In our last episode, we looked at 2021 in the rearview mirror. This time, we're gazing in our proverbial crystal balls to see what the world of video games might bring in 2022. We'll hear what a few analysts have to say about the coming year and then make some predictions of our own.
We'll also be discussing Sony's newly confirmed PSVR2, how Gordon Ramsey doesn't know what Twitch is, Samsung’s move to integrate Stadia, GeForce Now, and NFTs into its new line of TVs, and the rumored digital rerelease of the N64 classic, GoldenEye 007.
Finally, class is in session with Professor Ryebread in our Gaming History 101 segment. In this episode, we're looking back at the humble beginnings and convoluted history of Blizzard.
Hosts: @donniegretro, @wrytersview, @retrogamebrews
Opening theme: "Gamers Week Theme" by Akseli Takanen
Patron theme: "Chiptune Boss" by @donniegretro
Closing theme: "Neon City" by @donniegretro
In our last episode, we looked at 2021 in the rearview mirror. This time, we're gazing in our proverbial crystal balls to see what the world of video games might bring in 2022. We'll hear what a few analysts have to say about the coming year and then make some predictions of our own.
We'll also be discussing Sony's newly confirmed PSVR2, how Gordon Ramsey doesn't know what Twitch is, Samsung’s move to integrate Stadia, GeForce Now, and NFTs into its new line of TVs, and the rumored digital rerelease of the N64 classic, GoldenEye 007.
Finally, class is in session with Professor Ryebread in our Gaming History 101 segment. In this episode, we're looking back at the humble beginnings and convoluted history of Blizzard.
Hosts: @donniegretro, @wrytersview, @retrogamebrews
Opening theme: "Gamers Week Theme" by Akseli Takanen
Patron theme: "Chiptune Boss" by @donniegretro
Closing theme: "Neon City" by @donniegretro
Co ming up on Gamers Week Podcast... Somebody would put something in chat and he would call them a dumb [bleep]. He would say, "Get the [bleep] out and then he would have his moderator ban them.
Ryan:So like, eventually he would have everyone banned on Twitch.
Blue:Yeah I don't want to work as Gordon Ramsay's moderator. That would be a full time job.
Donnie:I would tier three subscribe in a heartbeat.
Ryan:Absolutely. I'm ready.
Blue:I'm ready.
Donnie:I think I'm ready.
Blue:Let's do it then
Donnie:Hello, everyone and welcome to Gamers Week Podcast. Like the name says we analyze the best, worst and weirdest headlines of the past week in the video game industry. This is episode three. Today is Wednesday, January 5, 2022. Thank you for joining us. My name is Donnie G retro, aka Donny G retro. And with me as always are my two great hosts. Blue. Say hello blue.
Blue:Hello blue.
Ryan:I knew that was coming.
Blue:I had to do it. You softball it out there for me. I got to do it.
Donnie:And you hat a dinger. And with us as well is Ryan aka Ryebread, aka RetroGameBrews. Say hello, Ryan.
Ryan:Hello. And I feel like this should be like the announcement of a boxer. You should just keep going through every possible nickname I could have. I got lists, man.
Donnie:Standing at five foot two...
Ryan:Exactly.
Donnie:Are you five foot two, Ryan?
Ryan:No, I'm a little bigger than 5'2".
Donnie:Just a tad
Ryan:Uh, 13 inches bigger than 5'2". That's a baker's dozen.
Blue:Okay, that's one way to look at it. A baker's dozen of inches.
Ryan:It's a baker's foot. Actually.
Donnie:Yeah, Baker's foot
Ryan:We are nerds.
Blue:Don't lump me in with you.
Ryan:You're the queen of puns. All right. So I don't want to hear it.
Blue:That's not a pun. That's different entirely.
Ryan:But it's in the same realm of nerdiness. That's a dad joke. And puns are basically that they align with each other from their quality perspective.
Blue:They're adjacent. Okay. I will give you that. Not the same thing, though.
Ryan:Fair enough.
Donnie:Dad joke and then the stepson which is the the pun.
Ryan:There you go.
Donnie:And we're gonna jump right in to the results of our Very Important Poll. Every week on Monday, we'll be posting our VIP -- Very Important Poll -- on Twitter. If you'd like to participate, follow us on Twitter at @GamersWeekPC. And here are the results of our Very Important Poll. Pick one dinosaur game to play for the rest of your life. We have some... good choices here.
Blue:What was that hesitation?
Ryan:Sounded like you doubt it?
Donnie:Well, okay, so you we had this discussion the other night about Primal Rage, and I was hoping that nobody would pick that game because, in my opinion, it is one of the worst fighting games ever created alongside Clay Fighter. It serves no purpose. There's there's really, I mean, they tried to make the fatalities in there. It just didn't work. It wasn't that great. And I remember being in the arcades back in the 90s when Primal Rage came out. Yeah, I touched it for maybe a few minutes. And then every single time I'd hit the arcade. I went right past it to Street Fighter 2 or Mortal Kombat 2.
Ryan:There you go.
Blue:Well, almost nobody voted for it.
Donnie:Right? That's, that's better than nothing, you know,
Ryan:faith in humanity restored
Donnie:Right. Primal Rage coming in at 9% of the vote. Turok coming in at 33.3%.Dino Crisis at 43.5%, that one seemed to get the most votes, and then Other beating out Primal Rage at 12%.
Ryan:So by the way I think what happened with this one is that the Dino Crisis community caught wind of this
Donnie:Oh really?
Ryan:Yeah, somebody replied It was one of the title crisis like big accounts and got a bunch of likes on their reply so I'm assuming that's what that's what happened here.
Blue:Who knew there was Dino Crisis stan accounts out there? Big ones in fact.
Ryan:Well, there's stans for everything
Donnie:What's a stan?
Ryan:really?
Donnie:I don't...does it stand for something?
Ryan:No. Right. So um, and correct me if I'm wrong on this one. It's it has to do with that song from Eminem. Where it was that guy he was super obsessed with Eminem. His name was Stan, you know?
Donnie:Oh, okay. Okay, I get the reference
Ryan:Which is why I have a number one stan as well for myself.
Donnie:Yes you do. Okay, now I get the reference now. I'm like how do you do, fellow kids?
Blue:You had him at Eminem.
Donnie:So let's look at some of the answers from the Other category. @rEtRo_sPexX said probably ARK Survival Evolved mainly because of the building aspect if I had to play it forever at least I could build different stuff. @happypommes says I'll go with the classic Bermuda syndrome. And I looked this game up because I don't think I've ever heard of it. And it looks like it plays kind of like Flashback, Out of This World, Prince of Persia.
Ryan:Nice
Donnie:Either Have you ever heard of this game?
Blue:No, not not Not until I saw the reply.
Donnie:Now that I see what kind of games it plays like I'm kind of interested to go and try it.
Ryan:Yes, because aren't you a big fan of Flashback?
Donnie:I am. Flashback and Out of This World.
Blue:You know you should do?
Donnie:What?
Blue:You should stream it on the Gamers Week Twitch channel.
