Episode 294: Naked Bribing

This week has a full crew again with Jordan, Jonah, Paul and Dan, and even though there’s no Gaming Flashback or Gaming History, there’s a ton of news to pour over.

This week’s news includes:

  • Jay Wilson steps down from Diablo III stewardship
  • The Secret World sees ‘400% increase in activity’ after December relaunch
  • Mojang: Minecraft XBLA outsold Minecraft PC in 2012
  • Gas Powered Games confirms major layoffs
  • Sony settles lawsuit with Kevin Butler actor Jerry Lambert
  • Pachter: Nintendo is “a few years late” in everything they do

On a sadder note, Dan announced a day after the podcast recording that he will be employed full-time and no longer have the time to be a regular member of the podcast.

This week’s Question of the Week: “What game do you want to see a sequel to the most?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 294: Naked Bribing”

  1. So, we’ll do follow-ups for some of the older news items. Cool!

    @Jay Wilson steps down from Diablo III stewardship
    Eh, I guess that’s what happens when you focus a bit too much on making money instead of making a game. Jonah, I’m 100% with you.
    I wouldn’t put the blame on the lead game designer though: if you’re not the top dog in the hierarchy, your freedom is limited.

    Hmm, Brevik ? Maybe.

    @The Secret World sees ‘400% increase in activity’
    Buy2Play is a bit weird, since you still have server maintenance to pay for. Dunno. I can see it for an MMO that would use a p2p network system to alleviate server loads, but for a classic client-server architecture? Dunno. To me it sounds like putting a limit to the lifespan of the game.
    Time, prove me wrong.

    @Mojang: Minecraft XBLA outsold Minecraft PC in 2012
    And here’s the XBLA gold rush 🙂
    Like the iPhone gold rush before. And the other XBLA gold rush before the iPhone rush.
    Joking aside, I can see people interpreting this as a sign to where to publish. Truth is, a good game sells. Regardless of the platform.

    @Sony settles lawsuit with Kevin Butler actor Jerry Lambert
    This is screwed up. It’s his freaking face. It’s not like Sony owns it. But what the heck, what do I know.

    @Pachter: Nintendo is “a few years late” in everything they do
    I think the guy has a point. In terms of performance, he’s right. In terms of peripherals, they were left behind by Kinect. As for a games library, again, he’s right.
    Paul, I guess you’d like to make a zombie out of him? 🙂

    @QOTW
    STALKER, but! The former GSC team is working on Survarium, and the STALKER brand did get a new roof, but with a different studio.
    So sure, I do want something STALKER like, it’s just I’m not sure it’ll be STALKER2 (not announced) or the Survarium game.

    Dan, good news about your employment! You will be missed.

  2. @Diablo 3 beheaded (I wish)

    Meh

    @Secret World

    Double Meh

    @Sony and Kevin Buttler

    Tripple Meh. Boredom COMBO.

    @Minecraft XBLA

    The answer is simple. PC version is far to easy to pirate. It’s less than a megabyte and you can store it on a floppy disk. Furthermore, as funny as it sounds Minecraft multiplayer is very processor heavy. The XBLA version is a lot more stable (and even then someone gets dropped once in a while). It may be pricy and lack the mods but there is nothing like it on the Xbox.

    @Nintendo is a step behind

    If you may recall, I was talking about this for the past year. Nintendo’s problem is that it is fueled by tradition. The Wise Old Men who run the company call all the shots. They make what they THINK the consumer wants. And you can’t define the world by Satoru Iwata’s personal tastes. The reason why Xbox is doing so well is that Microsoft is running a business. Tablets are successful? Que SmartGlass. 3D sucks? Drop it. Kinect is popular? Make Kinect 2.

    On another note, I can’t wait till you discuss the newly revealed Wii U titles. I am brewing up a shitstorm in my cauldron as we speak.

