You got me bad. It's the internet. You're busy. Let's do this
for July tenth, twenty twenty four. 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, Xbox shuffles, it's game Pass offerings,
and Nintendo is teasing something creepy. But first, please join me and welcome
you today's co host to Game Mess Mornings. It's Janet Choe. Everybody,
jan How are you doing. I'm doing great. I'm happy on this Thursday
morning. Oh no, oh, oh no, it's a it's a Wednesday.
I kind of threw curveball on you there. I needed you today instead
of Thursday. Yeah, so you got two days left this week? Oh
no, yeah, though I planned poorly. Grub, I'm back, everybody,
We're back. We're doing it. I missed you all. A Gameless
Mornings has returned. Uh. For people who are asking, hey, when
is it back, it's now. The answer is now. It's back.
Uh. Glad to be back, though, Glad we could get back into
the swing of things. I say back a lot of times, so I'm
just gonna keep doing it. Back back, back, back, back back
back, when back back back back back back a lar, we're back,
We're back of everybody. Uh yeah, really happy about all this. It
was a great time off. But hey, doing the show also makes me.
I'm pretty happy too, So glad we could make it happen. But
Jin, how was it when I was gone? How are things? How
was the how's the news? And all that? I don't remember? Uh,
it's probably like the same feeling when one of us is gone for a
week. Oh I just cussed. I just did. Now I've started doing
that a lot. It's just cussing randomly. Ah, cuss it. Uh.
The week just goes by so fast, and we're trying we uh,
we're always spinning plates here a giant bomb dot com and whatever someone leaves for
a vacation, we want to make sure that they are uninterrupted and go on
the proper vacations. Correct, Yes, continue to spin plates that It's like
we put a cardboard cutout of said person and just like pretend they're still there,
right, Yeah, we go spin the plate for them, but the
cardboard cutout is holding it somewhat exactly. Yeah, And I did feel like
I could get out there and enjoy myself, and uh, but it is.
It's something we talked about when you got back where it's like the scaffolding
that holds us up is like all of the stress of making sure everything's working,
and then when I let that melt away, it's a little bit hard
to rebuild that scaffolding a little bit, which is why, which is why
I think we're afraid of taking vacations in the first place. I'll lose that
momentum. But whatever, it went fine. Here we are, we're back
in the swing of things, and it's it's going to be completely fine.
So yeah, glad I was able to do it. Looking forward to it.
You're you got a trip coming up soon. How much are you talking
about this? You like let people know details, You're ready to dot yourself.
Yeah, totally, one hundred percent. I'm staying at this hotel now.
I'm going to Japan, unfortunately only for a week, so Saturday Saturday
or this Saturday to next Saturday. I've I've already booked tickets to Disneyland,
of course, because I am also a broken Disney adult like Mike Manatti,
very excited. I'm going to plan to meet up with a friend of the
website out there. I don't want to dos him. I think he's gonna
be in Japan and we're gonna have a fun old time out there. I'm
ready to buy so much, so many jeans grub. Are you like saving
room in the suitcase or you bring in an extra suitcase or you're gonna buy
a suitcase when you're out there. I'm gonna buy a suitcase out there.
Yeah yeah, I mean listening, Your dollars is gonna go very far.
You might as well listen. Listen. I'm I'm gonna buy several of the
white T shirts from the Bear oh sweet. Yeah, even if I don't
fit them, I'm just gonna get the largest fricking size. Yeah, I
don't. Uh. It never feels good like getting closed from a Japan So
they do. They do assume you're gonna be a little bit swelter than I'm
running these days. Yeah uh. And then greb to add to the insanity,
I'm gonna be back here for like two days, and then I'm getting
shipped in a box to comic Con because our dear friend Emma Fife needs help.
Yes, you gotta go help them. Okay, so you got you
got some busy times coming up. Uh oh boy, oh boy. I
don't expect from Comicicon grub like I have, like god, used to the
conventions, the gaming conventions of E three, SGF and and packs to an
extent, never been a games com But I have no idea what to expect
from comic Con. And this is San Diego comic on right, this is
the yes. Okay, well, so at least you get to go to
San die which we definitely enjoyed during dream Hack, so that you know,
I try to remember the name of it chan it came to me, I
got it. Uh, but yeah, I don't know. We enjoyed San
Diego, so at least you get to enjoy that city. But yeah,
I it was real. So I'm like, no, if I've been to
comic I no, I haven't. I have no idea what you should expect.
I hope to see our dear friend Chef Bob out there, yeah once
or and yeah, yeah, we'll we'll we'll see absolutely all right, we
should explain what we do here most weekdays, 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 YouTube. All right, we have a lot to get into, so
let's start the morning mess with. Xbox game Pass is getting a price increase
and introducing a new tier. This is from Eddie McCoo and George Yang at
GameSpot. Microsoft has revealed some upcoming changes to Xbox game Pass, including raising
the price of several tiers, the introduction of a new one, and the
closure of another. Starting July tenth, Xbox Game Pass for Console will not
be available for new members. Well, will not be available for new members
only, but those who are currently subscribed will be grandfathered into this tier with
its existing access to day one releases, including first party Microsoft exclusives. Instead,
new members will be able to access Xbox Game Pass Standard for fifteen dollars
per month. However, it will not include perks such as day one releases
access to EA, play game Pass for PC and Cloud gaming. Xbox game
Pass Ultimates offerings will remain unchanged, so you'll still get to day one game
Pass, EA, all that stuff, but it will be seen an increase
from seven eventeen dollars per month to twenty dollars per month. Xbox Game Pass
Core is also getting a price increase, with its annual charge of sixty dollars
increasing to seventy five dollars. However, the monthly price will remain ten dollars.
The price for PC Game Pass will increase from ten dollars per month to
twelve dollars per month, but will still have day one releases. All of
these price changes will take place starting on September twelfth. Jan Do you get
it? Do you understand all that? Yes? And no? Mostly no,
I just know that they're doing this for Call of Duty. Yeah,
I mean they're doing it for That's definitely the number one factor here is they
have this big game that they said would be in game Pass, and now
here are the caveats to that. That's a big game that sells very well.
