You'll be got be bad. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do
this for December twentieth, twenty twenty three, somehow. For the next hour
or so, let me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game
Mes Mornings Live with me Jeff Grubb. Today, that huge insomniac HAC is
going to make it difficult to avoid details about the studio's Wolverine game, and
early details leak about the next Call of Duty. But first, please join
me and welcome to today's co host, the Game Mess Mornings. It's Lucy
James. Everybody, Lucy, how are you doing? If I'm vexed?
Oh no, not vexed. I'm vexed Jim. I woke up this morning
thinking I hope Lucy James doesn't come in vex today. I hate that for
her. You know why, because this Wednesday mocks every every element of a
favorite morning for me. Okay, okay, So for all, I woke
up an hour and a half before my alarm. That is one sleep cycle
before my alarm, so I get one good sleep cycle in. I put
on my heated mattress top. Okay, Oh that's good, right, It's
raining really hard. And then so that makes that the heated mattress topper like
work even better. Right, Like it hits me, it's just right because
I keep the window open a little crack. How to do it? Lucy
James, you know, Yeah, you're living. You're sliving, I think
is what it was what the kids call. And then my my cat was
like get up, get up, get up for the last hour. So
I have not really been able to enjoy any of it. So I'm vexed.
Yeah, that that's frustrating for sure. My Yeah, Nico Mumu over
here in my house, that's my cat's name. He does like if it's
something slightly off about the water food situation. It is six am, and
he's gonna let everybody know. He's twenty five pounds, just a fucking honkin
big boy, so his cry can be very loud. Yeah, it'll wake
us up no matter where he's at. So I definitely feel that. But
yeah, like having everything set up ready to go for that perfect morning and
then have a little bastard dru in it. I definitely know it's a little
bastard. Yeah, Peanuts like fifteen pounds, So like she stands on me
and she's like, hi, and she's also pot Siamese, right, so
she's a very talkie. Yes, yeah, people don't know Siamese. Cats
are the ones that will just now constantly the fun. I respect this about
cats with this effect. I've learned, like relatively recently over the last couple
of years, they don't me out at each other when they become adults.
They do as kittens, but when they become adults, they typically don't meow
at each other. That is something they reserve for when they want us to
feel like, feel some and there mews like have basically evolved over like a
few one hundred years. Like the ones that have more human baby sounding cries
are even more talkative, like they are specifically trying to manipulate us. And
I love that. I love that, yeah, because I also I chat
to my cat back. Uh huh. Yeah. She knows what she's knowing
exactly how she's working. Well, ahole, and you're like, all right,
here's your here's your food. Yeah, I have a question. My
daughter is six, she's in first grade, and she was very excited that
her friends told her that someone was going to break into our house because her
friends for friends told her that they are ninja's and they would come over and
help her. She's like, so the people are gonna bring in, but
it's okay because my friends are going to be here to help us. And
I'm like, I can't tell if she's playing along or if that's like an
imaginary friend scenario where it's like, this is just she wants to believe in
this fantasy, or is she just that she gullible? Should I be more
worried about my six year old believing her ninja friends are going to come to
my house and stop the burglars from burgalizing my house? Who does she think
of the ninja friends like Dan? No? No, her friends? I
should say. Yes, she's got two friends that are class that are telling
her this. They're telling her a tale and she's she's buying a hook line
at sinker. But who does she think the ninjas are? Like? Actual
ninjas? Yeah? I mean she thinks that these kids are ninjas. They
tell her that they are ninjas, and then the who the I mean,
I don't know who she thinks the burglars are probably Dan almost certainly, Yeah,
yeah, Dan looks like one of the the guys from Home Alone.
Oh yeah, Harry, uh yeah, yeah, they have a name,
whether they have two names. There's this the Sticky Bandits, Sticky Bandits or
is it? Yeah, there's definitely no. They're sticky in the second movie
because he hears the tape and he puts his hand in the thing and he's
like sticky. Yeah. But the first one, the Wet Bandits in the
first movie, Yes, that's right. Who thought that was? Okay,
Lucy Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus was. She's done so many terrible things in
history, including coming up with the Wet Bandits. Shoot, I love those
movies. Home Alone some good movies. I've only seen the first one.
Home Alone two is great, it really is. You can stop there though,
You're good after that? Ish, you know, sure, I guess
that's fair. But you know, we had we had Home Alone. Absolutely,
we had Home Alone. I just I just don't know why my family
never watched it, like, oh this this little American kid is lost again.
Yeah it must be America. All right, we're good, we got
we saw the first one. We'd get it. I remember watching it my
mom once and she being like, how how the hell are they all affording
a trip to Paris? Okay, we we think that all too. That
would be fair. Yeah, because it's like this, they're all going to
go to Paris or they're all going to go to Florida, uh in two
back to back years. Yeah, it's it's nuts. And then that house
they have in Chicago, it's got to be like set like tens of millions
of dollars at this point. So yeah, yeah, all right, let's
explain what we do here most weekdays, I jef Gred 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. You are watching live on
twitch Welcome. You can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by
searching for Game Mess Mornings, or find the RSS on giant bomb dot com.
You can also catch the show later with chapters in timestamps on YouTube.
