Episode 456: What’s Coming in 2017

This week, the gang ponder about the games that are coming in 2017, thinking about what they’re really interested in. The games range from Mass Effect: Andromeda to Injustice 2, among other titles. It’s a long rambling conversation, but at least it’s hope. The Gaming History focuses on the folly that was The Capcom 5.

The news items this week include:

  • Fallout 4 surpasses Skyrim to become Bethesda’s most successful game ever
  • Rainbow Six Siege year two: free loot, better matchmaking, subversive operators
  • E3 2017 will be open to the public

The Question of the Week is “What game are you looking forward to in 2017?”

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Episode 357: Dan-tasticEpisode 357: Dan-tastic

Paul Nowak is on hiatus from the podcast, but former podcaster Dan Quick is stepping in to fill his shoes. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the expansion Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.

As for the news:

  • Noriega suing Activision over depiction in Call of Duty
  • The Sims 2 players get expansion-stuffed upgrade as EA ends support
  • Codemasters responds to GRID Autosport Boost Pack criticism (from Videogamer.com)
  • Ex-Call of Duty devs found brand new studio
  • Adam West playing himself in Lego Batman 3
  • Civilization Beyond Earth release date announced

All this and listener feedback.

Trading Used Games, Like Fraud?Trading Used Games, Like Fraud?

David Braben, founder of Frontier Developments, says retail outlets that buy and sell pre-owned games are “essentially defrauding the industry.” Although multiplayer gaming might not be a huge threat, the single player experience in games may die out because gamers play the game quickly and resell it back to places like GameStop for others to buy.

Developers don’t get a dime when a game goes traded, many gamers will “share” the single player experience with a single copy of the game by reselling it over and over. The end result, retail outlets make a good penny for marking up old games while developers see nothing. This is really how game retail outlets survive because the margins on video games is so damn low.

The story has been heard before, developers want a piece of the action so they’re taking steps to entice people to keep the game with renewed downloadable content on old games; you can’t experience the new content without keeping the game around longer. In the world of low margin games, high cost development and short-lived story lines the solutions to this problem aren’t exactly obvious.

Braben’s idea of a solution is to offer two versions of the game, a not for resale/rental version at a high price, say $160, and a low priced version that cannot be shared (heavily DRM’ed?) for $50. In essence, gamers would no longer be able to trade in games because the idea of spending double for a game so you can resell it makes no sense to most gamers (including myself.)

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