Another one! As usual, you should check out our Google+ page, simply because I’m going to keep pestering you.

Blam! We’re at it again with another podcast. This one is hitting the blog a week late, so you should subscribe to our YouTube Channel or hit us up on Google+.

Yep! We’re back at it again. The 72PC PodCast is reborn. We’re looking to bring you weekly news, reviews, and banter about all your class (and some current) games. Stay tuned: Its about to get awesome.

In this episode, we discuss: Amazon’s Retro Game Store, Steam, and our new format.

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Legal Junk:
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As usual, our content is all free to remix, share, reuse, repost as much as your heart desires (Creative Commons Attribution License). Just be nice: Throw our name on it. Want bonus points? Link back to 72pc.com.

It appears that Amazon is starting to push Retro games. It may just be that I’m just now being targeted and just haven’t seen it until now, but the prices aren’t awful (when buying used of course), and if you’re a collector of New-In-Box retro games, they’ve got quite a few here.
Check it out: Amazon Retro Game Store (Affiliate Link)

Note: Its an affiliate link, if you buy things with that link, we here at 72PC get more money to buy more games. If you hate us, or don’t want to give us money without any cost to you when you make your purchase, click this one: Amazon Retro Store

I would provide context but I feel that telling you Satan made this is good enough.

I then graduated to getting TF2 and for the first time in my life have fallen in love with a multiplayer FPS that has me actually doing well against others while still having no real idea what the hell I am trying to do about 70 percent of the time. The reason I bring all of this up is because I just bought the Humble Indie Bundle 4, for an undisclosed amount that I chose to pay that was above the average. For all of the people that used to be like me and have no idea what I am even talking about I shall explain. If you go to www.humblebundle.com you will see an offer to pay whatever you want for 5 games that are all on steam for much more than what you can pay if you decide to go this route. You offer what you want for the games, and the money goes to the site hosting, the developers, and charity and the best part is you can adjust where you want the money to go. If you feel that the devs deserve it more than breast cancer awareness than you can do that. If you are like me you just split it the best that you can right down the middle. Right away I had to get it for Bit.Trip Runner, and Super Meat Boy alone, and I can tell you that every single cent I threw towards this noble cause was worth it about 30 seconds into me playing Super Meat Boy for the first time.

Seriously after playing this for a while I know the price I paid was highway robbery.

I even got introduced to what is already my third favorite birds eye view Shoot-em-up of all time in a games named Jonestown. I mention all of this because my next few reviews I will focus on this bundle I have picked up and I will pour my heart out into the reviews. I keep making promises about me and how I will post very soon, and I keep fumbling over and over again like Peyton Hillis in the second half of the 2010 season for the Browns. You the reader deserve more for me as a writer and with the ideas being thrown around on how we can give you guys more just like you deserve, a change will hopefully soon happen. I will have a post up about one of these games probably around the holiday (I hope to make it a post on Christmas just for the sake of making puns and calling it a gift.) I promise it will be worth your while if you stick around.

Martyr Out.

This post is in response to the wonderful post over on Engadget about the latest release of NPD numbers concerning portable gaming.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/10/timber-ios-and-android-take-60-percent-cut-of-mobile-gaming-dol/

Saw an interesting story fly across the wire on Google Plus. Apparently, nearly 60% of all portable game software sold is on Android or iOS. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, most of the world’s high-tech industries are seeing major changes as mobile platforms become the dominate form of computing, business, and entertainment. Gaming is just one of many industries being completely changed from the ground up.

In the classic system, becoming a game developer on a console or handheld system is extremely difficult and expensive. First, you must contact Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo to obtain a very expensive development kit for your particular system. This is a hard enough barrier to entry. If you have the creative ability and development skill to put a game together, but don’t have the funds for the development kit, too bad. You don’t get to create a game. Even worse than this though is the fact that game companies can deny you the sale of the developer kit for just about any reason, especially if you are just one guy who wants to make a game. Its happened before and it will happen again. The next thing you need to worry about is licensing fees. Can your game make enough money to pay the console manufacturers off so they will sign off on your game and allow people to play it on their console? Hopefully. This is why games today have publishers and game publishing has become an industry of its own. Just like artists used to need record labels before the internet music scene changed everything. Video game developers need someone to pay the bills for all the big fees and purchases. As an indie developer who wants to put out a boxed copy of your game, the barriers to entry make it almost an impossible reality.

