Fan Boy’s Dream!

The first contest on this site has come and gone so let’s take a look at the results.  The title of the contest was Fanboy’s Dream.  So many gamers have gotten into heated debates (myself even at times) regarding which system is better.  Well, we took it another way and decided to create some art that depicts this epic conflict that goes back to the days of Sega Vs Nintendo.

The Fanboy’s Dream rules were simple.  Sign up an Register an account on Gamersdigart.com (this site)  illustrate a character that shows up on the Xbox line pitted in combat against a character from the Playstation brand.  Send it to us by email or post it in the Forum here. ‘Nuff Said let’s see some art.

First up: Dreno360(me)

Click here for a larger view.

Well I can’t win but wanted to do some art to promote the contest.  I mean it is a FREE game of the winner’s choice…I don’t think that happens anywhere, if so let me know! I choose Crackdown Vs Infamous.  The main agent in Crackdown vs Cole McGrath from Infamous.  Super powers vs super powers!   A gallery of my art can be found here.

Next up is : squeak117

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Squeak117 treated us with a Jak (from Jak and Daxter Vs The Stranger from Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath.  Both are great games for each corresponding system.  Great illustration Alex.  This is the best piece I have seen you create!  Pretty even fight here.  Both games had a huge variety of weapons to use.  Alex’s gallery can be found here.

Check this one out by: TimKelly

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Tim gave us something to think about here.  The main protagonist from ICO vs a Locust Horde member.  Fair Fight? At first glance no…but consider Shadow of Colossus.  If that guy took down mountain sized baddies…this kid may do alright.  But I don’t the locust have any glowing weak spots so watch out youngster!  Tim’s full gallery can be found here.

And we have: Sinskin

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The next battle is a spy vs spy tale.  Splinter Cell may have appeared on other consoles but his true home is on the Xbox.  The same thing could be said of Solid Snake.  His house resides on the PS3 for now.  Both of these characters some some great titles underneath their belt that is for sure!

Halfman halfcyborg: Lukedenby (more on this later)

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Luke wows the crowd with the tiniest showdown! We have a Castle Crasher Knight taking on a Sack boy from Little big planet.  Expect swords, magic, large cats, costume built levels, and so much cuteness in character designs everyone is gonna explode with candy falling out of themselves.  Luke’s full gallery can be found here.

The last piece is from: Sylvok

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James here has treated us to a cyborg showdown.  We have good ol’ Master Chief vs Grey Fox from Metal Gear Solid. Which metal man win win this battle.  Both have has excellent battles on the screen that is for sure.

Well that wraps up the entries.  The winner will be announced soon.  And remember the winner gets a FREE game of their choice.  This contest was created to inspire artist to illustrate something we normally wouldn’t see.  To push for new art to be created about a platform we all love : video games. Winners are selected not only on technique, but also creativity, composition and originality.  So basically you don’t have the be the hottest stuff to win a FREE game.  Put some thought into it as well! It goes a long way!

Also gamers check out the forum we have weekly challenges for art in there as well.  Our current weekly theme can be found here.

The next contest will be announced soon!  Thanks to all who have participated and we can’t wait to see more entries next time!

Sony…on the Ropes?

Sometimes it’s hard to believe how the once and mighty have fallen.  How a powerful system slayer of the Playstation brand, could garnish so much criticism.  Originally released in 1994 the PSX (PLAYSTATION) took the world by storm.  It offered an alternative to the cartridge based game format and showed the world SONY as a leader of new technologies.  (Sounds familiar…blu-ray) The idea of having a game console that could play music cd’s as well seems trivial by today’s standards…but it was new in 1994.

Full article here.

Xbox360 vs PS3…at this point who really cares?

***I know the Wii is selling like hotcakes going out of style but when your average person buying the system looks like this…

I will leave them out of the discussion. (it was a joke…not just elderly people buy the wii!)I know other gamers play and own the Wii, but seriously, the real games are on PS3 and 360.

Really Sony and Microsoft should have no beef with Nintendo, and I believe they realize they are not competing with the Wii.  They each know their true opponent is each other.  Nothing is wrong with Nintendo and the direction they have taken…I want a Wii and will own one soon…but it will never be home to the hardcore games of today….here are some killer titles for the Wii

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
2. Mario Kart Wii (with wheel)
3. Wii Play
4. Wii Fit (with Balance Board)
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (with guitar)

Fun Casual games….

Probably every hardcore gamer secretly cares who wins this console war.  The true winner will be who delivers the goods on the games! I believe in good quality games.  It doesn’t matter which system I play it on.  Sony doesn’t pay me to play their games neither does Microsoft. Yet we as gamers forge some sort of unofficial alliance with these large multi-billion dollar companies like they care about us.

They care about the dollars we shell out for games plain and simple.  Look at the roles we gamers play in the larger picture of console wars.  When gamers buy a system at a high rate, it creates an installed base that publishers look at.  When those developers see a system selling hundreds of thousands of units more than the competitor they will spend more time, money, and effort in getting games into the hands of those gamers.

Look at the advantage of the PS2 over the original xbox and game cube. Developers made games for the PS2 system and ported them over to the xbox and game cube.  Not all developers, but most developers.  The graphics showed  many games looked like ps2 games on all three consoles.  Even though the xbox was more powerful it didn’t matter.  It didn’t have the power where it mattered most, and that was the in the number of gamers who purchased new products.

