WEBVTT

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You don't be bad. It's the
Internet. You're busy. Let's do this

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for October thirteenth, twenty twenty three. For the next hour or so,

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let me help you sort through the
world of gaming on Game Mess Mornings Live

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with Me Jeff Grubb. Today,
they finally done it. They finally have

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acquired Activision, and we don't have
to talk about it anymore after today.

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We still have to talk about it
today, but first please join me and

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welcome you today's co host the Game
Mess Mornings. It's Alex Aroona. Everybody,

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Alex, how are you doing.
I'm doing great, feeling feeling good.

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I had my coffee, I'm ready
to move. I have a small

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child, so I was up pretty
early already. Yeah, I know exactly

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that life, except my kids are
off school today. They are Yeah,

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they're off school today. So I'm
like kind of waking up a little bit

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later than normal. But that got
me into a bad habit of like I

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can do things so later, and
I kept putting things off. So I

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was just I kind of got the
show. I don't even have like my

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intro. I just did everybody that
was I had to like look at the

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date. I'm a computer because I
didn't actually update it, and everyone knows.

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If I don't have it in front
of me, I will just read

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whatever the old stuff is. I'm
going to say that you have your you

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were surprisingly on the fly I have. When I do my run a show,

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I'm like, I'm like Ron Burgundy, me too, Yeah, it

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was written in there. I just
read and then halfway through someone goes,

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you know you said that absolutely backwards. I'm like, well, it's written

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though. One time I started I
started my Gay Mess the Sides podcast and

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I did the entire intro for this
show because I brought up this rundown instead

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and I didn't realize until it was
to the very end that it was wrong.

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So that's that's how bad I am
normally. But this time I was

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a little bit more more on my
toes. Alex, why do you tell

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people about yourself? Where they you
know, where you come from, what

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kind of work you do? That
kind of stuff. I'm outside. I'm

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just just a smidge out of Chicago. I podcast for NPR of Illinois,

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Nintendo World Report. I do a
lot of right over there. We have

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our own podcast, Super Gig Radio. Super Good Game Radio is about we

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try to beta test games. We
try to find you know, early access

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games, demo stuff before it comes
out, and then we try to like

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expand upon it, talk about it, talk to dev's, or just to

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just tell the world about these awesome, weird, crazy games that we play.

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Yeah, that's one thing I always
noticed is like, yeah, you

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guys play a lot of games,
always kind of up up to speed on

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the cool, interesting things that are
coming out of nowhere usually, but that's

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not a lot. There is a
lot of like, Okay, this game,

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I see what they're doing. It's
not not for me. Oh yeah,

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well totally. Yes. That's my
biggest thing is like I get it,

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I'm moving on. That's I move
on from a lot of games really

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quickly once I'm like I get it. But Steve, nextest is happening?

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You were playing some stuff in there? Anything that stands out that people who

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are trying to catch up on it, because I haven't really even had a

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chance to look at it, Like, what would you recommend to me right

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now? The one that kind of
blew us away recently was American Arcadia,

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which is a as you guys call
limb boners. Yeah, it's a limbo

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Yeah, you're essentially the Truman Show. Your character goes to work and then

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turns out his life was the kind
of a lie, and it's all filmed,

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and there's somebody that's like kind of
in his ear trying to tell him

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how to break out. So you're
doing like the limbo thing, going left

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to right, doing the platform jumping
and the puzzle solving, and then what

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makes it a little different is that
they break it up by occasionally pulling you

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out and being you're the person in
his ear, like first person, Oh,

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okay, he's stuck behind this thing. I got to figure out how

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to get into the server room.
And it's you walking around interacting with objects,

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solving puzzles in first person to get
to the server room, and then

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it goes back to him doing the
limbo stuff. And you also get like

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a little control, like, oh, I need to open that gate before

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the guards come, and you have
to like open the gate with the from

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the person's point of view with like
an extra like oh right, bumper,

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hit square and that'll open the gate
and then your character can run through.

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So it does add a little bit
like an extra layer on top. Mm

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hm. It's just another one of
those like fun, Like, yeah,

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limbo, there hasn't been a million
of those yet, like like that a

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couple more of those isn't going to
hurt anybody. Yes, that sounds pretty

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interesting and anything else I knew you
were talking about, Like that's when I

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played over the Summer the the the
Trials like game where you play it's like

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the Wolf for the Fox or the
Cat or something like that on a bike.

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She has a gun and she can
go in slow motion and shoot the

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gun. It's it's actually really cool. I wonder if the how you found

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this demo, Like it really stood
out to me just because you know I

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again, that's one I feel like, oh, there hasn't been a Trials

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game in a while, and I
haven't seen anything Trials like in a while,

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so I was like, oh,
yeah, I'm ready for more Trials.

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But then it throws in like oh, by the way, if you

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flip the bike upside down, it
can reflect bullets. I'm like, why

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would you need to? Oh wait, you're it's robing tribes of anthropomorphic animals

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and it's apocalypse and the bullets reflect
back and there's a lot of gore.

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Yes. Yeah, yeah, it's
like surprisingly bloody and I think it's trying

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to be affecting because again, you're
like you're playing this I think a mother

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character and sa pups who've been kidnapped
by like a tribe of exactly vikers or

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something. It's like what, yeah, it's crazy, but then trials it

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up like go sideways and like drive
upwards of all right. I think one

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of the things I remember from playing
it is like you can jump in the

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air and fire a shot in slow
motion, and then if you do like

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a full backflip, that reloads your
weapons so then you could fire again.

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So it's incentivizing you to do these
cool like stunts, these wet stunts so

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you could take on take on more
enemies and like, oh that that's clever

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to kind of you know, it's
the Doom Eternal or Doom twenty sixteen ification

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of everything of like get in that
ass, like don't stand back, don't

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be on your heels, like go
forward and try to like engage with all

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the systems as quickly as possible,
bang bang bang, so that you could

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be super offensive. And that's the
way to play these games. I'm like,

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Okay, I appreciate that more games
are going in that direction, any

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anything else that you think people shouldn't
miss. That's the two that are stand

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out for me right now. Yeah, I have we have a long list

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steam Next Next Fest being the podcast
just like plays demos and betas and stuff

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that list. Steam Nextfest happens and
it's like, Okay, here's a list

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of fifteen, we're gonna try to
each one of us take five. We're

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gonna try to figure this out which
ones are the ones worth it and talking

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about it, and then you know, it's so but it's funnier because it

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happened and we were all excited,
like this is for us, this is

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our thing, and then it's like, oh, we're gonna do it three

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four times a year, and I'm
like, crap, that's a lot.

