It’s the landmark 450th episode of Gaming Podcast — and the end of a very disappointing year in videogames (among other things) for 2016. These aren’t your usual awards though – Jonah gives the “Best PS2 Game” award to The Last Guardian, for instance. It’s an extra long podcast at almost 2 hours, so enjoy all of the banter.
There’s also news, of course, which includes:
Torment: Tides of Numenera and Yooka-Laylee get release dates
Apparently Konami just realized Harmonix, MTV Networks and Viacom have made some game called Rock Band and want to take legal action. Konami has created some Japanese games involving karaoke called Karaoke Revolution. Why take legal action now?
Probably because Konami is working towards Rock Revolution, a title which puts together drums, vocals and guitar. How odd, don’t we have a game called Rock Band which has done that for awhile now? It’s much easier to be competitive in the market if you can squeeze your opponent out of the market by telling them you hold a patent on the entire concept…which you let slide for a year.
It seems a bit convenient to force a lawsuit, now, after Rock Band is proven successful and before you launch your own “clone.”
Its suit claims that Rock Band violates a series of US Patents registered in 2002 and 2003 relating to “simulated musical instruments” and “musical rhythm-matching game.” (gamespot)
Although the developers of Rock Band should have gone through some patents on the topic prior to make it (or maybe they did?), it seems a bit out of place to patent such a generic concept. As far as I know, Musical Chairs is also a musical rhythm-matching game but nobody put up any stink when Konami filed a patent for the same concept…
In a world driven by the Internet, global economics and the short attention spanned reader we’ve been bombarded with social networks and 140-character micro-blogging. We’re constantly finding ways to promote ourselves, promote our brands or tell people what we’re eating for dinner. Is this obsession with ourselves and our creativity bridging into video games?
It’s games 2.0 people!. A time when we’re inventing our own video game stages, characters and full blown casual games! Not only are people getting a chance to design their own games with Microsoft’s XNA, Adobe Flash or from small independent casual games, but we can design our own stages in games like LittleBigPlanet.
Microsoft wants to remind us that Boku is much like LittleBigPlanet in its user generated video game content. Seen in this video below:
It’s obvious their going down the same path as Sony has gone with creating your own stages with LittleBigPlanet and creating a new way of gaming: playing other people’s stuff. You can find some similarities with Guitar Hero: World Tour‘s ability to create your own songs and publish them for others to play.
Are we heading down a generation of games where some of the best stages are created by fellow dedicated gamers? Or, is this just a distraction and means for developers to have gamers invigorate and create more of a demand for the games they are making the money on?
This week’s episode is very late thanks to Jonah having to prep for E3, which much of the podcast focuses on. There’s even a massive argument between Jonah and TJ about which film was better: Tron or Tron: Legacy, while Tron 2.0 gets its love as well. This week’s Gaming Flashback is Microsoft’s most popular JRPG, Blue Dragon.
The news items include:
Capcom registersDevil May Cry 5 site, fueling E3 2018 rumors
Ubisoft confirms E3 reveal of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Rumor: Microsoft to reveal three Gears of War games at E3
Rumor: Rocksteady to announce a Superman game at E3