GAMING NEWS PART DEUX

If you're wondering where today's tagline comes from, this story has been doing the rounds.  Essentially pirating games does developers less harm than buying resold keys, because of the many problems associated with resold keys (which are, if the devs. are to be believed, often acquired illegally) that the developers have to recompense.

G2A are by most accounts a pretty scummy company, so it's good to see that becoming wider knowledge.

Gamescom starts on Monday and seems they're trying to really stick the knife in to E3.

As we're getting on Monday
Nintendo Indie Showcase 2pm
Inside Xbox 5pm
Google Stadia Connect 6pm
Opening Night Live 7pm, which is a bit like Game Awards but no awards

THQ have announced they'll have live streams in a Treehouse like manner and I believe Nintendo will also have stuff going up most days. Rumors EA may have some sort of stream as well playing Need for Speed etc

I wouldn't be shocked to see Witcher 3 for instance get dated for Switch during the week.

I'm up for that Indie showcase, but where's the 'Nindie' branding?

In the bin where it belongs.

I was thinking maybe it's a marketing thing as in if you call a game called nindie it's automatically tied to Nintendo, where it might be coming to all systems.

Maybe some indies weren't happy about it, especially if they weren't in a marketing deal like you see with AAA game's.

They should go full-out with Nindependentendo.

Apparently Indie World was always the Japanese branding, while Nindie was an NOA invention, so they've consolidated to the Japanese approach.

I think Nindie is better though

We've got a new best game on Switch

Aye that Duck life battle game looks insanely good.

Nicalis seems to be a terrible place to work for, especially considering their utterly deplorable boss. That whole article is well worth a read and it's definitely going to make me think twice about buying any Nicalis published title in future. I hope other indie devs will try and partner with the likes of Devolver instead.

I found the part about how Nicalis would prioritise their most lucrative properties and found themselves overstretched with too many titles to support particularly illuminating. Perhaps that explains some of the ludicrous waits Europe had for some of their ports on Nintendo platforms?

Ooft! That is some nasty stuff but yeah at least indie devs have some better options than them now, plus even Nintendo is way more inclusive than they used to be. Also it wasn't just their European distribution that was terrible either as Canada was often treated the same way.

Is it bad that I read that and though, 'That's not as bad as many gaming companies'?

Sigh. Not like I bought many Nicalis games anyway, but yep, something to consider before considering any in the future. And that boss is an utter shiter.

I presume people have seen the whole 'gaming #MeToo' thing that's been happening recently? I know it's a bit grim for this happy site, but it's still a positive overall that these things are finally coming to light because there was never any way they weren't happening.

Good to know Nicalis are actually bad and not just "don't care about europe" bad

Today we have two events

At 9pm we have a State of Play which will be 20mins and have a update on The Last of Us Part 2 at least along with more info on first party, new games and more

Naughty Dog does have a media event in LA, so expect TLoU2 be the talk of the town.

The other event is at 11pm Inside Xbox, which I feel is a bit brave. Now these are live and about a hour long, the info for this seems to be the next big Game Pass title Outer World's and interviewing Jon Bernthal.

State of Play was genuinely a waste of time outside of the TLOU2 trailer. The actual presentation is clearly trying to copy Nintendo's Directs now - this wasn't the case on the first State of Play, if I recall correctly - but with none of the character or warmth of those presentations. I wish they'd just release the trailers themselves - I'll probably be skipping the next State of Play, to be honest.

You think that was a waste of time, you should watch Inside Xbox.

I don't know what it is that these two can't get right compared to Nintendo as on paper SoP is like a Direct and Inside Xbox like Treehouse.

I've not seen them, but Nintendo has been doing them for a while and still missteps occasionally. Otherwise, though, it's a company that thrives on warmth and family. I don't see Sony and MS in the same way: they're like F-Zero cars compared to Nintendo's Mr. Scooty.



VoaT

Some sad news - Alphadream of Mario and Luigi fame are shutting up shop. It seems like the 3DS remakes they've been putting out in recent times have not done well at all - I read one story which stated that the Bowser's Inside Story remake did so badly that it caused Nintendo to nix all other 3DS titles, which if true... yeesh.

I think they should have been given a crack at a Switch title and they've been dealt a bad hand. Those M&L remakes would have done gangbusters on Switch.

Xbox last night had XO19 in London which meant an Inside Xbox and it might have been the best one yet as we got New IPs, first look at first-party stuff, tons of Game Pass stuff like Streets of Rage 4 on release and even Yakuza.

What I do want to talk about though is we know MS now have this message of games for everyone and basically everything, so we see games on Switch and the adaptive controller allowing more people to play.

One of the games last night was called Tell Me Why (nothing but a heartbreak) which is an MS published title from Dontnod which stars a trans main character voiced by a trans actor.

I've seen Laura Kate Dale tweet how this is a big step in gaming and I think it is myself as well.

Another master-stroke from Mas' fave, cruelly axed before it was born.

Amazing

Balladeer wrote:

Another master-stroke from Mas' fave, cruelly axed before it was born.

"MUM I NEED A WHOLE BAGUETTE OF GARLIC BREAD FOR DINNER TONIGHT OR I'LL NEVER DEFEAT DRACULA"

Or the ultimate cheat code of slamming cloves of garlic into your mouth as if you were Wario.

JayMoyles wrote:

"MUM I NEED A WHOLE BAGUETTE OF GARLIC BREAD FOR DINNER TONIGHT OR I'LL NEVER DEFEAT DRACULA"

Never mind Boktai, that sounds like a good time to me! Jas' suggestion... less so.