[Spank-A-Thon]

Logical thought time:

Capcom
M$ cannot make the Res Evil series exclusive to XBox - it's already exclusive to GameCube in a legally binding contract so that's nonsense. Anyway, the Res Evil series isn't really 'exclusive' anyway - 1, 2, 3 and CV are available on other formats.

MGS3
Whether or not MGS3 comes out on XBox first is irrelevant - if PS2 owners are told it's coming out on PS2 then they will wait. They're not suddenly gonna rush out and buy a Box to play a game which they can't get for a month or two. That will simply not happen.

However, those who own a Box and PS2, may end up buying the XBox version...

But I do not believe that MGS3 will be a 'system seller'. By the time it comes out, all the consoles will have been through their phase where certain games could affect the success. Look at MGS1 on the PSX - that was not a 'system-seller'. By the time it came out, most of the PSX's were sold - it may have helped to sell a few more, but certainly not enough to 'make or break' PSX. MGS3 will be the same - it will be coming out far too late in each consoles lifespan.

The 'Death' of PS2
Does anybody realise that over 30 million PS2s have been sold? The PS2 is not going to suddenly 'die'. Any company that ignores a potential userbase of over 30 million people deserve to go out of business. EA certainly won't (in fact, PS2 is their no.1 priority because of the sheer numbers it's sold). Any multi-format company (Konami, Capcom, etc) which an inch of business sense would not become exclusive to a single console. Certain titles may, but not the company.

Can you imagine the scenes in the Konami boardroom....

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Director 1: Fellow Directors, we have been asked to ignore PS2 and concentrate on XBox only.

Director 2: What a great idea! By making a product which we could sell at most 4 million copies of, we will surely make much more money than if we could potentially sell 30 million copies.

Director 3: Agreed. By selling to a much smaller potential market, we're bound to make more money! If a quarter of the XBox owner buy our $10 game, that means we make $10 million dollars!

Director 1: Exactly! Money, money, money...

Tea Lady: **cough** Ahem, excuse me - but if a quarter of PS2 owners bought your $10 game, then you would make $80 million dollars. Or you could sell it half price and still make $40 million!

All Directors: Shush, what do you know! Where's the business sense in that?
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PS2 is far too well established to be under any kind of threat from XBox or GameCube. The battle for supremacy is won.

If I was Microsoft I wouldn't be worrying about SONY and trying to win an impossible battle - I'd be worried about Nintendo and be trying to win second place...

- S