The gang talks about Cities: Skylines 2, Microsoft and the FTC, and Biden’s high speed internet bill, as well as the following news:
All that and listener feedback.
Blizzard finds itself in hot water as it finds itself having to explain its actions in pleasing the Chinese government, in news that’s still hot and doesn’t look like it’s going to cool down anytime soon. It’s enough to overshadow even an official console announcement from Sony. There’s a Gaming Flashback, the embarrassingly bad FMV game Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties.
The news this week includes:
Let us know what you think.
There are no news items in this podcast. Instead, it’s just post-E3 discussion. Everything is E3. What the crew liked, what the crew didn’t, and T.J.’s reports from doing the show floor. The episode is almost 2 hours long, so there was a lot to talk about.
This year Microsoft believes they’ve got a heavy hitter lineup of titles starting around now until the end of the year including: Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band 2 and Fallout 3. They’re also looking at Lips, their karaoke title with a casual appeal to bring on the sales figures this season.
What about the PlayStation 3? Some of these titles, such as Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2 are not exclusives so both consoles have their chance, right? Microsoft’s looking at historical data on trends from Madden 2009 and see the 360 console out-selling the game even though it’s a shared franchise title.
Strong sales on the Xbox 360 suggest we’ll see those same sales this holiday season. Sure, the PlayStation 3 will get some big numbers thrown up but they may not compete on the same level as the Xbox 360.
All-in-all, Microsoft wants to toss up the one-million game units sold for the holidays, not including consoles we believe. That’s a strong holiday sales cycle if they can pull it off.
Even with economic downturns and financial markets doing poorly, entertainment tends to be something people are willing to invest. Will they pull it off? Will PlayStation 3 keep up?
