Glad I am not a gambling man….

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In another brilliant reversal move by Micro$oft, the new Xbox One will now allow indie developers to publish their game on Xbox Live without requiring a publishing partner.

It seems that what Micro$0ft ultimately did was take all the negative press from E3 concerning the Xbox One, and decided “nah, lets not do that”, causing some indie publishers to jump ship, and head to Sony.

(Including the “Oddworld” developer, and “Bastion” developer.. )

Sony, on the other hand, has been up front and working with all indie developers that it could possibly get ahold of for the new PlayStation 4.

Regardless, this does have the potential to reverse the flow of folks signing up for a PS 4 for a Xbone (Not me though..)

Now, if Micro$oft would drop the whole “Kinect is required” mantra, and drop the price $100, they may get a bit more folks signing up for a pre-order.

Maybe next it will run all Apple products too?   Click Me.

 

 

Did someone say fight??

Alrighty then, mid-week already, and I am slacking at my E3 postings!!

So far there has been a lot of buzz going on about the new PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, particularly in the sense that the majority of  folks feel Sony came out on top in this round of E3 fights.

Sony finally released what the PS4 looks like, along with the dozen or so “launch titles” scheduled to roll out once its released this “Holiday, 2013”. (Um, nice Parallelogram Sony! Very original vs. the VCR box that Micro$oft released!)

ps4hardware2610_jpgLooking somewhat like a “similar” box rolled out by Micro$oft, Sony amped up the competition between the two systems by coming out with a release price of $399, which includes a Dual Shock 4 Controller, 500 GB HD, HDMI cable, and mono-headset.   Micro$oft, however, is releasing the new Xbox One for an extra $100 bucks, which includes its Kinect device, 500 GB HD, HDMI Cable, and controller.

Fans totally decried foul when Micro$oft released information that the Xbox One requires a internet connection every 24 hours to phone home, otherwise, your games don’t work.  They also caused a bit more of an uproar by releasing their DRM strategy on used games (basically saying, you can’t use em unless you pay for em again..); where as Sony said “I Don’t Think So” to both aspects, giving gamers freedom to trade in their old games, and even play them offline.

All this, and being thrown in are the mix of Next Gen released games, including Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs, Assassins’ Creed 4, Tom Clancy’s “The Division”; EA Sports with Madden 25, Battlefield 4; Bungie’s Destiny; Blizzard’s release of Diablo III; Respawn Entertainment’s “TitanFall”; Sucker Punch’s “inFamous: Second Son”, and many more..

battlefield4_1Now as crazy as it may seem, this appears to only be scratching the surface, with both Console competitors stating that “online gaming, sharing, and multiplayer” are going to factor in BIG time with the release of the Next Gen systems.  Squad based mechanics, MMO functionality, and even such items as “Public Events” found in Destiny, encourage folks to team up online, and have a good time. Destiny_image017

As E3 starts to wrap up this week, look out for even more gameplay videos, new info on upcoming release dates, etc.

Catch all the 2013 E3 Press releases hereSony and Micro$oft.

<A big shout out to gameinformer.com and gametrailers.com for keeping us 9-5’ers informed.>

E3 is right around the corner

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The Electronic Entertainment Expo kicks off June 10th, and several electronic manufactures will be on site to show off their new gadgets, gizmos, etc.

Most notably will be the new consoles coming out from Sony and Micro$oft.   Sony will (finally!!) show off the PS 4 and hopefully we will get price points for the systems.

Several developers are also releasing next gen games as well, including Sucker Punch, Activision, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft.

So, enjoy the following YouTube clip, courtesy of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”.