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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
Monday Apr 22, 2024
Monday Apr 22, 2024
We are having another TV centric episode. We will discuss another huge video game based hit on streaming and we may even have a list based around TV shows. Beside TV we have another tone deaf statement from an ex Blizzard exec that sort of epitomizes how out of touch they were.
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Show Notes
Oh Blizzard, here we go again. In a completely tone deaf message Mike Ybarra, former Blizzard president, said that gamers should tip developers when they like a game.
https://nypost.com/2024/04/15/tech/video-game-exec-slammed-suggested-players-tip-developers-always-put-burden-on-customers/
https://www.thegamer.com/no-we-are-absolutely-not-tipping-video-game-companies-blizzard-president-mike-ybarra/
We have another huge crossover hit as the fallout series on Amazon prime has taken the world by storm. It's just exception done so let's discuss the show.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-fallout-tv-show-gave-the-fallout-games-a-huge-player-bump-as-everyone-remembers-they-like-fallout
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-04-12/amazon-s-fallout-show-is-a-fantastic-video-game-adaptation
We had "Last Of Us" and now"Halo" and "Fallout" that have been huge hits. So what video games are out there that we would like to be turned into a TV series. Well The National News has a list so the's go through that and see what we agree with and which ones we aren't so hot about.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/2024/04/13/video-games-tv-shows-adaptation/
Monday Mar 25, 2024
Monday Mar 25, 2024
Some sad new in the comic world. There's some Playstation news and we have a couple of great lists to take a look at.
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Show Notes
The comic world lost a pioneer and inspiration when akira toriyama passed away this past week. His Dragon Ball comic is revered as one of the best animes ever. His creativeness and vision will be missed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/08/arts/akira-toriyama-dead.html
Some PS5 news. The PS5 pro specs were leaked (yes, there is a PS5 pro coming) and the PSVR2 production was halted.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/playstation-vr-2-headset-production-paused-report/1100-6521906/
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/impressive-sounding-ps5-pro-specs-and-release-window-reportedly-leaked/1100-6521894/
One of the studios that has brought us some of the best games ever produced is Naughty Dog. Well IGN put out a list of all the games they have developed and well you know we couldn't pass up a great list so let's dig in and talk Naughty Dog.
https://www.ign.com/articles/all-naughty-dog-games-in-order
We love video games. We love the story and escape that comes with playing them but sometimes you just want to throw the controller at the damn screen. We all know that feeling. Which begs the question, What is the hardest game you have played? Well yardbarker came up with a list and well you know how that goes around here.
https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_25_most_challenging_video_games_of_all_time_031524/s1__38319193#slide_5
Monday Mar 11, 2024
Monday Mar 11, 2024
Nintendo picks it's battles and the Game industry takes another hit.
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Show Notes
Sony lays off approxamately 85 of its work force. This include the closing of a full studio in London a week after the CEO visited and said all is well. Just another in the blood bath that is the gaming industry this year.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/27/24084494/sony-playstation-layoffs-2024
https://fandomwire.com/playstation-ceo-jim-ryan-closes-london-studios/#:~:text=Jim%20Ryan%20shuts%20down%20London,hand%20and%20an%20uncertain%20fate.
Speaking of that gaming industry bloodbath, add almost 700 employees at EA to that total for the year. Along with a few other smaller companies that's over 2000 employees in February alone. So what is this all about and what does it mean for our games going forwards?
https://gameworldobserver.com/2024/03/04/game-industry-layoffs-over-2000-february-compared-to-2023
Just over a week ago, Nintendo sued the developers of the leading Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu, for “facilitating piracy at a colossal scale.” Now, it appears that Yuzu will give up without a fight — and give Nintendo everything it wanted. And it affects the Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra, too.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/4/24090357/nintendo-yuzu-emulator-lawsuit-settlement
https://hard-drive.net/hd/video-games/yuzu-shuts-down-to-better-emulate-video-game-industry/
The Last of Us was definitely one of the biggest and most talked about shows of 2023. Starring Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal it was an amazing adaptation of a video game and we now have the cast for season two that details the game sequal.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/noradominick/the-last-of-us-season-2-cast
Monday Feb 26, 2024
Monday Feb 26, 2024
... Labor strife in the video game industry. We discuss a pokemon wannabe as well as the future of micro transaction and oh yeah, another video game awards show and all the winners.