Hello YouTube. All right, we have a lot to get into, so
let's start the Morning Mess with PUS five hits fifty million consoles sold. November
twenty twenty three was its best month in PlayStation history for console sales. That's
from Eddie McCoo at GameSpot, Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced that the PlayStation five
has achieved a massive new sales milestone, the total number of units sold to
consumers reaching fifty million as of December ninth. This counts systems sold worldwide,
and it bears repeating that this is a sold through number, not a shipped
figure. Sold through would be actually sold through to consumers, not shipped to
stores, which a lot of times companies do mention when they talk about their
console sales. SIE boss Jim Ryan, who was retiring in twenty twenty four,
said the results said, the sales result results is a testament to the
unwavering support of the global PlayStation community and their passion for the incredible experiences created
by talented developers from PlayStation studios and their partners. This is that's a pretty
fast way to get to that milestone, fifty million consoles sold. There was
a time where it's like, man, that seems so far away for these
consoles that are struggling to meet demand. And now suddenly I'm like, I
feel like I blinked and we're here. Fifty million is more than enough to
be like, yeah, the generation is fully in swing and you could put
out a massive game and sell it to enough people that own enough PlayStation fives
to actually make it make sense. So do you feel like that's like this
marks a change where it's like, yeah, we are here fully in this
generation. Yeah, I think so. I think at this point, now
that they are available to buy easily, I think that's that was the point,
at least in my mind where it changed. The first Actually you know
what it was the first time I saw one in a target. Yeah,
that's like me too, Yeah, back baby, way back. I'm like,
oh, yeah, nature's healing. It's in a target, that's where
I expect to see them, and it's right there underneath the thing. And
there's been times where I would go back, now there are no PS fives
again, but now there's times where I go in there's like there's like eight
PS fives under this Kioskin target. This is now that appels very weird,
but clearly it's like, oh, yeah, they're here. And now those
consoles, both the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation five, are so abundant
at this point that both companies have had several, like months long periods where
they have discounted these systems significantly to try to sell even more. That really
makes it feel like, Okay, they are pushing these things in a way
that they did not have to up to this point, and it's like,
y okay, yeah, so we are fully here. Yeah, I just
want to say that, Yeah, I have my PlayStation mug today, but
don't worry, I also have my Xbox One balancing all things equal. Ops.
Here where's your where's your Amiga mug? And your Common or sixty four
mug in in the wash? In the wash? Sure? Yes, totally.
Uh this is like good news for PlayStation obviously. Uh. They were
trying to get back on track with PS five after the slow start because of
the constraint. Uh that that has like washed away those concerns where it's like,
oh, are they going to be able to meet the pace of the
PS four with the PS five. They've done that and now they're they're kind
of outpacing it to a certain extent. This being the best November in PlayStation
history, I mean just goes to show they people are still waiting to get
these systems and the demand will continue to be there even though supply is robust
at this point. So just like that wasn't it was like artificial. It
wasn't people feeling just fomo, although obviously that's part of it. And it's
like, I know, people want to play PlayStation five games. There's that
new Spider Man too, that is going to sell like crazy throughout the rest
of the generation. So yeah, they're they're doing really good over there with
PlayStation, with getting the PlayStation five to meet this momentum. Do you wonder
it's like, do people begin to say, Okay, that's great, I
got it. Now what's happening next with PlayStation in terms of games that are
coming down the pike because PlayStation has been pretty quiet about that stuff for about
a year now. I just feel like they don't have anything. I'm starting
to like, I'm starting to get that vibe as well, like we you
know, that's the vibe like PlayStation it's usually pretty open about what they've got
cooking and who they could surprise us at any moment. But I you know,
what really did is like you know, the insomniac leaks where it's like
we look at some of the spacing of the games that they're talking about with
like that they're working on, and you see the gaps getting larger and larger
between future games, and those are projections that's not going to deal with the
reality of Oh and now we have to delay this same because we need more
time on something. So it's like, even in like the best case scenarios
for some of these studios, they are looking at greater and greater durations between
releases, and I think we're in right now is a gap that's created by
just the natural flow of these studios putting up a bunch of games back to
back and now everyone is reloading at the same time. And you know,
that definitely happened throughout this year where it's like PlayStation didn't have a ton of
first party stuff beyond Spider Man. They have filled in the gap by working
with Square Nix on games like you know, for Spoken, but some Final
Fantasy stuff as well, Final Fantasy sixteen. But when it comes to just
first party PlayStation, I think you're right, it feels like they don't have
as much now. If they do have some games in the works, it
seems like it was going to be those live service games, and now those
there's a big question mark on those as well, right, Yeah, a
big question mark obviously, last of USC got canceled late last week. Then
I think, I mean, what are they going to do at this point?
Obviously they got the relationship with Square for Final Fantasy seven rebirth, But
then are we looking at more Last of Us Part two PS five versions?
Are we looking at more PC versions of things? Are we looking at more
third party deals? Because? Yeah, what is It's weird going into a
year and not knowing what the ten pole PlayStation five release is going to be.
Yeah, and again, and I wonder if they're feeling a bit squirrely.
Yeah, and it's you know, I Jim Ryan leaving. I think
he's kind of getting out while they'reetting getting good a little bit where it's like,
sure, I don't think he's like, oh, PlayStation's in trouble,
but I think it will require some very active management of like navigating this period
coming up where it's like, Okay, we have all this that we're at
this high point, can we go from strength to strength? Well, that
might be more difficult if we don't have a God of War Spider Man Last
of Us equivalent coming out in the next couple of years, And again they
might I bet they will have some very good releases in twenty twenty four.
But whether or not they're going to be able to have the big, massive
releases that they're aiming to have, that seems to be the ongoing question.
Yep, all right. Call of Duty twenty twenty five is a semi futuristic
Black Ops two sequel. This is from Insider Gaming. This is not the
next Call of Duty. It's the next Next Call of Duty, currently known
under the code name Saturn. Insider Gaming has learned from multiple sources that Call
of Duty twenty five is set to take players back to the future and then
he's got a joke here about how that Marty McFly and all that stuff.
But instead it's like the very slight future in a way that the series is
not done. Since Black Ops four in twenty eighteen, the games have either
been throwback at games or they've been modern games, not near future. Insider
Gaming understands that Call of Duty twenty twenty five is currently in development as a
direct sequel to Call of Duty Black Ops two, being set around twenty thirty.
Black Ops two is set in twenty twenty five. As such, fans
should expect the return of some fan favorite protagonist as the team faces a new
villain following the death of Menindez blah blah blah. As previously rumored, Black
Ops two remastered maps will be coming to the game, but recent plans and
the scope of the game have changed significantly. Previously, the intention was to
have all of the Black Ops two remastered maps released on launch, similar to
how Modern Warfare twos two thousand and nine maps came back in Modern Warfare three.
