conversely, I'm looking forward to XBox 360's Enchanted Arms and Oblivion porting to the PS3 so that I can play them, and hoping that Eternal Sonata and Dead Rising will follow suit.

More titles on more platforms is good for consumers. Every dollar that Sony spends paying a developer to keep a title exclusive to the PS3 is a dollar Sony isn't spending elsewhere---like on its first-party titles, its Playstation Home network, or on a much-needed new PR campaign. When developers sell more copies of their games, they get a return of more dollars to spend on making more games. If there are 2 million PS3s out there worldwide and 11 million 360s (I made up those numbers), it doesn't make sense for any third-party developer to keep a game exclusive to one console or the other unless they have a good reason to do so---a good reason might be, for instance, that the requirements of the game don't mesh with the capabilities of one system (a game that needs rumble is going to the 360; a game that needs motion controls is going to go to the PS3 or Wii). If going multiplatform gives you at least 2 million more potential customers, why not?

It is possible to access the total sales figures for 360 and PS3 consoles, but we don't really know how many 360s are out there due to well-documented hardware defects, and we don't know how many homes that have PS3s also have 360s. Those data would be helpful in figuring out how much of a market is out there for 360 exclusives, PS3 exclusives, and multiplatform titles.

There has been speculation that FFXIII will go the way of DMC4 and jump ship as well. All things are possible, but I don't think FFXIII is going anywhere. People have been pointing to SquareEnix's recent licensing of Unreal Engine 3, an engine known for its crossplatform portability. However, SquareEnix has confirmed that their proprietary White Engine is being used for FFXIII, and that they will continue to use the White Engine for SE games that are going to remain exclusive to the Sony console. I imagine that it's a bit too late for them now to scrap the White Engine build and move to Unreal Engine for this title (though I could be wrong). FFXIV may turn up on multiple platforms, but I think FFXIII is likely to stay put.

If we as console owners need to feel elite, there are still the first-party titles to consider. I will feel a twinge of pity for 360-instead-of-PS3 owners who won't get to experience Heavenly Sword, Lair, Gran Turismo, LittleBigPlanet, KillZone, and White Knight Story---all first party titles being published by and for Sony and only Sony. I'm sure the 360 owners feel that same twinge of pity for those of us who will never get to play Blue Dragon, Crackdown, Halo, and Gears of War---some of Microsoft's AAA first-party exclusives.

This situation is not going to sink the PS3; it's going to push Sony to develop more and better first-party titles so that they can sell more PS3s and secure more third-party exclusives. Microsoft, in turn, will push their first-party properties to the limits for the same reason. Then everybody wins.

A Glister(?) of Envy

Few people are aware that the famous aphorism "all that glitters is not gold" is actually a misquote---the original language is "glister," a loveable word that has unforunately fallen out of vogue. I'm not sure whether Bacon stole the idea from Shakespeare or if Shakespeare stole it from Bacon; in any case the phrase turns up again, with great effect, during the eighteenth century in one of my favorite morbid poems, which teaches us that all that "glisters" isn't gold, and, more importantly, that curiosity killed the cat.

Don't say that you didn't learn anything today.

Choosing a console, for me, wasn't about which machine was technically the superior one, which can perform more flop-o-flops per nan-o-second, or which company has the better marketing campaign (hint: it's not Sony). It wasn't a matter of price, size, availability, or brand loyalty. It was a simple choice of current and future library. There just weren't and aren't any exclusive games on the XBox 360 that are interesting or appealing to me. I gave it some serious thought; I just spent the last twenty minutes going through a list of XBox 360 games. There aren't even any titles that "I would play if I happened to have a 360." Blue Dragon is close, but it strikes me as too much of a DQ knockoff. . . . So, anyway, I made my choice to pass on the 360. It's not to say that there's anything wrong with the 360. It just isn't for me. I've put down that foot; made that bed; burnt that bridge; &c.

And then came Eternal Sonata. I had heard murmurs of a game called "Trusty Bell" but I hadn't really looked into it because, at the time, all the news was about the Japanese version (Eternal Sonata : NA : : Trusty Bell : JP). In the last week or so, though, Kotaku and Joystiq furnished some screenshots that have become the basis for my first real exposure to the game, and it looks amazing. It has a historical-revisionist flavor, redolent of the Shadow Hearts series that I enjoyed, in that it centers around the last three hours of Chopin's life as he is dying of tuberculosis. Music in general, and Chopin's music in particular, are reported to play a big role in the game. If you poke around the Namco site a bit you can find a Japanese trailer for the game (here---but make sure to close the Namco web site once your WMV window pops up, or else you'll hear the web site background music playing under the trailer music . . . dueling Chopins). The music and graphics are beautiful; the video gives the impression of playing an anime movie.

Although I wouldn't buy a console system just on the merits of one game, if ever I were to do so, this would be the game. In order to calm my jealousy I've ordered a used copy of Baten Kaitos, a GCN game from the same group that is making Eternal Sonata. In the mean time, I am going to try to trick myself by playing Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure on my PS3, imperfect backwards compatibility permitting. I know that Eternal Sonata will never be able to compete with the overwhelming popularity of games like Halo and Gears of War in the United States, but overseas (*cough*JAPAN*cough*) and among PlayStation-owning JRPG fans, this game has the potential to be like goldfish to our proverbial, unfortunate cat.

{Found it!} Wiki Vandalism

See if you can spot the vandalism in this screen capture, taken yesterday afternoon.

No Internet Explorer jokes, please! X-Box jokes only!