It seems like more and more games are taking away the option of cross-team chat. This is an obvious response to the harassment and toxicity that can come along with certain game communities, but is it fair to decide to silence the other team before your game is even out? Does blocking cross-team chat actually help with reducing toxicity among players? That’s one of our main topics in this episode.
Additionally, Blizzard has announced that Overwatch is NOT free-2-play, and Jarret couldn’t be happier. Assassins Creed Syndicate is seeing slow sales, and Ubisoft blames Assassins Creed Unity for the slump. That makes sense, because, you know, delivering a broken game and taking months to fix it (which for one console meant downloading the entire game over again) is a great way to break consumer trust. Jarret has ideas for Ubisoft, Nick thinks it’s time to put the horse down.
Microtransactions seem to be going over well in Halo 5. 343 hasn’t delivered any official numbers, but they added an additional $500,000 to the World Championship prize pool, which is only a fraction of the revenue they’ve received from Halo 5 microtransactions – and we’re sure that fraction isn’t ½. At any rate, they’re swimming in cash. We talk about all of this and more as Jarret returns on this weeks Mashcast.
Hosts: Jarret Redding, Nick Zielenkievicz
Theme: "Insert Coin" - Chris Geehan of Hyperduck Soundworks
News Bites:
http://kotaku.com/batman-arkham-knight-pc-refunds-offered-through-2015-1739895290
http://www.polygon.com/2015/11/4/9670900/blizzard-starcraft-warcraft-3-diablo-2-modern-operating-systems
http://www.polygon.com/2015/11/2/9662230/activision-buys-candy-crush-maker-king
Articles:
Overwatch is not free:
http://kotaku.com/why-overwatch-isnt-free-to-play-1741226130
Assassins Creed Syndicate Slow Sales:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/258588/Assassins_Creed_Unity_to_blame_for_slow_Syndicate_sales_says_Ubisoft.php
Halo 5 Microtransactions:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/258551/Halo_5_players_have_already_spent_over_500000_on_microtransactions.php
