Joystick & Mouse | Video Games News & Reviews

http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com Show Notes RIP James Earl Jones A founding member of British synth-pop band Heaven 17 has alleged Rockstar offered the three writers of hit song Temptation $7,500 each for its use in Grand Theft Auto 6 — a figure he has flat out rejected. https://www.ign.com/articles/rock-star-tells-rockstar-to-go-f-yourself-after-extremely-low-offer-to-use-hit-song-in-gta-6 At gamescon (we'll get to that later) Blizzard unveiled a 4d ride called "Escape from Dalaran" and it was freaking awesome. https://www.wowhead.com/news/inside-blizzards-exhilarating-4d-ride-escape-from-dalaran-at-gamescom-2024-345989 While we were away Gamescon happened. This has sort of become the new E3 announcement venue and this year did not disappoint. So let's take a look at all the things that were announced. https://mashable.com/article/gamescom-2024-everything-announced-line-up-so-far

A video game industry icon is going away. We have several stories about actors in the video game industry and there is more guns and loot on the horizon. http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com Show Notes: Back before the internet, I remember going to the corner store and buying the very latest gaming magazine. It was our only source of information about upcoming games and how to beat that last boss in doom. Well one of the very first ones is closing its pages for the final time after a 33 year run. Gamestop is closing down its game-informer magazine.  https://kotaku.com/game-informer-gamestop-meme-stock-gme-last-issue-1851611973 We all know that sex sells and video games are no different. A little jiggle and intimate interactions are no stranger to the video game world but what about the actors behind those scenes. Someone had to voice that line or motion capture that intimate moment. This week multiple actors complained that those scenes were done with little or no notice and called for changes within the industry. https://www.eurogamer.net/video-game-actors-call-for-better-transparency-around-disgusting-mocap-work-not-disclosed-in-advance https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c23l4ml51jmo last year one of our big stories was the SAG-AFTA strike which impacted video games. Well technacally that strike never ended but the parties agreed to go back to work and negotiate in good faith. Well a couple of weeks ago those negoatiations fell apart over AI. So what does that mean for the near future of games. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/sag-aftra-calls-strike-against-major-video-game-studios-1235957116/ Even with the under-performance of the Borderlands movie, Gearbox announced this week that they are definitely working on Borderlands 4. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/08/gearbox-teases-borderlands-4-again-following-movies-box-office-flop

Microsoft was thinking along the same lines as us when it comes to future consoles but that takes money to do. Ubisoft tries to piss off their Division fan base. Lets hope Salvatore's latest foray into video games fares better than his previous one and we have another list ... of course we do. http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com/ Show Notes We would never say we told you so buuuuut we told you so. A leak of a supposedly cancelled video game console that Microsoft filed a patent for was a slim line cloud gaming console. https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/26/24186639/microsoft-xbox-cloud-console-keystone-patent-images Xbox Game Pass Is Getting A Price Increase And Introducing A New Tier. So what's up with that? https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-game-pass-is-getting-a-price-increase-and-introducing-a-new-tier/1100-6524819/?utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=category%3Dnewsletter;name%3DGameSpot-Report;id%3D10417931;date%3D071124;lctg%3Db3a7b738bd17d2fa16eb5ab92783891fb0c35bd6f93fb6c92ad5b2d8754d0c30 A month ago, Ubisoft announced that future seasons of The Division 2 would switch to a seasonal character model, meaning you start fresh, level up, gear up, participate in season-specific activities. In the history of The Division 1 and 2 there has never been anything like this, and it did not sound great. Now, it’s being walked back. https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/07/15/the-division-2-deletes-diablo-4-seasonal-character-idea-after-player-revolt/ Renowned fantasy author R.A. Salvatore has joined forces with the newly established 3D development studio Tupelo Labs to bring his popular DemonWars Saga series into the world of video gaming https://gamefragger.com/multiplatform/ra-salvatore-partners-with-new-development-studio-for-demonwars-saga-video-game-a26538#gs.boo28p . A lot of the video games we play take place in cities. These setting can leave an impression on us as players as we traverse our way through the game. Gamerrant put out a list of the most iconic cities in video games and of course we had to take a look and give our take. https://gamerant.com/most-iconic-video-game-cities/

