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Video game news that reflects on the latest trends and cultural impacts brought on by gaming. From the perspective of a few guys who wish they had more time to play video games!
Episodes
4 days ago
4 days ago
The cost of the PS5 is going up. The cops get digital and all about the Switch 2.
http://www.joystickandmouse.com
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Show Notes:
If you still haven't purchased a PS5, you may want to do so in the very near future. No, it's not because of tariffs, well not directly anyways. Prices for the console are rising in several regions and it's probably only a matter of time before it hits the US. So let's talk about how much, where and when.
https://www.theverge.com/news/647869/sony-ps5-price-rise-uk-europe-australia-new-zealand
https://www.polygon.com/news/558161/ps5-price-increase-new-europe-uk
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-online-police-patrol-internet-denmark.html#google_vignette
Nintendo held another direct this past week. this time dealing exclusively with the Switch 2. Well here's all the things that were announced and how to order ... or not.
https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-switch-2-direct-everything-announced
Monday Apr 07, 2025
Monday Apr 07, 2025
more bad news on the video game developer front. We take a nostalgic look at some game systems that didn't make the grade. We discuss if genres have any meeting and discuss the latest news out of Nintendos camp.
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Show Notes:
We try to keep you up with the state of game development and unfortunately the trend of the last couple of years continued this past week. Eidos Montreal and Myst developer Cyan had layoffs this past month.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/eidos-montreal-lays-off-75-staff
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/myst-developer-cyan-worlds-has-laid-off-half-of-its-workforce
We've all been there. you run out and buy that shiny new game console and it just falls flat and never goes anywhere. As the proud owner of an Adam computer system back in the day I can relate to this feeling. Well here are a few others that just didn't live up to the hype.
https://www.xda-developers.com/video-game-consoles-never-stood-chance/
What's in a genre anyways. Well kataku thinks they are all mixed up and it's our fault.
https://kotaku.com/genres-fps-hero-shooter-adventure-rts-action-opinion-1851772168
The Switch 2 looms on the horizon, and in less than a week's time, we'll learn more information about Nintendo's next console. Last week, though, Nintendo hosted a Switch 1-focused Direct, and it felt like a flurry of last-minute announcements for the record-shattering handheld hybrid console ahead of its successor. So here's all the things announced that will be irrelevant later this week.
https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-direct-march-2025-everything-announced
Monday Mar 17, 2025
Monday Mar 17, 2025
One of the most successful mobile game developers finds a new overlord. Why do we even play games. A fake museum inducts some new members and Sony had it's big day since the last time we were together.
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Show Notes:
Niantic, the company that brought us Ingress and Pokemon Go hasn't faired so well with their follow up offerings. Harry Potter was an absolute flop and the few other games trying to recapture that wanderer magic have fallen flat. As such, Niantic is being sold and here are all the details.
https://www.nextpit.com/pokemon-go-sale-niantic#:~:text=Niantic%20Games%20go%20to%20Saudi,the%20development%20of%20mobile%20games.
Why do we play games? It's a fairly inocuous question that the answer is probably filled with a lot of nuance. Well a research company posed exactly that question and while simplistic, their answer opens up the discussion of why we do this at all.
https://www.midiaresearch.com/blog/why-do-gamers-play-games-half-say-mainly-to-relax-but-things-are-different-for-the-other-half
The Strong National Museum of Play has announced their annual candidates for induction into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. I agree, who is that but it does bring up the concept of a hall of fame for video games and what games should be in it. Let's see if our list matches theirs.
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/should-age-of-empires-and-quake-be-in-the-world-video-game-hall-of-fame-you-can-vote-for-them-to-be-inducted-this-year/
https://www.museumofplay.org/exhibits/world-video-game-hall-of-fame/finalists/
Sony's first big PlayStation State of Play for the year kicked off last night, bringing with it a host of announcements, both big and small, from first-party developers and third-party publishers. The stream lasted for a little over 40 minutes, and revealed new titles, remasters, and release dates for previously announced games. So let's take a look at all that was put on display for us.
https://www.newsweek.com/entertainment/video-games/everything-announced-february-playstation-state-play-2030528
https://blog.playstation.com/2025/02/27/a-great-new-price-for-playstation-vr2/
Monday Feb 03, 2025
Monday Feb 03, 2025
Some new gaming hardware was "officially" announced. XBox showed off some new games and there was this big electronics show that happened and they talked about video game stuff while they were at it.
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Show Notes
Well the wait is over ... sort of. We got some information about the new Nintendo console in the works but not a lot of details. Let's take a look at what we did get.
https://kotaku.com/switch-2-reveal-trailer-date-nintendo-mario-kart-9-1851739487
https://www.polygon.com/nintendo/23899504/nintendo-switch-2-release-date-power-name-games
Microsoft held a XBox developer direct that showcased new titles from 4 different studios. Here's everything that was announced in this direct.
https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/everything-announced-at-xbox-developer-direct-showcase-live-2025/
This is where we are going to go off the beaten path a bit. CES happened since our last episode and while it is geared towards the latest in Television technology. (Well it sems that way anyways) There is quite a bit of new that is geared towards us gamers. So we'll take a look at those announcements.
https://www.ign.com/articles/ces-2025-everything-announced
Monday Jan 13, 2025
Monday Jan 13, 2025
What prompted Sony to purchase Naughty Dog. We take a look at the year ahead for triple A titles. It's good to be bad and what is the best video game of all time?
