This week’s gaming podcast has all three personalities doing their thing. We’re finishing up our historic look back at Sega while answering a couple comments and hammering out the news. No flashback this week, we just ran out of time. This weeks news includes:
- Nintendo 3DS games to cost more
- EA partners with Live gamer
- Stardock’s Impulse now offering Bethesda titles
- Wall Street Journal starting rumors
This weeks question of the week revolves around a bit of journalistic integrity and who do you trust when reading game news articles on the Internet? Folks like the Wall Street Journal or more focused gaming blogs like Kotaku, 1up, Gamespot and others?
In this episode we’ve got a lot of MMO-style content and news. Although we’re not reviewing Wrath of the Lich King yet, we’ve got other subscription based news. This weeks gaming flashback is Defender and this weeks news includes:
Michael Pachter has a bad memory, because all Nintendo handheld titles started our $30-35 at each new console’s launch. Where’s he been?
Michael Pachter has a bad memory, because all Nintendo handheld titles started our $30-35 at each new console’s launch. Where’s he been?
PS. I love how Derrick forgets the Nintendo 64 and GameCube FAILED. (laugh)
PS. I love how Derrick forgets the Nintendo 64 and GameCube FAILED. (laugh)
@3DS games costing more:
Does Michael Pachter work for Nintendo? At some point he predicted that on-line MP games will all become subscription based, only to have Activision (of all publishers!) deny that.
Won’t his credibility get trashed?
@EA and microtransactions
EA had also an attempt at free browser based games, with Battlefield Heroes. It’s good that they’re experimenting.
However it does make you wonder: how comes that a company that people see it as earning a lot of $$ from the classic business model is now toying with free-mium and microtransaction based games?
@Wall Street Journal starting rumors:
Press always starts rumors. What’s new about that?
And since when the budget of Starcraft 2 is subject to this interest?
If Blizzard doesn’t recuperate their costs, they’ll take the hit. Probably go bankrupt. Or try to increase their WoW subscription fee to cover up their losses.
But the costs alone don’t mean anything, unless we’re talking huge amounts of money. And 100 million USD is not much, if you consider the sale numbers for Modern Warfare 2 (500 million USD in sales).
@Question of the week:
None of the above and all of the above.
Reviewers and reviews are easy to buy. Publishers do that.
When a game gets on my radar, I’m looking for in-game footage and trailers. If I like what I see, I buy it.
I can’t help it:
@listener comments: “First I was afraid … I was petrified!” 🙂
@3DS games costing more:
Does Michael Pachter work for Nintendo? At some point he predicted that on-line MP games will all become subscription based, only to have Activision (of all publishers!) deny that.
Won’t his credibility get trashed?
@EA and microtransactions
EA had also an attempt at free browser based games, with Battlefield Heroes. It’s good that they’re experimenting.
However it does make you wonder: how comes that a company that people see it as earning a lot of $$ from the classic business model is now toying with free-mium and microtransaction based games?
@Wall Street Journal starting rumors:
Press always starts rumors. What’s new about that?
And since when the budget of Starcraft 2 is subject to this interest?
If Blizzard doesn’t recuperate their costs, they’ll take the hit. Probably go bankrupt. Or try to increase their WoW subscription fee to cover up their losses.
But the costs alone don’t mean anything, unless we’re talking huge amounts of money. And 100 million USD is not much, if you consider the sale numbers for Modern Warfare 2 (500 million USD in sales).
@Question of the week:
None of the above and all of the above.
Reviewers and reviews are easy to buy. Publishers do that.
When a game gets on my radar, I’m looking for in-game footage and trailers. If I like what I see, I buy it.
I can’t help it:
@listener comments: “First I was afraid … I was petrified!” 🙂
QotW – I tend to pay attention to Gamespot, amongst others. I know that they do a podcast for each territory (UK / US / Australia etc) and that gives them some scope to tailor things to their target audience. They also involve game designers and publishers on their podcasts. They have even included tv show presenters. It just shows that they do some actual research in to their stories.
