[PATV] Monday, April 1, 2013 - CheckPoint Season 2, Ep. 42: Restructuring Expectations

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[PATV] Monday, April 1, 2013 - CheckPoint Season 2, Ep. 42: Restructuring Expectations

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Jubal DiGriz

Sorry, Kathleen, but my Uncle David gave up model ships years ago. He's all about golfing now, and that's EA's bailiwick. Thanks for the thought, though.

Warmth

It's okay guys, Kathleen is 'sorrey'.

jacktion

This was the first episode of Checkpoint that I had seen. Is Kathleen a regular anchor? I'm curious how she got that job as she speaks as though she is on Benadryl. Lots of slurring and difficult to comprehend.
It seems like she is a good writer but being a tv presenter is a completely different skill set.

Show seems sort of funny though.

El Fantastico

Kathleen doesn't have a speech impediment, she's just Canadian. Just like all of the LoadingReadyRun crew. They're awesome.

OldSchoolChicken

"...not the Duck Tales story, that one was awesome"
Duck Tales was awesome, and so was this episode.

Zachary Amaranth

For the record, and to be completely serious for a moment, video games have been the top-enforced media in FTC undercover shoppers for like a decade now. They have also seen improvement routinely, while videos and music have stayed roughly the same.

And now, Ducktales. Wooooo-oooo

darkmage0707077

...OK, now I'm torn. On the one hand, Duck Tales is a classic NES title and I haven't seen anything about it aside from the most basic of trailers showing enhanced graphics (woo). It's going to be tough for them to recapture the magic of the original here. And spending the money to make a formerly text-only game into a voice-over game must take money out of other things (a lot, I'm betting).

On the other hand, they managed to get the ENTIRE cast for voice work?? That, at least, shows how serious they are about this game being good, and if even those who are retired are coming out, then I expect there will be passion behind the character voices rarely found in gaming today, so there is definitely hope yet.

My concerns are the remastered music (please don't suck), the controls (original had Mega-Man-precise controls, so should this) and the overall price (if it's over $15-20, why shouldn't I just save my money and dig out my old NES copy, or download the rom somewhere?). If they can assuage me on those obstacles, I'm sold.

Oh, and sorry to hear Squenix isn't doing well, my girlfriend will be pissed. Can't say I'm too surprised, though: they seem like they're pumping too much money into their games, so I think this might convince them to scale back those massive title budgets. If we're really lucky (ha), it might even get them to start diversifying their lineup more since their usual methods/revenue streams are slowing down.

Dubioushuman

You know, I agree that this whole high sales expectations thing is ridiculous. I don't know what their marketing team could possibly be thinking when they seem to expect Tomb raider to sell 10 million copies in a month. I know I didn't by a copy even though I think it looks good just like I didn't by any new games yet this year, and the reason for that is because I'm buying games 6-months to a year old off of amazon for 15 to 20$ sometimes as low as 10$ because the game market is so saturated that games devalue to bargain bin pricing in less than a year, and because of this there are entire series of games that I haven't played yet because I've been too busy either playing old games or just doing life stuff. This short life cycle for games is fine for me as I don't really need to buy used games for cheap anymore but it cannot be good for developers and publishers to give their games expiry dates in this way.

ImperialElves

The biggest issue for square-enix is simply the price break down for the game industry. Even though it looks like we are making lots of money we really don’t get much back after everyone else takes their cut. Add this to the ever increasing cost of making games and before you know it you are no longer able to afford to make even your most popular titles. I wrote a blog about this on gamasutra a few months back if you are interested in seeing how the numbers brake down.

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JeffreyWerner/20121103/180855/The_Business_of_Making_Games.php

Brainleech

yes Wal-Mart proves apathy is contagious not a suprise that they will sell anything in the name of a sale before thinking about it

Maltease

Pretty sure the reason Wal-Mart is the worst offender not because the company itself doesn't care about who it sells what to (though I'm sure it doesn't), but because their minimum-waged, barely-benefited employees couldn't give less of a shit about the company itself because they've never been given a reason to.

enderandrew

@darkmage0707077 - Reviews from people who played it at PAX say the game plays almost identically to the original. It just looks nicer and has voice acting now. To anyone who says this is a cheap move from Capcom, I think this is precisely what fans wanted. If the gameplay was so great in the original, why break it?

I'm sure there are countless people who never played the NES original, and I fully expect this to be a full-priced $60 console game. But if it comes out as Mega Man 9/10 cheap download title, then I'll be pleasantly surprised.

tyrantula22

@Enderandrew - They've already said it will be an arcade game on the xbox, so it's definitely not a full $60 game. I don't believe price has been releaseed, but most likely it will be 800 or 1200 msp ($10-$15). I'm hoping it will just be $10, but $15 wouldn't surprise me.

Geth

Jubal DiGriz has been kidnapped by B_R and is being held for ransom! Solve the riddle to set em' free, or I'll hand em' over to Clamps!

I oversaw the virtual table
An ARCHIVIST and a HOST
I kept the CHAOS stable
for a very many post
Which forumer am I?

Don Reba

I think I know what the main CheckPoint news story on April 1, 2014 is going to be.

Torchman

@enderandrew: Nope it's a download title. $15 is what it will go for.

Siddown

So Hitman did what, 210 million USD in revenue (not including digital). Of course retailers take their cut, as does everyone else, but let's say with digital and upcoming sales it hits 4 million units by the time it's done it's run.

If you can't make a profit selling 4 million units, you're probably doing it wrong.

Jodinsan

@Maltease As a Walmart employee (though not minimum wage) I can say that everything you said is 100% correct.
Well, maybe in 90-95% of the cases anyhow.

Undeadpool

Square-Enix: Great at Passing the Buck! (Across the Pacific Ocean...)

likalaruku

Would it kill Square Enix to put out a lower budget 2D or 2.5D dropdown RPG, like old times?

Dedwrekka

@likalaruku
Yes, actually. Different artists and developers would be required for a 2 or 2.5D isomorphic game than a 3D FPS. Mostly artists, but I've seen enough examples of devs who try to hop genres like that and fail to say different devs as well. That means an even bigger expenditure from square on the game.

TransientMind

I think the banner at the bottom had it right, re: Square/Enix. It's not that Hitman, Tomb Raider and Sleeping Dogs weren't profitable. It's that they weren't profitable ENOUGH to pay for the life support for the Final Fantasy franchise. Unfair, but what can you do. Except buy more DLC, I guess.

Bewildered_Ronin

Capcom is doing an HD remake of the D&D beat 'em up arcade games. New graphics, sounds, rules, and online multplayer.

johnnywhitebread

"The Occulus Rift - More Comfortable Than Jamming Your Finger Down Your Throat to Make Your Bed Stop Spinning."

@Bewildered_Ronin - I cannot wait to give them my money.