Jonah is in LA, TJ is at EVO, and who knows where Scott is.
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Episode 310: Halo Makes You Feel OldEpisode 310: Halo Makes You Feel Old
This week’s podcast features a Gaming Flashback of Halo: Combat Evolved, one of the longest such game segments in the podcast’s history, encompassing a third of the podcast.
This week’s news items includes:
- Blizzard decides against rolling back Diablo III servers following gold exploit
- Defiance to get 5 major DLC packs in the next year
- Report: Next-gen Xbox console called “Xbox Infinity”
- Obsidian expresses desire to develop Star Wars RPG
- EA to stop licensing with weapons manufacturers, will keep using branded guns
There’s only one reader response, but there is a Question of the Week: “What videogame genre are you completely burned out on?”
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)
Episode 367: A New BeginningEpisode 367: A New Beginning
The podcast is back as Paul S. Nowak is back from his vacation, and he brought back a new co-host with him. Devin Grimes, who once upon a time wrote for GameStooge, is now a part of the team. This week’s podcast also includes a new Gaming History, discussing the Nintendo DS.
The news items include:
- Ebola scare drives sharp rise in Plague Inc. downloads
- Twitch bans ‘sexually suggestive clothing’ in new terms
- Dying Light cancelled for PS3 and 360
- Xbox One available for $349 Starting November 2
- Sony apologizes for Driveclub‘s ongoing launch woes
No Listener Feedback, but a new Question of the Week: “When did you first start listening to this podcast?”