Donnie:Let me see if I can find Bermuda Syndrome. Because I know it was strictly a PC game. I don't think it came out on any console and if I can, I'll do it.
Ryan:Yeah, GOG.com I bet would have it.
Donnie:Yeah, yeah, definitely.@RetroGamingDev says Super Mario World because Yoshi is a dyno.
Blue:That's that's too obvious of an answer.
Donnie:@PixelProphecy says Jurassic Park on the SNES. I like it more than it deserves.
Blue:It deserves like zero to be fair.
Donnie:I've seen gameplay of this and it looks like a mash up of Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Doom.
Blue:I always wanted to play it when I was a kid because I was obsessed with dinosaurs. My parents wouldn't allow it, of course, but I always would like walk past it at the Blockbuster on the weekends and wishfully you know, think about taking it home, and then I get to try it as an adult. I'm like, What is this? This is horrible!
Donnie:I'm so glad I was deprived of that experience.
Blue:I guess it's the kind of game that you could only love when you were a kid. So maybe I missed my chance.
Donnie:And @khristian4000 says,
Ryan:your favorite game,
Donnie:Bubble Bubble. I don't know what it is with you people and Bubble Bobble
Blue:We don't know what it is with you. If you didn't hate it so much. We wouldn't bring it up all the time.
Donnie:I know I know, just for everybody listening. My name is Donnie G. And I don't like Bubble bubble. I personally went with and this is kind of like a cop out. I
Ryan:And to do some light trolling to Donnie, when we first set up our Discord for this podcast, I made the icon Bubble Bobble. Alright, so Donnie, taking a look at these four choices plus the Other. What did you go with for this poll? went with Turtles in Time because there is an entire level dedicated to one of the prehistoric eras where it's covered with dinosaurs. Prehistoric turtlesaurus
Donnie:Yes.
Ryan:Yeah, I freakin love that game. I love the atmosphere of the prehistoric timeframe. And like one of the hardest bosses in the entire game is there too. So there's like a love hate relationship with it as well.
Donnie:Slash is a pain in the butt.
Blue:I mean, everybody knows it's a great game, but I'm gonna have to be like, actually, because you really gonna count it as a dinosaur game?
Donnie:No, no, and I'm not somebody that responded to the poll actually called me out on that. If you're going to choose Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles in Time, then I can choose Tomb Raider, because there's a dinosaur in it. And I'm like, You know what, you make a damn good point.
Ryan:I'm open to allowing everything I mean when when we have just pick one dinosaur game to play for the rest of your life that is open to interpretation.
Blue:No, to allow anything undermines the integrity of what we're trying to do here with these Very Important Polls.
Donnie:Does it?
Ryan:maybe we should change the I to inclusive. Very Inclusive Poll.
Blue:Someday you may have to pick one dinosaur game for the rest of your life to play and because of the Very Important Poll, you're now ready to do so. Donnie's not.
Donnie:I totally am. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I've already proven that.
Blue:That won't be allowed.
Ryan:Access denied.
Blue:Ye s, exactly.
Donnie:Who's gatekeeping the dinosaur games?
Ryan:It'll be like Squid Game where they'll just like shoot you in the head as soon as you pick the wrong one.
Donnie:He chose poorly.
Ryan:Alright, Blue. What about you?
Blue:I chose the Jurassic Park Arcade game.
Ryan:Nice.
Blue:Yes, that game is killer. It's so great. Especially Back in the day when it was new, you got to sit in the jeep from Jurassic Park. Yes, yes, it kind of vibrates a little bit like as you're going over the rocks and stuff, you got speakers behind you, so of the dinosaurs are coming up behind you, you can hear them. It was very cool. It's still very cool. I would love to have one of those, like, in my garage or something.
Donnie:Good choice. I played that with my kids.
Ryan:I actually remember that game being one of those ones where it was like, you know, you were young enough. So it was scary, right where you had like all the Dinosaurs jumping at you. So it was a lot of jumpscares involved with it. And it was amongst friends. It was like, Well, hey, you know, I played the Jurassic Park Arcade game like I'm pretty tough. I don't know. If I remember right to it didn't have a warning on it that it wasn't. It was for mature audiences only?
Blue:I don't think so.
Ryan:Yeah, I thought I could have sworn I remember that where it was, it was limited to me that we could do that. But
Blue:there might have been a seizure warning on it. That's about all I remember. But that's funny. Sometimes I forget that. You're like five years younger than me. So when this came out, you probably would have thought it was much scarier than I did.
Donnie:Ryan, what's your selection?
Ryan:So I went with similar genre to you, Donnie, I'm a big fan of beat 'em up games. I'm a big fan of Capcom, but obviously not Konami, Capcom, that same company, but similar idea here. I'm going to go with Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.
Blue:That's not what you answered, though.
Ryan:No, I don't know. I don't care. I can change my mind.
Blue:I think you need to tell them what you really answered though.
Ryan:I forgot actually Color a Dinosaur, that's what you said. Color a Dinosaur, of course. It is, is literally 30 seconds of fun for the whole family. I actually owned that game at one point. I remember purchasing it for like 20 bucks at a flea market. And then plugging it in playing it and then going wow, this is as awful as I expected. And trading it in for better games. So everybody wins, right?
Donnie:I don't think I've ever seen that game physically.
Ryan:No, I mean, I got a pretty penny for it, because it's an expensive game. But the actual choice I would make if I was in front of the Squid Game decision. Would have been Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. That's a really, really fun beat 'em up game. It's set in the future. And even though the dinosaurs for the most part aren't enemies, but they're also not against you. So they're kind of in the background. They'll attack both you and other enemies as you go through the beat him up. Super fun lot of really great levels, great music, great visuals as well. I actually was unaware of this game until probably about six or seven years ago where I saw it in the arcade. I was like, What is this? Wow. Okay. I spent like the rest of the afternoon playing the whole thing. So super love it. It's great. And I would love to have my own cabinet have that. I think it'd be awesome.
Donnie:I think I own that game on the Genesis. But yeah, I'd have to go through my collection to find out.
Blue:This is the thing I love about Donnie is his collection is so big. He never knows what he has.
Donnie:I'm always searching through it. Let's go ahead and jump over to the Patreon shoutouts this week. Ryan, you want to take this?
Ryan:Sure. You wouldn't think a brand new podcast would have patrons already. And frankly, no one is more surprised than we are. So here's some generous folks supporting Gamers Week Podcast on Patreon. So we have two new patrons to announce today! Our good friends MegaRetroMan and EMOesque have joined alongside with Ryebreads#1 Fan, Fruitcakes #1 Stan, The Wizard of Zardoz, Kleyman71, GreatSaiyaman81, bntzillaguy, Crunchy Kong, ShrfSnax, Frank Grande, ProducerBTW, Ducks in Disguise, Games with Coffee, DavyPGH, & Princess Kitty Mew Mew. Pause for applause. If you like what you hear today, we really hope you do please consider joining us on Patreon. Your support helps us cover the cost of producing the show as well as well as other cool stuff we'll be doing like prizes and giveaways. So visit patreon.com/gamersweek or follow the link in the show notes to learn more.
