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XBox (Games)

360 Launch Lineup And New Games 47

Posted by Zonk from the meaty-gaming dept.
More information continues to become available from the X05 event. Spitfire15 writes "id Software has announced a new Wolfenstein game coming onto the Xbox 360. During Peter Moore's section of X05's keynote speech he introduced id Software's Todd Hollenshead to the stage. As soon as he got on he unexpectedly announced that id Software and Raven Software were already underway with the next installment of the Wolfenstein series." Additionally, Bioware groupie writes "Today Bioware announced a new science fiction action-rpg that is already in development, Mass Effect. It will only be released for the Xbox 360 with no PC port planned and it's promising photo-realistic graphics, squad based gameplay, and continuous character development." Both titles won't make the launch window. The launch titles themselves are still up in the air, a little more than a month before the console launches. Gamespot reports: "In an effort to clear up the confusion, GameSpot asked David Reid, director of platform marketing for the Xbox, what the exact 360 launch lineup is. He said that 'there will be 15 to 20 Xbox 360 titles available on launch day' with around another half-dozen making it to market by the end of the year."
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360 Launch Lineup And New Games More

360 Launch Lineup And New Games

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  • Article post (Score:3, Informative)

    by ElVaquero ( 867318 ) on Wednesday October 05, 2005 @04:25PM (#13724736) Homepage
    Since the post didn't see fit to mention the games that would be available on launch day, here's the pertinent article transcript
    -----------

    Xbox 360 launch lineup finalized "in the next few weeks" Microsoft ID's eight of final 15 to 20 day-and-date launch games, says rest are in the "final stages of certification."

    In the run-up to today's X05 event in Amsterdam, the industry consensus was that Microsoft would use the event to announce the Xbox 360 launch lineup for North America, Europe, or both.

    In fact, neither happened.

    Speaking to the assembled press, Peter Moore, corporate vice president of worldwide Xbox marketing and publishing, boasted that there were 200 Xbox 360 games in development, including "many launch titles." Chief Xbox officer Robbie Bach promised the console would have the "best games and launch lineup" of any console yet--but didn't divulge all the games that will go on sale alongside the 360 November 22 in the US.

    Adding to the confusion was a press release Microsoft issued titled "Xbox 360 launch line-up announced." It listed only three first-party games--Project Gotham Racing 3, Perfect Dark Zero, and Kameo: Elements of Power--under the heading "Titles that will form part of the impressive Christmas holiday portfolio." The second category of games was called "Other great games announced or shown at X05," and it included Gears of War, FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup, Full Auto, Saint's Row, and Condemned: Criminal Origins, as well as the just-announced Too Human, Mass Effect, and Crackdown.

    The release then listed a third category, "Franchise titles that will make their debut on Xbox 360," which included Superman Returns: The Videogame, Call of Duty 2, Castle Wolfenstein, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, MotoGP 2006: Ultimate Racing Technology, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 4, and Quake 4. Given that at least half the games listed have 2006 release dates--and some were just announced--it would be impossible for the release to contain the Xbox 360 launch lineup as the title indicates.

    In an effort to clear up the confusion, GameSpot asked David Reid, director of platform marketing for the Xbox, what the exact 360 launch lineup is. He said that "there will be 15 to 20 Xbox 360 titles available on launch day" with around another half-dozen making it to market by the end of the year. For the moment, though, he would confirm only eight games as being available the same day and date as the Xbox 360: Project Gotham Racing 3, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, Madden NFL 06, NBA Live 06, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06, Need for Speed Most Wanted, and FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup.

    As for the other seven to 12 Xbox 360 games that will be available on November 22, Reid said they would be announced "in the next few weeks." "They are currently in the final stages of certification," he told GameSpot, referring to the quality-assurance process all third-party games must go through from their respective console maker. So it is likely that if any of the submitted games--which Reid declined to mention--do not pass the process sometime in the next fortnight, they will not make it to market by the end of the year.

    • Re:Article post (Score:4, Insightful)

      by badasscat ( 563442 ) <basscadet75@yah o o . c om> on Wednesday October 05, 2005 @05:14PM (#13725112)
      he would confirm only eight games as being available the same day and date as the Xbox 360: Project Gotham Racing 3, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, Madden NFL 06, NBA Live 06, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06, Need for Speed Most Wanted, and FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup.

      Let me be the first (or maybe not?) to say "meh!"

      And to this Wolfenstein announcement, again "meh!" How many more first-person shooters do we really need? It's not as if anybody was clamoring for another Wolf sequel after the last one (which was basically a dud, even by cookie-cutter FPS standards).

      So we've got a few sports games, a racing game or two, a couple FPS's and Kameo, which was announced like 5 years ago and has now made the switch from two different systems to the 360. Yawn! Double-yawn!

