Episode 433: Kickstarter Fail

August 5, 2016| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 7:49 pm

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The episode is posted a little late due to unforeseen circumstances, and focuses on Kickstarter videogames, both failures and successes. The podcast also asks Pokémon Go fans if they really needed those tracking software for the game.

This week’s news includes:

“Other surprises” in store for NX, says Ubisoft
Fixes promised for botched Marvel Ultimate Alliance ports
Pokémon Go fans rage as tracking site shuts down
PlayStation VR requires about 60-square feet of space to use

Let us know what you think.

0 thoughts on “Episode 433: Kickstarter Fail”

David says:

September 7, 2016 at 4:29 pm

Hi there
Please can you follow me on Twitter so I can message you. Would be grateful for the opportunity to chat 🙂
Thanks
Dave

Reply

2008: The Year of Sequels? Too Much Risk?2008: The Year of Sequels? Too Much Risk?

While compiling a list of games to respond to a user question on the TD Gaming Podcast, I’ve noticed something about this years gaming lineup: their mainly all sequels! Are there any new franchises taking a risk in the market or just more of the same? Some are not really “sequels” but spin-offs of the same franchise.

A few examples of some October time frame titles: Fable 2, Far Cry 2, Gears of War 2, Rock Band 2, C&C: Red Alert 3, Saints Row 2, Rayman Raving Rabbids 3, Tekken 6, Call of Duty 5, Guitar Hero World Tour, Tom Clancy End of War, Sing Star Vol 2 and others.

There are a few original titles: Afrika for the PlayStation 3, Little Big Planet (PS3) and Huxley (360 and PC). Most of the original franchise creations seem to be PlayStation 3 related, probably because the console needs some major hits to spur more sales.

Is the market so competitive and risky that new franchises are becoming a rare breed? Last year we saw Assassin’s Creed and before that Viva Pinata and Gears of War exclusive on the Xbox 360. Consider Viva Pinata a “slight” failure in terms of excitement and Gears of War a success, that’s 50/50 in terms of risk vs. reward.

(more…)

Episode 574: Naked People On BikesEpisode 574: Naked People On Bikes

The podcast returns after a week off, and Scott also returns. The Gaming Flashback is another imfamous title, Acclaim’s BMX XXX, something Dave Mirra definitely did not approve of. The news features all sorts of Nintendo Switch items, too.

This week’s news includes:

Metroid Prime Trilogy listed with June 19th release date
Platinum insists Bayonetta 3 hasn’t been cancelled
Pac-Man teams up with Minecraft to celebrate his 40th anniversary
Ooblets releasing in early access ‘pretty soon’

Let us know what you think.

Trading Used Games, Like Fraud?Trading Used Games, Like Fraud?

David Braben, founder of Frontier Developments, says retail outlets that buy and sell pre-owned games are “essentially defrauding the industry.” Although multiplayer gaming might not be a huge threat, the single player experience in games may die out because gamers play the game quickly and resell it back to places like GameStop for others to buy.

Developers don’t get a dime when a game goes traded, many gamers will “share” the single player experience with a single copy of the game by reselling it over and over. The end result, retail outlets make a good penny for marking up old games while developers see nothing. This is really how game retail outlets survive because the margins on video games is so damn low.

The story has been heard before, developers want a piece of the action so they’re taking steps to entice people to keep the game with renewed downloadable content on old games; you can’t experience the new content without keeping the game around longer. In the world of low margin games, high cost development and short-lived story lines the solutions to this problem aren’t exactly obvious.

Braben’s idea of a solution is to offer two versions of the game, a not for resale/rental version at a high price, say $160, and a low priced version that cannot be shared (heavily DRM’ed?) for $50. In essence, gamers would no longer be able to trade in games because the idea of spending double for a game so you can resell it makes no sense to most gamers (including myself.)