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Yes, yeah, I'm kind of
like, oh, yeah, they're doing

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this again. I feel like the
last one just happened. I suppose there

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are enough video games that you kind
of do need a Steam Nextfest this frequently,

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and they seem very like they work, they're effective. A lot of

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people are are playing these demos,
and it's like at one point, it's

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like demos come out and people are
like, don't seem to care. People

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do seem to care again about demos, and especially once our games that are

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a little bit further off, and
like, I want to see what's coming

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down the pipeline. So that's that's
pretty cool. With all these awesome,

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big games that have come out this
year, people are still making time for

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demos for something like like did you
say didn't you say today? Like how

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many? How many games came out
this year or in a year? I

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mean, I mean this is a
twenty twenty two number, So about six

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thousand games per year come out?
Yes, that's you know on Steam,

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it's about thirty five games a day. That's uh, that's a lot of

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video games. So did you go
to like, yeah, well the Internet

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Video Game Database and you just go
to the like new releases every day.

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It's like okay, here's like five
to ten games. Oh damn, okay.

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Yeah, it's it's relentless and uh
and it's it's ridiculous with how good

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this year has been. Yes,
this year has been so fantastic. And

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then even like, oh, okay, this game is a top tier Triple

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A game and it's a nine point
five fantastic and it's like, oh,

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here's a tiny indie this is a
ten weird but like, how do they

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stack up? It's even hard to
even say that, right right, Like

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Cocun just coming out of nowhere and
it's being like, oh this, everyone

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seems to love this game. It's
okay. I guess I'll have to check

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that out as well. Summer Games
Best. I was surprised that no one

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mentioned one. It was really fun. Yeah, yeah, Jim was the

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one that told me about it at
Summer Game Fest. Cocoon, so I

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had my eye on it. Not
too surprising that it did well, but

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it's doing very well. All right, We're gonna get into all this in

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a second. First, I just
want to address something on voicemail dumb Truck

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yesterday. I made a bet with
Jeff Backlar about the New Jersey Devils versus

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the Detroit Red Wings. I said
if the Red Wings lost, I would

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wear my New Jersey Devil's shirt that
I had to buy last year when the

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Red Wings lost to the Devils.
I am wearing it. I don't Backlar.

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I think it's traveling to some stupid
wedding today or something. So if

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anyone wants to take a screenshot of
this and just tweet this at I would

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appreciate that because I'm not gonna wear
it again. So there it is on

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the record, It's in the show. Everyone could see it. I'm sick

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of it. I'm sick of it. It was actually a pretty good game,

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but I'm still sick of it.
All right, you know, we'll

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go through out there that One of
the commonalities I've seen is that one of

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my favorite bands this band here,
and it's actually mentioned by Jeff Backlar as

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one of his favorite bands. Of
course, of course you're in cahoots.

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I knew it. All right.
Let's let's explain what we do here most

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weekdays, I, Jeff Grubb,
will help piece your gaming life back together.

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That includes breaking news and maybe even
some of our own original reporting.

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For all these topics, I'll get
the input of a bona fide expert who

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will make me look smart. If
you were watching live on twitch welcome,

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You could always listen to the show
later on podcast feeds by searching for Game

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mess Mornings, or find the RSS
on giabomb dot com. You can also

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catch the show later with chapters and
timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All

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right, so we have a lot
to get into, so let's start the

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morning mess with Microsoft officially acquires Activision
Blizzard nearly two years after originally making the

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deal. This comes from Eddie McCoo
at GameSpot. Microsoft has officially closed its

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deal to buy Activision Blizzard for sixty
nine billion dollars nice, making Microsoft's biggest

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acquisition of all time in one of
the largest in the history of the business

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world across all sectors. The deal
faced a good amount of regulatory pressure as

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Microsoft faced scrutiny from government groups around
the world. Key legal battles took place

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in the United States and the UK. Microsoft announced the deal in February twenty

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twenty two. The announcement of the
deal closing came just hours after the UK's

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CMA itself signed off, and this
was the final regulatory hurdle that Microsoft needed

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to clear to close the deal.
A key concern from the CMA centered on

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cloud gaming, and to help close
the deal, Microsoft's sold cloud gaming rights

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to Ubisoft. All the games that
are coming from Activision Blizzard in the next

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fifteen years and those games that exist
now, we have those streaming rights in

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perpetuity, Ubisoft said, and its
own announcement pertaining to the closure of the

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deal today, Microsoft is paying Activision
Blizzard ninety five dollars per share for the

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buyout. Microsoft's previous biggest acquisition was
LinkedIn, which was twenty six point two

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billion dollars, and that was in
twenty sixteen. Those are all the you

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know, the who, what's where, whys and wins of it all.

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It's closed. Now it's over.
We're moving past it. Do you feel

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any different, alex Arona, You
know, I well, I feel a

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little bit of relief that I don't
have to like hear about it anymore.

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Yes, it's I think we all
been. It's been a long time coming.

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We all kind of knew it was. It was like, did you

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feel like it was really dicey there? I didn't think so, Like,

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I know, I know that there
was there's opposition. I think when the

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CMA UH was like standing in the
way and the f the FTC sued for

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the preliminary injunction those two times,
it was like, I don't know what's

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going to happen. Because in the
past with deals even of you know,

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there's not many deals of this scale, but deals similar though similar to this

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or anywhere near this scale. They
haven't really faced this kind of uh.