The demise of the XBox console as we know it. Another studio forms a union and we take issue with a poll. http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com/ Show Notes Here is the press release from Microsoft - At Xbox, we’re committed to bringing the joy and community of gaming to everyone.  Today, we’re announcing a collaboration with Amazon where Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members in over 25 countries can play games directly from the Xbox app on select Fire TV devices via cloud gaming, giving people even more choice in how they play their favorite games. https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/06/27/xbox-cloud-gaming-amazon-fire-tv/ We follow up that story with another that heralds the end of the XBox console as we know it. A leak from NVidea shows that users will be able to play games from GeForce Now on XBox consoles.  https://www.videogamer.com/news/nvidia-geforce-now-app-allegedly-coming-to-xbox-consoles-according-to-leaks/ https://www.videogamer.com/tech/nvidia-geforce-now-games-list-in-2024/ Bethesda Game Studios Montreal has filed to unionise with the Communications Workers of America. The BGS Montreal union announced yesterday in a thread on social media that they filed for certification with the Quebec Labour Board. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/bethesda-montreal-files-for-unionisation The worst thing to ever hapen to our wallets is the Steam <insert season here> Sale. We've all done it. That game we've had our eye on goes on sale and it's too good of a deal to pass up. Thennnn it just sits there in our library. Staring at us every time we log in. Well we are not alone. According to a report this week users have spent $19 Billion on games that they have never played. https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam/pile-of-shame Of course we have a list and man do I have issues with this one. BAFTA released a poll they did of the most iconic characters of all time in video games. let's go through it. https://www.bafta.org/media-centre/press-releases/bafta-most-iconic-character-poll-results

It's that time of year when the game companies put on their dog and pony shows to try an entice us (the consumer) to get enamoured enough with a game to plunk down our hard earned money on it at release. Well there were three of them since the last time we were together so we're going to wade through all of that as well as a quick story and some insight into one of our favorite topics, the state of the video game industry.  http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com/ Show Notes A real quick mention of an article I ran across this week. EA Execs earned 60 million in compensation as the company laid off over 5% of it's work force this year. But that number doesn't tell the whole story so let's take a look at that. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ea-execs-earned-60-million-in-2024-despite-layoffs-and-office-closures The Ubisoft Forward 2024 is a wrap and the two big releases coming this year got a lot of air time. Let's discuss what's coming in the worlds of Star Wars and Assasins Creed. https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-forward-2024-everything-announced https://www.gamesradar.com/gaming/events-conferences/ubisoft-forward-summer-game-fest-2024-live-coverage-everything-announced/ After months of rumors and speculation fueled by the company's radio silence, Sony's latest State Of Play presentation took place on May 30. 14 games for PlayStation 5 and PSVR 2 were shown throughout the 30+ minute video, which included updates on Concord, Marvel Rivals, and God Of War Ragnarok on PC. Read on for a full recap of all the biggest announcements and games from the event. https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/state-of-play-may-2024-all-the-biggest-ps5-announcements-and-games/2900-5435/?utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=category%3Dnewsletter;name%3DGameSpot-Report;id%3D10025581;date%3D060124;lctg%3Db3a7b738bd17d2fa16eb5ab92783891fb0c35bd6f93fb6c92ad5b2d8754d0c30#1 There were big expectations for Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase this year, the first summer event since the Activision Blizzard merger in 2023. The Xbox Games Showcase included a slate of games from Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda, Xbox Game Studios, and third-party developers. It did not disappoint. let's take a look at everything announced. https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/06/09/xbox-games-showcase-2024-recap-everything-announced/

