Episode 436: Wednesday From Now On

This week has a new recording date, Wednesday, so the crew can have more timely discussions about newly released games and more of the week’s news. Thanks to the Star Trek Convention, the podcast is still delayed a little.

This week’s news includes:

  • People buy PS4 Slim consoles before it’s announced
  • Rumor: Nintendo NX could be region-free
  • Devs can now publish Windows apps straight to Xbox One
  • Fallout 4 PS4 Mods not broken, but Sony hasn’t pushed it live yet

All this and Listener Feedback. We also have a new Question of the Week: “What is your favorite fan convention?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 436: Wednesday From Now On”

  1. The World of Warcraft community can be harsh if you don’t know what you’re doing, which is one reason why I haven’t played it for years now; it requires specific actions for certain events during raids for example, and you are often required to watch videos beforehand and have voice chat for choreography among your guild. Another reason for my absence from WoW is addition of unprecedented content requiring time to learn new functions, and it can take away from core gameplay, in my opinion. A lot of people like “Vanilla” WoW.

    While all FPS games are point and click based, Counter-Strike for example requires strategies for map positions except pubs. I recall trying to run around maps not obeying orders back when I was in a clan/guild, while the leader was barking at me.

    I’m anticipating Doom’s plain Deathmatch mode, unlike Team Deathmatch, so that I can be solo, but we don’t know when it’ll be released…

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PS3 and 360 Price Cuts, Before Holidays EndPS3 and 360 Price Cuts, Before Holidays End

A lot of people have purchased the Xbox 360 and a growing number have had new interests in the PlayStation 3. The summer time is winding to an end and fall will bring us a new host of video games and reasons to keep playing our current generation consoles. Many analysts and industry leaders believe the 360 and PlayStation 3 will undergo a USD $50.00 price cut before the Holidays begin.

With holiday madness comes momentum and sales, a USD $50.00 price cut would help bring new momentum to both consoles, especially with Nintendo lapping them in sales. Nobody has considered the direction of the Wii as it doesn’t need to be priced competitively given this is going to be the third year it’s impossible to find in stores.

Do the consoles really need a price cut? It’s hard to argue the PlayStation 3‘s dire need for cutting in price given its already outrageous costs for a console with the least amount of desired titles. The Xbox 360, for most, has the best lineup of titles with a strong fall series of games. The Wii… well, titles don’t really matter just yet because people still buy the console upon sight. The PlayStation 3 is showing off some impressive graphics for this fall and early next year, it may almost be time to invest in the product.

The fall games will keep hardcore gamers buying titles but it will do little to inspire new console sales. If GTA IV, Halo 3, Gears of War and Metal Gear Solid 4 couldn’t drag a gamer to buy, what fall titles will do so this year? Probably very few.

It’s time for the big console vendors to broaden their audience by opening the console to a demographic of gamers that just can’t afford the higher graphic consoles. No, USD $50.00 won’t bring in everyone but it may inspire those on the fringe of consideration to change their minds. With their new consoles in hand they can use their USD $50.00 savings to purchase a new holiday release title.

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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Episode 404: Rebel ScumEpisode 404: Rebel Scum

This week’s episode is a little late thanks to unforeseen circumstances, but nothing will stop us from posting new episodes. It’s actually one day late, since last week was a week off, thanks to Podbean limits and Halloween. On that note, this week, Jonah had to erase a spoiler segment about The Force Awakens, but enough remains of the convo discussing other parts of the upcoming movie.

This week’s news:

  • Sony not to offer backwards compatibility
  • Advertising Standards Authority rules Valve misled customers with Grand Theft Auto V Steam Sale
  • The Witcher movie slated for 2017
  • Ubisoft admits poor Syndicate sales are due to franchise fatigue caused by Unity
  • World of Warcraft paid subscribers at a nine year low at 5.5M

The Question of the Week is what we usually ask ourselves, but with all the new games coming out, “What have you been playing this week?”