Episode 453: Videogame Piss-Take

Unfortunately, there’s no Donald Trump in this podcast – you’ll have to wait for an outtakes episode to listen to THAT discussion. However, there’s plenty of news culled from the past two weeks to enjoy.

The news includes:

  • Rumor: Beyond Good & Evil 2 Switch exclusive for first 12 months
  • ‘Game Mode’ for Windows 10 will power Xbox One and Project Scorpio games too
  • Square Enix strongly hints at Dragon Quest XI heading west
  • Xbox boss says Microsoft will still “take risks” after Scalebound cancellation

Let us know what you think.

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This week, TJ talks about how much he’s loving Dragon Ball Fighter Z, and how he enjoys using one character’s OP exploit to take down opponents with breathtaking quickness. Jonah brings up doing a special podcast, like Paul, Jordan and Jennifer did with Doctor Who, except with Star Trek this time.

All this and this week’s news, which includes:

  • Sega teams up with Heavy Rain lead designer’s new studio to publish “narrative-driven” game
  • Rainbow Six: Siege tweet suggests upcoming PS4 Pro & Xbox One X support
  • Microsoft’s Mixer streaming service to get Twitch-style tipping
  • FIFA E-World Cup forced to switch to Xbox due to PSN outage

This week’s Question of the Week is “What game have you ended up playing til sunrise?”

Sony, Next Big Software Company?Sony, Next Big Software Company?

Every day we’re hearing of a company running through a round of layoffs or going out of business, it’s really not a happy time. Sony is not immune to the economic troubles either. Sony is talking restructuring and that involves a potential head count reduction of 16,000 jobs due to plant closings.

floppyThis leaves Sony with some hard decisions. Restructuring can mean drastic changes that effect all their product lines. The PlayStation 3 isn’t currently a shining example of high profit margins. The console needs time to reduce its overall cost, chip sizes and bring profitability. Is it in danger?

“Sony’s not in a position to halt all domestic production but it has to do something that drastic,” said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management. “If it announces plans to move production overseas while keeping only planning and development functions in Japan, that would be a positive.” (gamestooge)

The yen is losing value in our global economy making it more difficult to export the product and build any type of profitability plan. “A source said this month the company will likely suffer an annual operating loss of about $1.1 billion, its first such loss in 14 years” (news.yahoo.com) All this noise is making CEO Howard Stringer contemplate Sony’s involvement as a “software only” company, making us recall the changes at SEGA to this same result.

The Financial Times reported Sony will unveil details of its restructuring steps on Wednesday or Thursday. It said Chief Executive Howard Stringer was meeting with resistance from some executives to shifting the company’s focus to software from hardware and cutting jobs in Japan. (news.yahoo.com)

Is this just a case of a fearful executive trying to lay plans for a more stable future? Software is easier to develop, pays for itself quickly and becomes pure profit as it ages. Hardware requires constant upkeep at manufacturing facilities, chip reductions and a boat load of quality planning for first shipment. Would Sony go full software?

Let’s face it, Sony isn’t SEGA, they’ve been developing hardware for consumers since anyone can remember and they’ve been doing it with quality and market penetration. It seems absurd to think they’d forgo hardware designs in replacement of a full software solution to the problem. In addition, Sony has already invested a large amount of cash into seeing PS3 through it’s 10-year plan and letting that die now is realizing a huge loss on investment.

If Sony pushes through the economic and maintenance course, the PS3 will become highly profitable, much like the PS2 last generation (with a slower ramp up for sales). Even if they break even after ten years it seems a lot better than throwing all the effort away.

Perhaps Howard Stringer is talking “software” for the next generation home console? You think Sony will create a PlayStation 4?

Gaming Podcast 193: Hammer of RighteousnessGaming Podcast 193: Hammer of Righteousness

This week’s gaming podcast is a bit short on news and lacks a gaming history segment but we still managed to bust out a 1-hour show, so who knows how we pulled that off. The news is light, perhaps because of the US semi-holiday known as Columbus Day or because no company wants to rattle the news waves while they’re working on finalizing holiday launch titles. In any case, we’ve got Chrono Trigger as our flash back and this as our news:

The question of the week, what actor do you want to see do a voice-acting role in a video game?