Last month, Microsoft had an RPG conference in Japan.  The biggest news out of the event was the announcement that Star Ocean 4, previously thought to be a PS3 exclusive, is in fact, an Xbox 360 game and might not show up on the PS3 at all.  Xbox owners can also cheer that The Last Remnant, a multiplatform Square-Enix RPG, is going to be released earlier on the 360 than on the PS3.  Other highlights from the conference include additional media and information on Tales of Vesperia (a 360 exclusive by Namco in the series made famous in the US by Tales of Symphonia for the GameCube) and Infinite Undiscovery (a 360 exclusive by Square-Enix that looks similar to Rogue Galaxy).

I'm reminded of this quote from Vic Ireland, the president of the now-defunct RPG localizing company, Working Designs:

For the future, there are still great opportunities. I have been in touch with a number of other publishers and manufacturers and I will be working with some of the WD staff to do games for other publishers for the time being, but not as Working Designs. One thing that holds a ton of promise is Xbox 360 RPGs, and I've contacted Microsoft about getting what's underway in Japan out in the US and helping to get more done worldwide. We'll see what happens on that front, but please let them know that you want more rpgs here. There's some amazing stuff coming for the '360 in Japan, and I know I want it — I think you will, too.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who read those words from Vic Ireland back in 2005 and laughed in disbelief.  The Xbox 360 being a great RPG machine?  Aside from a couple Bioware games (Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire), the Xbox's library of RPGs was practically non-existent.  Why would the 360 be any different?  And yet, here we are in 2008 and those words of Vic sound more prophetic than crazy.

How did we get to the point where the PS3, aside from Final Fantasy XIII, is sparse in the RPG department, despite the PSOne & PS2's utter dominance in the genre? How did the Xbox 360 come to look so impressive compared to the original Xbox's pathetic showing?  There are a number of factors: Microsoft's courting of Japanese developers and their own investment in Mistwalker Studios (Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey); the Xbox 360's one-year head start; and the cheaper price tag are all factors. But I believe the biggest contributor is that Microsoft published good RPGs significantly earlier than its competition.  RPGs tend to be games with low replay value; thus, fans of the genre tend to buy more RPGs than fans of other genres with greater longevity might.  The early availability of RPGs on the Xbox 360 combined with RPG fans' tendency to buy many RPGs created a snowball effect: a good RPG comes for the system encourages more fans of RPGs to buy the system, which in turns encourages more companies to make RPGs for the system.  The system has momentum now — Western RPGs like Too Human and the Mass Effect trilogy, Japanese RPGs from companies like Square-Enix & Namco, Strategy/RPGs from Atlus — and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Will the PS3 or the Wii be able to catch up and overtake the 360 in the RPG field?  I don't think so.  Final Fantasy XIII, though a big title, looks like it'll be too little, too late.  And with Square-Enix showing more and more support for the 360 and less support for the PS3, there's always the chance that FFXIII could end up as a multiplatform title.  The Wii has a fair chance of developing a good RPG library simply because the system is selling insanely well and the dominant system inevitably gets strong game developer support, but I don't know.  Whether it's true or not, the Wii is getting a reputation as being the console of choice for casual gamers and so developers may prove hesitant to develop RPGs for the system.  The Wii might end up with a strong lineup of RPGs, but as of now, that's merely a hope; there's nothing particular noteworthy in the genre on the system at the moment.

In the meantime, I plan on enjoying the 360's RPG library while marveling at the strange and bizarre world we live in.

Ah, April Fool's — a good day to be a gamer. Back in the day, I would write news and reviews specifically for the occasion. I don't have the energy for that anymore, but the industry is still rife with such creative energy.

Amidst all the rickrolling and Internet cleaning, the most imaginative came to my email inbox directly from Microsoft, offering four innovative upgrades to the Xbox 360:

The wireless helmet is little different from last year's WiiHelm from ThinkGeek, but the rest are drool-worthy. An Xbox Live board game? Why not — it worked for World of Warcraft. A wood grain Xbox 360? It'd go great next to my Atari 2600! And the recon edition 360 may put Microsoft's console in the same league as the Nintendo Game Boy for most invulnerable gaming system. Want!

Any other good pranks out there I'm overlooking?

When New England Cable News called Computerworld looking for someone to speak on the about-to-be-released Halo 3, I somehow became dubbed the resident "Halo Boy".

In Computerworld's lobby, I spoke with a reporter who was looking primarily for a financial perspective on the current console wars. I'm no analyst, but I tried my best.

Though I got my sales numbers right, I confused my Wii and Xbox 360 launch dates, so there's a slight discrepancy. I still knew my stuff better than the non-gamer reporter, though: the market was dominated by the PlayStation 2, not the PS3; the original Xbox, not the 360, launched in 2001; and profits drive one into the black, not out of it. (Hence the term "Black Friday").

This week's mail bequeathed upon me the fifth and final season DVD of the popular Web series Red vs. Blue, the comedic application of the video game Halo that introduced me (and much of the world) to machinima.

Machinima, in the words of the series' own Private Dexter Grif, is described simply as "taking [a] video game and puppeteering it to make a narrative story". In this case, the games are Halo and Halo 2, and the effect is produced by linking several Xbox consoles together, recording the video, then dubbing audio over it. In this way, pre-existing animation can be used cheaply and more easily than creating one's own art assets. The result is about 20 three-minute episodes per "season" detailing the ongoing battles of the Red Team and the Blue Team as they battle each other and, more often, themselves, in the Blood Gulch box canyon.

