The Pack, to be on XBL Marketplace (for 500 points) and PSN Store (for $5.99) starting Sept. 24th, will feature vintage logos, uniform styles of referees and teams, and a new camera effect of “classic film grain broadcast camera.” This will also feature new trophies and Achievements for those that love to build up their Levels or Gamerscore.

In case you do not know of their history, the AFL was the “alternative” to the NFL from 1960 until 1969. In 69, they merged with the NFL, bringing their teams with them:

- Buffalo Bills
- Denver Broncos
- Kansas City Chiefs (as the Dallas Texans)
- New England Patriots (as the Boston Patriots)
- New York Jets (as the Titans of New York)
- Oakland Raiders
- San Diego Chargers
- Tennessee Titans (as the Houston Oilers)

As far as we know, this is the first major form of DLC for any Madden game, and this is good for EA to finally bring something to the table in this way in their football games. Hopefully they don’t stop offering good DLC like this. Keep your eyes opened on your system profiles for the new Achievements and Trophies soon.

[SOURCE] [MORE INFORMATION ON THE AFL]

“Some of you people could really do with learning to read. I specifically said it was NOT Activision. I thought I gave enough hints as to who it was without directly stating it, but I guess not, so lets try this again, except we’ll make it interesting. Here lies the answers, lets see who is clever enough to figure it out?

SXQncyBub3QgQWN0aXZpc2lvbi4NCkl0J3Mgbm90IFViaXNvZnQuDQpJdCd
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aWNraW5nIG91dCB0aGUgb25lcyB0aGF0IHNpbXBseSBkaWRuJ3QgZG8gaW4t
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Y29tZSB0byBtaW5kIGFuZCBpdCB3YXNuJ3QgZXZlbiB3aGF0IHlvdSBvciBJIHd
vdWxkIGNhbGwgYSAiQmlnIiBnYW1lLiBJJ2xsIGdpdmUgeW91IGEgaGludDog
SFBhdE9vZlAu

As for those curious as to why I would call the whistle on this, tell me good sir, what would you do? You have a vested interest in the company you work for and you see this other company constantly getting in the way. Oh sure, on the outside everyone’s all buddy-buddy, but that’s just good business. And that’s what it boils down to – business. Why fix something that doesn’t need to be fixed when you can just **** over everyone else and get away with it? You know Sony isn’t going to make a huge fuss, they can’t afford to alienate publishers and developers (especially HUGE ones), not when Microsoft and Nintendo are happy to welcome them with open arms. Still, all our hard work and it just gets pissed down the drain because one company can’t be bothered doing some support? I ask you again – what would you do?

Oh and I appreciate all of you guys trying to spread this around, I hope that they’ll back track and enable that feature for as many titles as they can eventually, but don’t be surprised if Sony themselves denies this, after all their priority is to maintain good ties with publishers and developers.

Now, you probably wondering what all that coded BS is within that thing. Sounds like gobbily gook, right?

Enter PS3Center.net, who has apparently figured out that the gibberish is actually Base 32 code, and when translated, says something VERY interesting (and where EA comes into this story):

“It’s not Activision. It’s not Ubisoft. It’s not Capcom. It’s not Insomniac. It’s not Konami. It’s not Take 2. It’s not Midway. It’s not Squaresoft. are wE All getting the picture yet? One point I want to reiterate – there’s a difference between the games that didn’t work with in-game XMB and the games that DID work with in-game XMB but DIDN’T work well with custom soundtracks, so stop picking out the ones that simply didn’t do in-game XMB. Also, it wasn’t just ONE game that caused this, either. Although one title does come to mind and it wasn’t even what you or I would call a “Big” game. I’ll give you a hint: HPatOofP.”

What’s “HPatOofP”. Apparently PS3Center had that figured out, too: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The game is published by EA.

This is why EA is in the center of the controversy, and why you see both our denouncement of what’s going on over on the EA Forums, and why suspicions are rampant. Coupled with the fact that Super_Secret is not just some random N4G poster looking for a laugh. He’s gotten everything about the PS3 Slim and FW 3.0 correct, so he seems to know what is going on over there at Sony.

