Business Casual Gamers

It’s a new year, sure to be full of great new games. However, we have some gripes about the games we play and the industry at large that we hope every game publisher out there is setting a New Year’s resolution to fix. In this episode, we discuss some of our biggest recent gripes with the industry and offer our suggestions on how to fix them.

Intro music provided by sawsquarenoise. Used with permission.

What do Blizzard Entertainment and Ozzie from Chrono Trigger have in common: They’re both in a pickle. If you’ve gone to any website over the past month, it is hard to miss the news of all the hot water that Blizzard Entertainment finds themselves in. In this episode, we ask ourselves a question that may prove to be one of the most important in gaming’s history: What happens when the greatest game developer of all time collapses?

Intro music provided by sawsquarenoise. Used with permission.

In a few past episodes, we’ve taken a deep dive into games we believe to be Hall-of-Fame levels of quality, talking about what makes them so special. Over the past few weeks, Aaron and I both came to each other with a game that we thought was worthy of the Hall of Fame. The only problem: We weren’t talking about the same game. So in this episode, we are going to sell each other on why our chosen game is worthy of the coveted BCG Hall of Fame nomination.

Intro music provided by sawsquarenoise. Used with permission.

After a recent announcement and subsequent change of heart by Sony regarding their online store, gamers across the community were forced to revisit an important question about our community. Are we merely buying a game to entertain us for a time or are we preservers of a hobby’s legacy? Are game developers shipping products to pay the bills or are they curators of an IP universe? In this episode, we discuss the impact of our hobby increasingly moving into a digital-only world and the implications.

Back in Episode 40, I listed Witcher 3 as number 9 on my best video games of all time list. Naturally, I was excited when the developer, CD Projekt Red, was set to release their follow up game, Cyberpunk 2077. 18 frames per second lots of awkward glitches later, the developer and retailers are issuing mass refunds for the most hotly anticipated game of the year. In this episode, we discuss how a game that should be great ends up going off the rails and what the industry can learn from this event.

Intro music provided by sawsquarenoise. Used with permission.

Microsoft and Sony have finally graced us with the announcements we’ve all been anxiously awaiting. During the 2nd week of November, the Business Casual Gamers are looking forward to entering the next generation of video gaming. In this episode, we talk about our reaction to all the news of the past week, our buying plans and what we’re most excited about as we make the leap into the future.

Intro music provided by sawsquarenoise. Used with permission.

From the days of Ridge Racer and Crash Bandicoot all the way through Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsushima, the Business Casual Gamers have been there through every step of Sony’s journey in the video game world. Within the next few months, Sony is going to enter its 5th generation of the Playstation. In this episode, we discuss our expectations for the PS5, Sony’s position in the video game market and the next generation of gaming.

Intro music provided by sawsquarenoise. Used with permission.

Over the course of our gaming lives, we've seen it all. Multiple generations worth of console wars, 3D graphics in video games, virtual reality and even Blockbuster video. Just when we thought we'd seen it all, a global pandemic breaks out, forces us to stay at home for months, and had a profound effect on every aspect of life. In this episode, we talk about what the Business Casual Gamers have learned about gaming at home when you have no other option.

Intro music provided by sawsquarenoise. Used with permission.

Hard as it may be to believe, the video game hobby as we know it has been around for nearly 50 years at this point. Just like hobbies of the past: classic cars, baseball cards or record collecting, the question always remains the same - how can gamers relive the nostalgia of the hobby they love? In this episode, we explore the gaming industry’s efforts to repackage and sell us our fondest gaming memories.

Intro music provided by sawsquarenoise. Used with permission.

Back in 2016, the Business Casual Gamers created a series of episodes where we assessed the state of gaming for all the major players in the video game industry. As we enter 2020, we’re about to enter the next console generation, the 7th in our gaming lifetimes. In this episode, we revisit our assessment of the state of gaming from a Business Casual Gamer perspective and offer our predictions about what’s in store for the gaming hobby in 2020 and beyond.

Intro music provided by sawsquarenoise. Used with permission.