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Thread: Multiple Versions, Multiple Consoles

  1. #1
    Alex (Level 15)
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    SoulBlazer07

    Default Multiple Versions, Multiple Consoles

    To toss out for public debate:

    What would you prefer as a gamer to see from gaming companies -- the same game relased for all the consoles with only VERY minor differences, or very different games based on the same idea for each console?

    It's a old debate, going back to the first systems. At Mattel, to give a example, when they decided to make games for the Atari 2600 and Colecovision as well as the Intelivision, Marketing insisted on the same game being made for the lowest system (the Atari) and then ported to other systems. The programers hated this, since they had to make the game for the 'worst' system, and it was'nt their best effort. Marketing countered that this would sell more games and not make consumers upset or angry. Only once (with Kool Aid Man) did the Programers win the battle and get different games made, with the result that Marketing was correct.

    It's especily common these days, as companies port games to all three systems. It's okay if they release the same game at the same time with only minor differences, like graphical sharpness (the Madden games being good examples.) But I know I myself get pissed if a game comes out for one system only first, I buy it, and then six to nine months ANOTHER version of the game comes out for ANOTHER console that is MUCH better then the original version (Metal Gear Solid II and GTA III being examples).

    What's so wrong with having different games based on the same idea made for each system to take advantage of that systems strong point? A RPG, for example, could be made for the GC to link up with the GBA and the EReader, could be played online with the XBox, or have a bonus quest for the PS2. With so many people having two or even three of all the systems, you could pick which system that you want to play the game on, or buy all of them.

    But would this just make those people who only have one person ticked off that all these 'different' or 'better' games are coming out?

    What's your own personal experience with this situation?
    "Four o'clock and all is well.....wish I was in bed, Sir."
    -- Guard in the Imperial City, Oblivion

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    Alex (Level 15)
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    Default

    Wow, I can't believe more then a day has passed and no responses.
    "Four o'clock and all is well.....wish I was in bed, Sir."
    -- Guard in the Imperial City, Oblivion

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    Peach (Level 3)
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    Default

    Im not sure how i missed this thread yesterday, but anyway..

    I'd rather see the same game on the 3 consoles with only minor differences, mainly relating to graphics and controls (to suit the 3 unique controllers). And maybe in the case of the GC- that GBA linkup thing. Personally Ive only got the one current console (ps2), and i would be mighty angrrry if a game i game i bought had x-box live support but not ps2online support. Well, id only be annoyed if it was a good game, but you get the point.

    Cant imagine how wrapped someone would be to have to buy 3 different versions of the game either

    My personal experience: If its not on ps2 its not worth my money. Thats only for current consoles, and mainly because i just cant afford to have a ps2,x-box and gc. With any thing else i try to get the version on a sega console where possible, coz im a sega guy

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    Crono (Level 14) Pantechnicon's Avatar
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    Default

    Good question. I gave some thought to this myself when I was reading through some of my older (circa-1984) comic books with my son last week and came across quite a few of the old style ads wherein one game was advertised as available for multiple systems. e.g - Popeye, which I think contained screenshots for eight separate systems (is it any wonder there was a market crash? ).

    Anyway, the point of these ads was to show what the game in question would looklike on the system you owned. Nowadays, I would say that the potential graphic differences in games released across the current systems are too minor to allow a game to be sold strictly on this basis. I'm really not going to stay awake at night fretting that I don't own an X-Box if, say, Sonic Heroes' shaded surfaces are rendered better on that system than on my PS2.

    At the end of the day I think gameplay, and unique variations therein (alternate levels, etc), will sell titles across multiple systems if this is what the software companies really want to do. Namco was on the right track when they released Soul Calibur II across platforms with a character unique to each console. This is the sort of approach that will sell more systems and games in the present.

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    Default

    I kinda like it when a game comes out for all three consoles, reaches a wider audience that way. I'm not selfish, I'd like fans of all systems to have a crack at a game I love. And I rarely buy a game to find it re-released months later, but then I rarely buy a brand new game.

    When a game is released for multiple systems I generally buy the XboX version. Yes retrotaku the box's graphics are noticably better then the PS2's (splinter cell anyone?) unless they haven't bothered to spruce up the port. Also the games that I've bought for the XboX have add bonus material added (Silent Hill 2, Fatal Frame).

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    drowning in medals Ed Oscuro's Avatar
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    Default Re: Multiple Versions, Multiple Consoles

    Quote Originally Posted by SoulBlazer
    Only once (with Kool Aid Man) did the Programers win the battle and get different games made, with the result that Marketing was correct.
    Oh the middle-class suffering in suburbia in the early 1980s, it is a catalogue without end

    People gotta suck it in and buy an Intellivision, that's what. 16-bit Sub-1MHz processing sexual VG BEAST.

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    Apple (Level 5)
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    Default

    Personally, I'd go with the XBOx, now that I have one. I have all three next-gen systems, and if the game came out on all three, I'd get the XBox one, mainly because I don't have to waste memory card space for it.


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    Great Puma (Level 12)
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    Default

    I perosnally don't think it matters because all 3 systems are so much alike. In a perfect world, each system would have unique features and be better suited for different types of games. In that case, a game should come out only on the system that is best equipped for it. But that will never happen.

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    Great Puma (Level 12) YoshiM's Avatar
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    Default

    I think it would be beneficial to make the game nearly identical across the board. I admit it's neat to get little console specific perks (like having Link in the GV version of Soul Calibur II or more classic Price of Persia games in Xbox's Prince of Persia: Sands of Time) but if I happen to see or play a game on one particular system that I don't own that's multiconsole and I like it, I have expectations that the game is going to play the same way on the console I have. Naturally then if I wanted to play against my friends who have the same game I have, but on a different system, I'd want it the same so that I can use the mad skillz I developed against my opponents with the only speed bump being the different controller.

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