I guess it’s official…WE’RE BACK!!!

Well, Microsoft just finished their E3 conference, and it was a doozy.  I’ve got a couple of articles to put up, but I’ll start with the story that has me the most excited.  First reported at Major Nelson’s Twitter page and followed by a post over at XBox 360 Fanboy, speculation has finally ceased.  The official announcement came that Netflix is partnering with Microsoft to bring content to XBox Live.

The only details that have come out are that you need both an XBox Live account and a Netflix account.  The actual viewing service will be a free extension.  What isn’t clear is if you need a Gold account, or if a Silver will get you buy.  My guess would be that you need to go Gold.  I would also imagine that you’ll need a hard drive for the buffering of the video.

Still, there are a ton of people on XBox Live who have Netflix accounts and this will be a beautiful thing.  I’m running on a home theater PC that goes out to my tv, but this would get much better video quality.  It really will help me get the most out of my Netflix subscription!

Shortly after we recorded Episode 21, Mike ended up leaving Game Crazy.  The details really aren’t important.  On my end, Mike was most of the reason I worked for Game Crazy.  I thought it was a pretty good company and their business practices were (and still are) far better than GameStop’s.  When Mike approached me about working for him at the store he was opening as an indy retailer, I really had to weigh my options.

Not only did I work for Mike, we’re friends too (as is evident if you ever have listened to an episode).  I also had to look at what I had working for me if I stayed at Game Crazy.  The one issue I had/have with Game Crazy is the insane emphasis on selling MVP’s, preorders, warranties and Game Guards.  The products weren’t necessarily bad, but the pressure to push them on customers was making it not as fun a place to work anymore.  Add in the fact that we were hearing from Game Crazy management that they were loving what we were doing, but not hearing even a peep about making us official or that even being a possibility really sealed the deal for me.  We worked hard to put out a good show and essentially given the impression that as long as we were doing it for free (while spending all the money on the equipment and web space out of our pockets), they were fine with it.  I’m not that upset that they didn’t want to work with us officially or pay us or whatever because that’s their business decision and I respect that.  I also understand that this all happened around the declaration of bankruptcy by Movie Gallery.  Still, it would’ve been nice to get some kind of official acknowledgement for all the work we did.

So, I ended leaving Game Crazy and going to work for Mike at his new business, A Better Game Store.  We’re cheaper than all the other places and give more credit than they do, all withough warranties, memberships, and other crap that we don’t have to push.  Things are going great and business is booming.  We’re really having a good time, and Mike might even put up a store front.  Right now, I own the domain abettergamestore.com and it will bring you here, but that may change.

What does all of this have to do with the complete lack of episodes?  Well, between the work Mike was putting into getting the store ready and the tons of work involved especially in the first months of a new business, he hasn’t had time to even think about the show.  I’m only working two nights a week at the store, but I’ve also moved into a new position at my main place of employment which keeps me quite a bit more busy and ScreenGeeks Radio has really begun to take off, so that’s taken most of my free time.  Add in our involvement with Asylum Championship Wrestling (Mike’s the business manager and I’m the A/V guy for the shows), and free time is sparse.

However, Mike and I were talking a couple weeks ago and specifically about how we miss doing the show.  We decided that we need to start it up again.  There is absolutely no timetable as to when production is going to resume, but we are going to start the show again.  It’s looking like we won’t be even thinking about it until the end of July/beginning of August, but we are officially coming back.

What I need is help from the whole three people who still check this site on occasion.  Obviously, we’re not going to keep the name Game Crazy Radio.  The main logo and our mascot, Flame Dude (yup, that was his name), were made specifically to identify with Game Crazy without treading on copyright infringement.  If Game Crazy wants to use Flame Dude, they need to get in contact with Mark Rantal about the rights to his work.  We essentially made the arrangement with him that he’d design it for free for us at the time, but he owns the rights to the art and anyone else wanting to use it has to make arrangements with him.  Ok, back on topic…We need a new title for the show.  We thought about A Better Game Cast, but that just sounds WAY too cocky.  The name of the store is more of a gag.  “Oh, I’m sorry, we don’t have that game, but if you call A Better Game Store…” You get the point.  So, what should we call the show?  I’ll be uploading the new store logo in place of GCR in the next couple days, but we need a name.  Once we have that, we can come up with a logo for the show.  Send your ideas to dave at gamecrazyradio dot com.  You’ll also get to e-mail me if you click my picture at the bottom.  Whoever comes up with the name we use will get something cool.  I’d say what, but I haven’t cleared anything with the boss man yet.  I’ll say as soon as we come up with something.  Maybe Gears 2.  Hmmmm…

Anyway, that’s the state of where things are.  The show is going to be officially affiliated with a game store, but not the one we planned on initially.  Hopefully we’ll get people back listening to the show once we fire it up again…as long as we don’t suck as bad as Yaris.  I’ll also be posting up some news and trying to get involved with the forums again.  Ya know, those things that haven’t been active since March at the latest.

(more…)

I do plan on sending Fox News an e-mail and I would encourage anyone else outraged by this to do the same.  I would just ask that you be articulate and make sense.  I’m sure they’ve already been swamped by more than enough “U guyz are teh sux0rs!” e-mails.  Anyway, watch and be horrified.  Thanks to Joystiq for putting this up.

Then, Mo ended up having to move to Lousisiana.  Like we’ve said, he’s still part of the show and will be back on once he gets settled.  Now, due to circumstances that won’t be discussed, Mike has decided to leave Game Crazy to pursue other opportunities.

I’m very happy with the group that we have doing the show and we now have people assuming that since the show has the name Game Crazy, they have a right to be on it.  All of these things happening have led me to the decision that it is time for a change.  We’re going to roll with the name GameCrazy Radio for the time being until we decide on a new name.  We’ll be getting a new domain, a new logo and hopefully a redesigned site in the future.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know what’s going on.  We’re not going away, we’re just changing a bit.