Episode 323: What Is Nintendo Thinking?

Jonah Falcon and Jordan Lund discuss PAX Prime 2013, then delve into this week’s news, Listener Feedback, and discuss the 1990’s developer Psygnosis.

The news this week includes:

  • Nintendo announces 2DS, Wii U price drop
  • Inafune “fought hard” for risk taking at Capcom, creators must be “willing to fail”
  • Godus beta to hit Steam Early Access on 13th September
  • Diablo III‘s new loot system to “cut the legs out” from the auction house
  • Bethesda wants The Elder Scrolls Online available to non-Xbox Live subscribers

The Question of the Week: “How many times have you purchased a new form factor of a console you already owned?”

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Diablo III: Confirmed and IsometricDiablo III: Confirmed and Isometric

We’ve talked about it on the podcast before, we’ve made speculations and we’ve come up with theories. Blizzard has now cleared up much of the fuzzy details and theories by announcing their next title: Diablo III.

Some of us thought it was too early to announce the game, right on the heals of a StarCraft III announcement but Blizzards marketing team must consider this the perfect time, as it’s official. Not only did they announce the title, but they’ve got a cinematic and a good five minutes of game play footage.

We’re not talking about vaporware, this is a real game with really sweet features, hot new graphics and sound and enemies that make prior diablo look like childs play. The worlds are destructable, you can drop walls upon your enemies, toss them over cliffs (on fire no less) and rescue people whom help you do battle.

The game play footage covers barbarian (fighter) class and the witch doctor (sorta a necromancer archtype) with both male and female varients. They explain some of the great powers of the warrior style class and show off a few of the neat spells for the witch doctor. From electric axes to walls of zombies this game is packed with stylish battle techniques unique to Diablo 3.

Diablo 3 utilizes their standard isometric view, familiar to Diablo gamers with a bit more ease to the control scheme (that’s possible) and health now drops from enemies much like Zelda, you won’t have to pack yourself with potions anymore. Quite possibly the best upgrade in the third revision of Diablo.

Release date? No clue. I’m sure they’re going on the “when it’s ready” methodology, which is expected from Blizzard and their games; there is a reason they’re always of the highest quality. You may want to camp on their FAQ for a few months and perhaps you’ll have the answer. Today, however, their site seems to be a bit slow with all the announcements going out on the Net.

Now that Diablo 3 is confirmed, it’s time for us to buy some thc leans from Fresh Bros and start speculating what’s going to be included. Make sure you checkout their game play video!

(Thanks, Nukoda)

Wrath of the Lich King, Midnight OpeningsWrath of the Lich King, Midnight Openings

It’s almost that time again folks, the next expansion for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft arrives the first minute on the 13th of November. This is the expansion we’ve all been waiting for, climbing the ranks to level 70 so we can enjoy all the fresh new content, preparing ourselves for Dark Knight status.

If you’re in the New York area, you’ll have a chance to meet CEO Mike Morhaime and executive VP of product development Frank Pearce. They’ll be a New York Best Buy signing copies of the title if you’re lucky to be in the area and plan to go out at midnight to get it. We’re not that lucky, but we’re also not standing in line this year for an event.

We’re trusting in Amazon and their promise to have the game at the door step on release day. If this isn’t the case, we’ll be playing some Burning Crusade content instead. If you want to join in the New York festivities read on for their full press release.

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Tales of Vesperia: Xbox 360 Outsells PS3 In JapanTales of Vesperia: Xbox 360 Outsells PS3 In Japan

Sony’s been talking about how they’ve overtaken the Xbox 360 here in the States, perhaps this is because Microsoft shifted their attention to pwning them in Japan? Xbox 360 sold 25,000 units to PlayStation 3‘s minor 9,673 units according to Edge Online, that’s 2.5 times more if you’re into that math thing.

Seriously though, Microsoft didn’t really shift any effort, they just got a Japanese style game called Tales of Vesperia from Namco Bandai. Go figure, when a Japanese focused game arrives for a console Japanese gamer will go out and buy it.

The big barrier to the 360 in Japan is the games and their contents. Microsoft is in tune with the needs and demands of the United States gamers, it usually involves FPS titles and excessive killing. Japanese gamers are not exactly huge FPS fans, we’ve seen the Asian community dominate in RTS style games (Starcraft is a great example) and they’ve always had interest in MMO’s, especially micro-transaction based games and we all know that’s the land of Final Fantasy. Is it so surprising the Xbox 360 moves off Japanese shelves when they have a game or two the gamers actually want to play?

This is only partly Microsoft’s fault, Microsoft doesn’t specialize in Japanese games anymore than Square Enix excels at western style games. The big difference? Square Enix doesn’t manufacturer its own console hardware. It is Microsoft’s console and they should have an interest in making games the Japanese people will like, thankfully Namco Bandai came through for them this time!