One of Swords Podcast 032: I Threw a Chair

by Dan on September 1, 2010

I’m proud to welcome our friend Chris Baker from Marvel to talk about how he helps keep all the Marvel games (including next week’s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions of course) to be worthy of the world’s greatest superheroes — but Hugh and I almost steal the show with a heated debate about the price and value of Xbox Live. We also bring up PAX, the big COD Black Ops multiplayer event going down tonight, remind you of ways to win awesome DJ Hero 2 prizes, and we do the trivia giveaway backwards. Also, in-between swearing an unusually high amount, Hugh sings a little bit — listen for it. Maybe I should have bleeped that.

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More info after the jump…

Co-host: Hugh Sterbakov, screenwriter, comic creator, and Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken

Special Guest: Chris Baker, Manager of Licensed Games for Marvel Entertainment

Soundtrack: Yameen – available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and all online music stores

Relevant show links:

  • The complete PAX schedule is here
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops on Facebook
  • Chris Baker’s cubicle wall at Marvel
  • Hugh’s gamertag:

    • Shaun Vsop

      another great podcast dan, tried out for the contest & the dj hero one as well… hope i win..

    • Seeson

      Loving the podcast so far. Currently at the Xbox LIVE price hike. The price has been $50 for about 8 years. A price increase has been long overdue with all of the great content and service that Xbox LIVE provides. What’s an extra $0.83/month? People are willing to shell out $20-$90 for their super ultra limited collector’s editions or $5 for some digital clothing/props.

      The current price for a Play ‘n Charge Kit with Controller IS $64.99. Loved Hugh’s ‘deal’ with the 12-month sub, chatpad, headset + PGR4 for only $54.99 on Amazon.

      Chris, I LOVED X-Men the Arcade game. Daredevil wasn’t that bad of a movie, either. :P Dan, I’d love to see the screens you put together for that, too.

      Hugh, I’m loving Lara Croft: Guardian of Light on XBLA, too.

      That’s all the comments I have for now, currently at work. Have a great day guys!

    • William King

      Awesome Podcast Mr. Dan. Greatly enjoyed it. And I agree with you 100% on the XBL Subscription thing. well said.

    • garnsr

      I can’t understand why people keep complaining about the XMB, it’s way easier to get around than the 360, I think. I haven’t tried too much online gaming with friends on either system, so my gold account was only used for Netflix, and when it came for free on PS3 I let the gold run out.

    • http://twitter.com/Hellhog Christian Sutter

      I haven’t listened yet, busy listening to TalkRadar while studying, well… obviously on an internet break right now. But when I saw the price increase for Xbox LIVE, it didn’t phase me at all. I remember my excitement back in Christmas 2006 when I got an Xbox 360 and upgraded from my Xbox just from the vast improvments of the service between the cosoles. Now 4 years later the service is just tremendously better than when I first tried the service. Being that is has cost $50/year for 8 years is amazing. I’m surprised that this didn’t happen sooner.

      Of course, I’m a bargain hunter. I buy new games and such but I always find the cheapest ways to get them. Mostly from Amazon back in February I resubscribed for 12 months for only $35 thanks to Amazon. The year prior I also spent $35 for my subscription on Amazon. Upon hearing this news of the price increase, I jumped the gun and went over to Newegg and bought two 12 month cards for $40 each. With no tax being paid or shipping costs on any of these, I spent a total of $150 for 4 years of Xbox LIVE. My subscription will end around March 2013. Now, if someone just bought retail value, this would have cost them $220.

      So, in reality, to those complaining about spending $60 for 12 months of LIVE, why were you ever spending $50 in the first place?

    • http://twitter.com/Smelloscope Jake Sallenbach

      The XMB is good for getting around, I agree, but in regards to actually being able to group with friends, send messages, etc. (The more social aspect) the Live Dashboard is much better in that it’s fast,and has many more features which makes it easier to use.

    • garnsr

      I’d assume that the discount price you pay from Amazon will go up, too. So you can get it for less than MSRP, but more than you can now.

    • Anonymous

      I like your lounge singer-esque version of P.O.D. *cue the jazz drumsconga drums*

      “Boom. *duh duh duh* I said, here comes the boom *duh duh duh*”

    • http://twitter.com/Paranerd Paranerd

      So I submitted my contest entry for Free Stuff, don’t know if I’ll win though.

    • http://www.bishopsgamingworld.com Bishop

      I’d have to agree with Dan about the Xbox Live price hike. While I hear where Hugh is coming from, when it comes down to it, the increase in price should not break the bank for most. Now there are rumors of a “Platinum” membership coming out for $100/yr, and that would be an optional upgrade. IF that comes out then I would understand the argument about the economy and how expensive that would be.

      If you have the money and don’t like the news about the new price, go out now and buy a few 3 month cards or a 1 year card before the price goes up. I don’t remember off the top of my head, but I think Dan said it averages to a little over a $1 more per month. With the introduction of a new dashboard when Kinect launches, ESPN, Hulu Plus next year, and the fact that Xbox Live has been $50 since it originally launched nearly 8 years ago. It was just a matter of time before the price went up, and luckily it only went up $10.

      Anyway, great show guys, keep up the good work!

    • EyeconMalta

      Hey Dan I’m listening to the poscast right now and I have an opinion which is not seen by Microsoft about them increasing the price of the gold membership and I just wanted to put it out there. I live in Malta a country which I bet like 90% of the world dosen’t even know about and I am really mad about what they are doing cause since Malta is not a locale/country which you can choose when creating a profile and I totally agree with you that its really good the improvement that they did on the Xbox 360 such as the update for the dashboard and twitter and last.fm and the sky tv and more.

      The thing which gets me so angry is that if they keep increasing the prices and never include other countries which other people can choose almost all the awesome features that have been released we can’t use them such as when 1 vs 100 season 1 was going on I was playing it but as soon as season 2 started I couldnt play cause I lived outside of the uk or something like that. The only things I can use is Twitter and Facebook and here in Malta there are many people who own an Xbox 360 and cant use those great features.

      Well thats what I wanted to say and love the podcast keep it up you guys.

    • Anonymous

      I don’t have a problem with the price hike, like others have stated, it’s easy to get the 12 month cards on sale. I do question the timing of the price hike. Microsoft is already taking flak for their Kinect pricing it seems like a strange time to raise the price for XBL

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