I have tried e-mailing EA to get an answer (and this time, I think we, or SOMEONE else who’s been all over this story, will, since this one seems to be catching some fire right now). Let’s just hope this is an exaggeration or something that was a misunderstanding or whatever, because if it’s a correct assessment, then all hell will, and SHOULD, break loose (though keep in mind our denouncement about certain tactics).

[SOURCE]

Some have even gone onto the EA Forums (EA are the ones accused of being the publishers that are blocking these features) and posted some rather passionate posts.

While we believe that the gamers voices should be heard, and we do encourage those that are truly seeking answers to continue doing so, I have also seen some of the sickest sort of spam (in the way of scat pictures and those that could make someone want to vomit, and utter nonsense) being posted along with personal attacks. I know I sometimes let my mouth get ahead of me, as well, but this sort of thing is not necessary and will NOT be supported by this site, and I hope this site won’t be the only one that denounces this kind of posting.

Hell, we don’t even have any official confirmation that it was EA (I was suspicious of Valve since they have had a less than favorable opinion on the system).

So here is the official word on this: if you are a passionate gamer that is not posting these sick, disgusting pictures and are going to be mature about being outraged, then we do support your cause.

However, the ones that resort to these uncalled for tactics insult the moniker of “gamer” and do NOT represent this site, any form of fanboy, or any gamer at all. These are unnecessary and slimy tactics that just makes people think that you are insane. Please grow up! It is not funny in the slightest, and made me personally go somewhere else to get info on the recent outrage.

Finally, I implore people to at least calm down until we get more information. Knowledge is the essential weapon, and while answers need to be forced out, let’s keep the pitchforks in the sheaths and our matches in our pockets, at least until we hear something definitive come out of EA or Sony about this (and yes, this HAS suddenly blown up).

Here is his post ad verbatim:

“I promised you all an update on Cross-Game chat, so here it is.

And you’re not going to like it.

As I told you before, Cross-game voice chat has been in the works for a while now. I mentioned last time that it was on target for 3.0 providing that we didn’t hit any snags. Well guess what, we hit a snag! An all too familiar snag.

Time for a history lesson.

How many of you remember what it was like before FW 2.4? That’s right – no in-game XMB. No custom soundtracks. In-game XMB was the most heavily requested feature at the time and we worked tirelessly in order to get it in (By “we”, I mean Sony Japan – as I said before, FW isn’t my department). It very nearly didn’t happen, you have no idea how difficult it is to backport a feature like that onto a system (the game) that doesn’t even know its there, but somehow we managed it. Well, for most titles. There are still the odd few titles out there that don’t support in-game XMB (”black” titles).
Custom soundtracks was another one we had working in nearly every title. Obviously it was never going to work in black titles, but about 95% of the titles that worked well with the in-game XMB, had custom sountracks working as well.

So what happened? Why is it that titles HAVE to be developed specifically with custom soundtrack support when it was working more or less just fine?

Is it because Microsoft owns the patent on custom soundtracks in games?

This is something that makes me laugh every time I see one of the less educated ones spouting it off. That’s an absolute fabrication. Patents don’t matter, Sony as a while infringes upon thousands of patents through the whole company, both hardware and software. If you infringe a patent, you pay royalties to the owner or find a different way of doing the same thing that doesn’t infringe. That’s it. Microsoft infringes upon all kinds of patents we own but that’s up to legal to sort out.

No, the reason we had to drop Custom soundtrack support like that has nothing to do with Microsoft. It does, however, involve a different company. A rather large company.
You see, one of their games happened to fall into the 5% that didn’t support in-game custom soundtracks. And they did not like this.
When they found out that a new firmware update was going to suddenly make one of their games look inferior to just about every other game released, they protested. A lot.
They threatened everything, from legal action to dropping support for the PS3 all together.