Donnie:So let's go ahead and jump on to the main headlines for this week. Blue you want to start us off?
Blue:If I must
Donnie:You must
Blue:Fine Fine. I'll do it. Alright from IGN: Sony confirms its next VR headset is called... wait for it... PSVR2
Ryan:the most anticlimactic title I've ever read in my life.
Blue:A precedent has already been set with five Playstations what else did you expect?
Ryan:Stick with the formula that works
Donnie:I feel like they're just mailing it in from now on So I got PS2, PS3, PS4
Blue:Once we get past PS X, that's that's when things I think will get crazy but we have a ways to go before then. All right during its CES 2022 press conference, Sony shared new details on its upcoming successor to the PSVR, confirming that the PSVR2 is the official name of the next gen head mounted display. Sony dropped a lot of new information on the highly anticipated headset. This includes the name of the controllers officially called the sense controllers, which will offer things such as haptic feedback, a trademark feature available in the dual sense controller. In addition to new information on the PSVR2, Sony also announced one of the first new games confirmed to run on the next gen headset, Horizon Call of the Mountain, which has been co developed by Guerilla Games and Fire Sprite Games, the latter of which was acquired by PlayStation last September. No additional details were made available for Call of the Mountain as of yet, but Sony says the game is being built specifically for PSVR to and will open the doors for players to go deeper into the world of Horizon. While Sony did not reveal when the PSVR2 will be available, rumors suggest the company is targeting a holiday 2022 release.
Ryan:Playstation VR Have you guys had a chance to play around with that at all?
Blue:No,
Donnie:I have not. No,
Blue:I can't. I can't VR.
Ryan:Oh, it's something where it. It's kind of like the Virtual Boy makes you sick to your stomach.
Blue:Yeah. Yep, I got about five minutes in me And that's all I got. So as cool as this sounds, especially the Horizon Call of the Hountain game set in the Horizon Zero Dawn universe. That looks cool. I wish I could play that. But oh, well.
Ryan:Just not Not gonna happen.
Blue:No, no, not gonna happen.
Donnie:I never I have not touched a PlayStation VR, although I kind of want to. I've tried some of our friends Oculus. And that's fun. I know, my kids would like an Oculus, I would not mind having one myself. And the VR doesn't bother me at all.
Ryan:I don't think it bothers me either. I remember as a kid playing VR games, we went to like a Planet Hollywood in Louisiana. And if there was a shop right next to it, that had a bunch of VR stuff, they were mainly selling these holographic cards. And the deal was you could play virtual this virtual reality set up that they had if you bought one of their really overpriced graphic cards. So I begged my dad, me and my brother got a chance to try it out. Basically, it was one of those ones where it was had the big ring around you and you're standing on top of the platform, you got the thing over your eyes, and you got basically like two controllers when your your hands itself. And what was cool about it is they had the setup so that obviously you could see into it, but there was like a big CRT television above you so everybody else can see what you were doing. Yeah.
Blue:What if that fell? Oh my god, there'd be nothing left.
Ryan:Billy had a good run.
Blue:Wow.
Ryan:Yeah. But I have not touched VR since then. And I think that, you know, we've been pushing quite a bit for VR to be a part of the gaming space. And I'm honestly surprised that it hasn't had more adoption, or focus.
Blue:Well, I have read that statistically, up to 60% of people get motion sick when experiencing VR. So that could have something to do with it. It could have to do with cost. It could have to do with the number of developers that are putting their time and efforts to make IPs for VR. I think the game libraries are kind of sparse. Hmm. So yeah, it's still it's, it's cool. I just don't know if it's ready yet.
Ryan:And the thing is, I mean, honestly, it's not really the the early days of VR, but it's it's like this thing that we've been pulling along, like, come on, it's gonna happen someday, it's going to happen someday. It's like fusion power. It's always 30 years away from us at this point, well play our VR, it's only five years away, we're all going to do in VR in five years, right? It's going to be Ready Player One, we're going to be in the Oasis, which I want to happen, by the way.
Donnie:Oh, absolutely. And they've been trying, they've been trying to do VR since a nine, right? And it's just like you said five, but five years away, oh, another five years, another five years, another five years.
Ryan:And with this one, though, I mean, they're it's a promising thing that they are investing in a second version of the PlayStation Virtual Reality console or so. This may be where people start adopting it more. And it becomes much more popular because I mean, if Sony is willing to or Sony is probably looking at their their data, their numbers and their expectations for sales. I highly doubt that they would invest in a second version of this if the first one wasn't at least promising or at least the marketplace wasn't so
Donnie: From GameSpot:Gordon Ramsay doesn't know what Twitch is but streamers are more than willing to show him. Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay may know all about cooking and hosting cooking shows, but he doesn't know what Twitch is. That's probably about to change. In the premiere episode of Ramsey's new cooking show on Fox next level Chef Ramsay encountered contestant Trisha Wang, who said she streams her cooking on Twitch when asked what she does for a living. That somewhat predictably led to Ramsay asking a question that may have been on the mind of more than a few unfamiliar viewers. What is Twitch? Now Ramsay is embracing his ignorance as streamers reach out on social media to collaborate with the chef, even as he wears his confusion in regards to the streaming platform as a badge of honor. His Twitter profile currently reads always near food, doesn't know what Twitch is. It's all equaling some great free publicity for next level shift which is likely all part of Ramsey's plan. But that's not to say he isn't being sincere when he admits he doesn't know what Twitch is. Though Twitch users number in the millions, it still pales in comparison to the number of people actively using YouTube or Netflix for example, with a ladder having more than 200 million paid subscribers.
Blue:And here we thought that if we started the show in January, there wouldn't be any interesting news. We got Gordon Ramsay you guys
Ryan:I am just envisioning. Gordon is now going to set up a Twitch account. He's going to start streaming from Twitch, and the guy who is renowned for screaming at people for doing things the wrong way. He's going to get screamed at at the through chat.
Donnie:No, he would be the one doing the screaming. Somebody would put something in chat and he would call them a dumb[bleep}. He would say get the[bleep] out and he would have his moderator ban them.
Ryan:Eventually he would have everyone banned.
Blue:I don't want to work as Gordon Ramsay's moderator. That would be a full time job.
Donnie:I would tier three subscribe in a heartbeat.
Ryan:Absolutely.
Blue:Well, I don't think he will and I don't I don't think he should. I mean, I don't want to be a gatekeeper. That's not my not my intention. But it does kind of irk me when you get like celebrities and politicians and corporations deciding they need to have a Twitch channel just because that's that's what you're supposed to do. It's cool. It'll it will reach the kids. You know, it's great marketing. They're not there for like the spirit of Twitch. They're there to make money. So and you know, if we want to get real meta about it, maybe that is the spirit of I think that is the spirit of Twitch. Yeah, I'm just talking myself in circles here. But the point remains
Donnie:come to Twitch for the games, stay for the bathwater.
Ryan:Oh,
Blue:you're right. Nevermind, there is no integrity left in Twitch. I take it all back. Forget I said anything.
