Yo, dummy, bit it's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this
for August twenty one, twenty twenty three. For the next hour or so,
let me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game Mess Mornings
Live with Me Jeff Grub. Today's today, Charles Martine is ascending, and
Nintendo talks about its approach to new hardware. But first, please join me
and welcoming today's co host a Game Mess Mornings. It's Jason Vanelli. Everybody,
Jason, how are you doing. I am great, finally getting over
some jet lag. But now we are. We are in the saddle and
starting off with a pretty big piece of news that we were not expecting on
a Monday morning. Yeah, it was I kind of kind of came out
of nowhere for me. I love Chuck, I love Charles Martine. I've
yeah, so it's gonna be I'm like, I'm interested to see like what
my take even is because we haven't had time, Like you sent it over.
As I was doing the rundown, I'd like, run my kid to
the eye doctor this morning, came right back, sat down and the first
thing I saw was was that message from you, And so I was like
okay, man Charles Martiney taking on a new role. Well, we'll get
into all that. But I don't know, Jason, like tell people like
what you know, who you are, where they can find all that stuff.
We've read your name on this show many times now. Yes, I
have been doing freelance writing in like some sort of like you know background,
you know, mercenary work for fifteen years now. I've have like over forty
by lines across fifteen years. I feel so old. But right now I'm
mostly on game spot writing news. In fact, one of our stories coming
up here is sourced to another site. Who sourced me. We'll get to
that. I love when that happened. Sorry. Yeah, but also MMLRPG.
I just did a review there over Stray Gods, the role playing musical,
which is okay, Yeah, prisingly good. There's like a weird tension
between the video game part and the musical part that kind of clashes at certain
times. That having a theater a bit of a theater background and kind of
like some weird otherwise, definitely check that out. It's fun. It's a
fun and interesting idea. But yeah, so I'll I've had a Game Informer
article recently on Netflix games and everything that they're doing to build that portfolio up.
Yeah, I've been around, Jeff, Yeah, I've been around for
a long time. Well good, we can get you on the show in
person, said of just your text for sure, but we'll here. Yeah,
absolutely, And I'm glad you're back home safe and all that. So
all right, well let's get into the mess. But before we do,
let's explain what we do here most week days, I, Jeff Greb will
help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even
some of our own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the
input of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If you
are watching live on Twitch welcome. You can always listen to the show later
on podcast feeds by searching for Games Mornings, or find the RSS on giant
bomb dot com. You can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps
on YouTube. Hello you Tube. Okay, we have a lot to get
into, so let's start the morning Mess with. Charles Martine is no longer
the voice of Mario. This comes from Michael mcwarder at Polygon. Actor Charles
Martine, known as the voice of Mario Luigi and Warrio in Nintendo Super Mario
Brothers games for three decades will no longer voice those characters. Nintendo announced on
Monday, Martine will segue into the role of Mario Ambassador, in which he
will continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario. Nintendo fans noticed
a change to the voices of Mario and Warrio in recent trailers for Super Mario
Brothers Wonder and Warrior Ware move It, two new games coming to Nintendo switched
this fall. After weeks of silence and speculations from fans, Nintendo finally confirmed
the change. Martine, sixty seven, has been has been the identifiable voice
behind Mario since nineteen ninety one. He first started performing Mario's chipper exaggerated Italian
flavored voice for Nintendo at trade shows, but went on to record the character's
voice for the first time in a Nintendo game in Super Mario sixty four in
nineteen ninety six. Jason, I hear this and I get a little sad.
I really like Charles Martinet. He really has defined Mario. And you
know that, as I say, like Warrior where he does like the entire
cast of Warrior where that sort of thing, and so I'm like, man
that that I'm sad, And yet how many people get the chance to sort
of like gracefully and move on from a role that they've been identified with for
so long and sort of oversee the next steps while they know we move into
quasie retirement at sixty seven years old, like this is a nice story.
Probably right, Yes, I would like to think so. I did have
a moment where in the last hour, since it's broken, I went through
the whole Kobler ross five stages of Greece. It was denial. No,
it can't be that it was anger. It better not be Chris Pratt.
That it would be bargaining. Can it be anybody besides Chris Pratt? That
it was depression? Oh man, he's really done and that acceptance just like
you said, maybe he just wants to do different and better things now.
At first I thought maybe he wanted to take a step back, maybe do
less. He is getting older sixty seven, as you mentioned. But if
he's going to be flying around the world as the Mario Ambassador, whatever that
means, that seems a bit more taxing to me than just recording in a
studio. If it was going to be less work on him. You would
think if they reverse it, he would keep voicing, but then somebody else
would be the Mario ambassador. Either way. If it comes out that this
was his choice, it was an amicable agreement, and he is just he
just wants to fly around the world to talk about how much he likes Mario.
I'm all four it. The man has certainly deserved it. Yes,
certainly deserves that. But if there's something else going on behind the scenes that
comes out later that may color this a little bit that I am slightly worried
about, but we shall see. Yeah, I think it's it does seem
to be like with him, like moving on into this new role of Mario
Ambassador, which is actually, you know, something he has mostly been doing
as well for years now. You know, he always shows up at E
three and then he showed up at a whole show up. It's stuff like
Summer Game Fest, you know, or like around the events around that time.
And I remember like one of the first E threes I went to,
it was him doing the digital Mario face where he's on a microphone backstage and
like he has a camera and he could see who's out there, and he's
like Brian Brian the shooting day, how does it go? And it's,
Oh, what the fuck am I? This is really weird? So I
you know, but but I'll say, whenever I've interacted with him in environments
like that, he seems to really enjoy that. So I wonder if he
views that as as more work or if it's like, you know, getting
into the studio recording new lines. Maybe that's kind of like that's a hassle.
Uh and and you know, I kind of want to rest, but
seeing fans that that's invigorating. I really like that. So I hope that
like this is that he came to this role because it's like, oh no,
that's that's something I would like to keep doing and can do now that
you know. Super Mario Brothers Wonder is coming out later this year. The
trailer definitely sparks speculation that the voices would be different. I heard it.
