Halo 3 In the Works, Set To Crush PS3 Launch? 110
IGN has an article claiming to reveal a few rumours from around the industry. The most interesting of these rumours is the possibility that Halo 3 is in the works already, and what's more is being targeted at the PS3 launch date in an effort to undermine Sony. From the article: "The release of Halo 3 at the precise launch of PS3 is a pure, military tactical move, similar to the PS2's greatest lineup ever launching simultaneously with the launch of the Xbox and GameCube. It's designed to counter Sony's upcoming launch with the best weapon Earth has on its side, Master Chief." I'd take this one with a big helping of NaCl.
Probably won't make a difference (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Probably won't make a difference (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Probably won't make a difference (Score:4, Insightful)
Come on, say it - it sounds to me like a recipe for disaster on MS's part, not just a recipe for rushing.
Seriously, does MS expect that they're actually going to make a dent in PS3 sales on launch day? These are by nature early adopters, people who are willing to sit in lines for hours on end, willing to pay $300-$400 for a system just so they can hit the internet and tell everybody how l33t they are.
At best, MS can hope for some residual sales from PS3 buyers who will also pick up Halo 3. But beyond that, a lot of Xbox-only owners will simply stay home on the PS3 launch day rather than deal with the crowds (those who really want Halo 3 can just order it online, and many will). The end result is going to be that the Halo 3 release will just get lost in the shuffle; can you remember what PS2 games were released on the day of the Xbox launch, or what Xbox games were released on the day of the GameCube launch? Every time a console is launched, one or another competitor (usually whoever's newest in the industry, and/or the most desperate) tries to pull out their big guns, and every time they fail miserably.
MS is still learning. They're making all the same mistakes that their predecessors did before them. You don't try to take on a competitor directly on launch day. Not with a game, that's for sure, no matter how big of a game it is. For the experienced players in the market (which includes Sony now), a competitors' launch day is a time to lay low... everybody's gonna have their day in the sun, and there's really nothing you can do about it. It's in everybody's best interests to let a launch day be a launch day.
The only way MS could hope to slow down PS3 launch day sales would be to launch Xbox 2 on the same day (though that's just robbing Peter to pay Paul, since it'd cut into their own sales too). Short of that and they're just committing market suicide with whatever they put out that week.
Re:Probably won't make a difference (Score:2, Insightful)
These things are NOT gonna be cheap! These consoles will probably launch with pricetags around $350-$400. At that rate, I know I won't be getting two, and when it comes down to it, I'll choose xbox over ps3 solely because of the Master Chief factor.
<Halo 2 rant>
"I'm gonna finish this fight." WHAT KIND OF AN ENDING IS THAT???
</Halo 2 rant>
Re:Probably won't make a difference (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Probably won't make a difference (Score:2, Insightful)
In fact, it's been estimated that the Xbox2 is due for release later this year, well before the PS3.
Releasing Halo 3 at the same time as the PS3 is much different than releasing Xbox2/Halo3 at the same time as the PS3.
People will already have the Xbox2, or those who did wait, will now choose: Halo 3 and Xbox2 or PS3 and... Kingdom Hearts 2.
Spend $50 bucks on Halo 3 or $350 on PS3
Master Chef (Score:3, Funny)
BAM!
Re:Master Chef makes no difference (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Master Chef makes no difference (Score:2)
Rokusabaro Michiba > *
It's simple (Score:1, Troll)
Re:It's simple (Score:4, Insightful)
Another words you get a way better bang for your buck with PS3. Yes, I too agree Xbox will probably never win in Japan.
Re:It's simple (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It's simple (Score:4, Insightful)
I have all three consoles but this nonsense about Xbox somehow being a bad deal because its time from introduction to new console is too short is ridiculous on its face...not to mention the fact that anybody who bought EITHER the PS2 or the Xbox at launch was a tool of the evil marketing drones. The PS2 launch lineup was a horror and the Xbox had ONE decent game (personally, I'm not a big Halo fan so I wasn't even up for that). At the time of the PS2's release, you could have bought a Dreamcast and a few GOOD games for the same price (or, if you already had the DC, you could have just bought a bunch of good games).
Re:It's simple (Score:2)
Re:It's simple (Score:2)
An alternate suggestion would be to simply not buy an XBox 2, thus saving $300.
