360 Has Best Launch Lineup Ever?

J. Allard had a chat with Edge magazine about the launch lineup of the Xbox 360, and makes the claim that they have the best launch lineup ever associated with a console. He also talks about the overall vision they had for the launch, and how well their expectations are being met. From the article: "I think it's pretty much spot on. I spoke with someone who was very involved in the planning about three years ago - he came over for about five minutes to drop something off and ended up spending three hours looking at all the capabilities of the machine, and he said, 'Son of a gun, if you guys didn't do 95 per cent of the original vision of the machine!' And I looked at him and said, 'Well, what was the other five per cent, what did we drop?' and he said, 'I don't know. I couldn't find it!'"

not saying much

[ThePepe]

Well that certainly doesnt say much for the previous consoles' release lineups.

No.

[vertinox]

We'll reserve the best launch linup for NES "Duckhunt/Mario" combo catridge.

Remember the times when consoles would come with a game that was good enough to play for very very long time before buying a new game?

Wow

[nocent]

News flash! Microsoft executive claims Microsoft product has best launch ever!

Re:This won't go over well on slashdot

[Ender Ryan]

That is utterly laughable to anyone who's been a gamer for more than... I'll grant 4 years, at the most.

Bah.

[Inoshiro]

I didn't like it the first time when it was called Starfox Adventures, why would I like it with different textures?

Re:This won't go over well on slashdot

[badasscat]

Most of the release titles were sequels of solid games (COD, Perfect Dark, EA sports games). These are phenominal launch titles because they are easier to create and already have a fan base.

So what you're saying is that this launch features a bunch of generic, lowest-common-demoninator sequels that appeal to people who have already played the previous versions.

This is a good launch lineup? At best, it will appeal to some of those who already own Xboxes. It will not initiate any interest in anyone beyond that. This is the problem when you have a launch lineup that's mainly a bunch of sports games and sequels.

Good launches always have at least one "must-have" game that shows off what the new system is capable of and/or offers a new gameplay experience. They also have to have most of the popular genres represented. The Xbox 360 has most genres represented (though it's missing a few important ones, like fighting games and RPG's), but it has no must-haves whatsoever. There is nothing in the 360's launch lineup that makes me go "wow! I've never seen anything that cool before, and I have to have it." There's no equivalent to Super Mario or Soul Calibur or even the original Ridge Racer in there (no, RR6 just doesn't carry the same cachet). MS obviously thinks there is in PD0 and CoD2, but these are sequels - they are basically graphical upgrades to previous games that a lot of people have already played. They may have a few gameplay tweaks but the core gameplay is nothing we haven't seen before.

I'd say the 360 launch lineup is middling. It's not the worst ever (go look up something like the Intellivision launch lineup), but there have been better ones, including the PS2, PS1, Coleco Vision, NES, SNES, Game Boy, N64, and Dreamcast. Not all of these systems had the same quantity as the Xbox 360 but they all had at least one game that everybody just had to play, and in some cases they had several.

I don't think the 360 launch lineup will hurt or help the console; I think it will mainly be forgotten about once the next round of games comes out.

Re:The Xbox 360 philosophy?

[DarKnyht]

"Sitting down with Xbox's J Allard six months ago, at the 360's unveiling, two things became very quickly apparent. The first was that this was a machine built around a philosophy, not a set of tech specs."

Hmm... odd I seem to remember Microsoft and Sony getting into a peeing contest over their specs, and Nintendo being the only one to state that specs didn't matter three months ago.

"Philosophy" of "innovation," no doubt

[ianscot]

But while Allard's "grand vision" of the Xbox 360 sounds amazing, it's hard for me to imagine Microsoft actually pulling it off. He claims that they're going to attract casual gamers, yet the launch lineup was aimed squarely at the same audience that bought the Xbox 1. He says that Microsoft can change their reputation through their actions, but their actions are only giving us PGR3, Halo 3, PDZ, and Kameo.

So: Does all the talk about philosophy and innovation match up with the product? If not, you can safely ignore it as PR puffery. Even within his quotes here, Allard talks about breaking new ground and then talks about hitting all his goals from three years ago. If there's a philosophy there, it's one to do with mediocrity.

The conspicuous presence in this market that actually seems to believe in all those PR terms is Nintendo.

Re:Best System Out Right Now Is...

[Mr.Dippy]

Yes, you can blow almost 500 dollars on an Xbox and a game. From what I've seen on the lineup I'm only interested in Call of Duty or King Kong (Both of which you can get on the PS2 and PC). Non exclusive titles rock!!! Especially when you can pay an extra 10 dollars for them on the 360. I'm promoting the DS to all my gamer friends this christmas. Mario Kart with the Wifi is just too damn fun and games like Kirby Canvas, Castlevania, Trauma Center are fun and you can't get them on any other system. Maybe comparing the xbox360 to the Nintendo DS is like apples to oranges but all I know is that my Nintendo DS is well worth the $130 investment. Can you say the same thing about the xbox 360?

Re:Still no Ultramix DDR support!

[dtfarmer]

I'll believe 100% reverse compatibility when I see it. They weren't able to do it with the PS2 and I don't think they'll do it with the PS3 either.

They did it a hell of a lot more successfully than MS has - 99.5% backward compatibility is good enough, especially when compared to ~25% compatibility (based on about 200 of 800 releases - i think those are close for US release numbers) where titles keep coming and going with promises of 100% compatibility.

Now if Sony does the same thing with PS3, I will be the first to criticize them. And I hope MS does eventually get close to 99% compatibility - so I can chuck my xbox and put a 360 in its place.

And why would you buy a PS3 just to play your PS2 games?

No one buys a PS3 just to play their PS2 games. Quit being dramatic. They buy the PS3 so they can play new games, but they want to finish their PS2 games, or they may have a favorite that they want to keep replaying. And they do not want extra consoles hooked up in order to do so, if at all possible. They want to just replace the PS2, and play everything on the PS3 - new games as well as old.

Of course, you know this - but being a fanboy, you want to harp on .5% incompatibility like it's even comparable to MS's incompatibility rate, and denigrate someone who wants to continue playing older games even when newer ones are out. Maybe she likes some of the songs in particular versions of DDR, and since they change each release, she won't be able to dance to those songs in the PS3 DDR release, but if she can just pop the old PS2 DDR Extreme in the new PS3, viola! (or the Ultramix 2 in the 360, same diff.)