Newsfeed: Trash Talking Punk Bitches

EA vs. Activision

This year, like most years, EA and Activision will go head to head in the battle for supremacy of shooters in the consumer market. Last year EA's Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Medal of Honor reboot went up against Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops. Bad Company 2 did well, Medal of Honor did okay, and Black Ops dominated the season and put every non-Nintendo product to shame, as was expected. 

Somewhere...someone with $1 billion
of our money is laughing...

EA spokesperson Jeff Brown takes a pot shot at Activision. In a statement to Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision, Brown says, "I know you're new in the job but someone should have told you this is an competitive industry. You've got every reason to be nervous. Last year Activision had a 90 share in the shooter category. This year, Battlefield 3 is going to take you down to 60 or 70. At that rate, you'll be out of the category in 2-3 years. If you don't believe me, go to the store and try to buy a copy of Guitar Hero or Tony Hawk."

Alright, you wanna talk about shooters? Let's take a look at the shooters EA and Activision have released in the last year and a half. Activision launched Singularity and Black Ops, that's it. EA launched Army of Two 2, Bad Company 2, Mass Effect 2, Crysis 2, Dead Space 2, Medal of Honor and recently Shadows of the Damned. First off, not only is there an awful lot of '2's in there but all but one are sequels to games no more than four years old, the same age as the original Modern Warfare. Maybe EA won't be running out of shooters anytime soon but they sure are saturating the market with them. 

Let's get something straight right now. Just because your game is superior doesn't mean it's better. Rush may be much more talented songwriters and musicians than AC/DC but guess who's more popular? Why did Black Ops marketing strategy compliment the game perfectly? Because Call of Duty is all about the multiplayer and it's highly approachable. That's it. Sure, Battlefield may be deeper, bigger and more realistic but it's not as approachable and thus it's not the same. Call of Duty is a casual type of game and that's why it succeeds. Another example would be to compare New Super Mario Bros. sales numbers with Mario Galaxy's, it's not even close. Couple this with Call of Duty's name recognition and marketability, it sits pretty with the likes of Halo and Grand Theft Auto. When Call of Duty falls, because it will fall eventually, it won't be because Battlefield usurped it. Call of Duty will fail for probably the same reason Guitar Hero failed, high investment coupled with low interest from consumers or a perceived lack of value.

Microsoft Buying Their Way to Success

The PS3 and 360 are pretty similar. They both play mostly the same games and do pretty much all the same things like play DVDs, music, Netflix and some light networking. The only real difference between the two platforms are the prices and the exclusive software. In an interview with Chris Lewis, Microsoft's European Head of Marketing, he explains how Microsoft relies on timed exclusive DLC and downloadable games to differentiate themselves from competitors (i.e. PS3).

Now, Sony has a ton of development studios churning out exclusive software for their platforms. Microsoft has a couple of development studios under their command but for the most part their only exclusive software are IPs they've bought. To further confuse and annoy gamers they buy timed exclusive DLC and indie games with no intention of paying for full exclusivity. Microsoft would rather rent an exclusive than invest in building their own exclusives. This is nothing new, it's been happening ever since the PS3 came out in 2006. The 360 has been a success on the backs of superior marketing, an earlier launch and these timed exclusives luring away purchases from competitors. I personally almost bought an Xbox because it was the cheapest method of playing Rock Band, or so I thought. Patience is a virtue and at the end of the day the Xbox 360 is the 'me first!' console without any identity of its own. I find it amusing that someone at Microsoft finally admits it.

Some people might be interested in this game. It's a sequel to a little known 90s title that no one's heard of. (sarcasm detector overload)