That would be easier than getting a job.
Re:It's simple (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's simple (Score:1)
Re:It's simple (Score:1)
The only thing I want a PS2 for now is DMC3, but I can live without it.
Re:It's simple (Score:1)
Re:It's simple (Score:3, Insightful)
PS2: $300, died a year and a half later with constant Disc Read Errors on any disk put in it, finally bought a slim PS2 for $150 a few months back to replace it after borrowing my friend's for over a year and a half (since he never played it). 4 Memeory cards at @$20 each: $80. Total Price: $530.
Xbox: $200 (bought well after launch, just two weeks before the JSRF bundle was announced) plus $150 total on XBL ($50 on XBL launch, $50 after first year, another $50 this year). Ha
Re:It's simple (Score:2)
You can always tell when someone doesn't read enough. Strange little phonetic alterations like this pop up and add +5 retard to my internal filter.
In other words. This concludes the asshole portion of this post
XBOX 3 will not launch in two years. I don't agree with MS reasoning on a quick launch of XBOX 2, but I can follow the reasoning and see the logic.
Re:It's simple (Score:1)
I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say he or she was referencing this [homestarrunner.com].
Huh? (Score:2)
Sorry, I failed to catch your logic train.
Re:Huh? (Score:1, Insightful)
Er... "gaijin" means "foreign person". It cannot be applied to electrical appliances. The word you're probably not looking for (but I'm going to give you it anyway) is "gaikokusei".
Your claim is somewhat dodgy apart from that. In the 1970s, nobody thought you'd ever be able to sell Japanese cars in America. The American auto makers were thought to be completely safe from foreign competition. Hmm.
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong. Feel free to jot down the comment id and shove it my face in a couple years if the Xbox2 ends up being the "Kuso".
Re:It's simple (Score:1, Funny)
Never heard of Dreamcast, huh?
Re:It's simple (Score:1)
Never heard him say "successful console," huh?
Re:It's simple (Score:2)
And so it begins (Score:2)
Come on, can we at least save the one lined "PSx ROXXOR, XBOXX SUXOR!" until we've actually seen the games and consoles? Is that so hard?
Honestly - the worst part about this stupid cycle is just when you think the fanboy chatter has retreated to the furthest reaches of the xbox-is-my-god.com forum posts, they start crawling out into the light muttering unin
Strangly early to anounce this (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Strangly early to anounce this (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Strangly early to anounce this (Score:4, Informative)
Back in January of 2004, they first announced the 'fall 2004 [lawrence.com]' date. Prior to that, it was just "when it is done."
Then, in May, they gave the November 9th [findarticles.com] date.
So you might be barking up the wrong tree with the Halo 2 release date. They told us 6 months ahead of time the DAY it would be released. And they hit it.
Re:Strangly early to anounce this (Score:2)
I'd never have thought... (Score:1)
WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh for fucks sake IGN, why don't you just glue your lips to Bill Gates' ass.
Seriously though, are competing releases really a big deal for video games? I mean maybe it can be an issue on whether you want to spend your $300 on Revolution, PS3, or XBox 2. But one game is not going to derail the premere of a new system. It's not like movies where you're competing to get weekend and holiday crowds, since once those time frames are over, you lose a significant portion of potential customers and thus sales. Video games stay in stores for months. They compete with each other in terms of content and awesomeness, not in terms of who edges who out by a day or two.
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
Cute tactic, won't work. "PlayStation" is becomming the new "Nintendo", that is... the word people with no clue use as a generic for "video game".
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
The Nintendo was the biggest console of the last generation. The Super Nintendo is the biggest console of this generation. Short of giving away Playstations, Sony is NOT going to undermine the launch of the Nintendo 64 unless Nintendo does something spectacularly stupid (like launch with only one game: Mario 64, and not have any others available for 6+ months) which isn't going to happen.
Oh, wait....
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Insightful)
And that's why it's so silly, and why people are calling you on it. You have no reasonable way to guess that the Xbox2 will not be huge right now (we don't even have a launch date, real hardware specs, a list of launch games, or even knowledge of its controller)
Re:WTF? (Score:1)
They can go ahead and prove me wrong, I just think the odds are in my favor (but not by an overwhelming margin).
