Into The Video Game Z

NEWS: Switch sells 32 million units, reduces year forecast to 17 million PS4 at 94.2 million, highest selling console worldwide in 2018 Xbox Live has 60 million active users Dr. Mario World is announced Further rumors of a portable Switch model next fiscal year Fallout 76 patch causes previously fixed bugs to reappear PS4 lead architect Mark Cerny has an interesting patent related to backwards compatibility Microsoft wants to bring Xbox Live to Switch, iOS, Android Machinima closes down No Titanfall 3 in development, Respawn/EA stealth launch Apex Legends, a BR in the Titanfall universe TOPICS: Wargroove analysis Anthem Demo impressions/analysis Kingdom Hearts 3 full spoiler-free review (mechanics, pacing, satisfaction factor) EMAILS: What single thing could improve each platform's brand? Which console library do you wish you could replay for the first time? How's the toys-to-life industry doing? What game intro/theme song gets you the most hyped?

NEWS: Switch best selling console of December, and year round Wargroove surprise launch on Feb 1st Xbox/PS5 specs allegedly leak, Zen 2 CPUs, Ray tracing Bioware tried to revive KOTOR multiple times under EA Furukawa says Nintendo not currently considering successor or price cut to Switch at this time Metroid Prime 4 completely scrapped, starting over from scratch with help from Retro Studios GameStop oversells KH3 PS4 Pro pre-orders GDC survey suggests 18% of industry working on next gen games, Switch is most interesting platform Anthem's demo issues Dragon Ball Z RPG Project 2019 and Fighterz Season 2 Epic Store steals exclusivity for Metro Exodus from Steam EA backs down in Belgium and stops offering purchase of FIFA points Quantic Dream going multiplatform, minority share purchased by NetEase Gamestop board of directors chooses not to sell the company, looking to reinvest their 725 million from selling Spring Mobile TOPICS: Resident Evil 2 Remake Kingdom Hearts 3 Ace Combat 7 EMAILS: Favorite non-jrpg RPG? Gamecube recommendations? What game have you spent the most time on? If there's one franchise you could restart, what would you choose? What do you think of Uncharted Trilogy? Do we have any yearly gaming traditions?

NEWS: EA cancels Visceral's Star Wars game Ubisoft DLC controversy with Assassin's Creed Odyssey Trails of Cold Steel III finally getting localized by NISA with help from former XSEED employees Nintendo working on new methods to push Labo The first Uncharted game was re-tooled after the success of Gears of War Jump Force marketing debacle All Machinima videos taken down off public Youtube Soulja Boy back with new consoles, now claiming they play 800 licensed PS4 games, and Fortnite coming soon Decidueye almost made it into Smash Ultimate TOPICS: Travis Strikes Again Ace Combat 7 and VR Mode EMAILS: Why don't we make games? Status of the podcast What 2019 game do you hope has a major unexpected success akin to Octopath Traveler?

NEWS: 3DS titles are underselling severely in Japan, only going through 20% of stock Wii-shop will be closing for good at the end of the month Epic Games Store update: Division 2 exclusivity, spatial-os, and refund policy 84 more Chinese games approved, Tencent and NetEase still absent Bungie splits with Activision, maintains rights to Destiny Investors launch fraud investigation into Activision-Blizzard over Bungie split Lawsuit from former employee against Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford accuses him of giving himself an illegal 12 million dollar bonus, and underage porn? Pitchford moves to disbar former employee Verizon testing cloud based streaming service TOPICS: Discord has completely taken over chat services Resident Evil 2 One-Shot Demo The power of worldbuilding in games EMAILS: Classic RPG elements that don't exist in modern RPGs? What's worth keeping? Why did Pokemon succeed as the premiere Monster Collecting game? What makes a fighting game fun? Favorite characters in games? What options do Bungie have going forward with Destiny?