What could we do? There was almost no way of getting it to work correctly due to the way their game was made (i.e. Poorly) and we certainly couldn’t leave a broken implementation in there. That’s when the hard decision was made to remove all support for older titles and instead adopt the “opt-in” approach that, to this day, most developers simply ignore. I have to hand this to Microsoft – they did their system right from the beginning and by completely separating it from the developers, they have universal support. Its very unlikely that you’ll ever see mandatory support for custom soundtracks in games on our system, I’m afraid.
So yeah, lets nail this on the head: The next time someone starts blaming Microsoft for something the PS3 doesn’t have, tell them they’re an idiot, they don’t know what they’re talking about. Are we clear on this? This is a pet peeve of mine because while everyone’s happy to go around blaming Microsoft, the real culprits are getting off scott-free. Of course, I can’t actually name them directly or, should I get caught, I might even get done for slander (you can never be too careful), but you can figure it out – it’s not Activision and they have a poor history with the PS3.

So what has this got to do with Cross-game voice chat?

Guess.

I warned you that we might hit a snag and we did. We’ve found a couple of titles that just don’t like it. Similar to the custom soundtrack fiasco, it can cause lag, crashes, desyncronisation (very very bad when this happens), you name it. It can’t be used in these games and it just so happens that some of these games are owned by the same company I’ve been talking about above.
So we’re in a predicament: Cross-game chat is useless if only certain games support it. It’s not too bad if its just the odd one that doesn’t like it, but at this rate we’d have to drop support for the ENTIRE back catalogue, which would (As I said) make the whole thing useless.
Furthermore, we can’t rely on developers to implement direct support for it. It didn’t work with Custom Soundtracks, so why would it work here?
So right now, we’re trying every little trick in the book to find a solution that works for everyone, but don’t hold your breath on this one, so far it looks like the best you’re going to get is a gimped implementation of it that only works with a handful of new games.

Now as I said, FW isn’t actually my department and even I’m not supposed to know some of this stuff, but this is actually where we are right now. It sucks majorly, but there you have it. Depending on the end result, it could come in FW 3.1 or it could come in FW 4.0, hell it might not even come at all but rest assured they are working very hard on it. And if it doesn’t come, you know who to blame.”

The names of EA, Capcom, and Ubisoft has been thrown around as to who it was.

But my personal bet is on Valve. Gabe has not been very shy about how much he hates the PS3 and has been a lazy fuck about trying to learn anything about it. Not to mention that the Orange Box was a shit port that was outsourced by EA with little to no support from either company for it, and would be one of those “black titles” SS is talking about since it was released in 07.

What do you think? Could it be Gabe trying to sabotage (intentionally or unintentionally) the PS3 in this way, or is there someone else you’re thinking about?

Be advised, however, that this is a “rumor” until further notice.

However, a big question mark was whether or not we would see the return of backwards compatibility to the PS3. Apparently not, as it wasn’t announced at Gamescon at all (not even brought up), but Sony venomously denied it and said that it wasn’t coming back. However, with the recent spread of something involving the first two God Of War games, there is some speculation as to whether or not Sony is bluffing and trying to stop the rumor from spreading like a wildfire like the Slim did. One site said yes, another said no.

However, we got a tip from the same anonymous source (which the reason it is such will be obvious in a moment) that gave PSInsider their tips. The source gave it to him, and then PSI’s owner decided to tell us this to give another site the limelight on N4G or wherever else it ended up. The tip is this: expect BC soon, as the real reason it’s not here yet is because it’s still being play tested.

According to the source (which was brought to our attention just before GamesCon, and note that we’re taking this quote ad verbatim):

“I hope PS2 b/c will be avaible [sic] soon – sadly gamescom they will only announce it, but I think it should be working since it’s more than a year of testing (oddly ppl in France are testing PS2 games on PS3).”

(NOTE: As this was NOT posted on PSI’s site–the owner decided not to come forth with the rumor, letting someone else have the hits–this is the first time ANYWHERE, at least to our knowledge, this info is coming out).

The point of this being that they are still testing this out to make sure everything works right before making anyone aware of this. This could also be the reason why cross-game chat, a highly requested feature, hasn’t been introduced yet. Note that he mentioned that they would only announce it at Gamescon (which it wasn’t announced), but this does not rule out that it isn’t being worked on.

