Episode 528: Back From Disaster

Jonah’s desktop PC finally died completely from irretrievable hardware failure, and this episode was recorded clumsily on his cellphone. Meanwhile, TJ has been enjoying Apex Legends enormously, and gives it a rave review.

Otherwise, this week’s news includes:

  • Activision-Blizzard lays off 800 employees
  • World War Z gets an April release date
  • Dragon Quest Builders 2 comes to Switch, PS4 this summer
  • Chucklefish boss says Sony is responsible for lack of PS4 crossplay

The Question of the Week is “Which game would you love to see remade?”

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Episode 223: Snake FlingingEpisode 223: Snake Flinging

This week is a strange one, as snakes are flung at horses to turn them into unicorns, and Paul keeps finding videogame soulmates from the reader feedback. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the Amiga classic Shadow of the Beast, while the Gaming History takes a look back at the Apple Pippin.

This week’s news items include:

  • Survey: Female gamers enjoy gaming more than sex
  • June 2011 NPD sales figures released
  • Publishers spend XBLA budgets, expect retail content
  • Gamestop thinks next gen consoles will hit in 2014
  • Zynga offered $1B for Popcap
  • Ubisoft confirms multiplayer pass system to combat used game sales

Finally, the Question of the Week is “What games do you play in bed?” Yes, it’s been a weird week.

PlayStation 3’s Wireless Keyboard AttachmentPlayStation 3’s Wireless Keyboard Attachment

This is a prototype of the keypadSony’s done it, they’ve announced a wireless keyboard adapter to plug onto the stock PlayStation 3 controller. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of this, Microsoft pushed out a keyboard for their Xbox 360 controller last year to provide faster chat abilities and, overall, smooth the interface when needing to type.

Now, Sony’s following up with a few more advancements, “the wireless keyboard also features a touchpad mode to allow for mouse input. David Reeves, president of SCEE, said that this touchpad control mode may be used in future game development.” (kotaku)

Is there any chance our next-generation consoles will be more “PC like” out of the box? With these complex user interfaces featuring web browsers, online marketplaces and areas to enter your credit card information (and addresses) you’re really heading towards needing this type of interface. Now, they’re all starting to include chat and messenger services making it more important… if it catches on.

Perhaps the next console hitting the market will come with a keyboard as an in-the-box solution. Please note, the above image is Sony’s prototype image.