Industry News -

Episode 229: Jonah Versus PaulEpisode 229: Jonah Versus Paul

August 31, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 8:37 pm

It’s another brief episode as frictions rise between New Yorkers Jonah Falcon and Paul S. Nowak, while Washington State native Jordan Lund looks on. This week’s gaming flashback in the Nintendo 64’s The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, as well as the following news items:

GameStop pulls PC copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution off the shelves
Penny Arcade Adventures returns
Epic Mickey 2 leaked
Electronic Arts rewords controversial Origin EULA

This week’s Question of the Week: Are you interested in Epic Mickey 2?

Episode 228: Two Thirds ShowEpisode 228: Two Thirds Show

August 24, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 7:27 pm

This week is a shorter-than-usual show as Paul S. Nowak is away on a birthday vacation. Instead, Jonah and Jordan discuss the Sega Saturn game Burning Rangers, and the following news topics:

Dragon Age III will be a ‘mix’ of the first two games
GameStop developing console and PC game streaming
Is the Xbox 720 chip set?
Sony on when they’ll consider the PS4
Developer sez industry is failing female gamers

There’s also reader feedback and the Question of the Week: What do you look for first in a game’s bullet-point features? Also, check out some of the outtakes after the show ends.

Last Day for 3DS AmbassadorsLast Day for 3DS Ambassadors

August 11, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 1:12 pm

Today is the last day for Nintendo 3DS users to sign up as a 3DS Ambassador to qualify for 20 free games.

From Nintendo:

Today (Aug. 11) is the last day for current Nintendo 3DS owners to register for the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program. Just connect your Nintendo 3DS to the Nintendo eShop by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time to receive 20 free downloadable games.

The offer is due to the recent price slash of the 3DS.

Bethesda’s Hines: Don’t Shoehorn MultiplayerBethesda’s Hines: Don’t Shoehorn Multiplayer

July 23, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 12:00 pm

Bethesda Softworks vice president of marketing Pete Hines is critzing publishers and developers who shoehorn multiplayer into their games that doing such a thing is “a waste of time” and advises, “Just drop it, don’t bother…it’ll make for a worse game.”

In an interview with Next Gen BIZ, Hines states that using online multiplayer as a tool to prevent used game trade-ins and rental simply doesn’t work, and robs developers of valuable man-hours.

Hines stated:

“(People ask us) for a game like Skyrim or Prey 2, why doesn’t it have multiplayer? Well, our question is always the opposite when we talk to a developer. If you’re doing multiplayer, why are you doing multiplayer? What are you trying to accomplish?

“If you’re doing it just to check a box or because every other publisher says you’ve got to have multiplayer, then just drop it, don’t bother, it’s a waste of time, a giant distraction and it’ll make for a worse overall game.

“We want the best game possible. If that’s a singleplayer game that’s 15 to 20 hours, then make that! Don’t waste your time on features that don’t make the game better.”

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Prey 2 are two Bethesda properties that will lack multiplayer, but one of the tools to encourage games to keep both games will be downlodable content and, even more important, good communications with the game communities and nurturing the fandom for both games.

Episode 223: Snake FlingingEpisode 223: Snake Flinging

July 20, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 10:32 pm

This week is a strange one, as snakes are flung at horses to turn them into unicorns, and Paul keeps finding videogame soulmates from the reader feedback. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the Amiga classic Shadow of the Beast, while the Gaming History takes a look back at the Apple Pippin.

This week’s news items include:

Survey: Female gamers enjoy gaming more than sex
June 2011 NPD sales figures released
Publishers spend XBLA budgets, expect retail content
Gamestop thinks next gen consoles will hit in 2014
Zynga offered $1B for Popcap
Ubisoft confirms multiplayer pass system to combat used game sales

Finally, the Question of the Week is “What games do you play in bed?” Yes, it’s been a weird week.

Episode 222: Gorilla LoveEpisode 222: Gorilla Love

July 13, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 7:44 pm

This week is a big episode, as it is chock full of surprising news this week, as well as some long, long reader mail. If that weren’t enough, we take a look back at the IntelliVision game Maze-a-Tron, deal with too much love for Paul, and the mystery that is the popularity of gorillas.

This week’s news includes:

Electronic Arts buys Popcap Games
Microsoft: Only Master Chief in Halo from now on
PlayStation Vita dev costs closer to PSP
Netflix takes aim at usage based billing
Expert glitcher hired to clean up Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer
Skyrim ‘less confusing’, not ‘more accessible‘

There’s no Gaming History this week, but the Question of the Week is: “What old game do you most want to see remade?” There’s no contest behind it, but you can always take heart in the fact that your question was probably the most awesome.

