Videogame Roundtable

Episode 469: Microsoft Buys Activision/Blizzard

The title about says it all. Microsoft has straight up purchased Activision/Blizzard -- in cash, no less -- and while it'll take til September 2023 to get everything sorted, probably, it's one of the biggest shakeups in the history of videogames. Meanwhile, T.J. is still salty over Vicarious Visions developing Diablo II: Resurrected, while the trio discusses the plans for Sony's Game Pass. This week's news includes:
Microsoft spends almost $70B in buying Activision/Blizzard
City-building RTS The Settlers launches in March, closed beta next week
Split Pad Pro getting the Attachment Set
PS3 games reportedly appear on PS5 Store
Let us know what you think!

Episode 468: Munchkin Voice

Technical issue in that the episode was uploaded but for some reason was not downloading on podcast apps, so re-uploading and hopefully this time you guys can download it. This week's episode deals with the unbelievable bullcrap going on in the industry, from NFTs to sexual harrassment to the ESA's incompetence. The news items:
Lego suspends release of Overwatch 2 set amid ongoing Activision Blizzard controversy
Sega stalls NFT plans
E3 2022 cancels in-person event
Elden Ring character creation leaks
Hitman 3 year 2 reveal coming later this week (from PC Gamer)
Let us know what you think!

Episode 467: The Best (and Worst) Games of the Year 2021

2021 is finally over. And for the first time in years, a proper Games of the Year Awards has been done by GameStooge/TD Gaming Podcast. While the Worst Game of the Year was a no doubter, the Best Game of the Year was not, with the nominees being Deathloop, Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite, Metroid Dread and Psychonauts 2.
But there are a whopping 26 award categories, technical and artistic, so listen in on this fat 2 1/2 hour episode to find out who the winners are.
Original music by Liborio Conti.

Episode 466: The Bad Awards Before the Good Ones

This one and a three-quarters hour podcast talks about the silly awards show known as The Game Awards (formerly Spike TV's Game Awards). Let us know what you thought of the Awards show, the nominees and the winners.

Episode 465: Bobby Kotick Is Terrible

This week comments on the crapshow that is going on with most of the third party publishers. That, and some updates to games that people really care about. The news includes:
Bethesda shows another brief tease of Starfield
Kotick reportedly says he'll consider leaving if he can't fix Activision Blizzard's culture problems
Minecraft 1.18 'Caves and Cliffs Update' Part Two is officially available on all platforms
Let us know what you think.

Episode 464: Nintendo Dislikes Virtual

This is the second attempt at Episode 464, as the previous episode had bad audio, and was boring to boot. This week's episode features a lot of questionable content, as well as a Dark Souls Gaming Flashback. The news includes:
Surprise Halo Infinite multiplayer launch buckles Steam servers
Grand Theft Auto Trilogy back on PC after Rockstar removes 'unintentionally included' files
Microsoft adds 76 more games to Xbox backwards compatibility
Nintendo explains why there is no virtual console on Switch
Let us know what you think.

Episode 463: Sweet Bastion

This week's episode features a Gaming Flashback of Bastion, Supergiant Games' first title, and a proto-version of 2020's Hades. The discussion includes around their other two games as well, Transistor and Pyre. They also discuss how far Ubisoft is falling, and Jonah tries to convince the others how cool a metaverse would be for games. The news of the week includes:
Ubisoft announces plans to develop Play-To-Earn, Blockchain and NFT Games
Sega and Microsoft explore strategic alliance
Microsoft is planning 3D metaverse apps
Let us know what you think.

Episode 462: Chipmunk Voice

What's with the title? Stick to the end of the episode to find out. Meanwhile, this week was fairly slow and it was tough finding things to talk about -- Minecraft has been in the news a lot lately.
Microsoft is 'definitely not done' acquiring studios
Company sells new PS5 plate design
Minecraft Java Edition and Bedrock Edition are coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC
Let us know what you think.