Episode 223: Snake Flinging

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.

0 thoughts on “Episode 223: Snake Flinging”

  1. @Female gamers enjoy gaming more than sex
    Ouch … Unfortunately I think that the results say a lot about the men ๐Ÿ˜› …

    @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 ๐Ÿ˜›

    @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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

Related Post

Episode 575: Resident Rock of AgesEpisode 575: Resident Rock of Ages

This week’s episode features a Gaming Flashback about… nothing. The week before the PC Gaming Show and PlayStation 5 show is kinda slow, but there was some chatter in the industry.

The news topics feature:

  • Resident Evil 3 will not receive any DLCs or significant updates in the future
  • Elite Dangerous: Odyssey will let players walk around
  • The Rock of Ages 3 open beta starts on June 9th
  • Persona 4 Golden reportedly heading to PC this week

Let us know what you think.

Episode 235: More Hate MailEpisode 235: More Hate Mail

This week features a spirited debate between Jonah Falcon and Paul S. Nowak on the Catwoman DLC story below. There is no Gaming Flashback, but there is the following news items:

  • The Lund Report: September 2011 NPD
  • Catwoman requires online pass to play in Arkham City
  • DICE: Battlefield 3 is ‘mission accomplished’ despite beta concerns
  • EA defends cop killing in Battlefield 3
  • Legit Forza 4 users banned for โ€œpiratedโ€ copies
  • Xbox Live Accounts scammed for FIFA DLC

The Question of the Week is When was the last time you bought a game you knew nothing about?

Episode 631: Nintendo Dislikes VirtualEpisode 631: Nintendo Dislikes Virtual

This is the second attempt at Episode 631, as the previous episode had bad audio, and was boring to boot. This week’s episode features a lot of questionable content, as well as a Dark Souls Gaming Flashback.

The news includes:

  • Surprise Halo Infinite multiplayer launch buckles Steam servers
  • Grand Theft Auto Trilogy back on PC after Rockstar removes ‘unintentionally included’ files
  • Microsoft adds 76 more games to Xbox backwards compatibility
  • Nintendo explains why there is no virtual console on Switch

Let us know what you think.