Game companies have been attempting to help the small guys out with online stores such as Xbox Live Arcare and Xbox Live Indie Games, the PlayStation Store, and DSiWare and WiiWare. These stores have helped a great deal, but it doesn’t help capture the one thing that will make an indie game endlessly profitable: Market. Yes, all of these stores have huge numbers of users, but for the most part, people are tied to a device that are tied to a wall. In the case of the PSP or DS, indie developers run into many of the same licensing and dev kit cost issues that console developers do. The price of entry is too damn high.

Enter: The Smartphone. With the meteoric rise of smartphones and powerful always-connected mobile devices, it was only a matter of time before games on these devices took over the industry. Recent NPD numbers indicate that iOS and Android mobile game sales account for 58% of the total revenue of U.S. Portable Game Software. 58% of the industry’s revenue is because of iOS and Android games. Even the once-proud king Nintendo is down to 36%. Nintendo has always had a very cocky attitude towards competition in the mobile space after they launched the original Game Boy in 1989, always quashing the competition without so much as a second glance. Even the PSP, their biggest competition yet, stood no chance against the DS’ onslaught of sales. Nintendo has always battled against other gaming companies, but they’ve never battled against a different business model entirely, and they’re losing the game. For the first time since 1989, Nintendo isn’t winning the mobile games race.

One point to consider: These numbers signify revenue, not sales numbers or profits, but actual money brought in from sales. Some may claim that the statistics are unfair to Nintendo and Sony, its two companies versus the entire world of developers, but that’s exactly the point: Smartphone developers have no barriers to entry (aside from the $100 or $25 developer fees depending on platform) to get into the market and sell their game to the world of smartphone users. People who want to develop for the DS or PSP need to jump through rings of fire to do so. The old theory from the IBM and Microsoft days stands true, if you make it easy for developers, that’s where the programs will go, that’s where the people will go, and that’s where the money will go. And that’s exactly what’s happening in today’s smartphone-powered world. Great games can be created with small teams and put out for sale in the public market for the cost of a developer account and the time it took you to make your game, nothing more. No publishers, no additional licensing fees, no hoops. Just you, your game, and your potential customers. At this point, the developer doesn’t need to worry about making enough money to cover fees (if you make a game for $1 on either platform, 30% is taken from that, not up front like most manufacturers require), they don’t need to worry about playing politics with exclusivity, they don’t need to find a publisher for their game, they only need to worry about one thing: Reviewers. Just like its always been, the great games rise to the top. The thing developers need to concern themselves with making a great game and making sure bugs are fixed. If that happens, if the game is good enough, it can make an incredible amount of money, with almost no overhead costs, and end up fueling their bank account for the next several months.

One of the reasons that people are buying games on smartphones instead of handhelds is that the smartphone markets offer better choices for consumers, a better buying experience, and a better way of treating your customers. When I buy a Virtual Console game on the Wii, I can’t play it on my 3DS. It doesn’t work that way, Nintendo wants me to buy it twice. No thank you. If I buy Fruit Ninja, however, all I need to do is download it onto my tablet, and I’m gaming in no time. Its that easy. I buy it once and I have it forever. I upgraded my phone to the Nexus S and all of my games re-installed, it was so simple. When I bought my 3DS and the e-store opened, I couldn’t have been more disappointed. Even though I had bought games on the Wii, I thought a few would allow me to re-download them and play without being tethered to my Wii all the time, but no. They wanted me to re-buy them. The e-store on the 3DS is slow, buggy, crashes, sometimes downloads don’t complete successfully. All in all, its a bad buying experience. Because the e-store is so slow, I never open it, I check for new games every two months, if that. The e-store is simply awful to use. Now, with Android, I can read a game review of Angry Birds Rio, go to the Android Market website, and have it download without ever having to touch my phone. I get up from my computer and the app is right there on my phone. Seamless, easy, simple, helpful. These are the things I, as the consumer, should think of when I use an online store.

