So you've won the lottery! It's a though we've all had I'm sure. You go and get your stonking great cheque, and wonder what's the first thing I'm gonna do with my new found millions. Well I decided yesterday that what I would do is set aside a substantial portion of it to developing and maintaining my dream video game arcade. It wouldn't matter to me if it ran at a loss; just the fact that me and my fellow game enthusiasts would have the perfect place to hang out and play great arcade games would be enough for me. 
 
So then I got thinking. What machines would I include in my dream video game arcade? I decided to limit myself to 12 to start off with. That doesn't mean 12 machines, just 12 varieties of games. I also decided that I didn't need to limit myself to games that came out in arcades; some games I would want in my dream arcade even though they're not proper arcade games, and if need be I would create a version myself with my millions. 
 
So here is my list, and I do hope to read all of yours as well. 
 
Fighting Games Corner: 
Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution 
Super Street Fighter II Turbo 
Tekken 3
 
Shoot-em-up Corner: 
Geometry Wars 
Ikaruga 
Rez 
 
The Classics: 
Galaga 
Pac-Man Championship Edition 
 
Pinball Wizards: 
F14-Tomcat (apparently, at least according to Jeff, the greatest pinball game ever made)
Space Cadet 3D (I'm no pinball expert, but I played this game a ton as a kid, and would love to see an actual machine made for it) 
 
The Ultimate Arcade Driving Experience: 
Burnout Paradise (rows of machines with headsets to allow for chat; multiplayer challenges enabled) 
 
Rhythm Heaven: 
Rock Band

I adore using XBLA. I have like 40 games in total for it. It's great because I can be playing a game like Fallout 3 for a substantial amount of time, and when I want to play something different for a while, I just play an Arcade game. It means I can have a single disc in my 360 for weeks at a time.

I'm also a big fan of Steam, and one of the principle reasons for me wanting to get a PS3 at some point is for downloadable games like WipeOut HD, Warhawk, Shatter, Trine and the PixelJunk games.

It's been fascinating to witness how swiftly things can change in the games industry. Gamescom has proved to be more significant than I would have predicted earlier in the year. Gamescom may well mark a turning point. This is the time for Sony's "feel good moment". The one biggest complaint the console has received since that moment at E3 2006 was that it was too expensive. Sony, a stubborn company by nature, stuck firm with this for a long time, even when the world began to collapse all around them. 
 
But now they have made the move that everyone wanted them to make. The PS3 Slim is arriving early next month, and all PS3 models have been cut significantly in price. Rejoice! 
 
Except perhaps not. Sony has definitely generated positive buzz around the brand going into a competitive holiday season that is rapidly running out of games to sell, but the metamorphosis is not complete. They took a dramatic step forward, but continue to take steps back. 
 
Figures show clearly that Europe is, in terms of total number of systems sold, one of the strongest markets for Sony. Around 30-40% of PS3's sold worldwide ended up in European homes. Compared that number to their true market competitor, the Xbox 360. Only 10% of 360's sold worldwide were sold in Europe. For years one of Sony's biggest strongholds has been in Europe. Ever since the Xbox arrived and took America by storm, Nintendo and Sony could still argue greater sales in Europe and Japan. 
 
And now Sony has undermined their position in the territory drastically. Yes, their video market is coming to European territories, but at a huge cost. More specifically, Europe will pay 299 euros for a system Americans will pay 299 dollars for, and in current exchange figures, 299 dollars converted to euros is 220. And in the UK, the price will be £249, even more expensive when compared to the USA. 
 
Now Euro gamers have paid the price for a long time, but this is one of the most offensive. The cost of Rock Band equipment could be justified because of the complications of the hardware. General game sales are higher here in the UK partly due to VAT and taxes, meaning we can have a National Health Service, many great universities and such. But for a console that you want people to start feeling good about, it's a dramatic slap in the face. It's no more expensive for Sony to produce hardware for European territories then it is for NTSC territories, and it's that cut in production costs which led to this price cut. That's what makes this so baffling.
 
There are certainly other issues. Opinions on the aesthetic merits of the PS3 Slim are somewhat divided, but I'm sure many people will appreciate the smaller size. But then there's the matter of the features provided with the system. There is still not cross voice chat, and there is no PS2 backwards compatibility. 
 