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Show Notes
One of Sony's first developer studio aquisitions was Naughty Dog. At the time, we assumed this was because of money and the financial backing that Sony could provide. Well an article this week confirmed that but what really struck me was the numers of what it cost to develop a video game in the 80 as compared to today.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/naughty-dog-founder-reveals-budgets-of-original-games-and-why-they-sold-to-sony/1100-6528634/
2025 is looking like it will be a big year for video games and for triple A titles in particular. But what if those titles don't so well? This is shaping up to be a make or break year for the big name titles.
https://www.eurogamer.net/2025-will-be-a-make-or-break-year-for-triple-a-video-games-as-we-know-them
let's face it. Some times in a video game it's fun to be bad. Well here are the 10 video games that react best to that play style.
https://whatculture.com/gaming/10-video-games-that-react-to-you-being-a-scumbag
This is one of those lists that is VERY subjective. What is the best video game of all time? We have our favorites but let's look at what Rolling Stone had to say about it.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/rs-gaming-lists/best-video-games-of-all-time-1235215978/hades-2020-1235215983/
Monday Dec 30, 2024
Monday Dec 30, 2024
... It's the end of he year and that means a whole bunch of end of year retrospectives. Well you know we love a list and we have several this week dealing with those.
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Show Notes:
The end of the year is upon us and as always that means a series of end-of-year awards and community events. The PC marketplace Steam has announced its own slate of nominees for The Steam Awards
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/steam-awards-2024-nominees-winners/2900-6093/?utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=category%3Dnewsletter;name%3DGameSpot-Report;id%3D12059029;date%3D121724;lctg%3D20cb827897db11f28a37f08b80d1d1fe8847e789eebd69af2959f3e006c92065#1
Microsoft’s newest sales pitch to prospective gamers is that everything—your TV, computer, or phone—can be an Xbox. It’s part of a new strategy aimed at reaching more people, and potentially making a lot more money. It’s also a major shift for the millions of people who have been Xbox fans for decades now, and the company says it’s embracing that and yes, we told you so.
https://kotaku.com/microsoft-xbox-game-pass-ps5-exclusives-streaming-1851722886
The game award winners were announced, we'll get to that later, and during that show were a lot of announcements and trailers. So let's take a look at every thing that was announced.
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/the-game-awards-2024-all-the-biggest-announcements/2900-6077/?utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=category%3Dnewsletter;name%3DGameSpot-Report;id%3D12022122;date%3D121324;lctg%3D20cb827897db11f28a37f08b80d1d1fe8847e789eebd69af2959f3e006c92065#1
All the winners.
https://www.google.com/search?q=game+awards+winners&sca_esv=1016bfdc9707f9f9&biw=1592&bih=1017&sxsrf=ADLYWIJt4EFkLGhSSC7AkvegM1BICkV2Qg%3A1734987903209&ei=f9BpZ-6vDNSo5NoP7tnG6Qs&ved=0ahUKEwiu66PN5b6KAxVUFFkFHe6sMb04ChDh1QMIEA&uact=5&oq=game+awards+winners&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiE2dhbWUgYXdhcmRzIHdpbm5lcnMyCBAAGIAEGLEDMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAESM4iUIAJWOIdcAF4AZABAJgBNaABgQOqAQE4uAEDyAEA-AEBmAIJoAKeA8ICChAAGLADGNYEGEfCAg0QABiABBiwAxhDGIoFwgIKEAAYgAQYQxiKBcICDRAAGIAEGLEDGEMYigXCAgoQABiABBgUGIcCwgINEAAYgAQYsQMYFBiHApgDAIgGAZAGCpIHATmgB6Ur&sclient=gws-wiz-serp
Monday Dec 16, 2024
Monday Dec 16, 2024
No Blurb this week. Diddi was lazy. :)
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Show Notes:
NZXT is coming under fire for its recently expanded gaming PC rental service. A recent video from Gamers Nexus accused NZXT of running a bait-and-switch, sending people less powerful systems while claiming they offer higher performance. The video expose was posted over the weekend, but the company has only now released a statement that boils down to "we'll look into it," and gamers aren't having it.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2543936/nzxt-accused-of-predatory-scam-gaming-pc-rental-program.html
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/nzxt-accused-predatory-pc-rental-182756635.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAL1VKNUxjWSTejTIRRjURbFafWhjv8R2B3W77BClzuC5RLVznanLo-yly7iABhuBZ9UdSYdPU-Dy1nyXGXoLe83gIb5X3r2IvQ6vt-KqjDw8dQVI6BZwNi3vlIACm0bq5LTaTPlaqGra5VJGfHX5stY3VHQMhlHjXWmgSePR_41E
Hundreds of thousands of Fortnite players are getting a refund after federal regulators found that the game's developer, Epic Games, "tricked" gamers into unknowingly spending money on in-game purchases. The Federal Trade Commission announced Monday that it will send a total of $72 million in refunds to Epic Games customers who were duped into making unwanted purchases
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2024/12/10/fortnite-epic-games-refund-ftc/76881868007/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epic-games-fortnite-ftc-refund/
https://www.polygon.com/opinion/493536/luigi-mangione-among-us-news
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ironic-suspect-unitedhealthcare-slaying-played-video-game-killer-rcna183550
The pandemic hit hard and we are stilll feeling the effects of that in the video gme industry in the form of all the lay offs and the delay of games. Gamespot compiled a list of all the delayed games and you know how we like a list.
