The crew react to Microsoft’s show, which features the surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush.
Other news includes:
Let us know what you think.
Halloween is a scary time of year, no less when you’re posting a $310 million net loss. EA CEO John Riccitiello sees “weakness” at retail in October and we’re betting this isn’t the end of the road of sorrow for game publishers around the globe.
Electronic Arts isn’t unfamiliar with bad times and we’re sure to see them make constant adjustments to their headcount, game releases and press as the economy goes into a bit of a slump. Although the game industry won’t see as big a hit as the financial market, everyone is going to watch their spending during slower economic times.
That slowness is a red flag for the mega-publisher, which says it’s “proactively making cost adjustments now.” One of those adjustments is the axing of some 600 EA employees across the globe. (Kotaku)
Last year Electronic Arts lost a “small” $195 million during the same time, not exactly a gold star on the financial records but it sure looks better than this loss. A few games may crumble under the economic pressures, Tiberium for example, but let us not forget the good times! EA posted some nice figures for Spore, Madden NFL 09, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
So, they mixed a few sequels with a few new franchise hits and gave gamers some pretty hot titles for the year. Of course, hot titles in our hand do not always translate to positive revenue in theirs.
This episode was recorded on short notice thanks to last week’s late posting, so the Listener Feedback that responded to 382 couldn’t make it here. Paul and Jonah discuss some board games with remarkably similar themes they played in the past few days. Paul also waits for his compensation for The Sims Freeplay.
The news of the week includes:
No Listener Feedback this week, so the Question of the Week remains the same: “What do you think the future is for old games?”
This week’s episode features a Gaming Flashback of Bastion, Supergiant Games’ first title, and a proto-version of 2020’s Hades. The discussion includes around their other two games as well, Transistor and Pyre. They also discuss how far Ubisoft is falling, and Jonah tries to convince the others how cool a metaverse would be for games.
The news of the week includes:
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