Read the rest of this entry at Computerworld.com »

by Ken Gagne

The Grand Olympic Stadium was the site of this year's Microsoft press conference, the first which I'd had the opportunity to attend. Unlike last year, when attendees received free Xbox controllers, this year's public was treated to only stadium-style concessions: cheese steak subs, vegetable paninas, beer and soda, and popcorn and peanuts. Laden with sufficient snacks to occupy the one-hour wait before the show began, my friends (Joe Talladira, Will White, Ian Johnston, and Chris Bonilla) and I crossed the threshold manned by green-clad, impossibly thin "booth babes" and assumed central seats.

The conference was hosted by Robbie Bach, chief Xbox officer; Ed Fries, VP of Xbox game publishing; and J Allard, VP of the Xbox platform. In sharp contrast to Sony's traditional, numbers-oriented approach, Microsoft's team did not offer sales or membership numbers for its products and services, instead displaying game after game that we can expect to see this year.

Heading the pack were two Xbox Live games, making their debut this evening: Project Gotham Racing 2, and a new LucasArts title, Republic Commando. This latter game presented two Imperial storm troopers following a pair of insect-like creatures deep into a ruins, only to stumble upon a veritable nest which quickly swarmed over the humans. Perhaps this game will be a first-person shooter. LucasArts is the one company with whom I have a booth appointment this year (since they are by invitation only), so Gamebits will have more details on this title later in the week.

Two other games which have previously received little coverage were also presented tonight. True Fantasy Live Online looks comparable to Phantasy Star Online, though less action-oriented. Breakdown,. from Namco, is a first-person shooter that includes hand-to-hand combat. The game appears to borrow elements (in presentation, if not gameplay) from sources such as Metal Gear Solid, The Matrix, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Resident Evil, and ONE, with a story featuring mad scientists making the impossible real.

These games are four of 100 that Microsoft hopes to release with Xbox Live compatibility by May 2004.

Though Microsoft Games Studio has released many first-party titles, chances are you are not as familiar with them as other well-known brands. To add strength to its in-house development teams, Microsoft last year purchased Rare from Nintendo. The company known for Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, and Banjo-Kazooie tonight premiered Grabbed by the Ghoulies, a fun and friendly romp through a magical, haunted mansion, in the vein of Harry Potter.

Another rare game, Conker: Live and Uncut (as in Xbox Live), was also demoed in a stream of brief clips that most notably included Star Wars: Jedi Academy, Soul Calibur 2, Pitfall, Legacy of Kain: Defiance, Sonic Heroes, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, The Simpsons: Hit & Run, Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, Crash Nitro Kart, Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup, StarCraft Ghost, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (a 3D brawler with plenty of cartoon art), James Bond: Everything or Nothing, Counter-Strike, Ninja Gaiden (finally!), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, XIII (a cel-shaded first-person shooter with inspiration from comic books), Dino Crisis 3, Sega GT Online, Kameo: Elements of Power (Rare's cancelled GameCube game), and Fable (formerly Project Ego).

Of course, Xbox being a console from a company that likes to have its hands in everything, there are other developments planned for the system. Xbox Music Maker will release this year with a microphone peripheral, bringing to the system music and video editing capabilities, karaoke, and more. Details on this product were scant, and led to a like amount of applause.

Xbox Live, the broadband-only online portion of the system, will receive an upgrade later this year, formerly called Live 2.0 but officially known as Live Now. Exactly what new features this upgrade will entail were not disclosed. Live Web offers users at web-capable machines a means of checking Live events and standings without accessing their Xbox, while Live Alerts can inform gamers of such affairs and changes on their PC, PocketPC, cell phone, or wristwatch. Expect many events to be occurring on this network, especially after the introduction of XSN Sports, an online brand for competition and fantasy sports.

Fortunately, Microsoft wasn't about to end the evening without a live (not Live), in-game demo of their most highly-anticipated shooter, Halo 2. Marking the return of Master Chief, Halo 2 opened to a CG sequence that put our protagonist in the middle of a warzone, whereupon he sniped some Covenant creeps. A soldier handed Chief a second weapon, making for some double-fisted action that brought cheers from the crowd (though why something Goldeneye did six years ago is now innovative mystifies me). We also briefly saw Chief in third-person view as a manned a turret, then again as he operated a minigun from the rear of a jeep. A Covenant fiend leapt atop the vehicle and overturned it, putting the Chief back in first-person view and on foot. When an alien hovercraft attempted to ram him, I was surprised that the hero instead grabbed the hood of the flying vehicle and punched out the pilot, claiming the controls for himself! This sequence then became automated, leading to another CG sequence which ended the demo of a game we shan't see in full until February 2004 at the earliest.

This evening's conference was a fine kickoff to the 2003 Electronic Entertainment Expo. With both Sony and Nintendo not having anything to share until their press conferences tomorrow, Microsoft left us with nothing but the Xbox to think about for the next 12 hours. The Seattle giant has announced neither a price cut on their system, nor a streamlined version of their current model, both of which have been rumored for months and the former which Nintendo and Sony have indicated they would not initiate, but pundits expected them to follow should Microsoft move first. Perhaps this year will truly focus on software, not hardware — a field in which Microsoft has so far put on a fine show. What Microsoft was lacking in surprises, it made up for with a steady stream of what gamers want: hot titles from well-known publishers in a variety of genres.

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This article is copyright (c) 2003, 2007 by Ken Gagne. All rights reserved. Not to be distributed without permission.

Original publication: Gamebits, 12-May-03