However, this is labeled as a “rumor” for a reason, but seeing as how this source was right on a LOT of his Gamescon claims, we have to think that this guy is pretty damn creditable. Plus, the claim of people in France testing this already, along with the recent patents of technology that would allow such a feature being released to the public and reports that the PS3 can already support the feature seems to bring to mind that they want to make sure there are no hiccups to this like what happened last year with 2.4 bricking PS3’s, or the NXE bricking 360s. Expect for Sony to be denying this for as long as they can, as well (like we said, he’s staying anonymous for a reason, and no, we’re not making it up that we GOT this tip).

Personally, we don’t see why Sony SHOULD be adamant about NOT adding BC back into the PS3. Perhaps it’s to keep PS2 sales going, but with those beginning to fall, there becomes less and less of an excuse NOT to add a feature that would make the PS3 have the biggest library of playable games available on any console. We hope this is true, and we advise you that have been wanting this for some time to keep your fingers crossed.

UPDATE: Just so people don’t think we’re playing with people, here is the N4G PM I got from “fr0sty”, the owner of PSI:

We are going to change our focus of the site from reporting gaming news into reporting about those that DO the reporting. In other words, the news ABOUT the news. Since the Media Watch has been a hit one way or another with a lot of visitors, I considered expanding it to the basis of the site, and instead do here what TV Newser does with cable news outlets like MSNBC: talk about the personalities that write for them, and analyze the reporting of various stories. Opinions will still be here, including my DP Thoughts, Special Comments, and Worst Persons, but this, to me, would be a much better way to serve the gaming community at a time where such a site is needed.

Stay tuned for more developments on this change of focus.

As you are probably well aware, Valve angered about 30,000 plus (and at this rate, it’ll grow to a hundred times that before the game launches) when they announced Left 4 Dead 2 at E3. They all formed a Steam Community Group saying that they were boycotting the game: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/L4D2boycott.

Now, apparently, someone has decided to counter. According to Blend Games (which the author of its story seems ready to agree with the latter, even refusing to link you to the boycott page, calling THEM “whiners” and that they “don’t deserve anymore hits”, along with them hoping that other outlets pick this story up. Too bad they didn’t say how other outlets would react), about 500 members have joined a “L4D2 Enthusiast Group”. This is basically a “PRO-cott” group to counter the boycott one. Democracy is here, right: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/L4D2Enthusiasts

Not so fast. See, for one, there’s only 500 members, far from the 30K plus on the boycott page (and that’s only those that found that page that want to say that they are boycotting the game, so that number could actually be bigger).

More importantly, though, the procotters got the entire POINT of WHY the boycotters are mad in their manifesto:

Hello all, and welcome to the Left 4 Dead 2 Enthusiasts! I would love to say, thank you all for joining.

Left 4 Dead 2, which is coming out November 17th, is supposed to be a great game. It has;

- 5 new campaigns.

- 4 new characters.

- 3 new special infected.

- 2 new common infected.

- 1 new campaign, where the infection has not hit.

- 20 new weapons.

- New graphics, and so on and so forth.

This really is a respectable sequel to the original game.

This was in response to the L4D 2 Boycott group, because a lot of people were against their opinions. Right now I will say, there is a freedom of speech, and I respect their opinion. But this isn’t just a group created against the L4D2 Boycott group, it’s also a group for Left 4 Dead 2 Enthusiasts.

We have only hit a short milestone in our expansion of players, but we have come a decent way. While the L4D2 Boycott group has around 30,000 members, we have around 255, and growing.

There are a lot of stupid things that the L4D2 Boycott group are complaining about. Here are some to name a few;

- The music played.

- The character design.

- The color of the game, etc…

In my opinion, these are some pretty stupid arguments, where all evidence came from a Left 4 Dead 2 Beta teaser trailer. May I remind you, a beta is not the full finished version of the game.

They are also saying things like; “Valve is a greedy company, only releasing L4D2 to get money!”

Okay… Well, guess what? Sequels happen! Lets see, hmm… CoD: World at War, Modern Warfare 2, a new Madden game practical every 9 months, and the list goes on and on… But no one has ever made such a big deal like this in respond to a sequel until now.

Valve is moving forwards. Yes they promised new content for Left 4 Dead, and guess what? They’re releasing it! Left 4 Dead 2 is a game for people who wanted a sequel, who will buy, and enjoy it!

