Welcome back Axeheads for another week of The Rumor KILL. First off, I would like to thank everyone for the kind words and ratings in response to the debut of the feature this past week. I’m glad you guys had fun with the column and more importantly I’m glad that some great discussion came out of it as well. We have an interesting lineup of some of the juiciest gossip to come out of the gaming world so without another wasted word…lets ravage some rumors!
THE RUMOR: PSP Go to be relaunched
THE SOURCE: Joystiq
MY TAKE: If there’s any video game platform out there that needs a relaunch it’s definitely the PSP Go. This thing was a disaster from day one and the sales numbers prove it. Overpriced, poor marketing campaign, and the inability to play previously bought UMDs all added up to create a device that made no sense for people to buy. Is the system itself bad though? I really don’t think so. The PSP Go makes sense for people who don’t want to fumble with UMDs in the car or carry a case full of them on the road. With a price cut and a better marketing campaign this portable device could be resurrected.
THE VERDICT: BELIEVE IT!!!
For the sake of the PSP Go this better damn well happen. Sony would have to have its head shoved up its ass pretty far to think the PSP Go will be considered a success the way it’s been going. I mean Christ, we called a damn boycott on the thing when it first hit store shelves and I know for a fact we weren’t alone. However, as mentioned above, a price cut and better marketing might just be all the PSP Go needs to pick itself up. Will I pick one up after the relaunch? HELL NO….. but someone might.
THE RUMOR: Gran Turismo 5 not hitting store shelves till Fall 2010
THE SOURCE: GameSpot
MY TAKE: I’m thinking a new rule should be imposed on publishers and developers. Every time they announce a release date and then delay the game, they should have to lower the price of the game by $10. This is like Santa saying his elves got lazy and Christmas will be delayed for 6 month, its god damn unacceptable! Despite cursing their name to the heavens, I can’t blame Sony from a business standpoint though. They need a blockbuster title to throw into the holiday mix and Gran Turismo 5 is pretty much guaranteed to sell like hot cakes lodged into Captain Price’s M16.
THE VERDICT: BELIEVE IT!!!
Sadly, it’s all about the money and the money points to this holiday being when GT 5 hits the racetrack. I’m not against the delay if the game actually needs work that will take 11 months to complete, but if it’s sitting in the garage collecting dust till the holidays then I have a serious problem. Anyway, the bottom line is we aren’t going to see GT 5 until the end of the year at the earliest, and even then another delay wouldn’t be a complete surprise.
THE RUMOR: Nintendo will announce new platform at GDC 2010
THE SOURCE: The Escapist
MY TAKE: Hard to believe Nintendo’s done riding the money printing machines that are the Wii and the DS. However, due to the two consoles lacking the super powered processors of its competitors, they are definitely showing their age (especially the Wii, sorry fanboys). Also, with Microsoft and Sony diving head first into motion control Nintendo needs a new niche to fill. Talks of an update to both platforms have been swirling for a while now and GDC would be an interesting show to debut it, whatever IT is.
THE VERDICT: KILL IT!!!
Something new is on the horizon from Nintendo that I’m almost sure of. What it will be and when we’ll see it though is up in the air. According to the source this new platform has devs working on creating games for it as you read. This essentially means this new platform will have something new that Nintendo’s consoles don’t have. Though it signifies a significant change this isn’t necessarily a new platform, it could just be an upgrade like the DSi was to the DS. It seems way too early for a Wii 2 or DS 2 and I’m not convinced the casual gaming audience will be comfortable moving away from the Wii and DS right now. Still, wouldn’t it be nice for Michael Pachter’s illusive Wii HD to become reality?
THE RUMOR: Final Fantasy XIV coming to Xbox 360
THE SOURCE: IndustryGamers
MY TAKE: There really isn’t much to say on this one. To be honest I’m surprised it took so long for a rumor like this to pick up steam. Since Final Fantasy XIII is multiplatform it seems to be a logical conclusion that from here on all Final Fantasy games will be multiplatform. GTA is a prime example of one franchise that has gone multiplatform and never looked back. Then again why would Square Enix not announce a Xbox 360 version when the game was first announced at E3 if that was the plan all along? Man, this industry can be hard to figure out sometimes.
THE VERDICT: BELIEVE IT!!!