At a certain point, this is so confusing because the naming of these
games, but talking about the maps that just launched as part of Modern Warfare
three the remastered maps from Modern Warfare two. However, the current plan now
is to launch with new maps and remastered maps in conjunction, and this seems
to be to avoid the appearance of what happened with Modern Warfare three, where
people are like, this is glorified DLC. They don't want to have that
same appearance again, so they're going to change things up a little bit.
Lucy. There's not much to say here other than hey, okay, call
of duty. So I think this next one coming up is also a Black
Ops. That might be this Black Ops two that they're referring to. I
think they're actually doing a Golf War Black Ops in twenty twenty four, and
then they're going to have another Black Ops the year after and kind of do
similar to what they've done with Modern Warfare over the last couple of years.
It's yeah, like I said, not much to stay. But like,
do you think that they're going to be able to keep this excitement about call
of duty that they seemingly have been able to do without fail four years now?
But they are at a little bit of a low point with Modern Warfare
three. Do you think this rectifies that and people will be excited about Black
Ops? Yeah? Yeah, that's the right notes. I you know,
cool of duty for me right now? Is this impenetrable beast? I have
not I dropped off maybe, Like I mean, I played war Zone a
bunch when it first came out with some buds and now I'm just like,
I don't know, is Vedansk still there? Are we still out? I
don't know what's happening with I can't even tell you what the latest release was.
It was Was it Modern Warfare? It was Modern Warfare three again?
Again? Yes, yes, it's uh yeah, and that that Modern war
for three with maps from Modern war for two. The two thousand and nine
game. It's it's it's a mess. Oh my god, have new ideas,
right, I mean, well, you know, and in defense of
like the studio that made that stuff, they were given like eighteen months to
put together in three game. But so, like, I get why they
end up putting out like a two hour three hour campaign or whatever that Chris
Judge made fun of and then uh, and then a bunch of remastered maps.
Uh, but who put them in that position? Activision Management, Like
they they completely screwed these studios on this stuff and they were left scrambling.
And I do think there will be some like payment in terms of like the
fanned sentiment that the next game will have to like make up for. But
a lot of people are like, well they disassociate called black ops from modern
warfare. They're like, this is a chance reset things. So I think
they might have a little bit of a benefit there. The other thing I
wonder here is All of Duty had a series of near future games where they
had different movement abilities, different movement tech including like wall running, double jumps,
and be able to like jump back and forth in the air and not
boots on the ground. They made a big deal about going back to Boots
on the ground, and now they are going back to to a slightly future
setting. I wonder if there's any chance they embrace that stuff. I think
that's very unlikely, but I think it's time. I would be very cool
for me, as someone who's been very happy to go back to titan Fall
two recently. But do you think there's any chance call of duty does that
again, or is that like, no, they're just going to stick with
the boots on the ground. I think it'd be really cool for them to
do future stuff again. I agree. I think they've had a lot of
learnings, certainly from that one. And yeah, like there's so much good
will and sentiment around Titanfall two that people definitely want the quicker pace, they
want the wall running, they want the cool shit. Obviously they want the
big mechs in that too. But you know, maybe maybe I do,
Yes, absolutely, yes, I do want I do want the mix.
But I mean, I'm at the point now with Koler g and I used
to play quite a lot, oh my god, thirteen years ago same pricing
that I'm just like, I'm switched off by the fact that everything seems to
just be very, very similar. I know card card fans will look at
me and be like, no, everything is actually very very different per game,
and I'm just like, from the outside looking in, it's impenetrable.
At this point, I would love a kind of fresh restart. Yeah,
once you sort of take that exit off of the game, it is so
much harder to care about all that those differences again. And it's like they're
still sell but they're just not yes, you know, yeah, I don't
know, they're just kind of It's like a card now is just expected hit
and people it feels like it just feels like people don't talk about Cord the
way that they did because yeah, we're talking about it now and it's like
both of us have that noise you made. It's like, at a certain
point, what else can you say about it? We can speculate about,
Oh, is it is it finally declining? We've done that years ago before
and it went back up and it goes and well I expect it, we'll
go back down and then it'll go back up again. It does feel like
a fact of life at a certain point. And like oxygen, and we
don't talk about oxygen. We we're not gonna talk about call of Duty.
It's it's just there. Yeah, So you know, I mean there's some
interesting aspects about like how they are approaching things. I would like for them
to do some new stuff with the movement, but you know, we'll see,
and if they don't, I'll just continue going back to titan Fall two
whatever and we'll live. I'll play that over break. Yeah, you know.
That's the one real good thing about having the rog Ally with windows is
being able to play some of those shooters to have the anti sheet and not
having to try to struggle to get steam deck to work with all that stuff.
So some of them work better than others. But it's like, no,
it just just works on the Ally. And then you got a little
handheld that can play these great shooters and it runs stuff like that really well.
So I want to like do leveling up in Titanfall two because all my
Titanfall two levels are on Xbox and I'd like to get them on the PC
now the next time we play that. So we have all this stuff unlocked.
Hell yeah, all right, let's take a quick break, everybody.
When we get back, we have a lot more news. We'll talk about
it after this. We're back We're back and I got a PSA here for
you from Evan Camo game spot Marvel's Wolverine spoilers are spreading after the Insomniac hack.
Be careful when spotting anything online about Marvel's Wolverine for the foreseeable future.
Gameplay for the PS five exclusive, as well as the storyline details have leaked
out after the developer, Insomniac reportedly was hacked by a group called Recita.