I would also like to say this. From my knowledge, we have done nothing to the L4D2 Boycott group, but yet they seem to make themselves look worse each day by spamming this group. The only point they’re making, is how stupid they look. You know, not sure if you noticed this, but there’s this great invention called the “Delete button”, works well. See, when you post one of you attempted spamming, that probably took who knows how much time you had to make, I can get rid of it in a blink of an eye.

One last thing that I would love to say is; Thank you all for joining, I really appreciate it, I really do! I love the comments, and opinions that you guys have been leaving, and I read every single one of them. I am hoping that you all do your part by spreading the word, and keep this group alive.

There are several places where the manifesto is wrong. To prove this, I will just post the BOYCOTTERS manifesto for you to compare:

Want to contact the team? Write us at — l4d2boycott@gmail.com

The Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott is a group of individuals who have pledged to boycott Valve’s upcoming release of Left 4 Dead 2 on November 17th, 2009. We have assembled a manifesto outlining the basic consensus of many members of our community. (Note: this manifesto is a new version, which we have recently posted to keep our manifesto in line with the middle ground of our members. This is the correct group for the boycott)

WE RECOGNIZE:

-Valve is a company with financial needs and cannot be expected to survive without the release of new games.

-Judgment cannot be passed on the quality of Left 4 Dead 2 until its release.

-Left 4 Dead was, and is, a quality game which deserves the praise of the entire gaming community.

WE ARE COMMITTED:

-To holding Valve to its promise of free, continual updates to Left 4 Dead in order to build and sustain the community.

-To keeping the Left 4 Dead community together in order to improve the quality of online gaming.

-To supporting the model of continual updates Valve has set forth with its staple products like Team Fortress 2.

WE BELIEVE:

-The release of Left 4 Dead 2 as a stand-alone sequel will split the communities and decrease the quality of multiplayer gaming.

-The announced content of Left 4 Dead 2 does not warrant a stand-alone, full-priced sequel and should instead become updates (free or otherwise) for Left 4 Dead.

-Left 4 Dead has not yet received the support and content which Valve has repeatedly stated will be delivered.

-The release of Left 4 Dead 2 will make Left 4 Dead an obsolete purchase and inferior piece of software after only one year since release.

WE REQUEST:

-That Valve honor its commitment to release ongoing periodic content for Left 4 Dead.

-That Left 4 Dead 2 not be released as a stand-alone, full-priced sequel but as either a free update to Left 4 Dead or an expansion with full compatibility with basic Left 4 Dead owners.

-That Left 4 Dead owners be given discounts for Left 4 Dead 2, should it be released as premium content.

Therefore, we – the members of this Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott – promise to abstain from the purchase of Left 4 Dead 2 until our requests are addressed.

(Thanks to member “afternine” who wrote this manifesto, from which the staff made some slight modification)

На русском: http://l4d2boycott.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=announce&thread=194

Deutsch: http://l4d2boycott.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=announce&thread=195

Español: http://l4d2boycott.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=announce&action=display&thread=196

Français: http://l4d2boycott.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=announce&action=display&thread=234

***Please note: racism, profanity, and sexual content are not allowed in any form in our chatroom.***

So either the procotters got this wrong or they were flat out lying. Plus, I would LOVE to know who sent the pros those e-mails. And by the way, while sequels do come out all too often for the games listed in the procotters’ manifesto, Valve has not been one of those companies before, and they had promised content updates with L4D. And Valve has recognized the threat that this boycott is for them several times.

Finally, shame on the Blend Games reporter, Ryan Rigney, for being as biased as he was about this. Apparently, according to him, you can’t be a Valve fan unless you support everything they do, and you can never feel betrayed about anything they do. Even if he agreed with them, he shouldn’t have made it seem like you can only be a Valve fan if you fully support the Left 4 Dead 2 decision.

(A disclaimer, by the way: I, darkpower, fully endorse and support the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott. I think Valve deserves this backlash that is long overdue after using an outdated engine for all their games, and being way too lazy when it comes to even TRYING to develop for the PS3, in case the procotters forgot THAT little part of this equasion).

