E3 Editorial: Folly of the Major Game Companies UPDATE!

Return of Jaysun:

To say E3 has been below my standards of expectations would be unfair. My personal life has taken a massive blow to a perception of natural enjoyment. But I can still see where the problem lies for major growth in the gaming market. And it's pretty major. I will go by each keynote for the big 3 companies and offer some brief thoughts on each.

More After The Jump Time...Click Away!

Monday News Desperation

So, in my eternal quest to keep this thing timely as well as not consume too much of my time with extraordinarily verbose normal entries, I’m once again going to bring you some exciting news that hopefully you’re not already too aware of. Let the regurgitating commence!

You guys have listened to Episode #48, right? Since I know you did, you heard us talking about Sonic Generations and the plan (this year) for Sega to reinvigorate their mascot franchise. Some interesting details emerged that we didn't have time to cover, the most striking of which is that 'Classic' Sonic will be speechless. I haven't gotten around to playing Sonic Colors on the Wii but apparently Generations will be taking some of it's cues from it. Despite hearing Colors is a quantum leap in quality over any Sonic game in the past decade, I pretty much hear that every time there's a new Sonic game. Either way, I'll be waiting for the inevitable reduction to $10. [Source: TSSZnews.com]

Blink and you'll miss him

There's been a lot of talk lately about John Constantine returning to the DC Universe proper but Bleeding Cool got the straight skinny from Peter Milligan at the Hellblazer 25th anniversary panel. The Vertigo character, aging in real time for his 25 years, will remain that: a Vertigo character. Rather the version showing up in the mainline DC books will be a separate entity so all the Constantine and DC fans can have their cake and eat it too. Why John gets the special treatment of multiple incarnations while other Vertigo characters entering Earth-1 have had new projects canned remains a mystery to me; I suspect it's because the real time aging is too difficult a mechanic to address for them. Either that or it may be that Hellblazer is the longest running title at Vertigo. Constantine has actually had a few DCU cameos over the years after the Vertigo split, most recently at Green Arrow’s bachelor party, so that may have played a little into the decision as well. [Source: Bleeding Cool News]

For those of you out there that use the Playstation Network, I'm sure you've been riveted by all the crazy developments related to it's total inability to work recently. Sony has copped to the fact that it was an external attack on their network but full details about what's been affected have yet to emerge. Personally, I'm not sure what to think of this whole thing; I'm sure there's some hacker out there who just can't wait for all the kudos he'll be getting at DEF CON though. [Source: PCworld.com]


Hey let's talk about something only I care about! Or at least something where I'm the only person I've met who cares!

Viz Media LLC recently had a stealth announcement that the manga Gin Tama would cease its English publication after volume 23, one that we're only aware of because that volume has 'final volume' printed on the back. Since the series is currently at 39 volumes and counting, I imagine you can see my disappointment. I never expected to get anything fancy here, like the light novels, but the halt of the manga is a worrisome development in the eating-itself-from-inside-out American fandom. Gin Tama actually outsells 20th Century Boys, the title I referenced last week, but it seems safe because of Eisner prestige. Anyway, there's a surprising (to me at least) number of YouTube videos of people railing against Viz so someone else out there cares. Just don't misdirect your fury guys and remember the real enemy: the shrinking global marketplace brought on by you know what. 

The Avengers starts shooting today if you hadn't already heard from every news outlet on the planet. I'm thrilled, you're thrilled, we're all thrilled. But with that in mind, I thought I'd leave you today with something that left me less than thrilled: the final poster for Thor

Sorry, it's a slow news day

 

Episode #36: Don't be a Dopefish

ORCCAcast returns with a new Top Ten! This time we're button-mashing through our Top Ten Video Games of the Nineties and with games ranging from PC adventure titles to which Mario is the king of the 90's console ring, you are bound to hear an old forgotten favorite or at least get pissed off about something. Like Gabriel Knight? How about Commander Keen? We probably talk about at least one of them here! Lament about the depreciated nature of the Sonic franchise with us! Marvel at how Lucasarts was a nonstop hit factory! There's also enough time for us to ruminate on some other stuff! What kind? Well that would be telling so you should just listen instead!

S3: Extravagant E3 Extravaganza

Our third special, covering the annual promise-making event to gamers (and 40% usually turn out to be lies) with much pretense and speculation.
We see if Xbox can continue dominating the core gamers.
We speculate if Sony can win back it's lost marketshare by doing what they should have been the entire generation.
Wii watch Nintendo unveil more surprises (or not).
We make some outlandish predictions and pretend to know what we are saying, You know, the usual fare. Maybe you can hear Jaysun this time, who knows!
It's Quin-E, EEEEE, the Extravaganza!
Also, look to the right. You see that poll? Vote please? Maybe?
Contest begins this week, listen to the show for details and to see the super cool
prize we're giving away.