Jonah is in LA, TJ is at EVO, and who knows where Scott is.
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Episode 475: Sterling ReviewsEpisode 475: Sterling Reviews
This week’s episode is 50% longer as the first 20 minutes or so are devoted to the reaction to Jim Sterling’s explosive review of Hellblade and his subsequent recanting later that day. This week has no Gaming Flashback or Gaming History, but there are six news items to make up for it.
The items include:
- EA talks about Nintendo Switch support
- Rainbow Six: Siege “Operation Blood Orchid” update launches August 29
- Myth-inspired RTS Deadhold charges into Early Access later this month
- No Man’s Sky “Atlas Rises” update adds story content and “limited” online co-op
- EA says Star Wars: Battlefront “lacked long-term goals”
- Moons of Madness is Lovecraftian horror on Mars
Let us know what you think.
Episode 353: E3 Swag BagEpisode 353: E3 Swag Bag
Jonah returns from attending E3 last week, as Jordan is a sick latecomer into the podcast. Jonah and Paul relate his near-disaster loss of his iPad Air, while Jordan does his best Don LaFontaine impressions in this episode which is 50% longer than normal.
The news discussed includes:
- Hirshberg: Console transition pains not a bad problem to have
- Destiny may possibly come to Windows PC
- Nintendo’s top designer has “uneasiness” about virtual reality
- How the Xbox One’s 10% GPU increase works without Kinect
- PS4, Xbox One seeing much higher digital download attach rates
In addition to the news, there’s Listener feedback, and even better, a new contest to win an E3 Swag Bag – listen in to find out how to win (US listeners only, sorry.)
Activision Blizzard Trying To Scare Off Competition?Activision Blizzard Trying To Scare Off Competition?
A few months ago, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said investing $500 million to a billion still wouldn’t be enough to compete with an MMORPG like World of Warcraft. The MMORPG space is a costly investment and you’d need to really burn a lot of money to start competing against the mega-giant, but Mythic VP and Warhammer Online lead designer Mark Jacobs disagrees with that quote.
Jacobs says $100-million dollars would be needed to start competing against the giant subscription generator that is World of Warcraft. Although few developers are sitting on $100-million USD, it’s a bit more realistic an investment for a studio to scrape up compared to a billion bucks! A billion dollars is a scary number when you consider that’s the start of an investment that may, or may not, pay off in the end.
Kotick may not be using complete scare tactics, he may be working off experience when dealing with MMORPG’s. A startup MMO isn’t a cookie cutter system, there is a lot of development efforts, $100-million dollars worth, but MMO developers slip dates many times. When you start slipping your dates you’ll start burning more money and, before you know it, you’re a billion in the hole. Jacobs thinks $100-million will cover development costs and messing up, so a billion is still way over budget.
Perhaps this is a bit of a scare tactic, assuming a developer will fail and slip their dates isn’t really a great way to start quoting prices. However, shooting too low isn’t always the best method of building your development assessments. The end result, scream ONE BILLION and you may scare off any potential startup MMO developers.
Warhammer Online lead designer did mention one big barrier to entry: the need for “at least half a million subscribers to be successful.”
(Thanks, 1up)