This week is a little special as Jonah, Jordan and Paul discuss some of the things that were common in the golden age of 1990’s consoles that are no longer around.
In addition, the news includes:
The Question of the Week: “What gaming activities do you no longer do?”
This week the guys discuss Electronic Arts soccer, Far Cry 7, Vampire Survivors, Sony vs. Gaming Heads, Starfield, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, The Talos Principle 2, and Unity getting games canceled.
Let us know what you think.
Jonah thought that this podcast would be another short show — but it evolved into a lively conversation about Spiritfarer and other game news.
The news includes:
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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?
Hey guys,
A short comment on Naughty Dog. While it is true that people often leave studios after the game is completed this is not the case with NG. The game is far from done, with one of the main villains also leaving and being recast. The game seems to be in trouble and will probably come out later than previously expected. Still, I trust Naughty Dog and believe they will be able to put out a quality product.
Onto the ‘gaming nostalgia’ theme. There are many things I used to do as a younger gamer, playing mostly PC games. Mostly, I no longer buy gaming magazines. I used to be a long-time subscriber of one such magazine in Poland but then I lost interest in PC gaming and when I came back to gaming with PS3, I realized I can get all the info online and/or listening to podcasts. I don’t mind reading as a whole but as far as gaming goes I’d rather read books such as ‘The Maters of Doom’, which I just finished, than read gaming magazines.
Also, I very rarely play couch multiplayer games. Mostly because those modes are rare in games nowadays but also because when we meet up with friends, we usually play board games that can accommodate more people and which our wives can enjoy too. However, Move-based games such as Sports Champions or Just Dance, get played occasionally.
I really enjoyed the episode with all the old-school gaming talk and I find it more interesting than reading pre-prepared gaming history segments. This episode had much more discussion and excitement than previously, but maybe that’s just me. Also, there was something different about Paul’s voice. He sounded clearer and less grainy so I hope that’s permanent 😉
Hi guys great show I loved the Top Ten fads article no longer in use.
@Gamestop: that just seems sad, I guess they were going for a joke but it would have been nice to show their actual female execs the ones that Jordan had mentioned.
@Naughty Dog loosing people: That does concern me if people are leaving the franchise which has done pretty well so far. I wonder if the quality of Uncharted will suffer because of this. I have enjoyed all three games so far. If Uncharted 4 is going to be PS4 only I may have to break down and get it. I have enjoyed this series so much, any one of the games would have made a better Indy (this time I really do mean Indiana Jones) movie.
@Top Ten Fads:
1) I don’t remember the blockbuster exclusives and the store exclusives seem to be more recent like when you pre-oder a game from Target versus Best Buy and get a different exclusive depending on where you bought it.
2) I was an abuser and sucker for the hint line before game guides and the internet. I think Sierra and Nintendo, though I love them, was perhaps making some of their puzzles so obtuse you were forced to call their hint line or buy their magazine. I remember having a gotten a lot of game guides both from Sierra and Nintendo. This is one “fad” I am glad is gone thanks to the Internet.
3) Demo discs I remember well, it’s how I got Doom and Hexen. It was a nice way to try out games before buying at least.
4) I didn’t mind physical DRM I thought it was kind of fun. There was a Tabloid space magazine with Space Quest V and in it had a star chart for planets for you to go to. So long as you had those coordinates from the chart you could get to any planet you needed to. I think when the DRM was more seamless and less heavy handed like the enter code from page, paragraph, line and word 3, it was more fun and immersive. The SQV star chart felt like it fit with the tongue in cheek nature of the Space Quest series. You could imagine yourself as Roger using a tabloid magazine to chart his way through space.
5) The slips thing I understand though now these days I am buying my games digitally and less from stores.
6) Can’t say that I played any games from cereal boxes, mostly felt they wouldn’t be good games so why bother? Especially when I could be playing games I knew were good.
7) I don’t remember any pin pads for saving progress in Arcade games, that would have been nice to have had more often. Probably would have helped kids memory if they had to quickly remember a password for their next play session.
8) I do miss having those huge gaming magazines that would just seem full of gaming goodness. The Ads were nice since they were tailored for gaming desires as opposed to things that wouldn’t have appealed to us gamers.
9) I remember the cleaning kits and I’m like Jordan I kept my games in their sleeves when not in use also pins facing down so not to collect any dust on those metal pins. The rest of my room was a mess but my games were clean dammit! I do admit to blowing on them a few times but not a lot. There is an article online showing the affects of a (don’t laugh) daily blowing on the cartridge versus one that just used a cleaning kit.
10) I think a sweet one is the one with Robin Williams and his daughter and him explaining how and why he named her Zelda. I remember Sony trying very hard to make Crash Bandicoot a beloved mascot and failing miserably.
I also remember the game genie and it’s game breaking ways of cheating. I’m glad Jordan mentioned that.
QotW: I had to think about this but I suppose going to game rental store like Blockbuster or even going to a game store period. I do everything digitally now. No more worrying about scratched discs or losing a cartridge or any of those worries with physical media.