Aside from cardboard products by Nintendo, there wasn’t much to talk about this week, thanks to the January slog. However, the guys did play games and there was some news to talk about.
This week’s headlines include:
All this and Listener Feedback, too.
This week’s gaming podcast is full of “awesomenessness.” With great listener comments regarding the next-generation of console technology, a retro look back at Moon Patrol, history of SEGA and the top news articles of the week. It’s like a tasty podcast strudel with frosting! This weeks news includes:
This week’s question of the week, is Steam the winner of the electronic distribution technology? Could Blizzard take them on and become a competitor?
Reportedly we’re going to see smaller 45 nanometer cell processors in 2009 which leads to similar cost savings as we saw in the Xbox 360 hardware. Cost savings appear on the manufacturing side, of course, along with less power consumed by the processor leading to less heat generated by the console.
The Xbox 360 was able to benefit from chip reduction when for stability and overall heat issues, although the stability is still out for debate at the moment. The concept is fairly simple to understand; heat causes problems in closed systems with few fans and a high degree of complex components. Reduce the heat means reducing the overall need to cool and get air flow into the hot little box.
Console hardware is owned by a broad audience, not all of which understand technology and its ability to boil an egg. Consumers toss consoles and their power supplies in closed cases within their entertainment system and restrict air flow further. Any reduction in heat is a good thing for the console developer.
This week we’ve got some crazy statistics that says Red Teams beat Blue Teams. According to a study published last week in a Cyberpsychology & Behaviour journal, during a study of 1,347 matches between “elite teams” in Unreal Tournament 2k4 … and all things being equal, the red team won 55% of the time. Huh?
EA Gets Sued by…The People? The class-action complaint focuses on Electronic Arts’ actions since 2004, when Take-Two Interactive’s NFL 2K5 was released at a $19.99 price point and sold more than 2.9 million copies in the US, according to NPD figures.
Wii and USB! Someone browsing the web came across a Job posting for Nintendo of America. The job posting was for a “Software/Hardware Tester” who can execute a “test plan for Wii’s USB devices.”
Analysts baffled that GTA didn’t move Hardware. How does a game with such powers of popularity manage to NOT sell consoles? Truely a mystery, or expected?
This weeks podcast also discusses the best game cinematic sequences, what are your favorite? Leave us a comment!
This weeks flashback is Where in the World is Carman Sandiego and we start our gaming history on Role Playing Games.
