Quoted for Truth: Episode 9

I have recently moved to buying digital instead of from stores. Thanks to steam I get good deals for great games here and there @SamuriSeven I used to buy only hard copies cause I too enjoyed a disc and case. You also said you enjoy limited editions with extra goodies. Why not have digital preorders either mail physical items to your house, or get digital content like an extra gun or map/mission? I believe that could sway some of the customers that feel they need a physical "something" with the game itself

could you PLEASE add a section to the main menu for EVERY show from gamespot? the search engine is a pain to use and I can't even find older episodes of quoted for truth.

People are so incompetent about a capitalist culture. Competition breeds innovation & cheaper prices. 1 console means lazy crap games that cost a zillion dollars eventually.

I am in favor of a PC-only gaming future. There is simply no need for consoles anymore. The PC can do everything a console can do and do it better. For the longest I had only PC and I would get frustrated when a game I wanted to play was not released on the platform I had. Then I added an Xbox 360, but the same thing kept happening. There were games that were not available on PC or 360. Now I have a PC, a Mac, an Xbox 360, a Playstation 3, a Wii, an Android phone and an Ipod Touch. Even with all that hardware, there are still games on Vita and 3DS I can't play.

It's just ridiculous. There are too many choices. It makes lowers game quality and increases game prices when developers have to invest so much into porting games to multiple formats instead of just concentrating on making one good game. Additionally, the cost of having to purchase multiple gaming platforms is outrageous for the consumer. You are left with the choice of shelling out mountains of cash or not being able to play all the games you want to play.

" Tekeen " ;-)

- Well I certainly dont think its possible for tabs to replace consoles any time soon. I think core gaming will still be in consoles. However, I could imagine cut down (crappy) versions of the console games in tabs/smartphones though.

- So about the once console future. I think there being multiple consoles is a good thing for gamers. The competition between the gaming giants is what drives them to make their platform better ... imho

What happened to the fast, quick hits format of the first few episodes? (aka the PTI format)

While I like the opinions expressed on the show, I'd like a shorter (20 min-ish) show to get my weekly news wrapped up quickly and move on with my day.

The comments about tablet and handheld gaming got me thinking a bit.

If console developers really want to "compete" with tablets and mobile phones in general, they need to drop the whole "home console" thing altogether and JUST make a handheld.

If this handheld can be used as both a mobile gaming platform and double as a home console, they'll maintain their core audience while dipping into the mobile gaming audience as well.  This would require doing a lot of development for wireless gaming.  If you can play a game on your handheld, then sync it up to your tv and play on the big screen (with the handheld system used as a controller), then pause your game and pull it back to your handheld device so you can take it with you as you go, it would be an amazing leap forward for the console side of the industry.

SIgh... digital media I hate you

Everything is connected to everything else.  How do you acquire language?  Via immersion in a group of language users, how do you have ideas?  Via one another.  The problem is when groups want to have property rights over culture.

Mmmmhh, a none-console future.

Oh wait...he said a ONE-console future....nevermind then ;)

Cool, I got quoted. Cheers Brendan.

The argument to have one console is very similar to the argument given by most governments for the necessity of state run or naturally occurring monopolies.  In theory, by pooling these resources they will be more effective, however real-world economics shows that this is almost never the case.  Countries with highly concentrated telecommunications typically provide more expensive and less reliable service, public sector oil companies routinely underperform private sector ones, even infrastructure usually has a private component these days (public-private collaboration). 

A one console future, is a future with perverted incentive schemes, and lacking the creative destruction necessary to create new experiences.  What we think of as "waste" in converting from platform-to-platform is actually an extremely effective means of evolution through choice in the gaming industry.

Zynga definitely copied the Sims Social. And that's the thing: It's not an iteration it's an almost exact copy. However, there is that gray area. Like the boys said about the popular shooters. If tablets take over I'm going to be very very disappointed. Oddly enough I'm typing this on an iPad...lol irony.

