Armstrong's Musings: Game Zone

Xbox Game Pass has increasingly striven to bring the best value to its player base. It has been clear that Sony and Xbox have two different strategies for competing for eyeballs. Xbox has been making inroads to get its software wherever you play games. It doesn't matter if it is on an Xbox, computer, or Switch. Xbox wants you to play their games. 

To this end, Xbox Game Pass has teamed up with EA Play. As of now, you can all EA's catalog of games on the Xbox Game Pass. This collaboration is a huge win for gamers who want to get the biggest bang out of their buck for a subscription. Sony will need to make a long term strategy to compete with the incredible value Xbox is bringing. 

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EA has practiced in many terrible monetization schemes. EA's most recent way they have planed to monetize their games is to do role ads in their games. This choice EA made might have been tolerable if they had released that game as a free game. In my opinion, the company has been treating the franchise as a game as a service. They might as well copy other games as services and release one game that has consistent updates. Do they do this? Nope! They publish the game at $60 and then do ad roles. 

If consumers are paying $60 or $100 for a game, it should be free of ads. This move is grimy and should be held in disdain. The only way to prevent these types of additions is not to buy these titles. However, there is a dedicated base that loves sports games, regardless of quality. The best we can hope for is to be vigilant and prevent these practices in our other games. 

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Tencent is effectively an arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It does nothing without the explicit blessing of the political party that rules China with an iron fist. The current President of the United States attempts to diminish the influence and power of China in the states. One part of many actions this US government is taking is banning WeChat and TikTok. There are allegations that these apps are collecting information to be used by the CCP. 

What is interesting is that other companies seem to be in danger to be on the chopping block as well. Two companies specifically that might be in trouble are Epic Games due to it being 40% owned by Tencent and Riot Games is 100% by Tencent. These are huge companies in the video game space and these actions leave us with many questions. 

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The console war between PlayStation and Xbox is coming soon! PlayStation has done a great job of attracting costumers with console exclusive games. That is what PlayStation is known for now, and is what has made them successful. Xbox had missteps at the begging of the last console war and needs to come out swinging to succeed this time around. Did Xbox achieve this?

In our opinion, the Xbox Showcase was lackluster, and not too many titles gripped us. There were some interesting elements to the show, and the Game Pass looks excellent. However, they seem to be seriously lacking in showing a premier console exclusive game that will be released at the same time as the console. Due to this, I don't know if they will have any driver to move console sales, but only time will tell!

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Mixer had so much promise to give the other Video Game Streaming platforms a run for their money. Many video game streamers and players hoped that Mixer would create competition between Twitch and Youtube. This competition would ideally have made a better experience for everyone involved in the space. This hope was fantastic, but these hopes were not actualized. The platform never gained the audience they hope to achieve. Due to this, Microsoft is shutting down Mixer.

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There have been methods to monetize content, both good and bad for the consumer. However, there has never been a monetization scheme, quite like the Culling: Origins. The players will not only have to play the game but will have to pay to play for each match you participate in. 

Electronic Arts and Activision have crafted nefarious ways to monetize their content in predatory practices. However, this small developer takes it to levels that even EA or Activision wouldn't try to go. There are so many deserving games and developers. We would not recommend the Culling: Origins. 

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Last of Us 2 was widely successful and beloved. Ellie and Joel became huge video game characters and possibly rising to timeless characters as well. Because of this, the gaming community was excited to see where the sequel would take the series. The mystery was stolen for many fans due to leaks happening. The Last of Us 2 story plots where leaked and fans were outrages on how the developers at Naughty Dog choose to treat these characters. To many fans, it was incredibly anti-climatic and a disappointment. Only time will tell now if this leak will hurt sales. 