Ryan:If Gordon Ramsay were to stream and rather than cooking, he's going to stream video games him playing video games, which also I think would be awesome because of the amount or how quickly the TOS violation would come in for his life. What is one game you think Gordon Ramsay would have to play in his first couple of streams
Donnie:Warzone hands down. Hands down. I would love to see him play Warzone and just rage out of his mind.
Ryan:What the F was?
Donnie:Exactly.
Blue:See I was at least gonna give him something in his wheelhouse. I was gonna say like Cook Serve Delicious.
Ryan:Oh, nice. Okay
Blue:Yeah, the restaurant sim game where you have to multitask. You have to serve the customers and prepare the food. And it's crazy difficult because there's so many things. You have to keep track of it at once and you're just going a million miles an hour. And I think he would hate it.
Ryan:That's not how a kitchen works,
Donnie:right? The only person yelling at he only having himself to yell out because he doesn't have a staff.
Blue:Yeah, exactly. You'd probably be yelling about being expected to run a one person restaurant right?
Ryan:Which brings me to my choice. I think him and Wolfgang Puck should have a collaborative stream in which they play Overcooked.
Donnie:Nice,
Ryan:like, what are you doing? You gotta chop the vegetables. Oh my god. It's burning. What are you doing? What are you doing? I'm an idiot sandwich.
Donnie:That would be epic. I would love that.
Ryan:Oh my god. I would I would watch that the live stream of it and the VOD at least once a day. All right, next up from Game
Informer:Samsung's 2022 lineup of TVs will feature Stadia, GeForce Now, and NFT support
Donnie:three for three.
Ryan:During the Consumer Electronics Show held over the weekend Samsung Electronics has revealed that its upcoming slate of 2022 televisions will support Stadia and Nvidia GeForce, Utomik and non fungible tokens. collectively the TVs will feature Samsung gaming hubs where owners can access video game related features like Stadia and more. Powered by Tizen. The Samsung Gaming Hub is a new game streaming discovery platform that bridges hardware and software to provide a seamless player experience a press release reads. Samsung has announced partnerships with the leading game streaming services NVIDIA GeForce Now, Stadia, and Utomik which I'm sorry if I pronounced that wrong, with more to come to bring their full libraries of games into the Gaming Hub. Samsung says this hub will be available globally on the Select 2022 gaming or 2022 Samsung Smart TV models. The press release did not mention NFTs but over on the Verge, the publication says Samsung's 2022... so many 2022s... TVs will feature NFT integration. The Verge writes that Samsung says the NFT platform will let creators share their art with the world. The news marks a major TV manufacturers first public foray into NFT ecosystem. It also makes Samsung one of the first TV designers to implement video game streaming directly into its display, allowing users to connect a controller directly to the TV without needing a separate dongle or accessory
Blue:dongle.
Donnie:I was going to say that. I'm glad you did. I didn't want to be juvenile. But you you said it.
Blue:Somebody had to. I jumped on it.
Donnie:We have we have a Samsung TV. And we've had several of them. The one that we've have in our main living area we've had since 2010. And it had this little entertainment hub built in whenever we first got it, it had applications that you could download, you could download Netflix, you could download Pandora, you could download all of these other applications on it until a point when Samsung was like, we're going to start taking these away. And now you're left with a hub that doesn't really do anything. And my concern is that if you go out and buy one of these 2022 televisions that support Stadia, NVIDIA GeForce Now, Utomik and non fungible tokens, what happens when Samsung just gets tired of that? They don't want to support it anymore. They don't feel like they're making enough money off of it. And then they start taking away those features from that television.
Blue:Then you're left with just a TV. What the hell? No, not allowed. Just a plain TV?
Donnie:What are you gonna do with just a plain TV
Ryan:that you probably paid Well above, you know, a standard TV retail for in order to have this stuff added? So
Blue:I don't know. I mean, that's probably built into Samsung's business plan is they want to take away the apps every year, so you have to buy a new TV every year.
Ryan:Planned obsolescence.
Blue:Yeah, much like a cell phone.
Donnie:Brilliant.
Ryan:So it makes me wonder how both of these streaming services are, they're both the cloud based gaming, right. And now having to partner with Samsung in order to get that out. It sounds to me like they're trying to take this same business model is what Roku has done. So Roku was kind of like on its way out, right, it was another thing that you had to plug into your TV, it was a little bit cumbersome. And so they partnered with companies like TCL and said, Hey, you should make a Roku TV because we'll basically provide as much of the content is available, so people can just use it as that kind of device. So all things considered to force not force but I think that's probably not the best word but to make available to people an additional service that maybe even they're not tangibly aware of that they now can get some more adoption for these two, I think that's actually a dynamite business move for the two of them. I think that you'll probably see that that's a more common place that you might start seeing Microsoft and Sony and other companies that just want to sell the the Game Pass items like they do on a PC. They might partner with other TV companies in order to get that out to so
Donnie:absolutely I don't disagree with you there.
Ryan:Yeah,
Blue:yeah, Phil Spencer has even talked about that last year the year before. Xbox wanted to eliminate the box entirely and maybe just give you a little dongle to plug into your TV and that's how you access your that's how you access Game Pass. And so perhaps they would be content just being an app on someone else's television perhaps they want to make the televisions themselves I don't know.
Ryan:That's good point as well. Especially Sony's and Sony already makes their own televisions in fact, I'm looking at one right now.
Blue:See and I have a Roku television.
Donnie:So do I
Ryan:I have three
Donnie:hello mr. Fancy Pants.
Blue:Once a rich kid always a rich kid
Ryan:No
Donnie:Money, money, money, money, money
Blue:Wait, how many TVs Did you say you have again? Total?
Ryan:One, two, three...
Blue:He's counting
Ryan:eight.
Blue:rich kid.
Donnie:Oh, wow
Ryan:Okay, listen to this. I've only paid for two TVs though. So, okay, a bunch of them...
Blue:So you're a rich kid with rich friends?
Ryan:Wait wait wait wait, a bunch of them are free through work that I've gotten. So you know, recognitions point system and they're like the knockoff brands like hairier and you know, Huawei and stuff like that. They're not the standard high quality TVs
Blue:like, San Pellegrino drinking rich kid with eight TVs trying to make it sound like no no, no, I'm a victim of my eight TVs people just keep giving them to me. Weird
Donnie:I don't have enough TVs to watch
Ryan:Well, I got some in the guest bedroom you know and uh never mind. There's no There's no getting out of this.
Blue:Nope, there's not.
Donnie:Is there one in the bathroom?
Ryan:No, but that's what my phone is for.
Donnie:Well, I mean, if I'm sitting in the tub, I'm relaxing. I'm having some beef jerky or bacon by candlelight. I want to have a mounted TV to where I can watch. You know my personal dramas.
Ryan:You know that's a good point we have a tub that my wife would love the TV
Blue:Now I have this visual in my head and it won't go away.
