Episode 273: Flinging Guts

This week’s Gaming Podcast is a fairly routine one, with no Gaming Flashback or even a Question of the Week. However, this week features a ton of great news and industry discussion. Paul also announces that he will be unable to do the podcast in a few weeks for an extended period of time due to surgery.

The news items for the week includes:

  • Yoshida admits absence of Vita at E3 was a mistake
  • Irrational Games now includes 85+ Metacritic game requirement for employment
  • UbiSoft patches UPlay rootkit issue
  • Paradox Interactive announces dungeon builder Impire
  • EA: Current CEO John Riccitiello’s job is secure

All that plus Reader Feedback, check it out.

0 thoughts on “Episode 273: Flinging Guts”

  1. Blah … I’m biased towards ATI/AMD, so GT, GTX, GTY all the same

    @Yoshida admits absence of Vita at E3 was a mistake
    Ahem! Ha ha ha ha ha :))
    Really?! You have a major event and you don’t make noise around your newest product?! Who’s in charge of the marketing there? Fire the dumb ass who decided that, if you ask me.
    Jordan, excellent point regarding the way the subject was shifted from PS Vita games to PS3 games. If you ask me, this was done because Vita doesn’t really have a games library …

    @Irrational Games now includes 85+ Metacritic game requirement for employment
    Erm, rating is not just about the game, it’s also about the rating agency. If you hire somebody, do that after you administer them some tests that are relevant for you.
    Paul, I’m with you on this one, it is crap.

    Oh, about good games (not sure how it rates on Metacritic :P), play Ib! (http://vgboy.dabomstew.com/other/ib.htm)

    @UbiSoft patches UPlay rootkit issue
    Ok, I don’t use it, I don’t care that much. Still, you don’t code a rootkit by mistake …

    Paul, I hope there’s nothing too serious. Get well.

  2. @PS Vita

    I complain a lot about the 3DS. Thank heavens I don’t have PS Vita. At least Nintendo is trying. I might pick up a PSP at some point. They are cheap as dirt these days.

    @Metacritic scores shaping industry

    I agree with Herr_Alien and Paul. It’s crap. Metacritic scores are an average. If they want them to be representative of the true quality, the game industry should have reviewing standards and guidelines. Without them, any critic can review however he sees fit. I use Gamespot a lot. Their reviews tend to rate games 2 or 3 points (out of 10) below IGN reviews. As far as I know both are part of Metacritic. There is the problem right there.

    @Impire

    Played quite a few of those. There is Crystal Chronicles: My life as a Darklord dungeon/tower builder on WiiWare if anyone cares. It has girls that look like 10 wearing S&M outfits with breasts the size of melons (Japan, you so silly). I’ll admit I find most of these games boring. Although I know how addictive they can get. Blasted RollerCoaster Tycoon.

    PS: good luck with the operation, Paul. I promise to write you hate mail so make sure to come back and read it.

    @QOTW
    Have you ever been overly attached to an NPC? A digital someone who would call up feeling of companionship? Someone you would feel bad for loosing?

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While Bobby Kotick said the titles, “don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises,” Phil Harrision sees it as a personal challenge to prove him wrong.

“What Bobby, perhaps unhelpfully said, was that those games were franchises which wouldn’t make $100m of revenue and generate sequels. If that’s his benchmark, then fine — and we’d love to aspire to the same benchmarks. But you know what? I would love to turn Ghostbusters into a $100m franchise, just to prove him wrong.” (1up)

In many ways, this is the difference in attitudes from a large firm compared to a smaller firm with strong goals and a vision for success. Activision Blizzard is big now, perhaps the biggest publisher in the industry, they can’t be bothered with minuscule 80-million dollar franchises. Others, like Atari, strive to take a title from nothing to something of greatness. Granted, Atari’s failed in a lot of franchises, but with their new ex-Sony executive behind the helm things could turn around and this might be the first step.

Most of the best game franchises in existance today started from nothing but a dream. Big publishers don’t have time to dream, they’re too busy making money off the fanboys of their current franchises.

Sony, Next Big Software Company?Sony, Next Big Software Company?

Every day we’re hearing of a company running through a round of layoffs or going out of business, it’s really not a happy time. Sony is not immune to the economic troubles either. Sony is talking restructuring and that involves a potential head count reduction of 16,000 jobs due to plant closings.

floppyThis leaves Sony with some hard decisions. Restructuring can mean drastic changes that effect all their product lines. The PlayStation 3 isn’t currently a shining example of high profit margins. The console needs time to reduce its overall cost, chip sizes and bring profitability. Is it in danger?

“Sony’s not in a position to halt all domestic production but it has to do something that drastic,” said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management. “If it announces plans to move production overseas while keeping only planning and development functions in Japan, that would be a positive.” (gamestooge)

The yen is losing value in our global economy making it more difficult to export the product and build any type of profitability plan. “A source said this month the company will likely suffer an annual operating loss of about $1.1 billion, its first such loss in 14 years” (news.yahoo.com) All this noise is making CEO Howard Stringer contemplate Sony’s involvement as a “software only” company, making us recall the changes at SEGA to this same result.

The Financial Times reported Sony will unveil details of its restructuring steps on Wednesday or Thursday. It said Chief Executive Howard Stringer was meeting with resistance from some executives to shifting the company’s focus to software from hardware and cutting jobs in Japan. (news.yahoo.com)

Is this just a case of a fearful executive trying to lay plans for a more stable future? Software is easier to develop, pays for itself quickly and becomes pure profit as it ages. Hardware requires constant upkeep at manufacturing facilities, chip reductions and a boat load of quality planning for first shipment. Would Sony go full software?

Let’s face it, Sony isn’t SEGA, they’ve been developing hardware for consumers since anyone can remember and they’ve been doing it with quality and market penetration. It seems absurd to think they’d forgo hardware designs in replacement of a full software solution to the problem. In addition, Sony has already invested a large amount of cash into seeing PS3 through it’s 10-year plan and letting that die now is realizing a huge loss on investment.

If Sony pushes through the economic and maintenance course, the PS3 will become highly profitable, much like the PS2 last generation (with a slower ramp up for sales). Even if they break even after ten years it seems a lot better than throwing all the effort away.

Perhaps Howard Stringer is talking “software” for the next generation home console? You think Sony will create a PlayStation 4?

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