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Show Notes
We've talked quite a bit about layoffs and force reductions in the video game industry lately but why is that happening? I think we have touched on our theories but this article from polygon looks into the current development industry and why these things are happening.
https://www.polygon.com/gaming/24074767/video-game-industry-layoffs-explainer
Take pokemon. Throw in Arc: Survival, a little rust and a smidgeon of Fallout and you have the latests game from Pocket Paire called Palworld. Some (well a lot) feel it's a rip off of Pokemon? But is it? Let's take a look at what's the same and well what's not.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/video-games/palworld-game-pokemon-response-rcna135687
https://screenrant.com/pokemon-palworld-survival-game-clone-rip-off-fakemon/
We all thought that micro transactions were the future of video game monitization. We have talked about this also quite a bit. We were wrong. Here's the future and it's bigger than we thought.
https://www.pcgamer.com/if-youre-wondering-why-diablo-4-has-a-horse-for-sale-with-dollar65-of-premium-currency-stuck-to-it-let-me-introduce-you-to-price-anchoring/
And yet another video game awards show. Here's the run down of winners.
https://www.ign.com/articles/dice-awards-2024-winners-the-full-list
Game Review
Palworld - Diddi
Monday Feb 05, 2024
Monday Feb 05, 2024
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Show Notes
Embracer Group, the company attempting to forge one video game publisher to rule them all, has just presided over another round of layoffs. Eidos Montreal is letting go of 97 game developers and support staff, the company announced today on X.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/29/24054659/embracer-eidos-montreal-layoffs-deus-ex
CES 2024 happened while we were away. The big kids at the gaming table tend to use their own events to announce their own devices. Microsoft isn’t going to announce a new Xbox in Las Vegas. Don’t expect a Nintendo Switch 2, either. That leaves the attention that is at the Consumer Electronics Show for the niche, weird, and decidedly enthusiast hardware. So let's take a look at the best gaming things announced at this years CES.
https://www.inverse.com/tech/best-gaming-hardware-ces-2024
Blizzard has been through some stuff in the last couple of years and the last couple of weeks were no different. Here's what is happening at our favorite company to dish on.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24049050/microsoft-activision-blizzard-layoffs
https://www.digitalspy.com/tech/a46558068/blizzard-odyssey-cancelled-microsoft-layoffs/
https://gamerant.com/blizzard-president-johanna-faries-announcement/
Halo looks amazing.
https://www.polygon.com/23984110/halo-tv-show-season-2-releaes-date-free-youtube
Wednesday Jan 17, 2024
Wednesday Jan 17, 2024
We're talking TV
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Show Notes
It's award season and although the big emmy show is in a couple of weeks, there is a smaller show known as the Creative Arts Emmy Awards which has a lot of the awards such as best visual effects and prosthetics and the such. The last of us was up for several awards on this as well as the golden globes so let's get into who won and how the show did.
https://kotaku.com/golden-globes-the-last-of-us-succession-emmy-awards-1851148385
https://www.emmys.com/news/awards-news/creative-arts-news-240106
https://edit.emmys.com/sites/default/files/press/creative-240106-v1.pdf
There are a lot of video games scheduled to be released in 2024, currently around 125. As much as we love a list that was still a few too many to go over so we needed a way to whittle that down a bit. Well Inverse came up with a list of the top 13 annd that seems like a pretty good number so here we go.
https://www.inverse.com/gaming/2024-video-games
OK, completely off topic here. Being the beginning of the year theres a lot of what's coming this year and this topic is no different. We are going to take a quick look at what gamespot says are the top 9 TV shows coming this year.
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/most-anticipated-tv-streaming-shows-2024/2900-5018/?ftag=NL&campaignName=GameSpot-Report&date=010624&lctg=b3a7b738bd17d2fa16eb5ab92783891fb0c35bd6f93fb6c92ad5b2d8754d0c30#1
Tuesday Dec 19, 2023
Tuesday Dec 19, 2023
| It's all about the game show awards so lets get to it. |
| http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com/ |
Show Notes
| The game show awards took place last week and , well it's as good as a list so let's run down the winners for you and discuss the angst around this years show. |
| https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/all-the-game-awards-2023-winners-revealed/2900-4977/?ftag=NL&campaignName=GameSpot-Report&date=120823&lctg=b3a7b738bd17d2fa16eb5ab92783891fb0c35bd6f93fb6c92ad5b2d8754d0c30#12 |
| https://thegameawards.com |
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu2z5M4gmno&t=4s |
Monday Nov 27, 2023
Monday Nov 27, 2023
Blizzcon returned and was epic again and we have all the details. IGN inadvertantly misses the mark and there were more layoffs in the video game industry. AND we have a list!!! Sort of. The video game award nominees were announced so we'll run down the games that were nominated.