Donnie:mission successful. Blue you want to touch on our next
Blue: Yes, I do. From Tech Spot:Goldeneye 007 poised for digital release on Xbox. One of the greatest games ever launched on the Nintendo 64. It may soon be playable on modern hardware. True achievements, has shared an achievement list for Goldeneye 007, Rare's seminal first person shooter based on the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye. Details are still scarce according to the publication so we aren't certain if this is a remake a remaster or a rerelease of the original. The list of achievements is different from the one that accompanied the cancel the Goldeneye 007 remake for Xbox Live Arcade last year. In total there are 55... [laughs]
Donnie:Still thinking about the bacon?
Ryan:Bacon in the bathtub
Blue:in total, there are 55 achievements adding up to a gamer score of 1000. The achievement league suggests this is coming to Xbox first, although there's hope that Nintendo might one day add it to its switch online stable for play on its handheld Banjo Kazooie another Rare title was recently announced for the Switch online expansion maybe Goldeneye 007 will be next. Which leaves us with just one question -- was playing as Odd Job cheating?
Ryan:No, it was not
Donnie:definitely not
Ryan:get good scrub.
Donnie:proximity mines for days,
Ryan:right? Golden guns come on.
Donnie:I'm kind of surprised that Nintendo or this is not being released on the Switch for people to play as opposed to the Xbox that that's kinda like a just a 180
Ryan:I would imagine that has to do with the fact that it's a property of Rare if memory serves me right, a lot of the Rare Rewinds and stuff did not come out on Nintendo but came out on Xbox. Right.
Donnie:Okay, now that makes sense, then, well,
Ryan:that's my guess. But I agree that it's a it's an odd or a travesty that it wouldn't come out on on a on a Nintendo console just because of the nostalgia factor alone for no.
Donnie:Blue. Did you ever play 007?
Blue:No.
Ryan:No, you never played Goldeneye 007 No kidding.
Blue:No, never have. I mean, it was an N64 game. I don't have to tell you guys that I that I excused myself from that generation.
Ryan:I played a lot of GoldenEye back in the day. I loved it. It was that four player experience. Granted, it was not as good as what was being done on PC but of course, PCs are really really expensive. So if you didn't have access to a PC this was a great example of a first person shooter that being said, nowadays we I've been a little bit spoiled by first person shooters because I having like a twin thumbstick for a controller where you only had one thumb stick with it and as far as aiming was concerned, it was pretty difficult. Right now you're gonna probably say get good scrub to me on that. But with the N64 controller Then, it just it made it awkward to play. And it's a frustrating experience to go from modern day SP or FPS games back to using the N64. controller. Now granted, this game is well received and renowned by its fans, so I totally get that. My my question would be, no, but my question would be if if you could change the controller layout for it so that you didn't have to use the N64 controller? And you could use some twin thumbsticks I would be all in for this.
Donnie:Absolutely.
Ryan:Right.
Blue:Well, if they're gonna put it on Xbox, they have to.
Ryan:That's true, that is true. Or they could just say your right thumbstick is dead and use your left, you know, like you would with an N64. Controller. I don't know,
Blue:that's not gonna work. If this ends up being just a rerelease of the original, not a remake, not a remaster. You put this ancient first person shooter out there. And I think that a lot of people have been clinging to their rose colored glasses, are going to have a rude awakening real fast when they go back and try to play this original game. It's like, we have such fond memories of the original Halo and like Halo 2 on on the Xbox. But if you try to go back and play them after having played modern first person shooter games. And you're like, Wow, this is rough.
Ryan:It's super clunky.
Blue:Back in the day, it was great.
Ryan:Exactly, exactly.
Blue:But it's hard to go back. So I don't know, I think this game might end up getting an awful lot of nostalgia buys, but I don't know how much longevity it will really have.
Ryan:I think if you remade it in the sense that you updated the graphics so that they're not blocky polygons, right. And then like the...
Blue:But then it's not GoldenEye.
Ryan:That's true. That's true. So maybe leave that if you like the aesthetic. But it again, if you if you fix the controller, right and made the aiming system easier, and then also added an online lobby that you could play against other people. That to me would be like that little thing that takes you over the edge that that helps make this game much more fun. For other folks, if it's just the game as is and it's local Co Op, or local local couch play, you're probably not going to have people be as fond or be able to bring up as fond memories of it. And especially during a pandemic for crying out loud.
Donnie:I'll just pop in my existing copy of 007 and play it right, buying a rerelease. Now I on the other hand, am of the other kind where is I expect them to polish up the models, the the environments, and whatnot, because some of these games that you go back and try to play. It's hard to make out things in the surrounding environments in case in point Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Yep. They redid Tony Hawk's Pro Skater One, two. It's phenomenal. It looks great. It's visible. I can see every little detail in the level. And I tried to go black, try to go back and play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater one. And I couldn't make things out. I'm like, What is that supposed to be? It's just a block what is going on here? So I I would love to see Goldeneye 007 remade, remastered character models level. Environments are polished. They look great. They're brought up to today's standards. Maybe cross play. But for now just multiplayer with other people. I would love it.
Ryan:Alright, so folks, one of the things that we wanted to do here to help celebrate the launch of Gamers Week Podcast is that we wanted to do a giveaway for folks who are basically early adopters of this podcast and get a chance to listen to it from from basically the ground up. So what we're going to be doing starting on Friday, January 7 2022. So if you're listening to this months later, unfortunately, this is not for you
Donnie:just missed it,
Ryan:we will be doing a massive giveaway, we're actually giving away three different items to three different people. So we're gonna have three winners. That's right, three-three-three. And the three items that we're going to give away here is that we've got a copy of the Homebrew game Lizard, which is very popular with the retro Twitch gaming community. So if you want to get in on that, that's awesome. Also have a repo copy of the game Earthbound Zero. You may know this, as well as Mother 1 for the Famicom but it has an English patch to it. So you can play it and not have to take out your Japanese, I guess dictionary and thesaurus. And the third thing we're going to offer up is we have a knit or crochet. I was corrected on that as not to say crocheted,
Blue:yep, get it right.
Ryan:Yeah. Yoshi action figure here. It's about about a foot tall and, uh...
Blue:action figure?
Ryan:I don't know what to call that. I guess a plush doll. Boy, there we go, there we go. Well, I've been, you know, putting him in action moves, and he's been doing flips on my couch and stuff. So he's an action figure. We are going to be tweeting out from my Twitter account at@retrogamebrews some instructions on how to enter. But basically all you have to do take a picture of you listening to one of the first three episodes of Gamers Week and reply to that tweet will actually provide a special hashtag so we can find you. And then you are entered into that contest. So what we're also doing for patrons of the podcast as well, they will get a chance to have two entries into this contest if they so wish. So if you're interested in becoming a patron, you're kind of on the fence about it now is the time because not only could you get access to our awesome patron only discord you get two entries and a better chance to win these three cool items. So
Blue:you know what happened on our patron only discord today?
Ryan:What's that?
Blue:Ryan and our patron Baggins who goes by Fruitcake's#1 Stan, they had a very long, very nerdy debate about who would win in a fight, whether it was the balrog or it was Smaug from Lord of the Rings. So, I mean, this is the kind of stuff you're missing out if you're not on our patron only discord.
