Episode 573: A Very Special Returning Guest

This week, Paul fills in for Scott, who has more pressing issues than discussing videogames, though some very serious topics about them do pop up, such as how misogyny became pronounced in the hobby. The Gaming Flashback is one of the legendarily panned titles, Bomberman Act:Zero.

The news for this week includes:

  • Video game spending reaches record high during pandemic
  • Epic Games Store keyless integration with other digital stores announced
  • Minecraft sales now exceed 200 million (from PC Gamer)
  • Star Citizen will hold a free fly event starting this week

There’s also some Listener Feedback from longtime fan Ralf from Germany.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

Related Post

Episode 443: Nintendo Pulls a SwitchEpisode 443: Nintendo Pulls a Switch

So, this episode covers that fact that Nintendo is about to announce their next device, which they did earlier today: the Nintendo NX is now called the Nintendo Switch. The official Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer was also unveiled today too, and the multiplayer aspect is discussed. Jonah advises TJ and Scott to try The Stanley Parable as well.

This week’s news includes:

  • Dishonored dev’s The Crossing, put on hold in 2009, gets a new trademark filing
  • Red Dead Redemption 2 announced for Xbox One and PS4, but not PC
  • Voice actors threaten strike against EA, Activision, and nine other companies
  • Grand Theft Auto 5‘s exploding Note 7 mod video yanked from YouTube by Samsung

All this and two Questions of the Week!

Gaming Podcast 190: Down With The SicknessGaming Podcast 190: Down With The Sickness

We’re pretty beat up this week, sickness is running wild so Don and Derrick blow through some news items while Jennifer remains offline being ill. We’ve shortened the episode so that we can cover everything we have with enthusiasm before falling over in an ill stupor. The news includes three items:

The gaming flashback this week is DuckTales for the NES. This weeks Question of the Week, put on your game designer hat and tell us what you think would be a great game design. Would it be more social network gaming, casual gaming or something more complex?

Wii Sports Resort and Wii Motion PlusWii Sports Resort and Wii Motion Plus

Nintendo plans to capitalize on the monumental success of Wii Sports by doing what they do best, building a hot game with an accessory backing its success. The new Wii Sports Resort will be a mini-game set like Wii Sports and Wii Play but with a beach setting and games like frisbee.

Frisbee? How can the Wii motion controller handle a Frisbee toss? Wii Motion Plus of course! We believe they’ll be packing the game in with the Wii Motion Plus to add more value to the purchase. Honestly, this adds more value to the accessory as a driving force to make sales and increase margins. Game accessories are a great way for Nintendo to profit, consider the pack in game marketing material.

As Wii Play has shown us, historically, gamers want the accessory and the bundled game is just icing on the proverbial cake. Wii Play, as a game, was lacking in many ways and would be, as a stand alone product, a definite must-not-have title. But, considering the amount of Wii controllers sold, this allows Wii Play to show up high on best games sold month over month.

Wii Sports Resort takes this to a new level by using the term “Wii Sports” in the game, allowing the masses to flock to the store to get anything that can reproduce the fun of the original title. Nobody knows, yet, if it will reproduce the same fun factor but the accessory is neat.

(Thanks, joystiq)