Easily the biggest surprise out of Gamescom so far has been the news that EA are going to be porting Mass Effect 2 onto the PS3 and that it will be on shelves as early as January next year.
Microsoft have responded to requests for comment from IGN and had the following to say
“With both Mass Effect titles launching first on Xbox 360 combined with the wealth of available paid downloadable content on Xbox Live today, Xbox 360 remains the best place to experience the Mass Effect franchise,
[…]And the original Mass Effect is absolutely an Xbox 360 exclusive, making Xbox 360 the only place to get the full Mass Effect experience,"
So not much in that but it clarifies the obvious and is it just me or does Microsoft sound a little tetchy about what EA are doing?
I have believed for a while now that EA are favouring the PS3 over the Xbox 360 and a move like this just reinforces that opinion. Mass Effect 2 was a brilliant game but without the PS3 getting the original Mass Effect the story just won’t be as engaging.
Source: IGN
Last Updated: August 18, 2010
Werner
August 18, 2010 at 09:21
“… but without the PS3 getting the original Mass Effect the story just won’t be as engaging.” – That’s why they created Wiki’s 😉 :whistle:
Fox1
August 18, 2010 at 09:34
It’s not the same without the plot twists that you have control over in ME1 :whistle:
Fox1
August 18, 2010 at 09:35
I wouldn’t be surprised if ME3 is a timed exclusive for xbox.
Also, ain’t ME3 due out in 2011? :ninja:
Ricardo
August 18, 2010 at 09:49
Well another exclusive gone, it sucks to be MS now, but they will survive the same way that PS survive when MS got FF13
ReAVeR
August 18, 2010 at 09:52
Have to agree with Fox. One of the best things about ME2 was the fact that the state of the universe at the start of the game is directly related to your actions in ME1. A number of buddies played it, but almost none of us had the same experience.
Uncle
August 18, 2010 at 10:05
Wish Sony and Microsoft would give up on exclusive titles and rather do timed exclusives.
AC!D
August 18, 2010 at 10:11
The state of the universe was the most disppointing thing in ME2 for me. If you didnt import a character in ME2 it asked you 4 questions. That resulted in the state of the Universe. Other minor details like the Rachni queen didnt exactly bring about massive story arcs which disppointed the hell out of me. The other side of me wishes for a ME1 port not because of fanboy politics as the Microsoft defense force above clearly show us but because ME1 didnt exactly run too well on 360 and had massive frame rate problems in some levels. Id love to get a good port ( Im not a PC gamer ) that would fix some of those problems.
Basically the only positive thing that came out of importng your character was the money and a few stats at the end of the day. I hope they improve the hell out of this aspect in ME3.
Also talk about sour grapes from MS. That paid downloadable content will be free and if you guys dont know this already Sony doesnt allow late ports unless they get bonus exclusive content. Although EA and Activision are probably big enough to bypass that little Sony rule.
My last point is that Dragon Age Origins sold almost a million more than Mass Effect 2 if you check VG charts. You know where that million came from? PS3 and it wasnt even that popular on PS3. Mass Effect 2 will be more popular because its more console friendly than Dragon Age. Brining it to PS3 just as i believe bringing Alan Wake to PS3 would be great for the devs that put all the hard work in and created fantastic games. Lets face it guys the Yanks just dont buy the special games and are only concerned with FPS. If you dont believe me go and look at Americas pre order chart . Their top 3 games are all FPS. The other 2 FPS got pushed to next year so it would have been top five :whistle:
ReAVeR
August 18, 2010 at 10:17
AC!D, my imported story made for a very personal experience.
Hayted
August 18, 2010 at 10:39
My mates and I all have ME1 and we played ME2. We all had very very different games. (Even though we all played as the positive hero). You could play ME2 from the beginning and have a awesome game but I enjoyed it most having already crafted Shepard and also I worked my ass off for everything that I got in ME1 and got to take something with for ME2 (awesome). Exclusives are crap though! I would rather have timed exclusives. Let everyone experience games. Selling consoles for exclusives is dof to me. So did I get my console for Mass Effect or Halo. Hell’s no! I got the console to play games and it was a lot cheaper than PS3 at that stage and I could not fork out the extra money with a kid on the way. All I want to do is game not console!