I think they want to make sure they get as much money from it
as possible, and they can sort of the people that would get game Pass
for it, it's like, well, yeah, get game Pass for it,
but definitely go to that twenty dollars tier. Now, well, game
Pass Ultimate is where most people already are on game Pass. Something like eighty
percent of people who have game Pass just get Ultimate, so they were already
paying the higher price. Now it's an even higher price now. But that
being said to me, when I look at this Jen and I see them,
you know, slightly de emphasizing day one games on game Pass, where
it's like, now that most of the tiers that are that are available to
you don't include that, or at least, you know, most of most
of those tiers on console whatever, you know, fifteen dollars per month and
still not getting day one games is and that that's only for new members,
so existing members keep that perk. It feels like the kind of thing where
it's like, oh, they don't expect too many new members to come into
game Pass, you know, going forward, and when they do that,
they want to get as much money from them as possible, and that's where
the Ultimate comes in. So, yeah, this is about making money from
Call of Duty, not making money from game Pass. And I think that
indicates where Xbox is now, where a little bit ago it was all about
let's make sure we are growing game pass, that is the future. That
is slightly less true these days, and now it is much more like,
hey, we got to make money from everything that we have. And I
don't think that's necessarily a bad strategy, but I think a lot of people
are like kind of taken aback by this. They're a little surprised. But
they've been saying this for a while now. In like two years ago,
Phil Spencer mentioned like, hey, game pass is about fifteen percent of our
business and we expect it to remain about about fifteen percent of our business going
forward. So they've just outright said it a bunch of times. So this
is what game pass is. It's not going to turn into this massive industry
disrupting force anytime soon. So that means they got to find ways to make
more money from from the people that subscribe, right. I also feel really
bad for their existing console base that they it feels not that they're getting screwed,
but they're getting nickel and dimed a bit more. Yss that's what's happening
with them. Yes, like at this point, I would if I was
purely a console gamer, I would really think about exploring getting like a budget
gaming PC and trying to just play cod there. Like at this point,
what are you missing on the Xbox that you couldn't also get on a PC.
Yeah, I've been thinking about that a lot recently jam where I was
like on the trip and I was it was just kind of like, you
know, laying on the beach and thinking about stuff and then the occasionally thinking
about video games and being at the whim of these corporations. Like for a
long time it wasn't such a bad thing because that they would put extra effort
into like add perks to their their consoles and make them stand apart. But
it's like, well, when things go bad, these console manufacturers could panic
and they could make decisions that make these consoles feel worse in some ways or
sort of vanilla. And on PC, where it's like it is open,
it's open and anyone could do their stuff there, it's like it's sort of
up to the community to make sure that the PC gaming remains interesting, and
they've done that like kind of consistently from the beginning. So I definitely feel
best these days about investing in PC. But not everyone's going to feel that
way, and some people still want their consoles and I don't blame them for
that. I'll still have them. But I think that when I see stuff
like this, it is Man, I am glad. I'm mostly detached from
from game Pass and what's happening over there. I'm not thinking about it too
much. I think I do still have, excuse me, a subscription,
but this is all this data iss remind me, hey, let's cancel that,
because I haven't been using it recently. So yeah, it's weird,
but it is for me, like, yeah, this is just where things
are with these companies. Yeah, and I know that on this website specifically,
we've sung the praises of game Pass as a service to be able to
check out a wide variety of games because it felt like such a great value.
It's still a decent deal. Yeah, and it still is a decent
deal. It just feels like as if you were purely a console Xbox person.
Uh you were, you were continually being disvalued as as like a core
person. Uh and and they're just trying to squeeze more out of you.
Because I don't believe grub that they're gonna there's gonna be a major influx of
Call of Duty players joining Game Pass after this. I feel like, yeah,
a lot of those Call of Duty players, some of them, yes,
are on Xbox, but a lot of them are aren't going to be
on the PlayStation, right and and they're not going to pick up game Pass
because they can't. Well yeah, and it's like that there there's other options.
We'll talk about that in a little bit where you don't have to buy
an Xbox to take advantage of this. But those players are are they already
have a PlayStation, they already bought it. They're gonna just play it there,
you're right, Listen, it moves the needle a little bit putting the
Call Duty and Game Pass. But yeah, I think you're right that that's
some huge, new, massive game changing influx is probably not in the cards.
So that goes back to what this is them trying to make more money
from the people who already are in their ecosystem. And I hate to say
this, but like taking away Day one games on the standard tier. At
this point, what Day one releases from Microsoft should I be expecting like in
the immediate future. Yeah, I mean, it looks a little bit better
this at the second half of the year. If we assume that like things
like Avowed in Indiana Jones are going to be good, which I'm hopeful for.
For both of them came out, I didn't care exactly, but then
at that point I would just wait for all of those games to come out,
and then I would resub to game Pass later in the year rather than
have that subscription going continuously, right, And I think that there there will
be discerning players out there who are going to do exactly that, where they're
like, listen, I'm already playing this game on something that I'm that I
own currently. You know, I'm you know, wait in the final fantasy
for it right now. When I kind of get through this content, maybe
I'll look around and see the best deal I can get, and maybe at
that point they hop on game Pass for a month or two and they play
through a couple a couple of those games relatively quickly, and then they bounce
back out like that. That way of playing games is still available to people
and they should be taking advantage of it. But what Microsoft needs is people
excited about the service, so they want us like they're like, well,
I can't cance Oaks, then I'll lose this and this and this and that's
none of that is happening right now, not in any major way. And
I feel like we talked about this ever so slightly yesterday on the BombCast,
but there's been like a flood of free to play games, and not that
those free to play games will specifically be in the same ven diagram as Xbox
Game Pass players or Call of Duty players. But you know, you have
something like Zendless Zone zero first Descendant, once Human. I think that's the
one that dropped yesterday, right, Star Wars Hunters is that free to play
on market. It's free to play on mobile on Switch, Yeah and Switch.
