This week Jrow and steev talk about the Ninja Batman Trailer, they discuss the Star Wars Battlefront 2 debacle, and they take a look at the “Games as a Service” model.

News

  • Ninja Batman Anime Movie Trailer (Kotaku)
    • Directed by Jumpei Mizusaki (JoJo Producer)
    • Character Designs by Takashi Okazaki (Afro Samurai Creator)
    • Written by Kazuki Nakashima (Kill la Kill Creator)
  • Made in Abyss anime gets sequel (ANN)
  • Rin-ne manga expected to end soon (Crunchyroll)
  • My Hero Academia S3 scheduled for Spring 2018 season (Crunchyroll)
  • Hunter x Hunter coming off hiatus on January 29 (ANN)
  • Rurouni Kenshin manga on hiatus after mangaka charged with possession of child pornography (ANN)
    • Owned DVDs with teenage girls in them

Discussion

  • The Star Wars Battlefront 2 debacle
    • Microtransactions + time spent had people seeing the game as very much play-to-win
    • It was estimated that it’d take 40 hours of play to unlock Darth Vader
    • EA’s comment on Reddit became the site’s most downvoted comment ever, “sense of pride and accomplishment…” was the birth of a new meme
    • EA made changes and has (temporarily) shut down microtransactions
    • EA does similar loot box stuff to UFC 3 Ultimate Fighter Mode
    • Government concerns about loot boxes in games (Polygon)
    • Destiny 2 exp throttling
  • Games as a Service
    • Should games still cost $60?
      • The rising cost of development, is $60 still a fair price?
    • Are loot boxes the only answer?
    • Less single player games
      • Something we want?

Music

  • BGM: Demi-chan OST
  • Ending: “ASH” By LiSA (Fate/Apocrypha)