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Podcast #309 - Questions Wanted!

🕑 Added 2025-02-03 14:41:54 +0000 UTC

Comments

Bartek Kubica (Ku-bitsa)

Greetings from planet EA-rth, BAP BioWare has reportedly lost at least half its staff, with fewer than 100 people left the studio. That doesn't sound good for the upcoming Mass Effect 5... announced how many years ago? As a fan of the series it breaks my heart. How does it relate to last week's, supposedly comforting, words of Gary McKay? Has ME5 just become another space vaporwave? Transmission over, ksht, Bartek

Bartek Kubica (Ku-bitsa)

Patrussy

Chris McVeigh

Hi BAP! EA CEO Andrew Wilson has seemingly indicated that Dragon Age: The Veilguard's underperformance (which we know contributed to a reduction in the company's financial forecast) was down to it not being live-service enough. What thoughts you? Is this a case of being hilariously out of touch, simply an excuse for chasing that live-service white whale, proof of mismanagement, anything else? I'd forgotten until now that Veilguard was converted *from* a live-service game during production in 2021, so basically, what on earth is going on over there?

Cameron J Keywood

Hi BAP, The Bloodborne PSX demake has become the latest Bloodborne-related fan project to be hit with a copyright claim after the Bloodborne 60fps mod was struck last week. Is this a sign that Sony may be doing something with the IP or is their legal department stuck in 2021 ?

Conor Bennett

Hello those who are not afflicted by The Plops™️, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said on Tuesday that, with regards to the Switch 2 launch and scalpers, that they “Will take all possible measures based on the experience we have accumulated to date. We are making preparations”. Based on the recent procedures with ordering Alarmo and signing up for the Switch 2 experience, this may be that you need a Nintendo account to place an order, and a possible exclusive window for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Is this something you would all like companies to do for hardware launches in the future, to try and avoid scalpers as much as possible? Do you think it’ll work? https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-says-its-making-preparations-for-switch-2-resellers/

Last Choice

Hey BAP! Thanks for all your hard work keeping us entertained. The games industry as a whole feels like it is on the brink of a large scale change, but predicting what that will be is proving difficult for me. On the one hand it feels like gaming has never been more successful, with more gamers and more money in the industry and more ways to play the largest variety of games to suit almost everyone. (What with the different consoles, PCs handhelds, VR, mobile, Cloud gaming, gamepass etc and loads of games from AAA to little indies and even littler mobile games. Even live service games like Fortnite are beneficial providing hours of content that you aren't forced to pay a penny to play and provide a popular low/no cost entry point.) But at the same time costs are soaring, studios are bought up to be under fewer umbrellas or are closed down. Staff are being let go and games are being cancelled. It is taking longer and longer to make the big games. Xbox games are coming to playstation making a new Xbox console less attractive for some, and Xbox and playstation games are (often) already going to PC. Games look set to increase in price but the world economy is reducing people's disposable income. Costs of components are increasing hardware costs. Live service gaming is proving difficult for new comers to crack and battle passes and skins can have some people paying thousands. What do you think is in the immediate future for gaming, what will succeed and what will fail? Where would you like to see gaming in 10-20 years and what do you worry it could become?

Mattamorphic

Heeeeeeeeey BAP! New patron-er? Patron-ee? Patrony? First time questioner 😆 Given the exodus of veterans from platinum games, and the recent scrubbing of games from their back catalog of works on their website https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/02/platinumgames-wipes-several-games-from-its-websites-portfolio what are your thoughts on what's next? Will they be doubling down on existing franchises? Working more as a collaborative studio like on ninja gaidan? Or are they preparing for a buyout from someone like Microsoft? Please let it be another game set in the nier timeline or whatever wackiness Yoko Taro has been cooking up! Have a fantabulous week! Matt

Retro Robyn

Hi BAP! I know this has been discussed to a certain extent in the past but more and more games seem to be releasing with a “pay extra to play early” digital version, and I can’t help but feel like it’s another step towards monetising every single thing. Instead of it being something exciting you get to experience early, it feels like a paywall in front of the actual genuine release date, and if you don’t cough up you’ll have it later than others. Personally I’ve never gone for this, and I’m more of a patient gamer; I will wait 6-12+ months for most patches and a price drop, unless it’s something that’s near and dear to me (FF7 Remake and Rebirth for example). I’m just beginning to envision a world where this paywall becomes the norm for most releases and am wondering your thoughts on this? Why can’t I just buy a game on day one like I used to dagnammit? *shakes fist* Thanks! Love you! 😂 Robyn