That's gonna scratch the itch for some players to like, well, I
don't have to spend money on these games, Like I can squeeze as much
as I can without like paying for the gotcha mechanics or whatever energy stuff that
you'd have to do that. I'm cool dipping out a game pass for a
little bit because I can just like someone to chat mentioned like, yo,
you can get like a three month voucher later in the year to get all
of those games. Play those games later in the year. Versus paying from
here on out to the end of the year for game Pass. Yeah,
and it's I think what Microsoft is seen is like, I ideally, at
one point several years ago, the thinking was, get a lot of people
on game Pass, and then those people would be actively in the Xbox ecosystem
because their friends would have game passed and they're like, well, when we're
gonna play a game tonight, are we gonna play We're gonna play this game
alory have on game Pass. Sure, maybe, but then maybe one of
these free to play games comes out and it's like, well, we're already
on Xbox and that's where we play every night because we have this investment in
game Pass, Let's just go play it on Xbox as well. Let's play
that tonight and then spend some money on micro transactions because we have a regular
gaming night again because of game Pass. It was gonna be this network effect,
and it doesn't feel like that ever really panned out in any like major
way. I think, if anything, we've seen that those kinds of games
have been doing slightly worse on Xbox than they have in the past, and
they're doing better and you know elsewhere, maybe not the switch but they're doing
better elsewhere now, So yeah, people are gonna be spending more and more
time with those kinds of games, and not necessarily more and more time with
them on Xbox. And that's kind of a bad formula as well, which
I think is why we see Microsoft talk about, hey, we are looking
past the console in a lot of our major ways. We're not so interested
in keeping people in our ecosystem. In that way, our ecosystem is going
to broaden to be like hey, Minecraft on mobile and you know, Call
of Duty Mobile and King stuff, and we're gonna get a billion gamers that
way. It's like, okay, Sure, in the meantime, the strategy
on console feels a little bit stale and like it has not panned out the
way they wanted to, and now we're just kind of watching them sort of
try to maneuver in a position where it makes the most money possible so they
can justify their jobs. Yeah, I you know, I would still feel
very hesitant to recommend someone getting an Xbox now or even later in the year.
Yeah, any Microsoft titles when you could just get it on a PC.
And I see a couple of folks saying that, you know, they
don't want to be tied to their desk because with a with a gaming PC.
But there's like a bunch of ways now to like stream that if you
have a reliable connection to your to your living room TV, Moonlight works great.
I use that sometimes. But also like the steam Decknasis Roger, you
hook those bad boys up to your TV and you know, it's it's a
similar experience to the switch because the Bluetooth very reliable on both. Yeah,
and I get it some people are just never going to be down with with
PC gaming. That that's fair. But I think all we were saying is
there's a reason that PC gaming feels more popular than ever, and it is
because when it's driven by the community. It's like, look at esports.
There are a lot of esports that were uh, you know, coming around.
It was like this is gonna be a bit big thing, and it's
like, well, actually no, this was just the marketing arm of a
corporation who is trying to sell a video game. So the Overwatch Esports League
was this big, big thing and it's like, well, okay, yeah,
but as soon as the corporation loses interest, what happens to that esports
scene? It kind of feels decimated. It feels like a desolated island.
And now and now when you look at okay, well, what about the
community driven ones? What about the ones that feel like that are more open
where people can take these games and run them themselves. It's like, well,
no EVO better than ever well EVO or owned by a corporation now.
But in the fighting game scene overall, is what I mean by this,
that the fighting game community pushes that stuff forward and having that community driven aspect
is what makes its feel fresh. And that is what happens with PC gaming.
And I've always felt like a different vibe, like watching esports versus the
FGC, where like organized stuff like DODA or League or Overwatch like you mentioned
grub feels like a corporate manufactured type of experience versus the what started as like
a grassroots, organic type of thing with the FGC, like even Nintendo being
weird with like Smash being an EVO and all these other tournaments. Uh,
that scene and that those people over there still going super duper deep into that
scene and just like, uh loving that game exactly. Yes, And it's
uh so when I look at like, you know, PC versus console It's
like PC just has that kind of an ownership over it from its community that
they do it now. Obviously, like you know, Steam is there and
massive, but there's people feel an ownership over Steam too, and you see
that how that manifests over and over again, you know. While we're talking
about like esports and stuff. Like. Another scene that I feel like has
grown very organically and just feels very fun to see pop up and you see
younger and younger players popping up is the competitive tetra scene. Seeing these kids
like do the flicking thing with the neys controllers. Oh, oh, hyper
tapping or whatever it is. Yes, I love that. We were playing
Mario Party and something and and it was me, Dan, Mike and someone
maybe maybe it was Bailey, and Mike was just like, I'm going to
crush everybody on the tapping the things. And I'm like, I'm gonna try
the hyper tapping thing. And I like got my hands set up so I
could hyper top the buttons by just tapping the back of the controller, and
uh, I kind of won easily. So I'm like, this is this
is the new tech for me. I need to take advantage of this smote
more frequently. All right. So we've talked about many reasons this might be
happening, but there's kind of an obvious reason starting us in a face when
we look at how the games are performing. The former MPD group now called
Sirkana, put out their report earlier this week and hel BLAYD two, which
came out in the month of May, was nowhere on the top twenty best
selling games of the month. So people asked Matt piscatel about it and he
offered a little bit of more information. This comes from ign Kat Bailey.
New hel Blade two sales data offers a clearer picture of how it did on
Xbox Game Pass and the charts. Hell Blade two was built as one of
twenty twenty four's big exclusives when it released back in May, but overall sales
numbers have been hard to come by since launch. Now, thanks to Sirkana's
most recent sales data, we have a clear picture of its performance. According
to Sircana analyst Matt Piscatella, Helblay two was thirty seventh overall in terms of
full dollar sales from May twenty twenty four, putting it at twenty first overall
on Xbox Series consoles. Hell Blay two did not receive a physical release.
Also, it was only forty dollars in these charts are arranged by dollars sales,
and also I think it just didn't sell very well, and the digital
sales obviously would be included because it did end up on the chart at some
point. Notably, hel Blay two released on Xbox game Pass at launch,
and that was born out of its engagement data, where it ranked twelve on
Xbox in terms of monthly active users. That puts it behind Fallout seventy six
on the on the platform, but ahead of Star Wars, Jedi Survivor,
Apex Legends in forts A Horizon five. Piscadella shared the sales info on Twitter.