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
Re:WTF? (Score:1)
Great tactics there:p
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
And the moral of the story, not to mention the PS vs the Saturn, the DreamCast vs the PS2, and what not, and Nintendo vs Sony, is that the market is fickle, and sometimes technical specs don't matter; sometimes they do. Sometimes, being *the* market matters, and sometimes the new guy is in the right place at the right time with just the right idea.
so what? (Score:4, Insightful)
its not like Halo itself isn't itself a total rip-off. you think sony can't rip-off too? duh, hello, the Halo Cult is well-known and well-respected.. and certainly not the first of its kind.
this is just sensationalist tripe in a reactive market (gamers). grow up folks, its only a video game. the hardware, however, doesn't get made with pixie-dust
Re:so what? (Score:1)
Microsoft's master plan is to release Halo 3 on the same day as the PS3, that way people will run out and buy the Xbox just to play halo instead of buying a PS3.
Seriously though, aren't people already either gonna have an xbox or not, and have their minds made up what they want? I think Microsoft is trying its strongarm approach against the wrong type of company. Gates & co. are used to crushing weak opposition, and using their huge size advantage to overshadow the opponent (like Apple).
I got n
Re:so what? (Score:1)
Re:so what? (Score:1)
Underthinking the problem... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Underthinking the problem... (Score:1)
But wasn't... (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe I just don't hang out with enough XBOX players. I dunno...
Re:But wasn't... (Score:3, Insightful)
Between that and the paid-for newscasts I really have to wonder how much of the Halo 2 hype was real, and how much Microsoft bought.
How could anybody have possibly worried that they weren't going to be able to get a copy of Halo 2 on release day were it not for the FUD?
Re:But wasn't... (Score:1)
I mean, come on- there were preorders for it more than a year before it came out! Why do people preorder anyways? While a line of 300 people waited for more than two hours to pick up their copy that morning,
I walked into an FYE that was at the end of the line in the mall. There was one person in the entire store (the girl behind the counter). She had three cases of Halo 2 behind the counter, and it took less time for me to get it than it took for p
Re:But wasn't... (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem now is figuring out if there's anything new that Halo 3 can bring to the table other than a conclusion of the story and improved graphics (I guess we're all assuming this will be on the next XBox?).
Re:But wasn't... (Score:1)
Re:But wasn't... (Score:4, Informative)
No. (Score:3, Informative)
It really wasn't [gamerankings.com]. It also still remains the most popular Xbox Live game even now [xbox.com], so it obviously has some longevity.
I would agree that it was hardly a perfect game, but it's crazy to suggest that most players were unhappy with it.
God help us!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah and let Bill take over. My ass.
Re:God help us!!! (Score:1)
I have no love for either Sony or Microsoft.
Sony has evolved from the quality hardware manufacturer to the mediocre hardware manufacturer to the company it is now. They can't decide whether they're a hardware manufacturer or a content provider.
I think the best things Microsoft has done is to hire good marketing and they got in bed with IBM and kept it an open marriage. I have little respect for a company that produces a string of flops and continues to propo
Re:God help us!!! (Score:1)
Oh man, you had me scared for a second... I didn't notice that comma.
Re:God help us!!! (Score:2)
Ouch! Tho, I suppose "judge not lest ye be judged". Good on you, for showing your true colours.
I usually don't do this but... (Score:4, Funny)
The problem with this plan is that 99% of console FPS fans already have the XBox/XBox2 as their consoles of choice. Halo 3 will let Microsoft keep their fan-base, but it's not going to do much to expand it, much less "crush the PS3"
And if I worked for IGN, I'm sure I'd make up some story about Halo 3 being released on the XBox2 as well. Why wouldn't I? It's a pretty sure thing. Then I guess I'd slap on a header like "Here are two rumours you haven't heard anywhere else" like I'm a revolutionary for guessing that Halo 3 will come out at about the same time as the PS3 launch.
(I hate IGN.)
In other news... (Score:1)
Re:In other news... (Score:1)
i think OP has this backwards (Score:1)
Interesting! (Score:3, Funny)
Uh, really? You mean they're working on a sequel to their best-selling series of games? The one that ends abruptly with a total cliffhanger? That is an interesting rumor!
