This week’s episode has bad audio, but at least it’s short, due to Jonah’s lingering laryngitis. Paul insists Homestar Runner hasn’t been good in 15 years, while Jonah talks about the NES classic bomb Athena.
This week’s news includes:
All this and Listener Feedback.
Imagine that, a well known game developer finally says what everyone has been thinking, “it’s the walking dead.” Will Wright, famous for TheSims, SimCity and upcoming Spore believes E3 is in a state now where we’ll never see the old E3 and we’ll never accept the slimmed down anorexic thing we’re getting now.
End result is simple: it’s time to move on and create a new event and begin our arms race anew. Or, bring a version of the Game Convention over here from Europe and allow a new convention group to see what they can do with it, booth babes and all.
It’s hard to argue with the sheer amount of money that was spent to “compete” at a PR level with each major publisher and console maker. However, allowing E3 to die and starting a brand new design means people will be able to think ahead of “what’s to come” before re-igniting the exact same brand under a new name. We need something as exciting and invogorating without the massive hommoraging of cash.
(Thanks, GameStooge)
This week we had a huge gaming podcast but we managed to get it all down to 60 minutes of content but it wasn’t easy. We’re digging through some old history, Yoshi’s Story is our gaming flashback and we covered gaming history on The Biography of Yoshi. This weeks news includes:
No new Rock Band in 2009This weeks soap box segment, we’re looking at game audio and which music made the game experience, what game music we best remember. What’s the theme music you remember best?
Also, checkout the TFC information for DRM technologies and comment.
Interview at Casual Gamer Chick with SomaTone.
Here are some reminders!
Every day we’re hearing of a company running through a round of layoffs or going out of business, it’s really not a happy time. Sony is not immune to the economic troubles either. Sony is talking restructuring and that involves a potential head count reduction of 16,000 jobs due to plant closings.
This leaves Sony with some hard decisions. Restructuring can mean drastic changes that effect all their product lines. The PlayStation 3 isn’t currently a shining example of high profit margins. The console needs time to reduce its overall cost, chip sizes and bring profitability. Is it in danger?
“Sony’s not in a position to halt all domestic production but it has to do something that drastic,” said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management. “If it announces plans to move production overseas while keeping only planning and development functions in Japan, that would be a positive.” (gamestooge)
The yen is losing value in our global economy making it more difficult to export the product and build any type of profitability plan. “A source said this month the company will likely suffer an annual operating loss of about $1.1 billion, its first such loss in 14 years” (news.yahoo.com) All this noise is making CEO Howard Stringer contemplate Sony’s involvement as a “software only” company, making us recall the changes at SEGA to this same result.
The Financial Times reported Sony will unveil details of its restructuring steps on Wednesday or Thursday. It said Chief Executive Howard Stringer was meeting with resistance from some executives to shifting the company’s focus to software from hardware and cutting jobs in Japan. (news.yahoo.com)
Is this just a case of a fearful executive trying to lay plans for a more stable future? Software is easier to develop, pays for itself quickly and becomes pure profit as it ages. Hardware requires constant upkeep at manufacturing facilities, chip reductions and a boat load of quality planning for first shipment. Would Sony go full software?
Let’s face it, Sony isn’t SEGA, they’ve been developing hardware for consumers since anyone can remember and they’ve been doing it with quality and market penetration. It seems absurd to think they’d forgo hardware designs in replacement of a full software solution to the problem. In addition, Sony has already invested a large amount of cash into seeing PS3 through it’s 10-year plan and letting that die now is realizing a huge loss on investment.
If Sony pushes through the economic and maintenance course, the PS3 will become highly profitable, much like the PS2 last generation (with a slower ramp up for sales). Even if they break even after ten years it seems a lot better than throwing all the effort away.
Perhaps Howard Stringer is talking “software” for the next generation home console? You think Sony will create a PlayStation 4?
