Sticking it up Sony's tailpipe
So I was thinking some more about Microsoft's upcoming "Forza Motorsport" for the Xbox. Of course it's being played as a potential slayer of Gran Tourismo 4, the premier driving title for the PlayStation 2 due out in the U.S. next month.
It's always a tough bet to try to out-do the best-in-class. Witness "Kill Zone", Sony's attempt at a "Halo-killer" that, from all accounts I read, never remotely lived up to the hype.
So why would Microsoft set itself the extremely high bar of trying to go one better than GT4? Failure will only swamp them with bad PR and potentially hex the Xbox for driving games, the same way the failure of "Sudeki" sort of made it seem like RPGs couldn't really be done on Microsoft's magic machine.
Set aside for a moment the fact that, from the most recent set of impressions, it appears that "Forza" may actually kick some serious ass. I wonder if the standard Microsoft has set for the game isn't so much to "beat" GT4 as to be just good enough to keep Xbox owners from defecting to Sony. Not defecting as in totally abandoning the Xbox, but at least as far as picking up a PS2 as a second machine in order to play games exclusive to that platform. I've certainly considered buying a PS2 in order to play stuff like that. But if "Forza" turns out to be any good, why would I want to spend another $150 for a PS2 plus $50 for GT4 when I can just spend $50 and get something nearly as good? And if they can plug "Forza" into Xbox Live in a significant way, that may actually swing things towards the 'Box a bit.
It's always a tough bet to try to out-do the best-in-class. Witness "Kill Zone", Sony's attempt at a "Halo-killer" that, from all accounts I read, never remotely lived up to the hype.
So why would Microsoft set itself the extremely high bar of trying to go one better than GT4? Failure will only swamp them with bad PR and potentially hex the Xbox for driving games, the same way the failure of "Sudeki" sort of made it seem like RPGs couldn't really be done on Microsoft's magic machine.
Set aside for a moment the fact that, from the most recent set of impressions, it appears that "Forza" may actually kick some serious ass. I wonder if the standard Microsoft has set for the game isn't so much to "beat" GT4 as to be just good enough to keep Xbox owners from defecting to Sony. Not defecting as in totally abandoning the Xbox, but at least as far as picking up a PS2 as a second machine in order to play games exclusive to that platform. I've certainly considered buying a PS2 in order to play stuff like that. But if "Forza" turns out to be any good, why would I want to spend another $150 for a PS2 plus $50 for GT4 when I can just spend $50 and get something nearly as good? And if they can plug "Forza" into Xbox Live in a significant way, that may actually swing things towards the 'Box a bit.
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