I was like, no, that's Charles Martine's just when they he recorded new
lines. Apparently, very it seems wrong because denial, yes, oh yes,
the denial stage exactly. So now here we are and they say they're
going to release a video with Miyamoto and Martine coming out and like saying saying
goodbye in some way. Do you think they like introduced the new new voice
actor or do they kind of like just keep that in the background they kind
I think they kind of have to. And the reason I say that is
because we now live in an age where people are worried about AI replacing humans.
Yeah, so that if they're going to have a new voice actor,
even if it's a you know, a bunch of people one taking Mario one,
taking Luigi one, taking Warrio and all the different characters that he voiced,
you kind of have to bring them out so people aren't like, they're
not just replacing Charles with AI, are they. I also think that this
is a great way to start the next Nintendo Direct. They noticed they did
not say when exactly they were going to release that video, So if if
they have their normal September Nintendo Direct coming up in the next month or so,
that would be a great place to see him off, whether it's at
the beginning, in the middle, at the end, wherever they want to
put that. They know that that's where the most Nintendo fan eyes are going
to be at one place, and we can say our goodbyes for lack of
a better term, which also reminds me when I first read that message,
I thought he was dead. I also thought that I like even that you
said that, and I'm like, man, this white set on a red
background seems like the like we are honoring a fallen friend of what else?
Definitely not please, So I'll take Yeah, I'll take Marrio Ambassador over no
Longer Alive any day of the week, exactly. Absolutely. Yeah, I
think I think you're right that that, Like, I really hope that's not
what they're doing, that they're doing some AI replacement thing. I think that's
probably doubtful at this point, but you know, who knows. You never
know, and so yeah, I hope they come out and say, what's
happening. Chances that it's Chris Pratt going forward, my head said, my
heart says zero percent, but my head says fifty fifty. Yeah, the
movie did make a ton of money, whether because of him or despite him,
So we'll say, God, I hope not, yeah, but we'll
see he Uh, he would be expensive, I think so they probably,
like they definitely if they're going to use a voice actor going for it would
be someone probably that they so equivalent to what Martine was when he started.
But uh, just a Troy Baker. Yes, they were a Troy Baker.
That's that's the real answer here, that's what we actually need. Chris
Brant was fine in the movie. Like he did not get in in the
way and he did not distract. That's all I wanted from that from that
performance. So he was fine. I think you're right about the direct.
We get to the direct they are who knows at what point in the direct,
like you said, but I think, you know, in early September,
we should be you know, early September, mid September, we should
have a direct. I guess they have that Nintendo event in early September,
so I suppose maybe not maybe there maybe or you know, a direct linked
to that event. And then he shows up at that event and does Mario
ambassador ship. Oh yeah again, whatever that's gonna yes, whatever that's gonna
look like again, it's it's it's just him probably just standing and taking pictures
next to a Mario statue. And that's that's fine. That's great. I'm
glad that he's able to sort of have this nice, little relaxing point of
his career. Now. Although I got a I mean, how many new
lines was he ever recording for stuff? It always felt like they were using
the same lines for most games, and here and there there would definitely be
new stuff, for sure, but for like the core Mario games, it
always felt like, now, this is still the stuff from Super Mario sixty
four. Mostly that's probably not true. Remakes of Wahoo, Yeah, exactly
true. It's not a whole lot of intense recording, just a lot of
fake strains and occasional yips for Joyce exactly, just the excited Mario the voice
pack. Just go keep that downloaded forever, all right. Nintendo Boss is
talking about the company's approach to new tech. This is from Nintendo Everything.
Nintendo President Shuntaro for Okawa has weighed in on how the company approaches new technology,
and an interview with NHK translated by Nintendo Everything, for Okawa indicated,
rather than pursuing tech for the sake of it, it's instead about how they
can lead to revolutions in the act of play itself. Also mentioned is that
Nintendo is pursuing new technology in general, but isn't focusing on one specific area.
Here's kind of like the whole passage that's been translated. While there's no
particular technology we are focusing on at the moment, we are conducting research on
a variety of new technologies. However, I believe the most important thing for
our company is not seeking new technologies for novelty's sake, but rather considering how
they can lead to revolutions in the act of play itself. The idea is
that if we've become convinced that incorporating a certain technology can provide customers with a
fresh and surprising experience, then we covet its research more strongly, making investments
when necessary as well. Do you think that sounds pretty close to what Nintendo's
hardware approach has been up to this point, right? Do you think that
that's any different? No, not at all. This is them saying we
don't we don't care about cutting edge graphics, we don't care about top of
the line fast processing stuff like that. We want new things that are fun
and exciting and people can enjoy. Now that that pool might be a little
more limited. I think one of the things with Switch Too or whatever the
next switch console was going to be called, is how do you iterate on
the half portable, half TV based console, which itself iterated on the WU,
which was not a good idea, and then going all the way back
through their history, they kind of they kind of pigeonhole themselves a little bit
in being this company that wants to focus so much on new ways to play
rather than enhanced ways to play the older games. And I'm sure a lot
of their fans are, you know, appreciative, but also banging their head
against the wall, being like, we just want four K Mario and Zelda,
can you just once please give us this? But I get it.
I get it. Obviously it's worked for them. The switch continues to sell
crazy, and then the week goes without saying I worked gaming retail in those
days and I have flashbacks all the time. But to me, there comes
a point where innovative ways to play not they're going to run out, but
they're eventually going to hit those walls like the WEIU where we think this is
a lot of fun, but consumers they don't, so we have to move
on faster than we want to. Yeah. I think that this is still
the right idea for them, Like they should be exploring these ideas that get
like that are exciting and new. I think they just need to be pretty
conservative with the implement like the final implementation of a product. Right, I
think you have a core idea that works really well, that gets people to
buy a lot of games, you don't want to mess with that. And
I think, you know, for Akalla, pretty conservative leader of Nintendo,
is very unlikely to mess with with the Switch. We've you know when now
we've heard rumors that the Switch follow up is also going to be a hybrid.
