TJ announces his nuptials the previous week, finally marrying his live-in girlfriend of 10 years. All that, and many parables that had to be cut from the podcast lest it last 90 minutes.
That said, there’s plenty of news this week:
Let us know if you spent $50,000 on a virtual spaceship.
Gamertag has posted what they claim is a flyer sent to developers advertising the “Project Cafe” (the alleged placeholder name for the next-gen Nintendo console) SDK, with some interesting claims:
Project Café is simply the most developed friendly SDK the industry has ever seen. Deliver unparalleled next generation performance at current generation cos…it doesn’t get any easier than this.
Easy portability from PC, Xbox 360.
Anytime live update past release.
Integrated M-Live framework.
Let us know if you think this is real, and if so, what you think about the console.
Nintendo has announced that the Wii will receive a price drop from $199.99 to $149.99, in effect on May 15, while a new Wii bundle for $199.99 will feature a colored Wii, Mario Kart Wii and a Wii Wheel accessory of matching color.
Nintendo is also launching its own version of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 bestselling line with its “Select” value line retailing at $19.99 each. The first games to be released under the budget line includes The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Animal Crossing: City Folk, and Mario Super Sluggers.
If you’ve ever been through an acquisition or merger you’d have expected this news to come, but for those new to the concept it’s simple: you can’t keep everyone. After a complete merger you end up with two sales departments, two IT departments, etc.
Do you really need them all? No, not really. You’ll need to keep some on board in order to “brain dump” your job onto others and hopefully stick around for the long hall. Some employees will probably be shuffled to other job responsibilities while some get packages and a thank you card.
These are some of the growing pains when working towards a successful merger, so don’t be surprised or start spreading rumors when a few people are let go. As someone who’s gone through it in two big mergers I can say that certain departments already know their fate ahead of time. Many IT and sales folk start looking for new jobs the minute the merger is announced.
Congratulations TJ!