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These kind of hurdles before. So
it's like, oh, this is unprecedented

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in terms of the regulator regulators trying
to do something to stop a deal like

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this. So if it's unprecedent,
it means we have no way to look

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back and be like, this is
what happens in the scenario like this,

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And that was like, okay,
so anything can happen. Really, even

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through all that, it's like,
it seems likely that it's going to go

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through. They're definitely so to this
show where we're stuff like the CMA blocking

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it happened, and I was like, who knows, you know, maybe

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it's like thirty percent chance it goes
through now, but it's like that's still

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like relatively good, you know,
relatively likely that it would happen. Here

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we are. It kind of ended
up going exactly how most people thought,

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I think, and and it just
took a little bit longer. As far

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as you know what happens next,
I think it is it's gonna take some

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time for them to integrate, but
I do expect, like, hey,

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this is gonna look pretty similar to
what happened with Bethesda before, where Microsoft's

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gonna probably start putting these games on
Game pass and just get hit the ground

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running as quickly as it can.
And hey, now it owns the company

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that's about to launch Call of Duty. That's they have to consider that a

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big win. It's like immediately this
deal is going to start paying off for

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them. So uh as a short
term the problem I have is that,

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if you think about it, the
Microsoft has not managed their partners that well.

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It seems like like this they're kind
of they're kind of hands off.

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They're hands they do whatever you want, and then the games are like,

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oh yeah, by the way,
this game is like still eight years out,

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and it's like wait, what right
where Microsoft shoul maybe be a little

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bit hands on because I mean,
you have now a treasure trove of games

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that you could like Tony Hawk three
and four, right you know, you

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know was a Spiro Spiro's activision,
Right, yep, that's right. You

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have a lot of like things you
could just start, oh okay, start

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getting the teams and start focusing on
some of these ips that you mind,

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you don't need to like again,
call of Duty is a big win,

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but that is a pretty a pretty
established situation that you could have right inside.

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It's the one that you can be
hands off on right, because of

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the stove. Studios are going to
do what they're doing. It's its own

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machine. So throwing in a spiral, throwing at Tony Hawk, throwing some

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other of these ips in there,
you can get that. You can get

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a good cash flow going. But
you need to start. Then, you

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need to start. You know.
Obviously we don't want to push developers,

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but I mean you should do have
to focus them a little bit because I

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feel like some of the times they
end up getting a little onnfocused and then

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you end up all over the place. Yeah, I think it's like,

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I think you're right. There are
some of these franchises and develop groups that

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are like, they make sense to
just keep operating as the machine they always

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were. And as far as Microsoft
and investors and Satia Nadella are concerned concerned,

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I think they're like, oh,
hey, wow, King makes a

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lot of money. Call Duty makes
a lot of money that is already going

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to be paying. It's gonna be
paying more than the interest we would have

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gotten for putting that money in the
bank had we just taken sixty nine billion

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dollars and put it in some investment
or whatever. So it's like this already

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makes sense financially for us, But
as far as like we're concerned people from

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like who play games and want to
see something positive come out of this,

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I think you're right that the hope
would be that Microsoft could take a little

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bit of a hard rain on this
situation and be like, Okay, you

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have a lot of IP and a
lot of studios that previously you were all

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thrown at call of duty, You're
throwing more and more at call of duty.

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Can we find some way to make
things more efficient or to expand some

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of these studios back out in other
directions to make make more games so that

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people could feel better about activision than
they had before. And I think to

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do that, you're right, they
would have to be more hands on,

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more willing to get in there and
and actually provide some guidance to these studios.

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Uh. I think they're gonna be
willing to provide money. Money's probably

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not gonna be a problem that that, you know, and that's a big

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part of it. But beyond that, it's gonna they're still going to need

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that that uh a leadership or that
vision, and I don't necessarily I'm not

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sure that that vision exists what do
you think, see, I don't necessarily

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Yeah, I think that again,
they need to have some at least some

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coalesceons get together, start making plans
at least point in directions of where we

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need to go. You know.
Again, you give, you give people

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a little too much, like okay, just do whatever you want, and

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then you end up with some crazy
stuff, which is like both good and

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bad. It's just I think that, you know, again, if we

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want, if they want to start
making money, they should start like,

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you know, focusing down on some
of these like ips that they have they

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just recently acquired. Yeah, I
mean I think, I mean, we

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see that for a lot of studios. It does work that that hands off

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stuff. I think that's how we
got High five. Shouldn't mean hyphero Rush

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was already starting before Microsoft acquired them, apparently, but it's like that happened

270
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because there was a skunk works team
inside of Tango Game Works. It's like,

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Hey, we have this idea,
we're messing around with something, We're

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going to prototype it. Hey,
we think this is really fun. We're

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gonna start building it. And then
Microsoft kind of came in around that time.

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I was like, hey, yeah, here's some support. Here's some

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funding to make sure that you can
actually get to see that through. And

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we fully support this because we're hands
off and you're the creatives and if you

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want to do something, we believe
in you. Obviously that has some positives.

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I think that that is something that
that probably is working at a lot

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of these studios, maybe Obsidian being
the ideal one over on the pathes the

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side of things of Hey, they
seem to have a ton of ideas and

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they are pretty effective at coming up
with those ideas and then executing them and

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getting them getting them out the door. As far as like any of these

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other teams, it's you know,
or these dormant ip like they're not going

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to just naturally happen if you say, hey, everyone work on what you

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want to work on, or we're
going to be pretty hands off or we

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trust you. I think you have
to take some initiative there, and if

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like if Phil Spencer really wants you
know, hex and and heretic back,

288
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he's going to have to like go
in there and say, hey, who

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wants to actually work on this?
Can we make someone make room for this?

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And that that will take that guidance
that we're talking about and I don't

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know how how much capacity Microsoft Gaming
has to do that because they have a

292
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ton of studios already, and it's
not like it's it's not it's not like

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it seems like, oh, they
have the time to micromanage these teams already,

294
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and now there's a ton more teams
and so that's going to be possible.

295
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And I again, I don't know
what goes into this stuff day to

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day. I don't know if micro
management exactly. Yeah, uh, And

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I bet a lot of these developers
are pretty happy to have the hands off

298
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sort of approach for Microsoft. But
again we're talking about maybe what we want

299
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out of this, and in that
case, I mostly agree with you,

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or I'm like, I'd like to
see some just a guiding hand. You

301
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don't have to go in there and
make every decision for these teams. The

302
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people working on the games usually know
what's best for the games, but just

303
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to you know, guide in hand
towards some of these things that we'd like

304
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to see back, specifically Tony Hawk's
pro Skater three plus four as far as

305
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like, Okay, so throughout this
whole process, the big you know,

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criticism, and I think rightly so
at least in terms of like, let's

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talk about it and talk it out. Was this worry about consolidation and and

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this is going to mean like,
hey, a couple of companies own all

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of the video game industry. I'm
you know, I'm We've talked about this

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so much that I'm at a point
where I'm like, I just don't feel

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that. I don't feel like that's
what's happened here. But I don't know.

