Microsoft's 08 first party lineup..what am I missing? And discussion

Isn't Lost Odyssey December '07?

It doesn't seem likely to me that Epic will ship Gears 2 in less than half the time they took for the original. If they do, it'll probably be even shorter than Gears 1.


They were also building the unreal engine at the same time they were doing gears, and also the hardware was not finalized, I don't think it's that far off that gears 2 would come next holiday.
 
Isn't Lost Odyssey December '07?

It doesn't seem likely to me that Epic will ship Gears 2 in less than half the time they took for the original. If they do, it'll probably be even shorter than Gears 1.


On LO, no. It's not scheduled this year.

On Gears 2, bank on it for holiday tentpole 08.

BTW what do you mean half the time? Holiday 08 will have been two years, and IIRC the original only took 2 years from start to finish (might have been 3, I'm not 100% certain, but I think I remember Cliffy saying 2 years).

BTW I also dont agree Gears was too short. I love the game.

Also consider they have the advantages of UE3 done, the Gears engine already done, all they have to do now is tweak, polish the engine, and throw in tons of stuff they couldn't have time for in the first game (*cough* brumak fight *cough*). It'll be Gears+.
 
Isn't Lost Odyssey December '07?

It doesn't seem likely to me that Epic will ship Gears 2 in less than half the time they took for the original. If they do, it'll probably be even shorter than Gears 1.

Lost Odyssey is supposedly targeting late 2007, but given the lack of previews/media release etc, I wonder if the PR about Lost Odyssey slipping into 2008 is inevitable.

And GoW2, I think that Epic will have a skeleton team already working on the title, no way is a franchise like GoW being allowed to lay idle. UE3 is in a much better shape than when GoW was in development so I do not see development time being as long. I don't think they really need to make any radical changes to the gameplay, I think for the sequel the best bet is to play it safe and give the audience more of that they wanted the first time around.
 
On Gears of War 2... Unreal Tournament 3 is coming in 2008 for the Xbox 360. Epic may not wish to complete with their own software.

Gears of War 2 also will need to be extremely polished. The competition has caught up and gamers are getting deeper and more technical, so a simple followup won't be enough IMO. It needs to be a true sequal, which could take 3 full years. Add in advancements in the UE3 engine and enough time to make a complete followup and I think 2 years may be cutting it tight. Epic is small, afterall, and is dedicating a lot of resources to UT3 and UE3.

MS will have some big titles in Halo Wars, Alan Wake, Fable 2, Banjo 3, and most likely at least 1 other title from Rare in 2008. Toss in 3rd party support like Ninja Gaiden and Splinter Cell, and some slides like Too Human and Lost Odessey, and MS has a pretty robust 2008 planned.

They may want to give some of their new IPs and 3rd parties some breathing room after smacking them in 2007 with Bioshock, Halo 3, and Mass Effect all landing in a 90 days period exclusvely on the 360.
 
On Gears of War 2... Unreal Tournament 3 is coming in 2008 for the Xbox 360. Epic may not wish to complete with their own software.

UT3 is coming out in the beginning of the year and they would probably market gears more around the holidays. I doubt UT3 sales are strong for more then a few months

I also don't see UT3 being as big of a game on consoles as most people seem to think.
 
Lost Odyssey is supposedly targeting late 2007, but given the lack of previews/media release etc, I wonder if the PR about Lost Odyssey slipping into 2008 is inevitable.

And GoW2, I think that Epic will have a skeleton team already working on the title, no way is a franchise like GoW being allowed to lay idle. UE3 is in a much better shape than when GoW was in development so I do not see development time being as long. I don't think they really need to make any radical changes to the gameplay, I think for the sequel the best bet is to play it safe and give the audience more of that they wanted the first time around.

What do you think CliffyB has been working on this whole time?

He's working on Gears 2, and has been since Gears 1 was finished.

Before Gears 1 was finished, interviewers would say "what's next for you after Gears?" and he'd say "probably Gears 2".

Watch interviews with him, he all but comes out and says it if you read between the lines.

Gears 2 is locked in stone for Nov 08 mark my words. They wont even admit it's existence right now of course, for marketing reasons.

BTW on LO, do you mean Japan or US? I'm certain it wont make US in 07. It's not even tentatively scheduled on Gamestop's release calender this year. I really have no idea it's release schedule in Japan though.
 
What do you think CliffyB has been working on this whole time?

He's working on Gears 2, and has been since Gears 1 was finished.

Before Gears 1 was finished, interviewers would say "what's next for you after Gears?" and he'd say "probably Gears 2".

Watch interviews with him, he all but comes out and says it if you read between the lines.

Gears 2 is locked in stone for Nov 08 mark my words. They wont even admit it's existence right now of course, for marketing reasons.

BTW on LO, do you mean Japan or US? I'm certain it wont make US in 07. It's not even tentatively scheduled on Gamestop's release calender this year. I really have no idea it's release schedule in Japan though.


they said LO was coming december on both japan and us
 
UT3 is coming out in the beginning of the year and they would probably market gears more around the holidays. I doubt UT3 sales are strong for more then a few months

I also don't see UT3 being as big of a game on consoles as most people seem to think.

A very good reason for Epic to delay UT3 until late Summer/Fall and hype it as, "By the makers of Gears of War". Toss in a lot of new content not found on the other versions, clean it up, and I think it would sell MUCH better than in the winter (everyone will still be playing Halo, CoD, etc).
 
A very good reason for Epic to delay UT3 until late Summer/Fall and hype it as, "By the makers of Gears of War". Toss in a lot of new content not found on the other versions, clean it up, and I think it would sell MUCH better than in the winter (everyone will still be playing Halo, CoD, etc).

They are not really the same type of game, though. UT3 is all about online multiplayer. Gears is a single player game with some online multiplayer elements. I don't really see them as competing. Also, Halo 3 is the Alpha and Omega of multiplayer online shooters on 360 for the foreseeable future so UT3 on 360 is no where near as big a deal as it is on PS3. Given the opportunity to have Gears 2 be the featured title for 360 in Holiday '08 my guess is Epic takes it.
 
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