Episode 417: One In, One Out

This week is a celebration of the 250th episode of the Videogame Roundtable, and Dan Quick is back for the special edition, joining fellow PolyCaster Scott Dirk. However, TJ Denzer was at the bowling alley, so he wasn’t available. There’s a lot of Cards Against Humanity and Town of Salem talk, as well as a lot of long-missed byplay between Dan and Jonah Falcon. Unfortunately, Paul Nowak couldn’t make it.

The news this week includes:

  • Bethesda working on a “bleeding-edge” RPG
  • Diablo II gets first official patch since 2011
  • Forza Motorsport 6: Apex won’t crossplay with Xbox One version
  • Nintendo explains why only the New 3DS plays SNES games
  • U.S. DoJ increases hostility towards Apple in latest court filing

Let us know what you think.

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Imagine a Free World of WarcraftImagine a Free World of Warcraft

Once upon a time the folks at Blizzard Entertainment thought they could support the entire world of World of Wacraft by ad revenue. This would have created an MMO experience which would cost you nothing but a bit of annoyance by ad providers; what would the total audience be if the game was free?

Had WoW launched free of charge they would probably have significantly more users playing the game, but the ad revenue from the sheer amount of people would be nothing compared to a monthly charge for eight million subscribers.

Although only a small number of those subscribers are US based, they’re still raking in the cash compared to an ad-based model, even if they were to have triple the subscribers.

However, the Blizzard exec noted: “We didn’t want to charge a subscription, but as we researched market conditions, we realized that wouldn’t support us.”

It’s possible, perhaps, that Blizzard would have fallen under its own weight had they created a world where anyone could play for no charge. Imagine the server utilization, the volume of traffic and the support calls they would get for triple or quadrupal the player base with only ads paying the checks.

Granted, a free system would be excellent in theory, but in practice, making us pay is the only way to throttle our addictions. Sad, but true.

(Thanks, gamasutra)

Xbox 360 Silver Accounts, Free XBL Cross-Platform GamingXbox 360 Silver Accounts, Free XBL Cross-Platform Gaming

Microsoft has announced they’ll be giving Xbox Live silver accounts access to play some multi-player cross-platform games for free until the fall update. Recently, Microsoft announced free online play with Games for Windows titles, effectively giving PC gamers “gold accounts” to play online.

Most people agree the move to give gold subscriptions to PC gamers was done because PC gamers don’t care to play Games for Windows games online if they have to pay for it. The culture of PC gaming is much different than console gaming on XBL, gamers expect the online experience at no cost; they’re already paying an ISP for network access, paying for a match-making system with a yearly subscription is not desired.

Console gamers don’t have a choice, buying the 360 experience arrives with simple to play games (no drivers, no installs) but limited online choices: pay or go away. Now, silver members will get a little taste of network play, along side PC gamers in the cross-platform Games for Windows titles.

“Supported cross-platform titles include Universe at War, Shadowrun, and Lost Planet: Colonies Edition.” (gamespot)

We question the intention here… is this as a good faith move or are they wetting people’s appitite for XBL so they’ll want to upgrade to gold in the fall? Or, maybe there are some logistical reasons to doing this in the Xbox Live infrastructure to prepare for upgrades where making it free solves a few of their internal upgrade paths and, as a side effect, gives gamers some games to play.

Of course, we’ve seen few people playing Shadowrun or Lost Planet lately. Maybe this will re-popularize a few older titles as well.

MGS4 Quickly Falls of Top Titles, NCAA Football 09 Takes LeadMGS4 Quickly Falls of Top Titles, NCAA Football 09 Takes Lead

The month, June 2008, Metal Gear Solid 4 takes number one on the NDP figures with 774,600 individual units (over 1-million if you include bundles), in July… they didn’t even make the top ten figure. What the heck?

NCAA Football 09 for the Xbox 360 took number one with 397,600 games sold, nothing close to MGS4’s figures form last month but still took the first position. Wii Fit took number two position, up from its fourth position in June showing lasting appeal or the ability for gamers to purchase the rare to find game set.

Wii Play still sits in the top ten titles along with Mario Kart and Rock Band (for the Wii). As a matter of fact, four out of the top ten titles are Wii games. One for DS (Guitar Hero: On Tour), two for Xbox 360 and two for PlayStation 3.

How is it possible for Wii Play and Wii Fit to hold top positions for so long while a game like MGS4 dies off so rapidly? More than likely this is the impact from having such great console sales that even a low attach rate (games to consoles) is significant enough when millions upon millions of consoles have been sold.

If the PlayStation 3 had more units in the hands of gamers, would their top tier titles like MGS4 hold top spot for more months? Presumably yes, another negative impact from being third in the race it seems.

(Thanks, 1up)