Boss View: Cheers and Jeers: X-Mas 2004

Electronic Gaming Business, Nov 17, 2004

The Boss must have gotten some bad news lately or something, because the volume of foul sputum and violent outbursts has escalated this holiday season as he espies the game industry's annual splatterfest it calls the Q4 release season.

Here are his Holiday Jeers, with occasional Cheer.

Sony Gets Stalled

Despite hearty sales of its slimmed down PS2, Sony's software development is showing all the signs of a total creative meltdown. The Boss has dutifully played with Sly 2, Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Jak 3, and KillZone and is left wondering what this company is thinking. The platformers are polished and fun, but they all are trying to exploit franchises that under-performed in their previous outings, and the early sales indications are that these iterations are not doing much better despite positive reviews. What the...? KillZone is a meandering shooter whose only purpose seems to be underscoring that there is nothing like Halo on the PS2. And don't get us started on Gran Tourismo 4. We predict that the hotly anticipated game will suffer greatly from the missing online play and endless delays. Don't be surprised if EA's Need for Speed Underground 2 seriously challenges it.

Tron Huh?

Jeers to Disney. How is this for marketing brilliance? Buena Vista released its Xbox version of FPS Tron 2.0 in the same window as Halo 2. Oh sure, there must be three or four Xbox owners out there who are looking for an alternative.

Hope You Like Mario ... a lot

Nintendo is set to irritate a number of users with the way underpowered launch of the DS handheld. Yes, it did a masterful job of getting out in front of Sony's PSP, and the unit will sell well. But beyond the 3D Mario platformer, there will be only a few titles worth playing on the system until after Christmas. In fact, Nintendo, knowing that the GameCube is flagging and that the DS launches with a weak library, is already promoting its post-holiday release schedule.

Kotick's Big Win

Cheers to Activision for making the most substantial charge forward among any game company this year. CEO Bobby Kotick's strategy of pulling back on the number of releases and focusing development and marketing on AAA titles that are thick with licensing appears to be a winner. The company did an excellent job pushing Doom 3 during the dreariest summer months, and its Spiderman 2 release had surprising longevity long after the film's release. Activision is posting big revenue gains this year and demonstrates that the Electronic Arts strategy is repeatable. If it can beef up its international sales, it could be in EA's rear view mirror.

C'est La VU

Jeers to Vivendi Universal Games, which failed to come through with its promised comeback this year. In fact, it didn't even come close, with missteps at every turn. The return of Leisure Suit Larry bombed from bad game design, while the only interesting title in the stable, Evil Genius, was just too hard and sophisticated for its natural audience of soft-core gamers. Surely, World of Warcraft and Half Life 2 will bail them out somewhat, but look at how badly the release of HL2 was boggled here. The only publicity surrounding this momentous release had to do with haggling between Valve and VUG over release dates and some store breaking the street date. Compare that to the excellent pre-release press garnered by Doom 3, GTA: San Andreas, and Halo 2 and you can see why VUG needs to seriously re-think its place in the gaming business.

Wake Us When It's Over

Pardon us for not singing in tune with the true believers in the choir, but after playing Halo 2 and GTA: San Andreas, the Boss fails to see how game designers moved the creative needle even a tad this year. We will give credit to Take-Two for adding polish and a more involving, adult back-story to the GTA series, as well as a lot of game play variety. Still, it feels like a game we played before (two years before, to be exact). If a publisher can't leverage such a can't-miss franchise as this into new and compelling game and narrative areas, then how precisely does the industry claim to be on a par with film and TV?

Halo 2 is another story, because the Boss thinks that the game got an undeserved pass from too many reviewers. Almost everyone acknowledged that the storyline is not that absorbing, that the levels get tedious, and that the action is pretty straightforward arcade shoot-em-up, but then they give it perfect scores. Gee, aren't all of those criticisms key aspects of creative game design? The Boss is enjoying Halo 2 in small doses, but the thinness of the game comes through clearly if you play more than an hour at a time.

[Copyright 2004 PBI Media, LLC. All rights reserved.]