Episode 539: Two Plus Hours

The previous week’s episode had too many technical issues to post, so this week’s episode overcompensates by being over two hours long. The Gaming Flashback this week is none other than 2009’s Minecraft, which is still going strong well into 2019.

This week’s news includes:

  • Microsoft explains Xbox Game Pass for PC, selling games on Steam (from GameWatcher)
  • The Avengers game is being revealed at E3 2019
  • Super Mario Maker 2‘s lack of costumes and online matchmaking with friends upsets fans
  • Wolfenstein: Youngblood to feature ray-tracing technology

All this and Listener Feedback.

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Sony’s E3 Conference: Fairly ImpressiveSony’s E3 Conference: Fairly Impressive

We’re all used to Sony falling on their face at E3 in the last few years, but, this year, things were different. They’re information was delivered well, they had a great presentation medium using Little Big Planet‘s game engine as a presentation platform over the standard PowerPoint slides and everything went smoothly.

The format for displaying their facts, figures and sales numbers was well played. Nobody wants to sit in front of a chart and listen to an executive blab on about what they did and where they’re going. But, when you add some Little Big Planet flair, such as having the graphs built within their game engine and Sack Boy hopping around on the statistics things smooth over well.

I was confused on why they chose to display the Little Big Planet graphic engine followed by Resistance 2 and then taper into talk about the PlayStation 2 with game previews. It seems more appropriate to bring in the PlayStation 2 product line first, then blow the crowd away with the current generation graphics. Instead, we were awed by the epic Resistance 2 graphics and then presented with old generation stale game engines… silly.

They went on to show off the wide array of PSP games arriving and a little trailer for Resistance Retribution for the PSP. The game system is definitely more mature than their DS competitor but seems to have a bit less sales momentum.

Overall, Sony did one right by talking about their three tiered solution to gaming instead of focusing too much on a single system. PlayStation 3 numbers are good but not mind boggling (like Wii) and their PSP product is doing much better than it used to and the PlayStation 2 numbers are high but falling compared to last year (as would be expected).

By focusing on the full suite of products they’ve put their eggs into many baskets rather than rely on their bleeding edge flagship product which still needs time to grow.

Well done Sony.

Episode 724: State of SonyEpisode 724: State of Sony

The guys discuss Eric Barone still working on Stardew Valley, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 being confirmed for Xbox Game Pass, blackjack roguelike Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers, Kerbal Space Program developer layoffs, The Sims 4 launching a battle pass-like, and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.

The news includes:

  • The Sony State of Play showcase
  • Sony apologizes for interview with developer Neil Druckmann
  • Silent Hill announcement stream scheduled for this week

Let us know what you think.

Episode 559: Welcome to 2020Episode 559: Welcome to 2020

Welcome to the future, as Jonah, Scott and TJ ring in the new year, as this week’s Gaming Flashback reminds Jonah of what his favorite game of the decade was. (Spoiler: Mass Effect 2.) In fact, the game is so good Jonah and TJ talk about it for an hour before discussing the week’s generally weak news.

This week’s topics include:

  • Report: New Switch model launching in 2020
  • The Ni No Kuni movie is coming to Netflix
  • Silent Hill Art Director Masahiro Ito announces a new video game
  • Vice City: Remastered for Grand Theft Auto 5 mod released

Was 2010 the best year for games in the 2010’s? Let us know.