So yeah, I’m left with a few possible reasons why this is going on. Either this is something the “let’s bash the PS3 anyway we can” crowd is using because it has nothing else to use, Terminal Reality didn’t know how to program, or this was a well-crafted way to sabotage the PS3 in the worst way possible.

For one, the media is jumping all over this like no one’s business. I’ve noticed the swarm of GB articles on N4G (and yes, I’m being guilty of writing one now, and I’ve also submitted one there from Kombo), and they all seem to be about this issue (in case you’re not aware yet, this is about the Lens of Truth comparison that revealed that the PS3 version of the Ghostbusters game runs at a slightly lower resolution than the 360 version. How bad it is depends on your perception, since there’s a ton of conflicting stories out there on that front). Many tend to blame Terminal Reality, since they are trying their damnest to make contradicting excuses as to the reason (not enough RAM, they weren’t finished versions, etc.). But none blame the PS3…UNTIL Ars Technica decided to run their mouths about this. No where in the article linked do they make any mention of TR being at fault, and use proof (as in a picture of a AT card along with two retail copies of the game. Some proof, right?). The “blame the PS3” thing comes from the comments section, where the articles author (Ben Kuchera, who, ironically, wrote that stuff about NPD numbers I called him on some time back). He argues constantly about why the PS3 has installs and all of that. I’m not about to sit here and list everything he tried to come up with, but he, not once, said that this was just TR’s fault that the game turned out this way (for the record, in reviews, the 360 version isn’t THAT much better, and graphics are not an Achilles Heel of a game in most cases). It’s all “360 does multiplat games better”. I’m not saying that they need to start praising the PS3 every single time, but I’ve said before that AT has been one of the media whores who constantly dogs Sony over everything while giving MS a free pass over anything. Of course, anything for hits, right?

Then again, it could be just TR losing their place as people who know how to make a good game. Keep in mind that these are the same people who created the underrated Bloodrayne games (never mind Uwe Boll giving THAT franchise a bad rep), so I expected them to have a good track record. Of course, we also know the publisher trouble this game had, and as we’ve seen countless times, that can spell a disaster waiting to happen. This could’ve been the exception, but it’s probably being part of the rule. Of course, all TR has to do is to say “we fucked up, and we can fix this with a patch to make it at least an equal playing field”. But instead they are doing the “don’t blame us” routine. This shows that there’s something else there.

Which brings me to the last point (one in which I hope is NOT the case, because if it is, Pandora’s Box may have just opened): sabotage. We know a lot about what people were saying about the PS3 during its infancy: too hard to develop for, a “complete waste of time”, etc. Of course, those don’t hold as much water NOW because developers who have gotten their hands dirty have found otherwise about those claims. That and with several devs, the PS3 has been the lead platform of development for multiplatform games (such as what TR claimed with GB). Now, one of the claims that TR recently made was that the PS3 has “less RAM than the 360”. One, you guys just NOW say this AFTER this controversy begins? And two, why were you praising the PS3 all throughout the development cycle of GB, and are now changing your tone? Trying to cover up that you cannot program with shit now? Or maybe it’s because you knew that if you came out with a PS3 version that was inferior, you would’ve show how “tough” it is to develop for the PS3: even when it’s the lead console, you can’t do anything on it without tons of difficulty. And then the media picks up on it and goes on a rampage, and you pull a first: a game that could be considered “flame bait”. Only thing is, the gaming PUBLIC isn’t going to be buying this as much as they would have before, and we KNOW how people like Ars Technica and GameDaily are like. They are controversial for a reason. Even LoT was blaming you, but any publicity is good, right? Let’s just hope that this isn’t the case, because if it is, then you (and, if it were to be warranted, Microsoft) would have a TON of explaining to do. I’m bringing this up in the hopes that someone says something saying that this wasn’t the case. If it is, I would hope that Sony sues the living shit out of some people, because that is a damaging incident to the gaming industry, and there is NO place for that sort of thing.