It has since acute. It has since been a bit accused of trying to
ransom two million dollars out of Sony before releasing private information when those demands weren't
met. Was it accused or was it like they just admitted it, like,
yeah, give us two million dollars. I can't remember how it went
down. In a series of messages on Twitter, Prolific Modern Lance McDonald chronicled
chronicled how the Wolverine footage and details could pop up, with gameplay video now
appearing on sites like Reddit. A PC build of Wolverine was reportedly included in
the leaked data, which could make it easier for spoilers in gameplay to be
shared online. In addition to the Wolverine leaks. The Insomniac hack includes a
ton of personal information for employees at the Sony owned studio, such as employment
forms, slack messages, and internal emails. Unannounced projects from the developers have
also supposedly been released by the hackers. There's little officially known about Wolverine since
the game was initially revealed at a PlayStation showcase in September twenty twenty one.
I didn't even realize it. I didn't realize it was that lone. So
that's kind of wild, right part of me. That's like why I was
like that game could come out in late twenty twenty four. Insomniac's that good.
Turns out that's not going to be the case, but yeah, it's
yeah, so, uh, Wolverine spoil are out there. I did look
at some of this, lucy it is. There's like just early gameplay test
and it's the worst kind of spoilers, where it's like, so much this
shit could change. We have no idea how much of this stuff is actually
solidified. Game development is messy. They iterate a ton there is a strong
chance that the stuff that people are going to see in this and then you
know, fanboys might argue about online will be completely worthless because it actually might
not come to pass. But yeah, that stuff is out there and you
can like see gameplay tests. You could see I think there's a script out
there, things like that. So a ton of a ton of like massive
leaks for a game that could be very different by the time we're actually playing
it. But yeah, this this the whole hack we talked about on the
BombCast yesterday. If you want to like get the news about some of the
details about games that are coming that sort of stuff. But other than that,
these like specific details kind of don't see the purpose of like, hey,
here's what the game test was like, because again, it could change
a lot. Although I get what if you're interested is from an academic point
of view, I understand the I you know, I guess I didn't realize
that the impersonal information included stuff like slack messages and internal emails like like nine's
possible skills. That's so violating, right, God, it's like you imagine,
like we were respectful and like our slacks and stuff like that. Still
if our slack messages like wait, well okay, I told you to go
fu yourself, don't kidding, Listen, I am. I'm very respectful.
Uh if that stuff got out there, I would be like, oh man,
I feel exposed. I feel vulnerable and that like I just kind of
like won't feel safe talking at work anymore. That's it just sucks so bad
for everyone involved. And wait, John just said, oh god, my
slack messages to myself. Yeah. Yeah, you don't keep your h your
notes to yourself in slack. I ad some stuff, no, all right,
mostly just like how I'm feeling about Lucy James today. Okay, God,
damnit, son of a bitch. She used the word vexed. She
came in vexed, and I told her never to do that. It's unprofessional.
Oh I god, yeah, I just I mean, like I started
using Incognita the other day just to like get my personal information off the internet,
and like imagine just like logging on one day and being like, oh
sick, all my personal shit's been leaked mm hmm, and then oh cool,
it's the holidays. I'm gonna have to stop all my credit cards.
I'm gonna have to report fraud. It's like, why, Yeah, it
did happen to me with the ESA. I was in there and I got
a call from Oh you got got yea. Oh yes, Someone who had
been a real shithead during gamor Gate literally called me to say, hey,
you're on this list and it was like, oh, this is fucking I'm
eating dinner right now with my kid. Yeah, this fucking sucks. So
yeah, and that felt very exposed and ran on mind to go like figure
out what was going on. And then everyone was talking about it. So
yes, I've been through that, and it does. It really is like,
Okay, there's my address. Thankfully, at that time, it was
like that's my old address that I just moved from, So that was something,
but that wasn't true for everybody. Just a wild situation. So yeah,
I've heard I've heard her stories about people like sending Google Maps pictures to
people of where they lived. And I think we were lucky that yet because
we were exhibitors so we went on that list. Yep. But yeah,
I mean it happened to a lot of my friends and it was terrifying.
It's so weird, So definitely feel for the people at Insomniac dealing with this
and then and then yeah, and then and then all that information out there,
it's like it is a ton of like just like raw data and a
lot of cases and stuff that is out of context, and it's I've already
I've already seen I've already seen some fucking people who don't understand game development.
Quote to with this looks like, shit, oh my good to make a
loooking video game. It was like, oh my god, I hate that
so much. We don't know anything, yep, And they're just like,
you know, okay, there's bok, there's a wolverine sniffing section, and
you like they're just testing this idea out everybody who knows. There's just no
way to know what this is going to be like in the final game,
and like it's all placeholder ship. So like there's a big sniff in sound
effect that he does and it's like funny, but it's a test. It's
it's not meant to ever be seen by the public, so that you could
like it could like taint your perception of this game. And so now that
it's out there, that's like people, it's so frustrating because you know,
internally they're like, yeah, we we feel safe testing these things because it's
only going to be seen by our eyes. And then to have that that
switch flip and be like, no, a bunch of assholes on the internet
are gonna see it and comment on it. It's like, God, it
really would be very again, very exposing, and I would feel very vulnerable.
So feel for everybody at the studio. Yeah, Final Fantasy seven reverse
main story takes forty hours to be You know what, this is a mini
Dregs Day, Lucy. I'm sorry to say with this the kind of news
we have today Dregs Day. So when TAM's on on Fridays, we talk
about Drugs Day because it's like there's just not a ton happening on Fridays.
Usually we're at that point where it's December twentieth and there's just not a lot
of news happening. So you finishing Christmas shopping, I'm mostly mostly Yeah,
I'm gonna take the girls out on one more excursion so that they can get
something for their mama and then we'll make a day of that. Now that'll
be then then I'll definitely be all done. Yeah, but Friday is going
to be my day. We have to Yeah, I'm everything. Yeah,
it's like Friday. Do you are you worried about like crowds or anything or
is that not going to bother you too much. No one shops and Frances
anymore. Haven't you seen the dead shoping either? You're going to do one
of those organized mass lootings. Just do one of those. That's what.
That's all I ever see. I tell how people shopping SF No. I
I was actually talking about this with my friend Andrew the other day because we
were discussing presents because we were doing like friends Christmas and do you guys do
you guys do like a uh the secret Santa sort of thing. No,
we do presents for everyone. Okay, that's fine, that's that's intention.
