Episode 417: One In, One Out

This week is a celebration of the 250th episode of the Videogame Roundtable, and Dan Quick is back for the special edition, joining fellow PolyCaster Scott Dirk. However, TJ Denzer was at the bowling alley, so he wasn’t available. There’s a lot of Cards Against Humanity and Town of Salem talk, as well as a lot of long-missed byplay between Dan and Jonah Falcon. Unfortunately, Paul Nowak couldn’t make it.

The news this week includes:

  • Bethesda working on a “bleeding-edge” RPG
  • Diablo II gets first official patch since 2011
  • Forza Motorsport 6: Apex won’t crossplay with Xbox One version
  • Nintendo explains why only the New 3DS plays SNES games
  • U.S. DoJ increases hostility towards Apple in latest court filing

Let us know what you think.

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Michael Pachter Says Wii HD Will LaunchMichael Pachter Says Wii HD Will Launch

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter is “absolutely convinced” we’ll see a Nintendo Wii HD by 2011. What makes him so sure? In short, Nintendo will start to look bad if their console is said to be “for your mom” instead of for gamers.

What they’ve done, so far, is show the industry there is more market than just hardcore gamers. They’ve also convinced many of us that only hardcore gamers actually buy games. Nintendo says they’re selling games, we’ve just not seen any real evidence of that outside of their own first party titles.

“Nintendo has to overcome that [lack of graphics power],” said Pachter. “A Wii HD would really position Nintendo well, which is why I’m absolutely convinced there is a Wii HD coming. Businesswise, they can’t have people saying that their machine is a toy for my mom.” (gamedaily)

Nintendo obviously doesn’t to be the focus of a “your mom” joke outside of being able to boast huge sales figures. Selling the console into homes has definitely raised the awareness of their brand to gamers and non-gamers alike. Now, it seems, Nintendo is going to have to “grow up” and get with the high definition graphics crowd… by 2011.

Would you re-buy a Wii if it was in HD? It’s also important to note Prachter believed Take-Two would become EA and was “convinced” of it. That didn’t happen. Will this?

Episode 356: Gi-BlowEpisode 356: Gi-Blow

This week’s podcast finally reveals the winner of the E3 Swag Bag. The episode is packed full of show, including a Gaming Flashback about Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and the Gaming History celebrating Donkey Kong‘s 33rd birthday.

The news includes:

  • Another EA exec explains why mobile Dungeon Keeper suffered
  • PS4 fails to inspire Japanese market
  • Former Epic director Bleszinski unretires to reveal Project Bluestreak
  • Divinity: Original Sin developer turned off global chat to silence trolls
  • Bartle: “Free-to-play has a half-life

All this plus the Question of the Week: “Have online players caused you to quit playing that session?”

Imagine a Free World of WarcraftImagine a Free World of Warcraft

Once upon a time the folks at Blizzard Entertainment thought they could support the entire world of World of Wacraft by ad revenue. This would have created an MMO experience which would cost you nothing but a bit of annoyance by ad providers; what would the total audience be if the game was free?

Had WoW launched free of charge they would probably have significantly more users playing the game, but the ad revenue from the sheer amount of people would be nothing compared to a monthly charge for eight million subscribers.

Although only a small number of those subscribers are US based, they’re still raking in the cash compared to an ad-based model, even if they were to have triple the subscribers.

However, the Blizzard exec noted: “We didn’t want to charge a subscription, but as we researched market conditions, we realized that wouldn’t support us.”

It’s possible, perhaps, that Blizzard would have fallen under its own weight had they created a world where anyone could play for no charge. Imagine the server utilization, the volume of traffic and the support calls they would get for triple or quadrupal the player base with only ads paying the checks.

Granted, a free system would be excellent in theory, but in practice, making us pay is the only way to throttle our addictions. Sad, but true.

(Thanks, gamasutra)