Easy Allies Podcast #83 - October 25th 2017

Mario and Luigi remake isn't that bad Kyle, Nintendo is throwing us a bone let's take it. Rather remakes of good games than bad games like paper jam and sticker star.

A totally random bit of info I just found on Reddit (yeah...) that I thought may be of interest: apparently almost half of PUBG's playerbase is in China. I don't have time before work to check how accurate the info is, which makes it the best kind of fact :P <a href="https://images-ext-2.discordapp.net/external/c9C2DDQY-8JBzAVy5cGkqR1vBoslYX_Hmvcit7rulro/https/pbs.twimg.com/media/DLsSqWlWkAAZ9CU.png%3Alarge" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://images-ext-2.discordapp.net/external/c9C2DDQY-8JBzAVy5cGkqR1vBoslYX_Hmvcit7rulro/https/pbs.twimg.com/media/DLsSqWlWkAAZ9CU.png%3Alarge</a>

I really want to say I am incredibly happy that the Allies decided not to address the Neogaf stuff. Thank you, Kyle (and panel) for not discussing it. I felt the podcast was particularly strong, and really appreciated the ability to express the desire to not discuss the topic in such a mature way. Thank you Allies!

I think that while these stories are gaming-adjacent, they aren't really about games which seems to be the big focus of the podcast. I don't think they're dismissing the issue but moreso saying "This is not the time nor place to discuss that".

Daniel Rona

Jones, so damn good "My biggest criticism was its greatest strength"

GW Fawkes

I can't help but feeling dismissing the Neogaf story was a bad move. Not necessarily in dismissing it - I respect your choice to cover and discuss what you want - but Kyle's tone was not anywhere near measured. Easy Allies had a large presence on Neogaf, with several members posting there, so to completely dismiss it comes off somewhat cowardly. I also think it's valuable to keep accusations of sexual harassment as an ongoing dialogue and process. You also didn't cover the Naughty Dog stories either. You have no obligation to, nor even a moral imperative, but personally I'd like to see at least a considered, tactful and honest approach to these events rather than pushing them to the sidelines. Doing so makes them 'flavour of the week' issues that people get worked up over and forget about it in a short space of time, rather than the consistent acknowledge that these issues are pervasive and that we, as people, need to do better.

Ashley H

Correction (Kinda): Re GameCube controllers-- in an article on IGN, Reggie just made a comment that Nintendo was pleasantly surprised by the GameCube controller compatibility. Apparently they were working on getting USB items to work, and GameCube just happened to work. <a href="http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/10/27/nintendo-was-as-surprised-as-you-were-about-gamecube-controller-support-on-switch" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/10/27/nintendo-was-as-surprised-as-you-were-about-gamecube-controller-support-on-switch</a>

Patrick Dixon

Yep, the PSTV is pretty much exactly that. You can often find it for like 40 bucks or less. Also, the PS1 support in the PS3/PSTV/Vita is purely Emulation. No Hardware. It's absurd that the PS4 doesn't play PS1 Classics.

The file size for Fire Emblem Warriors has been on the NA eshop since before you guys made the bet last week. apparently you looked everywhere but there.

I love you people, please keep doing what you do.

Brian "FriendlyMerlin" A.

Bummed that Kyle is so aggressively anti-Pokken. Whileit might not be everybody’s cup of tea (Jones?), it’s a good game with a scrappy community, it would be nice to see the players who have busted their butts to organize a competitive scene pull it off, and Kyles snips aren’t helpful. Not saying Kyle needs to love it, but kicking a game while it’s down seems a bit tacky.

Patrick Dixon

-The funny thing is with this little PS1 Classics Device...It "kind of" already exists, even though the interface sucks. -It's called the PlayStation TV. It's the VITA(console version). -It has plenty of great PSP/PS1 titles with full compatibility, and some alright VITA titles. While it's missing the PS2 titles, it's quite an affordable device that just uses DS3/DS4 controllers.

drd7of14

glad to see a new mix of allies joining weekly, thx bossie XD

Matt Currin

I spewed coffee onto _three_ different device displays at 1:09:50.

iconmaster

Sweet ghost theory at the end Jones lol

John Wingate

And THAT's how you sign off!

The Hashtagonist

Check out Path of Exile for how you make a good free to play game with micro-transactions.

Olf Himself

I honestly see nothing wrong with Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (which btw you can start playing it now but it'll set your region to Australia). Waiting 72 hours for something is what you literally do in the mainline games. Also, the game doesn't seem to have a main menu screen which is why you see those "pop-ups". As in other mobile games I've played, they usually have a notices banner which is what that pop-up is. Which sure, will likely have notices on deals occasionally.

