EGM:Rumor Mill

[RiseToFall]

I just received my new issue of EGM and while I was flipping through the pages, two things in the rumor mill really caught my eye this month.


Fanboys always have their favorites, and most Sony lovers are proud to brag about the PS3 snagging th exclusive rights to Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Unless it comes out on the 360, that is. Yes, as crazy as it may sound, I hear Konami is forcing the game's head honcho, Hideo Kojima, to port Metal Gear Solid 4 over to the 360.


Microsoft might gobble up another developer-after the success of Dead Rising, it's looking to open its checkbook to consume Capcom.

Rumor 1: Having Microsoft take away Sony's biggest exclusive would hit a hard blow to the PS3.

Rumor 2: If this one really does turn out to be true, I can tell you right now that the 360 may very well dominate the PS3. Capcom is a huge publisher/developer in both the U.S. and Japan and having them develope exclusively for 360 would be devastating to the success of the PS3.

Now keep in mind that both of these are just rumors as of now. Wether one or both turn out to be true is still unkown. However, the scary thing is, these guys have been right on more than one occasion.

Any coments on one or both rumors?

-BTW: Please don't give me the "I'm anti Sony" speech. I own all three systems and the PS2 is without a doubt my favorite of the three.

[edczxcvbnm]

Metal Gear doesn't have that strong of a chance of happening after what happened with MGS2 on the XBox as well as MGS4 being built from the ground up to take advantage of the Cell Processor in the PS3. Any port o the 360 would be hard to pull off and would take about a year. The result would probably be jaggy city and choppy frame rate issues(same as the MGS2 port).

[JKTrix]

I dont' recall any issues with the MGS2 port, which I own. I thought it looked and performed quite a bit better than the original. If it does happen though, it probably won't be for a few years anyway.

I don't doubt that Microsoft will attempt to buy out Capcom, but I really don't think Capcom should allow that to happen. Perhaps this is a knee-jerk reaction to the possibility of Lost Planet and Dead Rising ending up on the PS3? If MS wants to keep those games exclusive, pay them for that. Not the whole company. I like to see Mega Man, Devil May Cry, Street Fighter and all the other Capcom staples spread about freely. I don't want them all on one box, and Capcom would do its fans a disservice if it did.

[ljkkjlcm9]

even if Microsoft attempts to buy Capcom, or even does buy them, Capcom will still be producing portable games. But I doubt that Microsoft will buy them.

THE JACKEL

[sephirothishere]

THERE JUS RUMOURS MAN.....

[XxSephirothxX]

It wouldn't bother me that much if Microsoft bought Capcom. It would certainly not drastically change the gaming world--the Xbox is just not popular in Japan, and Microsoft owning Capcom would not change that overnight. I've been itching for a solid Xbox Live version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 or Street Fighter Alpha 3 or Capcom vs. SNK 2, and maybe Capcom would actually make such a thing if Microsoft bought them. Who knows.

MGS4 on the 360 is a bigger issue, I think, and personally I'd like to see it happen just so I can play it. With so many different people offering differing opinions as to the power of the two consoles, I'm not really sure if the 360 version could keep up with the PS3's or not. I sure hope it could.

[RiseToFall]

It wouldn't bother me that much if Microsoft bought Capcom. It would certainly not drastically change the gaming world

Having Resident Evil 5 be a 360 exclusive will certainly put a hole in Sony's wallet. Atleast that's what I think.

[XxSephirothxX]

Sure, it would make an impact, but I don't think it would make the 360 dominant in Japan, or anywhere even close. It might be a bit more significant than their purchasing of Rare, but I really don't see Capcom working exclusively for Microsoft changing things that much. Maybe I'm wrong. There are plenty of other things out there putting a hole in Sony's wallet. Hell, they're doing a pretty good job sabotaging themselves lately. :p

[sephirothishere]

I'm not really sure if the 360 version could keep up with the PS3's or not. I sure hope it could.


yeh...well..i have limited knowledge on the console...seein as itll be a long time before i actually get one...but...i heard that all the shiznit that sony are puttin into the ps3 will make it like....the metal gear of consoles....hahah....a standalone army destroyer blower upper thingy...