Some news about the health of the video game industry. Sony tries to invigorate their VR offering and we have a couple of good lists to take a look at. Oh and we actually have a game review to go over. http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com/ Show Notes It's been a rough year for the video game industry. The games industry saw almost same number of layoffs in first five months of 2024 as in all of last year Take two is the latest company to have large cuts. Is the video game industry in a downturn? https://www.vg247.com/take-two-reportedly-looking-to-sell-or-shutter-private-division https://gameworldobserver.com/2024/06/03/over-10k-games-industry-layoffs-in-2024-so-far-vs-2023 Sony is trying to breathe some new life into their underperforming VR system. This week they announced a hardware solution to allow PSVR2 users to access their steam library. Will this revive the flailing system or will it just be another unutilized peripheral? https://blog.playstation.com/2024/06/03/playstation-vr2-players-can-access-games-on-pc-with-adapter-starting-on-august-7/ We've talked recently about the adaptation of video games for television but gamespot came out with a list of the 12 shows that they deemed as awesome. let's take a look at their list and see what we think of it. https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/12-video-game-tv-shows-that-were-actually-awesome/2900-5438/

Apple relents on it's app store stance. The Microsoft/Blizzard merger starts to pay off and we have a list ... and another list. that's right, we have 2 lists for you tonight although they are on the same topic. http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com/ Show Notes Remember how we talked about Apple would never allow user to download games from an app store that wasn't apple, well under pressure from gamers and regulatory agencies, Apple has agreed to allow downloads from rival Epic's app store. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/apple-reverses-course-clears-way-epic-games-set-rival-iphone-app-store-rcna142741 https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/apple-reverses-course-allows-epic-games-launch-fortnite-app-eu Gamers reap their first benefit of the Microsoft aquistion of Blizzard. This week Microsoft announced that Diablo IV will be available on Game Pass. This is available on both XBox and PC. You can go grab that now. https://www.gameinformer.com/2024/04/26/blizzard-announces-its-skipping-blizzcon-this-year https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/diablo-iv We hear about the triple A titles all the time but this week Nintendo held it's announcement of upcoming Indie titles. Here's the list and a couple of them that really peaked our interst. https://www.gameinformer.com/2024/04/17/everything-announced-during-the-april-2024-nintendo-indie-world https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/News/Indie-World/Indie-World-1440347.html Not to be outdone, Microsoft held it's Indie show this week. Here's what they announced. https://kotaku.com/xbox-game-pass-palworld-vampire-surivors-1851444052 https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/29/24144369/id-xbox-indie-showcase-april-2024

We are having another TV centric episode. We will discuss another huge video game based hit on streaming and we may even have a list based around TV shows. Beside TV we have another tone deaf statement from an ex Blizzard exec that sort of epitomizes how out of touch they were. http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com/ Show Notes Oh Blizzard, here we go again. In a completely tone deaf message Mike Ybarra, former Blizzard president, said that gamers should tip developers when they like a game. https://nypost.com/2024/04/15/tech/video-game-exec-slammed-suggested-players-tip-developers-always-put-burden-on-customers/ https://www.thegamer.com/no-we-are-absolutely-not-tipping-video-game-companies-blizzard-president-mike-ybarra/ We have another huge crossover hit as the fallout series on Amazon prime has taken the world by storm. It's just exception done so let's discuss the show. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-fallout-tv-show-gave-the-fallout-games-a-huge-player-bump-as-everyone-remembers-they-like-fallout https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-04-12/amazon-s-fallout-show-is-a-fantastic-video-game-adaptation We had "Last Of Us" and now"Halo" and "Fallout" that have been huge hits. So what video games are out there that we would like to be turned into a TV series. Well The National News has a list so the's go through that and see what we agree with and which ones we aren't so hot about. https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/2024/04/13/video-games-tv-shows-adaptation/

Some sad new in the comic world. There's some Playstation news and we have a couple of great lists to take a look at. http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com/ Show Notes The comic world lost a pioneer and inspiration when akira toriyama passed away this past week. His Dragon Ball comic is revered as one of the best animes ever. His creativeness and vision will be missed. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/08/arts/akira-toriyama-dead.html     Some PS5 news. The PS5 pro specs were leaked (yes, there is a PS5 pro coming) and the PSVR2 production was halted.  https://www.gamespot.com/articles/playstation-vr-2-headset-production-paused-report/1100-6521906/ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/impressive-sounding-ps5-pro-specs-and-release-window-reportedly-leaked/1100-6521894/ One of the studios that has brought us some of the best games ever produced is Naughty Dog. Well IGN put out a list of all the games they have developed and well you know we couldn't pass up a great list so let's dig in and talk Naughty Dog. https://www.ign.com/articles/all-naughty-dog-games-in-order We love video games. We love the story and escape that comes with playing them but sometimes you just want to throw the controller at the damn screen. We all know that feeling. Which begs the question, What is the hardest game you have played? Well yardbarker came up with a list and well you know how that goes around here. https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_25_most_challenging_video_games_of_all_time_031524/s1__38319193#slide_5