Ryan:Absolutely. So again, if you are listening, stop right now pause it, take a picture, head on over to my Twitter. Entries will be going all the way until Tuesday, which is which day of the week? Anybody want to grab that for me?
Blue:Do your own homework.
Ryan:Oh, wow.
Donnie:Yeah, that's the 11th
Ryan:it is Yep, Tuesday the 11th. So all entries are available until Tuesday, the 11th at around midnight, Eastern Standard Time. So got plenty of time to go ahead and get your entries in and get an excellent opportunity to grab some cool stuff.
Donnie:So let's slide on into our main topic of discussion for this evening. slide slide to the left... From GamesIndustry.biz: what happens to gaming in 2022. Analysts offer their predictions. Every year we turn to a panel of trusted analysts to ask them what they see coming down the road and ask them to assess their predictions from the previous year. As with last year, our panel hit more often than they missed in 21. So a few guesses were significantly off the mark. For 2022. We brought up possible areas to make predictions about supply chain issues, mobile platforms opening up blockchain gaming and FTS, but left it up to our industry watchers to determine what they wanted to go on record about. There are more predictions in the article that we can cover in one episode, but here are a few worth discussing.
Ryan:So this one's from Piers Harding-Rolls from Ampere Analysis. I'm currently expecting the console market year on year performance to be quite flat in 2022 as Twitch sales decline, and we come off what has been an amazing couple of years for console gaming. We have a next gen Nintendo console in the forecast for late 2024. So I'm not convinced a pro model is going to appear at all. The PS5 will outsell Xbox series X slash S on a global basis. The predicted combined sales to gamers are around 28 million PS5 and Xbox series X will remain supply constrained. But I expect the availability to improve slowly over the year and to be in a better place as we arrive at the holiday season.
Donnie:Is that true that Nintendo is coming out with a new console in 2024?
Ryan:I hadn't heard about that.
Blue:No, they're predicting.
Donnie:Alright, alright.
Blue:Yeah, we'll see if if Piers Harding-Rolls is correct. And Switch sales decline. I mean, obviously, they have their next thing is already in development. They already know what they're gonna do so It's just when are they going to pull the trigger on it?
Ryan:I was I'm in the same camp as him as the not convinced the Pro model is gonna appear at all. I think the OLED version was the promo. Honestly, they invested into that, if that's not going to be the thing that they ride all the way to the finish line, I would be highly surprised. And as far as PS5 and Xbox series X, uh supplies will remain constrained. It's just interesting to me that that is the case. And there's still, what, 10 million PS5 have already been sold.
Donnie:Right? I think that's actually starting to open up. Certain discords that I follow regarding drops for PS5s and Xbox series Xs. Some people have stated that they can walk into a Walmart or Target and they just have them in the back. They have them available. Just ask a person and you get yourself a new console.
Ryan:I kind of imagine if you work at a Walmart or like a Target. You get so tired of that.
Donnie:Probably every single day. You guys got an XBoxes?
Ryan:Yeah, they should have a T shirt that just says No we don't.
Blue:And for the record, Forbes was reporting back in October. That PS5 had hit 13.4 million sales. So there is no shortage. Really, if you want to look at it that way, it's just that so many more people want one than I've ever wanted one before.
Donnie:Right
Blue:All right, next prediction is coming from Stephanie Llamas from VoxPop. Creator tools will make 3d modeling easier than ever setting the stage for more user generated content, unreal unveiling of the Matrix Resurrections was absolutely mind blowing. And with Unity's acquisition of Weta these tools are evolving in a way that will open the gates for more and more less than tech savvy creators to build amazing things, the tools will no longer be a barrier to creativity, and we will see more innovative user generated content that couldn't be created up until now, this will also fuel more representation and diversity in content, since these tools will be accessible to all types of people.
Donnie:Now, is that Stephanie? How did you pronounce it?
Blue:Llamas?
Donnie:Is it Llamas? Or is it
Ryan:it's actually I think it's Llama is it?
Blue:Okay, if you haven't figured out by this point, we're gonna struggle with names, we apologize. We're not doing it to be funny. We're just dumb.
Ryan:So, in regards to her prediction, I think this is is probably spot on, I don't know if 2022 is gonna be the year that that happens as much. But that eventually is what I think will be the norm. I mean, if, if Ready Player One is a good prediction of what eventually will turn into gaming, that's the route that it took, I mean, you can essentially get involved in the Oasis and create, right. So I think that this is something that people want to do. It's just an edit to their point, up until this point, that hasn't really been, the technology hasn't been there to make that available for folks to do. But that's where the NFT things come into play to. We've been talking about that for the past couple of days. Right. So that's like, oh, I want this one thing, but I don't want that part of it.
Donnie:This is a little bit different, though. And somebody's coming from experience with applications such as 3D Studio Max, Maya, and whatnot. Back in the day, whenever I was going to school, these programs were not very intuitive. They were not very user friendly for the person who didn't have the experience. So it was really, it was a struggle trying to learn these programs and how to create a 3d model how to how to make sure it was textured correctly, you have the correct amount of polygons that would fit into a certain type of title. Now, it I think she's hitting it directly on the mark, where it's going to be much easier for the average person who doesn't have this type of experience to go in and create a lampshade or an environment or a highly detailed character, and start building game content of their own.
Blue:Right, like I think about 15, 16 years ago, when I was in film school, and the equipment that we had to use to film things to edit video to edit, you know, audio, that kind of stuff. They were these huge machines, they were so cumbersome and using them was so complicated. And if you think about it, now everybody can get some sort of free video editor on their computer or on their phone. It's really great. Now it's really easy to do, it's really accessible. And now everybody can make content to just look what has happened to YouTube and Twitch. So this could be that same kind of revolution for video games, which would be cool.
Donnie:When things come out there. They're whenever they first come out. They're big, they're bulky, they're expensive. And then as the years go by, they become more streamlined and they become more accessible and more adoptable and now everybody gets a free 3d modeling program with your breakfast.
Blue:Yeah.
Donnie:Next up, Dr. Serkan Toto from Kantan Games. Nintendo will announce Mario Kart 9 and a new mobile game
Blue:Oh my god, it's happening
Ryan:the first time I read this by the way, I read it as they will announce Mario Kart 9 as a new mobile game and
Blue:No. No. You shut your mouth. That will not happen. No.
Donnie:I am aware that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still selling very well on the Nintendo Switch. But Mario Kart 9 is in active development and comes with a new twist. Twist. And Nintendo could tease it this year. On mobile Nintendo has been very silent since Mario Kart Tour's launch in 2019. But I think 2022 is when we will see an established IP arriving on smart devices again
Blue:Who cares about that. An established IP arriving on smartphones No Forget it. Mario Kart 9 with A new twist. Dr. Toto sounds like they know what the twist is.
Ryan:Have we done research on this guy to find out if he's connections? Is he like ShrfSnax? He's got an uncle that works at Nintendo
Blue:ShrfSnax, call up your uncle, I need to know. I must know. When are we getting the answers? What are we getting Mario Kart 9? And what is the twist?
Ryan:So taking a look at Mario Kart 9. What would you want to see out of it? What changes? Would you want to see what additions would you want to see?