Since hell Blay two's performance meant that it didn't appear on any of the
major charts, I think that, you know, hell Blay two was never
destined to be a top of the chart seller, obviously with game Pass being
there, but even that, even with all that considered, this is pretty
rough and if they are not going to like put out physical versions of these
games, making sure that they do get more people willing to spend you know,
sixty dollars forty dollars or whatever in this case, but sixty dollars up
front on these games is going to remain important to them. And that's what
it feels like the change is about. It's like, hey, maybe people
will pay fifteen dollars per month to us for this library of games and online
multiplayer, which I well, I mean that's not even included in the standard.
So to pay fifteen dollars per month for this library of games and then
also give us money up front for new releases, and they're trying to get
this best of both the world situation, and I just don't know if that's
in the cards for them either. Yeah. I feel bad for hell Blade
two despite not enjoying any minute of it. Yeah, same, just because
I feel like for the was it like a Game Awards and then a summer
game fest, like it had such a huge presence during either one of those
shows or maybe both of those shows. Definitely during the Game Awards where they
had like that huge right orchestral sequence, and you know, the game looks
beautiful, But it also feels like like that Microsoft kind of let it,
uh, let let it hang there on it on its own, because I
don't remember seeing any type of marketing for it. It just feels battle around
grub right, and it's like, you know, maybe it did do all
right on game Pass or but you know, we're in a world now where
we're looking at what happened to Tango game Works, and you know, I'll
keep saying that, you know, Tango Game Works didn't make enough money and
that's the real reason why that the studio got closed. But they would say,
hey, no, that game did all right, Hi Fi Rush,
and then the studio is still closed. So is is now Ninja theory in
that same situation? And why wouldn't we assume that maybe yes they are,
yeah, yeah, And it's it's such a weird place for hell Blade two
to come out, Like I don't I don't remember when the first one released,
but it's such a dry period for Microsoft because of how they were also
despite not marketing it, they were also positioning it to I don't want to
say, save the Xbox lineup, but like really bring people back. And
I don't. I always felt like hell Blade one was kind of like a
cult success, not like a mainstream big hit. Like I didn't see people
dressing up as Senua or not really No, maybe not yet, who knows,
Greb. Yeah, put the leaf blow away, guys. But yeah,
it just felt like an odd choice to put this much weight on the
game but also not put this much faith in the game. It seems like
to an extent, Yeah, and you know, this is a situation where
maybe they were between a rock and hard place where it's like, do we
invest more to make this game feel bigger and more important, make it a
sixty dollars game, make it a twenty hour experience, spend several more years
making it in that case, and it's like, well, that doesn't feel
like it would necessarily pay off based on the respet to what this game was
when it did launch. But then also the you know, forty dollars,
a shorter experience, not a lot of new ways to engage with the compared
to hell Blay one according to the people who played it again, I not
really spend much time with it, And it's like, okay, I mean,
there seemed like there was no great answer here, but honestly, just
making the game good might have you know, better, probably probably would have
helped. I don't know, but either way, they want to be selling
more games. They do they want to or at the very least, maybe
that's the wrong way putting it. They want to be making more money from
everything that they put out than what they're making from everything they're putting out,
and I think that they're back at a point now where they believe that selling
games on day one is more important than growing game Pass, and that seems
pretty clear to me at this point. I don't know if everyone paying attention
to the show right now agrees with that, but it's hard to like lay
out a countercase, in my opinion. If you want to try to make
the argument against that's what's happening, go for it. But based on all
the evidence before our eyes, based on Microsoft's actions, it feels like the
importance of game Pass is being diminished. It's not going to go away.
It's they're not They're not gonna shut it down. It will continue to be
an option, but it is not. It is not the platform anymore.
I I don't understand business. I'm not gonna claim that I do grub.
I don't think anyone does. I don't. I don't know if they know
what they're doing. Sometimes, yeah, it seemed like the game pass strategy
was let's be disruptive, now then we could be the leaders in the space,
and when what happened to movies and music happens to games, we will
be positioned as the first movers, and we will be the Netflix, and
we'll be associated with that, and people will just come to us. And
I mean at the time it seemed like it made some sense. But but
now here we are and it's like, oh man, gamers are just way
more obstinate and than everyone else, and they they spend so much more money
per gamer than like music listener does or book reader or movie watcher. That
again, I think gamers feel more ownership over the hobby than some of those
other in those other mediums, and so when they like, no, I
want to do things the way I'm used to the way I like to do
it, and I don't much feel like changing. I think Xbox found out
the hard way that there they weren't able to like control the behaviors a player.
I mean, they should maybe they should have known better. They used
the carrot instead of the stick this time. They were going to use the
stick with the Xbox One launch, or like we're gonna take away you know,
digital or renting games and we're selling use games and all this stuff,
and and they're like, Okay, well that didn't work. Everyone freaked out
about that. So instead, what we're gonna do is we're gonna build something
that's very enticing and make people want to come to us. And I think
that was a better strategy, but it also had its limits because you're talking
about changing player behavior and that's not very easy to do. Finally, on
this topic, new Microsoft advert highlights that you don't need an Xbox to play
Xbox This is from Tom Iban at VGC. Microsoft has released a new advert
highlighting the ability to play Xbox games without a dedicated console. While it has
been possible to play Xbox games via cloud on PCs, mobile devices, and
select smart TVs and VR headsets for some time, support for the future was
this week extended to some Amazon fireTV stick devices. To do so, players
have to install and launch the Xbox Apps app from their Fire TV device,
signing with a Microsoft account, sign up for Game pass Ultimate if they haven't
already, and connect a controller to play that. Those last like four phrases.
There is what I would call the last mile problem, where it's like
people have a hard time getting over all of those humps, but whatever.
This is one of the things that people point to Jan to say, well,
no, clearly they're still invested in game Pass because they're making moves like
this, And I would I just don't think fire TV is the answer for
game Pass in any real way. This doesn't change much, Grub. Can
I go on the weirdest analogy? Please? I would love it? Okay,
everyone forgive me. It feels like Microsoft is the person in a failing
relationship trying to open the relationship and perhaps that will save it. Sure,
And it's like, hey, you know what, like you can do whatever.
You can go there, now, you can go here. You don't
gotta you want to be here all the time with me, but like I'll
be here and that'll save us. Yeah, don't. And I don't think
that works, Grub. I don't listen. If it has, I've never
seen it. Jan, Uh, I think you're kind of on the money
here with this one, where uh listen in the in the short term,
I think Microsoft's like, let's just you know, try a bunch of things.