Nintendo picks it's battles and the Game industry takes another hit. http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com/ Show Notes Sony lays off approxamately 85 of its work force. This include the closing of a full studio in London a week after the CEO visited and said all is well. Just another in the blood bath that is the gaming industry this year. https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/27/24084494/sony-playstation-layoffs-2024 https://fandomwire.com/playstation-ceo-jim-ryan-closes-london-studios/#:~:text=Jim%20Ryan%20shuts%20down%20London,hand%20and%20an%20uncertain%20fate. Speaking of that gaming industry bloodbath, add almost 700 employees at EA to that total for the year. Along with a few other smaller companies that's over 2000 employees in February alone. So what is this all about and what does it mean for our games going forwards? https://gameworldobserver.com/2024/03/04/game-industry-layoffs-over-2000-february-compared-to-2023 Just over a week ago, Nintendo sued the developers of the leading Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu, for “facilitating piracy at a colossal scale.” Now, it appears that Yuzu will give up without a fight — and give Nintendo everything it wanted. And it affects the Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra, too. https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/4/24090357/nintendo-yuzu-emulator-lawsuit-settlement https://hard-drive.net/hd/video-games/yuzu-shuts-down-to-better-emulate-video-game-industry/ The Last of Us was definitely one of the biggest and most talked about shows of 2023. Starring Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal it was an amazing adaptation of a video game and we now have the cast for season two that details the game sequal. https://www.buzzfeed.com/noradominick/the-last-of-us-season-2-cast

... Labor strife in the video game industry. We discuss a pokemon wannabe as well as the future of micro transaction and oh yeah, another video game awards show and all the winners. http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com/ Show Notes We've talked quite a bit about layoffs and force reductions in the video game industry lately but why is that happening? I think we have touched on our theories but this article from polygon looks into the current development industry and why these things are happening. https://www.polygon.com/gaming/24074767/video-game-industry-layoffs-explainer Take pokemon. Throw in Arc: Survival, a little rust and a smidgeon of Fallout and you have the latests game from Pocket Paire called Palworld. Some (well a lot) feel it's a rip off of Pokemon? But is it? Let's take a look at what's the same and well what's not. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/video-games/palworld-game-pokemon-response-rcna135687 https://screenrant.com/pokemon-palworld-survival-game-clone-rip-off-fakemon/ We all thought that micro transactions were the future of video game monitization. We have talked about this also quite a bit. We were wrong. Here's the future and it's bigger than we thought. https://www.pcgamer.com/if-youre-wondering-why-diablo-4-has-a-horse-for-sale-with-dollar65-of-premium-currency-stuck-to-it-let-me-introduce-you-to-price-anchoring/ And yet another video game awards show. Here's the run down of winners. https://www.ign.com/articles/dice-awards-2024-winners-the-full-list Game Review Palworld - Diddi

http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com Show Notes Embracer Group, the company attempting to forge one video game publisher to rule them all, has just presided over another round of layoffs. Eidos Montreal is letting go of 97 game developers and support staff, the company announced today on X. https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/29/24054659/embracer-eidos-montreal-layoffs-deus-ex CES 2024 happened while we were away. The big kids at the gaming table tend to use their own events to announce their own devices. Microsoft isn’t going to announce a new Xbox in Las Vegas. Don’t expect a Nintendo Switch 2, either. That leaves the attention that is at the Consumer Electronics Show for the niche, weird, and decidedly enthusiast hardware. So let's take a look at the best gaming things announced at this years CES. https://www.inverse.com/tech/best-gaming-hardware-ces-2024 Blizzard has been through some stuff in the last couple of years and the last couple of weeks were no different. Here's what is happening at our favorite company to dish on. https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24049050/microsoft-activision-blizzard-layoffs https://www.digitalspy.com/tech/a46558068/blizzard-odyssey-cancelled-microsoft-layoffs/ https://gamerant.com/blizzard-president-johanna-faries-announcement/ Halo looks amazing. https://www.polygon.com/23984110/halo-tv-show-season-2-releaes-date-free-youtube