If you have an idea for an episode or a person of note in the video game industry, i.e., a developer, influencer, illustrator, etc. then let us know! Email us at:

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There have many different crazy iterations of microtransactions in the video game industry. However, Dead or Alive has taken the cake recently on one of the worst microtransactions in games. The game has close to over a thousand dollars worth of microtransactions in the game. If that wasn't bad enough, then the fact the game charges you every time a character gets a haircut is atrocious. Those types of charges are the pinnacle of taking advantage of your customer base. Team Ninja shouldn't get a dime for overtly terrible practices.

If you have an idea for an episode or a person of note in the video game industry, i.e., a developer, influencer, illustrator, etc. then let us know! Email us at:

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This news cycle we talk about the reviews of a few recent movies, and we discuss the video games coming in the future. As always, we love to hear what you think! Jump in on the conversation. Let's dive into the news. 

John has finally watched Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. While there were some positive moments in the movie for John; however, the film essentially rewrites a good deal of lore, and the movie came out being "ok." Both John and Richard wished for more in a Star Wars movie. 

We have another movie marketed poorly and a group of writers who couldn't live up to the source material. As it stands right now, Birds of Prey is on track to lose money for the studio. Another sad day for comic book movies.

Where Birds of Prey failed, Sonic the Movie succeeds with audiences. There are a vast number of video game films that have failed. Sonic was heading the direction when the first trailers showed off Sonic. Sonic looked horrific and would have face planted. The studio then took that criticism and completely redid the movie. That positive move has paid off for them as it has grossed $295.6 million.

We have a few great games coming up soon, and we couldn't be more excited! Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons both come out on March 20th. The crossover memes from both communities have been funny and incredible. The beloved Resident Evil franchise has a new remake coming up on April 3rd, Resident Evil 3. 

What could be worse than being a sub-par video game streaming service? Being the worst of all the streaming services. Nvidia has a new streaming service in Beta that already looks better then Stadia. Can Stadia survive the streaming services from Xbox, Nvidia, and others? Let us know what you think!

CD Projekt Red has reached an incredible milestone. The studio is now the second biggest games studio in Europe! We are happy to have one of the best studios when it comes to customer relations have this accomplishment. The market is flooded with studios and publishers who institute some of the worst practices in their games. We wish CD Projekt Red the best and hope they continue to have players first in mind in the future as well. 

If you have an idea for an episode or a person of note in the video game industry, i.e., a developer, influencer, illustrator, etc. then let us know! Email us at:

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We appreciate you listening and hope to hear from you. Stay Strong! 

We are back from hiatus! We had some significant life events happening in our lives that put the podcast on hold; however, we are ecstatic to discuss everything geek and video game-related! Let's dive into the news!

During our break, we were able to catch up on some outstanding shows. John was able to watch the Harley Quinn animated series, and it was a fun animation. Richard finished watching the Mandalorian and the Witcher. Both are fantastic shows that are worth your viewership.

With Pokemon: Sword and Shield officially on a mainline console, Pokemon fans are now paying more than ever. The base games individually are $60, so those dedicated to having both will pay $120. The DLC will then cost $30 per game. This means that a person who has both games will then pay $60 to have the DLC for both games. After that, Pokemon Home is the replacement for Pokemon Bank. Pokemon Home will cost $16 annually. All of this combined means that dedicated Pokemon fans will pay $196. Is Game Freak pushing their monetization to far, or are you on board with these prices?

We here are at AM: Game Zone has seen questionable return policies in the gaming industry; however, for now, Nintendo has taken the cake for the worst return policy. You can not return a game to Nintendo. Period. No exceptions. This even includes pre-order games. The game isn't yet released, but Nintendo refuses to refund the game. This is an anticonsumer and lousy policy. For all the things Nintendo does well, this is one of the worst things this company does. 

Blizzard has been one of the worst companies in the video game industry of late. They continue to disappoint with the release of Warcraft 3: Reforged. Blizzard underdelivered in every category and continues to erode their credibility.

If you have an idea for an episode or a person of note in the video game industry, i.e., a developer, influencer, illustrator, etc. then let us know! Email us at:

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We appreciate you listening and hope to hear from you. Stay Strong!