Episode 390: Counting Down

As Paul’s departure as a regular host is in 10 episodes, Jonah rants about the Batmobile in Batman: Arkham Knight and talks about the painlessness of Fallout Shelter‘s micro-transactions. The other part of the podcast is them talking Heroes of Might & Magic II, and discussing what makes a good expansion.

The news items include:

  • Lack of female character choice in The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes explained
  • Australian government bans hundreds of mobile and Web-based games
  • Nintendo has no problems changing franchises, despite fan outcry
  • Apple pulls games with Confederate flag imagery

All this plus Listener Feedback and Paul’s indignation.

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Episode 342: Arcade MemoriesEpisode 342: Arcade Memories

Gaming Podcast is back, as Jonah and Jordan discuss arcade games from yore. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the classic Half-Life 2 by Valve, which ushered in a new age of shooters that get massive delays.

This week’s news includes:

  • Twitch coming to Xbox One on March 11
  • Microsoft appoints Stephen Elop to head Xbox
  • King files to abandon controversial “Candy” trademark in US
  • Nintendo wins 3DS patent dispute
  • Layoffs at Sony Santa Monica

Also included is Listener Feedback and the Question of the Week: “What was your favorite coin-op arcade game?”

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.

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Episode 320: Like This Like ThatEpisode 320: Like This Like That

The posting of Monday’s podcast has been delayed a day, sorry about that. This week is fairly long, and the Gaming History gets into the venerable Sega Dreamcast, which still has some developers making new games for it.

Otherwise, this week’s news items include:

  • Assassin’s Creed series will have end, assures Ubisoft
  • EverQuest Next gameplay revealed, accepting beta registration
  • Blizzard confirms Project Titan overhaul, “unlikely to be subscription-based”
  • EA claims freedom of speech in NCAA lawsuit appeal, court rejects it
  • Region-based factions will be in The Crew

This week’s Question of the Week: “What makes you decide to preorder a game or console?”