Not surprise, but not at all. But still it's like, you
know, there's always the chance that they're like, no, we we have
this Miamoto stumbled on this idea and his attic and he's a good he's gonna
bring it down here. Now everything's different. I think that they should like
pursue those ideas that get them excited, just you know, wedge it into
the corner of what the Switch already is, kind of like the IR camera
and there. Now you know that that means a lot of times these ideas
might get relegated and get left to the side, But oh well, I
think that's just that's what happens. And I think if Nintendo wants to use
them and take advantage of them, they can. But putting them in a
place where that where when third party developers decide not to support these things,
which they invariably many of them do, ignore new features, it doesn't feel
like this fastigial tail sticking out the side in some awkward way. It's like
you're not even thinking about it, Like who honestly thinks about the inferred camera?
Who thinks about you know, any of the features even on like a
dual sense where it's like this is the main thing. It's like when a
developer doesn't support all the features of the dual sen it's still a controller.
It still works as a controller. Great. So it's like I think Nintendo
needs to kind of keep themselves in that realm for the most part, especially
because again the Switch has sold so well. It's their first console ever that
had more than a billion pieces of software sold for it. Yeah, they're
going to follow this up, and that's also part of their pattern to right,
Jason, you go back to like the game Boy got the Game Boy
Color and the Game Boy Advance, and the DS got the three DS and
the we got the WEU and it's it doesn't always work. Sometimes it does
though, but the usually when they have a good idea. They you know,
Nintendo had the Super Nintendo. So when they have a good idea that
does really well, you usually get a follow up that is pretty much identical.
And that that's still what I'm expecting here if they were to include anything
like for me, I'm just like put an SSD in there, let's call
it a day. But I don't even know if I expect that. Yeah,
I would say, oh, ed screen, which they've already done,
just made that the standard that there were some things that they may go back
to LCD No, once you once you open that box, you can't go
back. HD rumble comes to mind, and one of those things that it
was there but and that's exactly right. Yeah, didn't have doesn't have to
be there. One two Switch used it, I think, and that might
be it. I don't even know if the new one used it. I
think I think like some of the Mario three D platform games use it.
But it's like not like to the degree that once you switch used there where
it's like, oh, how many ice cubes are in there? It's like,
no, this is just like our our haptics, which you know,
that's good, but they're they're not gonna not have haptics going for that's going
to be a standard feature. Sure, No, I agree with you that
an SSD would probably be the biggest thing, or even some sort of internal
storage that is not as limited as the switch was. Yeah, there's there's
new two on board or something like three two gigabytes. The rumor is they're
going to include a lot more and the next one it probably won't be SSD,
but it won't be the slower storage that's in the switch now, which
is e NMC. They're gonna do some of the mentioned I think it's UFS.
It's the follow up technology to eMMC. That's that's probably what's gonna be
in there, and that will be significantly faster. But it's like you know
that that's that's again, that's what we're talking about. Though. We want
the same stuff, just faster and more powerful. And Nintendo will almost certainly
have some idea boomeranged into this thing that that it's going to be like,
hey, well let's here's a bullet point we will put on the box.
Here's what we're gonna go when we talk to USA today. This is what
we're going to talk to them about and get them to write a headline about
and and then I think they know that that is part of the forced obsolescence
process of how you move people from one thing to the other. You talk
big, I mean, everyone looks again. Sony's like, hey, the
the menus are different. That's why you got to get into a PS five.
It's a better man. It's like, this is underneath. It's the
same thing as the PS four. They just put a new code of paint
on top. But it's like, but when I spent five hundred dollars buying
a PS five, I'm glad these new menus. That's pretty cool. And
then I never thought about it again. And but it got me to spend
the money. And so Nintendo recognizes that, and and I think that they
will play with those ideas some and then kind of pull back and just have
you buy games for your switch to, like like you know exactly how we
want. Now. If they come out and say that like Labo, the
the sequel to Labo is the actual box to switch to comes in and you
can manipulate that, then maybe we have a problem. But right now we're
okay, yeah, man, listen, Nintendo is going to mess you up
with some cardboard for sure, without a doubt that's what they did, all
right. Nintendo president talks and not resting on laurels in harsh battle getting people
to spend time on games. This is from my Nintendo News. Nintendo is
at an all time high right now. The Switch is one of the company's
best selling systems. Ever, the Super Mario Brothers movie was an incredible success,
a success, and it's still pursuing different opportunities like Super Nintendo World.
However, that doesn't mean Nintendo is resting on its laurels. Furukawa, the
president of Nintendo, spoke with NHK and noted that the company needs to continue
putting out things that people truly want. He pointed to the fact that there
are many forms of entertainment and it's a very harsh battle and turing that people
are still interested in video games. Again, full translation from a Nintendo everything
here. We always keep in mind that if we do not keep putting out
things that people truly want, they'll get bored of us. Right now,
there are various forms of entertainment besides video games. I believe that making people
want to spend their precious time on video games and Nintendo games no less is
a very harsh battle. We approach everything while resolved to the fact that at
any time people may start thinking they do not need Nintendo games anymore. And
I mean they're definitely right, and I think they see the thread out there
more clearly than ever because when they try to like have a big presence on
mobile, Nintendo games didn't float, right. They just they couldn't keep up
with what people wanted to spend time with on mobile. So it's not like
that Nintendo name is some key that unlocks success wherever they go. So it's
like they're in this this gentle sort of environment where they're hey on Nintendo platforms
when we're taking advantage all this stuff and feel special. It is special.
