at Cheapy once again bringing up the old ass gamesharing quotes since he has nothing post launch to back up his claims. I've criticized just that aspect of your defense and you re-used those quotes to combat the criticism. Come back with a quote from the past 3.5 years and maybe then you'll get people off of your back. That was one quote from before they knew how big that feature would be and have since backed off greatly to make it more of a gray area that they don't actively support anymore, which tells me a lot about their thoughts on the situation.
On the topic of your responsibility to the industry as members of the media in varying levels, you guys have done and said different that at least makes your holier than thou stance on the show questionable. I know Shipwreck has talked about before how he doesn't like to trade in the games he's received because he doesn't want to take away sales, but all three have gameshared a lot of games with each other and Shipwreck has sent some of the games he's received to Cheapy, Wombat, and others so they could play them without having to buy the game. Cheapy, Shipwreck, and Wombat have begged and pestered the others on the show about getting the game from their account. There's a different scope to the effect of those actions, but you guys aren't as the others.
I agree about how poorly designed the menus in Monday Night Combat are. You don't have to start a game to get back to the main menu, just click on a Blitz type to play and then push the B button to exit back to the main menu.
You can play one game online to get enough coins to buy a Bronze pack of cards. My first online game in Madden Ultimate Team got me 1400 coins with a win, so you get about two times the coins I get for playing against the CPU (600-900 coins). Maybe losses don't pay as well, but I've only had one complete game so far with MUT.
I'm fine with the unlock/booster stuff as long as you don't need to pay to get the same stuff, so I'm fine with people wanting to pay money for the coins to get a better pack of cards since that's not exactly something I'd expect people to exclusively do to get a good team. I know the most popular download on PSN for a few weeks after MLB 10 came out was the $0.99 DLC that gave you a ton of training points for the career mode, which seemed like virtual steroids to me.
I'd guess that Crystal Dynamics took the offer to give exclusivity to XBLA to be a part of the Summer of Arcade lineup that would happen before they could finish the game, so they sacrificed complete content for sales. They probably knew that the IP would draw in enough sales during SoA to make up for whatever drop in sales they'd get if they got a normal multiplatform release in September.
Shipwreck, Heavy Rain is a new IP that sold over 1 million worldwide and that isn't exactly a mainstream game in any sense. Borderlands is probably the best-selling new IP of 2009. A lot of the best-selling games of this generation were new IPs for this generation (Mass Effect, Uncharted, Gears of War, Assassin's Creed, Wii Sports/Fit, and Batman: Arkham Asylum).
Good show.