Episode 76 – Co-Founder of Rockstar Games Leaving, Head of Coalition Studio Leaving

recorded on Feb 7, 2020

Headliners

Not even Sony knows the price of the PS5 yet as they are waiting to see how MIcrosoft prices the Xbox Series X as well as production factors according to the Sony CFO (GameSpot)

Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games, is leaving the company for good (The Verge)

  • Dan and brother Sam founded the company in 1998 after it was acquired by Take Two
  • Dan was head writer on GTA II – GTA V, Max Payne 3, Bully, and both Red Dead games
  • He did not say what he was doing after but it is believed he will retire from gaming

Rod Fergusson, head of The Coalition studio, is leaving the studio to oversee the Diablo franchise at Blizzard (Rod Fergusson)

  • Rod worked on the Gears of War franchise from when it was developed by Epic Games
  • He moved from Epic Games to Microsoft, rebranded the studio in Vancouver to The Coalition, and continued the Gears of War franchise with Gears of War 4 and Gears 5

Little Bits

The mystery port on the back of the Xbox Series X is allegedly for expandable storage (Windows Central)

  • The port looks like it is meant for CFExpress memory or something similar to it
    • Microsoft could be working on their own memory solution
  • CFExpress memory = compact flash express and looks similar to microSD but is an SSD 

This is very expensive: 128GB costs about $200 and 512GB costs about $600

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer states in a recent interview that Sony and Nintendo are not the main competition whereas Amazon and Google are the ones to worry about (The Verge)

  • “When you talk about Nintendo and Sony, we have a ton of respect for them, but we see Amazon and Google as the main competitors going forward,” says Spencer. “That’s not to disrespect Nintendo and Sony, but the traditional gaming companies are somewhat out of position. I guess they could try to re-create Azure, but we’ve invested tens of billions of dollars in cloud over the years.”

Streamer NickEh30 has pissed off Fortnite fans after being accused of cheating during a charity event Twitch Rivals Streamer Bowl (metro.uk)

  • Pro Fortnite players play duos with NFL players for $500,000 total for charities of thier choice
  • 1st place gets $125,000
  • NickEh30 knowingly broke a rule and took a warning (we know cuz it was literally streamed)
  • Placed 6th place (got $30,000) 

Rapid Fire

Sakari agrees with fans that there are too many Fire Emblem and sword characters (IGN)

  • “I know it as well. There are too many Fire Emblem characters,” he said. “And too many swordsmen. But when something’s decided, I move ahead with it.”

EA has increased prices for many of their games on Steam this week. Many of which are old titles (screenrant)

  • Many EA games can now be purchased on Steam after their new partnership end of last year
  • Prices for those games went up this week, even doubled in some cases
  • Only affects: Canada, Europe (including the UK), Brazil, and Russia
  • Double check before you buy an EA game on Steam

The lineup for EVO 2020 was announced, one of the largest fighting game tournaments in the world (Vegas, July31st – August2nd)

  • DBFighterZ
  • Grandblue Fantasy Versus
  • Samurai Shodown
  • Soulcalibur VI
  • Street Fighter 5
  • SSBU
  • Tekken 7
  • Under Night In-Birth Exile 
  • Special Event: Marvel vs Capcom 2 on the Sega Dreamcast

     Surprisingly, Mortal Kombat 11 didnt make the cut, first time since 2010!

Samsung pushing Microsoft to support ultrawide resolution with the Xbox Series X (TweakTown)

The Last of Us Part II has nudity and sexual content which is a first for Naughty Dog (PSU.com)

The PS5 website is now live and says Sony is not quite ready to fully reveal its next gen plans

The official PlayStation twitter avatar was removed due to copyright issues (Wario64)

Outer Worlds port to the Switch due to the Coronavirus, the port is being done by Chinese devs Virtuous Games (polygon)

  • New release date TBD, Obsidian isn’t pushing them obviously

Upcoming Releases and Deals

Epic Store free games are Kingdom Come Deliverance and Aztez from Feb 13- Feb 20

Rumor Mill

There are rumblings of a new Ratchet and Clank game launching with the PS5 

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