This is embarrassing to admit, but I haven't read much in the way of nonfiction books about video games. Don't get me wrong: there's some incredible work out there. In general, however, I've found that digging around for more books very quickly slides into work that is prohibitively technical, academic, or both.

Based on the first shot all I could think was Lemmings...

Not to sound like an asshole at all, but I'm pretty surprised you've never heard of an ice cream sandwich before. I guess having had them as a kid, the idea of someone never encountering one seems really weird to me, but then, I don't know where you might be located and such, and that's surely a factor. I've never…

I was hoping to avoid the "to make money based on user base" response by preempting that in my post, since I know quite well that they don't want to lose money on the development cycle, but that didn't stop them from, say, releasing Infamous: Second Son, on the PS4; no reason to buy hardware other than software,…

As someone else out there noted, the PS3 success likely fueled this port, which is definitely a valid theory. Otherwise, I'm baffled that they wouldn't hold off (more stable or not) to move a ton of PS4s. If the hottest new game of 2014 was out on the PS4 now, or this winter, it would DEMOLISH Nintendo and…

I suppose the interesting paradox that comes from this then is the need to continue providing support for that older console to new purchasers to not diminish opinion of the support for the PS4. I do wonder how long all the PS3/360/Wii U servers will be running for, and could see some people being miffed about that.…

I imagine that funded the port, too, and made it a prime contender for a good title to play on the system in its early days and for the folks not willing to go back and get a PS3 just for that one title. Smart move, certainly.

Agreed! I don't think they SHOULD HAVE in the sense that it'd be better to force folks to upgrade, but even as someone not interested in anything other than my PC and Wii U, I'd be mighty envious of such a great early exclusive coming to a console like this. I figured the difference in architecture also played a role…

I assume with second-party studios that the dev costs are fronted, so if anything, I'm just shocked that Sony didn't force them into moving development over, honestly. No value judgment made in that statement other than that if you know you have a GOTY contender in development and new hardware coming out, I'm…

"Well only an someone with an agenda would easily jump to that conclusion"

Most likely. With the launch line-up of the PS4, though, I think having a title like The Last of Us as a marquee, definitively "next-gen" experience could have been huge. I could see that interfering with the process, though.

The obvious answer is "because they wanted to recoup costs with a large user base," but if The Last of Us is the masterpiece I've heard it is, and it's only coming about a year later, why in the hell didn't Sony release the PS4 version first to try to encourage everyone to upgrade? A game like that would be the…

I went to Target to get Mario 3D World on launch day. Found a guy back there to help me, and said simply "I need a game from the case" and he immediately brought me to the Xbox section (different aisle from the Nintendo games) and I was like... "Ummm.... I... actually wanted to get Mario 3D World..." and he was like…

I wish Nintendo would get better about the internet for the general benefit of their image and to attract more developers/players to the platform (ignoring the myriad of other issues to stay on the topic of you post), but I couldn't care less about the features myself. I don't think Mario 3D World would be better for…

Amazon seems to be doing what the Ouya folks didn't seem too bothered to be doing by going out of their way to secure exclusive titles and create a support structure for these developers to make this a potentially engaging platform to buy games on, instead of a stationary phone set up that has to hope people decide to…

I go out of my way to unblock sites I like and go to frequently... but ads that block me literally seeing the text on them is the line. I'll be patient for now, but if it keeps happening, I'll be forced to retaliate in kind, which I hate doing, but I don't want abusive ads attacking me like that and making me close…

But... then people couldn't get a sense of superiority out of what piece of plastic they bought... and where would be the fun in that? "Jokes" like these tell me in many cases that companies like these don't want my money. Any one of them wasting their time with stupid potshots to pander to a dude-bro/leet-gamer…

Great stuff Kirk! Thanks for sharing! It seems this attracted a great blend of folks with some great topics. Any word on this repeating in the future? It's great to see writing being discussed as a meaningful part of gaming as well.

I see this as a major concern here as well. I struggle to see this as anything more than Konami going "well, we've sunk a lot of money into this game, and the Fox engine, and we're not going to see any of it back for, what, 1-2 more years? That's not going to cut it. We need something in-between." I think doing this…

I keep getting flashes of this in my head when I visualize what the monetization of the game will be like, with players earning worthless in-game currency and being forced to buy everything with real money.