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/every-game-delayed-right-now/2900-3741/?utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=category%3Dnewsletter;name%3DGameSpot-Report;id%3D11965166;date%3D120924;lctg%3Db3a7b738bd17d2fa16eb5ab92783891fb0c35bd6f93fb6c92ad5b2d8754d0c30#1
Monday Nov 25, 2024
Monday Nov 25, 2024
... we have a sale. A familiar person is bucking to take over everything mouse. Somebody has a birthday and the nominations are in.
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Show Notes
Santa has come a little earlier this year, bringing a price cut for the PlayStation 5 Slim. This model usually retails for $449, but Sony just announced a price cut. The price is dropping down to just $380 until Dec. 24, just in time for the holidays.
https://www.cnet.com/deals/calling-all-gamers-ps5-gets-a-price-cut-this-holiday-season/
Disney is reportedly considering Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson as a successor to Disney CEO Bob Iger, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
https://venturebeat.com/games/disney/
Warcraft turns 30 this year and Blizzard held a direct this year instead of Blizzcon. Here's everything that was announced during the event.
https://www.ign.com/articles/warcraft-30th-anniversary-direct-everything-announced
It's that time of year again. Whiskey advent you say? Well yes but not what I'm talking about here. It's award time and the video game award nominations were announced this week so let's go through them and see who the nominees are.
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/the-game-awards-2024-nominees-announced-see-them-all-now/2900-5956/
Monday Nov 11, 2024
Monday Nov 11, 2024
We talk some news from Sony. What netflix is up to. Microsoft financials and the little decision we are making today.
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Remember that game that Sony put out recently called Concord. No? Well neither do we but it's failure was colosal. Let's talk about the numbers and how bad they were.
https://kotaku.com/concord-sony-biggest-flop-failure-box-office-1851676475
The PS5 pro comes out next week and the specs were released along with the updated games. Well here's the numbers and a few of the games that will get an update.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamernews/comments/1gjjyf3/sony_confirms_ps5_pro_specs_and_all_50_upgraded/
We've talked about Netflix getting into the gaming industry but one of those endeavors is being dumped already. Here's what's leaving and what direction Netflix is looking to head in the future.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/almost-every-interactive-title-is-leaving-netflix/1100-6527588/
Not a good look for Microsoft this week when it released it's annual report and there were some very interesting numbers in there.
https://www.eurogamer.net/microsoft-ceos-pay-rises-63-to-73m-despite-devastating-year-for-layoffs
As you may have heard there is a small important event happening today. If you are listening to this after release it already happened and you may know the outcome. But how will the election affect video games? Not at all? Well maybe not so let's look at how that could be.
https://www.ign.com/articles/how-the-2024-us-presidential-election-will-impact-video-games
Monday Oct 21, 2024
Monday Oct 21, 2024
Epic 1, app stores 0. leadership changes at XBox. A new game announced from a new studio and our list of the week.
http://www.joystickandmouse.com
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Show Notes:
We been following the story of Epic vs Apple as it pertains to allowing the Epic Game Store on Apple devices. Well that story took a turn this week when a judge ruled that Google's play store is an illegal monopoli and must allow third party app stores on it's devices. let's look at that ruling and discuss what it might mean for apple.
https://www.theverge.com/policy/2024/10/7/24243316/epic-google-permanent-injunction-ruling-third-party-stores
According to a leaked internal email, Xbox Game Studios will soon be led by Rare studio head Craig Duncan as current boss Alan Hartman is retiring in November. What if anything does this mean for XBox.
https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-game-studios-leadership-change-sees-rare-boss-take-over
Mike Morhaime and his new studio Dreamhaven announced the name and some details of their new game this week. Here's all the info so far.
https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/sunderfolk-video-game-blizzard-1236173545/
our list this week comes from Gameluster and is their ranking of the top 100 indie games of all time. We won't subject you to all 100 game but here are their top 10.
https://gameluster.com/our-100-best-indie-games-of-all-time/
Extra:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/blizzard-video-games-history-harassment-book-b2627402.html