BattleFront 3 Rumor

[EagleOne]

Rdaug and I have come a cross this article which hopefully is true, click the link:

http://www.gamesradar.com/us/wii/game/news/article.jsp?articleId=20070302111527387011&sectionId=1006&releaseId=200703021051555281

[RaTix]

There were rumors of the developer switch way back in like November or so last year I believe. The news about the Xbox 360 exclusivity is new, but not surprising. Even SWBF2 was developed and more geared towards the original Xbox then the PS2.

I am eager to see what the devs at Free Radical can do to improve this game and make it what it truly should be. Pandemic has screwed up the series for far too long.

[Zabka]

it has long been rumored that the LA project that Free Radical is working on could be SWBF3, but until we see it, I won't believe it. Also expect a couple years for that. The 360 exclusive is interesting as I have no idea why LA would do that. I wonder if SWBF2 sold better on the xbox than the ps2. That might explain the patches and downloadable content on the xbox while ZILCH on the PS2. But if it take a couple years to get out---I would imagine that the PS3 installed base would be big enough to support the launch by then (some developers have said they won't develop for the PS3 until 2008 when they believe the installed base will be big enough--I think it was Eidos.). Still, normally an exlcusive is like a 4-6 month window I believe. Inlimbo knows those details. Regardless, I find it interesting that Playstation World reports this.

If this is true, that would be SCHWEET.

[thatgirlkim]

Ill wait until I read it in Game Informer before I start believing any rumors... lol

[Grejo]

i'll wait until i see the advertisment commercial :)

[Kamui]

Isn't there that new Gaming Expo in July that replaced E3?Only open by invitation now I hear.By this august well know whether or not there is really going to be a SWBFIII.If so then it would be awesome because I like how Free Radical had implemented mapmaker into their Timesplitters series.

Hoping its 3rd person instead of first person.

[RaTix]

I have been wondering myself if they would implement some sort of map editor into SWBFIII (if the rumors are true) as they did with timesplitters. They had a pretty good setup with that.

[CHRIST]

what's the point with exclusivity? doesnt it mean less money?

[Kamui]

Favortism.More money for LA since we've all seen the asskissery since SWBFII and the XBOX updates.

[Zabka]

It isn't about the marginal revenue, you also need to know what the marginal cost is as well (microeconomics). The question is more along the lines of if the incremental cost of developing it for another system (and I don't know how hard it is to port from one to the other) outweighs the economic benefit from the amount sold to that console. I have no view of that.

I have read some game developer cite numbers like the need to sell 500K units for a PS3 game to break even on development costs at this point. With less than 2.5MM units sold, that represents 20% of all console owners needing to buy this. That type of penetration only rarely happens in games--Gears did it, but I don't know of many other instances where so many with a console had the same game. Now, I presume that would be for an exclusive title. I would also presume that porting a game is less expensive that building it from scratch (but I may be wrong)...in which case if they were already going to make it for the 360, I would presume that breakeven number on the PS3 would be lower. The only reason to make it exclusive,I would think is if you dont think you can extract enough profit or if you are being compensated to make something exlcusive. Exclusive usually means jsut a window of exclusivity--4-6 months I think.

as for why SWBF2 got patched and updated on the xbox and not ps2---part of it must be the hard drive. But for the patch---I have no idea why they never patched it. I am wondering if sales of swbf2 were sufficiently poor---or if they saw limited enough server play that they didn't think it was worth that small core audience. After all, they yanked the servers pretty darn fast too. I just don't have any sales numbers on swbf2 xbox vs ps2.

[Rdaug27]

I hope it comes out on the PC and then I can upgrade to Vista and play with the 360 players. How fucking sweet would that be? ROFL Got to look at it like that too. It wouldn't be just for the 360, the exclusivity could go to the PC as well. OK I guess that makes it not so exclusive but I think you all know what I am getting at.

[RaTix]

Zabka, I think the main reason for the lack of patches on the PS2 is that there is just too much that needs to be fixed and it all wouldn't fit on the messily 8MB memory card. I'm not talking about the expansions, just the bug fixes would be a lot to do and I think that’s why they never did it. Piss poor development, plain and simple.

As for the exclusive, With Xbox having the hard drives and ability for extra content, both companies made money with the expansions and I'm sure some good business ties were made during this time of working together (Microsoft and LA). That had to play a small part in the grand scheme of things.

[Rdaug27]

They could have done something like Socom is doing with the flash drives surely. The developers of Socom found a way to add maps and stuff with the flash drive right? So LA couldn't find a way to do it? No wait Pandemic probably couldn't. I bet someone from XBOX was responsible for the patches and upgrades it received, and LA loved it. That drove a steak in Pandemics heart and could have lead to the possibility of a 360 exclusive.

[{KOR}Longhorn]

Updates are no longer an issue with the PS3 since it has a HDD. MotorStorm has already issued an update, which included a buddy list in-game.

And the deveolpment costs difference is minimal since it is a port from one console to the other. Game devolpers have a year of experience working with the simpler 360.

No way this game is an exclusive since it is the biggest selling franchise in Star Wars video game library.

-KOR Longhorn

[BOSS]

I am not liking the idea of making it exclusive to the 360 only. PS3 already lost enough exclusives (Armored Core 4, Devil May Cry 4, Ace Combat, etc) and it would anger me to see a multi platform game go exclusive. I am not trying to start an argument but it was a fact that the Playstation in general had more exclusives to begin with and I can understand balancing the amount but if this is true then I better see some Xbox exclusives go PS3 in the near future cause this seems to be going down a dark path.