It's like, man, that that is a thing that could disappear at any
moment, right Yeah, and I think they need to foster it. You
know, we talk a lot about Nintendo being very kid friendly and always like
go family first, and that's where it is a lot of what fuels Nintendo
now. While they do bring out new technologies and new games, it is
still very much rooted in nostalgia. Right, Like we're even Breath of the
Wild and Tears of the Kingdom still capture that original legend of Zelda feeling of
exploration. Mario is a still a two D platformer for most games because we
remember playing the original when we were kids. So they need to now foster
that feeling in the next generation of kids and make sure that they get in
there as they grow up and they can continue that nostalgic cycle. And that
I think is the big issue because you have things like you know, iPads,
as you said, in iPhones, even like the Amazon Kids tablet,
which every parent swears by. Don't believe them if they if they tell you
otherwise, and there's no Nintendo games on there. There are some you know,
avenues to kids YouTube who may be playing Nintendo and they get exposure there,
but they don't have the actual Nintendo experiences, and that's what they need
to figure out. Do they release their own tablet maybe, or do they
do something like that, or do they just continue to try to put their
software in other places where more people can be exposed to it. I do
not envy the people making those decisions, because, like you said, on
the Nintendo console, we expect it, we love it. Outside of that,
that's where things get difficult. Yeah, it's it's it's the kind of
thing where we've heard this sort of talk from other presidents from other video game
companies before. It's like, hey, we're competing with Netflix, and we're
competing with the people going out and all this stuff, and I think that's
all these companies are recognizing. Our competitors aren't really these other video game companies.
If people are spending time on video games, chances are they're going to
stumble over to one of our video games. And if they if they don't,
well we were never gonna win them over in anyhow because we're just not
their tastes. So but if they're playing video games, that's like half the
battle right there. It is people who are like, man, I would
play video games, but TikTok is just so much easier. It's just that's
just straight to open me right to my right to my brain. And it's
like, how do you compete with this very free, the thing that's very
easy to you know, very accessible, you can watch it anywhere, and
new content it's just constantly being created for at a rapid pace. It's you
know, it's actually kind of impossible to compete with that. You sort of
have to establish yourself as something different special, and uh, I hope to
know, Like what this really means is they continue to focus on innovation and
that the time and money that goes into something like like Tears of the Kingdom
and Breath of the Wild, they recognize that as that is what sets them
apart. And it's like, don't look for shortcuts. Keep putting that into
the games going forward, and that if they do that, they're probably gonna
be fine. Right. Yes, I imagine that as long as you know
video game the video game industry as a whole stage where it is, they're
going to be a massive player in it. They just have to maybe start
branching out into We talked about streaming services. They have multiple franchises that are
ripe for the picking. Yeah, as far as streaming shows are concerned,
some people are even doing it for them on YouTube with fan and versions of
Star Fox and other things like that Fox and Space. By the way,
if you've never watched it, you should. Yeah, definitely will my kid
My kids love all the YouTube sort of fan created stuff, so yeah,
that'd be good. Yeah, it's awesome, But like for some reason,
they haven't jumped into that boat yet. And I don't understand why Netflix plays
in my house more than anything else. So if they if Nintendo wanted to
get some of their faces Kirby perfect, even if they just put right back
at you on Netflix or those old cartoons on Netflix that they're not there yet,
stuff like that, just to get those faces in front of those kids
so they start to recognize them. And then when they see them in Best
Buy or a retail store, if those you know, parents even take their
kids to retail stores anymore, uh, they're like, oh, I remember
that, what's that? And then all of a sudden we have a gamer
in now. Yeah, it seems it's I mean, am I'm making it
sound easier than it probably is, But yeah, I mean it makes me
wonder though, like what, like what is Why isn't it that easy?
And I'm sure it comes down to the Nintendo especially wanting to keep their hands
on the product that ends up coming out as of one of these streaming services,
and also like there's always so many more like lawyers involved than you ever
imagine. I'm like, Okay, yeah, I guess makes sense, but
boy, and that's why I'm like, I'm glad that these a lot of
those fan things aren't getting sort of nuked from the internet. It seems like
the most part they're getting away with it. And I'm sure a part of
that is, like these companies are like, there's a chance parity law might
cover this, and we don't want to like enshrine the legality of this.
We want to be able to send ceases intosist in the future and hope that
they work. But yeah, I was just watching my kids watching a ton
of Pickman stuff and a ton of Sonic stuff on YouTube, and you know,
they'll they'll go watch the movie, but for the most part they're like,
no, there's this weird Sonic video, but we used to want to
watch over and over and so yeah, well, even Nintendo letting that stuff
happen is good. But you're right, like the Big Mover and Shaker will
happen when there's official of officially licensed movies, officially licensed shows, and obviously
the Super Mario Brothers movie prove that. Now, Nintino just needs to figure
out what the rest of their very likable ips like, where do they fit
in that that puzzle? But I don't don't I wouldn't be too precious about
it if I were them. Try a bunch of different stuff and see what
they can do. But yeah, overall, I'm just glad that when it
comes to the games, they're like, yeah, let's put a ton of
time and thought into this and try to keep things fresh and entertaining and enticing
so we get more people over here. The Pokemon Company thinks it still has
a long way we can keep going on new Pokemon designs. This is from
Nintendo Everything. Pokemon designs have been made across nine different generations with over one
thousand creatures, but it sounds like there's still plenty of room left in the
tank when it comes to new ideas. As part of a group interview at
the twenty twenty three Pokemon World Championships, the Pokemon CEO Takado Utsunomiya was asked
about challenges and coming up with new designs. This doesn't appear to be an
issue, as a new generation to developers will bring about their own ideas.
Ut Utsunomia also doesn't believe having a lot of Pokemon is a problem and mentioned
we probably still have a long way we can keep going. Is this I
know this is one of the reasons you're out there. Is this your story?
That they said found that, So tell me, like what like when
they say that, like, is that something you like, you buy or
do you feel like they're saying that because there's no chance in how they could
ever feel comfortable rebooting the Pokemon and starting there with a new one. Fifty
one. I think it's the former. And he made a point when we
were having this conversation. He said, yeah, there's a thousand Pokemon right
now, but there are hundreds of thousands of real life species in the world.
We have barely scratched the surface. They've only been to what eight nine
regions of the world maybe one of them one they've gone back to a couple
of times, so they still see plenty of source material just existing in the
world for them to pull the inspiration from. Now, granted, we still
get designs like cleft Key, the pair of car keys, but at the
same time me too. It is just you know, a set of keys.
I lose them. I lose cleft Ley in my house. Ye.
