Controlled Interests Gamecast

The panel tackles Sony's announcement of the PlayStation Classic this week, with the two points of discussion revolving around the collection of games as well as questions surrounding the price, production, and delivery of a piece of hardware similar to Nintendo's recent releases. Capcom confirmed this week that their main Western studio, Capcom Vancouver, is shutting down. According to Capcom the move was made so they could focus on development of major titles in Japan. The move will reportedly set Capcom back $40 mil., but more importantly 158 people lost their jobs in the move. Reports are stating a majority of the ex-Capcom Vancouver members have been hired by EA Vancouver (FIFA, NHL). Key highlights of August’s include Madden having it’s best launch sales-wise since 2013, Monster Hunter having a great launch on PC, and Modern Warfare 2 gives backwards compatibility some evidence as to how useful it is. Lastly, hardware sales were up 22% year over year and the big 3 effectively tied in terms of dollar sales. In just 3 days Spider-Man managed to sell 3.3 million copies and surpassed 2018’s God of War as the fastest selling exclusive on PlayStation 4, ever. It was also reported that Spider-Man broke the PS4 record for most copies pre-ordered coming in at 1 million. As of September 20th, PS Now will allow subscribers to download almost all of the PS4 games, and all of the PS2 games available on PS Now. No reduction in price was announced, though they did mention the Summer sale that offers the service at a price comparable to Xbox’s Game Pass.

Jerrad and Jordan start the podcast by talking about their impressions of Insomniac Games' Spider-Man on PS4. They avoid spoilers but give you their opinions on the game. In news they start by talking about the newly announced Assassin's Creed Odyssey season pass which will include a remaster of Assassin's Creed 3. Lastly, they cover the Nintendo Direct which highlighted the upcoming Nintendo Online Service, but also showcased a new Luigi's Mansion as well as finally putting Isabelle from Animal Crossing in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Speaking of Animal Crossing, they ended the Nintendo Direct with the announcement that a new Animal Crossing installment is headed to the Nintendo Switch in 2019.

The panel is excited for Spider-Man PS4 releasing this week and discuss it's critical reception. The game’s currently sitting at an 87 on Metacritic. It’s review scores ranged from the mid-80’s all the way to the high 90’s for many outlets. At its worst it’s being touted as the best Spider-Man game ever, and at its best many outlets feel it’s a real contender for Game of the Year 2018. The big topic this week is that Henry Cavill has been cast as Geralt of Rivia in Netflix’s upcoming Witcher series. Alongside fans, Hollywood at large was surprised by this move by Cavill. He’s currently Superman and is coming off a great performance in Mission Impossible 6: Fallout. Many of these people feel that he’s trading in big roles he’s potentially opened up for himself. Cavill is a noted giant nerd and gamer and was reported as almost missing his casting call from Zack Snyder letting him know he landed the role of Superman. During the MI6 press tour Cavill expressed his love for the Witcher series and stated playing Geralt would be a dream role for him. Shoutout to BossLogic for making fanart of Cavill as Geralt soon after the series was announced.

The panel has a meaty and deep 48-minute demo of Cyberpunk 2077 to go over. They talk about everything they loved, as well as some things that concern them about the game as well as CD Projekt Red. It seems that the rumors were true. Xbox has announced Xbox All-Access which allows consumers to take on a 2-year contract where they can pay monthly for either an Xbox One S or X alongside Game Pass and Live Gold. The Xbox One X plan will go for $35 a month for 2 years, whereas Xbox One S will be priced at $22 a month for two years, which was previously unknown. When everything is tallied up Xbox One S subscribers will save a total of $132 whereas Xbox One X subscribers will save around $20 off MSRP. In quickie news we had: Battlefield V has been delayed from Oct 19th to Nov. 20th, Unknown Worlds announces Subnautica standalone arctic expansion titled ‘Below Zero’, Xbox is releasing a new robot white Elite controller for $150 releasing in October, Xbox also announced a Fallout 76/Xbox One X bundle w/ the 1st white XOX model. The codename for PS5 may have been found via two console lists on the Unreal Engine 4’s backend. The codename is apparently ‘Erebus’ and fits in line with the Greek-themed codenames. Erebus, who’s described as darkness personified, is often referred to as ‘one of the first 5 to exist’. It’s believed to be an iteration of the PS4 as opposed to the PS5 considering the Greek naming convention has been used for the PS4, PSVR, and the PS4 Pro specifically.