It doesn’t make sense that Square Enix would ignore one of the biggest online gaming communities for their MMO. After all unlike most games MMOs rely heavily on subscriptions and not just sales…so covering as much of the online market as possible is the best way to succeed. I mean come on, the game’s going to be on Windows anyway so it’s not like Square Enix is favoring Sony in the first place. The only way I can see this not happening is if the Xbox 360 sales of Final Fantasy XIII are absolutely abysmal. Like only one creepy basement dweller that has a hard-on for Lighting buys it. Since that probably won’t happen (the single sale part, the creepy guy probably does exist somewhere) we can safely bet Xbox Live will be flooded with Sephiroth lookalikes soon enough.
THE FINAL SAY
In the final say this week I want to give a quick word about the recent leaked footage of Duke Nukem Forever which for those who missed it can be seen right here. Ahem, to whoever/whomever keeps leaking this crap: S-T-O-P! The game is dead, buried and the tombstone has been kicked over. Actually that’s a lie…a game must first EXIST for it to die and after seeing roughly 12 different versions of this game over the past 13 years I’m convinced the game is just a figment of my imagination. We don’t need to see footage of a game that will never hit store shelves, all it does is further cement into our minds that Duke Nukem Forever will go down as the biggest FAIL in the history of gaming.
Phew, now with that’s off my chest, give your take below on each of this week’s rumors and let us know if you think they should be KILLED, BELIEVED or SPARED. Also, if you find solid proof of the truth/falsehood in these rumors please post it below and you’ll get a nice pat on the back courtesy of me. Until then I’ll see you all next week for another edition of EpicBattleAxe.com’s The Rumor KILL.
Great article Mr. Lucas, as usual!
I entirely agree with you on the PSP Go rumor, that thing needs a relaunch from the marketing point of view, and please SONY, make it very clear that this is pretty much a PSP “light”, and not a replacement for the PSP 3000 or even the 1000 (which is the one I still own).
The huge problem with the PSP Go is that it just too expensive to own and upkeep! Those Magic Gate memory cards are insanely expensive to begin with, and the system itself doesn’t have that much of a Hard Drive.
For me the PSP Go is probably going to follow the same fate the Dreamcast had, a system with great potential, but with a terrible implementation.
I don’t have too much to say about GT5 or Nintendo, those two topics are so shrouded at this point in time that I have little to no care for them, hehe
The FFXIV rumor is a little delicate, I do agree that XBL has a huge online community compared wit PSN but that on itself doesn’t really tells us anything. It has been proven that in the last year better JRPG’s have been released on the 360 than on PS3 (surprisingly) but still they haven’t impacted that market as much. I guess that the online community of the 360 is huge, but it’s also huge on just gun totting, chainsaw executing, and laser banging aliens.
The Final Fantasy Online community is very niche-esque by nature (I know, I was part of it in FFXI for years) and in no way, resembles the crowd that owns a 360.
Will Square Enix release it on 360? Maybe, will it sell? I don’t think so. Remember that 360 owners have to deal with 2 charges, one the charge people need to pay to have access to Gold Membership, and 2, the Monthly fee FFXIV will require.
Also I remember when FFXI was released on the 360 and saw this dude buying it on BestBuy thinking it was a Single Player game, I felt sorry for him and I told him it was an MMO for the 360 and he was like “Oh didn’t know, I guess I’m not buying this”.
I would “Spare” that rumor, and “Beleive it” when it actually gets confirmed, hehe.
Cheers EBA!
Good stuff once again Mr. Archer. It’s good to have you aboard
PSP Go- Just needs to fade away. Unless they relaunch it with a UMD conversion plan, no marketing deal with Satan himself is going to sell them. It does not bode well if Sony is not supporting the PSP digitally, the people leaving pissed off comments for the lackluster Go support every week is hilarious ( Look through any store update http://blog.us.playstation.com/category/playstation-network/playstation-store-playstation-network/ ). They stole the idea from Nintendo but screwed themselves with it’s execution. I BELIEVE it but it needs to be KILLED
Gran Turismo 5-Only devoted fans are hoping that it will be released in fall 2010. They’ve only announced a release date every year since 2005 only to delay it over and over. I’m surprised the PSP version launched as promised. KILL IT
Nintendo- I think it will just be a Wii with more memory. Their own version of the Console memory tree.
FFXIV- This ones a little iffy. With Xbox Live Microsoft manages everything Online, while the PS3 and PC rely on the Developers to handle the duties of a game online. It could be more trouble than it’s worth for MS, even worse if it doesn’t sell as well. SPARE IT
Duke Nukem Forever- Ah, the herpes of the video game industry. Every once in a while it comes back to really show us it’s still there.