[RiseToFall]

From the looks of things I would say 360 is slighty behind in terms of power. It seems to me that PS3's first gen games(Resistance:Fall of Man) are up there with 360 second gen games.(Gears of War) Though it's nice, it's not to the point where I want to yell out "holy /xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gif, I need to go dump $600 right now."

[JKTrix]

THERE JUS RUMOURS MAN.....

The reason why some of us are taking this seriously, is because EGM rumours have had a history of actually coming true. This isn't some hogwash blurted out randomly on a messageboard, this is 'industry insider' information.

MGS on 360 doesn't bother me. Capcom becoming a Microsoft 2nd Party though, I *really* don't see happening. Maybe they'll buy shares in Capcom if they haven't already (like how Sony has shares in Square Enix), but that just means they own a part of them and not all. That, I can deal with.

I just think it'd be sacrilege. The Japanese consumers might even turn on Capcom if that were to happen.

[edczxcvbnm]

I dont' recall any issues with the MGS2 port, which I own. I thought it looked and performed quite a bit better than the original. If it does happen though, it probably won't be for a few years anyway.

I played the tanker mission on the XBox and there was a lot more slow down than there should have been. It doesn't skip frames...it just slows everything down to get all those frames in there. It was also jaggier in comparison. That is why I waited for them to release substance on the PS2.

[Yew-Yevon]

Dispite the power the 360 boasts about (I'v seen it and played it) it just felt like shinier xbox games. On ps3 the game looks as one magasen said "good enough to be a CG movie seen in theaters" I have a hi-res trailer on one ov my OPM demo discs and have to agree. 360 hasent shown me that type of lifelikeness yet.

[JKTrix]

Dispite the power the 360 boasts about (I'v seen it and played it) it just felt like shinier xbox games. 360 hasent shown me that type of lifelikeness yet.

Play Gears of War.

Not every PS3 game is going to look like MGS4. MGS has had a history of really pushing the graphical power of the system it's on, and this is no different.

Konami is just afraid that the PS3 won't sell enough to make MGS4 worth it. I'm sure this is probably one of the most expensive-to-develop games being made for the PS3. If it goes to 360, it might not make any difference in Japan, but MGS is a pretty big game in the US too. If it's on both PS3 and 360, that's more income for them to make up the costs of developing the game. Konami is approaching it from a Business view, but Kojima is probably doing his best to avoid the headaches of porting it to a completely different system with less features.

[Yew-Yevon]

Play Gears of War.



Gears of War is useing the Unreal engine 3 wich epic has stated that on sonys system, development of a game for PS3 using that engine is as easy as copying from PC development and puting it right on to PS3 software. Gears of war is using a flexable engine rather well, unlike quake 4 wich ran at less than 30fps for the whole game.

[JKTrix]

What's your point? You said you haven't seen anything better than a 'Shiny Xbox Game' on the 360, I gave you one to try. I'm not going to try to argue that 360 games can/will look better than PS3 games on an appropriate display device.

Edit: To add to that last point, I don't think we'll be seeing any clear differences in graphical quality between the 2 systems for a while.

I came across this link (http://blog.wired.com/games/2006/11/ridge_ps3_vs_ri.html) yesterday that showed Ridge Racer 7 (PS3) vs Ridge Racer 6 (360), both launch games for the respective system, and it would be pretty difficult to know which was which just by looking at them. I guessed that the top one was PS3 since the car was a little smaller, which could be due to the higher rez, but it could have just been a different camera angle.

The PS3, by the numbers, has a higher potential for better graphics, but we may have to wait until MGS4 comes to say definitively "there's no way the 360 could do that".

[Shoeberto]

I hope Capcom doesn't get bought out. They've always been good about providing great titles for all platforms to take advantage of the demographics and technology, so limiting them to Microsoft platforms (which I assume would likely happen) would be a big blow to the industry as a whole.

[Slothy]

THERE JUS RUMOURS MAN.....

The reason why some of us are taking this seriously, is because EGM rumours have had a history of actually coming true. This isn't some hogwash blurted out randomly on a messageboard, this is 'industry insider' information.

We're talking about the same magazine that reported an FFVII remake for the PS3 as fact well after it was repeatedly denied by Square, and has been denied repeatedly since. That's only one of the more recent lapses in EGM's reporting. EGM has been known to report rumour as fact in the past, and frankly, their quality level has dropped over the years. I don't consider anything they print that hasn't been confirmed by other sources credible to be honest, so I'll wait until this is confirmed by Konami through other sources.

