Microsoft: We'll always take on Sony's first-party titles - News

by Gabriel Franco , posted on 16 September 2008 / 4,268 Views

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz , Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Games Studios, has declared that first-party publishing has always been about exclusives, and he's confident his titles can better anything his bitter rivals at Sony can turn out.

"Let's start from the beginning of both consoles - PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 - which first party has had more success on their own platform? We have Gears, Halo, Forza, we're continuing to push existing IP while bringing new IP to market. I'll line up against Sony's first party any day," offered Spencer in the first part of an interview published today .

Despite closing internal studios such as Ensemble and FASA , Spencer says the company has spent the neccesary time building franchises, allowing for a yearly roll-out of exclusive, triple-A product every Christmas season.

"Now the news, when you're talking about something like Ensemble, that's us building that franchise pipeline that you've seen come to market for the last three Holidays. I remember last E3, sitting there, people looking at our line-up and saying that they get we had a very strong line-up - Mass Effect and everything that's coming - but what about next Holiday?

"Then I was sitting at this E3 and I go through Too Human, Viva Pinata, Banjo, Fable, Lips, Gears of War, Scene It - that's all before Holiday - and then Halo Wars. And the press are saying exactly the same, that they get it's an incredibly strong Holiday relative to the competition, saying we'll win this year in terms of content...but what about next Holiday?"

He continued: "And I'm confident for next Holiday as well, that we're going to stand up at the next E3, or at the right time, and we'll show a line-up that will continue to win. We talk about our games when we understand what they are. I'm not going to put a billboard up on stage and say, "Boy, I hope you buy this game when it comes out and when I know what it is..."

Spencer believes the press side with Microsoft's line-up of titles, as do the consumers who buy the games, and he's happy to compare review scores or any other metrics against Sony's portfolio.

"We talk about games when we know what they are, when we can guarantee the quality to the customers, and we'll say when they're going to come out - I think the customers want that. But lining us up against Sony first party - I love that comparison. Review score average, exclusive hits to-date, you pick the metric and we can talk about it," he said.

Source:

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mmolichking1 (on 17 February 2009)

vivian (on 08 January 2009)

XQ (on 15 October 2008)

regin2005 (on 18 September 2008)

We'll see guys, we'll see!!!

PipBoy2000 (on 18 September 2008)

@BMaker

Halo and Gears actually do better than the PS3 exclusive shooters combined(and they have a lot more shooters).

Resistance has never been more popular than Gears and not even close to Halo.

We don't have GT5 yet, only prologue and tahts proven to be quite disappointing to say the least. If the final game is anything like it is now, its not gonna stand up to Forza as a sim racer.

Ratchet is a decent game. So is Dead Rising, NG2 and Kameo.

Then you list off a bunch of games that aren't even out yet and have very little information... Well MS has plenty to compete but they don't like announcing everything they have lined up for the next 3 years just because they don't have anything to show right now. Sony has promised the "Next year is our year" plan just about EVERY year... And MS has beat them silly twice in a row.

ClusterDave (on 17 September 2008)

Hmmm, lets see how can I sum this up??? OK, Microsoft BLAH!! Sony ROCKS!! Yeah, that sums it up! LOL

JIffers
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Paul_Warren (on 17 September 2008)

 "According to you, you're the baddest man on the planet, so I should be shaking in my boots, and I shouldn't even be in this ring right now."

-- John Cena to Kurt Angel. Cena won.

BMaker11 (on 17 September 2008)

If M$ was a man, I would tell him to slap himself. LOL. WTF is he thinking?

"We have Gears, Halo, Forza, we're continuing to push existing IP while bringing new IP to market. I'll line up against Sony's first party any day,"

Yeah, and Sony has:

Gran Turismo
Resistance
Ratchet and Clank
God of War
Uncharted
Ico Team
Level 5 heavy internal support
Incognito (Warhawk, Twisted Metal, etc.)
SOCOM

And the list goes on.

What does M$ have to match that? Gears and Halo are NOTHING compared to Sony's 1st party.....I can't believe he even said Forza.......

makingmusic476 (on 17 September 2008)

I think many people here are confusing "first party line up" with "console line up". First party titles are just those developed internally at Sony and Microsoft. Arguably second party titles could be included, or those developed by a third party but published by Sony/Microsoft.

PipBoy2000 (on 17 September 2008)

Who knows. Is Haze supposed to be Sony's Gears of War?

toxicMM (on 17 September 2008)

Was Too Human supposed to be MS's God of War?

Daxter210 (on 17 September 2008)

Sony first-party are Unbeatable.

