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The guys discuss EA closing servers for older games, the Red Dead Redemption controversy, Tekken 8 and Killer Instinct.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think.
This week’s episode is also abbreviated, as Jordan is somewhere in Pennsylvania looking for a gingerbread house while Paul is still trying to pack his entire NES library into a single suitcase. Jonah and Paul still got in enough time to do a Gaming Flashback on Thief: The Dark Project, and the following news items:
All this and Reader Feedback, too, as well as a new Question of the Week, “If you have the opportunity to read or view a highly anticipated game’s story months before it was released, would you do it or would you deliberately turn it away to preserve yourself from spoilers?” Let us know!
Like a washed up superstar, Grand Theft Auto IV continues to drop in NPD figures. This Axl Rose of video games came on strong and sputtered out into oblivion with barely a notice, leaving the spotlight and all hype behind it. This drastic fall may hurt any negotiations “behind closed doors” with Electronic Arts and their constant attempts to take over Take-Two.
Prior to the release of GTA IV we, in our gaming podcast, predicted a huge launch would up the anti against the bids on Take-Two from EA but things didn’t work out exactly as we expected. Although the game has sold 8.5-million units, it might not add any new bargaining power to the back door negotiations.
A game company is only as good as their games. A hit title which dies out quick helps financially guide the future of the company; technically the future isn’t so bright. With the title quickly falling off the top game sales charts we may never see it hit record sales figures to match that of smaller titles. Having one hot title every four years that “breaks records” for a week isn’t a strong weapon against a low bid from a larger publisher.
While EA may not have any record setting “one week” sales titles yet, they do have a consistently strong set of titles which stick on the charts for months with newer titles arriving to take their spot when they fade. The same can be said for a few other notable publishers, Activision and Ubisoft. To survive in the hot game industry, especially with market downturns, one must have a cycle of great games to publish throughout the year consistently year-over-year in order to provide evidence of their financial stability.
Assuming the bid won’t raise for GTA IV, where does that leave Take-Two? Perhaps Take-Two is better off under the umbrella of Electronic Arts after all. The waters are getting more hostile in the industry as companies compete for gamers attention with 100-million dollar titles and casual games and game consoles (read: Wii) start to build a whole new none-gamer-style momentum.
Is Take-Two better off under the EA brand?
We’re flashing back to a holographic arcade title, Time Traveler from SEGA and take a reflective walk down memory lane with Apogee and touch on ROTT. We’ve got a light set of community comments and some good game news including:
Microsoft Settles Law SuitIf you’re looking to enter the World fo Warcraft writing contest, check it out here. Thanks for the write-in’s and, as always, we look forward to hearing more. Question of the week: Would you buy a game that sold you half of other titles in content and made you pay for the rest later in DLC form?
Hi guys.
Thanks for the episode as usual 🙂
I am still playing a lot of Pokémon Go cause I walk around a lot. My life is too fucked up at the moment that I don’t want to start a new game like baldurs gate. I really want to play it, all my friends are playing it and they love it.
Jonah is the first person I know who doesn’t like it and talks that bad about it …. But that’s ok for sure… it’s everyone’s personal thing to like something or don’t like it. Even if it’s only to be against 96% of all reviews ?
The other games you talked about, I really don’t know … besides suikoden .. that’s the only one I heard of from the Original PlayStation.
I did not play any sf6 but I like that tmnt costume idea, but I don’t like the price 🙁
I still want to watch the evo, especially the Street Fighter tournament … so I had to skip the last minutes of your podcast… I was afraid you talk about it ?
Ok, that’s all for today.
Stay healthy and happy 🙂
Greetings from Germany,
Ralf