16 responses so far ↓

• 1 Herr_Alien // Oct 20, 2010 at 4:45 am

  @STEAM SURPASSES 30 MILLION ACCOUNTS:
  I have an account on Steam, I must admit. Still, if I have the choice to buy the physical box or buy the game from Steam, I usually go for the boxed version.
  The social aspect of Steam is good, the DRM part of it I find it fair. But I still like to get the darned box 🙂 .

  As for ‘free’ games, well, somebody gifted me TF2. The game was bought for 2.5 USD. But, but, if the game didn’t sell at all during that period, a “bagillion” sells of 2.5 USD is still more than zero sales of 20 USD.

  @Nintendo 3ds is not on par with iPhone 3GS:
  I think it is more than the hardware. I mean, iPhone may be a bit stronger, but I am pretty sure Epic can scale down engines to have them run on the 3DS (Jennifer, loved your take on that 🙂 ). It could be that the Apple devices already have a fairly big market, so betting on Apple seems more safe.
  And Derrick, you might be right, it could be just Epic trying to be epic 😛

  @Kinect Director puts foot in his mouth:
  I laughed so hard when I heard this … I mean how will you play STALKER on kinect? In that game, you have run/walk across several square miles of land. What will you do? You’ll have a treadmill in your living room? Come on …
  Keyboard and mouse looking rulez!

  @Microsoft uses Angry Bird icon without permission:
  That was a bit funny 🙂 But hey, at the end of the day, Angry Birds just got more publicity, so it can’t be that bad.
  As for logos being abused, oh man … I have seen so many headsets “Windows compatible” and “Skype compatible” … I doubt they went through their legal department. And they didn’t get in trouble because the others (MSFT and Skype) don’t care.

  @SC2:
  “Defendants already had developed, **marketed**, and distributed”
  You don’t get sued for developing and distributing hacks. But marketing the hacks, that’s what triggered this reaction. The hackers made a profit out of it, and they did it by modifying original Blizzard content then **selling** that said content.

  @Question of the week
  Oh man … this is tough. I’ve heard rock pieces in shooters like Quake 3 and UT, then great music from an unknown guy (Mooze) in STALKER.
  Thing is, mainstream music is not quite suited for games, so I’ll use a cheap way out of this:

  I’d like to hear Slipknot (pretty hardcore rock, see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wws7mnMewPw&ob=av3e ) in a death match FPS like Quake 3.

• 2 Krud // Oct 20, 2010 at 6:38 pm

  In no particular order:

  – I used to hate Steam, back in the days of dialup (which for me was seven months ago), but now that we have broadband and a constant connection, I’ve warmed to it. Have I bought a game via Steam? No, but I have seriously considered it, which is more than I can say for any other digital download provider. (I hate that phrase, “Digital Download.” Is there a site offering analog downloads somewhere? Maybe an answering machine of some guy reading instructions on how to program the game?)

  – Surprisingly it’s been quite a while since I’ve played an FPS at all, but when Duke Nukem Forever FINALLY comes out, I’m sure I’ll give that a whirl on the PC.

  – I’m with Don on the mobile thing, I don’t want computers to go totally small and portable. Though I have a feeling that in the future, mobile devices incorporating motion detection combined with 3D glasses will bring us closer to Derrick’s dream of holograms.

  – It caused me physical pain to hear you say “Who’s Tim Curry?” I mean, c’mon, man. You don’t even have to have seen (or played) anything he was in to recognize him. Just like I’ve never watched anything with Kathy Bates, but I know who she is. (Oh wait, she was in “Titanic”. But I don’t consider myself as having watched that so much as endured it.)

  – Okay, Question of the Week: What band or musician would I want featured in a game, and what genre? Hmm. That’s tough, because for me the less inoccuous a game soundtrack is, the happier I am. If I recognize the artist, I’ll also probably recognize just how often the music repeats itself. And I’d rather not grow sick of one of my favorite artists.

  Having said that, however, I think I’d like to hear They Might Be Giants provide music for the next You Don’t Know Jack game.

• 3 Betani // Oct 21, 2010 at 10:50 am

  RE QOTW – This is a real stumper. I’d be afraid that if my favorite music played during a game, I’d get distracted by it and taken out of the gaming experience. I’ll go for the ambiance angle instead. I think Bobby McFarrin would be great for some casual/puzzle games.

• 4 squid // Oct 21, 2010 at 11:54 pm

  – Steam passing 30 million accounts
  I can see why this year has been a really good one for them. Obviously, catering to Mac users helps, as would giving away games like Portal for free, which is when I signed up for it. Plus when you get games like Civ V, that force you to use steam, you’re gonna get quite a few new users.

  It seems like a good, convenient service, but I haven’t bought anything from it yet just because I still prefer physical copies. Yeah, I’m strange like that.

  – Epic says 3DS not on par with iPhone 3GS
  If I were Epic, I would keep my mouth shut for now. First you need to find out the official specs and know for sure whether you want to develop on it or not.

  – QOTW
  Imagine this: An F-Zero game…………. with a Daft Punk soundtrack! I can’t think of anything more awesome than that… besides Radiohead or Arcade Fire in Rock Band of course (yeah I know, choosing a music game is kinda cheating).

  But yeah, in non-music games, I usually just prefer music that adds to the atmosphere.

