Episode 691: Lost Transformers

The guys discuss Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dead by Daylight, as well as other topics.

This week’s news items include:

  • Rumor: Elder Scrolls 4 remake is in development
  • Cities: Skylines 2‘s maps will be about 5 times as large as those of the original
  • Hasbro says Activision has lost its Transformers games on a hard drive in its offices somewhere
  • Baldur’s Gate 3 has a “hidden skill tree” for Illithid powers

Let us know what you think.

0 thoughts on “Episode 691: Lost Transformers”

  1. Hi guys.

    Thanks a lot for your work with this episode!
    It’s always fun listening to you guys talking about the different games and all the stuff around it 🙂

    I did not play that much pc or video games lately, because I was a lot in the road for concerts. I played a lot of Pokémon Go because I am waking around a lot (about 15 kilometers a day), just to be not in my apartment and to set my mind free (I hope that’s the correct translation).
    I want to play BG3 as well but first I want to finish some other games (God of war (not the last one … the one before that!!!)and True Colors)… I hope time will come when I sit down and relax … maybe if I move to a new apartment.
    This week there will be games con here in cologne. Does anyone of you plan to visit? Or did visit, depending when you read this 🙂 ).

    Greetings from Germany,
    Ralf!

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The Question of the Week: “How many times have you purchased a new form factor of a console you already owned?”

Phil Harrison’s Building a 100 Million Dollar FranchisePhil Harrison’s Building a 100 Million Dollar Franchise

Once upon a time, Activision Blizzards CEO Bobby Kotick kicked a few franchises to the curb: Riddick and Ghostbusters. No doubt, this was a result of the Activision and Blizzard merger requiring some resources to the merged together while others were cut from the lineup. Phil Harrison, the new big suit at Atari/Infogrames has raised these little birds from the ashes with a dream to build them into 100-million dollar franchises.

While Bobby Kotick said the titles, “don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises,” Phil Harrision sees it as a personal challenge to prove him wrong.

“What Bobby, perhaps unhelpfully said, was that those games were franchises which wouldn’t make $100m of revenue and generate sequels. If that’s his benchmark, then fine — and we’d love to aspire to the same benchmarks. But you know what? I would love to turn Ghostbusters into a $100m franchise, just to prove him wrong.” (1up)

In many ways, this is the difference in attitudes from a large firm compared to a smaller firm with strong goals and a vision for success. Activision Blizzard is big now, perhaps the biggest publisher in the industry, they can’t be bothered with minuscule 80-million dollar franchises. Others, like Atari, strive to take a title from nothing to something of greatness. Granted, Atari’s failed in a lot of franchises, but with their new ex-Sony executive behind the helm things could turn around and this might be the first step.

Most of the best game franchises in existance today started from nothing but a dream. Big publishers don’t have time to dream, they’re too busy making money off the fanboys of their current franchises.