The panel has a ton of Gamescom 2018 news to go over as well as some rumors regarding a new initiative by Xbox regarding their consoles.  Until Dawn developer, Supermassive Games, announced at GamesCom 2018, their new horror anthology series titled ‘The Dark Pictures’. They also released a trailer for the first installment in the series titled Man of Medan set to release in 2019 on PS4/XB1/PC. They stated that they would like to hit a cadence of two new entries released each year. In an interview at Gamescom 2018 Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot stated that there will not be a new AC game released in 2019. He stated the only reason there are AC games releasing in back-to-back years is because Origins & Odyssey were being developed at the same time by different teams. He said to look for DLC for Odyssey next year. According to The Verge, Microsoft is planning on offering their hardware paired w/ both Gold and Game Pass for a monthly subscription fee. This service is codenamed Project Largo & would roll out to Microsoft stores only at launch. It would offer the Xbox One X w/ Live Gold & Game Pass fo $34.99 a month for 24 months. Xbox did a similar thing 6 years ago when they offered a $99 Xbox 360 w/ a $15 a month 2-year subscription. This 360 version included a 2-year warranty and Xbox Live Gold.

Jerrad and Dom start the podcast by going on a Dark Souls Remastered tangent shortly after talking about Graveyard Keeper and Halo 5. The news this week is pretty packed, but they open up the segment by talking about WB Montreal and their Game Director's tweets regarding where the studio has been. The guys then cover a ton of quickie news including Telltale giving a complete release schedule for The Walking Dead: Final Season, as well as the news that EA's Patrick Sodurland has left the company. Closing out the show is our main topic which centers around Xbox's new AAAA-studio The Initiative and their recent round of impressive hires.

The guys discuss Nintendo & series Director Masahiro Sakurai holding a SSBU Direct and revealed the following: Simon & Richter Belmont from Castlevania, King K.Rool from DKC, 103 stages, 800+ music tracks, UI design, and other details. The rest of the show covers a bevy of quick news from around the industry. Child of Light 2 was teased via Ubisoft Game Direct Patrick Plourde’s tweet regarding the Nintendo Switch port of the first game. In the tweet he also says to look forward to some interesting announcements in the near future. Studio MDHR announced via their Twitter that Cuphead has eclipsed 3 million copies sold. Rockstar released a gameplay trailer for RDR2 introducing players to the world via an introduction and Part 1 of a multipart video series. Lastly, PlayStation unveiled a LE translucent midnight blue PS4 Pro 2TB console in celebration of reaching 500mil. PlayStation consoles sold lifetime. Only 50,000 of these were made and will be available on August 24th for $500 USD.

The guys go over what games and hardware dominated the month of June in 2018. They also talk about Playground Games new hires as well as a court case involving Quantic Dream coming to a conclusion.

This week Jerrad and Jordan fill a news-lite show talking other things in the video game space. After discussing what they've been playing, they have a discussion about what Rocksteady's next game could be and Jordan's idea is pretty interesting. They also discuss what their dream rosters would be for a Rocksteady Batman/Batfamily game as well as a Teen Titans game by Rocksteady or WB Montreal. The only news for the week surrounds the rumors about Xbox Project Scarlett. The next generation of Xbox's is said to launch with a traditional console as well as a cheaper streaming version of the console that uses the cloud. They discuss what that means and if it will be a great strategy for Xbox and Microsoft.

This week Jerrad and Dom cover a hefty bit of news covering numerous games, publishers, and mediums. Jumpship Studios has begun hiring employees to ramp up production on Somerville and released a new short teaser of the game. The guys discuss if it will live up to what we have come to expect from PlayDead and their alum. Next they tackle the news that Madden 19 will see the return of Longshot, their single-player mode. Xbox is going to be at Gamescom and the guys rack their brains about the realistic possibilities. The last two news stories cover both Fortnite's earning of $1 billion as well as Guerilla Games recently announced expansion from 250 employees to well over 400. The big topic of the show revolves around the Uncharted Fan Film starring Nathan Fillion that recently released. After a review of the film itself the guys talk about how this could become a Hollywood reality.