Issue 16 December 7th 2019

Do Xbox and PlayStation Have Something To Learn From Nintendo?

Here's an interesting thought piece to get your brain juices flowing. Should western game devs follow the business strategy of Nintendo? Not the one that never lets them discount games past 20%, but the one where flagship Nintendo IPs (Mario, Legend of Zelda, etc.) have multiple spin-off series. Let's look at Mario as an example. Imagine if we only got a Mario game whenever Nintendo put out a big, 3D game (Odyssey, Galaxy, and Sunshine). That would mean that there would have been a 7 year gap between Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario Galaxy 2. Imagine how that would have affected the brand image of Mario. In reality, Nintendo has a great strategy of releasing Mario spin-offs in between the major title releases. Although this is a great idea, one thing that this article fails to notice is that even these spin-offs are well-established brands at this point. Calling games like Super Mario Party and Mario Kart spin-offs seems like a discredit to the success of them. While it might not be the best idea for PlayStation and Xbox to only focus on their next multi-million dollar project, like the next God of War, it's hard to blame them for not taking the risk of creating a spin-off series. Let's not forget that PlayStation tried to be like Nintendo with PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale. That game did not do well and it was PlayStation's stab at creating a spin-off series with notable PS mascots. Was the game fun? No, so maybe the answer is for PlayStation or Xbox to try again with a spin-off series and make it a good game. This brings up more problems. PlayStation has been known for its serious first party games while Nintendo is known for more fun and family-based series. If PlayStation tried to create "fun" spin-offs from their IPs, it may alienate their fanbase. This is too big of a risk to take for PlayStation.

I could talk about this for days on end, but I want to hear your opinion. Do you think PlayStation and Xbox should adapt other Japanese game developers' business model to their own? Or should PS and Xbox keep doing what they've been doing? Hit respond to this email and let me know!

Image credit: Nintendo.com

Riot Settles Lawsuit, Will Pay Every Female Employee Since 2014 With $10 Million Fund

If Load Save was around a year ago, I would've included a link to the breaking news article from Kotaku regarding the issue with Riot's treatment of women in the workplace. But now, we have some closure! Even if you don't care about lawsuits, it's important to notice this one because this payout is one of the largest in California history for a gender discrimination lawsuit. In a broader sense, a video game company has now made history with it's lawsuit. Even though it's on the wrong side of history, it's still important to know how video games are affecting the world around us. It's important to note that the female employees aren't just getting big bucks because of reporting the abuse, they're being paid to make up for the lack of pay over the years they worked at Riot.

Hopefully, Riot can move forward from this travesty and treat people right. It's especially important for them to be in the good graces of the public eye since they are developing standalone games outside of League of Legends.

Image credit: Riot Twitter

Just For Laughs

The worst Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals no one should buy

This is gaming related, right?

A Freshly Brewed Cup Of Load Save

Take a load off and warm up with a fresh cup of Load Save! (Keep reading, you'll get the "warm" theme soon). This week had a lot of great news stories. So many, that I decided to make a link dump at the end of this week's Load Save. Let me know what you think about it and I may do it more often! Other than that, we have some great articles looking back at the year that Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation had and we question whether or not PlayStation and Nintendo has something to learn from Nintendo. We also have some huge industry news this week, including a $10 million settlement and reports of Razer CEO being abusive.

We've got a little bit of everything this week, so I hope you find one you enjoy! Remember, you can shoot me your thoughts or opinions by responding to this email. You can also find me on Twitter @SethMcMorris and on Facebook.

Thanks for stopping by. As always, enjoy the read!

Development

Microsoft Plans To Launch A Cheaper, Discless Xbox To Accompany Project Scarlett

Here's some next-gen news to keep you going until, well, next-gen! Similar to Microsoft's current lineup of Xbox One X and Xbox One S, Kotaku's sources say that Microsoft is planning to release s powerful Xbox Scarlett and a less powerful, most likely more cost efficient, model codenamed Anaconda. Developers have likened the power of the Anaconda to that of the PS4 Pro which, if true, we're in for some pretty powerful next-gen consoles. Meanwhile, PlayStation hasn't announced any sort of cheaper model of the PS5, but the devkit of the PS5 has been leaked by a lot of developers (it's as bad as I thought).

What's your take on this? Would you prefer a cheaper Xbox model or are you all in for a beefier, more expensive console?