Jordahn (on 17 September 2008)

"only way you could possibly say the ps3 games are even close to being as good as the 360 games is if either your a mindless fanboy or you havent played what is availible on both systems"

To establish an opinionate point as an absolute fact is being a mindless fanboy. pot - kettle- black

marginalvalue (on 17 September 2008)

a lot of fanboys poping out here... dont comment on games unless you have both systems for a real compairison... no i dont want to here some lame excuse that your friend has one or that you play it at toys r us. i have both systems and the only way you could possibly say the ps3 games are even close to being as good as the 360 games is if either your a mindless fanboy or you havent played what is availible on both systems. you can count on one had the number of good games out for the ps3 or even coming out. frankly the only good games on a ps3 are ps2 games but even then you better hope you got one ot the early systems before they stripped BC.

PipBoy2000 (on 17 September 2008)

I find that SotC was an amazing game yet its still overrated. Thats just what happens when something is amazing and under the radar. People blow it out of proportion. Its not better than mainstream games just because its unpopular you know :P

vherub (on 17 September 2008)

I'd love for MS put out a game that can compete with Shadof the Colossus.

PipBoy2000 (on 17 September 2008)

I don't think there is a single genre that the PS3 has an edge in except stealth games and thats only because of the lack of games in that genre.

The 360 just has a far more diverse library no matter what kind of games you are looking for. They have shooters, JRPGs, action, western RPGs, Fighting, Sandbox, odd games, racers, RTS and so on.

Some people say GT will be better than Forza, but GT Prologue certainly isn't and GT5 isn't out yet. So far GT5:P has only shown us a very bad online system, good graphics and a laughable collision system so saying its better than forza can be no more than just speculation at this point. Forza is a great series and definitely far beyond the original GTs.

Jordahn (on 17 September 2008)

As I posted in another thread:

I know this is PR from Microsoft, but my hat is off to SONY for their 1st/2nd party efforts.

They've had strong platformers in the form of Jak, Sly, & Ratchet, and the only one they have exploited is Ratchet thus far. No matter what anyone says, I've always felt that Siren was a survival horror diamond in the ruff. And I was never a Tomb Raider fan, but it seems SONY has reinvented the game in the form of Uncharted which I've really enjoyed. You also have your RPG gems like Rouge Galaxy and Dark Cloud 2 on the PS2 in which Level 5 is at work with White Knight Chronicles for the PS3. And then you have genres that SONY are trying to concentrate on in which they were lacking in the past such as FPS with Killzone 2 ad the Resistance franchise. And like the PS2, SONY is pushing different ideas and IP's. Back during the PS2 days, you had games like Mark of the Kri, Primal, and Ico. They are doing the same with Folklore, Heavy Rain, and Infamous. And that's not mentioning them promoting successful established framchises such as God of War and Gran Turismo.

Aside from pushing what's popular, SONY is willing to take chances on games that will appeal to a smaller group of individuals. And as a gamer, there are potentially plenty of gems if you'll just look for them amongst the hype of the "big name" franchises.

Microsoft, you've had some nice games to come down the pipeline, and there is more potential on the way. But is seems PR is PR as usual.

And someone else stated something along the lines that Microsoft cares more to take SONY down over serving the gaming community. Undeniable.

sublime78 (on 17 September 2008)

I agree that Microsoft's first party library is WAY better than Sony's. Hense the whole, me not having or wanting a PS3 thing.

jedians (on 17 September 2008)

lol wake up apollo dont see the performances of consoles and softwares on the basis of sales only in america no doubt xbox 360 also have good titles coming this holiday but fact is fact that ps3 titles are most promising worldwide then xbox360's

Apollo (on 17 September 2008)

lol, its not even an arguement as to which system has the better software!
all you have to do it check the software sales every week.
the 360 doubles and sometimes trebles the PS3's software sells.
the fact is the PS3 is enjoyable, but it isn't going to move out of 3rd place. and in the USA, its 7 million units behind the Xbox 360!. and that won't ever change.
this holiday season. I'm interested in looking at Resistance 2, but I know the first game on my lists is Fable 2 and the new Gears of War! thats a fact! when it comes to gameplay and online, Sony are always going to come out 2nd best in my house!

Impulsivity (on 17 September 2008)

Oh come on, Forza can't come close to the GT series in performance, graphics, sales, customization or anything else. Forza is more or less equivalent to the GT prologue series (but with worse graphics) and in no way can compete with full GT releases.

Gears is relatively well matched with Resistance. Gears does better in single player, Resistance does better with story and multi player.

Halo is popular but I can think of at least 20 games on both the 360 and PS3 that were more enjoyable. But we can give MS that one as an exclusive with no real match from Sony.

Sony though has dozens of great 1st party series. Ico games, Jak, Ratchet and Clank, Heavenly Sword, Uncharted, God of War, Motorstorm, Sly Cooper, Wipeout, Little Big Planet...

I mean if all Sony had was Naughty Dog and Insomniac they would still have better first party support then all Microsofts 1st party development put together. Luckily Sony has far more then that.

