Kyloctopus

Happy to see Apple Arcade putting more resources into new games. The well has been drying up for the last few years has dried up more in the last year.

I know some people are upset around exclusivity agreements, but in contrast to that, I wouldn’t play alot of these games had they not been part of my mobile game subscription. For example, I got really into Taiko no Tatsujin through the Apple Arcade game and now I have all the Switch versions, the drum and went out of my way to play the arcade version on my trip to Asia. I’ve got into Tookyo’s catalogue by World’s End Club being a timed exclusive for Apple Arcade and now I’m amped for my Deluxe Edition of Last Defence Academy to release next month. Zach Gage is a well respected mobile puzzle developer, but I got through his work starting by falling in love with Card of Darkness on the service. Apple Arcade increases visibility, helps legitimise the mobile market outside of free to play scams and ad riddled games. I’ve also read that the compensation is also very generous for the developers like Taito, who are probably in far more pressure by Square Enix to greenlight less games.

I listened to this interview. Kind’ve a wild podcast to fill the Time Extention feed all week with things like:

• Tony Hawk was apparantly living in his car after a divorce before making a $300K and 1.5% royalty deal for Pro Skater 1.
• Howard Lincoln suggested Kotick working at Activision (then Mediagenic) after working with a company that licensed Nintendo merch in the 80’s when Kotick wanted to work on Nintendo licensed games.
• Activision first saw a Wii prototype unexpectedly at a yearly meeting with a fishing tech demo
• Info on working on licensed games for Pixar and making presentations for Steve Jobs
• Some more info on what it was like to work with and acquire Blizzard. Great insight for those who read Schrier’s book, “Play Nice,” last year
• Kotick never wanted to raise the World of Warcraft subscription price by any amount, because he knew it was cause a massive outrage that would do more harm than profit
• Kotick suggested that he coined the term “Free to Start” in front if Satoru Iwata. Its a bit confusing from the way he presents the annecdote but that’s what I took from how he describes talking to Iwata.

It also has info on the Activision acquisition, addressing the poor workplace environment lawsuit and the likelihood of him purchasing TikTok.

As for Goldeneye, I loved the Goldeneye reboot. The reputation the N64 had of being a splitscreen classic is what the Wii version gave to me and my brothers. But, admittedly the fact that it was an FPS caused trepidations in my mother gifting me the game for my birthday, because it had Bond holding a gun on the cover. My father convinced her it would be fine, especially since I was now the age appropriate for T-rated games, but it goes to show that as much as Broccoli and the 007 estate might come across as jaded with this and recent headlines, there is some truth against the matter on the other perspective.

Miyamoto after all also had similar concerns with publishing the original 007 shooter, suggesting to Rare staff that Bond should shake the hands of those he shot and hospitalized at the end of the game.

Its another interesting collection in the Evercade library. I think I’m going to pass on this one though to focus on the games I still need to play on my console.

I bought an Evercade last month. It's really filling in that gap of a small portable system, as I'm playing the Double Dragon games during my commute. I love that the Namco Museum Collections are still able to find quite a few games that still haven't been localized before. Not sure if this is a Day 1 buy, especially if the appeal behind it is strictly local multiplayer, but I'm sure to get it by the end of the year.

The D-Pad looks to be the real deal breaker.

The only thing similar to rare of the 80's and 90's and the Rare of the 21st century is it's name. Everyone talented left the studio.