On Google Plus, Darnell Clayton shared this link with me and said, “Apple and Google are killing the gaming industry.” This got me thinking, are Apple and Google killing the gaming industry. Yes, but only this chapter of the industry. Here’s my response (which was a comment on the original post):

Actually Apple and Google are becoming the gaming industry. The gaming industry itself is just fine, alive and well, its just trading out cards, just like what happened with the fall of Atari. The big companies aren’t Atari and Commodore, and it isn’t going to be Microsoft and Nintendo anymore, with platforms that support open development without the need for hugely expensive SDKs and hardware, just about anyone can make a game in a few weeks that could become the hottest thing ever (see Angry Birds). Sony is in an interesting position because they aren’t only accepting this change, they are embracing it. With the release of the Xperia Play and their official PlayStation app, they wholly admit that the best gaming device is the one you have on you (like the best camera is the one you have on you), and they are making moves to thrive in that market.

If existing gaming companies don’t get a handle on the changing market, they’re dead. They will be killed by companies like Gamevil, Glu Mobile, and Halfbrick Studios. These tiny dev houses haven’t just survived the harsh gaming industry, they’ve thrived in it. Even EA Games, classically one of the more stubborn and un-inventive publishers, has made moves to exist in emerging markets like social network games (Facebook and Google+) and smartphone games. The games industry is like any other industry, when your industry is undergoing rapid change, you either evolve with it or die.

The next few years will be interesting. With Nintendo claiming that they’ll never embrace the future, clinging to their rotary phones and cassette tapes, and Sony jumping headfirst into the mobile phone space, things are going to get very interesting very quickly.

Disclaimer: I’m a total Nintendo fanboy.
Another, more embarrassing disclaimer: I own Nintendo stock.

Nintendo just doesn’t get it, and it may be too late. People don’t like static contact anymore. Having a mostly-static library of downloadable games, virtually no online presence, a convoluted friending system, and very poor social integration, Nintendo doesn’t just ‘not get’ online, they utterly fail at competing in the modern era.
Take a look at any competent online marketplace (Xbox Live, PSN, Steam, Android Market, App Store), what is the most common thing between all of these? Micropurchases. One dollar games, 5 dollar games, brand new games at $30 flat, instant download. Sure, there are more expensive games out there, but any gamer can tell you that Steam Sales and Xbox Live weekend deals are the wallet-destroyers of this day and age. Nintendo wants you to drive to a store, plunk down $40 on a new 3DS game, then appear satisfied. Aside from the fact that most 3DS games are complete shit (buyer’s remorse talking, here), its way too much to charge for a handheld game, even a damn good handheld game. I’m of the thinking that Ocarina of Time 3DS should have been $30. Its bad enough that Nintendo essentially admitted that the first hardware iteration of the 3DS was complete shit, but who didn’t see that coming after the release of 3 different Game Boy Advances and 4 different variations of the original DS.
Star Fox 64 3DS released without many of the promised (and most exciting) multiplayer features. The 3DS launched 7 months ago and has 5 good games.

I may be a little bit biased, just a little bit prejudiced… a little…

Here’s where Steam and Smartphones come in. Over the weekend, I informed my friends about a great Steam sale Rockstar was putting on for the GTA V announcement, they were selling the entire GTA collection for about $20. Incredible. Needless to say, I bought one and gifted it, then 4 more of my friends bought theirs. $20 bucks for what amounts to 7 games?!? Yes, please. But Nintendo me to pay $7-$8 for an emulated Game Boy Color game on my 3DS? Excuse me? No. I’ll tell you what, Nintendo, I’ll start paying for your virtual console games (which costs you nothing, by the way) when you can sell me the “Zelda Collection” of all NES, SNES, GB/C, GBA, and DS games for $50. That’s a good deal, that’s worth it in my opinion. And you know what would make me buy it outright without a second thought? The ability to play the virtual console games on my Wii too. Early on, I paid for the emulated Virtual Console games, but was later taken aback when I realized Nintendo wasn’t going to let those purchases transfer to any other system. With systems like OnLive and Steam in place, Nintendo needs to change their old-school thinking and fast, if they don’t, they’ll die. Simple as that.