Blue:I have many nerdy ideas that nobody is going to care about. We need to revamp the items completely. Forget about the Boomerang, the stupid boomerang and the Krazy eight. I mean, no, we got to we got to nerf those. We need to allow items swapping. Because right now you're at the mercy of the order in which you pick up your items. So if you happen have a Piranha plant in front of a star, and you really need to use the star, but you can't because you have to wait for the Piranha plant to timeout. I want a Double Dash mode for sure. It doesn't have to be the whole game. But it could be an optional mode, which I think would be a really cool addition. I think we don't need Battle Mode anymore, we could just forget about that
Ryan:Hot take
Donnie:she is going off.
Blue:And then finally, my biggest thing is I want them to fix the scoring in the online lobbies. Because you only get full points for your placement if there are full 12 racers in the lobby. So it leads to a lot of really annoying lobby hopping online, where it's like, oh, there's only 10 people. And so then one person will leave and then somebody else will leave. And then it's like you never actually get to race because everybody's too busy hopping around trying to find a full lobby. It's ridiculous.
Ryan:I'm so glad I asked that question. That was awesome.
Donnie:He wasn't ready. So wrapping up on our main topic, what is one gaming prediction for the year that you can give us, Blue? We'll start with you.
Blue:I am not going to go very far out on a limb because I assume a year from now we'll be doing a retrospective to see which of us was right and which of us was wrong. I'm going to say that Elden Ring will be the game of the year. I could be wrong. It's releasing early in the year, which doesn't usually bode well for Game of the Year winners. It could go the way of like a Cyberpunk where it's hugely anticipated. And then the release is a disaster. And even if they fix it later, it doesn't necessarily erase everybody's initial negative impressions. You know, there's risk involved, but it's a FromSoft game. They know how to make the kind of games that they make. And so I think there's a really excellent chance that it will be Game of the Year.
Ryan:My prediction is that Starfield will not come out in 2022 Another bold prediction Yep and that we will still only know that it's just a space game.
Donnie:That's the final frontier,
Blue:what more do you need to know?
Ryan:Donnie, what about you?
Donnie:Alright, I'm gonna go big. I'm gonna go bold.
Ryan:I like the sound of this.
Donnie:And this is something that we have talked about before. And I'm going to stick to this Sega... I'm already laughing. whatever it is., it's no. Sega will be back in the ring, in a big way. And I don't know if this is a big way. It'll have something to do not just with games, not with just like the actual video games, but maybe with a console maybe with a peripheral or something like that. I firmly believe that it's time for Sega to come back
Blue:back into hardware.
Donnie:Yes, I really hope that they do. And I don't know how they would do it. I don't know if it would be successful if Sega were to come back with some sort of console that only retro esque games were developed for if developers would want to put something together like that. Who knows? I don't know. Maybe it's just wishful thinking. But I really feel that Sega could come back to the fold and just burst out like the Kool Aid man was something everybody would just scream and rip off their shirts and like oh my god Sega they're back and buy whatever it is they're selling. Except for if it's a very, very small Game Gear that You can't hold with your hands. Only fits in between your small fingers. Don't do that.
Blue:I don't know. I admire your optimism. How is that
Ryan:Dreamcast 2 when?
Blue:Never. Never that's when.
Donnie:All right grab your Trapper Keepers and your pencils because it's time for Professor Ryebread and Gaming History 101
Ryan:Thank you for coming Students, please take your seats. Welcome back to Professor Ryebread's Gaming History 101. And today's lesson will be not about a game or a person. But the birth of a juggernaut of the gaming industry that began by humble means will say, and I'm of course referring to Silicon and Synapse, as you might know, a different name. So what what development company am I talking about?
Blue:You're talking about Blizzard
Ryan:I am talking about Blizzard Entertainment. That is right, you're really talking about Rock'n Roll Racing, just say it. So maybe I wanted to talk about Rock 'n Roll racing a little bit. But I'm going to talk about a whole bunch of other stuff too. I think it's an interesting start from essentially a small group having a dream and then really taking off and it's I think it's a great way to take a look into it. So I know that nowadays uh Activision Blizzard isn't exactly seen...
Blue:Blizzard as a dirty word.
Ryan:Right, right. It's not seen in the most savory light but essentially what they are is contributing to what's wrong with AAA studios nowadays, so I totally get that but we will not be covering that. Basically, what were we doing is Activision to until Activision merged with Blizzard. So up until like, what 2007, basically, so we'll be covering that the great years of Blizzards been The Wonder Years, right. But essentially, it started with a dream of, like I said, a couple of three guys, bright eyed and bushy tailed college grads, with inspirations to make something big. And they helped, essentially, by the end of their tenure, to create standards that are still used in video games today. So straight from their minds. So for the sake of time, like I said, we won't be covering everything, we're just going from the early 90s, all the way up until the merger in 2007.
Blue:So for the for the sake of time, we're covering like 17 years, it's fine.
Donnie:And just assume that Ryan has covered Ryan has the knowledge.
Ryan:Right? So if I missed anything, that's a good point here, Donnie, it was covered. We just had to edit it out. So if they're like, oh, wait, where are you forgot about that piece? Just assume that I talked about it. And, you know,
Blue:We should put Professor Ryebread's uncut lectures on YouTube.
Ryan:We might we might. But then that would totally call me out for actually missing one that was so maybe we didn't cover that I knew it. Alright, so take a look at Blizzard essentially the company began back in February of 1991. With three guys who are recent graduates of UCLA. It's Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce. They came up with the name Silicon and Synapse and by the way, that's not silicone, that's silicon, is basically the foundations for both computer chips as well as your brain, right. So silicon computer chips, synapses of your brain, I actually love the name. And apparently they didn't. But being humble college students actually had to start the company where they all chipped in an investment of about$10,000 Each and actually, Morhaime who would later become the CEO actually had to ask his grandmother for the money. And she agreed to provide him an interest free loan,
Blue:wow,
Ryan:which I'm hoping he's paid her back by now. But essentially, the way the company started out is that they were creating ports for other studios. So they brought in the game Battle Chess and put it on the SNES, which it's a great game, I like that it's a lot of fun. The next one would be talking the Lord of the Rings, Volume One, which is not a good game, which is why there was never a volume two, three or beyond. So, you know, not everyone's going to be a hit. But that's where their their pedigree started was they were taking a look at games that were either on PC, or other platforms and bringing them over to to console games. But eventually, they started creating their own games, and they were underground successes. So we saw titles like Rock 'n Roll Racing for the NES and Genesis slash Mega Drive, where it's a utopian future, where you're traveling between planets and racing against other contestants. And the idea is that you can use weapons and all these other things in order to get your way.
Blue:Why do you have weapons in a utopian future?
Ryan:Oh, I know, right?
Donnie:We're supposed to have the three seashells.
Ryan:Right. They also helped create the Lost Vikings, which is a puzzle platformer. An absolutely awesome game if you're into that there's like a myriad of levels like 60 Plus levels. So if you're not familiar with that, those games I would say definitely check them out. But just remember that they are essentially the first couple of games that Blizzard ever created.
