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.
It’s official, EA has 
Congratulations to PopCap for showing why casual games will always be a viable market. Let’s put this in perspective, investors believe GTA IV will push 13-million sales by the end of 2008 and, as of January 2008, Halo 3 had sold 8 million copies. PopCap’s little casual game has hit 25 million units sold, that’s fairly impressive considering these blockbuster titles haven’t achieved such numbers.
@Female gamers enjoy gaming more than sex
Ouch … Unfortunately I think that the results say a lot about the men 😛 …
@June 2011 NPD sales figures released:
Regarding DNF being on second place despite reviews, there’s a funny thing: the fact that most reviews are negative doesn’t mean that most people didn’t like the game. It means that only the small fraction of people that write reviews didn’t like the game.
@Publishers spend XBLA budgets, expect retail content
Well, there is a race to the bottom here. As for a platform to develop one, well … I guess key would be multi platform. I can see the PC and XBox being easily to develop for, due to similarities between the two.
But back to the main issue: funding. If funds are really that low, then might as well go full indie – making ends meet will be difficult at times and your games will be rather simple, but they will be the games you want to make.
The question becomes: what do you choose? A life a bit more cosy, or the freedom (and sacrifices that come with it) to make the games you want?
@ Ubisoft confirms multiplayer pass system to combat used game sales
It’s a bit screwed up. This basically means you need to sell your used game for significantly less, so that the total cost (used game + pass) should remain competitive against new copies.
Jonah, excellent point about using old games as advertising. The first C&C games were also released free, in an attempt to advertise for the new Red Alert.
Good point from Jordan: single player is untouched by this. And personally I enjoy SP much more than MP, so the implied price drop that I mentioned will only be beneficial to me 😛
@Question of the Week:
Nope, no games while in bed. It’s too tough to find a suitable surface for the mouse while in bed.
Wow, been ages since I’ve commented. Sorry! Glad to see the podcast is continuing though.
@June NPD sales
Good to see the 3DS picking up a little. After poor marketing, a bad launch period and being overpriced, I think it’s actually fared decently. It should really pick up by the holiday season though, with Starfox, Mario Kart and Super Mario releasing before the end of the year. A price drop would greatly help too, and Nintendo would still probably make a good profit on the hardware…
@Multiplayer Pass System
Yes, advertising for the series definitely works. The example you used Jonah, happened to me. I got Portal when Steam had it for free (incidentally, that was what made me get a Steam account also). After playing it and loving it, I bought Portal 2 as soon as it was released.
@Gamestop thinks next-gen consoles will arrive in 2014
Well, with quite a few rumours about the next xbox going around recently, I think Microsoft might bring their new console out sooner than that. Probably 2013, or even late 2012.
Sony might be a bit later, but they’ll want to keep it reasonably close to the next xbox.
@QOTW
I don’t really play games while in bed. I’ve only done it once or twice. I read instead.
Gaming vs. Sex Survey – I honestly can’t think of a nice way to frame my answer to this.
XBLA Budget, Retail Quality – Obviously you aren’t going to get something like Fallout or Borderlands for 1200 Microsoft Points, but I have found many XBLA games that, in my opinion, have reached “retail quality”. Braid is a perfect example of that. I have probably put twenty hours into that game and still have not fully completed it. Bastion is also a great game that could very well be qualified as “retail quality”. Its not impossible to achieve, instead just very difficult.
Next Gen in 2014? – I will patiently await the official announcement. My Xbox 360 has served me well for five years, another three or four is fine with me.
Ubisoft – You know what this means to me. Don’t buy a used copy. That is it. The uninformed buyer may have some issues, and it is a dick move on Ubisoft’s part, but like I said about Netflix, they are a business, and if they want more money, than so be it.
QOTW – My console used to be right across my bed so up until about a month ago I would play games in bed a couple of times a week, every week. I don’t see what is weird about it, more relaxing than slouching in a chair with a hunch that most of us gamers have developed.