Episode 474: That Splat Ain’t Mayo

This week’s episode not only has a Gaming Flashback, but a Gaming History as well. The Flashback looks at the hardware intensive PC game Crysis, while the Gaming History looks at one of the bigger crowdfunding fiascos, Starforge. Jonah also reminds viewers that the “mayo” in the Splatfest for Splatoon 2 probably wasn’t actually mayo.

This week’s news items include:

  • Lexington video game company sues after personal information posted online
  • New game combines monster taming and Stardew Valley
  • Respawn: “We’re doing more Titanfall
  • Destiny 2 will not offer customization of imported characters

Question of the Week: “What two games would you like to see combined?”

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Episode 431: Pokemon NO!Episode 431: Pokemon NO!

The past week has been rife with news about Pokemon GO! and all of the chaos the mobile game has caused around the world with people hunting creatures in museums and police stations. The podcast mostly avoids the craze.

The news this week includes:

  • Fake Pokemon Go! apps could contain malware and force your phone to click on porn links
  • Fraudsters force RimWorld dev to stop giving out Steam keys
  • Bethesda defends $60 price tag for Skyrim Remastered
  • Xbox One S arrives August 2

We also announce the winner of the contest.

Rumor: EA Buying Popcap?Rumor: EA Buying Popcap?

Tech Cruch is reporting that Electronic Arts is about to acquire casual games giant Popcap Games for a cool $1 billion, which would exceed EA’s market cap by over 13%. If true, this would be EA’s definitive entry into the casual games market, a field they broke into 7 years ago.

Despite consuming a significant chunk of EA’s reserves. buying Popcap would bring them IPs such as Bejeweled, Plants Vs. Zombies, Peggle, Zuma and Bookworm.

We’ll keep an eye on this deal as it happens.

Midway Layoffs, Criminal CancelledMidway Layoffs, Criminal Cancelled

Midway’s been around the industry for years, has decided to lay off up to 90 people and cut the Criminal project from their lineup. This is a long term plan of cost reduction by the board of directors to get down costs and keep the company running smoothly.

Their plan seems to be to develop games intelligently, by costing out each project and building what’s needed to make the company profitable without excessive cost. A company always runs best when it’s doing it wisely and looking to reduce overhead, unfortunately a company in a bit of trouble has to let go of employees to get their.

While this was a very difficult decision, we feel it was the right thing to do for the future of Midway,” said Matt Booty, interim CEO and president of Midway Games Inc.. “We view every game as an investment that must meet certain standards for quality, scheduling, and profitability. Midway remains committed to producing the highest quality entertainment, as evidenced by our strong holiday line-up which includes TNA iMPACT!, Blitz: The League II, and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe starring a team of MK characters and some of the most recognizable DC Comics personalities such as Batman, The Joker, and Superman.” (kotaku)

Hopefully this allows them some breathing room to get out of this sticky situation, we hate to see old names go down in history as failed.