Who Will Win The Hi-Def Games War?

With Sony's PlayStation 3 finally launched across the globe, the next-gen videogames wars can start in earnest. microsoft already has a reasonable installed base for xbox 360, but not enough to guarantee dominance, while Sony's consumers' brand loyalty is being tested to the limits by the PS3's high price point.

nintendo, meanwhile, has carved out a nice niche for itself by making next-gen not about hi-def, with its humorously named, but extremely popular Wii.

Within the industry though, most pundits are expecting a much more level playing field this time around, with microsoft and Sony battling it out, but neither gaining significant domination over the other. This is, frankly put, a disaster for Sony whose PlayStation 2 console defined a generation, and not just of consoles.

What is the reason for this shift? One word: exclusivity. In the good old days, games publishers were convinced to launch their game on a single console, and then perhaps later allow it to grace the competitors' machines, and so Lara boosted the original PlayStation and gta helped the ps2 explode. With the next-gen, exclusivity is all but gone. gta will launch on both the xbox 360 and PS3 and Lara is two-timing the PlayStation all over the place. There are even rumours that Snake will turn tail and that Metal Gear Solid 4 will not be a PlayStation 3 exclusive. In fact, the only games that remain exclusive to a format tend to be those developed by the console manufacturers themselves, first party games as they are known.

So, what do microsoft and Sony have up their sleeve? Sony has a game called Heavenly Sword, which has games journalists very excited, but apart from this its near-future release schedule is quite embarrassing.

microsoft on the other hand has a machine mature enough to be expecting its second-wave of titles, games which should really be starting to take advantage of the next-gen hardware (to date, only Gears of War has really shown its next-gen credentials to gamers). And its line up is looking OK, and not just first party: Bioshock, from 2K, Mass Effect, a highly anticipated game from Bioware, who can do no wrong, halo 3 to arrive one month after gta IV on both platforms - you don't have a bucket big enough to describe how many bucketloads this game will sell, fable 2, from the well-liked Lionhead Studio and then later more Project Gotham Racing and halo action.

Essentially, this year xbox 360 has some good triple A games, with 2 tent pole releases in gta IV and halo 3. Sony has gta IV and Heavenly Sword and then many more third party, multi-platform games.

So, expect microsoft to shift some units with their line up, but Sony will also be hoping for a gta effect on its console. This pinkish, if not rosy, outlook for microsoft could change next year though. Sony has more development staff than anyone else, and while it might be taking its time, you have to expect its first party games to start coming through.

All of this, of course, is only considering the games consoles as just that, and it remains to be seen what effect, if any, the Blu-Ray (PS3) vs HD-dvd (Xbox 360) hi-definition formats for videos have on sales.

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Halo 3 Eclipses Video Game Sales Record With 170 Million On First Day

The entertainment division of Microsoft is riding high as their much anticipated and publicized video game Halo 3 set a record for first day sales with a take of 170 million dollars. The previous record was set by Halo 2 in 2004 at 125 million dollars in the first 24 hours. Microsoft was expecting Halo 3 to make 150 million dollars on September 25, 2007 the day it was released. But this ambitious figure was met and surpassed much to the delight of the people at Microsoft and Bungie Studios, their company owned animation studio.

When the first Halo video game Combat Evolved was released on November 9, 2001 it immediately captured the attention of the people who play video games. It then went on to much greater success. Several more video games like Halo 2 and a list of merchandising products like action figures and comic books were created. They were immediately embraced by a legion of loyal fans known as the Halo Nation. A cultural Icon and a very large following were created with this futuristic video game, much like the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises. Xbox 360 was the king of video game consoles and the Halo video game franchise was number one for the longest time.

But things have changed for Microsoft since Playstation 3, PSP and nintendo Wii came out on the market. They offer a variety of great games like Call of duty, madden nfl 07, Twilight Princess and Tony Hawks project 8 to name only a few. The latest video game consoles by Sony and nintendo also offer great technological advances, and this has caught the attention of the video game customers who love innovation with their video games and electronics. Especially the kind of innovations that make it seem like you are actually in the game.

When nintendo Wii was released about a year ago it offered an exiting new technology with the Wii remote. It is called the motion sensitive feature and it allows one to be right there in the game interacting with 3D characters and special effects. It revolutionized the way people play video games.

The Wii console also sells for less than the Xbox 360 console at about 250 dollars compared to 500. This fact has made nintendo Wii video game consoles more attractive than the Xbox 360 to the middle class parents whose Christmas funds for presents this year may be a little low.

nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 by Sony have both been on top of the video game market for the past year. Suddenly Xbox 360 was no longer number 1 in sales of video game consoles and the Halo video game franchise was no longer the best in the world of video games. Prior to September 25, 2007 things were not so merry at the entertainment division of Microsoft.

A few years back Microsoft and Bungie Studios hired a group of talented computer programmers and 3D animation artists that was large enough to fill a high school auditorium. These people were the cream of the crop in the business of making video games. They worked very hard for over 3 years on the production of Halo 3 at an overall cost of about 50 million dollars. The result is a first person shooter video game with sound and graphics that are a feast to the eyes and ears and a storyline that is quite engaging with several twists and turns.

The Halo Nation has shown up in full force at the retail stores to buy Halo 3. There is also a very large following for the online video game version of the Halo franchise. Microsoft has reported that over 1 million online players battled it out in the first 24 hours on Xbox live playing Halo 3. This version of the game pits online members against each in a fight to the death.

Now they are dancing in their corporate offices back at Microsoft and Bungie studios. Their video game Halo 3 made 170 million dollars in the first day on the market and they are projecting that it will make over 560 million dollars overall. If this turns out to be true for Halo 3, which is well on its way to making it so, it will give Microsoft a 90 percent profit for this project. In an industry where most video games lose money this is quite an astounding statistic.

The recent release of Halo 3 has put Xbox 360 games and Xbox 360 video game consoles back in the spotlight and primed to be back on top of the video game industry. It is a testament to the creativity and marketing skills of Microsoft and its employees who have been known to do a few things right in their remarkable history.

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