You might have noticed a familiar sound at the beginning of this week’s 8-4 Play podcast, the sometimes bi-weekly podcast about Japanese games from the localization party joint known as 8-4.
We’re friends with those guys, and we love the 8-4 Play podcast.
Hell, I’ve been friends with and worked with John Ricciardi and Mark MacDonald since I was...14? Probably earlier than that, if I actually did the math. It all goes back to an IRC channel called #vidgames, which is where I originally met Brad, too. Time flies.
And the last time Giant Bomb went to Japan, Brad toured through 8-4’s office, remember?
Ever since I came on board at Giant Bomb, I’ve been scheming for a way to get those guys involved over here in a way that made sense for Giant Bomb, 8-4, and most importantly, our communities.
That finally happened last night, when the latest 8-4 Play revealed that we’ll be the new home for their podcast. The actual page will go live soon--stay tuned! Thing is, our tools don’t allow us to keep podcast pages secret, so we couldn’t really build anything until the news was out there. Eventually, after the site's rebuilt, we'll be hosting the podcast the moment it's finished being edited, but for the time being, it will go live on Giant Bomb a few hours after 8-4 pushes it live. If you're already an 8-4 Play listener, you won't have to change your current RSS feed--everything stays the same. Over the next few weeks, we'll be adding all of 8-4's back catalog of episodes onto the site, too.
Pretty soon, there will be a spot for 8-4 Play under the Bombcast on the podcasts tab. Nothing about the Bombcast is changing, and nothing about 8-4 Play is changing. This isn’t a merger, it’s just a partnership, which may lead to other cool things later. Who knows? I mean, imagine the trouble we could get up to with 8-4 if we made it back to Japan.
This isn’t the start of some Giant Bomb podcast network, either. Making this move simply felt...right.
For now, take a deep breath. Giant Bomb will continue to have Quick Looks, reviews, and longwinded discussions about Japanese video games and Tetsuya Nomura. But if you’re looking for a little bit more, especially if you’re a fan of that thing Japan calls Monster Hunter, well, 8-4’s got your back. Please give these guys a warm welcome!
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