      Not even an attempt at innovation here. Nothing that's any different from what's available right now, except for higher resolutions. I'll take Katamari Damacy over any one of these games. Heck, give me KD in high-def and I'll sign up so fast for an Xbox 360 it'll make your head spin. But not one of these announced titles has me excited in the slightest.

      Remember back when every successive generation of consoles allowed for totally new types of gameplay that we'd never seen before? You couldn't even do a Super Mario or Sonic type game until the NES/SMS. You couldn't do first-person stuff until the SNES with its scaling capabilities (which the Genesis tried to emulate later, especially with the Sega CD add-on). You couldn't do 3D until the Saturn and PlayStation. It all started slowing down with the current generation, and now it seems like all we're getting are sequels and rehashes that play exactly the same as what came before even on brand new machines.

      I'll probably eventually buy a 360 and a PS2 (and a Revolution) because that's just what I do [jwnyc.com], and also because I do want high-def. But jesus, it's like developers (including MS's in-house teams) aren't even trying anymore.
      • You couldn't even do a Super Mario or Sonic type game until the NES/SMS. I recall a (really bad) coleco-vision game called Smurf that was a side scroller like mario...

      • Re:Article post (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Slothy ( 17409 )
        People claim to want innovation, but the data doesn't support it. Compare the sales of Madden to the sales of Katamari. Games will go where the sales are.

        Maybe I can't be objective on this, since I did Savage.
      • let me be the first to say "meh" is not a word and only the intellectually lazy use pop culture terminology in actual conversations.

        it's a deplorable habit, please stop.

  • Total cost is... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by LehiNephi ( 695428 )
    So....$400 for the console + (15 to 20) games * $50/game = $1150 to $1400.

    Yikes, that's a lot of money. A couple of mortgage payments for a lot of people. This reminds me why I only buy hardware and games that have been out for at least a year. Save money on both, and I only get games that turn out to be good!

    • Re:Total cost is... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ben0207 ( 845105 )
      I think anyone that decides to buy 15 to 20 games at launch can probably afford a couple grand. Most people just get like 2 or 3

      Although I do agree on buying games a while after they first come out. Saves an absolute fortune.
    • Add on to that the fact that these games (at least as far as I know) will be $60 instead of $50, and you can bump that up another $150-200.

      I agree on waiting for price drops.

      • Re:Total cost is... (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Yep the games are retailing for $59.99 - guess the eye candy warrants a 20% increase over other consoles.
        • Not true. MS have said their games will cost the same as they currently do in all markets, and everyone assumes 3rd parties will follow suit.

          It's still too much, but "too much + nothing" sounds a lot better than "too much + an extra $10" to me.
    • A couple of mortgage payments for a lot of people.

      A 575 dollar mortgage payment? I wish. You can't even rent an apartment in cleveland for that money.

    • Re:Total cost is... (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      And to buy an Xbox right now is $150 + (15 to 20) games * $50/game (for new games) = $800 to $1150. Yikes, that's a lot of money!

      Seriously, what is your point?
    • A couple of mortage payments?!? I'd be lucky to find a house with a mortage that cheap and $500-1000 more wouldn't be out of the question.
    • What a weird comment. By your math it is more expensive to own a GameCube since it has 100s of games. Who buys all the games???

      But yes, waiting for prices to drop and reading game reviews is a good way to save money.

  • I don't mean to sound like a troll (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    But let's see a show of hand of how many people are excited about the XBox 360. At this point the only game that remotely interests me is Perfect Dark Zero, but I'm not paying 400 bucks to play it on the day it comes out. I'd rather wait and see what Sony has to offer and what Nintendo's lineup will be. I'm betting a lot of people feel the same way - after all, both companies still have a couple of cards they haven't shown us (Sony has a "big surprise" and Nintendo is releasing details at a snail's pace)
    • Actually the game I'm most looking forward to at launch is Kameo, after watching the demo of the game from the tokyo game show on the game, it looks like it will be a great platformer/rpg/whatever and an excellent show of the 360's power, after that I'd have to say ES: Oblivion is next in line for the ones I want the most, but PGR3 and NFS:Most Wanted also look fun. Sports games I could care less about on any system.
      • I actually got to play the demo level of Kameo, and it looks, sounds, and plays quite nicely. I'm much more interested in it now that I've had a hands-on with the game.

        And PGR3 looks so incredible from the footage I've seen that I may have to pick that up too.

  • Thankful! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Paul Slocum ( 598127 ) on Wednesday October 05, 2005 @04:37PM (#13724828) Homepage Journal
    I'm just really glad that I don't work for a software company that's making a 360 game right now, cause everything about this sounds really, really rushed.

