A few decades ago the masses believed video games were a waste of time for lackadaisical youths to pacify themselves while ignoring their responsibilities as both kids and young adults. As more and more people started understanding the benefits of gaming so too did the perception of what a video game is and, most importantly, the benefits gaming can bestow on a person’s life changed. Hi, my name is James Bullock and I am a gamer who has spent the better part of his existence testing the laws of physics, exploring the vastness of a world ruined, and been a champion inside various arenas courtesy of digitized worlds both driven by reality and created through pure unbelievable ingenuity unlike anything seen by human eyes. And as a gamer I’ve discovered something else video games provide: life lessons. Today I examine how sometimes to move from the back of the line you have to do the unexpected as seen via Microsoft over a decade ago.
Go Big or Go Home (Microsoft at E3 [2006 & 2008])
2001 proved to be one of the most important years for gaming thanks in part to the release of “Grand Theft Auto III” on the Playstation 2. “GTA III” helped Sony survive the onslaught Nintendo’s Gamecube and Microsoft’s Xbox consoles entering the market around the same time. Xbox and PC gamers would have to wait half a year or buy a PS2 to experience the “GTA III’s” greatness. Almost five years following “Grand Theft Auto III’s” release and the six-month timed exclusivity arrangement helped support the Playstation 2, Microsoft entered E3 with a momentum-shifting announcement. Former Microsoft Vice-President Peter Moore – who is seemingly proud of his “defined” and “muscular” arms – stepped onto the stage and rolled up his shirt sleeve to showoff a removable “Grand Theft Auto IV” tattoo (exactly like he did when announcing “Halo 2’s” upcoming release) and promote the game being released on the same day as the PS3 version.
As if that wasn’t enough, the timed-release clause that helped Sony would be in effect for Microsoft and game’s DLC story expansion packs. It was a definitive blow to Sony coinciding with the announcement that Sony’s upcoming Playstation 3 console would cost upwards of $200 more than Microsoft’s second console, the Xbox 360. Two years later, Microsoft gained another advantage. During Microsoft’s E3 conference, Square Enix President Yoichi Wada stepped onto the stage to end something gamers had become accustomed to since 1997: a numbered, non-MMO “Final Fantasy” appearing on a console not created by Sony.
The one true advantage Sony had when it came to the “Final Fantasy” franchise was the promoted exclusive “Final Fantasy Versus XIII” – a game that was eventually renamed as “Final Fantasy XV” and given non-“Playstation” exclusive status. To succeed in any avenue of life taking chances are necessities including doing something that could turn an entire industry on its ear while potentially putting a target on your back & creating a sense of competition unlike anything seen before or after.
Have you learned any major life lessons from E3 or any video game for that matter? Leave them in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.
