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Episode 328: Edufication

by James Jones, Jon Lindemann, Jonathan Metts, and Guillaume Veillette - March 3, 2013, 6:09 pm EST
Total comments: 10

We shake up New Business and answer your questions about the present and future of Wii U.

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This episode starts out with James hosting, as Jonny was held up at work for a few minutes. We also shake up the first half by using a new format for New Business -- each person gets one game, and we go back around for seconds if time allows. Guillaume is the first to try it, and he chooses to begin with Bit.Trip Saga, which was recently on sale in the 3DS eShop. But it's got severe flaws, and he finds it may not even be worth the reduced price. Jonny discovers the madness of Kenji Eno (R.I.P.) by pulling You, Me, and the Cubes off his backlog. James turns his strategy expertise to Skulls of the Shogun (which just got a price drop). Jon addresses the state of Black Ops 2 on Wii U and questions whether the DLC map packs will ever come to Nintendo fans. On the partial second go-around, Gui finishes Dragon Quest VI, and Jonny catches up with Little Inferno.

Listener Mail is always thought-provoking for us, and rarely more than this week's set of questions. First is a follow-up to the Pikmin-as-Strategy topic, leading to some discussion of where Pikmin 3 might take the series. Next up is a damning portrayal of Nintendo's responsibility for Wii U's third-party support... but what is that responsibility, exactly? Last is a return to the "next-generation" term, which leads us into deep into the rabbit hole, covering topics like Nintendo's desired demographic and how overlapping console launches affect demand for new games. As usual, it's heady material and hopefully interesting for all of you! Send in your own questions and topics ratch heah.

Plugs! So many plugs! Make sure you don't miss the new Famicast (subscribers get it automatically) featuring all the latest games and news from our Japan crew. You can also hear the gregarious Jonny on various partner-shows, including a new Radio Trivia, Connectivity (on a new bonus segment about space!), and the special 50th episode of Box Office Poison. Most importantly, be sure to start playing and discussing the winner of our RetroActive poll: Ys Book I&II. It's a very interesting game available on many platforms -- see the official forum thread for more info, and start dropping knowledge for the upcoming feature!

This podcast was edited by Guillaume Veillette.

Music for this episode of Radio Free Nintendo is used with permission from Jason Ricci & New Blood. You can purchase their newest album, Done with the Devil, directly from the record label, Amazon (CD) (MP3), or iTunes, or call your local record store and ask for it!

Additional music for this episode of Radio Free Nintendo is copyrighted to Nintendo and is included under fair use protection.

Talkback

daverhodusMarch 04, 2013

So much for Crisis 3 not being on Wii U because it can't run on the system.

Yerli: "We did have Crysis 3 running on the Wii U. We were very close to launching it. But there was a lack of business support between Nintendo and EA on that. Since we as a company couldn’t launch on the Wii U ourselves — we don’t have a publishing license — Crysis 3 on Wii U had to die."

http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/01/crytek-chief-puts-on-his-warface-interview/2/

That's really interesting. Since the game is under EA Partners, I wonder if Crytek retains the option to self-publish if EA refuses on a given platform. In that case, Crytek could potentially get it on the eShop sometime later.

Pixelated PixiesMarch 04, 2013

Great episode as per usual guys.

I really do like the 'around the horn' format for new business. I hope it sticks. It's always enjoyable to hear what people have been up to with new business, but if someone has been playing a lot of games in a given week it has the potential to feel like the rest of the crew are sidelined for 10 or 15 minutes while one person talks about their games. This new format seems to free things up a little, which is great.

That's the idea! It also lets me cut off NB when it runs too long, without leaving someone with no chance to have the soapbox. And the order will still change every week, so we can make sure that whoever has the best topics will get a chance to do at least two games.

shingi_70March 04, 2013

The lack of Wii U's is a valid reason for developer not to support the system. The problem I see is that the PS4/720 won't have this problem even if they have slow sales as well.

I found the activsion dlc conversation interesting since they announced a new downloadable ninja turtles game that isn't currently slated for eshop.

Kytim89March 05, 2013

Hey Jonny, Reggie most likely does not only covet the GTA series, but the entire Take Two/Rock Star portfolio as well.

Glad0sMarch 05, 2013

I quite enjoyed Little Inferno. Of course, it only took me about 3.5 hours to beat, and the ending didn't pull everything together quite as much as I had hoped, but I don't regret spending the ten bucks on it. Heck, I might even return to it sometime to try and go for all the combos -- it's surprisingly addicting.

I would delve into a deep discussion here on the whole "Will Wii U succeed?!?!" topic, but I think I'll save that for an email.

Oh, and hearing James and Jonny reference Brian Eno essentially made my week. It's not often I hear an allusion to my personal favorite solo artist, and it's even more awesome hearing it from you guys. 

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterMarch 05, 2013

James never change, ever

NeoStar9XMarch 06, 2013

Good episode so far. Still listening as I drive to and from work. However about the DLC issue in the Black Ops 2 had close to yelling at my radio because it sounded like no one was going to acknowledge that other games had DLC. Still listening so I apologize if you cover this later in the episode. There is section on the eShop showing which games have downloadable content. Ranging from costume skins to additional content.


Assassin's Creed 3
Ninja Gaiden 3
Fist of the North Star
Marvel Avengers
Warrior Orochi 3 Hypr
Just Dance 4


Ninja Gaiden 3 has gotten it's DLC by way of game updates instead because it's free. So it isn't listed but it is flagged as having new content on the main eShop page. Assassin's Creed 3 is at full parity with the other versions. The DLC was late by a week or two but it's there. It's just now waiting for the remaining two episodes of the Tyranny of King Washington DLC like the other platforms.


Not really sure what Activision's problem is. None of their games can be purchased on the eShop as well. Even EA at least has Fifa and Madden up there for purchase. However they still don't have Mass Effect 3 there.


In addition to the above Tank!, Tank!, Tank! is free to play outside of the US with you being able to purchase different aspects of the game. Zen Pinball is going to be like that as well with you being able to buy what table you want.


I don't believe there is any issue network wise stopping Activision from putting up the DLC for Black Ops 2. They should be able to give a definitive answer either way. If they're holding off to see if the game sells better then they should say so.  I do disagree with the idea that those playing will stick around and buy whenever the DLC comes if it does. The hardcore Call of Duty players have no problem buying a second copy on another platform. Activision waits to long and they won't get any sales because those tired of waiting will just move on to a different version or just move on completely from the game.


I think an interesting question is why are there no Activision games for sale on the eShop? Outside of Skylanders there is nothing stopping them from being sold digitally. They have 8 games out or coming (Walking Dead) on the Wii U. Remove Skylanders and you have 7 games that could be sold as they require no extra hardware. Black Ops 2 is also available on PSN and the Xbox marketplace.

I don't know if this part was cut or happened during a break, but we talked about Mass Effect in greater detail. My theory is that the Wii U version was based on the 360 one (due to similar architecture), and the multi-disc data loading was maintained for development time reasons. Therefore, a single-dump version without disc-changing prompts would require some amount of recoding that was probably deemed unworthy of the effort after the middling reviews, ending controversy, and poor initial sales on Wii U. In other words, putting this version of ME3 on eShop would be less trivial than it is for most other games.

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