Episode 394: Paul Bravely Defaults

Paul is back from being deathly ill, and joins a half-asleep Jonah and Scott, where he and Scott try to have better timing. There’s no Gaming Flashback this week but plenty of weird news.

The list of news items include:

  • Disturbing portrait of Konami corporate environment alleged
  • Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: player choices more impactful, boss fights optional
  • ZombiU drops the “U,” preps for August launch on PC, Xbox One, PS4
  • Fallout 4 fan releases schematic for 3D printed Pip-Boy
  • Vote to play coming soon for PS Plus members
  • Hitchhiking robot is decapitated, left in a ditch

There’s a new Question of the Week that wasn’t going to be the Question – listen and find out what it is.

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Are You An Okami Fan?Are You An Okami Fan?

PlayStation 2 fans may recall a little title called Okami, it’s an action adventure game developed by Clover Studios and published by Capcom. The original Okami title received fairly high reviews by many popular game sites, although there were a few flaws, the receiption seemed well received.

Clover Studios was closed after the release and all the intellectual properties went back to Capcom, the company that funded the studio, leaving Capcom responsible for future sequels.

Christian “Sven” Svensson said “I think we need a lot more people buying the current version before we seriously consider a sequel”. A harsh statement on the game’s combined sales figures, perhaps, but also probably an accurate one. (Kotaku)

This is the sound of a developer not so happy with prior performance and finding it too risky to try for a second title. Although many sequels outshine their parents there is some truth to the fact that slow selling parents will create slow selling sequels, there is something to be said about learning form past experiences.

The game had good reviews, isn’t it worth trying to make a second game based on that? Maybe people just aren’t jazzed about Japaense folklore, myths and legends as the basis for a game.

Electronic Arts Issues 1,000 Pink SlipsElectronic Arts Issues 1,000 Pink Slips

Electronic Arts is planning to lay off 1,000 employees, approximately 10% of their employees. In this layoff their also consolidating EA Black Box back into EA Canada. EA Black Box was spun off as a studio outside of EA Canada to work on such titles as Need for Speed but, with the layoffs arriving, they’re going to be merging the remainder of EA Black Box into EA Canada by June 2009. The remaining EA Black Box employees will continue working on Skate 2.

The pink slips should be issued by March 31, 2009 and we’re hoping the folks that have lost their jobs will find new jobs as soon as possible. An Electronic Arts representative said:

“This does not mean that the Black Box studio is closing. The studio is moving to our Burnaby campus to share the facility with EAC and other EA teams that operate out of our state-of-the-art facility. We will operate two distinct studios, each with their own distinct culture and teams, out of our Burnaby facility.” (gamespot)

EA hasn’t mentioned any specific franchise cancellation but we’re going to assume something is going to slip, it’s hard to imagine a company can lose 1,000 employees without impacting business operations. If EA was able to layoff 1,000 people without impacting day-to-day business, then they’re definitely hurting in the management department because that would be a ton of waste.

Big companies may cut costs during hard times but they said they’re, “implementing a plan to narrow its product portfolio to focus on hit games with higher margin opportunities. The company remains committed to taking creative risks, investing in new games, leading the industry in the growing mobile and online businesses, and delivering high-quality games to consumers.”

We’re curious just how much EA is willing to risk on “creative” endevours considering publishers are already hesitant to break new ground. The next few years should yield great opportunities for smaller developers to put on their creative hat and open new doors and opportunities for themselves.

Gaming Podcast 129: My WalkmanGaming Podcast 129: My Walkman

This week is full of crazy energy. We seem to have gone 100% Sony on news chatter but we level that out with some great community feedback about our question of the week. We hit a little Burgertime action in our gaming flashback and bust through some Data East company history.

  • podcast-200x200Analyst says Sony Motion Control beats MS Natal
  • Sony dropping the PS3 price?
  • EA heading for a takeover?
  • Sony backing Home
  • Sony making a PSP Phone?
  • Sony Exclusives not anything great

This week we’re asking the question, what is your favorite end-boss in a video game from todays games to the past classics?