I still think they have this like some long term strategy about trying to
fundamentally change the way the gaming market works, where Hey, maybe the law,
maybe regulation will force game stores to be on other consoles and other platforms,
and then maybe at that point we could put an Xbox store on a
PlayStation. And again that's my tenfoil hat long term like conspiracy theory about what
Microsoft's trying to do here, So it could be completely wrong, but like
I think, like if they're thinking super long term about like what is their
best chance to like recapture an ecosystem, I think they're starting to think that
way, and in the meantime, every move they're making feels like like a
half measure at best. Yeah. I just I just try and like put
myself in the shoes of like a parent during the holiday season, like looking
for a gift for their their child or their their nephew, niece, whoever
a young kid in their life, and like just being decentivized to get an
Xbox and just having that mentality of like, Okay, it's either a Nintendo
or the PlayStation. And I know that like media literacy or not media literacy,
but like buying literacy at least is higher now where you people buying consoles
are not just thinking of the Nintendo one or the PlayStation one. But they're
thinking of the switch or the PS five, and some people will be more
clued in that, Okay, a switch to is coming, so maybe I'll
just go get the PS five because I haven't heard any positive buzz about the
Xbox in a while, and uh right, And it doesn't feel like Xbox
is necessarily trying to change that all that much. Instead, they're like,
yeah, we get it, we get it. Listen when we don't,
we don't got the stuff. We were not going to give you the stuff.
So uh, I don't know, go play our games on Amazon.
And you know, I appreciate all of the difficulties that like Phil Spencer and
most Sarah Bond and Matt Booty have highlighted in their conversations in the past,
where they would say stuff like, yeah, we lost the last console war
and that was a really rough one to lose, and everyone has all their
digital libraries, so we're never gonna get PlayStation p to switch over to Xbox.
And I appreciate that even if they were to make a game that everyone
had to have, well, you know, look at what's happened in the
PlayStation five right now. They have a lot of games that people have to
have, and even their console sales are dropping year overyear at the moment,
and so it's okay, so Xbox could do all the work to try to
grow that, but they would probably just be maybe taking some small percentage points
here and there from PlayStation. And that's not really growth. That is fighting.
That's squabbling back and forth with another company over the same piece of pie
that they've always been fighting over. And now Microsoft has officially spent enough money
on investing in games that that is not enough anymore. So they have to
make so much more money than they've ever really made. And you know,
now they have the tools to do that by having Called Duty and King and
all these things like that stuff will help them make that money. But that's
the point. Now, it's like Call of Duty and King and what does
that have to do with Xbox? Nothing really, because those King games aren't
on Xbox at all, and Call of Duty is not exclusive Xbox, and
those those are the solutions to the current problem. So why emphasize the Xbox
and they haven't been for years now is really where we're at. And this
is this goes back to that thing. About two years ago we said game
Pass was fifteen percent of our business. They just flat out say these things,
and it takes kind of years for it to filter down to the people
who play on Xbox to fully believe them. But believe them. This is
it, this is what they're doing now, and I don't again, like
with Game Pass, this doesn't mean the Xbox consoles go away. This doesn't
mean they're going to disappear tomorrow. They'll release another one. They'll probably keep
releasing them, but it is just going to be one option of many.
I feel like I see like a new special edition Xbox one that is like
skinned, like a different property every other week. Yes, so, like
the boxes are still being made. I just think like they they're not pushing
the box. They're definitely not pushing the boxes as hard as they were.
Yep. All right, so let's take a quick break. When we get
back, We've got a lot more to talk about, including a creepy smiling
man video that Nintendo uploaded earlier today. It's weird right after this. All
right, we are back, and let's get right back into it with what
the hell is Nintendo teasing with this creepy smiling man video. This is from
Michael mcwerdour at Polygon a new teaser trailer for something called EMEO is already one
of the strangest things Nintendo has ever done. On Wednesday, the family friendly
game maker posted a fifteen second teaser that centers on a spooky mystery man wearing
a smiling paper bag mask. Maybe it's Dan Record after you mentioned wrestling.
It's unsettling enough that Nintendo has flagged the video as age restricted, and in
some countries preface the trailer with the warning that it contains scenes that some viewers
may find disturbing. The only other thing to appear in the video outside of
the creepy trench coated man is the kanji symbols that mean meaning EMEO or smile
Aileen Man. Nintendo fans are puzzled about what EMEO is, with some joking
that it's edgy viral marketing for the switch to or speculating them that it's a
first party in Nintendo horror game. Naturally, Hideo Kojima's name is being tossed
around because teasers are his trade. Coachum is already busy with Destiny two OD
and Phi isn't yeah whatever. Outside of the spooks played for laps, Luigi's
Mansion series. Nintendo rarely dabbles in horror. The most prominent examples of nintendo'sploring
the genre are m raated games like Eternal Darkness, Sanity's Requiem, and Fatal
Frame Mating of the Black Water, both of which were developed by third parties
and published by Nintendo. I'll get this up here so everyone could take a
look at it. But yeah, this is strange. What do you think
it is? This has got to be Luigi's Mansion four right, That's the
only thing I could explain this. Luis mentioned four. Yeah, I'll get
this. Creepy man in a trench coat and Luigi has changed Luigi. Yes,
the Guigi game is very different, but the players are the same.
Yeah. That's that's it, everybody. It's just fifteen seconds a man in
a trench coat and a smiling faced paper bag on his head, kind of
flashing in and out of a room. Yeah, and that's it. I
don't know where people are, Okay, peep, oh, okay. This
is a Blueber Team joint apparently. Yeah, that has been some of the
speculations that this is a Blueber Team joint. It is. Let's see here.
It just says who is Emeo in the YouTube description. But yes,
I think people were able to kind of piece together that some of this is
Bluebird Team, and I think there might be more of that here. In
a yes, EMEO might also be a project from Bluebird Team, developer of
Silent Hell to Remake and the Layers of Fear series. Blueber said in twenty
twenty three it was working on a new game code named Project M with studio
Draw Distance that was being developed for Nintendo platforms. Draw Distance has since been
removed from that project, which is now being worked on by Blueber Team under
subsidiary known as Blackmuir Games. That subsidiary his subsidiary has just one post on
social media, a message of congratulations to Nintendo that also includes a piece of
mysterious concept art with a Nintendo switch nearing the end of its life cycle.
