Episode 289: Princess Podcast

In this episode of Gaming Podcast, Jonah states he got to see Wreck It Ralph, while Paul still can’t find a black Wii U. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the 2002 Gamecube launch title Super Mario Sunshine.

This week’s news includes:

  • The Lund Report: Black Friday 2012 NPD
  • Nintendo Power’s last issue released
  • Blizzard acquiredProject Blackstone‘ domain November 26th
  • Rumor: Next gen Xbox coming Holiday 2013
  • Dead Island: Riptide banned in Germany

All this and Reader Feedback, and the Question of the Week is, “Did you read many issues of Nintendo Power?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 289: Princess Podcast”

  1. @ Black Friday 2012
    I was pretty disappointed in how “Black Friday” was handled in Romania. Plenty of retailers increased the price a week before, so that they could do a 40% slash to get the price back to the old value.

    @Nintendo Power’s last issue released
    It also depends how many people want it. Here’s an example: our major cable provider decided to not renew the contract it had with Discovery Channel. Why? Because just 0.9% of the people watched it.
    How many people read “Nintendo Power”?

    @Blizzard acquired ‘Project Blackstone‘ domain
    It could be a preventive buy, I guess. Still, not really hyped about it, Blizzard lost me since always-online DRM; last game I played from them was Warcraft III and Frozen Throne.

    @Dead Island: Riptide banned in Germany
    Funny though, there are plenty of games (not just Gears of War) where players blow other human-like character to bits, and those are still available in Germany.
    But hey, what do I know, perhaps the baddies in those games bleed green goo …

    @QOTW: No.

  2. Not interested to comment on any of the news articles, I just came to ask: “Guess who has two thumbs and got the Wii U before Paul did?”. I did.

    @QOTW: Never

  3. Just found out about this podcast and was amused that there was a topic discussed, I just held a speech on in school. Censoring, banning etc. in Germany.

    The USK is all right, they just rate the games like any other institue that rates games. The problem is the BPjM (the young protection thing you translated). They decide what gets banned and lands on the index etc. They’re not only after games, but after media in general. They just recently banned Steel Panther’s 1 year old album “Balls Out” for no reason given. Wrote them a mail (respectful, of course) and got no answer whatsoever. So did the German Metal Hammer-magazine. Same answer.

    They ban whatever they want to. Sometimes there’s no system behind it. Dishonored came out here completely uncensored, this means I, as Corvo, can decapitate enemies and throw their heads around. Kinda humiliating to the corpse, isn’t it?

    If anyone is interested in how cuts on games look like, I recommend http://www.schnittberichte.com
    especially the Bulletstorm one.

    QOTW: Never.

  4. @QOTW:
    Yeah… Nintendo World yes, Nintendo Power NO.

    Nintendo World had the “Approved By Nintendo” seal, so, i bought them for a couple of years…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Episode 379: DizzneyEpisode 379: Dizzney

This week’s episode was going to be short thanks to a lack of news, but Paul and Jonah get into a long discussion about the Disney Afternoon from the 90’s. which makes up for the lack of a Gaming Flashback or History.

This week’s news includes:

All this and Listener Feedback too.

The PSN FiascoThe PSN Fiasco

It’s now the US government’s turn to question Sony about its online security, which follows the UK government’s scrutiny into the company’s affairs.

In a letter addressed to PlayStation executive deputy Kaz Hirai, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade has prepared a list of questions related to the intrusion; the list can be downloaded from the New York Times here. The letter asks several questions that Sony has not disclosed to the public, such as:

  • How many PSN users had a credit card on file
  • Why Sony cannot determine if credit card was stolen.
  • What are Sony’s plans towards increasing its security in the future.

The Subcommittee’s press release states:

“Given the amount and nature of personal information known to have been taken, the potential harm that could be caused if credit card information was also taken would be quite significant. The Subcommittee on Manufacturing, and Trade has a longstanding interest in consumer privacy, identity theft, and industry efforts to address threats posed by unauthorized access to consumers’ personal information resulting from a data breach.”

The Subcommittee is requiring a reply by no later than May 6, as part of a privacy driven effort “to protect consumer information.”

Meanwhile, Kaz Hirai will be holding a press conference tomorrow from Sony Japan, to address the PlayStation Network hacking crisis.

(more…)

Xbox 360 Fall Update Too Big For Diskless UsersXbox 360 Fall Update Too Big For Diskless Users

If you’ve got an Xbox 360 arcade edition or an older console without a hard disk, you’ll want to clear up at least 128MB of your flash card before powering on your console after the fall update hits. Wait, you’re flash disk isn’t 128MB in size? Oh oh.

Latest reports are stating that consumers that own a 360 without a hard disk, albeit a small group, will not be able to simply install the fall update as the rest of us because they don’t have enough disk capacity. What is Microsoft doing about that? Microsoft’s Larry Hryb says saying they will be “offering storage solutions” for such customers.

We’re wondering, are they going to actually ship people free hard disks? Perhaps a coupon for a larger flash card? Interesting indeed!

“The new Xbox experience will require 128MB of free space. A hard drive is recommended for the optimal experience, to take advantage of some new features, and to be able to enjoy the great movies, TV shows and games available on Xbox LIVE. While we expect the majority of consumers to download the New Xbox Experience without a problem, a small percentage of Xbox 360 owners do not have enough memory to accommodate the update. To help ensure all Xbox LIVE members are able to download the New Xbox Experience and enjoy its new features, Microsoft will be offering storage solutions to the Xbox LIVE community. We are not sharing details of this offering yet. Be sure to check xbox.com for more details in the coming weeks.” (1up)

It was really only a matter of time before the Xbox 360 out grew the fact that they allow consumers to roll with a diskless console. No other console limits you by having both a disk and diskless option; we know why they did it, but now it would seem their having some growing pains.

No doubt, the next Xbox 360 console will come complete with hard disk! Hopefully you were wise and got the bigger console complete with disk.