Escapist Podcast: 124: King.com, Hearthstone, And Pre-Orders

[The Escapist Staff]

124: King.com, Hearthstone, And Pre-Orders

This week, the valiant Escapist podcast crew discusses rumors around a new version of Xbox One and King.com's ongoing trademark woes. They also discuss the Hearthstone open beta and Josh offers some valuable advice on how to play.

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[bdcjacko]

Dear Podcat,

You are the best.

Love,

Josh

 

[Raziel]

If you only play 2 AAA games a year, or just play the little indie things a discless xbo might be okay. But thats not the majority of people buying a new console. For most people there are 3 BIG problems with a diskless system.

1 download time. 12 hrs to several days to download 40+ gbs next gen games.

2 harddrive space, the only thing worse then having to download the big games, is having to delete them to make space. At launch there were already too many games on the xbo to fit on the 500 gb harddrive. 2 years from now, when there are a ton of games and they are larger than 40gb even 1tb is going to be small.

3 internet connections. Not just the time it takes to download the game but the data usage will be a problem for some. Right now people in many places who are in the top data usage get throttled, thats just going to spread to more and more places as more and more people and devices connect to the web. And they are talking about straight capping the amount of data you can use in a month, like on the phones. If that happens who is going to be willing to download the games? With net neutrality gone this is increasingly likely to happen.

 

[Remus]

Man why'd you have to go and remind me of Alphas? I watched that show religiously when it was on, and it ended on a cliffhanger, just like The SCC. Plus it had the coolest opening theme music.

 

[Henriot]

On the topic of drive-through liquor stores, being in the wonderful land of Aus(stralia), it was quite a shock to hear from Canadian and U.S. travellers that they aren't a thing over there. What's more lazy than not having to get out of your car to pick up a slab and some wine for the weekend?

 

[Revolutionary]

Good podcast, I will never ever play hearthstone but for some reason enjoy listening to people talk about it.

 

[bdcjacko]

I lived in Wilmington and saw them filming revolution. It sucked

 

[Kilt'd]

Maybe I should check out Hearthstone.

Side note, anyone else think that Josh Vanderwall looks like Dr. King Schultz this Podcat?

 

[StriderShinryu]

One other reason to pre-order something that wasn't really mentioned specifically is actual scarcity of the game. Now, we all know that your standard AAA release isn't likely to sell out regardless of the demand. For something like an Atlus game or a niche RPG, there's a very real possibility that your local store may only get pre-orders plus 3 or 4 copies in. If you don't pre-order then there is a very real chance that you will have difficulty getting the game. That's not a reason to not do your due diligence before putting the money down, including being critical about preview content, but it's a very real reason to more heavily consider a pre-order based on that content alone.

3 internet connections. Not just the time it takes to download the game but the data usage will be a problem for some. Right now people in many places who are in the top data usage get throttled, thats just going to spread to more and more places as more and more people and devices connect to the web. And they are talking about straight capping the amount of data you can use in a month, like on the phones. If that happens who is going to be willing to download the games? With net neutrality gone this is increasingly likely to happen.

This is one thing I find strange in that it rarely if ever gets mentioned in discussions like this. Data caps or throttled data limits are a pretty huge deal for many people. There was a breakdown that I read recently where average TV watching (3 to 4 hours a day) if done through an internet connection as opposed to a direct cable TV line alone could potentially eat up most or all of your standard data capped monthly internet connection depending on quality. Not movies, not downloads, not games.. just TV alone. The fact is, the poor internet infrastructure in terms of speed/bandwidth and the control of the internet belonging totally in the hands of a few very powerful companies as is the case in North America pretty much kills the idea of online only consoles much quicker than any sort of "I prefer discs" argument.

 

[marurder]

What are the timestamps for the topics please? Bring them back.