Episode 522: Civving Up

This week’s episode is full of industry news in the wake of The Game Awards. There wasn’t many news items but there was plenty to talk about with the Awards, especially with this week’s Gaming Flashback, Unlimited Adventures.

This week’s news items include:

Let us know what you think.

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Xbox 360’s Fable 2: No Online Co-Op In BoxXbox 360’s Fable 2: No Online Co-Op In Box

Much like Kameo: Elements of Power, Fable 2 ships without online co-op mode on day-one. However, Kameo didn’t promise the co-op mode prior to the games release, or talk about it in their presentations and hype machine conferences.

How does that happen? It’s easy to promise a feature but words do not make games true. More than likely the online co-op was a bit more complicated or had some bugs that needed to be shaken out prior to shipping. Microsoft is talking about releasing a patch for the new co-op play on the first week or so of the game release.

There are two options: ship a product that’s buggy and deal with the online PR nightmare with bugs and day-one patches, or, ship it without the feature and promise it early in the launch phase of the game. Once the code is complete, game software has to go through the packing, duplication and shipping phase. A lot of last minute testing can get done in the time it takes to produce the boxed product.

Hopefully Microsoft is doing some last minute testing to make a more reliable presentation of online co-op which everyone can use. However if it releases with a bunch of bugs…

(Thanks, GameSpot)

Episode 223: Snake FlingingEpisode 223: Snake Flinging

This week is a strange one, as snakes are flung at horses to turn them into unicorns, and Paul keeps finding videogame soulmates from the reader feedback. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the Amiga classic Shadow of the Beast, while the Gaming History takes a look back at the Apple Pippin.

This week’s news items include:

  • Survey: Female gamers enjoy gaming more than sex
  • June 2011 NPD sales figures released
  • Publishers spend XBLA budgets, expect retail content
  • Gamestop thinks next gen consoles will hit in 2014
  • Zynga offered $1B for Popcap
  • Ubisoft confirms multiplayer pass system to combat used game sales

Finally, the Question of the Week is “What games do you play in bed?” Yes, it’s been a weird week.

Episode 311: Podcast Two, Xbox OneEpisode 311: Podcast Two, Xbox One

This week is just Jonah Falcon and Jordan Lund, but the podcast is double length as the Xbox One dominates the last part of the podcast. There’s also the Gaming Flashback of Bungie’s Oni.

This week’s news includes:

  • Games Industry Biz eulogizes Wii U, states it suffered “death by apathy”
  • Xbox One revealed by Microsoft
  • Microsoft: No fees for used games, special dispensation for gamers without internet
  • Microsoft’s Greenberg: E3 presentation will be “all about the games”

All this and Listener Feedback.