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

Developer Wants License Keys For Console GamesDeveloper Wants License Keys For Console Games

UK developer David Braben from Frontier Developments believes smaller development studios are in the worse position when it comes to re-sale of “pre-owned” video games. Since a developer only gets their cut of the profits when a game is sold new, pre-owned titles allow gamers to play games without paying the developer for the effort.

This also hurts larger publishers, but they’re able to recover because of the sheer volume of games and game titles. One idea David had, was to code each game with a unique license key like a PC game that gamers must enter before playing. This would kill the ability to re-sell video games back to the market for others to buy at a cheaper price (translation: better value).

The future shows a higher degree of downloadable games, which cannot be re-used or sold back to the market, but for now, developers have to deal with pre-owned video games cutting into their profit. Presumably you could have a great game with smaller sales and a high degree of resale in the pre-owned market.

Problem with this take on development? Besides large scale video game sellers like GameStop making 80% profit margins on resold games (rather than a 10-15% on new), gamers want a way to make back some of their money on expensive titles. When you’re paying $60 for a game and you beat it in a week or two, you want to resell it so you can invest in a future title.

My theory… make games more affordable so we don’t feel gouged on the price. We may decide to hold on to it longer and tell our friends about it. A good game reference and a reasonable price will increase sales every time. Don’t try to solve pre-owned problems when the problem is the publisher and the industry making huge game prices.

(Thanks, Kotaku)

Gaming Podcast 159: Mega DorkGaming Podcast 159: Mega Dork

This weeks gaming podcast, we’re flashing back to Trade Wars and the Teleplay Modem while learning a bit about our communities ideas about video gaming in prison. We’re checking out a few news tidbits for the week:

  • PlayStation 3 has been hacked
  • Microsoft plagued by another class action lawsuit
  • Nintendo giving their opinion of the iPad
  • Gamestop COO wants to educate customers about DLC
  • Metal Gear Solid Head developer not happy with delay

This week we’re asking the question: Is it acceptable for older people to play games and when did this become socially acceptable for adults to be gamers?

Gaming Podcast 181: Bag of FailGaming Podcast 181: Bag of Fail

This weeks gaming podcast, we’re going through a bit of Sega content, Sonic The Hedgehog CD and the second tier of Sega history. We’ll hit some listener feedback about Steam and Blizzards RealID as well as some meaty news topics including:

  • Starcraft 2 will have a 3D option
  • After four years, Sony is finally making a profit on the PS3
  • Activision comments on Xbox Live
  • Gamers want physical media over digital media
  • Now you really can drink like a Murloc

This weeks question of the week, what video game genre’s could really benefit from 3D gaming that may not have been considered yet?