GayGamer.net Podcast #48
Better late than never I always say! Sorry this one's so late, but it took quite a little bit to get this particular podcast put together but it's finally here.
This week, our special guest is Sid Shuman, former Senior Editor of GamePro and a good friend. He and Tiny and I discuss the news of the last few weeks including the iPad launch, digital vs. physical media, Mass Effect 2, and a load of other exciting tidbits. Sid is very knowledgeable and manages to keep up with Tiny himself! We hope you enjoy it.
We're always looking for reader questions to answer on the show so if you have a query for the crew that you'd like answered or would just like to suggest a topic for discussion, send it here with the subject line "Podcast Question."
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Fruit Brute
Posted to Hot Stuff, Podcast, Video Games on 29 January 2010
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: forty eight, poscast
Interesting discussion!
I personally will never read books online [I like having it in my hand whilst snuggled up in bed - its abit more awkward to lay on your bed and read off your swivelled monitor for long periods or from your computer chair - in my experience].
Games also, if the choice between physical and digital forever disappears then I'd be highly tempted to dip out of that 'next gen'. I dabble in afew XBLA and WiiWare games, but beyond that online gaming isn't important to me, personally.
And the iPad and DSi XLL [or Blockhead as I like to call it] are entirely uninspiring for me as well. But the Apple market has always been 'high-end' products, so its gonna sell well no matter the price anyway.
As for what I'm currently playing, I'm currently back on the last of my Christmas game presents [after NSMBW and ST] in Muramasa [which reminds me, did that Indie XBLA game, Elysian IIRC, come out yet?]
And I have FFXIII [360], RS2 [Wii], S&SASR [360], FFCC:CB [Wii] and EO2 [Wii] pre-orders covering February - March [it's gonna be a busy year!]
I think with regards to online distribution and pricing it really is a matter of the content. For instance, I can't imagine paying $50 to download a new game that I could buy at a retail store. I will, however, gladly pay $5 to $10 to download a classic game via Virtual Console. I do like having physical copies of games because they still hold resell value. I could trade or sell that game, or even borrow it out to a friend. With online distribution I don't have these options. Once you own something you pretty much own it forever - unless, of course, you sell your system or your system crashes.
I think where online distribution really works is with classic games and independent games. I love the fact that I'll soon be able to buy a game like Vagrant Story for $10 or less via PSN. I'll be supporting the makers of the game, I won't be paying out the ass for it like I would on eBay, and I'll own a virtual copy of the game. Certainly I realize I won't be able to sell or trade this version of the game, and I won't have a nice physical copy sitting in my collection, but I'll be buying it at such a cheap price that that doesn't really concern me.
Likewise with iTunes I think price depends on the content. $1.99 for an episode of a TV show isn't a great value, but I think it's a good price for anime, which tends to get expensive.
At any rate, I think giving the consumer both options is really the best approach.
Great podcast. Invite this Sid fella back sometime. He's good people.
Thanks for the warm welcome guys! I've known Fruite Brute and Tiny Dancer for YEARS, I'm surprised we didn't think of doing this earlier. :) And sorry for the weird crosstalk, we were battling Skype lag.
Just wanted to point out that when you search for 'Gaygamer' on zune.net it's filed under the name 'c'. Not sure what's going on with that, but thought I would let you know.
http://social.zune.net/search.aspx?keyword=gaygamer
Gaygamer shows up fine on the Zune software when you do a search.
Keep up the good work and I love it when you guys have special guests. Sid did an awesome job.