This week’s episode covers a wide variety of topics, with no set news list save talking about Nintendo Direct’s oddly uninspiring conference. There’s no news list, so feel free to discuss what you found interesting or frustrating about Nintendo’s stream or anything else mentioned in the podcast.
Episode 602: Nintendo Directionless
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Episode 366: Hashtag GamerGateEpisode 366: Hashtag GamerGate
One again, the episode gets a little political as it deals with the GamerGate controversy again. No Gaming Flashback or Gaming History, but plenty of annoyed podcasters. As a side note, there will be no podcast for the next two weeks as Paul will be on a trip. However, there will be a new podcaster when the show starts up again.
This week’s news includes:
- Sarkeesian cancels Utah State presentation following threats of shooting
- Former GamerGate member explains his departure
- Unreal, BioShock dev Digital Extremes sold to Chinese companies
- Games driving “nearly all” Google Play’s revenue growth in US
- Mobile spending driven by 35-44-year-olds
All this plus Listener Feedback.
Final Fantasy XIII – Xbox 360Final Fantasy XIII – Xbox 360
Yoichi Wada of Square Enix has let the cat out of the bag. The cat is Final Fantasy XIII for the Xbox 360 and it will be simultaneously released with the PlayStation 3 version. This may be an end to an exclusive era for Sony as all their big brands jump to non-exclusion.
This is probably a result of gamers slow adoption of the PlayStation 3 hardware for various issues, one being cost. Personally I think Sony’s move to say “no price cut” in our near future is a grand mistake. It is well understood that they want profitability over quantity but you’re losing your exclusives to a broader audience.
Each generation of consoles brings new industry trends and, for now, exclusive games from third party developers is too risky when you look at overall cost to produce a block buster title like Final Fantasy XIII. Consider the sales of GTA IV, although they were in the millions, imagine how low it would have been if they only released on the PS3. They’d might have actually lost money on the game.
Square Enix can see the writing on the wall, that writing says “ship on as many mediums as possible.” Gamers are split between consoles with a huge segment on Wii and Xbox 360, if you can at least ship on one of those consoles along with the PS3 you’ll do better financially.
(Thanks, Kotaku)
Gaming Podcast 142: HatecastGaming Podcast 142: Hatecast
This episode brings the hate, sarcasm and skepticism in all that is gaming news. We’re also super charged with a gaming flashback on Autoduel and the history of Origin Systems, Inc. But, what really brings it all together is the news of the week:
- Nintendo Wii getting exclusive titles
- Microsoft implementing video capture on the 360?
- Rockstar challenging MySpace Music artists
- Ars Technica hates on the PSP Go
- Valve Spending $25 million on Ads
This week’s question of the week is quite simple: any board games that need to be re-created as a video game?