But but but I mean he is right or they have over a thousand,
which sounds like a ton, but the games have been out since what ninety
five, six ninety seven, so it's a thousand Pokemon over thirty years or
whatever they're coming up on thirty years if my math is right, So that
does leave a lot more designs out there. Do they start to decrease how
many they introduce generation to generation? I think next after Scarlet and Violet whenever
that is, is the tenth generation, right if if memories? So,
yeah, they could decide, you know what, all new designs an entire
game, tenth generation will add some later except for Pikachu. Pikachu has to
be there, of course, So they're not They don't take money. They
know, one fifty new designs plus Pikachu. But yeah, I mean it
sounds to me like they are not worried. They're not worried about making new
Pokemon. They're not worried about new designs because they see like every time they
choose a new region, that's a whole new ecosystem to pull from. And
it does make sense, it does when I think about it makes sense that
they would go that route. But I also wonder how many of those designs
will be interesting creatures from that neck of the woods and not just a bag
of trash. I love trubbish, I love trubis be wrong, but trash.
Yes, there's so many things in nature, but what's in my office
right here? I don't look at that bag of trash I need to take
out. Yeah, okay, So the problem isn't maybe that there's a lack
of inspiration in the world for these artists to draw upon. But is there
a problem where, Hey, over a thousand Pokemon. It's hard for people
to build attachments to these new Pokemon because there's so many, and many of
these are going to be forgotten and they feel less special. Is that an
issue that they are concerned about or do you think that they should worry about.
I don't think it's so much of an issue with their newer players.
I think being introduced to this huge pool of Pokemon, people are going to
pick their favorites no matter what generation they're from. My favorite is from the
Gold and Silver era Hound Doom, so I've been playing them since nineteen ninety
seven when they first launched here in America. So I don't think there's so
much worried about that with the newer players. Older folks like me like us,
Yes, because I don't remember all one thousand Pokemon. I had to
look up what the one thousand Pokemon was and I had you caught it not
that long ago in Scarlet and Violet. So I don't think it's something that
they're ever going to worry about, because people are going to pick their favorites
anyway. They're going to have their favorite teams, they're going to remember fondly
the ones from the generations that they play, like their favorite ho End team
or their favorite Sino team, and if they can bring that back up into
the new game, whether it's via something like Pokemon Home where it's the actual
creatures from those games, or catching new iterations of that same team, they're
just gonna do that. And they'll have your people who want to fill the
poked X, You'll have your people who want to fill the pokad X with
Shiny's they know the players that they have, and you'll have the people who
just competitively battle and only pick meta, high meta and competition Pokemon like like
all the ones that we saw at the World Championships. It's it's they know
that they have a wide palette and they're going to keep doing what they're doing
because it keeps working very much Nintendo like in the Pokemon Company's approach, which
does make sense. Yes it does, and I mean it hasn't failed them
yet. And so whenever it comes to like will the Pokemon Company change something,
the answer I think defaults to know for just about everything, they're going
to keep the I mean, they talked about we're gonna look at taking more
time in the future. It's like we're commissioning a study, and when we
come back and it says we should take more time, we'll be like,
Wow, that's interesting. And then they won't. They're going to keep doing
things the way that they've been doing because it makes them a lot of money
and it's working, and even when the detrimental effects come into play, they
don't have detrimental results. So yeah, I until that's until that starts being
a problem, until they actually see something negative on their top line or their
bottom line, I think the Pokemon Company, we can assume is going to
be business as usual going forward, all right. The Bethesta executive and former
World Warcraft director have been clashing over Starfield's leaked title screen. Because this we
live in a stupid, stupid world. This comes from Chris Kellion at VGC
bethesa Bethesda executive. His clash with a former World of Warcraft lead over the
latter's comments on Starfield's lea leaked title screen. Former World of Warcraft director Mark
Kern tweeted a screenshot of the Starfield title screen on Saturday and suggested that not
enough time had been spent on it. The start screen of the of a
game can reveal a lot about how rushed the team was and how much pride
they took in their work. Kern wrote, Starfield start screen either shows a
hasty shipping deadlines by a passionate team overworked, or a team that didn't care.
Listen. I had to stop reading what he wrote. I think he
might go on here, but have you ever read anything to a start screen
anywhere near that? Yeah? I've read one thing on start screens the words
press start, Yes, exactly, the press start and then I move on.
Granted, some of them I do recall, but not for the design
of it. Like Mass Effect is a perfect example. I will always remember
that start screen because of the song Vigil. It just says mass Effect,
press start, but I sat. I would sit on that screen while I
was doing other things because that song is incredible. Was I remembered by the
actual look of space and that not yeah, it was fine. It's fine.
That's not that's not why I stood there. I know you bring me
on. You brought me on for expert analysis, and I appreciate you doing
that, but I could only offer two words of expert analysis in this story.
Who cares? Who cares? Just shut up? Who cares? Like,
there's so many other things we could be talking about, even involving this
game, and we're talking about the start screen. It is really it's puddle
news, it really is. And this is like a different thing. So
so okay, So it's like to skip over the detail. Like Mark Kern.
First, Aul sucks. Mark Kerren, look at me. You could,
you could tweet at me and get mad. You fucking suck. You've
always sucked. You were a game or gay guy. You suck. Get
out here, like, honestly, just I never want to see you again.
Let's just be clear. You suck. But then that does Pete Hines
came out and like fought with him a little bit. Again, He's just
like, this is stupid. I think some other developers made some sarcastic remarks
about it, but for the most part, I think everyone regrets interacting with
with Mark Kern and of course, like, yeah, that's all you're gonna
end up doing, because this is just his grift now at this point,
is to get attention. Maybe he gets some Twitter blue money. I have
no idea, but this, this sort of thing happens before every major game
release, right though. The fud comes out, the fear, uncertainty,
in doubt, and it's like this fertile ground because people are just so anxious
about these things. It's just really, what this is is a sign that
people deeply care about these games, and that these sorts of concerns that if
you were to put them in context, you're like, this is crazy.
