Henroid

No I think it was 5 million. The thing is, what counts as being "concurrently connected" with these things? I just found out that one of these LOMA games has a launch client / lobby client that possibly counts toward that, and you can idle in it infinitely. So 5 million connections maybe, but a lot of those are possibly idle.

Okay. Wait. Chris. Are you sure your story wasn't you being a part of some candid camera bit for some show (be it TV or web or shitty YouTube channel)?

I didn't know this but apparently Gamestop managers get gifts sometimes from video game developers / manufacturers. It was announced recently in Vegas that managers will be receiving free PS4s and XB1s and some games for each. Talk about sweet job perks I guess. In other news, Peter Moore has double-downed on EA's business philosophy that is "we don't do offline experiences anymore." Which means you can expect more SimCity type shenanigans from them.

How about a Mass Effect game based on humanity's first uses of the Mass Effect so that the title is accurate.

Plenty of news this morning. First, Electronic Arts is planning a second wave of original IP! By which they mean releasing sequels. http://www.computerandvideo games.com/426302/ea-planning-second-wave-of-original-ip-on-next-gen/ And probably bigger, actually important news, Steve Ballmer has announced his retirement one year in advanced. That's pretty huge, and I wonder how much of an impact (and how long it'll be until we see that impact) this has on Microsoft's overall business strategy. Cross your fingers for 2015, the year of the XB1. http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/23/4650596/steve-ballmer-retiring-as-microsoft-ceo

He's just in it for the cheeseburgers.

I think there's a point where a term can and should be 'taken back.' Just because 'comic book' and 'video game' and 'nerd' have a lot of negativity permeating society doesn't mean people should abandon those terms; they should be embraced and fought for. Because ultimately, why do people care so much to demonize or put down trivial things?

I object to the episode title. "Pop in that violator" was uncanny.

Yay Sean is back!

Whoops, okay so disregard everything about games getting GFWL patched out - turns out that was a hoax. No word on what anyone is doing for games already released; the only confirmed thing now (hopefully this is true) is that games not yet released are getting converted to Steam integration instead.

Wow, uh, I usually don't pay attention to GamesCon and I'm glad social media exists to draw my attention to it. Because it seems like Sony just orchestrated a massive coup with their presentation. The amount of support the Vita is suddenly getting, and the big support from indie devs, and the very clear "we're better at timed exclusives policy than MS" going on is just... holy crap. Six months ago I was ragging on Sony for being crap at the video game industry over the last few years. Now it's like they just get it.

Dark Souls was one of the first games confirmed to getting a patch developed that will remove the GFWL stuff.

RIP Well, at least come August of next year. In the meanwhile developers are already starting to jump up noting that they're going to be patching out GFWL integration, before it breaks when MS kills the whole thing.

So Microsoft managed to arrange something in Europe for the XB1's release: FIFA 2014 packed in at no additional cost. I'm sure it's costing them a fortune because EA is not going to just give away their best European franchise for free.

Which of the fairly recent episodes was it when, in discussing Neptune's Pride 2, Jake or Sean described NIck as bashing his head into a mirror while shouting, "I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE!" God that had me in tears laughing.

Whoa, I didn't know Tegan made that picture. Doubly awesome! And now a new tumblr to follow!

GFWL is closing down its marketplace thing. Probably because they have the Windows 8 store that they've gotta push and unify across all platforms. I know people don't generally care about this sorta thing but the NFL Sunday Ticket function is going away from the PS3 for this upcoming season, which sucks. Not that Sony did a good job of advertising it as a thing people can invest in. The NFL is also probably setting up to have the feature on the XB1 (not clear if it's exclusive there or if it'll be on the PS4 as well - the NFL is a really strange business). Sorry I'm a sports guy sometimes.

That image just made my day.

2nd time Keith David has come up on Idle Thumbs and has confused the hosts. Where's Steve and Sean when we need them? Edit - Oh congrats Steve for Gone Home's launch.

Oh my god this Splinter Cell discussion is amazing.

So Gamestop is allegedly practicing business in a shitty way. http://kotaku.com/extreme-gamestop-pricing-leaves-some-fans-calling-scam-1108627828 Xenoblade Chronicles, a hard to find game (and thus expensive when you do find it) that had a limited print and sold exclusively through GS and Nintendo's Online store, has suddenly shown up in great quantity across Gamestop locations with a $90 price tag. It happened over the last two weeks or so, way too fast for people to just trade it in over time.

Torchlight and Sean stumbling into Snoopy's Flying Ace come to mind.

To me it's like being informed of things I may like. And if it's AAA stuff or games I've played already I love hearing their perspective on things because something different is very likely to come up.

Yeah I haven't played any Saints Row games myself. I knew what they were and all, but I'd rather play GTA itself (though, it's not out of a dislike for what Saints Row does as a series, its just my preference of GTA's tones over it). I had no idea that SR4 was going out of control, her description was incredible. For a second there I thought we were getting into some Frog Fractions type territory.

The overall point is that if you interact with three objects (grass and twigs for rabbit traps, wood for fire for light at night + cooking rabbits caught) out of all the things you can do, purposefully, it's misleading to describe the game as monotonous and "all you do is this."