I've been pondering this back compatibility issue recently. Now I'm someone who truly would appreciate backwards compatibility, because the only PS2 in my house belongs to my sister who may well take it away back to university at any point. But I now own my own games for it, and they would be useless if she reclaimed her PS2. A backward compatible PS3 would be extremely tempting. But I'm an exception. Over 100 million people, the populations of France and Spain combined, have bought PS2's. Nearly ten years since its release, Sony are still selling copies. 
 
So why is backwards compatibility such an issue for people. The issue is that Sony gave us b/c with the first PS3 model and then took it away in order to sell PS2's. Now in terms of marketing errors, this is a major one. You don't give people something and then take it away. People have long memories. That decision took a massive toll on the brand, and if Sony really wanted this to be their feel good moment, they should have included it. Rumours are circling about software emulation based backwards compatibility that Sony could introduce in the near future. I think they absolutely must by next year's Gamescom. That will nearly be the tenth anniversary of the PS2. That is a very long product cycle. Let it go. Give the people what they want. 
 
I don't mean this to sound like too much of a downer. It's just been fascinating to see people gushing over a brand that is still not where they need to be yet. The diehard fans want backwards compatibility, and the European fans want a lower price. I think the casual audience is by far the sector who benefit most from the price drop, and I'm sure Sony is happy with that. But that approach is a little at odds with their E3 presentation, where the games and the diehards were the focus. That image of the monolithic impenetrable black goliath of a system may be dissipating gradually, and the new trim system is the biggest step in the right direction the brand has made yet. But let's not be too quick to jump on the bandwagon, not with a Gran Turismo 5 date still ever elusive, Tekken 6 arriving on the 360 this autumn and Killzone 2 failing to set the world on fire. 
 
Now to be fair, the other brands are also not exactly thriving at the moment. The Xbox 360 is still having its identity crisis, and rumours of a price increase in the UK are also baffling. And Nintendo continue to out-stubborn Sony when it comes to price drops. But the sad fact is that the Wii and 360 had their times in the sun during a stable and happy economy. Sony's system may now be coming into its prime, but the timing couldn't have been worse. 2009 could well by Sony's year, but does that matter? This year has seen terrible lows across the board, and the number of games being pushed back to 2010 is doing nothing to help that cause. 
 
The best thing to take away is that Sony is positioning their system to be very strong in 2010. God of War III is already dated for 2010, and unless a miracle occurs, GT5 will also be 2010. The two biggest system sellers coming in the same year. And who knows, by 2010 the economy might be on the upswing. But for all the positives for the brand, they need to take advantage of this opportunity and improve the features list with cross voice chat and backwards compatibility. This strategy could well cement the PS3 as the most successful system for the remainder of the console cycle. Whatever emerges from this, it will surely be fascinating to witness.

So once again I've neglected this blog a little bit, and want to get it back on track with some recent goings on.
 
First off, I took a break from playing Tales of Vesperia today. I've played it quite a bit recently, and am at the 28 hour mark, and I still love that game - the story has evolved in some really interesting ways in the past couple of days - but wanted to take a time out. So instead I've been playing more Rocket Riot, which I really like because it's much more forgiving than other dual-joystick shooters, is charming, pretty funny and looks good, and have been trying some demos.  
 
First demo I tried was Fight Night Round 4, which felt weird to me. I went through the tutorial, but found the demo fights a little tricky. I think I did four fights, and won all of them by decision, but kept getting hit with counter punches and nearly getting knocked down. At the same time, the demo did kind of make me want to play the game.  
 
Then I tried UFC Undisputed, and that demo did make me want to play that game. The tutorial was pretty long, and wasn't voiced like the FNR4 demo and so I got bored and just went into a fight. Playing as Chuck I knocked Shogun out three times, all in the first round. The game is very visceral and satisfying, and for someone who has often admired MMA from and distance and is interested in the concept, but found actually watching the fights to be insufferable, I was surprised at how much I liked the demo.
 
Then I tried Tiger Woods 10, and didn't like it. I guess I just don't like golf. Swinging felt alright, but I just didn't care. 
 
I've still been sinking more time into The Sims 2 than is probably healthy for someone who attempts to maintain a facade of being a "serious" gamer. That game still has a strange addictive appeal. I can play that game for three hour stretches, which is more than I can even do with a great game likes Tales. Sometimes I feel a little dirty about it, but frankly it's a fun game and I like it. And playing Sims 2 is much better than playing Sims 3 because my sister bought all the expansions for 2 and so that game is pretty deep and interesting, which I've heard on good authority that Sims 3 feels a little stripped bare. 
 