What are you talking about the fact that it can even even the people can't
ignore an obvious troll or an obvious sort of just a dumb take. It's
like, we can't because it's like, man, this game that we've spent
years coveting and craving, it's almost here. We're gonna spend some money on
it. And every time you spend money, you're like, man, I
hope that's worth it. People are just to have this so much, so
much anxiety about this that it's like it's just manifesting in this puddle news and
it's just gonna keep happening. I'm like, I wish there was some solution,
but I don't really know if there is. You're like, I guess,
tell people go play other games until your thing is here, and then
just maybe not put so much hope into these games. I don't know,
what do you think? I I wish we would all like a collective light
bulb would go off in all of our heads and we would care about things
that actually matter in the game. No offense to the people that make the
start screens. You do wonderful work, yes, and it's a very important
thing. We have to press start to play the game. That's right.
Ever, there are more pressing concerns in all of these games than what we're
looking at. Also notable is this this This person's co to his bio.
His favorite game of all time is Krono Trigger and that is just a prest
start screen too, Buddy. What's different between Chrono Trigger and Starfield? I
don't really know. I do get like Pete Hines, you know, Papa
Bear coming out to protect this yeah in exile, a fellow Microsoft studio,
you know, coming out as joking around to just stick with their brothers.
And sisters. I get that, but would I had rather? This just
wasn't a story in the first place. Yes, one hundred percent, Yes,
yep, definitely, Mark Curtins should go spend hundreds of thousand dollars bringing
that Factor five thing to every packs for ten years. Again, that was
a giving some money. Get under the bush now Factor five red five.
Excuse me. Factor five is a good studio, though I wish would come
back. Embracer Group net sales rise by forty seven percent in Q one.
This comes from Jeffrey Rossale at Games Industry Dots. Embracer Group has published its
financial results for Q one, showing growth in net sales and all but one
opera eighteen segment. Here's what you need to know. For the period ending
June thirtieth, twenty twenty three, for the numbers, net sales are about
nine hundred and forty seven million dollars, up forty seven percent year over year.
A lot of that came from PC and console sales three hundred and sixty
four million dollars up seventy four percent, and then mobile was down three percent.
And so for their net profit they're looking at about two hundred and thirty
six million dollars, which is you would you would think pretty good. Like
that's like that's if you were Embracer and you were making all these big purchases
and then you put out a handful of games that actually did pretty well and
now you're making profit. That's you're good there. But the last time we
heard from them talk about this stuff, it's like they said, in so
many words, what they have coming out right now isn't enough, and they
need to be hitting like so many more big games per year. And it's
like, I'm skeptical, I'm already impressed that you've put out some stuff.
I'm like trying to remember that there was a couple of games recently they put
out that were that did well. I think that Island two is the one
I'm thinking of, like two million, three million sales. It's like,
yeah, that if Embracer group puts out one of those a year, I
think that should be good. If they put out two or three a year,
they should be golden. But it sounds like they won't be golden even
if they're profitable, because it's like they have all this death the service service
I suppose, and all these other issues. But but yeah, overall,
like where what's your take on like when you when you go to like try
to take the temperature of a of a big, weird, hulking publisher like
like Embracer, and what do you think the future looks like for them?
It always, it always fascinates me, Like with Square Innex used to you
know, come out with the tomb Raider games. They didn't sell ten million
copies, so it's it's a failure, but it's six million copies that to
me seems like you did pretty good. So to hear net sales rise by
forty seven percent and they're still not happy. It's this whole like endless growth
cycle. We always need to grow, we always need to make profit.
Thing that is just you know, the current state of the world's economics and
a nutshell. I do think though that any good news, any news,
any good news is appreciated from Embracer considering the two billion dollars deal that fell
through earlier this year, and the guy, the poor CEO or CEO whoever
it was, you know, has to go on this roundtable interview right after
it happens, looking like looking like his favorite pet just passed away, talking
about how bad it is that this happens. So to have this, they
have to see some sort of silver lining here. Now, there are some
things that they have coming out between now and the end of the year,
paid a three Warhammer, forty K Space Marine two Alone in the Dark,
some other things, So maybe that keeps going, maybe it gets where they
want it to be. Particularly in PC console savings are up seventy four percent
year on year, and that's only going to get better with the games I
just mentioned. But at the same time, I am curious to how they're
going to spin it in a way that it's not as big as we want
it to be, which will always confuse me. The key point about the
the Saudi government pointing out the two billion of dollar investment when like they had
their conference call right after that and Lars Wingo Firs was like, Hey,
this is really bad. We wish this didn't happen. Investors respond to that
saying this sounds like an excuse, and they were like that that's the one
of the big reasons that their stock fell so much. Is like, like,
there must be all kinds of other problems. If you were coming to
us with a sob story about something that went wrong you need to just come
and take that stuff on the chin and tell us what you're going to do
next. They are at that point now. The way that they're talking about
it now is we are where we've moved past that that's not an issue anymore,
like we are completely focused on our future. And you know, you
wonder if that, Okay, that's the footing they should have taken at the
time. Of course that would have been difficult to take, like the day
that had that basically that it happened, But they that is the story they
need to be telling, is we do know how to make successful games.
You know, Remnant two just came out and has already sold a million copies.
And if these are the kinds of games that they are going to be
able to put out and roll it from one success to it to another,
there is no reason Embracer group shouldn't be able to work other than maybe it's
a bit unwieldy, a bit too big. But they've been you know,
cut cutting costs and I mean it's cutting some jobs. It's like and hopefully
like, okay, well if you've done that, now that stinks, but
hopefully now that means that the people that are there can just keep working on
it and actually accomplish something, and those good games can pay for all the
other stuff that's happening. I still don't know if if this company is in
that position, because it's just it's so big, they've spent so much money.
