Episode 544: Kickstarter Fraud

This podcast deals with the shady dealings of a Kickstarter — no Gaming Flashback this week though.

The news includes:

  • An ambitious GTA Online-alike won’t be allowed to finish its Kickstarter campaign
  • Tetris Effect headed to PC next week via Epic Games Store
  • Joy-Con drift is becoming a real problem on the Switch

Let us know what you think.

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Episode 493: Finally, After Three TriesEpisode 493: Finally, After Three Tries

So, two weeks ago, the audio was so corrupted, there was nothing that could be salvaged. A week later, the podcast only had one track working, so it was like Jonah speaking to imaginary people only he could hear. This podcast is finally perfect, with Rock Band being the Gaming Flashback.

This week’s news includes:

  • System Shock reboot that raised $1.3M on Kickstarter is now on “hiatus”
  • Dragon Ball FighterZ’s premium DLC characters revealed
  • Rumor: Diablo III is coming to Nintendo Switch

Let us know what you think.

Bethesda’s Hines: Don’t Shoehorn MultiplayerBethesda’s Hines: Don’t Shoehorn Multiplayer

Bethesda Softworks vice president of marketing Pete Hines is critzing publishers and developers who shoehorn multiplayer into their games that doing such a thing is “a waste of time” and advises, “Just drop it, don’t bother…it’ll make for a worse game.”

In an interview with Next Gen BIZ, Hines states that using online multiplayer as a tool to prevent used game trade-ins and rental simply doesn’t work, and robs developers of valuable man-hours.

Hines stated:

“(People ask us) for a game like Skyrim or Prey 2, why doesn’t it have multiplayer? Well, our question is always the opposite when we talk to a developer. If you’re doing multiplayer, why are you doing multiplayer? What are you trying to accomplish?

“If you’re doing it just to check a box or because every other publisher says you’ve got to have multiplayer, then just drop it, don’t bother, it’s a waste of time, a giant distraction and it’ll make for a worse overall game.

“We want the best game possible. If that’s a singleplayer game that’s 15 to 20 hours, then make that! Don’t waste your time on features that don’t make the game better.”

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Prey 2 are two Bethesda properties that will lack multiplayer, but one of the tools to encourage games to keep both games will be downlodable content and, even more important, good communications with the game communities and nurturing the fandom for both games.