This week comments on the crapshow that is going on with most of the third party publishers. That, and some updates to games that people really care about.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think.
No, that’s not a clever pun. For whatever reason, the opening intro is missing from the file. It’s just not there – perhaps the recording software was late in starting.
Regardless, the crew discuss the Palmer Luckey scandal before moving head with a new segment, just to discuss random stuff they’ve seen that isn’t on the news docket.
Speaking of which, the news includes:
All this and Listener Feedback!
Gaming is mainstream and growing, this is obvious to most video game enthusiasts. Even Jack Thompson has failed in taking down the industry in his efforts on video game violence and general FUD. In order to survive in a mainstream environment publishers and developers are going to target a broad demographic to make them as much money as possible.
The game industry, like other entertainment avenues, is a risky business in which publishers have to pick titles they “predict” will do well in the market while passing on other “risky” propositions. While a the good ol’ shooter title will break sales records, the market cannot rely on one genre to carry the business especially considering many of these titles are forgotten within two months from launch. Publishers are going to be forced in expanding their reach to “family games” in order to finance new blockbuster titles.
Enter family gaming.
The idea of designing a “family” game isn’t new to our industry, as a matter of fact, it’s one of the oldest cornerstones of video game entertainment. Pong, Centipede, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and many other classic titles were no doubt playable by the entire family, but things have changed. We’ve evolved from hit titles like Donkey Kong to hit titles like Halo. We migrated from 2D gaming to full 3D adventures and pixel graphics to pixel shaders, but where do we go next?
Nintendo has the correct vision for the next stage of the video game industry and it involves bringing the entire family into gaming. It’s mainstream, right? Mainstream isn’t your dad playing a video game in the basement after the kids go to bed, it’s replacing Sorry with Spore and bringing out Wii Sports and having little family tournaments. We must respect what the big titles have done for the industry in merchandising, novels, sequels and spin-offs but we should not rely on them to carry us into the next generation of gaming.
This week’s Memorial Day podcast has very few stories but we managed to pack it full of content including the long awaited Punch-Out Wii review! The news includes:
Mass Effect 2 Information LeakedWe also hit up some listener comments, learn a bit about nanites, checkout some gaming history on Track & Field all while popping out a new weekly question: Will you buy a video game compilation that includes updated old games with new functionality like “Waggle” controls?