It feels like that might still be pretty far off. But I think
I want Embracer to kind of keep doing what it's been doing. If we
can rely on things like Dead Island two and Remnant two. Right, yes,
they're going to have to have at least one or two more key titles
tent poles to hold them up, because they are they are you know,
they're they're balancing on a tightrope here. They are very large. Unwilling is
a great word for it, like you just said, because they went on
that spending spree. I do unfortunately, I do not anticipate them being done
cutting. I know they've said already that I can write more stuff, and
that will lead to more layoff and more cursing on social media and all that
stuff, which deserved. Obviously you're making this kind of money and you're still
cutting costs of what's going on here. But yeah, eventually they'll get to
a point where they're where they want to be, and then they start being
more efficient in their product line and stuff like that. Maybe another mobile release
there that was the one area where they were down, and Noble is such
a money maker, they might have to figure out something there, but I
don't. Again, this is good news for them. The fact that we're
talking about it so Maudlin is very strange, and you know, hopefully they
realize that too. Yeah, they'll they'll just leave things alone exactly, and
they could kind of just carry like build on this momentum. And because they
have so many studios, so many games, they should be able to do
that. I agree. Eighteen year called Duty veteran announces he's leaving Activision.
This is from Kenneth Shephard at Kotaku. After eighteen years, David Vondahar,
the studio design director at Treyarch, announced he's leaving Activision after shipping eight color
Duty games since two thousand and four. Vonderhart made the announcement on his personal
LinkedIn account, where he confirmed he's moved on to a new project at a
different studio, but didn't go into specifics. In his post, he also
thanked thanked his former co workers at trey Arch and the Call of Duty fans
that have played the studios games over the years. Today, I'm sharing that
I have left at Division in trey Arch after an incredible eighteen years and eight
Call of Duty games. He then goes on to thank his co workers and
kind of just just hint that he's going somewhere else, But again, as
the story says, doesn't specify where. Eighteen years is a long time to
be anywhere, let alone working on like one basically one video game franchise.
There were some other things from tray Arch in that time, that Quantum of
soulis game, maybe a few other things, but mostly it was David vonder
haarst to call a Duty guy over at trey Arch. So that's a big
career. He should be proud of it. And I also think it's cool
that these these are big names from these studios can move on and start something
new or go work on something new and keep their career going somewhere else and
maybe with a little bit less pressure on them. I don't know, would
you have a history, David Vondahar. I know you just said he was
the Call of Duty guy at Treyarch, but I know too many people.
He was the Call of Duty guy. That's true, Like when when when
trey Arch would come around, they would be excited to see him on stage
and see what he's bringing up. You know what's coming up from his studio's
Call of Duty games. Yeah, this is another end of an era sort
of thing. I don't think it's quite as impactful as the one we started
the show with Charles Martinette. But for these these Call of Duty fans,
this guy has been a part of that, that whole student, that whole
Call of Duty project. I would even imagine he was involved in projects that
Treyarch didn't develop for all of this time. So to see him and his
voice leaving now is the benefit of to the benefit of whatever studio and project
he's working on. Now we get to decide or to to speculate where he's
going, what he's doing. Who pulled him away from this marquee franchise,
Who had the financial packing, who had the h the idea, the ip,
whatever it is to pull him out, because as you said, this
is an Eighteen years is a long time to be doing anything, and with
a name like Call of Duty, it's not going anywhere. They're gonna make
any Call of Duty games every year. Even when they say they're not making
a Call of Duty game, they make a Call of Duty game. So
what could have been so enticing that he was able to be recruited out of
this position? That is where my mind is. Yeah, and I think
that there's uh, this is just a sign that there continues to be a
lot of money out there to start up new studios, to pull talent away
to relatively new studios, or even if they're established projects like no, we're
going to pay the big money to get the big name over here to help
us because we know that they could deliver a finished product in a reasonable amount
of time on budget. Look, those things are are super rare, and
uh, you know that collection of talents and so that these those talented people
are in high demand still and the money's out there. So I think they've
Vondeharts which is probably able to go get that. I think of like studios
like Respawn, which of course came out of Infinity War Infinity Ward that worked
on Call of Duty Modern Warfare. Respawn I had this huge burst of success
after like you know, titan Fall, like tried to get there. I
love titan Fall but commercially I kind of almost got there. Then Apex Legends
comes along, it's a huge, huge success, and since then a lot
of the key people at Respawn have left to go start their own studios because
again there's a lot of money out there and they're gonna get it. So
I think it's probably that fertile ground for new new projects is probably, uh,
let's make sure I'm not muted to get excited at the space bar.
I think that's what happened last time. No, we're good. Uh yeah,
So I think that that that you're talking exactly, that's that fertile ground
though, is just uh, it's it's It's probably a good thing because it
keeps the dynamism of game development at the top where it's like, hey,
if you get like you feel like run down working on the same project,
go get your money, go work on something new and come up with a
new idea. And it's like that's not really happening in a lot of other
creative fields, but video games it very much is. So I think that's
a good sign. Yeah, And I wonder if he's making another first person
shooter or if he's trying a different genre as well. I think there might
might be some enticement there as well. It'll be interesting to see when we
see his name next, and also how long it'll take. I don't know
where this project is, right, And I mean one last thing, like
you can imagine someone in David Vonderhart's position, position, where do you go
from there? Right? Like exactly when you're a director, a big director
in movies, like you just you go from one project to the other,
and you're you know, constantly working with either one studio or you're like you
should go back forth between different studios. But if you like you're like David
Vonderhart was an employee of Activision, and it's like and and okay, so
can he get a promotion? What's saying? No, No, he needs
to be in charge of call of duty, like he needs to be that's
where it we need him. So it's like you've reached the top and it's
gonna nowhere to go from here. And it's probably it's been in years price
since he had his last real actual promotion. I'm sure he's gotten raising stuff.
So it's like, yeah, you don't be able to move somewhere else
and maybe move up the chain and become a CEO or something like that down
the line. That's probably pretty enticing too. Yeah, that's true. Finally,
Roadblocks facilitates illegal game gambling for miners, according to a new lawsuit.
This comes from Kyle Oreland at Arts Technica. A new proposed class action lawsuit,
as noticed by Bloomberg Law, accuses user generated metaverse company Roadblocks of profiting
from and helping to power third party websites that use the platforms of roebucks currency
for unregulated gambling activities, and doing so, the lawsuit says, Roadblocks is
effectively working with and facilitating the gambling website defendants to offer illegal gambling opportunities for
miners to use. The three gambling websites companies named in the lawsuit, Satozuki,
Studs Entertainment and Roadblocks Wild Entertainment, allow users to connect a Roadblocks account
and convert and exist an existing balance of roebucks virtual currency into credits on the
gambling site. Those credits act like virtual casino chips that can be used for
simple wagers on those sites, ranging from black blackjack to coin flip games.