Also all the big MS releases are headed to a PC near you within a year of their release often with added content and always with superior graphics and free multiplayer. That is certainly not true of big PS system releases.

Microsoft 1st party is a joke compared with either Sony or Nintendo. They average one or at the most 2 good games a year tops.

Tyrannical (on 17 September 2008)

Microsoft: We'll always take Sony's third-party titles

(fixed)

tao (on 17 September 2008)

to me it seems MS is the only one constantly bashing Sony. You do not hear much from Sony's PR bashing back nowadays. There are some exceptions but overall its just Microsoft doing what Microsoft does best. And that is utterly destroying the competition and trying as hard as they can to make the competition look as bad as possible compared to them.

Its their way of marketing and it helped them (beside copying everyting) since windows 3.11 become one of the biggest companies and monopolies in the world. Its just a mather of time before it happens in the gaming industry imo and Sony + even Nintendo are out of the way, anyway im just going to enjoy the playstation and Wii untill I can ^^

Alby_da_Wolf (on 17 September 2008)

MS has been world's biggest SW house for decades and has had game studios for decades too, they are expected to produce competitive games, aren't they?
What they aren't expected, given their almost unlimited resources, is struggling so much wherever they haven't a long established monopoly.

cyclone87 (on 17 September 2008)

For once it's not Aaron Greenberg shooting his mouth off. Sony's first party destroys Microsoft's.

Homeroids (on 17 September 2008)

To be honest, I am getting sick and tired of all this marketing BS coming from mainly MS and then closely followed by Sony. It's like "grow up". The constant mine is better than your is plain tired.

Get a life :). It's like, yeah right, I am from MS game studios and I am going to admit that R2 is more appealing than Gears 2. Yeah ok - whateva.

StanGable (on 17 September 2008)

Sony has only 1 game that MS hasn't surpassed and that's GT. However, the rest I agree, MS does have better first party games than Sony. MS just hasn't whored them as much as Sony has.

Kaixes (on 16 September 2008)

If they said they could fight Sony's first-exclusives with the power of money, this would be more reasonable. Too Human? That's cute.

fuegonian (on 16 September 2008)

All of the big 3's execs make me laugh, but it always seems like Microsoft have a chip on their shoulder. Some 'little brother' complex...

Smashed (on 16 September 2008)

Sony first party's destroy microsoft's.. I'd really like to know what kinds of drugs these guys are taking..

Slavedemonxi (on 16 September 2008)

I like both consoles, but i have to say, SONY's first party titles destroy Microsoft's.

mickill2 (on 16 September 2008)

microsoft wishes it can take on sony first partys. whats gonna stop killzone 2 gow3 gt5 ffversus etc. microsoft would haft to be true losers to think that.

HanzoTheRazor (on 16 September 2008)

It almost made me spew when I read this. One thing is for sure, M$ loves to touch themselves!

superbeast1370 (on 16 September 2008)

MS is gonna get their asses handed to them.

Retrasado (on 16 September 2008)

MS first party > Sony first-party? yeah right. Give me a break.

Batman...WTF? (on 16 September 2008)

A bullish Microsoft has declared it's happy to go toe-to-toe with rival Sony products, as the two companies prepare for another bloody battle at retail this Christmas... Nintendo has mentioned that the Wii is still in first place, to which Microsoft and Sony have replied to by crying in corners.

ufogang (on 16 September 2008)

I hope that Sony tune up Killzone2 life bar system. The first one was suck.

Bullet100000 (on 16 September 2008)

Microsoft Just Stop its too much!

4lc0h0l (on 16 September 2008)

@ Godot

all of us can think diferent cant we? =)

Gearbox (on 16 September 2008)

wth how can anyone think this?>

Sly cooper
jak
daxter
ratchet
clank
kratos
nathan hail
etc etc

Arkk (on 16 September 2008)

@ DMeisterJ

None of their "first party" games are even developed by them. Every single one is made by a company that they bought out. They are still first party though, because they are owned by MS.

DMeisterJ (on 16 September 2008)

MS first party better than Sony's? No.

MS published games (therefore not developed by them, therefore, second party) better than Sony's first-party?

darthdevidem01 (on 16 September 2008)

THey put Too Human as ones of their strong holiday games......LAWL

waron (on 16 September 2008)

"We talk about our games when we understand what they are. I'm not going to put a billboard up on stage and say, "Boy, I hope you buy this game when it comes out and when I know what it is"

Giant Enemy Crab just pop into my head:)

thekitchensink (on 16 September 2008)

^^That was simultaneously a jab at Killzone 2 and Nintendo's new method of announcing games XD

papflesje (on 16 September 2008)

[quote]"Boy, I hope you buy this game when it comes out and when I know what it is..."[/quote]

Shot at LBP? :p

Godot (on 16 September 2008)

I think Microsoft first-party games are way superior to Sony's.

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