  -Last weeks QOTW
  I had no idea that Tim Curry, Patrick Stewart and Tony Shalhoub had already done voice acting in video games! That’s pretty awesome, although I haven’t played any of the games they voiced 🙁

• 5 Jonah Falcon // Oct 24, 2010 at 3:18 pm

  Angry Birds is coming to every mobile platform imaginable – it WILL come to Win 7 Mobile. They just jumped the gun.

  I have to wonder how much of an information overload Don is having with all the Diablo III stuff being shown off.

• 6 Jonah Falcon // Oct 25, 2010 at 11:13 am

  Rovio is a small company? HUH? Rovio has published 52 games that have been installed more than 250 million times. They’re a major apps publisher.

  Chillingo (who made Angry Birds) is the small developer (they just got bought by EA).

• 7 Jonah Falcon // Oct 25, 2010 at 11:29 am

  Oh, and Isaac Hayes is dead.

• 8 Derrick Schommer // Oct 25, 2010 at 11:38 am

  Rovio is a big company? Lol. Do you do any research or does total downlaod and game count all you go on?

  They are less than 35 employees and just recently got their first real venture funding (besides their only angel investor).

  Their bread and butter is angry birds, with 70 percent profit share on about 6 million paid downlaods at 1 dollar. Good cash, but 30 employees they are not rolling in dough… Otherwise venture funding on a pure software solution would not be needed.

  They are a small indie company wotking on growth based on a hit title that help give them visibility.

• 9 squid // Oct 26, 2010 at 9:37 pm

  OWNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• 10 jonahfalcon // Oct 31, 2010 at 3:52 pm

  Your next Gaming Flashback should be “Typing of the Dead” for the Dreamcast and PC. Started playing it again and it still holds up, big time. It’s AWESOME (especially when you see the agents all wearing strap on keyboards hehehe)

• 11 jonahfalcon // Oct 31, 2010 at 3:53 pm

  Oh, dear sweet Derrick. Size isn’t the number of employees. Over 250,000,000 downloads means a billion dollars in revenue. That’s massive.

• 12 Herr_Alien // Nov 1, 2010 at 5:44 am

  🙂 Thing is, both of you are right.

  I know companies that have 50+ people and still I can’t call them ‘big’ because nobody really heard of them.
  On the other hand, one could call such a company ‘poorly managed’, and still add it to the list of ‘big’.

  And if you make a billion dollars in revenue from one-two titles, then you go bankrupt next year, you’re not big. You’re a ‘one hit wonder’.

  Just like with other things, we each have our own standard of ‘big’ 😉 The issues start when trying to align these standards.

• 13 Derrick Schommer // Nov 1, 2010 at 9:28 am

  Oh dear Jonah, 10-million paid downloads (as a press release for this month) on their top game isn’t a billion dollar company.

  That’s 7-million dollars in revenue (not gross profit) before operating expenses, etc. That means they’ve got enough money to get them through some development costs for their employees. Considering their burn rate is probably less than 7-million … if they have 30 employee’s all making roughly 30k a year (which is less than a Teacher’s Salary) that means the company is burning about 1-million a year just in salary. Now, assuming those salaried employee’s are also getting insurance/benefits they’re up to about 1.1-million a year to pay people to make games.

  If they don’t have to pay electricity, rent or any other development costs the company has 7 more years to make their next “one hit wonder” before they close their doors… assuming zero bad decisions over the next few years.

  I call that, a small company. I’m fairly certain most investors and such would as well. Does that mean they’re doomed for failure? No, it means they’re constantly 100% aware of what they’re doing and working to make good decisions to keep their revenue increasing and their operating expenses low.

• 14 Herr_Alien // Nov 1, 2010 at 11:43 am

  … 🙂 Can’t wait for the listeners’ comments section for the next episode.

• 15 Ivan // Nov 1, 2010 at 7:00 pm

  Battles!!! Johan vs Derrick =) very interesting.
  Should bring this to the mortal combat ring =P.

  @ Steam reaching 30mil users.
  Not surprising, Steam is getting very standardized now. Since ive got Broadband & there is a game I wanted but missed its launch. I no longer go to the nearest EB games. I go to Steam & snap it up once the price drops. Cheap, Quick & Easy =). Tho for the must have game titles in my life, I still must have the box….. u don’t get that special feeling of picking it up from the post & unwrapping it when you download a game.
  <3
  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=161311167228947&set=a.158006704226060.38897.100000501946115

  @ Halo Reach Ban hammer
  I think players exploiting the game to get extreme amounts of in game credits are Retarded & to improve the overall experience, the automated Banhammer that resets players credits & ranks to 0 for doing the glitch is fair enough. Where is the sense of achievement if you cheat anyway??? (The Glitch involved disconnected your Xbox from Live & reconnecting it as you get granted a Daily Challenge reward. It’s silly to do so because its an achievement that can only be granted once so to get the same reward granted multiply times would be easy to track.

  @ QOTW
  I would like to play a free roaming game, based in a disturbed waste land in the US playing Classic 50s music ….. wait its called Fallout <3, I hope Fallout New Vegas expands their music list & play some Jonny Cash =)

• 16 Derrick Schommer // Nov 2, 2010 at 12:52 pm

  Oh, and Jonah…
  “Rovio is a small company? HUH? Rovio has published 52 games that have been installed more than 250 million times. They’re a major apps publisher.

  Chillingo (who made Angry Birds) is the small developer (they just got bought by EA).”

  Chillingo is the publisher, Rovio is the developer… you have it backwards. Beat Angry Birds, read credits, understand (all in that order)

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