Hey, that rhymes.
This week’s podcast checks out the non-E3 publisher direct shows, from Microsoft to Ubisoft. Of course, Starfield was the big reveal, and it did not disappoint. There was very little news thanks to the conferences, but there’s nearly two hours of show this time.
Let us know what games interested you.
This week, TJ finally decides to play Middle Earth: Shadow of War, and there is a debate on whether he should play Shadow of Mordor or just watch a Let’s Play of the game first.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think.
Jonah returns from PAX Unplugged 2022, while T.J. defends the maligned Castillo Protocol. Aside from the news, the Gaming Flashback is the Klei Entertainment’s stealth 2D platformer Mark of the Ninja.
The rest of the news includes:
Let us know what you think.
Microsoft recently announced their price cuts on the Xbox 360, effective today, but what is motivating them? Microsoft’s not going to make much additional money by passing off the savings to the customer but they will, more than likely, sell a bunch of great new Xbox 360‘s to a new crowd of gamer.
Motivation? Sony.
“I’m not at a point where I can say we’re going to beat Nintendo,” says Don Mattrick, senior vice-president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. Indeed, Nintendo is likely to run away with the lead in the current generation of console gaming, leaving Microsoft and Sony to battle for second place. (businessweek)
Who would have thought Sony and Microsoft would be battling out this generation for second place while Nintendo breezes through with their Wii console and a handful of games with mediocre game reviews? Don’t answer that, it’s a rhetorical question. If you saw this coming and you’re not on the marketing or project planning for one of these console makers you better prep your resume!
The battle isn’t cooling, Microsoft drops their price to compete with their big competitor Sony which also brings it closer to the price tag on the Wii getting two bird with one stone. The reason Wii is winning is clearly due to its broad demographic of grandpa and grandma non-gamers along with hardcore gamers who have to collect all the consoles and younger gamers that want to fit the trend.
Microsoft’s clearly shooting for second place by installing more units into the consumers home as possible. They’ve got a great library of first person shooter titles, a few RPG’s and RTS titles and the typical contraversial titles like GTA and Saints Row with more hot blockbusters (read: Gears of War 2) arriving soon.
I see this as a great opportunity for casual game developers to get into the Xbox Live Arcade market and start making themselves (and Microsoft) some money off the new gamers that will buy their first Xbox 360 for $199 and up. Microsoft’s getting closer to the low-budget gamer crowd with their price cuts so it would be great if they can take advantage of that market with lower cost titles as well.
If you’re a game developer looking for console stick time and you want to grab the attention of a large pool of gamers, the Xbox 360 isn’t a bad start!
While Microsoft isn’t aiming at Nintendo just yet, there is no doubt Nintendo will be in their sights if they can smoke the pants off Sony in the near future (by this holiday).
Yeah, they did it as a Fathom event in Portland and I went… good stuff. Nice seeing what Fable and Avowed might look like when they come out.
The Internet is already talking about “No Man’s Skyrim”. I’m cautiously optimistic. It seems VERY ambitious. Between ship building, habitat building, space travel, trading, combat, a room full of sandwiches, it’s a lot…
Hi guys.
Thanks for this huge episode! Sadly i know nearly none of the games 🙁
I heared about SF6, but you skipped it 😀
You mentioned one Metroidvania game coming, which should look very good, but i did not get the name. It was very early in the episode … could you please tell me the name? I love Metroidvania games 🙂
I am playing the hell out of Diablo 4 … and the words i choose were not intended to describe it 🙂
And as always some Magic the Gathering. Nesides thsi the ummer is coming and so are the concerts and festivals i enjoy in staed of sitting at my pc or console … i need people around me at the moment -.-
Thanks for your effort and i promise i try to listen to the podcast more often and comment it … as i did the last years <3
Greetings from germany
Ralf