Fast forward to this generation and roles have been reversed.  You have the xbox 360 in one corner dropping hits like crazy with mind blowing graphics and delivering heavy-weight-classics on a yearly basis.

Then you have the PS3.  It dropped in 2006.  Killer machine, powerful, blue ray built in…yet they were the red-headed step child to the gaming schedule.  Releases were coming to the 360 first, then were ported to the ps3.  So you have games built based on 360 architecture being turned over to the more “powerful” system but sometimes lacking muscle of it’s 360 cousin.  They have had some killer titles release.  The problem is…it still didn’t turn the ship for Sony. These titles shown below should have helped Sony…but did little to raise awareness for Sony’s cause… both are great titles by the way.

We gamers decide the winners of each console war.  Not the gimmicks or crazy plots or grand ideas of companies.  Numbers don’t lie, take a look at these.

Most current taken from www.vgchartz.com

7.02M Japan
16.31M America
13.28M Others

36.61 Million units sold.  47.9% market share (hardware)

0.79M Japan
13.38M America
8.75M Others

22.93 Million units sold.   30.0% market share (hardware)

2.49M Japan
6.40M America
8.00M Others

16.89 Million units sold.  22.1%  market share (hardware)

Now like I said before toss the Wii out of the picture.  They will get their money.  If you are a hardcore gamer and you have a Wii, you will also have a PS3 or a 360 (maybe both)  Nintendo is drawing a lot of new gamers to their system.  But if they bought the system to play Wii-fit…I doubt they will be purchasing games on a regular basis.

Last thing about the Wii~besides Mario galaxy, Smash Bros, and Resident evil 4 what games are good on this system??? Really I don’t know!

Ok moving on…you have around 22.93 million 360 owners. (more after this Holiday is over) and around 16.89 millions PS3 owners (not bad they are closing in on 360 sort of) Here is the thing gamers need to understand.  These companies make their money off of games sold.

I will take a third party publisher for example…Activision and their Call of Duty franchise.  Since moving the next gen (our current gen) Call of Duty games have made their mark year after year in every Holiday since 2005.

Call of Duty 2 for the 360.  It was the biggest game of 2005 for next generation of gaming. It sold 2.25million games to this date.  That isn’t too bad for being xbox 360 first ‘true’ next gen experience.  It made Activision a ton of money and Microsoft a ton of money.  Sorry Sony….no Call of Duty 2 for you that year.

Call of Duty 3 came out a year later.  Done by a different developer it still sold fairly well for the 360. 2.14 million copies isn’t bad.  This helped Sony get a chance to taste some of the action to the tune of 560,000 copies sold.  Not close at all to the 360 version. Still however Activision made some money.

Fast forward to last year 2007 holidays’ hits.  A year where Halo 3, Bioshock, The Orange box, Assassin’s Creed, and Mass Effect all dropped.  Yet who stole the show?  Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It sold 6.58 million copies for the xbox 360 alone…and an additional 3.71 million for the PS3.  Activision knows it has a cash cow on it’s hands with the Call of Duty Franchise and they milk it each year rotating developers to churn out a new game a year.

Since 2005 Activision has made a game that produced: 15.24 million units sold on current gen technology.  With that in mind think about that in dollars.  That’s $914,400,000.00 dollars.  With 360 gamers spending $658,200,000 of those dollars over those three years…activison knows where to send games.

That is not even including this year’s World At War. (which sold 1.35 million units on 360 and 800,000 units on ps3) These numbers are great on both systems.  (I think the ps3 are really nice actually to be so close to the 360 version in sales)

But don’t count Sony out just yet.  With Little Big Planet and Metal Gear Sold 4, and Resistance 2  in 2008, also a Blue Ray built in…they are a few hit titles away from scoring gold.  BUT!!! They need to change 2 things that they are currently doing.

1.  Stop making hand me down games from Microsoft.  Dead Rising, Lost Planet, and Bioshock are some games that made a 360 worth while…in the past!  Now this holiday Sony is showing off Bioshock a year too late….Same with Dead Rising and Lost Planet.  While microsoft has moved on to new titles like Left 4Dead and Fable II.  I know Sony also has Resistance 2…but that game is not really turning any heads:350,000 units sold so far…Call of Duty: WAW has this title beat soundly…

2. Stop losing your exclusives!! Sony made a killing on having exclusives in the past. I remember Final Fantasy VII was the hotness back in the day. Same with Metal Gear Solid, and the Resident Evil Series. Imagine if Assasin’s Creed was PS3 only? You would have a Killer title for Sony…great way to show gamers thier system means business. Now as things stand they even lost FInal Fantasy XIII !!

Many gamers feel that as of right now the “cool” games are on 360.  There are many third party popular games available for both systems, but that game will sell more for the 360.  Take the mega popular GTA IV release this year.

Xbox 360 had 6.18 million takers and the PS3 had 4.84 million buyers (not bad at all!) But you are talking about a game the PS2 made famous (or is that the other way around?) and Microsoft not only getting in the mix but taking it over.  They bo-guarded thier way to two downloadable adventures yet to be released. (February 2009!)

That is business done right. Even though it had the RROD (xbox360) that crapped out on nearly everyone who bought one…(myself included!) and I’m sure they are kicking themselves on the billions they lost on the repair program, but they still have the strongest library of games out there. It makes sense for them to fix their clients system so they can play more games!

Gamers voice your opinions…who is winning…who cares right?  As a gamer I will say this; WE are the true winners with all the above mentioned gaming experiences out there right now!!

Enjoy!