Thing of it is, unless you really are looking, you’re not going to exactly notice these differences. If you’re a fan of GB, then you’re going to pick up the game on the system you give more of your time to (unless you’re in a PAL region). This is just a fanatic thing brought up to stir up the fanboy pot (and to “blame Sony”). Rob Foor is probably LOVING the name exposure he’s getting right now because of this, if you know what I mean.

Like I said, it’s hard to get a true gamer’s head around this mess.

What does THIS mean? Well, since they are random, and we also have officially a Snake (since Big Boss was also named “Naked Snake” in MGS3, thereby killing anything about a snake symbol from the “3″), we now have an E, S, and 3. The E and 3 could mean the upcoming E3, but it could also go with the P that we saw. Which could mean one thing:

This might not be coming to the 360, since the P could mean that we should take the other clues as MGS, E3,…and PS3.

Of course, in 4 days, we could be in for more as the rain clears…or an official confrimation from the man himself.

And why NO one caught THIS yet is a very strange enigma indeed.

Wow, did THIS thing start something or WHAT?

It’s been a few days since we first heard about the X-Box 360 Japanese catalog in which it mentioned the PS3 more times than Sony’s marketing department does. From saying that the PS3 was inferior in playing multiplatform games to saying that the Arcade SKU was less than the PS3 by a few hundred dollars (you know, until you want to add the propriety hard drive and everything else that comes with the Pro and Elite SKUs, then it a few hundred dollars MORE). Through all of it, we heard one very loud website called PushSquare mention something about how Microsoft is treated in the gaming media as opposed to how Sony has been lately:

“Now we know it’s only marketing, and that’s fine, but here’s our point: the gaming community holds such a double standard towards Sony these days that we’re 101% convinced if Sony had released this pamphlet we’d be sifting through hundreds upon hundreds of: “ZOMG Sony should focus on their own system not the competition, they should shut up, make some games, Sony sucks” comments. You’ve read the ones.

We haven’t come across a single comment suggesting the same about Microsoft’s tactics. Interesting eh?”

Judging from the few articles that have popped up recently alone, coupled with what I’ve seen from the past year or so, there’s so much truth to that statement that it’s scary.

Although you don’t have to go any further than Gameplayer AU that thought that Sony gave “64 million gamers the finger” because Sony recently got the upcoming Ghostbusters game exclusive to the PS3 in PAL territories by becoming its publisher in those regions, even though Microsoft has done this practice since the 360 first dropped in 2005 and not much attention was given to the Ghostbusters game before this move, I’ll bring some other things up. The Gameplayer article is a swore testament to what not only PushSquare was talking about, but what I have been saying for months now. No one called Microsoft out on the GTA4 DLC and how they got that and how they screwed gamers out of the DLC, or the Tomb Raider DLC, or the Fallout 3 DLC, or how they got any of the games they got that were PS3 exclusives to go multiplatform (like FF13 and Tekken 6), thereby screwing PS3 owners by making them wait longer for their version so the 360 can get its version at the same time. No outcry over the many from Microsoft, but although Gameplayer tried to insert a little non-inclusion inclusion about the MS business practice, they bitched about Sony getting the one.

Haven't we've seen enough of THIS image, already? Find something new.

How about another article that popped up, this one from Lazygamer, complaining about PSX Extreme’s excellent article asking where the PS3 hate went to in the mainstream media being linked from Sony’s twitter account? The writer clamored that it was immature of Sony to support such “fanboy drivel”, even though Ben Durka never said anything that he didn’t really feel was true, and we just HAD to hear every little syllable that Aaron Greenberg has said, but we’ll get back to him in a moment. Oh, and by the way, they Lazygamer article that whined about Ben Durka’s story and called the PSX Extreme thing fanboyish? Well, Lazygamer used the old and overused “Sony fanboy” crying baby picture in their article about it. Should tell you something.

Wait...so Sony gets called out for GB yet THIS was praised by G4? Anyone else see the irony?

