Episode 236: Now With Pandas

This week, Paul is not around, as Jonah Falcon and Jordan Lund discuss the latest news, which includes pandas. Lots and lots of pandas. That, and a Gaming History profile on David Crane.

The news this week includes:

  • World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria announced
  • Sony: April PSN outage has resulted in improved service
  • Deep Silver: “There is a clear technology gap
  • Starcraft II DOTA mod will remain free but monetized
  • “Literally, there’s three of us” on console Diablo III
  • Minecraft dev wins interim injunction over Scrolls name

With that is Reader Mail and the Queston of the Week: What was your favorite Atari 2600 game?

0 thoughts on “Episode 236: Now With Pandas”

  1. @World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria announced
    Well, they keep doing expansions, but something tells me people got tired of it.
    As for raising the level cap, it is the only way you can keep the players that don’t want to grind up again.

    @Deep Silver: “There is a clear technology gap“
    Wow … they discovered that a 4GB system RAM, 1GB video RAM PC is better than a 256 MB system 256 MB video PS3 …
    As Jordan said, the main issue is that developing 3 code bases is expensive. The advantage of the XBox is using PC-like components, and using a PC-like software platform.

    @Starcraft II DOTA mod will remain free but monetized
    What are the terms in the EULA? Does Starcraft II allows this?
    If so, then it is the second game that I know of that does this (TF2 being the first), and I like the trend it sets.

    @Minecraft dev wins interim injunction over Scrolls name
    Good for them. If they kept a record of the offer to give up the trade mark, then this will weigh in quite a lot in the court: it’ll point out that Bethesda is not up to protecting the name.

    @QOTW: none, unfortunately.

  2. No Paul again. =(

    Anyway,
    @Minecraft dev wins interim injunction over Scrolls name:
    Finally, I was sick and tired of hearing about this nonsense, and I am grateful that Bethesda hasn’t gained anything from his.

    @QOTW: Just to show how much out of my time that is, my parents had an Atari 2600 back when they were still children.

  3. ahhhh i really miss derrick and jennifer i wish they could host ,btw any news on their son???
    @ minecraft dev wins interium injunction over scrolls name ,Hooray good for mojang im so sick of bethesda being so freaking sensitive
    @qotw dude im 13 years old the atari is a dinosaur
    Paul is gone again a mixture of sadness and happiness but mostly happines ,jk

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Episode 299: Here Comes the PS4Episode 299: Here Comes the PS4

This week is heavy on content on the PlayStation 4 unveiling as the next-generation approaches for both Sony and Microsoft – there’s no room for Nintendo in this episode. Nor is there a lot of Reader, er, Listener Feedback, nor any Gaming Flashback.

This week’s major news includes:

  • Sony unveils PS4 at “See the Future”
  • Sony: Pre-owned game blockage “up to publishers” on PS4
  • Fans express outrage at offline/LAN play for console version of Diablo III
  • Rumor: Microsoft revealing next-gen console in April
  • GameSpy, UGO, 1UP say farewell
  • Activision to have “fewer” licensed games out in 2013

The Question of the Week is “What was the first videogame periodical or site you enjoyed?”

Kaz Hirai Dooms 360 To Short LifeKaz Hirai Dooms 360 To Short Life

Sony’s PlayStation 3 has a 10-year plan. We’ve heard about the plan, we’ve seen Sony’s current execution and we’re starting to see some of the titles making their way to the PS3 for 2009. The Xbox 360? Kaz, Sony Computer Entertainment’s head man, made his thoughts clear when speaking to Official PlayStation Magazine.

kaz“Last time I checked, they’ve never had a console that’s been on the market for more than four or five years and we’ve committed to a ten year life cycle, so you do the math…,” he says. He goes on to state that the Xbox 360 won’t have a larger install base by the end of their 10-year plan has been completed, “unless things go really bad.”

Of course, nobody says Microsoft’s 10-year plan isn’t to push out yet another console. Is that wise? We don’t really know, but you can’t count them out on it. Maybe they’ll only have half the install base but two consoles in the market within the next ten years, nobody really knows.

The one major hole we can see in his comments revolve around their claims that the Microsoft doesn’t have any history of a console being on the market for very long. If I recall, Sony managed to squeek one by on Nintendo with the original PlayStation, which changed everything for the next ten years. Sony didn’t have a 5-year track record when they started taking Nintendo down, why does Microsoft need to have an extensive resume as well?

As for Wii?

“It’s difficult to talk about Nintendo because we don’t look at their console as being competitors. They’re a different world and we operate in our world — that’s kind of the way I look at things…” (kotaku)

Say what you want about Microsoft vs. Sony, but it sure sounds like Sony doesn’t want to acknowlege Nintendo’s success because it casts a dark shadow on their own product. Nintendo and Sony have been battling for years, that’s just the way it is and that’s how the industry sees it. When NPD releases numbers, when journalists write articles about consoles and when the war is finished one thing remains constant: all three consoles are included in the equation.