MGS4 is big, but I wonder if Final Fantasy will still retain the pull it has had the last two gens.
Will the system that gets FFXIII win? I'm not too sure... a lot seems to be riding on FFXII, not to mention how 'quality' these FFVII Compilation projects seem to be. FFVII helped the company AND the franchise absolutely ignite all around the world. Is FFVII the very game (*cough*remake*cough*) that could invigorate a company that is finally starting to show signs of losing it's power grasp?
Someone said it in another thread (I believe one of the RE5 threads), but I agreed with the idea of 'exclusive' importance- it also makes the console wars more fun and exciting. Seems kind of boring to have all the big 3rd party monsters multi-platform, leaving the real competition up to 1st parties. I'm sure a Nintendo fan would love this, but I really hope Sony and MS do not adopt this philosophy.
My memories of the Genesis vs. SNES days take me back to a time when developers were really pushing limits to compete. Sega would bring out something impressive, Nintendo would try to answer it... and the other way around, etc. Sega would show Phantasy Star IV, Nintendo would pull Squaresoft out and say "well, here's Final Fantasy VI".
I'd love to see this generation be the first time since the Genesis/SNES days where the competition is so tight that the main companies would be pushing the envelope to get the advantage. Some of the current greats of the industry these days really started shining during the 16-bit era because the stakes seemed so much higher, so they worked harder, tried to find that edge constantly. I only hope development costs for X360 and PS3 don't prevent this from happening- and I'd actually love to see Nintendo back in the game with a strong presence, making this a balls-to-the-walls 3-way fight.
Anyway, I'd hope many of you'd agree that the more heated the competition this gen, the better we, as gamers, will make out in the end. What games/series/developers will be this gen's future heroes? It'll be interesting.