Image credit: Xbox Twitter

Reviews

Arise: A Simple Story Review

Remember this one? This game was recently announced at X019 and caught the attention of some indie fans. The game looked beautiful in the trailer, and it seems that that same beauty is evident in the final product. It's not surprising that the game falls issue to some platforming problems, I've found that it's one of the most prevalent problems in games like this, but I'm glad that it's still enjoyable to play through the story. It reminds me of Valiant Hearts, a game that I played because I was bored but ended up loving the story of it. The gameplay dragged in places, but the story made it worth it.

This one isn't on Game Pass (yet), but let me know if you pick it up!

Image credit: PlayStation twitter

Community

Looking Back at The Year of Xbox, PS4, and The Switch

As the days dwindle down until the end of 2019, expect to see "Best of the year" and "The year in review for ____" in the coming issues of Load Save. This link leads to the Switch's 2019, but you can also read PS4 Edition here and the Xbox One Edition here. It's crazy to look back through the year and think, "wait, that was this year?" Time is a strange thing. In my opinion, the Switch had the biggest year out of the big 3. This article is great to read and reminisce of the great games from this year and find a few that you didn't even know cam out (I was surprised at how many fell under my radar). I was constantly impressed with the Switch's first-party games and how they became my favorites of the year.

For PlayStation, it's simply that their first-party lineup didn't match that of 2018. You can't blame them, it's hard to match God of War and Spider-Man. However, you can look back at the service improvements throughout the year, like PS Now being dropped to $10 a month instead of $20.

Finally, Xbox had a great year when it came to services. I'll always sing the praises of Game Pass because of the shocking amount of games that get added. Other than that, they didn't have a great year, but we can look forward to an action packed beginning of 2020.

Which was your favorite console of the year?

Image credit: Xbox Twitter

Long Read

Razer Employees Say CEO Has Tendency to Berate Staff

Razer is a gaming peripheral company that's trying to dip its toes into becoming a gamer lifestyle brand. My first memory of Razer was when I first started to get into PC Gaming. I fell in love with their brand and quickly purchased the Razer Naga mouse and the Razer Kraken headset. I've enjoyed both of these products, but after reading this article, I'll always connect them with how they're made. It's important to be able to look behind the curtain at companies like this and see "how the sausage is made," if you will. The one accusation of Razer's CEO, Min-Liang Tan, doing something illegal was wrongful termination, so take that into mind when forming your thoughts about this piece. In the end, it comes down to what the employees are willing to put up with in order to work in their dream industry, the gaming industry. A CEO who has created a company as successful as Razer has to have a certain tenacity in order to reach their goals, but does that mean it's okay to frequently shout and curse at your employees? If you're reaching goals and bringing in stacks of cash, does that justify throwing objects near employees and publicly shaming them? For some, this is the cost of doing business. For others, it's too much. I would fall in the latter category.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Even if you haven't read the whole article, what do you think about employee treatment in the workplace? Shoot me an email with your thoughts.

Image credit: Min-Liang Tan Twitter

Link Dump

A Warm Link Dumpster Fire To Keep You Warm

There were a lot of great articles this week and I just couldn't decide what to keep. So, here's a handy link dump for you to peruse through some additional reads!

The title of this article is "Stay comfy: games you can play with a hot mug in one hand," and I'm not sure if I've ever been more excited to read an article. For someone with the issue of my hands and feet always being cold, games like this call out to me in the cold days of Winter. One addition I would make to this list is Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee (if you can handle the irritating motion-control throwing mechanics).

In the theme of Winter, take a look at the 9 Harshest Winters in Video Games!

Here's a nice bit of information to warm you up on a cold Winter day (I'm really reaching to keep the theme). The Switch just had it's best sales week in the U.S. ever!.

While you're taking a break from your one-handed games, read this op-ed about "Did 'Fewer, Bigger, Better' Actually Work For Video Games?"

Before You Go

What's On The Horizon

Thanks for stopping by! Next week, we have a lot to look forward to. We have PlayStation's last State of Play of 2019 on December 10th at 8 AM Central. PlayStation has said it will be 20 minutes long, so I'm excited to see what they have! Just two days after that, we have The Game Awards on the 12th. This is the place for game announcements in the Winter and Geoff Keighley, the host, has shared that around ten new games/projects will be announced! I'm so hyped. I really, really hope that a new Batman game is announced. Also, we'll definitely see a trailer for the new Kingdom Hearts DLC because it leaked the other day. Let me know what you want to see!

You can always find Load Save on Facebook and you can find me on Twitter @SethMcMorris. I'll see you next time!