We're talking TV http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com/ Show Notes It's award season and although the big emmy show is in a couple of weeks, there is a smaller show known as the Creative Arts Emmy Awards which has a lot of the awards such as best visual effects and prosthetics and the such. The last of us was up for several awards on this as well as the golden globes so let's get into who won and how the show did. https://kotaku.com/golden-globes-the-last-of-us-succession-emmy-awards-1851148385 https://www.emmys.com/news/awards-news/creative-arts-news-240106 https://edit.emmys.com/sites/default/files/press/creative-240106-v1.pdf There are a lot of video games scheduled to be released in 2024, currently around 125. As much as we love a list that was still a few too many to go over so we needed a way to whittle that down a bit. Well Inverse came up with a list of the top 13 annd that seems like a pretty good number so here we go. https://www.inverse.com/gaming/2024-video-games OK, completely off topic here. Being the beginning of the year theres a lot of what's coming this year and this topic is no different. We are going to take a quick look at what gamespot says are the top 9 TV shows coming this year. https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/most-anticipated-tv-streaming-shows-2024/2900-5018/?ftag=NL&campaignName=GameSpot-Report&date=010624&lctg=b3a7b738bd17d2fa16eb5ab92783891fb0c35bd6f93fb6c92ad5b2d8754d0c30#1

It's all about the game show awards so lets get to it. http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com/ Show Notes The game show awards took place last week and , well it's as good as a list so let's run down the winners for you and discuss the angst around this years show. https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/all-the-game-awards-2023-winners-revealed/2900-4977/?ftag=NL&campaignName=GameSpot-Report&date=120823&lctg=b3a7b738bd17d2fa16eb5ab92783891fb0c35bd6f93fb6c92ad5b2d8754d0c30#12 https://thegameawards.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu2z5M4gmno&t=4s

Blizzcon returned and was epic again and we have all the details. IGN inadvertantly misses the mark and there were more layoffs in the video game industry. AND we have a list!!! Sort of. The video game award nominees were announced so we'll run down the games that were nominated. Show Note BlizzCon 2023 has happened and its opening ceremony was filled with big announcements, including Diablo 4's first expansion called Vessel of Hatred, three new expansions for World of Warcraft in The Worldsoul Saga, a new Overwatch 2 hero named Mauga, and much more. Here's all the info from the annual celebration of all things Blizzard. https://www.ign.com/articles/blizzcon-2023-everything-announced-and-revealed https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/world-of-warcraft/24022616/world-of-warcraft-at-blizzcon-2023-news-round-up?blzcmp=app   In our last couple of shows we've talked about layoffs in the Video Game industry and what that impact has been on the people and games. Well that tend has continued so let's take a look at the causes and ramifications of these layoffs. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-11-20/video-game-industry-layoffs     One of our ongoing points of emphasis on this show is to bring to light the plight of women in the video game industry. Well IGN lit up that light inadventantly this past week when they published a story celebrating their 30 years of covering the gaming industry with exactly zero women highlighted. https://www.inverse.com/gaming/pc-gamer-women-in-video-games https://www.reddit.com/r/GirlGamers/comments/17vpjst/not_one_woman_in_30_years_not_one/ https://www.pcgamer.com/celebrating-30-years-of-pc-gamer/ Nominations for the 2023 Game Awards, recognizing the gaming biz’s best games and creators of the year, have been announced. So lets take a look at the nominees in the more important categories and give our take. https://variety.com/2023/gaming/news/game-awards-2023-nominations-alan-wake-baldurs-gate-full-list-1235787390/ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-game-awards-2023-nominees-announced-see-them-all-now/1100-6519120/   Mention Black Friday https://www.ign.com/articles/best-buy-black-friday-video-game-deals-ps5-nintendo-switch-xbox-series-x   https://www.ign.com/articles/black-friday-2023?utm_source=piano