Donnie:It used to make me feel so stupid as a kid playing The Lost Vikings. I loved it. I'm like, I I'm too dumb to figure this out. So I gave up.
Ryan:So the next stage of Blizzard was an interesting one where they started kind of changing the name of Blizzard and there was a bunch of acquisitions, they traded the ownership over a myriad of times over this next couple of steps. But around 1993, one of the things that they wanted to do was change the name from Silicon and Synapse, and they changed it over to Chaos Studios. reason behind that is that Allen Adham no longer liked the name because people outside the company were confusing silicon with silicone, which was a popular material for breast implants. So name's gotta go. So they changed it to Chaos Studios, but that would be a short lived name as well. So a year later, in '94, the company was acquired by Davidson and Associates for about $6.75 million. So they these guys definitely got their payday. But shortly after they got acquired by that they got contacted by a company out of Florida, called Chaos Technologies. Apparently, they caught wind that this company was existing as Chaos Studios, and basically sent them a cease and desist order and said, Hey, if you pay us$100,000, you can keep it. Not wanting to pay that, they're like, well, we're not gonna do that they changed their name for a short amount of time to Ogre Studios, but the executive board didn't like that either. So they sought to change it again. So according to Morhaime, Adham took out a dictionary and started writing down names that seem interesting. So he started with the A and just kept going down. and like, Okay, well use that one we might use this one and apparently Blizzard was one of the first words or one of the the first words that came across and actually cleared the like legal check to make sure nobody else was using it. So like that's it we're going with Blizzard so I thought it would be looking into this that they had this you know, some kind of fun like story behind it. But nope. Ideas and influence and inspiration can come from the dictionary.
Donnie:Just open the dictionary, point to a word There we go.
Ryan:We're gonna be that so by the way, we're also going to change the podcast here shortly. I've got a dictionary out and we will do that here.
Donnie:To do that for like one random episode.
Ryan:So which actually brings us though from a perspective for Blizzard as to the first breakthrough so their first big hit game came from a little PC strategy game called Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. have either of you guys played that?
Donnie:Yes, I have a long time ago and I've not touched a strategy game or real time stress simulator game since then.
Ryan:I had it when I was a kid. I loved this game a lot. It's it's very basic, especially when you consider what's available in the sequels to this but it's still a great game. I love the voice acting in it you know, like Yes, Milord. It's it's really, really well thought out. Which led to of course many many more Warcraft games in the future. But if you look at the next few years, a Blizzard ownership kind of changed hands about four times over the next couple of years. It was even owned at one point by a hotel, real estate and car rental franchisee
Donnie:Oh, I betcha they make some great decisions.
Ryan:Right? I'm just thinking to myself like alright, you know what, I don't know what I want to do, but I want to do something but during that time, though, they also merged with one of the top PC companies at the time, known as Sierra Online, which that was also a staple of my my childhood when it came to PC games. Sierras were some of the best games out there for sure.
Donnie:King's Quest
Ryan:Yes, of course. So eventually, they rested under ownership of a company called Vivendi which was a French media conglomerate and stuck with Vivendi for quite a long time all the way up until the kind of the end of our story. but in '96 Blizzard acquired a California based games company called Condor which were in development of I don't know this game that you might have heard of it's called Diablo and interestingly enough at that time Blizzard decided to rename Condor Blizzard North and they renamed themselves Blizzard South
Donnie:right
Ryan:But Blizzard North would only go on to create Diablo II after that so not not a whole lot of longevity with Blizzard North. But following the success as well of Warcraft, there was the Warcraft II. Blizzard began development, though, for one of my favorite games of all time in 1998, called StarCraft, which actually led to the future growth of one of the industry standards that we kind of talked about before, was Battle.net. It was the first online service incorporated directly into the games versus utilizing an outside source in order to create online play. So they're the kind of the I mean, if you're into multiplayer games, Blizzard is probably a big proponent of the reason why multiplayer gaming is as successful as it is.
Donnie:Yeah they were innovators. D
Ryan:efinitely, definitely. So after the success then of Starcraft and eventually Warcraft III as well in 20 or 2002, Blizzard turn their focus towards the most one of the most influential games in the history of the world, which, of course, is World of Warcraft and that debuted in North America in late 2004. Donnie, I know that you've played this quite a bit.
Donnie:I played that from its inception in 2004. All the way up until 2012. When it almost ruined my marriage.
Ryan:I bet you know, it's funny. I hear that so often.
Donnie:I did play this game since 2004. And in my juvenile way, I would come home from work, I would sit immediately at the the computer, I would eat dinner at the computer I would play while my wife was sleeping.
Blue:And that didn't fly, huh?
Donnie:Yeah, it had to it had to come to an end. And I'm glad that it did. Because, you know, spend time with your family people that with video games.
Ryan:There you go.
Blue:Balance. That's what we're looking for balance.
Donnie:Yeah, exactly. Moderation,
Ryan:all in moderation. And then actually, at one point, they were estimated to hold 62% of the MMO RPG subscription market. I think if you're looking at from a market ownership perspective, anything I think above 20, or 30, is considered to be a powerhouse. So the fact that they own almost two thirds of it is really saying something so, right. And if you think about that, too, I mean, if we're talking 1991, all the way to like 2007, a company growing from three guys basically in probably their mom's basement, making games that they're porting over to the Super Nintendo and the NES, and eventually becoming the leaders of a world wide phenomenon that's changed gaming. And the way in which we game is, I think, a really cool story. And it's just a reminder to me, that it's sometimes it's okay to take risks if you are truly passionate and believe in what you want to accomplish. So, even though, nowadays...
Blue:End the story. Nope, end the story,
Ryan:yeah, I was gonna say even though now, not so much, but nonetheless, you can follow your dreams, and maybe someday you will help create joy for millions. So that's where we're gonna end this one tonight. But thank you for attending another lecture of Professor Ryebread's Gaming History 101. And just a reminder, if you do have any stories, feel free to reach out
Donnie:Oh, can we leave class early today? to us at gamersweekpodcast@gmail.com. And
Ryan:Yes, you're going to leave class early, but I'm also going we might feature your history story. So thank you. to take five points off of your grade because I'm a jerk
Blue:Donnie can't afford five points. I know he can't.
Donnie:No, no. I need all the points I can. Alright, let's go ahead and wrap up this episode of Gamers Week Podcast. Thank you for listening to episode three. This episode marks the end of our big three episode launch party. So if you're still listening, we hope we can safely assume that you're enjoying the show. If you want to connect with Gamers Week, follow us on Twitter at @GamersWeekPC, email us at gamersweekpodcast@gmail.com. Check us out on Twitch at Twitch.tv/gamersweekpodcast where we will be streaming Bermuda Syndrome as we discussed earlier. Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/gamersweek. And finally since you made it all the way to the end of this episode, please leave us a review to let us know how we did. While you're there. Consider subscribing on iTunes or your podcast platform of choice. Take care everyone.
Ryan:Good night.
Blue:Good night.
Donnie:Bye
Blue:bye