I keep meaning to spend more time with my DS. I got Age of Empires: Mythologies and Professor Layton for my birthday last month and really want to play both, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I also bought Sid Meier's Civilisation IV and all its expansions through Steam for £25, which is a damn good deal for what is apparently a damn good game. It's been a while since I've played some PC games on my laptop (Sims 2 is installed on main computer, as is Age of Empires II and Morrowind), and fully expect to greatly enjoy Civ 4. 
 
In the past week there has been plenty of talk about new features coming to Xbox Live on August 11th with the new update. I won't go into depth about every aspect, except to say that user ratings are a good thing and premium avatar content is a bad thing. But the main thing that I've been mulling over is the Games on Demand service. I have been onboard with digital distribution for a good long time. I've been way into iTunes and Amazon MP3 for a while, and have recently become more invested in Xbox Live Arcade and Steam. I love having so many games instantly, because it means I can keep Tales of Vesperia, Fallout 3 or Oblivion in my disc drive for a while, and when I want to play something different I'll just pull up a Live game. 
 
But bringing full box release 360 games to Xbox Live offers an interesting new frontier for game distribution. Steam has been selling full-length games for a long time, and Burnout Paradise came to PSN last year, so they are certainly not the first, but you could well argue that this is the most major transition from boxed to digital distribution in a long time, perhaps ever. 
 
There will be questions, such as how big the downloads will be for those still rocking 20GB hard drives (not a problem for my 120GB, but still), bandwidth issues and other questions. And then there's the matter of are people really ready for this? I'm an exception in being so invested in digital distribution, but others are still not on board. There is still something satisfying about having a solid product, one you know you can count on, or at least until the 360 stratches up the disc. 
 
My biggest problem with the whole issue is not the concerns about the actual distribution, but rather the list of games that will be on offer for 1,600 points. Most of them are early 360 games, some of them launch games, and some are difficult to find now. But you might question why anyone would want to find them. Meet the Robinsons, the Need for Speed games and Tomb Raider: Legend are all games I would be surprised if anyone downloaded and enjoyed. And then there's the question of Mass Effect and Oblivion. Both are fantastic games, but I really think that they are best served as disc based games. I've kept Oblivion in my disc drive for a month at a time, so having it digitally does nothing for me. 
 
Assassin's Creed is a game I liked quite a bit originally, but have no interest in playing it again. Fight Night Round 3 has been made completely redundant by Round 4, Perfect Dark and Prey were fine for the era they were released, but almost certainly won't hold up so well now, and three of the best games coming - Burnout Paradise and the two Viva Pinata games - are all games I own and don't like enough to buy again. My Viva Pinata game disc is a little busted so that's the only one I would consider buying online. 
 
I feel like the list is very random and scattered, and am wondering what direction they will take this feature in. I've said it before, but I don't want to digitally download any game that has a story. With a story based game you want to play it a lot in a short amount of time without dilution, and so are perhaps best served with the physical product. However, games that you can drop in and out off without consequence of losing grasp on the story would be perfectly served by digital distribution. I still play Super Turbo HD Remix from time to time rather than Street Fighter IV because I can play it anytime on demand; if you're telling me I could have Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter on my hard drive to play at anytime, I would be on board, and would definitely buy Virtua Fighter 5 again to have it at all times. 
 
So when it comes to this new service, I hope that Microsoft realise what the appeal of having a game on demand really is. Less Mass Effect, Oblivion and Assassin's Creed. More fighting games, racing games and sports games. I would buy Fight Night Round 4 on demand in a heartbeat, same with UFC Undisputed, and I would be stoked to have a Madden game on my hard drive to play whenever. I still think I want a disc version of Forza 3, but would love to have DiRT or Pure or PGR4 on demand. 
 
I wonder how long it will take for a game to come to on demand. Will we come to a point where new games are released simultaneously in store and on demand, or will there still be a lag? Will Resident Evil 5 be hitting the Games on Demand service next year, or Mass Effect 2 in two years, or Fallout 3, or any number of games? Will Microsoft realise the potential of having casual and non-story based games available on demand? Just how much of an effort will they make to get people interested in digital distribution? How many people are really interested in having full-length games on their hard drives? 
 
There are plenty of questions that need answering in time, but personally the ideal way I see this rolling out is that all games comes to on demand three months after in-store release, since that is around the time you can find games for much lower prices. I would never pay full-price for a digital release, and if I have to wait more than a year, I'll just get impatient and buy it boxed style and be pissed about it. And the games I will buy through this service is, as I've said, games without stories that I feel like I would want to jump into whenever and enjoy. But that's just me.