Big Boss Babble Episode 10 — Humble Bundle Purchase, Overwatch, Loot Boxes and Oculus Go

Big Boss Babble Episode 10 — Humble Bundle Purchase, Overwatch, Loot Boxes and Oculus Go

This week’s host was Dann, who was joined by Toby, the Spirit of Terry, and Jorge to discuss a bevy of topics.

You can find each of the discussed topics below.

• 00:00:52 – Toby – IGN’s acquisition of Humble Bundle – The team discuss the possible repercussions of media giant IGN acquiring digital storefront, publisher, and donation platform Humble Bundle. While this has definitely not been the first case of similar acquisitions and partnerships, a single entity controlling a review platform while earning from game sales does lay out potential for unprecedented conflict of interest, depending on how it is managed.

• 00:06:27 – Toby– Blizzard’s lawsuit against an Overwatch Clone – The team discuss the swirling whirlpool of litigiousness which threatens to consume the industry as game giant Blizzard threaten to take the creators of a Chinese clone of the game to court.
• 00:13:20 – Toby – Delayed Launches through Censorship – The team completely misread the date on a piece of news and celebrate L4D2 becoming available uncensored in Australia — something which happened a good few years back. As a result of the topic the team discuss advertising differences around the world and touch on ratings systems.
• 00:19:36 – Toby – Loot Boxes Ruled as Not Gambling – Following the ERSB rating that Loot Box related microtransactions are not, in any way, gambling, the team discuss their feelings on the matter, and on the potential results had the verdict gone the other way.
• 00:32:33 – Dann – Oculus Go $199.99 – The team muddle their way through discussing VR, a conversation started due to the news of the ‘affordable’ stand-alone Oculus headset which was recently announced. VRs role in the industry, and VR as a field of entertainment, is touched on
• 00:41:05 – Dann – Civilization (Series) – The recent news of an update to Civilization 6’s religion systems triggers a short conversation regarding the series on the whole, as well as how it has changed over the years.

In addition to the above, this week’s full episode features an additional ten minutes of discussion regarding the possible effects of the brewing troubles between Epic Games and Blue Hole Inc regarding PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode.

Each of these topics will be released as individual Mini Boss Babbles throughout the week, for those who wish to just listen to individual topics.

Can’t find us on your ideal podcast feed? Let us know and we’ll get ourselves over there for you.

Intro music:
“Cyborg Ninja” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/