If nintendo were smart they would release a new console soon, cause imagine a nintendo wii 60 (get it? 360…wii 60?!….ahh forget about it) and it could play all the big titles, god of war 3 etc. By xmas, it could steal a huge amount of the games market. A few big exclusives such as the new zelda game and enhanced versions of mario galaxy 2 and metroid and youve pretty much got a sure thing. Imagine if it had happened end of last year, and had all the big name games. Game sales since october have been huge, this would’ve ridden the success bike merely. Make it play the big name games, make it cheap, and nintendo fans wouldve eaten it up. Assasins creed 2 cod mw2 and all those, the wii needs titles like that available to make it useful.
Then again i dont care cause im a pc gamer so meh.
Psp Go: Believe it!(btw is that like a naruto saying right sir Lucas cause if it is i approve lol)but ya that psp go really needs some help to sell
GT5: Believe it! cause that reasoning makes sense
Nintendo no idea lol
FFXIV: god i hope this isnt true just cause xbox needs to stop stealin PS good games and killin em like FF13 which rumor has it cut out so much content just cause the xbox cant freakin handle it.
Wow. I think that’s an excellent idea. IMHO, the developers shouldn’t start a hype more than 6 months before the internal deadline of the final game. But sadly this will never happen …
Sony relaunch their PSPGo?? Belived it!!!
But if they do:
They have to be up to date with every freaking PSP hit out there. You know how many people complain in their Store update blogs about them not publishing FF Dissidia, Crisis Core or any other new and hit game on the store??
It’s nuts that digitally they are not supporting the Go with a lot of games every week that come on UMD. I’m getting the feeling if they do that, the overall PSN structure will have to go to a monthly fee so they can have money to support the PSN infrastructure and then be more steady on digital downloads for the community. BUT GOD FORBID THIS COULD BE THE CASE OR ONLY SOLUTION TO THEIR PROBLEM!
Nintendo releasing a HD console that could play all the current AAA titles would be a smart move. Most people doubt this as their sales base is on the casual market…but most casual gamers see Wii=Gaming, so if they were to release a Wii HD then I have a feeling that most casual gamers will be converted to the religion of the Hardcore….And if they dont convert we could always just start a crusade and burn every Wii in existence.
Good graphics =/= converts you into hard core.
Converted because it has HD in the name and better graphics? I can’t agree with you. Most of Wii’s buyers don’t care that much for games, let alone graphics.
I don’t think where will be another Wii util this one’s sales drop significantly.
Hm somehow i don’t realy believe in the PSP-GO thing.. japanese marketiers have to much pride to get something this “big” on the right track, remember sony’s position on the ps3 price drop, they pushed it FOREVER (except the first from 599 to 499) so i probably would say that they are going to support it way better or release a new model of it with maybe UMD support (well this makes no sense because they said that the go should be the gate to digital delivery). So far i realy don’t think that they will re-launch the go just because they took a big hit in the stomach… so i probably would want to be spared by the rumor !
but we can not imagine how the next gt’s (6-7 or spinoffs maybe) will look if they refine their engine the difference between god of war and gow2 where horrendous and so will gt5 to 6 be… hitting your cell right under the nuclear explosion mark and refining the code so far that you won’t realise how unreal the real world is if you see cars in 1080p rendered before your eyes ! so probably believe it !
the gt part is sad but probably true, i looked the first bonus round (q4 06) up and their where gt5 footage and now ? we’re here, no oil crisis (no real oil crisis), no food in pill form and no flying cars.
so gt5 will be delayed to q1 ’11 or late (christmas maybe) q4 ’10, but i honestly don’t think for money purpose… polyphony digital wants the game to be perfect, they had to developed the engine from scratch 2 times and they still have some issues to fix so that gt5 won’t drown as gt on pspgo/psp did (camera angles, car behaviour and so on). but of course everybody could be wrong and they shove it up our ass in mid ’10 or as they said last year (not quite sure) march so hey hopefully they will do updates
nintendo -> nya money printing machines are a better choice then HD support and 1200horse power grafixcards.
and ffXIV for xbox360.. why not but though not every ff spinoff will be released on xbox360 (as stated above) even though we’ve never heard something off FFXII:Versus again, it will be ps3 exclusive and i still think some contracts aren’t dry yet with exclusive rights to sony and i would even believe if microsoft payed sony a huge amount for lifting their bondaries a bit with square enix. so thats probably true and believable but i still hope that my console of choice (j-rpg fan thus ps3 and hugely dissapointed ((up until now)) will suceed and may recieve sequels of games that i loved on the psx
wishes <3