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Episode 649: Activision-Blizzard Sued AgainEpisode 649: Activision-Blizzard Sued Again

May 6, 2022| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 8:06 am

[This episode has been re-uploaded due to technical issues]

Another week, another time that Activision-Blizzard suffers legal issues — in fact, there are lots of legal shenanigans going on. No Gaming Podcast this week in this short episode, while Microsoft Movie Maker has a comeback.

This week’s news includes:

New York City sues Activision Blizzard, says Bobby Kotick is ‘unfit’ to negotiate the Microsoft buyout
Reggie Fils-Aimé warned Nintendo about GameBoy Micro
Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase announced for June 12
Xbox has helped Fortnite sneak its way back onto iPhones

Let us know what you think.

REVIEW: Mysterium (PC, iOS, Android)REVIEW: Mysterium (PC, iOS, Android)

February 10, 2017| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 12:46 am

I have an affinity for board games. Games like Lords of Waterdeep, Pandemic, 7 Wonders, and so on. When one of the games I enjoy get a videogame adaptation, I’m usually right on top of it. Some of the best adaptations include the iOS version of Lords of Waterdeep and Puerto Rico. Others, like Ra, aren’t as well translated. One game in particular, 7 Wonders, seems to be in an eternal beta.

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Episode 437: Star Trek and Call of DutyEpisode 437: Star Trek and Call of Duty

September 9, 2016| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 4:40 pm

Jonah Falcon talks about meeting stars and playing games at the Star Trek Convention in New York, while TJ Denzer talks about attending the Call of Duty XP convention in Los Angeles. All the while, Scott anxiously awaits the 8th episode of Minecraft Story Mode.

This week’s news includes:

iPhone 7 and 7 Plus announced with water resistance, dual cameras, and no headphone jack
Nintendo steals Apple show with game announcements
Sony unveils new PlayStation 4 Pro
Xbox Live Clubs and LFG arrive for Xbox One preview members

All this and Listener Feedback, too.

Episode 330: Batman ProblemsEpisode 330: Batman Problems

October 30, 2013| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 9:03 pm

This week’s episode has Jonah ranting about the shoddy QA in Batman: Arkham Origins, while Jordan admits he never used those Xbox Live cards that came free with some games. In the meantime, the Gaming Flashback is the classic Apple ][ game Bolo.

The news this week includes:

EA splits from Tiger Woods
Rumor: Xbox One SDK plagued by eleventh hours bugs
Apple sells 33.8m iPhones, 14.1m iPads in September quarter
Nvidia Shield update adds official PC streaming, console mode, more Android support
Fans trash Call of Duty: Ghosts booth at a games expo

No Question of the Week this week – just looking for Listener feedback.

Episode 262: But Not a Dollar ShortEpisode 262: But Not a Dollar Short

May 9, 2012| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 1:11 am

Episode 262 may be a week late, but it’s definitely chock full ‘o podcast goodness, as the full crew rambles on and off subject about this and that. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the old coin-op arcade game Star Castle while begat Yars’ Revenge, with a twist ending to the classic game’s tale.

This week’s news items include:

EA deals with Rock Band iOS debacle
Microsoft “banned” in Germany
Analyst predicts 3.5M sales of Diablo III in first year of release
Report: Next Xbox already in production

All that, plus Reader Feedback and the Question of the Week, “What Kickstarter project have you backed or are most interested in buying?”

Episode 225: Voodoo DoughnutsEpisode 225: Voodoo Doughnuts

August 3, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 6:34 pm

We’re back this week, as a ton of major news has hit in the past week. Paul starts going insane over doughnuts, Nintendo, and Max Dominic. There’s no gaming history or gaming flashback this week, but a ton of reader feedback.

This week’s news items include:

Nintendo in deep financial trouble
Diablo III requires constant internet connection
Tribes Ascend developer states free-to-play on 360 is “inevitable”
Gamestop offering in-store purchases of Deus Ex: Human Revolution digital download
Xbox co-creator brags “consoles have won!”

This week’s question of the week: Do you wait for a price cut before buying a console system? Let us know.

Blizzard Offering Free Trial of Auction House AppBlizzard Offering Free Trial of Auction House App

May 7, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 12:00 am

There are many World of Warcraft players who basically play half their game in the auction house. I personally know of a gamer who has made thousands of gold pieces buying and selling there (*cough* Derrick). The only problem these people have is that they only have so many hours in the day to log in to World of Warcraft to run auction house sessions.

Their problems are over (or just beginning, depending on your point of view.)