    • Welcome to the industry (Score:5, Insightful)

      by nobodyman ( 90587 ) on Wednesday October 05, 2005 @07:46PM (#13726174) Homepage
      While I don't disagree at all with the above, "really, really rushed" describes around 99.9% of projects in the game industry at any given time. You're either rushing to meet a launch window, a holiday, or a deliverable deadline that ultimately decides whether you get paid for another x-months.

      I imagine that Sony and their first-party software teams feel just as rushed. Sure, they have six more months until launch, but they have they are dealing w/ a different set of variables, and their lackluster showing at TGS only fuels rumors that they are scrambling just as hard.

  • Too Human at Last! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I had been waiting for Too Human to come out forever. I finally decided it was just vaporware, and now they tell me it's coming out for Xbox 360?!?

    Un-believable.

    Next thing you know they'll be telling us the new Duke Nuk'em is coming out soon.
    • Too Human? More like Too Late, am i rite?

      Lessee now, PSX (as it was called back in the day), ???, GameCube, X360? Gee, I'm sure they had fun doing everything over and over again for each system and the new constraints/capabilities.

      AGHAHAHAHAHAHHAAH.

      Anyway, who's up for a round of Daikatana?

  • Yawn (Score:3, Funny)

    by thundar2000 ( 459149 ) on Wednesday October 05, 2005 @04:53PM (#13724961)

    I bet they all slip.

    Xbox will launch, and the only thing to buy for it will be a bunch of face plates.

  • ... for the 360 to come out and start pushing down the prices of games for the Xbox I just bought...

  • One game: Oblivion (Score:3, Interesting)

    by defkkon ( 712076 ) on Wednesday October 05, 2005 @05:02PM (#13725008)
    The only game I'm really waiting for is Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. If it is nearly as good as Morrowind was, then it should last me until the rest of the launch titles are the Xbox 360 equivalent of a Platinum Hit.

    If Morrowind had been the only game that I purchased for the original Xbox, I still would have considered it worth the money. I can't even guess at how many hours I've put into that game.

    • i definitely agree with you and i would too buy a 360 just for oblivion but i cannot due to the way consoles lock you out of your own property.

      i cannot perpetuate that illegal and unethical business model any longer in good conscience.

      i'd rather relax back on a couch and play oblivion for hours rather than break my back sitting at my computer but i won't be buying any consoles from now until they decide that people who purchase consoles have a right to full access of the hardware... which is essentially nev

  • Common Console Game Mistakes (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Keick ( 252453 ) on Wednesday October 05, 2005 @05:09PM (#13725062)
    You know, I'd hope by know that game makers (or console makers) would fix some of the most annoying parts playing a console first person shooter. We don't all use the controller the same, so why the heck only provide one configuration for the controller. I would think the very first, most basic thing to do when creating a game, is add the ability to configure the controller.

    There are numerous console games, Batman Begins and Prince of Persia WW, that have zero controller configuration.

    For that reason, I hope Microsoft has done their homework, and provide a transparent means of configuring the controller. Maybe a simple utility from the dashboard that lets the user reassign the "default" keys, possibly even storing person configurations, so that I can switch when I want. Or, maybe require that all games provide controller configuration in order to sport the XBOX360 logo?

    • Re:Common Console Game Mistakes (Score:4, Informative)

      by MrScience ( 126570 ) on Wednesday October 05, 2005 @06:53PM (#13725845) Homepage
      For that reason, I hope Microsoft has done their homework, and provide a transparent means of configuring the controller. Maybe a simple utility from the dashboard that lets the user reassign the "default" keys, possibly even storing person configurations, so that I can switch when I want. Or, maybe require that all games provide controller configuration in order to sport the XBOX360 logo?


      It appears [eurogamer.net] they have done their homework:
      "The System blade offers greater control over your individual settings. You can specify, for example, that you prefer to invert the right analogue stick camera control and this will then be picked up on in any game you play."
      • That is really good stuff. As such a good feature im surprised it hasnt been talked about more. Well would be surprised if it wasnt 'dare not say they can actually do something right!' MS.

        I have encountered a couple of games (Gun Valkerie in particular cause man what a good game in those brief moments Im not completely out of control.) that desperately need to allow more control over the err control.

        My brothers even worse he likes to have both axis reversed in some games. (Depending on what your definition

  • Right now, there is no killer "must have" game in this line up. Heck, they even haven't confirmed DOA 4 yet.

    So far, it sounds like a let down when compared to the XBox / Halo launch of 2001.

    • These may be the launch titles, but others won't be far behind. DOA4 was at the show, and it looked pretty finished to me. Didn't crash ir hand at all through the whole night either.

