The phone's the thing [#acpodcast]

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Daniel Bader and Russell Holly are joined by Apps and Games Editor, Marc Lagace! They begin by talking about the massive credit card breach at OnePlus, Samsung Galaxy X rumors, foldable phone tech, and various issues that continue to plague LG.

The majority of the show is devoted to gaming — The trouble with loot boxes and games that ship incomplete to hit release dates, the best new Android games, hot indie titles, and what’s new in AR. Check it out!

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Jim Metzendorf
Jim Metzendorf
5 Comments
  • Yes, again, the boys are back !
  • Very informative show. Covered lots of topics. You're firing on all cylinders. Keep it up. 👍
  • Daniel, Russell, Marc - great conversation on basically the current state of Android/mobile gaming. Years ago, I was in the mobile gaming industry - this was the "feature"/flip phone era of J2ME and BREW. Developers and publishers needed to find a new way to monetize from the old model which for the most part was small, recurring monthly charge anywhere from $0.99 to $2.99 per month, or a $8.99 to $14.99 one-time payment. The game license was usually tied to the phone, thus if you got a new phone, you'd have to pay for the game again. On the monthly charges, people seemed to not scrutinize their bills as much as they do today. These games also weren't updated. Once they were released, that was pretty much it. No maintenance releases. No bug fix releases. Then the race to the bottom happened. And you could self-publish as well and the need for publishers vanished. Charge the minimum and hope you hit a million downloads. Or make it free and throw in ads. Android Market started without a payment method. And none of the app stores had subscription pricing at the time. And we now kind of expect games to be updated regularly. There's now a "This game hasn't been updated in a year so don't bother playing it" attitude as well. I truly believe what's best for consumers is the free first level, pay for the rest model - but that also comes down to game design. We all hate ads. But we want things as cheap as possible. Content creators don't work for free. There's also this weird disconnect where people will gladly pay (conservatively) $4.99 for coffee daily yet balk at a $4.99 game (or app).
  • Also - I hope Daniel gives his (verbal) thoughts on the 2018 Moto lineup leaks next week. :)
  • Agreed, Daniel love's his Motos!