Jonah is in LA, TJ is at EVO, and who knows where Scott is.
No Podcast This Week
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Episode 364: Ello, FacebookEpisode 364: Ello, Facebook
This week’s episode has a lot of tangential videogame news, but the discussions turn in interesting directions. No Gaming Flashback or Gaming History unfortunately.
The news includes:
- Microsoft announces Windows 10
- Ms Pac-Man joins the fight against breast cancer
- Facebook apologizes to LGBTQ users, plans “substantive changes”
- PS Vita firmware 3.30 launches soon, brings theme support
- The Sims 4 free content updates to include pools, Star Wars costumes
No Question of the Week either – just ask us anything.
Episode 374: Lost in a CrowdEpisode 374: Lost in a Crowd
This week’s episode of Gaming Podcast has a special guest co-host, Andrew Yoon, formerly of Joystiq and currently in card game and video game development. The Gaming Flashback is the one that started them all: LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game.
The slow news week includes:
- DDoS service targeting PSN and Xbox powered by home Internet routers
- Japanese console sales continued to slide in 2014
- Evolve’s questionable bargain: pre-purchase to avoid the unlock grind
- Sony delays PS4 in China
The Question of the Week: “What is your favorite, if any, LEGO videogames?”
Would You Buy An Apple-Based Console?Would You Buy An Apple-Based Console?
Does the console market need any more competitors? We’ve seen record sales in the game industry for titles like Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV along with huge expectations for Resistance 2 and some new Sony PlayStation 3 projects. Yet, the tiny little Wii product holds best sales records around the world as the heavy hitter, Microsoft and Sony, compete for the most awesome spectacle show of graphics.
Competition is a great way to drive down costs, drive up expectations and give consumers new innovative products with better quality. Imagine if Apple got into console development and produced a new highly sexy product with the hype and consumer desire of the iPhone or iPod.
“Apple has the infrastructure in place through iTunes to create a real value proposition for those that want to extend the capability of their console beyond gaming and has the cash — about $20 billion — to not only invest in the best components on the market, but in an online gaming experience that could rival Xbox Live.” (kotaku)
Apple’s showing a huge surge in recognition and sales thanks to the iPod and growing desire for Apple hardware competing against Microsoft’s Vista operating system. As more consumers turn to Apple for their music and mobile gaming needs, Apple must see windows of exploiting the gaming market further.
More importantly, nobody can pull off digital rights management (DRM) and locking consumers into a product line like Apple all while they beg for more. Consoles are little boxes of DRM waiting for happy consumers to buy into the concept all while avoiding the hacking and bittorrenting like you’ve been seeing on Spore in the last few weeks. Had Spore been released on a console this DRM fiasco would have been avoided because gamers don’t even realize (or care) that a console locks them into playing and, more importantly, buying the game for the hardware.