Rappy

Maybe correction: I don't know if it's a new IP, if it is, you have Square Enix coming out with Octopath Traveler on the Switch. To my knowledge, it's a single player JRPG.

NPD is National Purchase Diary

So Jones wants to re-release the original PS3 model that played PS1 PS2 and PS3 games (edit: they eventually acknowledged it)

Nicholas Poer

I pay almost $85-100 per game in Costa Rica already.

Mugen Himura

A forum. A lot of good info came from it, but it went downhill rather quick for sexual harassment allegations.

Mugen Himura

&lt;3

Celso O'Donnell

Hey Allies, Less of correction here and more of a clarification on the situation regarding Visceral, EA and Star Wars and development costs of producing current and previous generation games from the mouth of a game developer. Sorry for being a little over a week late. Damiani is right, game development is expensive, and approximately half of a games price tag makes it back to the publisher on average, and I’m only talking about when a game is first released. The actual amount reduces significantly as price drops occur. The ratio break is roughly something like this: $60 per Sale –&gt; $10 to the retailer -&gt; $10-$20 in manufacturing and shipping costs -&gt; $10 licensing fee to the platform holder –&gt; Remainder to the publisher/Developer depending on the publisher/developer relationship Like I said, these are rough estimates and was relevant in 2007/2008 when I learned about it in school, but I doubt it's changed much at all. I don't know what the division of dollars is for digital sale, if the platform holders like Steam, PSN, Xbox Live take a larger cut from an online sale ala Apple's 30% cut, but its safe to assume that with manufacturing and shipping no longer being factors, the publisher is in theory taking a bigger cut. Thats why you tend to see "sales" more often online than in physical retail shops. Development costs are skyrocketing due to the sizes of the teams increasing in order to get a project done in a reasonable time frame and to a specific quality expectation. The average size for a development team in triple A development these days is in-excess of 150 people, sometimes significantly larger depending on the game. While I play coy here, my NDA has long since expired so have no fear. Speaking from experience on working on the first two Dialogue Wheel, Fantasy Action RPG's developed in northern Canada, our development team was in the area of about 150 people concurrently throughout the development. Sometimes more, sometimes less but generally in the area of around 150 people. If those 150 people are paid a median average $50,000 salary per year, you can see how on an annual basis, the cost of those games can add up. Add in non-development costs like building leases, IT, hardware, software, HR and other non-development costs, including marketing, games VERY quickly start adding up. The original game in the franchise was in development over the course of roughly 7 years. I don’t have hard budget numbers, but since it only moved about 3.8 million units and 1 million DLC sales (according to Wikipedia), it’s safe to say it probably didn’t recoup all of its development and marketing costs. The first sequel on the other hand, had a similar development team size, but went from pre-production to release in roughly 48 weeks. The game sold a little less than the number of units as the original game in the franchise sold, but due to the SIGNIFICANTLY decreased development costs over other games the studio has made, the game is actually the studios most profitable game to date. To answer the question about whether or not a single player experience like Dead Space 2, Dragon Age, Mirrors Edge or Uncharted can exist in todays development world without some form of micro-transaction, the answer is technically yes, but it comes at a cost, usually quality. Much like the film industry, the games industry is struggling with the exponentially rising costs, but are unable or unwilling to increase the cost of the games themselves to offset the cost of development. Most games don’t make their development costs back on direct sales, but instead of additional transactions through DLC or micro-transactions like loot boxes. Those help re-coup costs, keep people employed and help provide incentive to produce more titles in a franchise. As gamers, we need to choose: Pay more outright for our games, or pay optional micro-transactions. Since micro-transactions are optional, that’s the easiest sell for most developers, since the “whales” more than make up for those who spend nothing. So, choose your evil: Pay $80-$100 for a game (what we pay in Canada anyways because of our dollar compared to the USD), or pay $60 and make a decision to contribute to the micro-transaction system or not. PS – Most people will always think of Visceral Studios as basically having done Dead Space 1, 2 and 3 and Battlefield Hardline, but often forget that they also developed the Medal of Honour reboot and subsequent sequel that launched DOA. As much as I love Dead Space 1 and 2 (some of my favorite survival horror games of all time), Visceral hasn’t had a real success in years and honestly, this was a long time coming. Love and Respect, Cody Ouimet

What the heck is a neogaf

Ajax