For now, let’s get back to that stuff about Sony getting Ghostbusters, and something that I keep thinking about from E3. I’m sure everyone was shocked when Microsoft showed Final Fantasy 13 coming to their 360 (coupled with the further bending over by the slimeball Wada for Microsoft). However, while everyone was running to yell at the top of their lungs for and against the move in a fanboy drivel across the internets, I’m sure no one shut up long enough to catch something that transpired on G4’s coverage of E3 just a few moments later. As an analysis of the press conference (where, like Greenberg, Don Mattrick was doing the “noun, verb, and Sony” spiel so much that it got sickening), Morgan Webb (who is a Final Fantasy fangirl, by the way. Nothing wrong with that) made the comment of when she saw FF13 being revealed as coming to the 360, she could feel a “tear coming down her eye”. Neither her, Adam Schefler, or any of the analyst hacks they had at that conference ever questioned the moral ethics of how they got that to happen, even though the 50 million dollar price point between MS and Rockstar for the GTA4 DLC still was a huge talking point. There was no calling out Square Enix over their lack of PS3 support so far, no calling out Microsoft on anything they said or how their big announcement of the show was making another game go multiplatform (that is being published by a company that has all sorts of controversies surrounding it lately), nothing coming from them asking any questions other than “how good” it was. In fact, at the end on the Sony conference, Schefler’s co-host was saying something about how Sony lacked the “FF13”-type announcement.

THIS guy really needs to be called out a HELL of a lot more!

And what about Aaron Greenberg’s comments? Ken Kutaragi had been arrogant when the PS3 first launched. It was a huge mistake, and yes, Sony paid for it. But we have never heard the END of the hate since them. Now, Greenie hasn’t shut up about how the 360 is so much better, and we have yet to see anyone even DARE to call him out (besides us, of course). Only GamesUltra did so briefly during his whole hemorrhaging at retail stuff. However, the two times Sony had said anything PR-like, like the peddling of add-ons, we hear forever the condemnation of the quote from several people (C-Net, Analoghype, IGN, etc.). Where’s the condemnation of when Microsoft runs their mouths about Sony? You know, people try to label me as a Sony fanboy because I call out Microsoft all the time. But it’s not that I don’t think Sony deserves to be called out sometimes, it’s that I don’t have to because so many run this type of bullshit to the ground. Greenie is called a maverick while Kaz is the devil, apparently.

So does THIS teethy douchebag!

Where am I going with this? Simple: PushSquare was a hundred-percent correct. Microsoft gets a free pass when they pull moves that make people wonder about their business tactics, but when Sony does the EXACT SAME THINGS, we never hear the end of them from the media as they call everyone out. This is all while THEY get free passes from some of the fanboys on N4G (360-fanboy-approved stories FTW, apparently), while anything calling Microsoft out or saying anything good about Sony is called a “fanboy blog” (or a “SDF approved blog” even though the SDF was made by a Wii fanboy who continues to deny that he made it when evidence that he did is all OVER the damn internets) before getting several reports and fail the next day (though a 360 fanboy approved garbage story will have hundreds of reports and still be on the front page).

There is something wrong with this picture. Sony fans aren’t even asking for people to suddenly turn the other way and never call out Sony. They are just looking for fairness and to have the media to either call out Microsoft the same way they do with Sony (and no, the RROD stuff in 08 doesn’t count), or to back off of them. Seriously, if Microsoft is allowed to get away with several of their business ethics, Sony should be allowed to get away with a few. I know that sounds fanboyish of me, but that’s what several GAMERS who own the 360 and/or PS3 are clamoring for. Fair and balanced coverage of the gaming news, and not the Fox Noise type of fair and balanced coverage. If they don’t want to do that, then they should get the hell out of the industry and make room for someone who WANTS to do the job right have their chance.

Oh, and by the way, PushSquare came out with the catalog story first, NOT Kotaku, and Kotaku never questioned the ethics or the media reaction to it or anything else in this console war like PushSquare did. On N4G, the PushSquare article got onto the hot stories frontbar, while Kotaku’s version got only 40 degrees (10 shy of making it onto the front page instead of just the section page). The PS version got a lot more comments about it (and a few alternate sources that actually condemned MS for it (including our reporting of it) than the Kotaku one did (which had no Alternate Sources until I added the four from the PushSquare one), yet the PushSquare one was failed as being the duplicate story by one of the N4G mods. The Kotaku one never did get to the front page. Way to try to bury THAT story, too, N4G.

It just further shows how right this point is.