Small or large, platform differences in cross-system releases often provide an interesting insight into how developers view their varied gaming audience. Some are subtle, others are blatant, but all highlight how a preconceived notion held by a developer is implemented in many of your games.
Black Box’s EA: skate is a good example to start with. Released only on the PS3 and Xbox 360, EA and/or Black Box made it obvious as to which system they felt would sell more copies in certain regions. Reflecting the larger install base of the Xbox 360 in North America and the UK, skate’s default setting for grind and air measurements on that platform was imperial – which happens to be the standard measurement system in those regions. Conversely, Europe and Asia’s larger install base of the PS3 resulted in the standard skate measurement on the PS3 being the correct metric system.
One of the drawbacks of skate’s cross console release was the frame rate issue which cropped up on the PS3 version from time to time. No big deal by itself, but the fact that Black Box and EA refused to patch the problem left many PS3 players rather annoyed. Whilst the frame rate issue didn’t make skate unplayable, another EA title which was released on both the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC during the same quarter, Orange Box, was released in a state for the PS3 which made it largely unplayable.
Maybe it was incorrect myth that the Xbox 360 is the only console to have embraced first person shooters, but that EA declined to force Orange Box’s studio, Valve, to rectify the issue is just plain feeble. We can only guess that either Valve or EA, or both, assumed that FPS’s don’t sell enough on the PS3 to justify the expense of getting Orange Box right the first time or to acknowledge and fix the problem in the months following. Memo to game developers: Goldeneye 64, Perfect Dark 64, and the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty series have all sold brilliantly for years on non-Xbox consoles. And considering how well Call of Duty 4 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 have sold on the PS3, let’s hope that EA and Valve have learnt their lesson.
Continuing on with the FPS concept, what about regional tastes affecting Metal Gear Solid 4? In the Japanese release, auto-aim is defaulted to ‘on’; thus reflecting the often held perception that ‘realism’ is not paramount in Japan’s gaming culture. On the other hand, the ‘Western’ version defaults the auto-aim function to ‘off’. The reasoning behind this is confirmed by Metal Gear Solid’s creator, Hideo Kojima, who also adds the ability to switch between MGS’s standard third person perspective to a first person perspective.
Rounding out our comparison, let’s look at Virtua Fighter 5. Released firstly in video arcades in Japan, South Korea and other parts of Asia, it was soon released for consoles on the PS3. However, the PS3 version was without online components due to the fact that the arcade gaming culture in many parts of Asia (and especially Japan and South Korea) still thrives. What is the point of including online play when your gamer is likely to go to an arcade anyway for human v human challenges? However, with the release of VF5 on the Xbox 360 several months later, online play was included since the arcade industry in ‘West’ has largely tanked. Again, considering that the Xbox 360 has performed much better in Western markets reflects the requirement on online gaming in this killer fighting game.
These few examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Whilst game developers and distributors view of gaming audiences differ from one another, all attempt to tailor their titles and hardware in order to achieve maximum sales and brand awareness. Question is, does it work?
Fuchal
NextGEN Gamers
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