Episode 465: No Frills

This week’s episode is raw and unedited, since Jonah’s laptop got fried. However, despite the audio issues and being posted via cell phone, the gang got off a pretty good show.

This week’s news includes:

  • Overwatch pro ends career with stream of racial slurs
  • Don’t expect Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy 7 remake until at least 2018
  • DOTA 2 will soon require competitors to cough up their phone number
  • Report: PlayStation VR bundle will come with required camera and one Move controller

The Question of the Week: “What kind of VR game would you want to play?”

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Episode 590: Microsoft and Epic Tag TeamEpisode 590: Microsoft and Epic Tag Team

This week has Microsoft backing Epic against Apple, Nintendo telling people they don’t have controller drift and apologizing for controller drift, and some new games.

The news includes:

  • Level-5 has reportedly halted nearly all operations in North America
  • Microsoft sides with Epic in its fight with Apple
  • Nintendo is reducing the price of Switch Joycons in Japan
  • Torchlight 3 leaves Early Access

Let us know what you think.

Episode 607: PC and xCloudEpisode 607: PC and xCloud

This week’s episode is double-sized, because the previous week’s episode was… pretty bad. Who knows? Maybe we’ll air it some week when we’re unable to post a new episode.

This week’s news includes:

  • Xbox Cloud Gaming for PC beta invites sent out
  • Rumor: Battlefield 6 not coming to Xbox One or PS4
  • BioShock 4 job listings appear to confirm an open world and sidequests
  • Civilization 6’s final free game update adds three new units, two new maps, and more
  • Nintendo says it will focus on more original game series in the future

All this and listener feedback. Post your own feedback here at Facebook.

Activision Blizzard Trying To Scare Off Competition?Activision Blizzard Trying To Scare Off Competition?

A few months ago, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said investing $500 million to a billion still wouldn’t be enough to compete with an MMORPG like World of Warcraft. The MMORPG space is a costly investment and you’d need to really burn a lot of money to start competing against the mega-giant, but Mythic VP and Warhammer Online lead designer Mark Jacobs disagrees with that quote.

Jacobs says $100-million dollars would be needed to start competing against the giant subscription generator that is World of Warcraft. Although few developers are sitting on $100-million USD, it’s a bit more realistic an investment for a studio to scrape up compared to a billion bucks! A billion dollars is a scary number when you consider that’s the start of an investment that may, or may not, pay off in the end.

Kotick may not be using complete scare tactics, he may be working off experience when dealing with MMORPG’s. A startup MMO isn’t a cookie cutter system, there is a lot of development efforts, $100-million dollars worth, but MMO developers slip dates many times. When you start slipping your dates you’ll start burning more money and, before you know it, you’re a billion in the hole. Jacobs thinks $100-million will cover development costs and messing up, so a billion is still way over budget.

Perhaps this is a bit of a scare tactic, assuming a developer will fail and slip their dates isn’t really a great way to start quoting prices. However, shooting too low isn’t always the best method of building your development assessments. The end result, scream ONE BILLION and you may scare off any potential startup MMO developers.

Warhammer Online lead designer did mention one big barrier to entry: the need for “at least half a million subscribers to be successful.”

(Thanks, 1up)