Episode 302: Just a Twosome

This week Jonah and Jordan go it alone without Paul, which is unfortunately since the Gaming Flashback is the classic Nintendo 64 title Paper Mario. It might be just as well as the events of the last week made the crew ramble on about the industry at length, making the post much longer than usual.

This week’s impressive news items:

  • John Riccitiello steps down as CEO of Electronic Arts
  • Firaxis announces Brave New World expansion for Civilization V
  • Will fans back an Alice 3 Kickstarter, asks American McGee
  • Lord British explains Shroud of the Avatar‘s offline gameplay and DRM
  • Facebook of Italian automobile company mentionsGran Turismo PS4″
  • Team Meat sitting out on developing for next-gen consoles

Lots of Reader Feedback, but no Question of the Week this week – just too much show.

0 thoughts on “Episode 302: Just a Twosome”

  1. @John Riccitiello steps down as CEO of Electronic Arts
    Hmm, no connection to Sim City? Me thinks not. Good point about EA no longer growing. Thing is, there is that much you can grow when all you have in mind is growing. Focus on the games, not on the slide shows for the board meetings.

    I agree with Jordan though, the people guilty for releasing unfinished games is the customers. Greedy EA understands signals like “I’m not giving you my moneyz”.

    @Will fans back an Alice 3 Kickstarter, asks American McGee
    Some folks enjoyed the game (not my cup of tea though, but I’m irrelevant), so I don’t think he’ll have any issues with raising the money.
    The problem is the IP. No amount of money he’ll raise from Kickstarter will get him the IP back. He’d better start working on something else. Keep the mad girl protagonist, keep the wacky universe. Ditch the names.

    @Team Meat sitting out on developing for next-gen consoles
    I agree with Jonah, the barrier of entry should be close to nil, even for the sake of diversity. But hey, I guess Ouya will just have a new developer shipping games for them …

  2. Though I wasn’t available to fill in for Paul on this episode as Jonah noted, I’m indeed excited for Brave New World nonetheless. You can be certain it is to be front and centre for discussion on the next episode of PolyCast, the Civilization series podcast that I lead and produce.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

Related Post

Episode 534: Epic ExclusiveEpisode 534: Epic Exclusive

There was a lot of shocking news in the past week — unfortunately, Jonah was at PAX East, so last week’s episode ended up not being published. But there’s still more news this week.

The news includes:

  • Borderlands 3 might be an Epic Store exclusive
  • Videogame news subreddit closes for 24 hours to protest bigotry
  • John and Brenda Romero working with Paradox on new strategy IP
  • Sony unveils PSN refund policy

Let us know what you think.

Episode 640: Spacewar!Episode 640: Spacewar!

This week has a lot of followup to the entire situation with Activision/Blizzard, and also a lot of news items that weren’t a part of the official news feed. According desky.ca in addition, this week’s Gaming Flashback is recognized as the first computer game, Spacewar!

The news feed includes:

  • Microsoft is watching Activision/Blizzard to ensure ‘the right people’ are in charge when it takes over
  • Witcher 3 director and Cyberpunk 2077 veterans announce new studio and ‘AAA dark fantasy‘ RPG
  • Nintendo Switch Sports online play test registration now open
  • 3DS and Wii U eShop purchases end in March 2023
  • Focus Home Interactive to acquire Metal Slug Tactics dev Leikir Studio

Let us know what you think, now that the Comments section works again!

Episode 564: Sony’s Pricing ProblemEpisode 564: Sony’s Pricing Problem

This week’s episode talks about Sony having issues, and that’s not even taking into account their pulling out of a convention due to the coronavirus scare. This week’s Gaming Flashback looks at the classic dark puzzle platformer Limbo.

As for the news:

  • Sony breaks PS5 pricing tradition for Xbox Series X launch
  • Next in No Man’s Sky: an organic spaceship you can grow from an egg
  • Xbox Game Pass for PC will get Yakuza 0, Two Point Hospital, and more soon (from PC Gamer)

This week’s Question of the Week: “What is your favorite videogame commercial or trailer?”