If a player wins, they can transfer their winnings back to Roadblocks platform right
back to the Roadblocks platform in the form of roebucks, which again you can
buy with real money, real money currens so has a real value to it.
The gambling sites use fake purchases of worthless, dummy items to facilitate these
roebucks transfers, according to the lawsuit, and Roadblocks takes a thirty percent transaction
fee both when the player cashes in and cashes out from the gambling sites.
Roadblocks is a you could do anything in there. It's like this massive platform.
I'm not too surprised to hear this. I'm even less surprised to hear
that Roadblocks as a company hasn't tried to step in and stop this. This
seems like the kind of thing and they'll be like technically illegal, technically illegal.
Yes, just one more, one more reason to add to the list
that my children will never play Roadbocks on it. Yeah, I'm not surprised
at all. Just all the news that comes out with I feel like every
month or every couple of months, we hear another horror story about things that
are happening on that platform, and they just play ignorant and say, Nope,
not our not our problem. It's it's you know whatever, Eventually that's
going to catch up to them, and this, what could be a very
you know, profitable force for good because you can do anything, will just
turn into the next Internet cesspool, which some might argue it already is.
I Admittedly, I know I'm saying that you know all this stuff. Admittedly
I don't have that much exposure to Roadblocks. I've never really played it,
so I'm sure the things that it can do that are you know, family
friendly or game friendly whatever are great. Like I know that there's a big
indie horror scene on Roadblocks with different games that have come out on there,
so I'm sure that it has plenty of things to offer. But none of
that matters if stuff like that, stuff like this keeps happening where it's this,
or if it's you know, like bullying on the platform and stuff like
that. I I'm not surprised, just like you, I'm not surprised that
this A is happening or B that there's a blind eye being turned to it.
I will be keeping an eye on this just to see where it goes.
But add gambling to the list I guess of things that Roadblocks is doing
that it shouldn't be yep, absolutely all right, I as promised on Friday.
When I miss this, I'll bring up a little bit of the Like
a Dragon trailer. This is uh infinite wealth? Is that? What which
if you're looking forward is the people want the guide in one and this is
I think people wanted infinite wealth stuff. So there you go, look at
that. There you go. That's that. Those some handsome men. I'm
ready to go. I'm ready to get back into the world of Like a
Dragon. All right, Jason, I'm gonna bring up the poll here in
a second of all I'm doing that. Why do you tell people where they
can find you? What you have going on this week? All that kind
of stuff? Anymore stories like that you brought home from the World Championships,
anything like that. There are a couple that I'm working on. One we
visited Creatures, Inc. Who makes the card game. That should be going
up hopefully by midweek. One other story that I'm pitching out there. I
hope I can land that pretty soon. Look for your emails, editors.
But other than that, I am at Big Man Finale on x or Twitter
or wherever calling it right now. Also host a podcast, a video game
and esports podcast, that was sponsored by a local radio station here in Philadelphia
called Cheese Steaks and Controllers. So you can find me on all major streaming
platforms talking about neither cheese steaks nor controllers, just the games we play them
with. Next episode we're coming out probably tomorrow. I usually post on Fridays,
but jet Lag could not do it last Friday. So tomorrow I'm going
to have out the World Championships recap episode and everything that I did out in
Japan, have interviews with two of the Pokemon Unite casters, Spraggles and Zinks
that we talked about the game and the meta and stuff like that. But
yeah, news articles on game Spot, occasional review and feature at mmorpg dot
com and me and also oh Epic Game Store news room. I've been posting
some cool little articles there as well that recently started getting commissioning freelancers. So
you'll see my name, did see. Well, yeah, that's that's fantastic.
It's pretty cool, all right, So let's see. On Friday,
I asked which God's will Credos kill next? Forty four percent set Egyptian,
eighteen percent said Santa, ten percent said Celtic, five percent said Shinto and
twenty three percent said American gods, which means the presidents. So Abraham,
we can watch what where do you Where do you think he's going? Because
they're done with Norris, right, they're gonna move on Norse. Sorry,
I said Norris, Chuck, Norris Chuck, Norris. I think Egypt makes
the most sense narratively, and also I believe they've been teasing I think throughout
Ragnarok as well. But I would love to see Celtic. I think that
is a slowly becoming a little more represented between Valhalla's DLC and Kingdoms of Amaloor
reckoning if you want to go back and check that out. But I think
any exposure to the Celtic lore is fine by me. I think that would
be pretty cool. I think I'd be fantastic. I would really like to
see that up. Honestly though, I think they could kind of do any
of these or anything they do, they'll probably find a fun way of representing
it. I hope it's Santa Santa. Well, they should do a Christmas
special, right, I would die for like Christmas Nights, Christmas God of
War, Like, let's go fucking destroy that old man, all right?
I have a new poll question I'm gonna put up right now. It is
Charles Martinet great or Greatest. There you go. We'll discuss that tomorrow.
Well, actually, excuse me Wednesday, when we're back with the new game
mess mornings tomorrow on Giant Bomb. We have the Giant Bomb Cast going live
for you on Tuesday. The rest of this week, we're gonna have a
lot of the normal shows. I'm sure. The hope is we'll get Blake
Club up and running, with the Dan doing the final stretch of Sonico six.
We'll have some other shows. I'll probably play some Mortal Kombat today,
try to keep them trying to get through those story modes Mortal Kombat nine.
I think I should finish that today if I get time. I think that's
the plan. We'll see, but other than that, lookout. Just look
up at the schedule. We'll post that after our meeting today, so I'll
have all the information you need in the meantime. Jason, thank you so
much for spending today talking with me about video games. Man. I really
appreciate it. Happy to be here, always available. Just say the word,
I'll come back. If you'll have me, we'll definitely get you back.
You were great. Thank you everybody for watching. You're the best audience
in gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take care of
yourself and goodbye. And I forgot to take a break. I gotta put
that in there. I'll do it on Wednesday. Jen