Yeah, it is. I was at TAMS at the weekend and we did
some of the presents then because some people are going away, and then we're
doing some on Christmas Day and Christmas Eve because I've got like two little Christmases,
which is great. But we were talking about it and I said,
I'm probably gonna go Friday. I'm gonna go, you know, get the
last bits from my list. And he was very sweet and he was like,
can I come and join you and we can just knock it out together,
and I just went, I love you. No, I need to
be like a navy strike team. Yep, I get out out. I
don't corner. Yeah, like I I'm afraid I can't. I'm afraid I
can't do that. I feel exactly the same way. It's like I'm so
much more efficient on my own than if there's anyone else around me. I
just and I need to make this happen and get it all done. So
how many people is this? Is this? Like? Is it like a
significant I mean, so I'm going to the Miller's obviously, so see them,
my godson, and then our friend group's pretty pretty big, and we've
got a bunch of us going round to the Scovilles. So I think like
ten or so maybe it's that's what the number. It's like, Yeah,
that's you gotta really think about everything there. Yeah. We we're also like
everyone's bringing like a little a little thing to cook. So I'm gonna have
to hit up Traded Joe's or Whole Foods to get some stuff and I'm gonna
make it. I'm gonna make an orange a chuckle orange bread and butter pudding.
Oh that sounds fantastic. Yeah, that sounds really good. Yeah.
I got my present from Jeff backlar me too. Yeah, I got a
desk mat with a man that is like a pixelated man who's outdoors. I
don't know what do yours look like. I got a desk mat with cat
paws on it, and he wrote a very nice note and then at the
end and he said, I got you something with cat pauson, but if
you want to switch it to dogs, let me know Backlar. Always be
selling, always be closing the deal with dogs. That's fantastic. He YEA
Final Fantasy seven rebirth main story is going to take forty hours to beat.
I might just put this in here because Final Fantasy seven remake is a game
I liked a lot, and it was just a bit too long for me,
just a bit. How long was it? It was like, how
long was it? It was like thirty five to forty hours? Right,
I think I got like thirty hours in and I was like, still very
happy with it. It was just I lost momentum. And that's mostly me.
That's not really a problem with the game. But I guess, you
know, I'm glad they're saying forty hours and not like, Okay, now
we're going to expand this one to sixty hours and the next will be eighty
hours. Or anything like that. I'm glad that there is some constraint on
it, but yeah, I don't know. I'm getting pretty excited about this.
I really enjoyed playing Final Fantasy seven remake, and I think this is
really going to scratch an itch next year. And I suppose, Hey,
this is a big PlayStation five exclusive, right that you were talking about Sony
not having much, but they still have those partners putting out games and that's
going to fill in a lot of the gaps for them. So that's pretty
good. Yeah, I think that is cool. I'm excited to get back.
I might play it. I keep saying. I keep saying I'm going
to be playing this over break. You're gonna be playing this over Break.
So maybe I won't, but maybe in January because thing he got delayed in
it Alone in the Dark, which I was weirdly intrigued by. Yeah,
that you didn't get delayed again, or is that like early next year you're
saying March now? It was January, okay, And it was supposed to
come out this year at some point and then they were like, oh no,
too much coming out. Yeah, I'm like, God, look at
Alan Wake. Jesus Christ got to get away from that thing. Yeah.
I'm also very curious about Alone in the Dark, mostly because I like what's
his name? David Harbor Jody Cooma, Yeah, big big comer and harborhead
over here all right. Anthem has sold at least five million copies. This
is from Jonas Maki at Game Reactor. After creating some of the best and
most memorable single player RPGs of all time, BioWare suddenly decided to dabble with
live service games and released Anthem back in twenty nineteen. It was by far
their biggest and most expensive game. Unfortunately, BioWare lacked the expertise on how
to make this kind of game, and despite some pretty good and creative gameplay,
it lacked in pretty much every other department, with a weird loot system,
tedious leveling, and an empty world that did not encourage people to continue
playing. This led to poor sales and Biowaar ultimately canceling the game after initially
trying to save it. But how much did it sell? Thanks to a
new linked in post from a former BioWare employee discovered by timber two to two
on Twitter, we now have the answer. It turns out the game actually
started started out fairly well, with two million units shifted in its first week,
and during its lifetime reached five million copies sold. We assume that a
lot of these were at a heavily dis kind of price, so the numbers
alone don't give the whole picture. That's fair. But at certain points,
like Man, two million copies sold in your first week and eventually getting to
five million at any price, you would expect that would be enough in most
cases. And it's like, if it's not that there just feels like there's
something rotten underneath the surface. For like the way that the industry approaches these
games. I don't know, or is that number not enough? What do
you think, Lucy? I mean not enough for EA. If you think
about EA's numbers with FIFA and everything, Yeah, that's not that's not enough,
end sad. I mean Anthem had a lot of problems. Genuinely,
I thought the flying was great. I genuinely thought they should have been making
an Iron Man game instead of whatever it was that Anthem became. But yeah,
they had a rough few years of it, didn't they, Because I
mean, Dragon Age is great, and then they had Mass Effect Andromeda,
which and then yeah, into Anthem yep. And what was was that the
last thing that bio I released, they did Mass Effect Legendary Edition, uh,
which is very good. Yes, and they did a very good job
on and they deserve credit for that, although of course, you know it's
a remaster, but yeah, hey still get credit for putting out a very
good compilation. So you know, yeah, if we're talking about big new
games from them, they are on a missing streak. They're on a streak
of missus and uh, that's why people are definitely worried about Dragon Age for
Dragon Age Dreadwolf Rightdwolf. Yes, you know, what's that egg be up
to? I know that fucking that fucking weird egg. Yeah, you know,
As always, I continue to hear people internally are very happy with that
game. You know, who knows how that translates to us eventually playing it,
But the excitement internally is strong. They are pretty happy with it.