Star Wars Galaxies Shutdown BacklashStar Wars Galaxies Shutdown Backlash

June 30, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 6:41 pm

Despite the announced shutdown of Star Wars: Galaxies and the approaching new Star Wars-based MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, loyal subscribers don’t want Galaxies to end. They’ve begun a petition to try to convince Sony to let the MMO live on as a free-to-play MMO.

The petition asks Sony to convert the game to a ‘freemium’, microtransaction-based MMO, and that Sony consolidate players onto a smaller number of servers and facilitate character transfer to reduce operational costs in order to keep the game running. The petition has already gotten thousands signatures in a few days.

One of the petition leaders posted:

We are not your typical gamers.

We are not a commodity.

But if you look at the recent decision by Lucasarts to shut down Star Wars Galaxies, you might be inclined to think we are both of those things. Lucasarts thinks that we are a non-perishable commodity that can be shoved into a shipping crate and moved down the road to their next project. That is not the case. Not even close.

We are a vibrant community. We have seen our ups and downs, but we are only stronger because of it. We have endured all manner of broken promises and misleading “improvements” to this game, and throughout all of it, we have continued to build our community, and show support and loyalty to this great game. But we didn’t do it because of a game. We did it because of our community here.

(more…)

Rumor: EA Buying Popcap?Rumor: EA Buying Popcap?

June 23, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 8:08 am

Tech Cruch is reporting that Electronic Arts is about to acquire casual games giant Popcap Games for a cool $1 billion, which would exceed EA’s market cap by over 13%. If true, this would be EA’s definitive entry into the casual games market, a field they broke into 7 years ago.

Despite consuming a significant chunk of EA’s reserves. buying Popcap would bring them IPs such as Bejeweled, Plants Vs. Zombies, Peggle, Zuma and Bookworm.

We’ll keep an eye on this deal as it happens.

VGRT Gaming Podcast 217: Pre-E3 ShowVGRT Gaming Podcast 217: Pre-E3 Show

June 5, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 6:57 pm

The TD Gaming Podcast and Videogame Roundtable merge, as Jonah Falcon introduces VGRT regular Jordan Lund to his new listeners, as the VGRT Gaming Podcast is born.

The podcast is a little rushed, however, as E3 approaches, giving the duo only some time to discuss the eventful past week, which includes the following news:

The NGP to be called the PlayStation Vita
PS4 in development .. oops, no it’s not
DC Comics 1st day distribution
Dungeon Empires out of beta
Dead or Alive 3DS = child porn?
Gears of War: Exile and Halo HD leaked
Bungie showing new game on 7/7
Gamestop honoring Duke Nukem Forever preorders
Sales of Trials HD hit 2M
Call of Duty: Elite announced

For this podcast, this Question of the Week is, “What game do you want to learn about the most at E3” Of course, by the time the next podcast is launched, that question will probably be satisfied. As for Reader Feedback, we didn’t have time to answer it, but we will respond to it next week!

New Australian R18+ Proposal DraftedNew Australian R18+ Proposal Drafted

May 26, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 4:02 pm

A new draft of the R18+ classification has been released by home minister Brendan O’Connor through the Australian Federal Government. The new guidelines closely match those in place for Australia’s film industry. The new R18+ rating removes restrictions on bad language, drug use and nudity; in contrast, the current guidelines forbade the classification of any adult-themed games.

O’Connor’s draft claims that the R18+ rating will allow “virtually no restrictions on the treatment of themes”, and violence in games “except where it offends against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that it should not be classified.” As far as sex, the draft says, “Sexual activity may be realistically simulated. The general rule is ‘simulation, yes – the real thing, no'”.

Of course, “standards of morality, decency and propriety” is still troublesomely subjective, while “simulation, yes, the real thing, no” is comicly inept for videogames, where everything is simulation. You may be able to tell when live actors are actually performing sexual acts, but when can you tell a videogame character is actually having sex?

O’Connor stated:

“The Gillard government wants to provide better guidance for parents and remove unsuitable material from children and teenagers. The introduction of an R18+ classification will help achieve that and will also bring Australia into line with comparable nations. This issue has been on the table for many years, without the necessary progress to make a change. We’ve recently seen several states publicly express their support for an adult only rating for games and I’m keen to reach a unanimous decision at the July meeting.”

Rather than banning games, why not punish stores for selling mature games to underage children? Or put the onus of raising children on the parents?