Episode 416: Blowing Winds

Unfortunately, we had to skip a week despite recording a good podcast thanks to technical difficulties – don’t worry, we’ll air it at some point in the near future. It was a good episode. This episode had its own issues, as Jonah was unable to record the podcast at home, so he was outside in the New York City night air podcasting with TJ and Scott.

This week’s news includes:

  • Microsoft cancels Fable Legends, closes Press Play Studios, considers shuttering Lionhead Studios UK
  • Report: SpinTires developer sabotaged his own game
  • 10 months later, MAME finishes its transition to open source
  • Valve announces The Lab, a compilation of free VR “experiments”

Let us know what you think.

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Microsoft Holds Back Bungie AnnouncementMicrosoft Holds Back Bungie Announcement

E3 was supposed to be the staging point for the next Bungie bombshell but Microsoft was said to cut it to save time. Bungie had big plans to reveal some stuff they were working on and really take best in show for E3. Was it really cut because of time?

This sounds fabricated, cutting a huge announcement because of time constraints makes absolutely no sense. Imagine a firework show where you cut the grand finale because it would push the show over by a few minutes. Just dropping a title name or a 30 second teaser video would have taken a minute at most, we’re not looking for long winded explanations, just the facts.

Perhaps the real reason was Microsoft had it in their back pocket if people found the Netflix and Final Fantasy XIII news hum drum compared to anything Sony or Nintendo were to show off. Reacting dynamically to the news, perhaps they realized Sony didn’t have any epic announcements and Nintendo just showed up to hint at their future accessories. Microsoft’s haymaker of an announcement wasn’t needed to win the show this year.

Or, maybe the low turn out to the event just wouldn’t build enough hype for Microsoft’s big announcement. They could find a better outlet to turn on the hype and get people jazzed for the next Bungie product. Three years ago there is no doubt Microsoft would have come out fighting with all their weapons; this year Final Fantasy XIII was enough to show consumers that Sony’s lost their exclusives.

After the noise of E3 fades we’re sure to hear more from Bungie. We feel bad for the employees of Bungie who were ready to make the announcements on their work in progress. Sometimes, saving it for later is the best thing you can do; think of the anticipation that will build!

(Thanks, 1up)

Episode 603: Blizz ConnectionEpisode 603: Blizz Connection

This month seems to be full of conferences, as Nintendo Direct was streamed the previous week, BlizzCon 2021 aired this week, and Sony’s State of Play is due next week. The announcement of Diablo II Remastered was only the highlight of the BlizzCon show.

The news this week includes:

  • BlizzCon 2021 announcements
  • Xbox will reportedly hold an event related to Bethesda next month
  • Skullgirls 2nd Encore’s new fighter Annie out in March
  • Stardew Valley: The Board Game sells out in one day
  • Watch Dogs: Legion‘s online mode is coming in March
  • Minecraft Dungeons ‘Flames of the Nether’ arrives alongside a free endgame update

All this plus Listener Feedback. Let us know what you think at the Facebook page.

Mega Man 9, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ConfirmedMega Man 9, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 Confirmed

Capcom has finally come out and stated Mega Man 9 will indeed be available on the PlayStation 3 (PSN) and Xbox 360 (Xbox Live). Capcom may be making a great move by providing everyone the ability to play their new retro title in download form. The game is definitely going to be a smaller title with a niche appeal, you really want to gain as much access to gamers as possible.

Although WiiWare is a great staging point for a new/old franchise there is absolutely nothing wrong with expanding it to the other consoles, even the PlayStation 3, giving all gamers the choice of which platform to purchase the title for.

In many ways, a console gamer with all consoles can chose the version of Mega Man 9 which will provide them the best “controller” experience. You want to play on an Xbox 360 controller? Great! Perhaps the Wii classic controller is more your style? Fine! Wanna stick with the proven PlayStation controller? Excellent!

Hopefully we’ll get a sense of which console moves the most downloads for Mega Man 9, as this will define who gets great gaming DLC in the future. Oddly enough, it might be the Xbox 360 because of its console sales count and total attach rate, even though the Wii has huge volume of users they don’t purchase very many games (if any).

(Thanks, Kotaku)