Fox1
August 18, 2010 at 10:40
Thanks for the spoilers :devil:
a) The best games coming out year end are all FPS
b) What terrible frame-rate issues are you speaking of? ME1 runs fine on the xbox.
c) Four questions do not make up the experience off ME1 :alien:
d) This supposed to be the fourth question :ninja:
AC!D
August 18, 2010 at 11:01
Thats never gonna happen. The best thing Nintendo and Sony have done is buy small talented deveopers to build their portfolio of games, let them share assets thereby helping each other and forming strong second party relantionships like Sony have done with Insomniac and Quantic dream. Also Sony in particular have given great freedom if you read the interviews by David Cage and the director of Demon’s Souls. Both of them pretty much said only a publisher with balls would have published those two games especially considering how shitty the tech demos were for their pitches to Sony.
Now my biggest criticism of MS is that they do the last part very well i.e forming good strong 2nd party relationships but at the same time they seem to be more concerned with closing down their brilliant studios like Ensemble Games. Also its getting more and more difficult to hold onto second party support now because MS’s install base is getting bigger while Sony’s is also so with each passing year they have to pay more and more to keep something like Heavy Rain, Mass Effect or Splniter Cell Conviction exclusive.
Sony and Nintendo would surive without second Part support to make exclusives but MS would not. They really need to start changing their poilcy.
Valve and Sony Santa Monica in particular are brilliant ar recruiting talent. Santa Monica brings stuff like That Game Company ( The guys who made flower and are making Journey now ) and the guy that made Everyday shooter. Valve pretty much picked up the guys that created Left 4 Dead, kids from varsity that created portal and now even more kids from varsity to implement some new kind of surface tech that will enhance Portal 2.
@ReAver: Play the game three times and you might not think so much about your so called personal experience. Who lived and who died was just replaced by someone else or not with the exact same dialogue. The cousel had no effect. Even your relationship had zero effect. The only game that has come close to creating a personal experience is Heacy Rain. Everytime i talk to someone they tell me something new about the game that i did not experience in my playthrough.
RSA-Ace
August 18, 2010 at 11:16
I think only first party studios should do exclusives.
Bobby Kotick
August 18, 2010 at 11:24
That’s an hilarious comment by Microass (can you smell the sour grapes?).
Although to be honest, I didn’t find ME2 as engaging as ME1 (it took me ages to finish, and I never replayed it), and it’s definitely the weaker of the two -story wise -(although that’s too be expected for the middle of a series, a bit like Gears of War really, the second one paled in comparison to the first). ME2 was also more of a shooter than an rpg game (although still a richer experience than Failo), and the mining mini-game was more annoying than fun. The could have thrown in some RTS features for the mining operations, but alas why cry over spilt milk.
But other than that, I’m glad it’s coming to PS3, and I’ll definitely pick it up when it launches. I never bought any DLC for ME2 on xbox 360, so I’ll be keen to play them for free when they invariably drop with the PS3 version.
Oddly I feel like replaying the first one now. :wassat:
Fox1
August 18, 2010 at 11:53
ME is built on character and decisions and without playing ME1 the gamer is not getting full value out of the ME universe.
PS: The xbox is the definitive ME console experience no matter what :tongue:
AC!D
August 18, 2010 at 12:06
Actually the PC is. ME1 runs like shit on 360.
Conor MUFC
August 18, 2010 at 12:11
Look its ok that the ps3 getting mass effect 2 let them enjoy it. It true home will always be the xbox. But I think its stupid way the ps3 only gets the second one some people who buy are going to be confused. And anyway the xbox still has loads of class exclusives like left 4 dead, halo, gears of war , fable.
Bobby Kotick
August 18, 2010 at 12:23
For all the current focus on console games by Bioware, Mass Effect actually feels more like a PC-port on the xbox 360 than a true xbox 360 game (granted I still love the game to death, but you can’t escape it, that the controls were awkward and before you could install to the harddrive, the game ran sluggishly in places, stuttered, had dreadful loading times. It’s a bit better now, but still not ideal.)
Werner
August 18, 2010 at 15:19
Fair enough, but at least they can use the Wiki to get the general idea of the game though. That’s why I alwasy say, just get all the damn consoles… that way you don’t miss out on anything, ever 🙂
Bobby Kotick
August 18, 2010 at 15:43
http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/8/18/xbox-ffxiii-ad-banned-using-ps3-footage/
Lol this had me rolling on the floor.