Episode 459: This Week and Last

So, thanks to an untimely computer breakdown, last week’s episode could not be run in a timely manner. So, this double-length episode features an off-the-cuff discussion of videogames with no notes, with last week’s episode tacked on. There’s not much editing in the episode, due to the fact Jonah has to rush off to Boston to attend PAX East over the weekend.

Last week’s “news” includes:

  • Middle Earth: Shadow of War leaked then announced
  • Microsoft announces Netflix-style gaming for the Xbox One
  • Videogame industry lobbying to maintain “repair monopoly”
  • Microsoft plans to bring mixed reality to the Xbox in 2018

All this and some Listener Feedback

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Episode 338: Movie TalkEpisode 338: Movie Talk

Sorry for the delay – last week Jordan had a medical emergency, but he’s all better now. In this episode, he and Jonah get sidetracked at one point talking about movies and the film At World’s End.

The actual videogame news they discuss include:

  • Nintendo evaluating new business, “studying” smart devices
  • Microsoft paying YouTubers for Xbox One mentions
  • Star Wars 1313 trademark abandoned
  • Sony creating new PS3 hardware for PS Now

This and a little Listener Feedback. This week, we’re looking for you to ask us questions.

TD Gaming Podcast Kickstarter Fundraising DriveTD Gaming Podcast Kickstarter Fundraising Drive

Well, we hinted at it in the last few podcasts, and now it is live: TD Gaming Podcast is now looking for listener support through Kickstarter.

It’s very easy to donate: just visit our Kickstarter page and click that donate button. The goal is pretty modest, a mere $1500. If all our listeners each donated even just $5, we’d blow by that amount.

What will we do with the money? Make sure we can keep old episodes without having to delete them due to limited server space, and get pro mics for every podcaster. The more money, the longer we can go without worrying about server subscriptions.

We have a few fun reward tiers – our most hardcore fans will definitely want an MP3 of one of the crew or any of the crew recording a voice mail or answer machine outgoing message, or the entire podcast bantering for a few moments. There’s also the requisite T-shirt, which will have the awesome Gaming Podcast logo.

And if you’re in the NYC area, or plan to be, Jonah Falcon will have dinner at a nice restaurant with you. If you’re going to plop that much dough down, how could we refuse a free dinner?

Keep the TD Gaming Podcast alive – donate. We’re counting on you.

PlayStation 3: Not About Quantity, About ProfitabilityPlayStation 3: Not About Quantity, About Profitability

The Xbox 360 price drop rumors flow like water and it’s all but officially been announced at this point. What about PlayStation 3 and their price? No.

Nobuyuki Oneda, the Sony’s chief financial officer said, “our plan is not to reduce the price. Our strategy is not to sell more quantity for PS3 but to concentrate on profitability.” (gamespot) This makes complete sense coming from their chief financial officer, as their motivation is to make money, not lose it.

The question remains, how will they actually make money if they’re no longer in the race for competitive market prices? Considering game licensing must Net them some amount of profit Sony’s idea seems to be the exact opposite of their original PlayStation method: saturate the market and sell them all games.

So far we’ve seen very few “need to have” games for the PlayStation 3 console while Xbox 360 continues to build a substantial library and Wii continues to break sales records for apparently no reason. When a game publisher has to decide on a platform to launch a new game, why would they choose the one that doesn’t care to be competitively priced in the market? The one that doesn’t care about quantity of sales?

Sony intends to reverse the entire razor blade philosophy where one sells a cheap razor and charges users for the blades over and over again. Their take on this concept is to sell really expensive razors and put out small half-quality blades. Is that a good market strategy at this point?