And yeah, it's taking some time, and it's taking a little extra time.
They go and they got rid of a lot of the staffs who helped
make Dragon Age great, yep. And that forced them to take a lot
of people who are working on the next Mass Effect and move them over to
dragon Age, so they could actually get that game done some as effect,
it's going to take even longer. But yeah, I mean at a certain
point, like by Aware had to buckle down and really kind of like and
they had to slim down because they haven't made money in years for e A
and so this was always going to happen. Obviously, you point a lot
of that at maybe at EAU, but at EA they also feel like,
hey, yeah, BioWare made a lot of poor decisions as well. There's
blame to go around, at least in terms of the people who run the
studio. So there's a lot riding in dragon Age. But I think if
dragon Age comes out and as a game that sells six million copies or more,
it probably should be okay because it's going to be a different game than
Anthem, which was supposed to be a live service game, and really it's
like five million copies sold that that probably didn't matter as much as the engagement,
how much of people actually playing this. And at a certain point,
no one was playing Anthem and it wasn't worth saving, and they made that
decision they were going to save the game, and they're like, no,
we're gonna pull the plug on it and go make Dragon Age four and uh
yeah, Dragon Age Rereadwolf, and that's probably the right decision. I mean
even got inquisition and multiplayer. Yeah some reason. Yeah zaw. That five
million number is kind of becoming the break even number. We saw that in
some of the Sony The Sony data that least out Insomniac as well is five
million copies solds break even for many of their biggest games. And it's like,
okay, yeah, as budgets get up to two hundred three hundred million
dollars, that's going to be the norm. It's like, how many,
right, how many of those games can like actually come out in a year
and all sell that number? Answers? Not not enough of them. Many
of them are going to fail, so uh at that it's insane, You're
right, all right. Zero ninety nine new update is now lying adds limited
time Frozen Night League. This is from Leam Doolin at Nintendo Life. One
of the highlights of twenty twenty three has been the surprise release of zero ninety
nine, a new Battle Royale racer exclusive to Switch Online. While Nintendo said
no more new tracks would be added to the game, it's not completely done
with content updates. In a new update today, it added the limited time
Frozen Night League event, where snow falls across all of the courses. In
addition to this, the latest update has also added some other content, and
it comes with some fixes as well. Lucy, I like F zero ninety
nine a lot. I like like winter events and video games a ton.
I want more of them and a bunch of stuff mostly out of this one.
So I can ask you, what is your favorite Christmas y video game?
I tweeted this yesterday? Did I missed it? Okay, we are
all not my favorite, but I think Disco Elysium is a pretty good Christmas
game. Yeah, I saw you, and I'm like, oh, yeah,
because it feels very flinty and cold that game. And that's what and
I do like that about that game a ton. It feels like it could
take place in Minnesota parts of Yeah. I also I also think the sound
effects are very it's a word to describe it, very warm sounding, the
way the subtle piano key when a choice, when a decision gets made,
the way that the way that classic CRT Christmas bulbs like have that warm glow
to them. The sound Effect has a similar quality to it. For sound,
yes, definitely. Oh, the Discosium Sea Power soundtrack is my working
music at the moment. I've been I've been working to that Gone Girl and
the Gone Girl Trenton Resnor and Atocus Ross soundtrack, but I do chores to
the SIMS soundtrack. Oh that makes sense, Yes, get that shit done.
Yes, absolutely, So that's a good Christmas game. I also think
obviously Batmanockham origins Christmas game. That's right, Yeah, totally. She says
it Christmas. In terms of what is a game, I always used to
think Assassin's Creed with my Christmas games because they would always come out towards the
end of the year. Sure. Yeah, Like Donkey Kong Country is that
for me? And that big part of it. I really like the snow
levels in Donkey Kong Country that where the snow is like covering most of the
screen. It actually makes the playing it kind of miserable. But I still
liked it a ton. Yeah, but it's like, oh, it's not
necessarily quote unquote a Christmas game, but I have those associations. Uh Marvel's
uh spider Man Miles Morales is at Christmas and that opening sequence where you swing
through the mall. That's like super duper Christmas e to me, I just
my personally. I wonder what Lexi thinks is a good Christmas game? You
forgot? You forgot the Yakuza game? Yeah, because that fine? So
many of them, many of them are Christmas games? Are they? Are?
They? Oh? But I play them in the summer. I never
play them at Christmas though. That's the thing, so in my head,
even though even though Kiriu is dressed up as Santa, that's a summer cent
Chances the Canada level and Tonyak's pro Skeater three that's very Christmas y. Yes,
that's great Christmasy. Yeah. Yeah, No one said it because they're
right not to say it, but the mic was saying it last night.
Christmas Nights for the Saturn. Yeah, I actually like Christmas Nights way better
than actual nights. I'd rather just play Christmas Nights. But let me google.
I don't think i've Christmas. Yeah, Christmas. It's that Ugi Naka
sort of the two point five D side scrolling flying game, and they had
a I think if you played nights on Christmas and you had like the date
for the Saturn was set and if you like, like open the game that
day. I think it turned into Christmas Nights. But then I think there
was also a standalone version of it. I think that's right. Yeah,
when you played Simpson's Road Rage on Holidays, it would unlock a special character,
and I think the Christmas one was Homer. I think in the car
that he designs for his brother. But it's the center version of it.
Yeah. Yeah, I also animal crossing. I've like doing any animal crossing
stuff on Christmas and even throughout the winter when it starts snowing. Love that
stuff. Not a kind of I wish I had time in my life for
animal crossing, all right. Luigi's Match to HD for Nintendo Switch has now
been rated by the SRB. This is from my Nintendo News. The remake
of Luigi's Match of Two HD for the Nintendo Switch has now been rated by
the Entertainment Software Rating Board. The ESRB rated the spooky game as E for
everyone Really. The state has yet to be announced for the Ghostbusting Adventure,
but it currently is penciled for for a summer twenty twenty four release window.