Oh come on... (Score:3, Informative)
This is a smart move by Microsoft. Lets face it, the only thing that kept Xbox afloat for the first year was Halo. When Halo 2 came out, Xbox live subscriptions jumped through the roof. What do you think is going to happen when Halo 3 comes out?
Microsoft is going to have to play all of its cards in order to have a chance against Sony, and doing a competitive release of Halo 3 against the PS3 may get some Sony loyalists to get the Xbox Next, especially if they do the marketing blitz strategy that worked so well in October.
Oh, and before anyone says I'm a Microsoft fanboy, I'm a mac user. Don't rule Microsoft out just because they're a US company (which many people seem to love doing)
Um... (Score:1)
In other words... Halo 3 coming? We KNEW that.
Of course Halo 3 is in the works.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Remember the original story line shown at the preview?
"You're defending Earth in a last ditch stand against the horror!"
Now notice the cut scenes that made no sense and then suddenly the story plot is left open ended?
Bungie was ready to conclude the Halo story with 2 and move onto something new (as the did with their other story lines) but Microsoft insisted that there be a Halo 3 for XBox 2. Against Bungie's wishes the plot was changed from a
Re:Of course Halo 3 is in the works.... (Score:1)
Re:Of course Halo 3 is in the works.... (Score:2)
SpecOps Leader: This armour suits you, Arbiter. But it cannot hide that mark.
Arbiter: Nothing ever will.
SpecOps Leader: You are the Arbiter. The will of the Prophets. But these are my Elites. Their lives matter to me, yours does not.
Arbiter: That makes two of us.
SpecOps Leader: Mm.
Did you even play Halo2? (Score:3, Insightful)
Halo was never a 'one of the kind artifact'. They tell you that in Halo 1. Its in a cutscene, you can't miss it.
The covenant was NEVER 'a mindless horr
Re:Did you even play Halo2? (Score:1)
#1 - The second "Reclaimer", a marine not listed on the Pillar of Autumn. #2 - The flood are sentient, and some humans infected retain some degree of expression.
Ok (Score:2)
Sony has always had plenty of interesting and varied titles for the PS on launch, and the PS3's total sales still outnumber Xbox easily if you count Japan, which is NOT a country to forget about in terms of total sales.
And what makes people think PS3 won't have some killer launch titles? Gran Turismo 5 anybody? Final Fantasy XIVIXIX?
I bought Halo2 for multiplayer (Score:3, Insightful)
Not the first I've heard this (Score:2)
it's about awareness (Score:3, Insightful)
Did you see the marketing campaign for halo2? It was almost like a new console was being released.
Now think about it. No matter when halo3 comes out, Microsoft will back it up with a huge marketing campaign. So why not make it coincide with the ps3's release? This way, halo3's marketing campaign will accomplish two things:
1) sell a ton of halo3 copies, which is the goal of any marketing campaign.
2) burry sony's marketing campaign under their own.
Re:it's about awareness (Score:1)
dissapointing ending (Score:1)
for a bad ending im suprised nobody is whinging about splinter cell:pandora tomorrow now there is a game with no real ending at all no cliff hanger like halo 2, no real conculsion beyond a few lines of text and a really bad cut scene. what had happened to dera dan doah after you captured thier leader (i cant remember his name right now) infact what happened to him at all? y
more like Halo 2.5 (Score:2)
Not that Halo 2 was so different from Halo 1, though. So perhaps they will call it Halo 3, anyway.
Really? (Score:1)
Dear Fanboys: Stop Being a Tool (Score:2)
A Simple To Do List for Fanboys, 2005-2006
* Pick a console that you will pay $300 that has the best games you like,
* Buy g
To all those points to Square-Enix as Sony savoir- (Score:1)
Sony has been kind of bending SE over as of late*, and I wouldn't blink twice if SE starting making more of their RPG's multi-console. They've already announced a fairly interesting looking PC -only- MMO** this year. ALso, the many GBA/DS/Cell phone games that SE has announced, with nothing yet offical for the PSP?
I'm not saying that SE is going to do nothing with the PS3, hell no. What I highly doubt we'll see is anything on the scale of that FF8 demo that bitch slaped everything else at the time
Competition is GOOD (Score:2)