Episode 521: Power Outage

Last week’s podcast couldn’t be uploaded thanks to some good old-fashioned California power outages. This week’s episode is full of snark — enjoy.

The news items include:

  • PlayStation Classic using PAL versions for several games regardless of region
  • Bethesda apologizes about Fallout 76 launch
  • Fortnite surpasses 200 million players
  • No Man’s Sky Visions update improves diversity

Let us know what you think.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Episode 726: Directly NintendoEpisode 726: Directly Nintendo

No Gravatar

This week is Nintendo’s turn at their showcase. But you know what? There’s even more to talk about. The Beyond Good and Evil remaster showcased, Ace Attorney Investigations Collection also getting remastered, the banana clicking game now 9th most popular of all time on Steam, Embracer Group shuts down Pieces Interactive, Life is Strange: Double Exposure ‘will respect both endings’ to original game, FromSoftware warns new Elden Ring Steam Deck bug making game unresponsive, and Microsoft will be at this year’s Gamescom.

The other news includes:

  • Sims-like rival Life by You has been canceled after indefinite delay

We also have listener feedback. Let us know what you think.

The post Episode 726: Directly Nintendo first appeared on Gaming Podcast.

Episode 248: SequelitisEpisode 248: Sequelitis

As the podcast approaches the magic 250th episode, Paul, Jordan and Jonah check out some of the big news that hit this week in the land of videogames, and in the Gaming Flashback, looked back at an all-time worst game, Superman 64.

This week’s news includes:

  • ESA drops SOPA support (via Herr Alien)
  • R18+ bill to be voted on by Australian Parliament on 7th February
  • Vita sales continue to freefall in Japan
  • Guild Wars 2 open beta this Spring, launching in 2012
  • Starbreeze states they don’t look at games from a genre perspective anymore

All this and Reader Feedback, as well as the Question of the Week, “What do you look for in a sequel?”

Why Doesn’t iTunes Have Game Trials?Why Doesn’t iTunes Have Game Trials?

Nothing is more annoying than going into iTunes to see what video games are available for the iPod Touch and iPhone to find it cluttered with hundreds of duplicate games. Developers seem to find it most useful to release two games instead of one single game: a full version and a “lite” version.

itunesDevelopers know gamers want to try before they buy, so many will create a game they’re hoping to sell, then a limited “lite” version with partial levels or stripped of features. They’re obviously trying to work around the fact that Apple released a half-assed game shopping experience. These pro and lite versions assist in cluttering the shopping space.

iTunes App Store should allow users to trial a game by allowing them to download a neutered version of the game title or using a time-trial like many other downloadable game services. Electronic game downloads are usually non-refundable because you can never give back a product which you can make infinite copies. The solution to getting users to buy into your product is to allow them to try before they buy.

Apple’s obviously enjoying the immense game sales from the application store but they may be able to increase their sales by allowing gamers to see what they’re buying before they walk away empty handed. This would also limit the total products found in the App Store because developers won’t have to post to revisions to their game title to allow gamers to try before they buy them.

There are some obvious downsides, Apple wouldn’t be able to boast the thousands of products in their store because many would be substituted for a real game download system. Okay, that’s really the only download I can think of… any others?

Developers may opt out of a trial system, forcing gamers to buy it before they try it based on the text and screenshots or utilize a time trial or limited featured version.

Thoughts?