Episode 358: Changes

The Gaming Podcast is back after three weeks of a forced hiatus as one former host has left the podcast for good. Otherwise, some of the news items are old, some are new, in this long episode.

There’s no Gaming Flashback or Gaming History, but plenty of news, including:

  • Activision won’t launch an EA Access-style program anytime soon
  • Disney Interactive revenue up 45% in Q3
  • Sony agrees to $15M settlement in 2011 data breach class action
  • Yogscast: We have ‘no obligation’ to cancelled adventure game Kickstarter
  • Warner Bros. nabs Space Invaders film rights
  • Report: PC and console market will decline

There’s also some Listener Feedback. The Question of the Week: “Do you think consoles will start doing early access on games?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 358: Changes”

  1. Hey guys glad to have the show back I was concerned on what had happened. I’m sorry to hear that Jordan is gone, does this mean you need a replacement?

    @Activision: Speaking of them only having a few actual games they are reviving the Sierra brand apparently. If you go to http://www.sierra.com you can see the trailer they have released for this.

    I am not sure what to make of it, since more will be revealed at Gamecon. When you mentioned them only having a few games that belong to them this got me thinking that this may be in part reason why they are reviving the Sierra brand to make more games. I don’t know if this means they will hire the old Sierra game developers, get new ones and what will be the quality of the games, what should we expect? I think I will keep my expectations very low on this one.

    @ Disney revenue up: Yeah, Ouch indeed “we have money now that we’ve restructured a bunch of people out of jobs”

    @Sony lawsuit settlement: No matter what Sony does they still look bad for holding back that information, why they thought that idea was good is beyond me.

    @Yogcast Kickstarter: Everyone of these is I think a Investment, since gambling to me is more a game of chance like with dice, horses, sports, etc. If you don’t do your research then yes you are gambling the money. However as Jonah pointed out find out if they are a experienced game maker and it’s less of a risk. I trust Obsidian because of their impressive resume of past games they have made. I’ve been that careful with the other projects I’ve backed or kept an on. Paul is right as well as you need more then just a neat or cool idea, you need to know how to make that idea happen. So with that in mind I think you can use Kickstart to smartly invest in a games future and avoid games that will likely not make it.

    @ Spaced Invaders: I think Paul is right here and that this is going to be another Battleship movie. This doesn’t seem like a good enough material to make a movie out of that won’t seem generic. We have so many of those already as Jonah tried to point out. This could be fun IF they make it tongue in cheek parody like Mars Attack was. But they will probably take the over serious tone and try for a Independence Day and fail. Maybe they will get a good writer and director but this does seem like a desperate grasping at straws.

    @ PC and Console decline: Really? You keep using that word, I don’t think it means what you think it means.

    QotW: With more digital games this certainly seems possible, making it easier to beta perhaps and find bugs to be fixed later.

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Sony’s been talking about how they’ve overtaken the Xbox 360 here in the States, perhaps this is because Microsoft shifted their attention to pwning them in Japan? Xbox 360 sold 25,000 units to PlayStation 3‘s minor 9,673 units according to Edge Online, that’s 2.5 times more if you’re into that math thing.

Seriously though, Microsoft didn’t really shift any effort, they just got a Japanese style game called Tales of Vesperia from Namco Bandai. Go figure, when a Japanese focused game arrives for a console Japanese gamer will go out and buy it.

The big barrier to the 360 in Japan is the games and their contents. Microsoft is in tune with the needs and demands of the United States gamers, it usually involves FPS titles and excessive killing. Japanese gamers are not exactly huge FPS fans, we’ve seen the Asian community dominate in RTS style games (Starcraft is a great example) and they’ve always had interest in MMO’s, especially micro-transaction based games and we all know that’s the land of Final Fantasy. Is it so surprising the Xbox 360 moves off Japanese shelves when they have a game or two the gamers actually want to play?

This is only partly Microsoft’s fault, Microsoft doesn’t specialize in Japanese games anymore than Square Enix excels at western style games. The big difference? Square Enix doesn’t manufacturer its own console hardware. It is Microsoft’s console and they should have an interest in making games the Japanese people will like, thankfully Namco Bandai came through for them this time!

Episode 336: Happy New Year 2014Episode 336: Happy New Year 2014

The first episode of 2014 is now out, as Jonah Falcon, Jordan Lund and Dan Quick recap the major news of 2014.

The news includes:

  • PC gaming exploding
  • Next-gen launches, including Microsoft’s 180
  • Nintendo Wii U suffers
  • Nintendo Announces 2DS
  • Microconsoles launched
  • Tech flops of 2013

Also, some Listener Feedback, and the Questions of the Week, “What was the biggest event of 2013? What was your favorite game?”