Mass Effect signaling trouble for 360?

Posted by Kevin in Microsoft, Sony | 0 comments

Aug 18, 10

With the announcement by EA yesterday at GamesCom that their huge BioWare franchise, Mass Effect, is heading to PS3 with the second iteration of the series, Microsoft have been forced to respond to increasing pressure that perhaps the platform is in danger with Sony’s dominance. As Sony themselves said, the momentum in the market is with them.

“With both Mass Effect titles launching first on Xbox 360 combined with the wealth of available paid downloadable content on Xbox Live today, Xbox 360 remains the best place to experience the Mass Effect franchise, and the original Mass Effect is absolutely an Xbox 360 exclusive, making Xbox 360 the only place to get the full Mass Effect experience”

In total, counting the number exclusives lost by each platform, the 360 is the platform that has gained most out of this generation. However part of those numbers are simply down to the sheer number of exclusives Sony had in the last generation with the PS2. Rumours of MGS being on the 360 have been around for years, and in fact MGS2 went to the Xbox – but failed at the tills. Mass Effect, arguably as important to Microsoft as MGS is to Sony, is known as a 360 game – so it going to the the rival platform is a big enough deal.

With Bungie now a third party with Activision, undoubtedly working on multi-platform titles regardless of what press fodder employees might “sneak” out, Microsoft is now vying for attention of developers. Their tactic of buying developers (an old MS trick) isn’t working if their biggest purchase ends up leaving. Sony’s tactic is to develop long term relationships with development studios, which gives studios money to develop titles while giving them freedom to go off and work on new IP, or even work on other consoles if they see fit. A tactic that has, in the past worked.

Valve, a company run by former Microsoft employees, has said Portal 2 on PS3 will be the “best console version” which is a huge blow to the behemoth that is Microsoft. Even the Behemoth are bringing Castle Crashers to PSN – and that was a staple for XBLA multiplayer titles. A shining example of how much fun can be gotten from XBL.

Is the 360 in trouble? Probably not. It means that people who own one console will probably stick to it as the generation gets more flattened by big publishers forcing developers to publish on multiple platforms. The key is who’s slim pickings for exclusives are better? Halo versus Killzone, Forza versus GT will always be there, but now the spurious exclusives like Ratchet, Resistance and so on are more important then ever. Mass Effect was the same idea for Microsoft – a AAA title not made by MS, owned by MS but still as important as first party content.

Momentum certainly is with the PS3, with price drops and more interesting games coming its way it’s the platform with all of the focus right now – but that’s not to say Microsoft have nothing up their sleeves. They do, of course, have Halo.