Sunday Supplement – 2nd October

Comic courtesy of Fat Gamers.

Online pains

Robbie Bach says half of all 360 owners will use Live. Pfft. It’s a safe prediction, since the free ‘Silver’ version of Live will take their console online automatically. It’s just marketing speak for saying half of all 360 owners will bother to activate their free accounts. But playing games online? That’s different altogether. Gamers have to pay for the ‘Gold’ subscription for that. So forget it Mr Bach. 10 per cent of all Xbox owners are on Live right now. I don’t see any compelling reason why that should change with the 360.

Why? Because it costs a hell of a lot to jack into this online gaming lark. I’ve done a little digging and have run a few numbers that highlight just how expensive it is to plug into this utopian gaming universe.

I’m going to talk from personal experience, since it was relatively recently that I got hooked on online gaming. I guess it’s fair to say that I bought my laptop just so I could play World of Warcraft, and Halo 2 has made good use of my broadband connection. So if you wipe the slate clean and start from the bottom, add £800 or so to the bill – at least that’s what my laptop cost me and it’s it not even very good.

So then you need broadband. I did a little shopping around as they say (according to a mate of mine I got royally ripped off). I pay £30 a month for a 2meg connection with no download limit from BT. I hear there’s a price war going on, so expect to get a faster connection for less. For me – add £360 to the annual fee.

So you’re running broadband on your new laptop/PC, pages are loading swimmingly, you refresh for fun, and you visit obscure cult TV show fansites just because you can. Now for a game.

If, like me, you’re a fan of the Warcraft universe then you’ll probably want World of Warcraft. It’s bloody good. Problem is, you need to pay every month to log on. The price? It varies, but works out at around £9 a month (not including the price of the game itself, about £25 now). Add about £120 to the annual bill.

Of course, there are some MMOs that don’t require a monthly subscription, like Guild Wars, but I don’t play them. So I don’t care.

So you’re touring the world of Azeroth, killing a few bears here, a few plainstriders there, but the daily grind is getting you down. You crave explosive action from your online gaming. Rise, 360.

Since we’re so close to the release of the 360 no one in their right mind is going to buy an original Xbox. So let’s assume most people will (try to) buy a 360 and Perfect Dark Zero. Let’s add it up then.

The 360 itself will cost £279.99 (no serious gamer will get the value pack) and the ‘Gold’ Live package will cost £39.99 annually, although no credit card will be needed – you can alternatively pay £5 a month. If you’re already a Live subscriber on the original Xbox, your account will be transferred automatically with no extra cost. If you’re not – and most Xbox owners are not – you need to pay full whack. Then add £40 for the game. Altogether: £360.

And breathe. Bit of a nightmare eh? And that’s not even including going online with a PS2 (although why would you?) Let’s assume you have a PC that’s capable of playing WOW, since most gamers have one nowadays. What’s the monthly charge?

£30 (approx) a month broadband

£9 a month WOW

£5 a month Live Gold

Total monthly charge: £40-£50

Ouch – that’s more than most people’s monthly mobile bill (although not my sister, who seems to consider £80 a month a reasonable price to pay for daily texts to Ireland). And that doesn’t even include the base cost of the 360 (£280), PDZ (£40) or WOW (£25). When you lump all that on, you get a total year one spend of around £850.

You got £850 spare? Me neither, but somehow I’ll have it all by Christmas. This connected utopian gaming paradise sure isn’t for the light of wallet. Half of all 360 owners on Live? Kerching! Alternatively, assuming you already have broadband, you’re not interested in MMOs and you’re getting a 360 for Christmas, playing it online would cost you as little as £40 a month, which isn’t quite as expensive.

The unwanted next-generation

Sony do not want the PS3. They wish it would go away. So indifferent are they to their next-generation console – their 360 killer – that they would cast it aside like some unread trash novel if it wasn’t for a certain troublesome rival strutting its stuff like it owns the place. Why? Because there’s no money to be made from an unreleased uber game machine. The money is in the PS2.

Let’s not forget that while the 360 will be available this Christmas, the most bought console will still be the PS2. Games are still being released for it, and will continue to be released for it throughout 2006, and long after the PS3 is released. The console has an absolutely enormous installed user base. Sony realises this, publishers realise this and developers realise this.

So they will be slightly peeved that they’ve had to invest time and energy into previewing the PS3 at trade events like TGS, when they know their financial year depends on the success of the PS2 and the PSP this Christmas. But it won’t distract them. Rest assured Sony knows what it’s doing. Unlike Xbox owners, who have been shafted by Microsoft’s abandonment of the console, PS2 owners still have a lot to look forward to. The next-generation might be upon us, but this generation won’t go quietly.

This week on Pro-G

It’s been another busy week, so if you’ve been away here’s what you have missed.

Reviews

Burnout Revenge (PS2 and Xbox)

Burnout Legends (PSP)

Heroes of the Pacific (PS2, Xbox and PC)

Dynasty Warriors 5 (Xbox)

Madden NFL 2006 (PS2, Xbox and Cube)

MotoGP: URT 3 (Xbox)

Preview

UFO: Aftershock (PC)

This week’s new releases

There’s quite a varied selection of games to choose from this week. The obvious best seller will be FIFA 06, but there are plenty of other games (see the list below) that are worth your money. The DS in particular has two great releases this week, with Advance Wars: Dual Strike and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Far Cry Instincts hits Xbox and Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion lands on PC for existing Rome: Total War owners.

There are also a few games released this week that should be avoided. Sonic Gems Collection from SEGA is one compilation too many, with the only real reason to pick it up being Sonic CD, even if it is missing the great intro from the PAL MegaCD release. ER on the PC is also quite disappointing and has none of the style or intensity of the TV show.

• Advance Wars: Dual Strike (DS)
• Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance (PS2, Xbox)
• Bet On Soldier (PC)
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)
• Conflict: Global Storm (PS2, Xbox, PC)
• ER – The Game (PC)
• Evil Dead Regeneration (PS2, Xbox, PC)
• Far Cry Instincts (Xbox)
• FIFA 06 (PS2, Xbox, Cube, PC, DS, GBA)
• Gungrave Overdose (PS2)
• Madden NFL 2006 (DS)
• Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (PS2, Xbox)
• Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion (PC)
• Sniper Elite (PS2, PC – It appears that Xbox gets this next week)
• Sonic Gems Collection (PS2, Cube)
• Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge (PS2, Xbox)
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Lockdown (Cube)

Next week on Pro-G

Coming next week we look at Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 Remix and Untold Legends on PSP – two titles we missed at the PSP launch. Plus reviews of Sonic Gems Collection, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks and Spartan: Total Warrior. We’ve also got a great interview with Miles Jacobson from Sports Interactive about Football Manager 2006 and the future of the series.