Podcast Reload S17E28: Gaming Industry Turmoil, Crimson Desert Deep Dive, Screamer & Damon and Baby

The video game industry continues to experience significant turbulence across all sectors. Epic Games has laid off a thousand employees, Sony has closed recently acquired studios, and Nacon continues its decline on this side of the Atlantic. The first part of the program delves into sustainability, exploring how the industry can move towards a more resilient and sustainable future.

This week's second part of the podcast, and perhaps future episodes, is dominated by one particular game: Crimson Desert. Pearl Abyss's highly anticipated, ambitious, chaotic, and exhilarating open-world title defies easy categorization. The solution, of course, is to embrace its sheer scale and extravagance.

Beyond Pywel (the world of Crimson Desert), the podcast also features a discussion on Screamer, an anime-infused racing game from Italian studio Milestone, and Damon and Baby, an action-exploration title (or "exploraction" as they playfully suggest). With Damon and Baby, Arc System Works aims to forge a new path for its studio, exploring game designs beyond their popular and formidable fighting games.

In the "Overtime" segment, the hosts review comments from the previous week and delve into additional topics. These include updates on Dan Houser's current endeavors and the rumored price increase for the PlayStation 5, examining what these hardware fluctuations could mean for the video game industry.

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Episode Index:

• 00:00:00 – Introduction
• 00:06:21 – OpenAI moves beyond videos
• 00:12:14 – Massive layoffs at Epic Games
• 00:41:47 – Sony closes Dark Outlaw Games
• 00:50:19 – Towards a more sustainable industry
• 01:02:10 – Nacon continues its free fall
• 01:04:48 – The Games
• 01:07:19 – Crimson Desert
• 01:08:56 – ???
• 01:19:03 – Crimson Desert
• 02:19:17 – Screamer
• 02:44:58 – Damon and Baby
• 02:52:38 – Next week on Reload…
• 02:54:46 – Farewell