Episode 530: Pokemons With Swords and Shields

This week’s episode was delayed in publication thanks to real life intruding on the videogame podcast.

The week’s news items include:

  • Pokémon Sword and Shield starters revealed
  • Stardew Valley gets esports tournament
  • Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will be revealed in April
  • Funcom is working on a Dune MMO, and two more Dune games

All that and listener feedback.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

Related Post

Episode 718: PatchesEpisode 718: Patches

This podcast is full of patches and updates, but the guys also discuss Destiny finally getting Horde mode, PS VR2 production reportedly being paused as Sony seeks to move backlog of unsold units, the Stellaris spin-off changing its name to Nexus 5X, and Assassin’s Creed Jade likely delayed to 2025.

The news includes:

  • Stardew Valley‘s 1.6 update is finally live
  • Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection gets first patch following troubled launch
  • Marathon fan revival coming to Steam with Bungie’s blessing
  • Ubisoft reveals generative AI project for NPC dialogue
  • Palworld propels Xbox to best ever month of console playtime

Let us know what you think.

Episode 746: More Tony HawkEpisode 746: More Tony Hawk

This week, the guys discuss the fact that Cities: Skylines 2‘s asset editor is remaining a distant dream as Colossal Order is still working on it but says it’s ‘proven more technically challenging than initially anticipated’, Western Digital sold their SSDs to SanDisk, and Naughty Dog boss says “don’t bet” on there being a The Last of Us Part 3.

The news includes:

  • Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 official announcement reveals deluxe edition with Doom Slayer
  • Call of Duty admits it’s using generative AI to ‘help develop some in-game assets’

Let us know what you think.

Distributed Game Development Using ContractorsDistributed Game Development Using Contractors

Gamers around the world have noticed a large trend in the video game industry in the last 15 years, massive growth with massive projects and unbelievable costs, goals and sales. We’ve seen the impossible become achievable in epic projects like World of Warcraft and huge sales figures from Halo 3 but we’ve also seen game titles fall down in a burning wreck.

Each studio tries to beat the next studio with crisp realistic graphics, real time physics engines, life-like explosions all with huge costs. Does it all sound familiar? If you’re a movie buff you’ve probably seen movie studios cranking out the same style of movie, high computer graphic effects with talented high priced actors making longer and longer films.

The only big difference? A game studio hires most of their talent for full time positions and then has to figure out what to do with them when the project ends. Perhaps this explains Microsoft’s effort to remove game studios like Ensemble, Bungie and FASA, it’s all too much to handle when a high budget project ships and time frees up in the studio.

(more…)