This is the last podcast of 2023, as the gang just talks about the year that was and the upcoming 2024 in a long, unscripted episode.
Episode 707: Goodbye 2023
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Episode 412: Eaten By EwoksEpisode 412: Eaten By Ewoks
This episode sees the debut of a new co-host, videogame writer T.J. Denzer, who joins Jonah Falcon and Scott Dirk for this long episode, discussing Star Wars, spoilers, and other news that didn’t make the cut. This week also has the first Gaming Flashback in over a year, taking a look at The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
This week’s news includes:
- Mac and Linux versions of Batman: Arkham Knight canceled
- 22 year old eSports FIFA gamer signed by professional football club
- Nintendo cancels sleep tracking device
- Ant Simulator canceled after business partners spent money on booze and strippers
Question of the Week: “What is your favorite strategy game?”
End of 100 Million Dollar Games?End of 100 Million Dollar Games?
Gigaom had a great writeup about how Grand Theft Auto IV marks the end of “next generation” as we know it, stating, in more words or less, the game is a failure. GTA: San Andreas sold 21.5 million copies during its time on the shelf while GTA IV has sold roughly 9 million copies as of June 7th.
Granted, the game is still on the shelves and will still get sales, but the mass of “hardcore gamers” have had their fill and either purchased it or will not. The end result? A huge tapering of sales numbers for the graphically impressive game. Take-Two spent USD $100 million to develop the game which had great opening sales records but has gone down drastically since.
Imagine the title gains them USD $30.00 per sale in profit (considering distributors get the game for roughly USD $45 to $48.00 USD), taking into account shipping of the product, marketing and all the materials that go into producing a copy, they’d have to sell a large quanity of game titles to break even, which I think they have done.
Nobody is in this industry to break even. A block buster title should make block buster profits, right? Else, why bother to spend the 100-million when a Wii title can double or triple the profits with six months of development?
Episode 661: Remasters and ExpansionsEpisode 661: Remasters and Expansions
[This episode was reposted due to being corrupted when the site went down.]
This episode is heavy on remasters and expansions, some bad, some good, some questionable. There’s even a sequel in there.
The news items include:
- Saber Interactive takes over working on KOTOR remake
- MultiVersus was July’s biggest-selling game
- Cities Skylines gets pedestrianization in new Plazas and Promenades expansion
- Ooblets is releasing in September
- Sony sued for £5bn for “ripping people off” on PlayStation Store
- Starfield at Gamescom may still happen
All this and listener feedback!