    @QOTW

    Man. Way to many. It’s sad to a see a franchise die just because people spend all their money on COD and FIFA. The obvious answer is Shenmue 3. The story was finished for the last 15 years. They just don’t have the funds to put it into a digital form. How sad…

    A proper sequel to the Duke Nukem franchise is another. The game made a profit. They should make a new game. This time for real.

  3. Hello long time listener, love the show especially Paul.

    @QOTW : I’m going to cheat and pick two if it’s fine with ya gents, always wanted sequels to these.

    1). The Brave fencer Musashi: This was my favorite kirby game growing up.

    2). Misadventures of Tron Bon:Its like having your own army made of small huggable Lego people.

Leave a Reply

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

Related Post

The PSN FiascoThe PSN Fiasco

It’s now the US government’s turn to question Sony about its online security, which follows the UK government’s scrutiny into the company’s affairs.

In a letter addressed to PlayStation executive deputy Kaz Hirai, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade has prepared a list of questions related to the intrusion; the list can be downloaded from the New York Times here. The letter asks several questions that Sony has not disclosed to the public, such as:

  • How many PSN users had a credit card on file
  • Why Sony cannot determine if credit card was stolen.
  • What are Sony’s plans towards increasing its security in the future.

The Subcommittee’s press release states:

“Given the amount and nature of personal information known to have been taken, the potential harm that could be caused if credit card information was also taken would be quite significant. The Subcommittee on Manufacturing, and Trade has a longstanding interest in consumer privacy, identity theft, and industry efforts to address threats posed by unauthorized access to consumers’ personal information resulting from a data breach.”

The Subcommittee is requiring a reply by no later than May 6, as part of a privacy driven effort “to protect consumer information.”

Meanwhile, Kaz Hirai will be holding a press conference tomorrow from Sony Japan, to address the PlayStation Network hacking crisis.

(more…)

Starcraft 2: A 2009 Release ScheduleStarcraft 2: A 2009 Release Schedule

If you thought you’d be getting a release of Starcraft 2 for the holiday of 2008 you’ll be upset at the news. The heavily awaited RTS title Starcraft 2 will be arriving sometime in 2009. The original title arrived in 1998 but we’re not going to see the first sequel until sometime next year, amazing people even remember the game after eleven years, right?

Activision Blizzard hardly makes a game we’d forget. The reason we all have fond memories of Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo is due to the craftsmanship that goes into the game titles (and a bit of the marketing). The developers take their time to hand craft and test a solid product, which is reason alone to see a release next year rather than in this one.

“Next year’s offerings from Activision Blizzard should include highly anticipated PC strategy title StarCraft II, the sequel to one of the world’s most enduringly popular games.” (starcraftwire.com)

It won’t make the 2008 holiday schedule, making us wonder if it’s a 2009 holiday schedule. Although Activision Blizzard doesn’t need to time their games for the biggest sales seasons it doesn’t hurt to push the title out when gamers are actively looking for new blockbusters.

Personally, we’d love to see a Spring/Summer release time frame to give us something to fill the void, but we’re sure Activision’s marketing team has plans revolving around money than a few gamers personal preferences. Regardless to the launch time we’re at least privvy to the knowledge that it’s coming next year.

Episode 312: Dare You To Press the ButtonEpisode 312: Dare You To Press the Button

This week’s episode is the final episode before E3, and next week, an outtakes episode filled with Dr. Who and Game of Thrones discussion will run. After that, we’ll have some serious E3 2013 discussion, especially about what happens with Microsoft and Sony in particular.

No Gaming Flashback, but news includes:

  • Pachter predicts $349 for PS4, $399 for Xbox One
  • World of Warcraft movie ‘begins shooting‘ in Q1 2014
  • Robert Bowling’s Robotoki raided by LAPD, mistake COD figure as armed intruder
  • Documentary seeks to unearth 3.5M E.T. cartridges from landfill
  • Oculus Rift developer Andrew Scott Reisse, 33, killed as bystander in police chase
  • Shadow of the Eternals Kickstarter fundraising struggling

All that and Listener Feedback.