Episode 460: PAX East 2017 Recap

Jonah Falcon is finally back from PAX East 2017, and related his experiences at the convention. Somehow, T.J.’s musings on Dune and the origins of Mini-Me come up during the discussion. Among the games discussed are Snake Pass, Earthfall, Dauntless, and Yonder.

There’s also some news discussed:

  • Payday owner Starbreeze to publish System Shock 3
  • Switch stock and sellouts could be a problem for Nintendo

Let us know what you think and post in the comments!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Episode 496: Two Becomes ThreeEpisode 496: Two Becomes Three

This week starts with two hosts and mysteriously turns into three without any warning. It’s scary. Otherwise, this week’s Gaming Flashback is the source of scorn from the hosts: Spore. Yes, SimEverything was SimDisappointing. Listen in and find out why.

The news for this week includes:

  • Xbox head tweets support of PS4/Xbox One crossplay on Fortnite
  • Warhammer: Vermintide 2 has already sold 500,000 copies
  • Writer Drew Karpyshyn leaves BioWare for a second time

Let us know what you think.

Episode 418: Potter RageEpisode 418: Potter Rage

This week’s episode runs pretty long as TJ Denzer returns from his bowling trip. Scott goes ballistic over the Harry Potter franchise with Twilight, and other than that, a lot of pop culture discussion.

This week’s news includes:

  • Nintendo deletes every stage by prominent Mario Maker speedrunner
  • Telltale’s take on Batman will be M-rated, launches this summer
  • Original Diablo design docs show it was to be a classic turn-based rogue-like
  • 30 launch titles for Oculus Rift revealed, each with “Comfort” ratings
  • Mass Effect developer wore new IP on T-shirt, says no one noticed

This week’s Question of the Week, “What game editors have you used?”

Video Games Are Entertaining, E3, Not So MuchVideo Games Are Entertaining, E3, Not So Much

Most folks in the game industry are already writing off E3 as an actual event to be attending. Even Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is calling it “virtually useless” for both retail and investors. The writing is on the wall and the reasons are obvious.

Publishers and developers didn’t want to invest the millions of dollars to make E3 a glamour show of epic proportions anymore. The lights, camera and action are all what the industry is about; the hype wagon in full steam. Gamers eat up the hype, bloggers and journalist rely on the hype and action to build readership and keep them coming back for more and retail uses it to gauge new releases and get a grip of the future.

Without the entertainment value of E3 nobody seems to care anymore. Large scale gaming entertainment is reflected in the large scale events and, at the end of the day, we want our conferences and shows to reflect the emotion and exciting of the industry.

“E3 had much more of an impact when it was a show,” comments IGN.com vice president of games content Tal Blevins. “The video game industry is about fun and entertainment, and we should have a show that reflects it.” (gamasutra)

Everyone is sad to see the state of E3, it’s like a cancer patient waiting for their final diagnosis. It’s unfortunate, it’s going to get worse and life will go on without it. In its wake, new shows will crop up while old shows increase in audience, excitement, intensity and cost.

As one show begins to fade others will grow to replace it and developers will yet again find themselves spending millions of dollars to be the best of show.