Plus Nintendo gets ahead of Switch 2 scalpers and OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome disappear off Steam.
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Smith, Adam Christou and Chris Button. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER.
FIONA: Hi I’m Fiona Bartholomaeus
KYLE: and I’m Kyle Pauletto
FIONA: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
KYLE: This week Nintendo plans to tackle Switch 2 scalpers early, Roll7 games OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome disappear from stores, and the winner of the Grammy Award for best video game music announced!
Here is the news for Sunday 9th of February. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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FIONA: Guys, this is why we can’t have nice things.
The Switch 2 was only officially announced a couple of weeks ago, and despite not even having a release date yet Nintendo believes that scalpers are getting ready to ruin things for the rest of us.
According to Japanese gaming outlet Nikkei, and translated by Videogames Chronicle, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has said they’re already preparing to take on the scalpers to ensure a fair launch.
KYLE: It’s a given that the Switch 2 is going to fly off the shelves, and that’s only going to be exacerbated by scummy little scalpers with their tricksy high tech bots doing their dirty work for them.
Furukawa told Nikkei that Nintendo will take all possible measures to combat shortages, with Nikkei previously reporting that the console's delay could even be due to the company taking extra time to ensure they manufacture enough Switch 2s to go around.
So let's all get together and pray that the scalpers spend all their money on Switch 2s, just to find out that there is more than enough for everyone.
Wouldn’t that be a nice treat?
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KYLE: Two hit indie games, OllOlli World and Rollerdrome, have recently disappeared off Steam and Xbox with no explanation.
Last year we saw the games’ developer Roll7 studio shut down and the publisher Private Division was also shut down and then sold off.
According to a Bloomberg report the buyer was a Texas private equity firm which is backing a bid by the former staff of Annapurna Interactive.
Supposedly the ex-Annapurna staff will take over Private Division’s games which includes the Hobbit game ‘Tales of the Shire’ and a new game from Pokémon developer Game Freak.
FIONA: Take-Two, the former parent company of Roll7 and Private Division, said the buyer had bought the rights to ‘substantially all’ of the publishers live and unreleased titles.
However for now the fate of back catalog titles like the two skating games is not super clear.
It really brings up the conversation of what happens to the sustainability and archiving of games when their developers or publishers shut down or change.
If you haven’t yet bought the games, it may be best to do so just in case. OlliOlliWorld is still up on PlayStation and Nintendo stores and Rollerdrome is on PlayStation.
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FIONA: The Grammys were held this week and surprisingly a reimagining of a retro classic took home the trophy.
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord took out the award for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media, going up against Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, God of War Ragnarok Valhalla and a few other AAA titles.
The game is a remake of the original 1981 Dungeons & Dragons styled roleplaying game and was first introduced on the Apple II.
KYLE: However, the original game didn’t have music so composer Winifred Phillips had to make everything from scratch for the remake.
She’s also composed for other games such as God of War and Borderlands
It’s always exciting to see video game scores get acknowledged at these big awards. You can listen and download the entire album on Bandcamp.
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KYLE: Steam has introduced a new warning on games that have been in early access for too long.
As you know, when you buy a game that’s in Early Access a box pops up essentially saying the game is in early access, it’s not complete and it may or may not change any further.
But now they’ve added a note under that text indicating how long it’s been since there’s been an update, whether that be 4 months or 4 years.
FIONA: They also now include a statement from the game’s developer about why the game is in early access and how long it will be until the game is expected to be fully released.
It’s still not clear on how long is too long, and how big the update needs to be to warn off the timer, however it’s a smart and easy way to tell people if a game has been abandoned.
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FIONA: And in Pokemon news, the Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket has reached half a billion dollars in sales in just a couple of months.
According to data from AppMagic the game, which sees you tearing open different expansion packets and battling others, hit $500 million on February 4th, less than 3 months since it launched.
This achievement rivals Pokemon Go which made the same amount but in 22 days less.
KYLE: The latest Space Time Smackdown expansion saw daily sales surpass $10 million for the first time, and the sales from the first two days of the expansion accounts for 22% of the entire month’s revenue.
I guess some people really do want to catch them all.
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KYLE: That’s it for the headlines, here are the games coming out this week.
FIONA: Get ready to lose days of your life next week when Civilization VII drops on the 11th. Expect a heap of new features, improved graphics, and narration by the always impressive Gwendoline Christie. That’s out on all platforms this Tuesday. Make sure you take a look at the review on sifter.com.au as well.
KYLE: The latest contestant in the Kyle’s most hated video game name contest is coming to the west this week, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak 2. After years of only releasing in Asia, this well received JRPG will come to PlayStation PC and Switch this Friday.
FIONA: And lastly we have Tomb Raider IV - VI Remastered. It’s your favourite Tomb Raider classics but with a whole heap more polygons to smooth out those sharp edges. Unless sharp edges are your thing, in which case you’ll have the option to switch back and forth from the old models to the new. Out on all platforms on the 14th.
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PROMO: Articles to read, videos to watch and podcasts to listen to on sifter.com.au
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FIONA: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus.
KYLE: And my name is Kyle Pauletto, thank you so much for listening.
FIONA: Give us a rating or a review, a lot of podcasts ask for this and you know why? It works, search for Walkthrough on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Pocket Casts and give us five stars if you think we’re doing a good job! I mean you could give us something other than five stars for walkthrough but you I both know it’s fun to click the maximum. So help us out, and rate Walkthrough five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Pocket Casts. Thanks
KYLE: SIFTER is produced by myself, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Adam Christou, Courtney Smith and Chris Button. The episode is edited by both Senior Producer Mitch Loh and Gianni Di Giovanni who is SIFTER’s Executive Producer and also Walkthrough’s script editor.
FIONA: Thanks to Brian Fairbanks from Salty Dog Sounds for composing the Walkthrough theme tune, and Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER’s podcasts.
KYLE: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday.