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Maybe maybe you disagree. I think
a lot of people do disagree,

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and I'm willing to hear it.
What do you think? I think it's

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I mean, the bigger, the
bigger companies are always going to be trading

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back and forth. This company owns
this company, this company gets bought up

316
00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:48.599
by this company. I mean,
how often has it been that a company

317
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gets bought out then split off?
Right? Didn't that happen with Destiny and

318
00:18:53.319 --> 00:18:57.359
Bungee? Right? Bungee got bought
and then split off into their own separate

319
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team. Yeah, Yes, Soft
bought Bungie. Then Bunchie bought themselves away

320
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from Microsoft and then they were independent, and they worked with Activision for a

321
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long time, and then they stopped
with a vision and yes, and then

322
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now that the Bunch is now owned
by Sony, not PlayStation, they're owned

323
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by Sony. Yes, that right, that these things are. You're right,

324
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they ping pong back and forth a
lot. And I think that I

325
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think that people who people who want
to do something super creative and unique will

326
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split off and do their own separate
thing. We talked about Cocoon, right,

327
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Cocoon was you know some of those
guys from the Limbo team, and

328
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it's like, oh, okay,
you split off, started a new studio

329
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and you started something separate. Now, so it's like, okay. There

330
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always will be these branches of people
splitting off and wanting to do something a

331
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little bit different than what they're being
pigeonholed as, especially when they get bought

332
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up by the big machine, you
know, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony.

333
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But I think that there's a room
obviously for people does branch off and leave

334
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and and and there'll be ebbs and
flows of it all. We're not we're

335
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not at a point that there is
like a giant consolidation yet. Yeah.

336
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Yeah, I think it's easy to
look at what's happened in movies and music

337
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and be like, that's happening in
gaming and I it is trying to happen

338
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in gaming, like the same urges
of capitalism that caused uh, you know,

339
00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:17.400
handful of companies to just pick winners
and losers in music, or to

340
00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:22.559
control all of movies and Disney owning
so much of what is successful at the

341
00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:27.279
box office. Uh, that's that
those same compulsions are driving a lot of

342
00:20:27.319 --> 00:20:30.480
the stuff that's happening in gaming.
But gaming has had the sort of these

343
00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:37.799
key moments of the democratization of tools
happening at the same time as the democratization

344
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of platforms where and that's you know, Steam being the key one there of

345
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you could put a game, anyone
could put a game on Steam, and

346
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and not just that, Steam has
done a good job of enabling just about

347
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any game to have a chance to
succeed, to the point where many of

348
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the big games that have popped up
out of the that came out of nowhere

349
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to be major successes in industry,
defining to cesses they came originally at least

350
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the idea did out of Steam.
I mean obviously one of the recent ones

351
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being the Battle Royale, where it's
like, hey, that's happening in the

352
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mod scene in games on Steam and
now someone's like, we're gonna do a

353
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standalone one of these players on player
knowns Battlegrounds and it's gonna have two million

354
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concurrent players, and that's from some
the studio out in Korea, and it's

355
00:21:22.119 --> 00:21:25.119
just going to pop up out of
nowhere. And it's like that can happen

356
00:21:25.240 --> 00:21:29.519
in gaming, and it doesn't really
happen in movies and music and a lot

357
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of other mediums where it's like,
oh, the biggest thing in the world

358
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can come from someone from completely out
of nowhere without the backing of some major

359
00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:40.319
corporation that's already been established in that
field. That is like one of the

360
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key things that makes gaming different and
why whatever's happening with Activision is sort of

361
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immaterial to the overall dynamism of gaming. And then when you do look at

362
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Activision itself, like you were saying, I think that the people who are

363
00:21:53.480 --> 00:21:57.279
a part of this deal, who
are going from working in Activision to now

364
00:21:57.279 --> 00:22:03.559
being under Microsoft Gaming, many of
them have like the stocks stock, the

365
00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:06.319
whole stock in Activision that is now
going to be worth a lot. It's

366
00:22:06.319 --> 00:22:08.240
gonna be bought by Microsoft. That
stuff's gonna invest over time, and they're

367
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gonna be able to leave and either
take that money and start something or be

368
00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:15.359
like, hey, I worked on
call of duty for a really long time,

369
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what's the investment environment like, and
probably be able to get some investment

370
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and start their own studio and start
this process over again, where like,

371
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hey, we're gonna start a studio
because I know that there are companies like

372
00:22:25.559 --> 00:22:29.279
a Microsoft out there or ten Cent
or whoever else that might one day might

373
00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:32.279
buy my studio, and that's gonna
make the investment I put into it now

374
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worth it because there's this obvious exit. And so it's this, this is

375
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the way the system is supposed to
work. I don't know if it's a

376
00:22:37.640 --> 00:22:40.759
great system overall. I feel like
it's probably not the best system, but

377
00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:42.039
it's the one we have, and
if it's this is the one we're gonna

378
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have, this is the way it's
gonna work. So I think that's a

379
00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:48.519
thing. Though people won't start a
business to sell a business, right,

380
00:22:48.599 --> 00:22:49.680
yes, start a business, sell
a business, start a business, seller

381
00:22:49.720 --> 00:22:55.000
business. It's it's very similar.
The major thing for us is that will

382
00:22:55.039 --> 00:22:59.039
we continue to get good, good
games out of it, good experiences out

383
00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:02.319
of it, And that's what's important
and obviously, like you said, the

384
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mod scene, there's no way that
can like really be taken kind of away

385
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from us. The one thing I
will say is that, like the music

386
00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:11.680
industry, what is it? Then
they who bought? Didn't somebody buy it?

387
00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:15.680
It wasn't It wasn't a SoundCloud,
was it? It was band camp?

388
00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:18.039
Epic bought band Camp? Yes,
And that's what I mean though?

389
00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:21.079
Was that that one? We just
like that one is where okay, independent

390
00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:22.920
people could just put out whatever they
want and then someone, the big corporatedity

391
00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:26.119
bought that. We're like, no, that's not a lot of people are

392
00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:30.079
upset about that. Yes, that's
like someone buying the ability to mod.

