Episode 449: More Technical Difficulties

For the second week in a row, the podcast has had some technical issues. This time the problem was less, but there are still present. Part of the reason is that the mic is subpar, the other is that the PC it’s being recorded on has a damaged fan. That said, this week’s episode (and the unreleased episode) were really good. The unpublished one will be issued at some future date when we all need a break (maybe over the Christmas week.)

This week’s episode includes:

  • Assassin’s Creed 3 goes free, murders Ubisoft servers in the process
  • After Blizzard shutdown, legacy World of Warcraft server returns this month
  • Halo 5: Forge custom game browser is launching on PC this week
  • Report: Nintendo Switch will get GameCube Games

Let us know what your favorite 2016 game has been.

0 thoughts on “Episode 449: More Technical Difficulties”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Smart Business Choices During Economic DownturnsSmart Business Choices During Economic Downturns

Many game studios are being dropped following a bit of an economic downturn in the United States and globally. Activision has to deal with being agile enough to survive the economic times like anyone else and has dropped a few games that had great potential.

Gamers continue to ask the question, “why?” when some of their highest potential games were dropped to the floor. Ghostbusters and Brütal Legend are a couple examples of games with eager fans already salivating prior to its launch. Some of these fans are a bit ticked off that Activision named them as dropped franchise opportunities.

People ask why a company holds one “mediocre” title while getting rid of other potentially awesome ones. Don’t forget, this is a business and a good studio/publisher is going to make good business decisions without emotional attachments – those that bring emotions into play may end up with a highly valued product (to them) with no additional potential and lower revenue. This isn’t to say developers cannot be passionate about their games and their industry, they just have to build games gamers will buy and continue to fall in love with release after release.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is one of these business savvy individuals who knows where investors will find profits for the future, and he also know how to manage employees, with the use of software like this sample pay stub for payments and more.

“[Those games] don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises. … I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus… on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we’ll be working on them 10 years from now.” (1up)

Ghostbusters is a great example of a title which could be well received and fun to play but probably wouldn’t be an exploitable franchise. The game, based on a popular movie, has limited potential for yearly releases and huge franchise success. Ghostbusters fans would probably disagree, but that’s when emotion comes into play. Think dollars and cents, not awesome fun gaming.

Oddly enough many of these business decisions from Activision, Electronic Arts and other big publishers arrive when the economy is in free fall and investors are eying your revenue potential. People make their most important and, usually, unfriendly business decisions when their company is at risk.

It’s sad to think money comes first and entertainment value comes second but we’re not the ones trying to make a profitable living in the industry. Put yourself in Kotick’s shoes as he walks into a board meeting to discuss future plans, road maps and profitability – you’d do what you have to do to keep your job, right?

Gaming Podcast 191: Puppy Mill of GamesGaming Podcast 191: Puppy Mill of Games

This week we’ve got all three hosts back to get down to business. This was a full show with lots of content from news, to flashbacks and listener game ideas. We didn’t get a history segment this week, we just had two much information to cover. Here is the news for the week:

This weeks gaming podcast question of the week: What do you think will spur on PC game developers, is it Microsoft’s concept of “showing developers there is a market” or do they need more inspiration?