      It plays just the same as DOA3.
    • That may be true, but it's all based on opinion. I, for one, would buy the system alone for PGR3, although I'll readily accept that many don't even care about it. Heck, I pretty much bought a Dreamcast just to play Soul Calibur. A 'killer app' is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose is my point.

  • Complete Lack Of Consumer Interest? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Even systems that failed in the marketplace like the Dreamcast and Saturn seem to have vastly more interest from consumers than they have for the 360.

    It seems like the 360 has three pilars of support:

    1) Pc games that will be better on people's home computers
    2) Meh exclusives
    3) Watered down ports of PS3 games

    Even on cultish Xbox sites like teamxbox there seem to be huge numbers of hardcore Xbox fans saying they are going to pass on the 360 - or the more emotionally easy to accept 'wait to see what the PS3 sh

  • Maybe it's just momentum. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fwitness ( 195565 ) on Thursday October 06, 2005 @12:14AM (#13727466)
    I honestly feel that when Nintendo unveiled the new controller, home video games changed as we know it. Pretty much everyone, even the most die hard fan boys on all sides had to take a step back. Saying to themselves, "what the hell have we be doing these last few years?" Even your average joe consumer can't really think of a reason to buy the new XBox or PS2 aside from hi-def.

    I think right now, both Sony and Microsoft are seriously watching Nintendo. There are tons of meetings going on right now analyzing what people *may* want. This is diametrically opposed to the way we've been doing it, which is "give them what sold last time, but prettier and with some minor new features."

    I own all consoles currently out, and they each have their own advantages. However, I'm grinning ear to ear at what Nintendo has done to the industry. It's much like when photography was first invented. Painters were suddenly unecessary, as photos were quicker an more realistic. It took Picasso and other outstanding artists to show what painting could bring to the world that photos could not. I've used this analogy before, but never has it seemed more appropriate.

    As for MS and Sony (to a lesser extent), they have already entrenched themselves in their battlegrounds, there is little that can be done to go back. Only time will tell if they are in the right war.
    • Then there's a group of people, like me, that think the idea of waving your arms around like a madman just to play a game (have you seen that controller video?) is the stupidest idea ever. I still laugh whenever I see someone bobbing and weaving their head and body while controlling a character in Halo. Now Nintendo want's me to do exactly that? I'd be making less of a fool of myself if I stood up in a meeting at work and started doing jumping jacks.
      • That's fine because Nintendo isn't gambling on drawing in the hardcore gamers that think the console they play is an important part of their image. They aren't going to try and compete on "coolness." They're trying to grab the people that you're making fun of: the ones that are bobbing and weaving. Maybe you didn't realize that it could be put to good use? But it's embarrassing, so forget it.
        • I'm not saying it's not innovative, but it's definitely not doing anything to help the public conception that video games are not cool. There's no question about that, but you've already stated that Nintendo isn't competing on coolness, so we're in agreement about that one. I'm also not saying that it won't appeal to the 'casual' gamer (although I hate both 'casual' and 'hardcore' as terms), which it obviously will, based on my previous "bobbing and weaving" statement. Agreed, movement seems more natural i
          • It's good to see that you're open to the idea. Of course Nintendo has already shown people that crazy bobbing and weaving is unecessary, and you need barely move your wrist to control a game. However, the larger point is that what Nintendo is producing is a level of *interaction* that we have not had before. If you've watched the video, watch the man moving the controller in and out of the screen, concentrating. As an example, say you're playing your favorite FPS and part of your mission involves disarm
  • Today Bioware announced a new science fiction action-rpg that is already in development, Mass Effect. It will only be released for the Xbox 360 with no PC port planned and it's promising photo-realistic graphics, squad based gameplay, and continuous character development.

    Actually it's no PC port announced. Announced and planned are two entirely different things. A PC port can be planned but not announced, as part of the terms with the publisher.
  • After seeing/playing most of the available games (Too Human, Superman, Gears of War and a couple of others were by appointment), my opinion of the 360 really has gone up. I previously thought it to be rather a white elephant, but it's showing a lot of promise now.

    Kameo is really good. A true next-gen game. Great looking (the battles scenes are quite extraodinary), huge, good story, superbly designed, and yet still definitely a console game. The controls have really been designed well with most of the game r

    • "I'd suggest that you reserve your judgement until you can try the games out for yourself."

      I couldn't agree more. Why people are so quick to dismiss something that they haven't witnessed for themselves is just beyond me. I'd have to agree with a lot of people that Xbox 360's showing at E3 left something to be desired, but since TGS and X05 things have gotten more interesting. If someone goes to IGN or gametrailers.com, downloads latest 360 HD video previews and are still not somewhat excited by the launch

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