I don't think people realize the extreme technical hurdles that exist to get mobile hardware up to the levels required for just DX9 type levels (xbox 360 / ps3). The problem exists because of the inherent limitations in mobile hardware, mainly thermal constraints and battery life. Mobile graphics has made huge progress in the last few years but remember that the mobile industry is a relatively new phenomenon so there has been room to grow. A process shrink, say from 40nm to 28nm, will help improve the level of performance over the next year or two but beyond that it will get much harder to squeeze extra performance.

 Look at a "similar" type platform such as the ultrabook platform (a relative of tablets), where there have been problems with systems that come equipped with a discrete graphics chip. The biggest problem is even equipped with a relatively weak mobile GPU there isn't enough cooling within the platform to dissipate all the heat when the system is stressed, i.e. playing a game. The result of this is the CPU and/or the GPU will clock down making the game unplayable. Also the entire laptop gets extremely hot which isn't good for the internal components and it consumes a lot more power draining the battery quickly. I think the big advances in the mobile phone / tablet GPUs are going to be tied much more into chip fab manufacturing shrinking their process nodes. Considering the xbox 360 and ps3 use on average about 170 watts, that would be a tall order to cool down inside a phone or tablet. I recently bought a PS Vita and was pretty impressed with the graphics which are approaching current gen console graphics. But the PS Vita's screen is at a fairly low resolution. As mobile devices keep increasing their screen resolution which seems to be the trend, it becomes that much harder to drive a game at native resolution, especially since mobile chips have very limited memory bandwidth.    

Me picking Zynga's side over someone else's and Gamestop being a potential ally against digital distribution...I must be going mad

John Carmack stands to make an awful lot of money if EA wins this case against Zynga. Just how many people can he sue for making FPS games 

'he who is without sin chuck the first stone'. None are innocent , all art is an improvement upon that which have come before. It started from the first cave painting and now we have Van Gogh. EA is just calling Zynga on their BS but they're not pure as the driven snow either. Both are guilty and need to shut up, acknowledge they both are before more dirty laundry comes out and by golly it will.

pong was made into the tv years ago i think it was the first video game then they started making boxes

The one console future idea is why I've thought that ultimately the television will become the gaming center and NO console will be required.  I think we're headed toward subscription service gaming (something like OnLive) as a viable option.  We already have gotten accustomed to doing it with movies and TV (Netflix, Hulu, etc.) and music (Napster, etc.).  It's a logical extension for gaming.  The infrastructure isn't there yet to make it completely viable but don't be surprised in another ten years when you just use bluetooth to connect a controller straight to your TV and use an app to connect to an online games service that you pay a monthly subscription to access.

Digital distribution isn't a bad thing but the infrastructure just is NOT ready and in place to go to a digital only model for anything outside of PC.  Even with an awesome Internet connection it still takes FOREVER to download even patches and updates half the time much less full 5 to 15GB games on consoles.  The systems don't exactly sell with enough hard drive space to make this very viable in this gen and probably won't in the next either.  The alternative would be some form of cloud gaming but then we have to start talking DRM and always connected issues.

thats a nice control but guess how much it would cost

Anyone who thinks tablets or smartphones are going to take over as the go to for gaming needs to just hand in their gamer card now.  I would rather just quit gaming all together than see it go that direction.  This new crowd of "gamer" don't play games seriously and are ultimately bad consumers to tailor something toward.  They are even more fickle than the hardcore market, don't want to spend more than a few bucks on a game, and use their devices for gaming as a secondary concern.  It's just a setup for making shovelware and their is ZERO consumer loyalty to be found there.

There is copycatting stuff from other games... and then there is just blatantly ripping off other games.  Zynga isn't even bothering to make the Ville look different from The Sims Social. 

If the number of AAA releases is going to go down then why do we need new consoles?  You don't need a PS3 to play games like Spelunky.