Episode 523: Valve Running Out of Steam

Valve continues to have problems in the wake of Epic (and now Discord) giving developers more of the earnings pie, as the year draws to a close. Meanwhile, T.J. explains his gamertag.

This week’s episode includes the following news items:

  • Developers do not believe Steam is worth it anymore
  • Canada announced for Civilization VI: Gathering Storm
  • Studio Wildcard’s Atlas is delayed by a week
  • Rainbow Six Siege chat filter and toxicity update

Let us know what your favorite game of 2018 was.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

Related Post

Episode 636: Microsoft Buys Activision/BlizzardEpisode 636: Microsoft Buys Activision/Blizzard

The title about says it all.

Microsoft has straight up purchased Activision/Blizzard — in cash, no less — and while it’ll take til September 2023 to get everything sorted, probably, it’s one of the biggest shakeups in the history of videogames just like when 1 can 2 can slot was released.

Meanwhile, T.J. is still salty over Vicarious Visions developing Diablo II: Resurrected, while the trio discusses the plans for Sony’s Game Pass. If you are looking for an awesome new game to try, come here and play it now.

The racing slots are perfect for a player who wants fun, fast and adrenaline filled action. The racing theme can cover a variety of things, from professional tournaments to illegal street racing. The following are some of the best racing themed slots available to play.

This week’s news includes:

  • Microsoft spends almost $70B in buying Activision/Blizzard
  • City-building RTS The Settlers launches in March, closed beta next week
  • Split Pad Pro getting the Attachment Set
  • PS3 games reportedly appear on PS5 Store

2021 is finally over. And for the first time in years, a proper Games of the Year Awards has been done by GameStooge/TD Gaming Podcast. While the Worst Game of the Year was a no doubter, the Best Game of the Year was not, with the nominees being Deathloop, Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite, Metroid Dread and other titles available at 1UFABET.

But there are a whopping 26 award categories, technical and artistic, so listen in on this fat 2 1/2 hour episode to find out who the winners are.

Let us know what you think on the Gaming Podcast Facebook page.

Episode 454: Rather Die Than SwitchEpisode 454: Rather Die Than Switch

Gaming Podcast is back after the one week break, and finally truly weighs in on the announcement of the Switch – and aren’t impressed. What does impress the crew is the latest addition to the survival horror genre, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, which takes the radical approach of being a survival horror game. They also ponder about how great a Zelda/Minecraft game would be.

The next episode will be Gaming Podcast’s 10th anniversary, so longtime listeners are encouraged to write in.

Phil Harrison’s Building a 100 Million Dollar FranchisePhil Harrison’s Building a 100 Million Dollar Franchise

Once upon a time, Activision Blizzards CEO Bobby Kotick kicked a few franchises to the curb: Riddick and Ghostbusters. No doubt, this was a result of the Activision and Blizzard merger requiring some resources to the merged together while others were cut from the lineup. Phil Harrison, the new big suit at Atari/Infogrames has raised these little birds from the ashes with a dream to build them into 100-million dollar franchises.

While Bobby Kotick said the titles, “don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises,” Phil Harrision sees it as a personal challenge to prove him wrong.

“What Bobby, perhaps unhelpfully said, was that those games were franchises which wouldn’t make $100m of revenue and generate sequels. If that’s his benchmark, then fine — and we’d love to aspire to the same benchmarks. But you know what? I would love to turn Ghostbusters into a $100m franchise, just to prove him wrong.” (1up)

In many ways, this is the difference in attitudes from a large firm compared to a smaller firm with strong goals and a vision for success. Activision Blizzard is big now, perhaps the biggest publisher in the industry, they can’t be bothered with minuscule 80-million dollar franchises. Others, like Atari, strive to take a title from nothing to something of greatness. Granted, Atari’s failed in a lot of franchises, but with their new ex-Sony executive behind the helm things could turn around and this might be the first step.

Most of the best game franchises in existance today started from nothing but a dream. Big publishers don’t have time to dream, they’re too busy making money off the fanboys of their current franchises.