We should get a firm release date near that time. For now, here's
the rating summary. It's it's an adventure game in which players assume they roll
Luigi. Blah blah blah. There's some slightly scary ghost. That's all it
says. Oh no, mild, yes, mild peril. I hope Luigi's
Matcher two gets a little bit of a glow up with this HD re release
where they edit it and similar to how they sometimes edit Zelda games to make
them a little bit better when they bring them back, I hope they do
that with Luigi's mentioned too. A game that's like okay, could be a
lot better if they made some changes, but who knows if they're going to
give it that kind of love. They probably won't. That's probably mean misplacing
hope on some of that stuff. Sad news, Lucy, Zack Snyder is
willing to direct a live action Fortnite movie. So that's a really good headline
from Zach swiz in at Kotaku. Zack Snyder film director and guy who spells
Zach correctly. And that's from Zack Swizen. He's out promoting his new Netflix
film Rebel Moon, but because he's talked about ethics, popular Battle Royale shooter
Fortnite in the past, people keep asking him about the Game, and recently
someone wondered if he would be willing to direct a movie based on the franchise.
According to Snyder, he said, of course he would, and of
course he would. Of course he would like his movie's already. What's he
gonna say to that question? Christ But also it's like like his movies are
so devoid of like actual content that if it's just a bunch of characters getting
smashed into one another, honestly, that's his fucking wheelhouse. That's like perfect
for If it is the slow mo, gritty violence, then yeah, good,
I would watch that. I was excited about this Rebel Moon Lucy.
And have you seen the reviews for this thing? Yeah? It is getting
fucking stunted. Is it? Is it Charlie Hunnum in this one? Is
it that one? Was Charlie Hunton in the Wachowski's one sci fi movie a
while back? No, that was that was Channing Tatum. Yes, yes,
sincere anarchy guy. Yes, he was right. Yeah, this one
has Sophia Battella, so it's got Ed Skrine in it. I think it
might have like both of the versions of Dario Naharis from Game of Thrones in
because I halfway through they replaced him, right, Yeah, we're trying to
get track of all the syllables you're saying, and now I know exactly what
you're referencing. Yeah, Els, what are you doing in this film?
You don't need to do that. Yeah, oh, he's he's got to
be like one of the bad imperial dudes that they have in that movie.
The Wild Thing is like Rebel Moon. I don't know if people I assume
most people have seen the trailer because they like made a big marketing push.
But it's look pretty good. Yes, absolutely. I mean, of course
he would make stuff that looks good in trailers. But Zack Snyder's like,
hey, this would be my Star Wars. This basically my Star Wars,
and it looks like, Man, this looks in some ways more exciting and
more action packed than a lot of the recent Disney Star Wars stuff we got.
I bet this this could be way bigger and better than some of that
stuff. Even though I don't think higlie of Zack Snyder at all. I
like his his zombie movie or Early on a Day of the Day Watchman,
Yes, and Watchman, I'm pretty okay with I think Watchman is a good
job, does a good job capturing some of the vibes of of that comic,
But they're saying that this movie is excruciatingly boring. Like I'm like,
how does that happen? How do you make something look like that looks as
cool that boring? So I still have to see it for myself. I
did see someone say that it was like a I wrote it. Yeah,
I wouldn't be surprised. Then yeah, uh all right. And then finally,
several n Video ArtX four thousand supercards are supposed to launching in January.
Just a heads up for people if you were thinking about maybe getting a GPU,
maybe wait just a little bit. Because a couple months back, and
this comes from Answer Heating It Destructoid, we mentioned how in Video was possibly
writing readying a range of RTX four thousand super graphics cards. Well, there's
been some developments on that front, and it looks as though the Team Green
might be launching several new products come early twenty twenty four. According to a
report from Video Cards with a Z and, the video is set to launch
three new GPUs beginning the second week of January, and embargo list shows that
supervariance of the forty seventy, forty seven and TI and forty eighty will be
releasing throughout the month. It also appears as though the company will release be
releasing them in stages, starting with reviews and following this up with on shelf
launches soon after. They've done these supercards in the past. Basically, it's
like, hey, they got better at getting yields out of the better performing
chips on their wafers, and so they can kind of tune things up a
little bit and get all you just got very good at getting every little percentage
of performance out of their stuff, especially over time, and they improve their
processes. So they have productized that and put them out of supers before and
now they're doing it again. This also, I think this also signifies that
the four thousand series is going to last quite a bit longer than some of
the more recent Nvidia generations. So we could be happy with our four series
short yes, And in hindsight, that seems like it was a pretty big
mistake for them because there was just no appetite the four thousand series for most
parts. That'll probably perk up with this a little bit, But uh,
basically, what this means for you, listener, is if you were looking
to get a GPU, wait for this, because it probably means the GPU
are already eyeing is going to be a little bit more affordable. That probably
will continue to happen. I have a thirty eighty that I need to sell.
Yeah, I got I got some other cards around that I need to
do something with. They can't just lay here. I gave like I had
a big plan for the holiday. Is a big clear out geart. That's
a good idea. I got an old Razor laptop that I was never happy
with I should have sold a while ago. Well, it still had some
of its value. Yeah, I still have one too. Actually that's a
good point. Yeah, so stupid of me. But yeah, and then
I got a bunch of GPUs lying around that I have from my testing era,
And I'm like, oh I gave I gave a couple away, like
a mic one and I think Sean. I think I give Turble Sean one.
If I didn't, I might have one Stell. But yeah, I
think I'm just gonna keep giving these away until we're no longer taking up room
on my shelves. I saw I saw a thing on TikTok the other day
because I'm such a fucking mark, I know, but there is a from
thet I haven't bought anything, it's an idea. So there's you know those
spinny wheels. Uh. This girl put like a like a pick wheel,
you know, you spin it and you have to get the thing it lands
on. This girl put every draw cupboard box in her apartment shelf on this
wheel and she just spins it and then she just declutters that small thing.