Show Note
| BlizzCon 2023 has happened and its opening ceremony was filled with big announcements, including Diablo 4's first expansion called Vessel of Hatred, three new expansions for World of Warcraft in The Worldsoul Saga, a new Overwatch 2 hero named Mauga, and much more. Here's all the info from the annual celebration of all things Blizzard. |
| https://www.ign.com/articles/blizzcon-2023-everything-announced-and-revealed |
| https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/world-of-warcraft/24022616/world-of-warcraft-at-blizzcon-2023-news-round-up?blzcmp=app |
| In our last couple of shows we've talked about layoffs in the Video Game industry and what that impact has been on the people and games. Well that tend has continued so let's take a look at the causes and ramifications of these layoffs. |
| https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-11-20/video-game-industry-layoffs |
| One of our ongoing points of emphasis on this show is to bring to light the plight of women in the video game industry. Well IGN lit up that light inadventantly this past week when they published a story celebrating their 30 years of covering the gaming industry with exactly zero women highlighted. |
| https://www.inverse.com/gaming/pc-gamer-women-in-video-games |
| https://www.reddit.com/r/GirlGamers/comments/17vpjst/not_one_woman_in_30_years_not_one/ |
| https://www.pcgamer.com/celebrating-30-years-of-pc-gamer/ |
| Nominations for the 2023 Game Awards, recognizing the gaming biz’s best games and creators of the year, have been announced. So lets take a look at the nominees in the more important categories and give our take. |
| https://variety.com/2023/gaming/news/game-awards-2023-nominations-alan-wake-baldurs-gate-full-list-1235787390/ |
| https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-game-awards-2023-nominees-announced-see-them-all-now/1100-6519120/ |
| Mention Black Friday |
| https://www.ign.com/articles/best-buy-black-friday-video-game-deals-ps5-nintendo-switch-xbox-series-x |
| https://www.ign.com/articles/black-friday-2023?utm_source=piano |
Monday Nov 06, 2023
Monday Nov 06, 2023
A week after the merger clears Microsoft decides to kill a good deal of that good will with it's latest policy update. Ragnar has had his hacker license revoked. Bungie and is the latest developer with financial issues The party of the year is set to take place in Anaheim and if you are going to play some of these older Ubisoft games you better get to it.
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Show Notes:
In an apparent policy change, Microsoft has begun blocking “unauthorized” accessories, like controllers and adapters, from use with Xbox consoles. Users who connect an unlicensed third-party device to their Xbox are given two weeks to continue using it before it’s blocked from use completely.
https://www.polygon.com/23938582/microsoft-xbox-unauthorized-accessories-0x82d60002
https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/30/23938206/microsoft-xbox-controller-block-unauthorized-accessory-error-0x82d60002
A hacker gang that breached various high-profile companies like computer component manufacturer ADATA and video game publisher Capcom within the last several years has been arrested by an international police force, according to law enforcement agency Europol.
https://kotaku.com/ransomware-gang-ragnar-locker-capcom-2020-hack-1850953547
While the scope of the job cuts is currently unclear, Bloomberg’s reporter Jason Schreier claimed Bungie CEO Pete Parsons informed employees that a company-wide meeting would be held on Monday to discuss the situation.
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/bungie-is-the-latest-playstation-studio-to-be-hit-with-layoffs/
Upcoming this week or just happened if you are listening to the published podcast, is the long awaited return of Blizzcon. So with the aquisition by Microsoft complete what can we expect to find out at this years fan love affair with the irvine, California company.
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzcon/24021890/blizzcon-2023-broadcast-schedule-tune-in-live-november-3-4
Ubisoft has announced plans to shut down online services for nearly a dozen video games, including Assassin’s Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction. The games will lose online functionally on January 25, 2024.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ubisoft-will-shut-down-online-services-for-10-games-in-2024-including-older-assassins-creed-titles/1100-6518764/
https://kotaku.com/ubisoft-assassin-s-creed-splinter-cell-servers-shutdown-1850974513
Video Game Review:
Cities: Skylines 2 - Diddi
Tuesday Oct 24, 2023
Tuesday Oct 24, 2023
Xbox gets a lot bigger ... officially. Heads roll over Unity pricing debacle. Lots of people want to build something the Starfield lead quest designer leaves to work on a new game.
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Show Notes:
Its oficially official, after almost two years and sometimes contentious clashes between regulators and the companies, The Microsoft - Activision/Blizzard was finalized on October 13th. Lets take a look at what the means for the gaming landscape.
https://www.subscriptioninsider.com/type-of-subscription-business/subscription-gaming/microsoft-finally-closes-69m-activision-blizzard-acquisition
https://www.theringer.com/video-games/2023/10/13/23915767/microsoft-activision-blizzard-deal-acquisition-merger-takeaways
So what does Microsoft actually own now that the merger is complete? Well we have a list for that.
https://www.gameinformer.com/feature/2023/10/13/every-activision-blizzard-game-franchise-xbox-now-owns
Unity the world’s leading platform for creating and growing real-time 3D (RT3D) content, today announced that John Riccitiello will retire as President, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231009494331/en/Unity-Announces-Leadership-Transition
Minecraft already has the distinction of being the bestselling video game of all time. Today, it adds more down to that particular feather in its cap with the announcement that it has sold a staggering 300 million copies.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67105983
https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/15/23916349/minecraft-mojang-sold-300-million-copies-live-2023
Will Shen was at Bethesda for nearly 15 years, serving as a designer on games including Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield. He is now leaving the studio and joining Something Wicked Games, where he'll serve as lead content designer on its first game, the open-world RPG Wyrdsong.
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-lead-quest-designer-leaves-bethesda-to-work-on-the-open-world-rpg-wyrdsong/