393
00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:34.119
What was it? What is the
mod? The major mod Nexus mods?

394
00:23:34.680 --> 00:23:37.920
Is that owned by somebody? I
think it's owned by the people that started

395
00:23:37.960 --> 00:23:41.920
Nexus Mods. You're right. I
just feel like someone's going to come through

396
00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:44.839
and buy that eventually or something.
We got to protect Nexus Mods. I

397
00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:47.119
okay. So, like we're talking
about, Hey, we hope we get

398
00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:52.200
more games. Do you think that
it's more likely that we get more interesting

399
00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:56.279
games from an activision that was independent
or an activision that's owned by Microsoft.

400
00:23:56.039 --> 00:24:00.680
Microsoft? Absolutely, I mean I
can't say for sure, but I can't

401
00:24:00.680 --> 00:24:03.240
say I'm that'k what you feel.
Yes, we haven't gotten that many right

402
00:24:03.640 --> 00:24:07.799
when they were independent, right,
I mean they we're getting fewer and fewer,

403
00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:10.119
right, we get fewer and viewer
for a while. And the things

404
00:24:10.119 --> 00:24:14.079
that they do take chances on is
stuff like Overwatch two and yeah, okay,

405
00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:15.920
they listen, they did a great
job on Diablo four. But it's

406
00:24:15.960 --> 00:24:18.240
like these are the ones, like, of course you should be making a

407
00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:22.680
Diablo four. Where are the risk
taking games? And it's like those have

408
00:24:23.480 --> 00:24:26.200
as far as you know. When
I glance over at Activision, it feels

409
00:24:26.200 --> 00:24:30.960
like all that is evaporated. The
risk taking games just aren't coming out of

410
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:33.279
it. And I'm not saying that
suddenly it's a light switch, it's going

411
00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:37.720
to get flipped and Microsoft's going to
be taking a million risk chancing games.

412
00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:41.960
But I think that's slightly more likely
it would happen under Microsoft. I agree

413
00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:45.240
with you. I don't know if
that's like a justification for it or anything

414
00:24:45.319 --> 00:24:48.960
like that, but I do feel
like the possibility of us getting more games

415
00:24:49.400 --> 00:24:53.279
is a little bit better under Activision. The other thing I feel better about,

416
00:24:53.440 --> 00:24:57.359
and this is let's continue with the
next story here. Activision Blizzard Bobby

417
00:24:57.400 --> 00:25:02.400
Kdek will remain a CEO just until
the end of twenty twenty three. This

418
00:25:02.440 --> 00:25:07.599
is from Tom Ivan at VGC.
Activision Blizzards long serving boss Bobby Kottick will

419
00:25:07.599 --> 00:25:11.039
remain as CEO just until the end
of twenty twenty three following Microsoft's acquisition of

420
00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:15.359
the Call of Duty publisher. Codek
will report to Microsoft's head of Gaming as

421
00:25:15.400 --> 00:25:18.319
they do this transitionary period. He
says, I have long said that I

422
00:25:18.400 --> 00:25:22.119
am I am fully committed to helping
with the transition. Phil has asked me

423
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:26.480
to stay on a CEO of ABKA, reporting him, and we've agreed that

424
00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:29.279
I will do that through the end
of twenty twenty three. So we are

425
00:25:29.319 --> 00:25:33.519
talking a matter of weeks, like
this is weeks from now he's going to

426
00:25:33.559 --> 00:25:37.440
be gone. And yeah, and
to be clear, he is going to

427
00:25:37.480 --> 00:25:41.720
get a lot of money. He
is going to get half a billion dollars

428
00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:45.039
or somewhere close to that of just
from this deal alone, on top of

429
00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:48.839
all the money he's made from bonuses
and from his pay and from stock options

430
00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:53.160
previously. So it's golden handcuffs,
one hundred, golden parachute, whatever,

431
00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:57.799
it is, of course it is. But he is responsible for many of

432
00:25:57.799 --> 00:26:02.799
the toxic environments that will existed under
Activision and Blizzard, or he should take

433
00:26:02.839 --> 00:26:06.880
responsibility for at the very least.
And now he will be gone, along

434
00:26:06.920 --> 00:26:10.279
with many of the people from the
board who put him in position and supported

435
00:26:10.359 --> 00:26:12.079
him, and the kind of people
that he was hiring that did create these

436
00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:17.480
toxic environments. They're also leaving.
This is a good thing, a better

437
00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:22.279
thing for Activision, I think than
what the alternative of letting them continue going

438
00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:23.480
to like, Hey, we're worried
about consolidation. I'm like, yeah,

439
00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:26.599
maybe, but I'm more worried about
Bobby Kottock being in charge of Activision.

440
00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:30.519
So him being gone it feels like
all moral victory, right, Yeah,

441
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:33.440
we need we need to get him
out of there. He's been a I

442
00:26:33.480 --> 00:26:37.079
mean, he's been a problem.
Yes, there's been problems there and he

443
00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:41.400
is very much part of it.
Or at least again someone that is is

444
00:26:41.480 --> 00:26:45.839
under your charge. You are in
charge, and it is all of this

445
00:26:45.960 --> 00:26:48.759
bad A lot of bad stuff has
been happening. You need to start answering

446
00:26:48.759 --> 00:26:52.759
for it and getting him out as
soon as possible. Obviously, at the

447
00:26:52.839 --> 00:26:55.079
end of the year is like a
transition period, right, you have to

448
00:26:55.119 --> 00:26:56.960
like hand over the keys, Where
is this? Where is that? How

449
00:26:57.079 --> 00:27:00.440
is everything? Kind of run?
And then then you know, okay,

450
00:27:00.039 --> 00:27:06.200
bye bye, yep, yep,
exactly. Yes. And I think that

451
00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:10.759
Microsoft's not some perfect place to work, but by all accounts, it is

452
00:27:10.839 --> 00:27:14.720
a slightly better place to work.
And if we're worried about the people actually

453
00:27:14.759 --> 00:27:18.839
making these games, that's something,
And I don't think it's any reason necessarily

454
00:27:18.839 --> 00:27:21.119
go take a victory lap, although
I am. I kind of want to,

455
00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:23.480
because I really wanted Bobby Kottak gone. Nobody liked that guy. Everybody

456
00:27:23.480 --> 00:27:26.920
who's ever worked with him has had
nothing but bad things to say about him.