And so it's a very nice incremental way of getting through everything. And I
thought that was so cool. So I've done that in my apartment. That's
going to be my fun, gamified way of clearing out my crap, of
convincing my brain. I actually really do like this because that's the only way
would actually get done. Like you gotta take you gotta take everything out of
the space in the space and then decide if you're going to keep it,
donate it, or like maybe, And if it's a maybe, then it's
kind of an automatic keep and then you put it all back neatly. Yes,
I think for me, it's like the mess is never compartmentalized. It
is all just one big thing, a big entity that exists up in the
clouds of this is mess that is everywhere and breaking it down into smaller component
parts. It's really hard for me. So this game sounds like No,
that's actually how you accomplish that is you make it a little thing that you
do. Yeah. I like that everything has a place, but I just
have too many things. Yep, same here, getting kind of frustrated by
it. All right, I got a poll question from Monday, and let
me actually refresh this, make sure we have the most up to day data
here from our voters here. All right, there we go. Is this
Mario Luigi in this old footage of Mario sixty four, And this is actually
an image poll so people can kind of see what I mean here. This
is from that old Space World footag from nineteen ninety five of Mario sixty four
where we got that two player footage of two Mario like characters running around.
The character starts out looking red, but when he lands looks very green,
and many people are convinced it's Luigi. I'm like, ah, the VHS
footage, I don't know, but eighty two percent of people thinks I think
that is Luigi. Uh, And then only eighteen percent are like, no,
that's Mario. I'm still like, I don't know. It's hard to
tell because he looks kind of transparent there and not actually green. Uh.
And I've learned over time I cannot trust my eyes to really know what I'm
looking at, especially with a kind of low fidelity image of a screen recorded
over a camera and then like SuperM posted on another screen. It's like,
ah, the color data could be completely unreliable here. So but hey,
eighty two percent to say that is Luigi. We will have do I I
don't think I actually have a new poll question for next time, because we're
not gonna be back until next year. Maybe we'll just come back for the
last show of it? Is this the last show of the This is the
last show of the year, That's right. I don't know. I was
gonna say, like, uh, I don't know, are you ready for
Christmas? Ready for the break? I don't know. When we get back,
it's like that'll be all be behind us. So and it's not exactly
easy about hey, what are you looking forward to in twenty twenty four?
Because I might go through a million comments or whatever, and that's the you
know, time consuming it's work, and I don't like working, but yeah,
you know what, We'll just we'll skip the new poll question in the
meantime, though, Lucy, Uh, what else do we have going on
this week? We're not quite done, Like, yeah, this, this
show's done for the year. We'll be back early next year with more Game
mess mornings. But there's a few more things happening on Giant Bomb and I
assume overran GameSpot before the end of the year. Yeah, So on the
game Spot side, what have we got. We've got a bunch of kind
of stuff that we've put together, like things look forward to best of twenty
twenty three obviously, and then things look forward to in twenty twenty five.
We've also got a couple of podcasts that we've pre recorded. We've got we
did a really fun one with Jacob McCourt to get excited about. I think
that one's going up next week. We recorded that in the office on Monday.
Maybe trains blog. I don't know. At jan Ochoa and we're doing
we're doing a Lethal Company today. I need to I need to copy paste.
That's what I'm gonna do because I'm recording Jef Jeffer's Adventure in half an
hour because we're doing like three episodes in one ago and then we're doing like
the finales. We're filming all of that today and I'll go out overbreak.
I need to figure out the Lethal Company mod stuff that you sent. Yep,
the instructions aren't in slack. Give it a shot. If you need
any help, just let me know. But yeah, it should be pretty
straightforward. But yes, it's especially Let just make sure the files are in
the right place at the end of the day, that'll be it. But
once once they're in there, you started the games normal, you'll see a
little command prompt with dope pop up. Just leave it and just go go
to the game you get minimize it. Do I need to do it?
Tutorial? Uh no, there is a tutorial, but it's honestly, we
had way more for all. I think all of us skipped a tutorial when
we played last week, and it was a lot more fun having no idea
what to do or what was going to happen. It was pretty pretty good
time. So yeah, awesome that, yes, that will be at let's
see here, we're doing Blight Club today at one thirty pm Eastern, and
then I think I only have about an hour and a half. I wish
I had a little bit more time because I think I could probably finish that
game if I had a little bit more time. But a ninety minute is
going to be tough. Well, I mean we're doing. I mean,
maybe we do push it back by half an hour because Jeff Jeffs is staring
half and all. Okay, you guys, yeah, you guys, just
keep us posted. We'll start Lethal Company when they're doing with Jeff Jeffs everybody,
so just kind of stick around. And if that's the case, maybe
we'll just keep a Blake club going until that last minute. But Lethal Company
will happen this afternoon, and then yeah, over the holidays, we have
a few pre recorded things to look forward to. Lists, yes, and
there's a lot of guest list and then a lot of our Game of the
Year list. We started getting those all in the system, thanks again to
Marinos helped with a lot of the guest lists. We're starting to put ours
in there as well, so look out for all that stuff. But yeah,
I think that's gonna do it before say all the good guyes, just
hey, thanks everyone for a really wonderful year. I really like doing the
show. It's hey, it's nice to get a break, but part of
me is always like I like my days better when I do Game Miss Mornings.
So and that's that's to having people like Lucy on Lucy You're fantastic,
And then it's great. It's due to the audience. You guys are very
engaged. It's a very nice to speak to people who are who are interested
in actually having real conversations about video games, and so I really appreciate everybody.
It makes my entire year. So thank you for watching. We'll be
back next year strong, starting off twenty twenty four. Like I've already have
like a bunch of ideas about what to do with Giant Bomb. I am
with game Miss Morning, so tune back in for all that. Lucy,
thank you so much for spinning today talking with me about video games. I
really apreciate it. Close, Thank you, I'll see you. We'll see
you in like two hours. Yeah see, we see you on this show
in twenty twenty four. Absolutely, thank you so much, and thank you
all for watching. You're the best audience in gaming. Until next time,
have a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye. Thank you.