NEWS: China ends game freeze and approves 80 games, Tencent/NetEase games not among them Nintendo's Furukawa says future market trends may make Nintendo move from home console development Linkdin Profile suggests EA is working on Frostbite Engine support for Switch What's going on with Blizzard? Executives getting fired, dropping out, and cost cutting measures Slightly Mad Studios looks to enter next-gen console race with The Mad Box New Wii U prices skyrocket on Ebay Video Games account for more than 50% of UK entertainment market TOPICS: Issues with mobile as a platform/the future of the industry The large gap between video game coverage in culture and how big gaming is The cycle of console prices when collecting The physical barrier to VR EMAILS: How's Anthem looking now? EA's precarious situation Listener suggestion: Sea of Thieves as 2018 biggest disappointment award? Listener challenge: Say bad things about Smash Bros

NEWS: What Steam games do players use their Switch Pro Controllers the most in Soulja Boy forced to stop selling his clone consoles, prompted by alleged moves from Nintendo Nintendo President still believes in their sales target for fiscal year 2018 Level 5 has mass employee exodus in Japan, delaying upcoming projects New Persona 5 projects will be revealed in March, what could we see? TOPICS: Persona 3, 4, 5 cast dynamics PSVR Ace Combat Series AI in Age of Empires 2 Team Sonic Racing Gaming related New Years Resolutions What to expect out of a Nintendo Direct that may come this month Should we be worried about the state of Fire Emblem Three Houses?

NEWS: NPD November; PS4 takes unit sales, Switch takes dollar sales, all consoles sell above 1.3 Million Rumor of a third Xbox console, codenamed Maverick, Spring 2019 release? Xbox All Access financing program ending at end of year, but will return "updated" sometime in 2019 Bethesda forcing Fallout 76 cheaters to write an essay about cheating to get unbanned Persona 5 domain update; announcement likely incoming, more domains registered Shueisha rumored to be blocking Dragon Ball Fighterz from tournaments unless royalties are paid TOPICS: We round up every major release month by month and discuss the general trends of 2018 Into The Video Game Awards 2018 Important announcements from the team EMAIL: Manga series representation in Jump Force

NEWS: Bethesda allegedly breaching data protection laws Fallout 76 player declares himself the raidboss, vows to become the endgame content Razer wants to use your PC to mine cryptocurrency Epic Games offers cross play services to all devs for free Discord undercuts both Epic and Steam by offering a 90/10 revenue split to devs Riot games COO Scott Gelb suspended for alleged inappropriate behavior Blizzard abruptly kills HotS esports Credible next gen Xbox console rumors: codename Anaconda and codename Lockhart NPD November shows PS4 with slight unit lead, but all consoles doing extremely well Exploit reveals PS4 game access data, how many people on PS4 played each game? Switch becomes fastest selling console in US this generation (adjusted for 21 months on market) Soulja Boy releases two more bootleg consoles, Nintendo may be moving to sue Nintendo taken to court over illegal E-shop pre-order policy in German/Norwegian regions Cygames shows off two new Granblue games from Arc System Works and Platinum Persona 5 Arena and updated version coming soon? TOPICS: Earth Defense Force 5 A new Hideo Kojima conspiracy begins EMAILS: Were we happy with the God of War win for GOTY? When's Borderlands 3? Next Smash Bros DLC character allegedly leaks, how strong is the pick?

NEWS: Fallout 76 support site leaked personal info to other players Soulja Boy brands a knockoff console Xbox One wins highest growth of three major consoles this year "unprecedented year to year growth" South Korea criminalizes boosting in games, fine and potential jail time Switch sells 200k units in the UK alone over Black Friday-Smash release Smash sells 1.24M at launch in Japan, eclipsing all other Nintendo launches apart from Pokemon Pubg and Fortnite banned by new Chinese rating group, other games must be tweaked Street Fighter V adds in-game ads The Game Awards - all the awards, announcements, and our thoughts TOPICS: Monster Hunter Iceborn John Romero is making Sigil Panzer Dragoon remakes Toonami is actually the best game reviewer Persona 3 and Persona 5 Dancing DMC V Demo Just Cause 4 Super Smash Bros Ultimate EMAILS: Best game soundtracks? Best vocal tracks? Benefits of a Switch revision? Limited edition consoles impact on sales? Current state of MOBAs?

NEWS: Switch has best sales week ever over Black Friday-Cyber Monday FTC will investigate lootboxes Sony patents new game cartridge tech Nintendo gets rid of Creator program, streamlines content guidelines for Twitch and Youtube Epic Games plans to release a steam rival, promises devs 88% cut of game sales across the board Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition bag controversy TOPICS: The Game Awards 2018 - Our picks, who will the industry judges pick, and game reveal predictions Microsoft wins a 480 million dollar contract with US Army to utilize Hololens for combat missions and additional training EMAILS: What makes a perfect game for its genre? Which games had the biggest impact on your tastes? Which games had your favorite art style?