Blizzard has announced that they’re giving a free trial of their new Auction House app that allows you to check in on Auction Houses remotely from your iOS device. As the ad states, it’ll allow you to “buy, sell, chat – anytime, anywhere”, which is a very scary thought for WoW widows. (Unless, of course, those significant others are also WoW gamers.)

Another app allows remote guild chatting, which is nice when you want to be in contact with your guild 24 hours a day, too.

The app will charge $2.99 a month after the free trial. Check both apps out here.

(Thanks, RPS.)

Gaming Podcast 141: iPhone vs. Consoles?Gaming Podcast 141: iPhone vs. Consoles?

September 29, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 9:41 pm

This week, we’re looking at Unreal Tournament and looking back at Digital Extremes. We’re hitting up a few of this weeks top news articles including:

Apple cutting into console sales?
Tokyo Game Show Attendance down
Xbox 360 hardware not maxed out
Project Natal will configure virtual play area

Oddly enough, there wasn’t too much exciting news to talk about even given TGS. Slow week, but we had some great community comments and a new question of the week: what game do you recall playing that you felt maxed out the platform it released on?

Small Games Make Big WavesSmall Games Make Big Waves

February 22, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 11:24 am

The game industry is doing “okay” in this bad economic time compared to other industries. Primarily, Nintendo is rocking the house with their games, hand-held’s and consoles while mobile developers are showing some great successes in the industry. Many success stories in our industry are based on small titles, downloadable games of the more “casual” style while a few larger titles are experiencing slower than expected sales trends.

wiiware We’ve mentioned this in the past, but the tough economy gives many smaller developers great opportunities for success. While big publishers struggle to look good in the eyes of the investor, tiny developers can produce quality titles for minimal cash investment and time to market. Ten years ago, smaller developers tried to compete with the big boys making larger titles, cloning successful titles or simply asking investors to put it on the line for their game. Today, developers can create a small iphone app, a cute WiiWare title or exploit the XNA efforts of Microsoft for Xbox Live Arcade and actually have a chance.

There are still challenges with these smaller developers when working in the WiiWare and XBLA publishing channels, your game marketing and promotion becomes highly reliant on Nintendo, Microsoft or Sony for PSN. Tom Prata, senior director of Nintendo of America talked to Gamespot about this issue:

“Finally, there’s the problem of promotion. It’s not enough to make a great game if nobody notices it. Prata specifically said Nintendo will be devoting more resources to support the promotion and development of WiiWare games in the future.” (gamespot)

Of course, in the world of smaller game titles and downloadable casual games, you’re going to be at risk of finding a lot of “shovelware” — products that are only released to make a quick dime, often based on some license or popular theme/character. The great game titles will, hopefully, rise to the top and show themselves off amongst all the wanna-be money makers.

Those smaller developers putting a huge passion into their titles actually have a chance in this new industry trend. Game makers, internationally, now have a chance to grasp a small piece of the industry and make their dreams come true. The core audience may see this as a trend of noisly low quality titles, but I believe the industry needs this change to grow a new generation of developers based on niche interests.

While many can wait for their next release of Madden the rest of us will continue to spend a little money to see what the future innovators are going to be bringing to the table.

Why Doesn’t iTunes Have Game Trials?Why Doesn’t iTunes Have Game Trials?

January 27, 2009| schommer| 0 Comment| 11:40 am

Nothing is more annoying than going into iTunes to see what video games are available for the iPod Touch and iPhone to find it cluttered with hundreds of duplicate games. Developers seem to find it most useful to release two games instead of one single game: a full version and a “lite” version.

itunes Developers know gamers want to try before they buy, so many will create a game they’re hoping to sell, then a limited “lite” version with partial levels or stripped of features. They’re obviously trying to work around the fact that Apple released a half-assed game shopping experience. These pro and lite versions assist in cluttering the shopping space.

iTunes App Store should allow users to trial a game by allowing them to download a neutered version of the game title or using a time-trial like many other downloadable game services. Electronic game downloads are usually non-refundable because you can never give back a product which you can make infinite copies. The solution to getting users to buy into your product is to allow them to try before they buy.

Apple’s obviously enjoying the immense game sales from the application store but they may be able to increase their sales by allowing gamers to see what they’re buying before they walk away empty handed. This would also limit the total products found in the App Store because developers won’t have to post to revisions to their game title to allow gamers to try before they buy them.

There are some obvious downsides, Apple wouldn’t be able to boast the thousands of products in their store because many would be substituted for a real game download system. Okay, that’s really the only download I can think of… any others?

Developers may opt out of a trial system, forcing gamers to buy it before they try it based on the text and screenshots or utilize a time trial or limited featured version.

Thoughts?