I was soo looking forward to the new Silent Hill game… I’m a little upset but I guess this is how the industry is. It’s just unfortunate that it’s the gamers who tend to suffer when this type of stuff happens but as Paul likes to say… if you are not happy with the way they (developers/publishers) do things, stop supporting them. As for the discussion about older games… I sometimes use virtual machines to run older PC games but I have had a really hard time finding good ways to play my old console games short of reconnecting my old systems. I would love to see more support for emulator created and supported by portable console system like PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS that allows for downloading and playing of old titles in ROM format. I have a PS Vita and I only bought it to play PS One (I love Chrono Trigger) and PS Two games. As for old games I still play… Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy III, Zelda, Chrono Trigger… I couldn’t tell you which one it older… Good Episode, short and sweet.
Hello Guys.
Sorry that i did not comment your great podcast so frequently 🙁 I am moving to another city right now and my new Job takes a lot of time.
The most important thing: get well soon Jonah! (you sound terrible during the last podcasts, even if one of them was only a few seconds 😉 ).
I heard the last 4 or 5 episodes during the last few days and here are my questions to some questions of the week:
– snack during gaming –> salt sticks, because no fat or chocolate on the fingers 🙂
– future of old games –> i am into retro games, so i believe in the future of the old games and consoles. All the games, that came out during the last decade will fade very soon, or the 200. follow up will come out and nobody knows the original. But like you mentioned during the last episodes, there are still Atari 2600 Games or NES games, that people still want to play! I will stick with all my retro consoles. My newest console is an xbox360, and that only because of Street Fighter 4 … i am addicted to the street fighter series 🙂
– old game i still enjoy to play –> nearly all the NES titles, but especially Zelda, Metroid and Mega Man. These game DO NOT get old 🙂
Regarding to the topic of Kickstarter projects: i also pledged some projects, but most of the time, they were connected to some “Back to the future2 stuff (i am addicted to this trilogy as well 🙂 ). Since i only got Apple-Pc´s and i am not into pc-gaming i dont have a good opinion wheter it´s good or not good to pledge for a game.
And to the topic of getting Windows 10 for free …. like i said, i dont have a windows pc and i dont want any, the same reason Paul sticks with XP: my apple pcs do their work, no bluescreen, no problems, so why should i use a newer / different OS, when i am happy with my one?
I hope i wrote everything down, i wanted to say, and at least Paul asked for some love … ok here it is –> <3 …. i also tried to give him my Disney BluRay Codes, when he asked for them on FB, but german codes dont work in the US Disney Store 🙁
I hope to hear from you guys next week and the week after and the week after …. 🙂
Greetings from germany
Ralf
@Regiking got its act together. (Pokemon reference)
It’s a sensible idea. They gave away Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training for free a few months ago, so I can say that DS games are functional on the Wii U gamepad. If only they would have done this sooner. It seems to be that Nintendo is making some sound decisions lately. It’s as if someone gave Satoru Ivata a management guide book for his birthday. I am just concerned that this may be too little too late. Sega used to be a first party publisher too you know.
@Metal Gear Solid – Kojima = bread without butter.
I am going to argue with Paul here. I believe that one man’s vision can sell a game. I understand what Paul is saying. A huge title like MGS is produced by a lot of people. But the gaming industry’s perception is that Kojima is the one responsible for Metal Gear games. I just finished MGS3 and 4. It has Kojima Industries logo pasted everywhere. I almost forgot that Konami owns MGS. As as a side note, I am currently playing Zelda Skyward Sword. You can tell that Shigeru Miyamoto is less involved here, because the game is a re-hash of twilight princess. No shred of original idea whatsoever.
What I am interested in is why Kojima is leaving Konami? Is it him trying to take over the company? Is he trying to take ownership of the franchise? Is Konami afraid that Kojima is more popular than their entire company?
To be honest it’s very sad. First they kicked out David Hayter. Now Kojima is leaving. MGS will never be the same. The series might as well end now.
@QOTW
Hard to say. I have been too busy playing recent titles. I would have to say Morrowind. Some may consider the gameplay dated, but I love it nonetheless. No quick travel to ruin adventuring, no rag doll physics throwing quest items into hard to reach places. I still love it.