For me, newspapers aren’t specialist enough to point me in any direction I wasn’t already heading. If I see a review in a paper I’ll read it because I’ve noticed it, but I’d never actively seek them out, which I would do for a Gamespot / IGN / Joystiq review.
QotW – I tend to pay attention to Gamespot, amongst others. I know that they do a podcast for each territory (UK / US / Australia etc) and that gives them some scope to tailor things to their target audience. They also involve game designers and publishers on their podcasts. They have even included tv show presenters. It just shows that they do some actual research in to their stories.
For me, newspapers aren’t specialist enough to point me in any direction I wasn’t already heading. If I see a review in a paper I’ll read it because I’ve noticed it, but I’d never actively seek them out, which I would do for a Gamespot / IGN / Joystiq review.
@3DS games costing more:
It hurts to hear you pay $30 for a new DS games. New Release DS games are between 65 – 69 Australian dollars here or 58 – 63 US dollars. I guess that’s why everyone I know who owns a DS has an R4 chip.
@ Bethesda titles on Impulse:
The titles now on Impulse have been on Steam for a long time already.
@QotW:
Knowing that the information I’m getting is coming from a reliable and knowledgeable source is very important to me. Being more of a PC gamer I tend to avoid any of the generic gaming websites / blogs. Places like IGN, Gamespot, Joystiq and others often have little or sometimes incorrect coverage of things that interest me. The one exception would be Kotaku, who just have a butt-load of information about everything, so its easy to browse through the rss feed and find a few things of interest.
Instead I generally stick to more specialised blogs or podcasts to get the news that interests me. RockPaperShotgun is generally my go-to site, as it is arguably the best pc gaming site around. It covers news, rumors, reviews of big PC titles, indie games and some mods. Every now and again they also play through some interesting strategic or diplomatic game and writeup individual accounts of each turn, their strategies and how they backstabbed each other along the way. They make brilliant reads and are far more informative than a simple review.
If I am after more specifics I will just go straight to blogs/websites/forums dedicated to individual games, series or mods.
When it comes to podcasts there are so many that its easy to find general or game specific podcasts that are entertaining or interesting. A few standouts for me are:
– the TD gaming podcast 🙂
– the RPS Electronic Wireless Show
– Three Moves Ahead
– Jumping the Shark
– and the UK PC Gamer podcast
@3DS games costing more:
It hurts to hear you pay $30 for a new DS games. New Release DS games are between 65 – 69 Australian dollars here or 58 – 63 US dollars. I guess that’s why everyone I know who owns a DS has an R4 chip.
@ Bethesda titles on Impulse:
The titles now on Impulse have been on Steam for a long time already.
@QotW:
Knowing that the information I’m getting is coming from a reliable and knowledgeable source is very important to me. Being more of a PC gamer I tend to avoid any of the generic gaming websites / blogs. Places like IGN, Gamespot, Joystiq and others often have little or sometimes incorrect coverage of things that interest me. The one exception would be Kotaku, who just have a butt-load of information about everything, so its easy to browse through the rss feed and find a few things of interest.
Instead I generally stick to more specialised blogs or podcasts to get the news that interests me. RockPaperShotgun is generally my go-to site, as it is arguably the best pc gaming site around. It covers news, rumors, reviews of big PC titles, indie games and some mods. Every now and again they also play through some interesting strategic or diplomatic game and writeup individual accounts of each turn, their strategies and how they backstabbed each other along the way. They make brilliant reads and are far more informative than a simple review.
If I am after more specifics I will just go straight to blogs/websites/forums dedicated to individual games, series or mods.
When it comes to podcasts there are so many that its easy to find general or game specific podcasts that are entertaining or interesting. A few standouts for me are:
– the TD gaming podcast 🙂
– the RPS Electronic Wireless Show
– Three Moves Ahead
– Jumping the Shark
– and the UK PC Gamer podcast