Maybe the folks behind Mario and the Legend of Zelda had decided to get a
little weird and throw some curveballs at the console's aging audience. Yeah, that's
I mean, Nintendo does tend to get a little bit more strange at the
end of its consoles. This feels a little bit different than that. But
I'm kind of for it. Yeah. I Hey, you know, one
of these days, blueber Team has got to have a hit, right,
Yeah, listen, I got to make something that's all right. Even though
people will always say I gave them what is the one with the flashing or
the like flashing in and out of existence that required the SSD on the Xbox
Like I said, I gave that game a ten out of ten. I
never played that game medium, thank you, Sean. I never played the
game, but people say I give it a ten out of ten. I
listen, I don't know. I don't never I don't think I've played a
Blue Erteam game. And I this looks strange, but we've just seen fifteen
seconds of a teaser and I'm almost more interested to see it from the viewpoint
of what sort of strange creepiness would Nintendo be publishing. And I think we
have to assume that Nintendo's probably publishing this because they if they weren't, they
wouldn't put a video like this on their channel that does not say who is
making the game, because I think they would like not want to take like
have people coming to them and be like, hey, what is this game?
But well, no, we're just posting a video for one of our
partners. They would always list their partners. I would, I would believe,
But maybe I'm wrong, Maybe that's not the case. I don't know.
What is this kind of strange this you want from Nintendo? You know
we've been saying this for like this, this period of time before Nintendo announces
and releases the Switch to they can do whatever the hell they want. Yeah,
yeah, for real, there will be some games that like kind of
come out right in that window of like switch to his announced and the Switch
is still going, and I hope that stuff is the strength the console has
seen so far. All right, let's keep going here. Star Wars Outlaws
character progression breaks Ubisoft's open world mold. This is from Blair Marnell at GameSpot.
Later this summer, Ubisoft in Massive Entertainment will put players in the role
of Kves in Star Wars Outlaws and open world games set in the Star Wars
universe. Traditionally, Ubisoft's open world games, including the Assassin's Creed series,
allow the lead characters to build up their skills through experience points. However,
Star Wars Outlaws is shaking that up, shaking up that formula by making players
level upcase skills by sending her on special missions. Via IGN, Star Wars
Outlaws co director Matthias Carlson explained that there are experts spread throughout the game who
can offer k new abilities and upgrades in exchange for completing tasks and missions for
them. He also indicates that the experts are fully realized characters in their own
right. They are full on characters, said Carlson. So they're spread out
in the world and you don't know exactly who they are, what exactly they
have to offer you, and how to reach them from the very beginning.
So there's there's this journey of discovery here as well. And once you reach
them, there's a character there to interact with and an adventure to go on,
because they won't instantly just oh, here you go, and then they
essentially open up a little regional progression for you where the nature of those things
is also very tangible. Yeah, this is okay, this is fine.
I'm a fine with us. I like upgrading my character with experience points,
I always do. I like, I have no issue with that. But
as long as this makes sense and is fun and is a decent loop,
I'm also for this. Like there's no reason this couldn't work as well.
How do you feel about it? I, you know, I I've I
haven't had much interest in an Assassin's Creed game. You find completely with breaking
that loop or just trying something completely different, And I don't know every little
tidbit that we hear from Star Wars Outlaws. I keep getting more and more
interested. And I hate to say it, Grub, but I think I
got the I think I got the Star Wars bug back. Are you watching
Acolyte or something? Or watching Acolyte? Yes? Yeah, Acolytes mostly working
for me. I don't love the way it looks, but Mike, it's
a TV show, you know. I listened to a more civilized age and
Austin said it's like young adult fiction. And then it's like, oh okay,
I can't accept what this is. Now is that has really helped?
So it is he like if they had condensed the Acolyte into like like a
ninety to two hour movie, it feels like this it would be targeting the
same audience that like Hunger Games or the Divergent series is trying to get one
percent. And also, y'all seen Mannyjscinto's arms dude, Yes, right,
there are some people like when I say I don't like looking at it,
I like looking at some of the things, and that includes him. He
looks incredible in there. Some of the care also look very very cool.
But yeah, I Acolyte is definitely better than a lot of other Star Wars
stuff that's happened with the live action TV series is recently and I am like,
yeah, I want to explore like a world where I'm not a Jedi,
where I'm just someone trying to get by a scoundrel. This game is
promising that. So It's been the game that I've been wanting for quite some
time. So I continue to be hopeful about it. And I you know,
I think people played the game or saw some of the game around summer
game Fest time. It's some of the reactions were mixed. I'm hoping that
the next time we get the chance to see it that people are like,
well, I played it, and actually it's a ton of fun. It
feels like if they could just nail some of the base things that you're doing
them, but the basic you know, loop of building out the world,
doing some scoundrel shit, coming back and getting more stuff that makes your scoundreling
even better. That sounds pretty good to me, and it sound like that
seems to be what they're talking about here with this progression. Yeah, I
let me be a space scoundrel finally. Yeah, the Star Wars Universe LEXI
sis. She played it and thought it was neat. That's fack. That's
that's good enough for me right now. Arc system Works is working on a
three D a new three D Double Dragon. This is from Andy Robinson at
VGC. Arc system Works is working on a three D revival of classic Beat
Him Up Double Dragon. According to the latest issue of Japanese magazine for Mitsu,
the new game will faithfully recreate the action of the original side scrolling titles,
with characters recreated in three D with Arc system Works fighting game Know How.
Arc system Works is the developer of many popular fighting games, Guilty Gear,
Strive, Dragon Ball Fighters, and Grand Blue Fantasy Versus. According to
Famitsu, the new Double Dragon will be released in twenty twenty five for PS
five, PS four, Xbox and PC. Did I I could see where
my knuckle hit the period and enter but a period in chat? Hell,
Yeah, let's fucking go, let's go. I there was a time I
like where Double Dragon was, like, well, that's one of the important
games franchises me and might always talk about this. It's like that's you know,
there's Mario and there's Zolda, and there's Mega Man and there's Double Dragon,
and that just hasn't been true forever, but I'm glad it's coming back.
