Episode 403: Jam and the Hooligans

The episode is a day late, sorry about that, folks. In this episode, we wish Paul was with us to discuss what he thought of the release of Jem and the Holograms in theaters. The banter is strong, but not overstuffed like last week.

Lots of news this week, however:

  • Konami insists Hideo Kojima still works at company
  • 343 Industries not ruling out PC port of Halo 5
  • Rebellion rescues Kickstarter backers from GRIN’s bankruptcy
  • Classic car combat RPG Autoduel may be making a comeback with inXile
  • Pete Hines: Entire game not on Fallout 4 PC disc
  • Vivendi seeking more shares of Ubisoft, board seats

The Question on the Week: Do you prefer first person or isometric RPGs?

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Episode 395: This Episode SucksEpisode 395: This Episode Sucks

No, really, this episode is one of the worst ever released – boring news, stilted dialog, bad jokes. At least the first news item allowed the crew to rip Pixels. So bad Jonah didn’t bother editing it.

The news items include:

  • Anti-piracy group hits indie creators for using the word “pixels
  • Rare Replay studio’s first UK chart-topper since Banjo-Kazooie on N64 in 1998
  • More Diablo is coming
  • Games for Windows “wasn’t the right approach” says Microsoft

No Listener Feedback or Question of the Week either. That’s how bad this episode was.

Episode 675: Cancel CultureEpisode 675: Cancel Culture

Aside from a news blip taking about Final Fantasy 7 DLC coming to PowerWash Simulator, all of the news seems to talk about cancellations of one kind or another.

The items include:

  • Epic kills Battle Royale game less than six months after release
  • CRIMESIGHT to end service on May 1
  • EA is shutting down Apex Legends Mobile and not giving refunds
  • EA reportedly cancels new Titanfall single-player game
  • Sony, Xbox and Nintendo are reportedly skipping E3 2023

Anything other games you wanted to play but can’t anymore? Let us know.

End of 100 Million Dollar Games?End of 100 Million Dollar Games?

Gigaom had a great writeup about how Grand Theft Auto IV marks the end of “next generation” as we know it, stating, in more words or less, the game is a failure. GTA: San Andreas sold 21.5 million copies during its time on the shelf while GTA IV has sold roughly 9 million copies as of June 7th.

Granted, the game is still on the shelves and will still get sales, but the mass of “hardcore gamers” have had their fill and either purchased it or will not. The end result? A huge tapering of sales numbers for the graphically impressive game. Take-Two spent USD $100 million to develop the game which had great opening sales records but has gone down drastically since.

Imagine the title gains them USD $30.00 per sale in profit (considering distributors get the game for roughly USD $45 to $48.00 USD), taking into account shipping of the product, marketing and all the materials that go into producing a copy, they’d have to sell a large quanity of game titles to break even, which I think they have done.

Nobody is in this industry to break even. A block buster title should make block buster profits, right? Else, why bother to spend the 100-million when a Wii title can double or triple the profits with six months of development?

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