457
00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:30.400
Doesn't really care about the games,
doesn't really care about the products they

458
00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:33.480
produce, just cares about the money, and that's his job whatever. But

459
00:27:33.640 --> 00:27:37.319
I don't don't give a fuck about
his job. I care about people being

460
00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:42.480
feeling good about making good games,
and that seems again slightly more possible under

461
00:27:42.519 --> 00:27:48.000
Microsoft. We're talking about fractions here, five percent better here, If something

462
00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:51.680
like your life gets ten percent better
there or something like that, that's still

463
00:27:51.799 --> 00:27:56.279
measurable and something and I think worthy
of pointing out do you think there's a

464
00:27:56.359 --> 00:28:00.599
chance that Bobby Kottack comes back into
gaming at any point in the future,

465
00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:03.000
because I'm like, I could see
it, but I don't know, what

466
00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:06.119
do you think unless he does something
of his own independent, I feel like,

467
00:28:06.200 --> 00:28:10.279
yeah, I think his reputation's pretty
rough right now. I give it

468
00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:12.759
ten fifteen years and maybe like people
start to forget about all the bad things

469
00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:17.160
he did and someone lets him do
some you know, some sort of you

470
00:28:17.240 --> 00:28:21.440
know direction. But I feel like
at I think that he won't run.

471
00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:23.400
He won't be like the head of
a major company anymore, not a major

472
00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:26.160
one. Him, him and John
Rucutel are going to start a podcast.

473
00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:30.400
That's that's going to be the future. That's the future. I want that

474
00:28:30.440 --> 00:28:33.960
guy. That sounds a good nightmare. But then I think we do it

475
00:28:33.079 --> 00:28:36.960
a super team and go out there
and start their new studio or whatever,

476
00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:41.519
new studio, new publisher. People
will run to sign up. Maybe yeah,

477
00:28:41.559 --> 00:28:44.920
I mean maybe, I don't know. I think if had he gotten

478
00:28:44.920 --> 00:28:48.160
out a couple of years ago,
like when he could have jumped on the

479
00:28:48.279 --> 00:28:53.720
buzzwords of web three and NFTs and
now AI like, maybe he could have

480
00:28:55.079 --> 00:28:56.079
done something there. But like,
hey, I'm starting the new Web three

481
00:28:56.160 --> 00:29:00.720
AI NFT studio, and people probably
would have been like, here's a bunch

482
00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:03.720
of money, but most of that
stuff has passed AI Alary, So like

483
00:29:04.039 --> 00:29:07.799
you put him under a company that
doesn't know a whole lot about gaming.

484
00:29:07.319 --> 00:29:11.799
Oh, Amazon wants to do an
NFT game. Oh Yeahcota, Yeah,

485
00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:15.039
man, I kind of could see
Amazon like, let's bring in Bobby coottact

486
00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:18.440
to oversee our game. He did
a pretty good job. And it's like,

487
00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:21.960
oh, you don't pay attention to
gaming news, huh exactly, And

488
00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:26.720
they definitely don't. Amazon definitely does
not. All right, I don't I

489
00:29:26.799 --> 00:29:30.279
think that probably does it for this
topic. And I mean that in a

490
00:29:30.440 --> 00:29:33.079
like probably does it for good.
And now we could just enter this new

491
00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:38.599
world where Activision is Microsoft again.
I don't think that world looks all that

492
00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:41.759
different from the world we have now. I hope the ways it does look

493
00:29:41.759 --> 00:29:45.839
different it means we do get like
a crash Bandicoot five or whatever. That

494
00:29:45.880 --> 00:29:49.480
would be nice. Like, well, you think it's pretty absurd at a

495
00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:55.759
certain point, right, like these
government agencies coming down to bear and sixty

496
00:29:55.839 --> 00:30:00.200
nine billion dollars and all of this
effort and armies of lawyers on Microsoft side

497
00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:03.319
and on Activision side, and it's
like, I think it would be nice

498
00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:07.039
if we got a new Crash Bandagoo
game, Badaco game, the bandicoot that

499
00:30:07.039 --> 00:30:11.640
wears jorts. That's what matters to
me, Alex. Around wallets, chains,

500
00:30:12.200 --> 00:30:15.359
chain laws, That's that's the thing
that actually is going to move hop

501
00:30:15.400 --> 00:30:19.559
on the hot new trend of brawlers
and make an Activision brawler. You have

502
00:30:19.720 --> 00:30:22.440
enough character? No, I'm not, because there's too those are all failing

503
00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:29.400
right now. Anyway, did you
someone made like a faux brawler screen a

504
00:30:29.440 --> 00:30:32.960
shot of like here's what the roster
would look like, And I'm still like,

505
00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:37.880
man, this looks like trash compared
to Smash Brothers Like Mantino's got is

506
00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:41.559
like really special sauce over there where
It's like, oh yeah, all these

507
00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:44.200
characters in there, and that makes
sense. And then you look at well

508
00:30:44.200 --> 00:30:47.359
even with Microsoft, but does an
activision all these stuff put together, It's

509
00:30:47.400 --> 00:30:51.240
like, eh, then I'll pass. I'm good. There was like the

510
00:30:51.240 --> 00:30:53.799
there was the Nickelodeon one, and
then there was the Wanner Brothers one.

511
00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:57.240
Yeah, multiverses now that's coming back
still, Alex, don't worry any day

512
00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:00.319
now, any day now, man, riend of mine, they took his

513
00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:04.200
money and he couldn't play because it
was only us and he listened that early

514
00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:07.119
access you know, hey, beta, what happens to beta stays in beta,

515
00:31:07.240 --> 00:31:11.559
including your money? That works.
That was that's a wild one where

516
00:31:11.599 --> 00:31:12.759
it's think. It's like when the
early access and then said, okay,

517
00:31:12.759 --> 00:31:17.799
we'll be back. I mean they
released the game, like we they released

518
00:31:17.799 --> 00:31:18.920
that game and then they're like,
no, sucre, no, we were

519
00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:21.960
in beta. I don't know,
you guys talk about fuck you. We

520
00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:25.480
were in beta and then they just
took it away. That's why back in

521
00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:27.319
what was it like a year or
something. So yeah, they said I

522
00:31:27.359 --> 00:31:30.960
think early next year. I have
no idea. I mean I bet they

523
00:31:30.359 --> 00:31:33.359
but they will do it because otherwise
they're probably gonna get a class action lawsuit.