Do you have any affinity for Double Dragon? Yeah, Jimmy and Bimmy,
I like those two. Yeah, that's who they are. Maybe Double
Dragon as like a franchise has not been as important, but like the foundation
it is laid out, grub is definitely there. Yeah, I feel I
feel the DNA through the through the gaming industry right, and it's always had
a legacy that has gone with the Kunyu kun games and stuff like that.
So yeah, listen, our system works making a beat him up that is
Double Dragon. Hopefully them recognizing where beat them ups are at these days,
which is they could be a lot more complicated than the arcade days and you
don't have to be oh, here's a simple thing where no matter what,
here's this, here's a combo from an enemy that you're one hundreds gonna get.
Hicks. We need the Movese lives, so they put in more quarters.
It's like, no, here's a complex combo system that the player can
use and some cool dodge moves with with I frames, because that's what like
stuff like Streets of Rage and the New Intrender's Revenge has that makes those games
so much more fun. And yeah, give me, give me more of
that. I hope that's where an ARC system Works can. Clearly they have
the stuff to accomplish that. Uh Now, three D, I hope three
D is just like, well, yeah, it's a three D space.
But I kind of hope it looks like an ARC system Works games. I
hope it looks like Dragon Ball Fighters like that would be great. Yeah,
I hope the the language between three D double dragon is a not a mistranslation,
but a misunderstanding, because like, I aren't the characters in Guilty Gear
they're technically three D, right, Yeah, they're made with like I think
they're all made with unreal engine, just using uh ARC system Works layer over
an unreal engine. I think I could be wrong, Uh, but yes,
it's like they are three D models that just use a certain layer of
shading cell shading to make them look too D. And that's what happens in
Dragon Ball, happens in Guilty Year, all all that stuff that they make.
So I hope it's like, let's just take that engine and make up
beat them up with double Dragon. Yeah, fantastic, give me that,
No, Grub. At the same time, if anyone is gonna make like
a very interesting three D beat them up, I would trusts. Yeah at
this point, like right, if it comes out and it is actual like
three D polygons, no cell shading, it's just straight like whatever, I'll
accept it. At the end of the day, I just want the combo
system. I want the fighting mechanics of this beat them up to be really
solid, and I trust them to do that. I it has been my
dream for the longest time, Grub, and I am once again putting this
out there so this janifests into the universe. Please. Arc System needs to
make a WWE game. Yeah, that would be cool. Yeah, like
with their visual flair, that would be very awesome. I was like,
hey, nether Realms to just take that WWE fighter that they made for mobile
and make that for console. But at this point, okay, maybe that's
kind of an old idea because they were like faux superheroes in that in that
game, right, Nah, just doing guilty gear, but with WWE characters
that'd be great. Uh Okay, let's see here. Last couple of stories.
Overwatch two gets Transformers collaborations f Form, Nintendo Everything. Another collaboration just
appeared in an Overwatch two and the game is now teaming up with Transformers.
Players can get their hands on themed skins enjoin legendary autobots into Scepticons as they
bring their epic battles into Overwatch. Outside of skins, themed events and special
rewards have also been added. Here's some additional information about the about what's featured
Overwatch two. There's Optimus Prime across Rhinehart, so it's a Ryan Hart skin.
Be Instead it will be a Bashing skin r C, which I think
is that the Lady Transformer No No r C and Ilari and Megatron will be
Ramatra skins, and then there'll be a bunch of specific event collectibles things like
that. Uh. This feels I mean, I know Overwatch has been doing
a little bit more of this, but it feels a little undignians, Like,
yeah, undignified in some ways for that franchise, where it's like Overwatch
used to just be like, here's an awesome skin for our original characters,
and now they're like, here's some Transformer slop. Yeah, I'm seeing that
the prices of these bad boys are pretty up there. Yep, that's what
they do now, Okay, yeah, I don't this. This isn't getting
me to go back to Overwatch too. But then again, I'm not a
Transformers fan, right, but I can't see this incentivizing folk to go back
who overwatched to especially because if I was a big fan of Optimist Prime or
any of these Transformers we listed out, I would kind of just want to
play as them versus like a reskin and being forced to play as this class
or as a specific character that I may not even like. Right, Yeah,
that's a good that's a good point. It's weird because for that very
reason. So yeah, like it works in Fortnite in Call of Duty because
those like you build your own classes there, you go get your own weapons
and stuff like that. Here, it makes a little bit less sense now,
I get it, but it does it feels like the like the death
rows of a franchise that is losing relevance, to be like, what can
we do to get people excited, and I don't know, let's go partner
up with another IP and bring and inject that into our game, as I
haven't seen what the skins look like. Is this like the classic Transformers designs
or is this for that new movie coming out? I think it pretty classic.
Let's just bring it up here overwatch Transformers and I'll hit that and then
let's see if there's any images for here is from Kotaku. Yeah, I
mean it looks kind of yeah, like the new movie is actually trying to
do more of a style that is similar to the original, like animated movie,
Like that's what RC is like right here, that's the Lady One and
she looks pretty similar, like inspired by that, but there's definitely still like
extra stuff, like extra coutrement on top of all these characters that looks a
little bit different. Yeah, I guess this is this Megatron. He's got
a cape that's weird. I think I like it. I think I like
it. I know that like Bashan transforms and everything because it turns into a
turret. But like, what did you want lou to be Bumblebee? Because
like Bumblebee's like the Quippie at least the current iteration of Bumblebee very quippi and
like a Poppy versus Bastion. That's a good point. Yeah, and they
do have similar personalities. I don't know, it's uh. I would be
interested to see how these decisions get made, whatever part of it. It's
just like, well, this character already has a scan. We got to
give this other character scin. I guess let's just use Bumblebee. I don't
know. It looks all right, like I kind of have nothing against it
in terms of the way that they are doing the Transformer stuff. It just
feels weird for Overwatch, and again, I know they've been doing it for
a while. Yeah, all right. Suicide Squad Killed the Justice League second
season gets last minute delay. Are you gonna be okay? Jan? I'm
so sorry. Oh h we're gonna play this, Ben lyons. At Game
Reactor last week, rock Steady told us about what the second season of Suicide
Squad Killed the Justice League will bring to the table, and confirm that the
season will start on July eleventh, which is tomorrow. That won't be the
case any further. This season has been hit with a delay that will push
it back around two weeks, meaning you will now have to wait until July
twenty fifth to be able to suit up as mister Freeze, take on the
new Brainiac fights, earn some new gear, and chip away at the fresh
battle pass. I actually didn't know mister Freeze was going to be in this
season. Yeah, mister Freeze is great man. That a animated series story
with him, which I think is the introduction of mister Freeze. I think
maybe not, It's probably wrong. I think that the show introduced what's her
name, the lady everyone always caused plays as Harley Harley Quinn. Yes,
the show. Yeah, that show introduced that character, but mister Freeze is
probably before that. Yeah, mister Freeze is a very cool character that I've
always had an affinity for because of that episode of the animated series. But
I don't know. I bet Suicide Squad is not necessarily going for that.