[Roto13]

Wasn't that FFVII thing in the rumour mill too?

[Slothy]

Nope. They had it in a preview of PS3 next gen titles in development several months ago, but well after Square had denied any remake was being made.

[JKTrix]

It wasn't "well after square denied it". Their magazines have quite a bit of lead time. The issue that RiseToFall is reading now was finalized over a month ago. At the time EGM had that in their magazine, all they were going off of was the E3 video.

The rumour mill has been fairly accurate in the past, but they are in fact just 'Rumours' and not quite 'news'. In fact, I remember an issue late last year that hinted at Kojima's involvement with Nintendo for a "Revolution" game. It was very vague, in fact they didn't even finish the sentence and left it hanging. And here we have Solid Snake in Smash Bros.

For something more concrete, I have in my hand last year's April issue (which was probably finalized in late february/early march). Among the things mentioned: PS3 more powerful than Xbox 2 (unannounced at the time), Xbox 2 will be released before Christmas that year (also unannounced at the time), and the Nintendo DS WiFi would be launching with some BIG titles (Mario Kart).

In the same segment, they have a couple of misses: they state that Half Life 2 will be skipping Xbox and going straight to Xbox 2 (half wrong, HL2 did come out for Xbox but it's also coming to 360/PS3) and Soul Calibur 3 was going to be multiplatform as well with exclusive characters like SC2 (turned out to be PS2 exclusive). So it's sort of a 50/50 chance for this stuff.

EGM's quality hasn't diminished at all. Perhaps you're getting older and finding your own identity and realize that EGM isn't the be-all-end-all awesomesauce you thought it was when you were a few years younger.

[Slothy]

It wasn't "well after square denied it". Their magazines have quite a bit of lead time. The issue that RiseToFall is reading now was finalized over a month ago. At the time EGM had that in their magazine, all they were going off of was the E3 video.

Try again. They ran the story in the June 2006 issue, and the FFVII tech demo was originally shown at the May 2005 E3. http://ps3.ign.com/articles/709/709775p1.html

I understand perfectly that all magazines have lead times, but if theirs were that long they'd be out of business. Square was denying any remake was being made almost as soon as that video was shown.

As for my feelings on EGM; I've never particularly cared for their previews or reviews in comparison to other magazines, so my views on their quality aren't tainted by any rosey, nostalgic feelings for them. They've got a history of publishing rumour as fact. Something that former editors who've moved on to other magazines and websites have even admitted happened often during their time there. I'm sorry if that means I have a hard time seeing them as a credible news source, but that's the way it goes.

[Yamaneko]

Gears of War is useing the Unreal engine 3 wich epic has stated that on sonys system, development of a game for PS3 using that engine is as easy as copying from PC development and puting it right on to PS3 software.
Last I checked the UE 3.0 engine was not designed for proprietary 7 core SPEs. Whatever the PS3 gets for UT 2007 will be different code-wise to what PC users get.

[Yew-Yevon]

Gears of War is useing the Unreal engine 3 wich epic has stated that on sonys system, development of a game for PS3 using that engine is as easy as copying from PC development and puting it right on to PS3 software.
Last I checked the UE 3.0 engine was not designed for proprietary 7 core SPEs. Whatever the PS3 gets for UT 2007 will be different code-wise to what PC users get.

what ever the code, it shouldn't change the visual quality.

Sony computer entertainment even has full lisens

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6129545.html

-Beyond the "marketing speak," the statement means that now, the "evaluation version" of the Unreal 3 engine, which has already been licensed by VU Games and Midway Games, will come with the PlayStation 3 software developer kits (SDKs).

Given the E3 demostration, the Sony-Epic deal does not come as a major surprise. However, it did further fuel speculation that Unreal Tournament 2007, already in development for the PC, will be ported to the PS3.

While major, the Unreal 3 deal was just part of much greater news from Sony. The company also announced today it was acquiring Bristol, UK-based SN Systems. SN offers a variety of development products, including "an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) consisting of compilers, linkers and debuggers." However, its most famous bit of middleware is its "renowned" ProDG tool, which is currently used in the development of PSP and PlayStation 2 games. SN is also now (obviously) adjusting its middleware suite for PlayStation 3 development.



heres a shot of the PS3 virsion of UT2007