What Happened This Week – Role Models

Hey-hey-hey, how’s everybody doing?  Well, we’re all still here, so Debtastrophe 2011 hasn’t completely screwed us over yet.  Still, with markets worldwide getting antsy it’s anybody’s guess what, exactly, is going to happen tomorrow.  The safe money says “bad things.”  In the meantime, let us converse on the following.

  • Square Enix posts a bad Q1, which is what happens when you don’t have any major releases for that period.  My take: Squenix needs a Final Fantasy IX.  Well, I want one, at least.
  • Atlus scores (relatively) big with Catherine, breaking the 200k mark in its first week.  Larger developers would be aghast at the numbers.  Atlus’ response: “Got a problem?”
  • Team Bondi pulls a Blackwater and tries to rebrand itself by getting bought out… by a company that hired many of its ex-employees.  Awk-waaard~
  • South Korean officials arrest hackers and programmers for breaking into online games and funneling cash to Best Korea, presumably to fund Kim Jong-Il’s Farmville addiction.
  • EA declares that Battlefield 3 will not show up on Steam.  An EA spokesperson is quoted as saying “We hate money and hate ourselves even more.”
  • John Carmack gives a great keynote speech at QuakeCon.  He spends some time talking about the technology behind iD’s long-delayed Rage
  • …and provides some fascinating insights into the technical side of game development.  I summarized as best I can in the podcast, but give the whole thing a listen if you have time.




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