I mean, this is the last season Ofuicide Squad. You think that we
get I don't know who else they would put in grub or if the interest
is necessarily there. Did you see miss Freeze? Everyone's yelling at me,
Okay, I listen. I didn't know there was a missus Freeze. That's
who he's trying to save the whole time. It's okay, So you're just
gonna play as a frozen lady. That sounds awesome. Actually, yeah,
that I'll get my key back in not being fridged. He doesn't care.
The cold never bothered him anyway. Uh yeah, grub, I don't know.
Did you see that there is a suicide There was a new suicide Squad
anime on Max the one to watch for HBO. Uh I did not know
that. I'll have to check this out. How is it? It is
called suicide Squad? Is kai? Oh? Okay? Where does it takes
place? Take place in King Arthur's court or something like what? I don't
know. I have not seen it, but it looked flashy from the the
art on the Max carousel. All right, well, hey, good luck
with that, HBO or Max the one to watch for HBO. I think
they're getting rid of that. I think they're gonna like start calling stuff HBO
originals again it's the Max originals. Weird. Oh my god, that's strange.
All right, that does it for the news. I got a poll
question that I will get up here right now, actually from forever ago,
but we got your responses. Do you think that Kojamo will work on metal
gear in any capacity again before the universe ends. Sixty nine percent said no,
thirty one percent have a faith and said yes. I voted yes.
I think like that'll probably be the case, I think, and again,
I think it'll just be like, oh, he signed off on it and
says I'm executive producer or something like that and barely does anything on it.
But that counts. What do you think you think we ever see that again?
Do you think there's ever a world where uh Pujima, like I mean,
he's already very popular, but he's skyrockets where he just buys Konami.
Konami has too many other businesses I saw. It's like like I Konami were
like the spin off, it's like video game businesses. Maybe he would be
in a situation where he could like spearhead that with investors, Like that's not
impossible. I forget about all the other things. Yes, the bath houses
and whatever, insurance. I don't know what else they have. Yeah,
I could see that bridge being mended in the future. I think. I
also voted yes in this poll, like yeah, it's I think there's money
on the table exactly, and right and people like if they were to make
if they were to come back and do the Metal Gear movie at a certain
point, if he like has some hits with like the Desk Stranding movie,
I would be I wouldn't be surprised to be Konami be like, hey,
yeah, let's just get him on board, so his name's involved, And
again I think that would count. And then you know, when they do
a Metal Gear solid, you know, six or whatever, maybe he's not
involved in that first one, but like the next one, they're like,
oh and we got Kojima back on board. He's he approved everything, and
it would just be a figurehead position. But still I think that could happen.
All right, That is the poll question. We will have a new
poll question here for the show tomorrow. Before we do that, though,
Jan what do we have happening on Giant Bomb and all that good stuff?
We will have a d Light Club later today. We're still figuring out what
to do for that. Lots and lots on the table. If there's anything
specific that's come out and drop that you would like us to check out,
please please please let us know. But Games Mornings for the rest of the
week. Voicemail dump truck tomorrow and we have UPF and BCR planned for Friday.
Yep, so it's looking good. The week is shaping out. Tune
in for everything. Blake Club will be back next week, everybody. I
know, it's been quite a hiatus, but you know, Dan's recovery has
gone well, and now both Mike and Dan they're out of town today.
So it's how the timing works out occasionally. But yeah, we'll get back
into it and I think we'll have a couple of weeks in a row where
we will play some tai katana unfortunately. All Right, a new poll question.
Are you planning to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass going forward? Just yes
or no? Let's just kind of gauge everyone, see how they're doing,
see how you're feeling about it, and if that means if you are planning
to cancel, if you're already subscribing, you're planning to cancel, that would
I think that would count as a no. So are you planning to subscribe
to Xbox Game Pass going forward? That will be up on the YouTube dot
com slash at Giant Bomb. If you go to the community tab you'll find
that there. If you go to the live tab you'll find all of our
videos recently. If you go to giant bomb dot com you can find us
there. I suppose Janet show. Thank you so much for speaking. Oh
yeah, please two more things. Oh yeah, hit the people with the
facts. Yeah, sorry, greb to kill the momentum. All good,
uh for folks that missed it, are lovely. Turbo Sean put together all
of metal Gear scans and into big old episodes on YouTube. So the whole
season in a single video, put together everything. It's all on a YouTube
playlist. If you missed it, it was behind the premium wall. We
decided to bring that out of the vault. Go enjoy that as Drew Scanlon
is guided by his sharpa Dan reichert through all of metal Gear that is all
over there on the YouTube. It shouts out to Tom Caswell and Terbo Shawn
and Nicki Grayson of course for leading the charge. Because John BOM's turnting sixteen
y'all. We're putting together a whole bunch of videos recapping and just going through
fond, fond memories and strolling down a memory lane from the current staff,
all our peeps we work with now and a couple of friends of the site
and old faces you may recognize. Also, there's a new draft a video
for Blake Club. Go watch that. It's very good. I think Danny
O'Dwyer's dropped today and Danny recounts the good old times of backflips and bioforge.
Yep, good stuff. Uh, definitely check all that out. It's it's
been fun starting to see those come out come out and made me realize,
oh, I should do mine, and I did last night. Actually,
me and Mike recorded artist simultaneously last night. I had to mute him,
so you'll getting plenty from us everybody, all right, Jan, thank you
so much for spending today talking with me about video games. Thank you all
for watching and listening. You're the best audience in gaming, for real and
for serious. Until next time, have a good one, take care of
yourself, and goodbye.