I bought Minecraft yesterday on my Motorola Xoom tablet. It was $7 and still in development. I then wanted to play it on my Nexus S. Did I have to re-purchase it? Hell no. I just went to the market and re-downloaded it. Its really sad when I think about the fact that I just paid $7 for one of the most fun gameplay experiences I’ve ever had, but I also paid $40 for Pilotwings, for what amounted to little more than a tech demo.

Next topic: Online play with Nintendo consoles. Or, as I like to call it: Nintendo thinks you have no friends. Is the 3DS better at online? Sure. Was Brawl online? Yes, but it sucked. When you look at Steam, PSN, or Xbox Live, you realize how engrossing an online-rich social world can be. Oh look! My buddy is playing Team Fortress 2! Right click, Join Game. “Hey, dude! Yes, I just shot you in the dick. My bad.” That’s just cool. Its easy, everyone can do it. Everyone except Nintendo. I’m convinced that Nintendo is still forwarding paper memos written on typewriters. Nintendo is one of the most innovative, but least technologically advanced game companies in the world. Its really sad to see them do their best fish-out-of-water act every time someone brings up the idea of a Nintendo console playing games over this newfangled internet. Need more proof Nintendo doesn’t get it? Two words: Friend Codes. Who the fuck decided it was a good idea to go against convention and not have handles/usernames? Whoever that was should be publicly flogged. Hell, entire websites exist solely dedicated to the purpose of tying that long-ass number to a username and community.

Been on Nintendo’s website in a while? No. Don’t worry, the functionality is pretty much the same as it was in 2001. Nothing to see here. Move along. Real video game companies have websites where you are able to log into your account, pay for the downloadable game/theme/widget, and by the time you get home, the game has been auto-downloaded to your system, ready and waiting for you.
Nintendo doesn’t understand gaming anymore and it breaks my heart. I love Nintendo. Hell, even after all they’ve put me through, I’m going to buy the new Mario 3DS game, I’ll even be at the Skyward Sword launch, you know… I may even buy a Wii U. But I’m not gonna be happy about it. There will be a day when I tell everyone that I called it, Nintendo has become Sega. The once-upon-a-time king of the video game industry, dead now because they’ve refused for far-too-long to grow up and start living in this decade.
The bottom line is this: Nintendo doesn’t care. And that will ultimately be their undoing.

During the years 1998 – 2004, PC Gaming was at its peak. With Half-Life, Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, The Sims, and Half-Life 2, among others, PC gaming had never seen better glory days since Doom came out. It was a good ol’ time, as they say. In the years since then, PC gaming has taken a rather forced backseat to console gamers, endured shitty ports, and had even the most basic of PC gaming rights removed.

I’m happy to report that this is no longer the case. PC gaming isn’t dead, its only been sleeping. With recent releases like Deus Ex: Human Evolution (which fared much better on the PC), Infinity Ward changing their minds about dedicated servers, and Team Fortress 2 picking up more steam (get it?!?!?!?) since it became a free-to-play game, PC gaming has never looked better. Also, did I mention that I’m really excited about the new Borderlands? Oh, also: DotA 2.

To be honest, I was re-energized about PC gaming after playing through 20 hours of Deus Ex: Human Evolution. This game symbolizes a golden-age of PC gaming long forgotten, and I urge you to pick it up. Full review coming when I get around to completing the game.

Side note: Like Brett said, we aren’t dead. Really.

I understand that somehow we fell off the deep end when it comes to writing new things but I am going to tell you right now that this is changing. I personally am going to write at least 1 new article a week to get back to the glory days of what we once were. We may not have some of the older members that we did during our days of the pod-casts but I would not be shocked if they popped up once in a blue moon. I know it has been a long slow lull when it comes to our posting, but I promise the people that stick around will be rewarded with new content. This website is not dead and I will make sure that it damn well keeps a pulse.

With much gaming love,

Martyr

PS: I figured this picture could not hurt I do not care what anyone says….Cammy is totally real.