524
00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:36.799
But yeah, well, the other
part is who's going to remember,

525
00:31:36.839 --> 00:31:38.960
like, oh wait, I forgot
that this game existed. It's like,

526
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:41.880
no, the you had what do
they say, you want to get one

527
00:31:41.880 --> 00:31:47.720
shot to release a game and they
technically did. Yep. If that game

528
00:31:47.839 --> 00:31:52.079
comes back, they better do super
right by the people who actually paid money

529
00:31:52.119 --> 00:31:53.559
for it, because otherwise they're going
to be in some deep doo doo,

530
00:31:55.039 --> 00:31:57.960
some deep dog shit over there.
All right, we're gonna take a quick

531
00:31:57.960 --> 00:32:00.640
break. When we get back.
A lot lot more news Best Buy apparently

532
00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:06.039
dropping physical media things like that.
We'll talk about all that right after this.

533
00:32:10.759 --> 00:32:14.960
My co hosts sessing for a new
Skylanders game. Oh yeah, well

534
00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:19.640
we're back. So what Skylander's game? Is? He asking for all the

535
00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:27.680
toys? That's That's what I could
see Microsoft hopping into, because I think

536
00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:32.079
the family game market is one that
they would really get a lot of mileage

537
00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:37.880
out of on game pass. And
I just don't know how a game pass

538
00:32:37.039 --> 00:32:42.519
meshes up with a Toys to Life
game, right, because I suppose you

539
00:32:42.599 --> 00:32:45.400
get people the game and you let
them play around with a lot of it

540
00:32:45.559 --> 00:32:46.480
as part of game pass, and
like, hey, if you want to

541
00:32:46.519 --> 00:32:50.920
like have even extra stuff, go
buy the toys. I could see them

542
00:32:50.920 --> 00:32:52.400
maybe doing that, but I don't
know if it's like a do you think

543
00:32:52.440 --> 00:32:57.799
a toiless Skylanders could work? Well? I mean again, News have an

544
00:32:57.799 --> 00:33:00.119
account, right, You make an
account, right, and then it shows

545
00:33:00.200 --> 00:33:02.960
up in the game. I think
you could do that. That's pretty easy.

546
00:33:04.599 --> 00:33:07.440
At the same time, like Skylanders
does have I think they probably have

547
00:33:07.480 --> 00:33:12.440
an established lore at this point.
Spiro is in Skylanders. Yeah, I

548
00:33:12.440 --> 00:33:15.119
mean it's like it's a spin off
of Spyro the Skylanders games, Like,

549
00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:17.880
yeah, that's I didn't realize it
was actually a full spin off off.

550
00:33:17.920 --> 00:33:21.920
Oh yeah, that's how it's I
think it's basically how they first pitched it

551
00:33:21.960 --> 00:33:23.680
originally, and then that changed really
quickly. But yes, it was like

552
00:33:23.720 --> 00:33:29.240
a Spiro spinoff. Uh. I
think that the family game stuff, you

553
00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:31.839
know, Crash will be there,
Spiro will be there, but Skylanders seems

554
00:33:31.880 --> 00:33:35.519
like the right one that hey,
you could get kids into this again.

555
00:33:35.559 --> 00:33:37.200
But I don't know. We'll see, all right. I mean people still

556
00:33:37.240 --> 00:33:40.160
like those was it the ones we
ripped the cord and it's at the top.

557
00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:44.400
I'm gonna say, Baku gone,
but it's that's not a blade by

558
00:33:44.440 --> 00:33:47.440
Blades. There it is back again, So I think they again the toys

559
00:33:47.880 --> 00:33:52.440
the toys to life situation is real. You could do it. Bay Blades

560
00:33:52.519 --> 00:33:54.599
should be the way that we solve
all the world's problems. So like robots,

561
00:33:54.640 --> 00:33:58.839
remember robot jocks, uh, where
it's like the oh, instead of

562
00:33:58.880 --> 00:34:00.359
wars, we're gonna have these two
rope We should just do that with bay

563
00:34:00.359 --> 00:34:06.880
blades and Trump just getting ready exactly, me and Mike Manatti. Instead of

564
00:34:06.920 --> 00:34:09.440
fighting on on our podcast, We'll
just do bay blades, all right.

565
00:34:09.559 --> 00:34:14.360
There's a rumor that best Buy is
apparently dropping physical media in twenty twenty four.

566
00:34:14.400 --> 00:34:20.079
This is from my Nintendo News.
A rumor is currently circulating online that

567
00:34:20.119 --> 00:34:23.159
the popular North American retailer best Buy
will no longer stock physical media such as

568
00:34:23.199 --> 00:34:28.440
games, Blu ray discs, DVDs, and CDs starting in twenty twenty four.

569
00:34:28.719 --> 00:34:31.239
Physical sales that the retailer could stop
from the first quarter of next year,

570
00:34:31.880 --> 00:34:36.119
which would be a major blow for
gamers and collectors. If the move

571
00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:38.400
for the best Buy proves to be
true, then other stores could follow suit.

572
00:34:38.639 --> 00:34:42.800
As we all know, digital is
now the prominent form of game sales.

573
00:34:43.159 --> 00:34:45.880
Yeah, mostly presumably due to the
convenience of that. Best Buy has

574
00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:49.719
yet to announce the move, so
it is currently marked as a rumor for

575
00:34:49.800 --> 00:34:52.639
now. I think, you know, yeah, sure, this is a

576
00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:57.000
rumor, but we see this happening. If everyone's been in a best Buy

577
00:34:57.079 --> 00:35:00.960
over the last several years, and
if you there, you know, ten

578
00:35:00.039 --> 00:35:05.840
fifteen years ago, compared to today, it has naturally shrunk and it's going

579
00:35:05.920 --> 00:35:09.280
to continue to shrink, right,
what is a best Buy without physical goods?

580
00:35:09.360 --> 00:35:12.599
Like, that's kind of the point. I mean, it's where you

581
00:35:12.639 --> 00:35:15.000
go to buy your washing machine.
I think. I think that's kind of

582
00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:17.760
it. Yeah, that's weird.
Most people just like, oh, I'm

583
00:35:17.760 --> 00:35:21.719
gonna go buy my TV at Costco
and it's like, Okay, that's weird.

584
00:35:21.840 --> 00:35:23.960
I haven't been. I recently went
to one for like the first time

585
00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:25.920
in a decade. I went to
like a Costco and I was like,

586
00:35:25.960 --> 00:35:30.039
holy crap, this is just Yeah, you could just buy a giant gaming

587
00:35:30.079 --> 00:35:34.880
piece in a gaming chair and then
also watermelons. Weird. Yes, yeah,

588
00:35:34.920 --> 00:35:39.239
I mean best buys more, there
are more Best Buys in more places

589
00:35:39.239 --> 00:35:43.039
than Costco at Costco. Yeah,
Costco is like going to be the one

590
00:35:43.079 --> 00:35:46.159
big store every so often, and
then best Buy store. I get you

591
00:35:46.199 --> 00:35:50.159
could have one of those per town
or something like that. So it's like

592
00:35:50.239 --> 00:35:53.840
I suppose when people think about I'm
gonna go buy refrigerator, I think best

593
00:35:53.840 --> 00:35:58.719
Buy actually does come to mind first
for me, Okay, and that's probably

594
00:35:58.719 --> 00:36:00.039
what they're thinking, like, hey, guess we're gonna have to like really

595
00:36:00.079 --> 00:36:06.119
turn into that hard situation. Yeah, but it's like, Okay, what's

596
00:36:06.159 --> 00:36:08.440
the alternative here? For movies and
music, I don't see much of an

597
00:36:08.480 --> 00:36:12.159
alternative. I don't see them like
being like, hey, we could be

598
00:36:12.320 --> 00:36:16.199
this boutique place and make things happen. But I think with games, games,

599
00:36:16.679 --> 00:36:20.079
game, the people who buy physical
games, first of all, they

600
00:36:20.079 --> 00:36:22.519
are spending more per game than anyone's
ever spending on music or movie. So

601
00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:27.239
it's someone who is like willing to
come in and spend a little extra and

602
00:36:27.239 --> 00:36:30.280
that there's there's something there, and
it's like, well, you know,

603
00:36:30.360 --> 00:36:35.039
maybe if you could stock more of
these collectors editions or really rare physical games

604
00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:38.280
and stuff like that and make them
feel like events, there's probably something they

605
00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:43.480
could do. But for Best Buy, that's like they are a broad retailer.

606
00:36:43.559 --> 00:36:49.960
They to being the specific we're going
to provide a bespoke physical gaming experience

607
00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:52.440
for you is out of their you
know, wheelhouse. It's not really their

608
00:36:52.440 --> 00:36:58.480
their their core competency. So I
think them being like, the answer here

609
00:36:58.519 --> 00:37:00.960
is actually just slowly back away from
stuff rather than try to figure out a

610
00:37:00.960 --> 00:37:04.840
way to make it work, and
that's probably going to fizzle out. That's

611
00:37:04.960 --> 00:37:07.639
probably right. That said, I
do think of all the physical media at

612
00:37:07.639 --> 00:37:10.760
a best Buy. You know,
music's already gone. I'm pretty sure,

613
00:37:12.239 --> 00:37:15.000
oh yeah, yeah, right,
the movie I'll probably will go away.

614
00:37:15.239 --> 00:37:19.519
But I think gaming video games will
still be there, probably for the next

615
00:37:19.599 --> 00:37:21.719
couple of years at the very least, at least through the end of this

616
00:37:21.800 --> 00:37:24.440
generation, because people are still buying
a lot of physical games, not as

617
00:37:24.519 --> 00:37:28.079
much as they used to, they
still buy a lot of physical games,

618
00:37:28.199 --> 00:37:30.239
and I don't think best Buy I
can't necessarily just give that up because they're

619
00:37:30.280 --> 00:37:32.400
like, well, this is a
bad time, We're going to move on.

620
00:37:34.239 --> 00:37:37.159
But I am. I'm someone who's
moved on from physical mostly, and

621
00:37:37.239 --> 00:37:40.039
this still bums me out a big
time, big time because a lot of

622
00:37:40.079 --> 00:37:45.400
the I don't know a lot of
like the work that happens in terms of

623
00:37:45.599 --> 00:37:50.760
archiving this stuff and taking care of
games and making sure that they are are

624
00:37:50.800 --> 00:37:53.320
preserved. A lot of it's happening
for people who love physical games keep them

625
00:37:53.360 --> 00:37:58.320
and then do back them up online
for for you know, shitheads like me.

626
00:37:58.760 --> 00:38:00.800
So it's like, I, Hey, I've moved on, and I

627
00:38:00.840 --> 00:38:02.920
know I'm part of the problem,
but I never wanted physical games to go

628
00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:07.480
away like that. That's I do
not want that. So this this saddens

629
00:38:07.519 --> 00:38:09.360
me, but it does feel inevitable. How do you feel about it?

630
00:38:10.159 --> 00:38:13.400
I think it is inevitable. I'm
one of those people that are fighting it

631
00:38:13.400 --> 00:38:15.840
a little bit. I do buy
a lot of games physical despite you know,

632
00:38:15.880 --> 00:38:16.679
if I get a code or something
like that, but I'm still like,

633
00:38:16.920 --> 00:38:20.360
I'm also one of those people that
also resells them, which isn't like

634
00:38:20.400 --> 00:38:22.559
good either, but like the ones
that I keep are the one you know,

635
00:38:22.559 --> 00:38:25.559
I do have like a little bit
of a collection of just like okay,

636
00:38:25.559 --> 00:38:29.320
this series is the series I really
like, you know, like A

637
00:38:29.360 --> 00:38:30.599
Star Ocean or a Final Fantasy.
I'm like, I'm gonna get these games.

638
00:38:30.599 --> 00:38:34.000
I'm gonna have them. I'm not
really going to resell these them so

639
00:38:34.079 --> 00:38:37.679
to keep them for whenever. But
like recently I went to try to buy

640
00:38:37.679 --> 00:38:39.480
them like a a TV series because
I'm like, I don't really want to

641
00:38:40.199 --> 00:38:43.840
subscribe to this other like I don't
want to get another subscription. I'm gonna

642
00:38:43.840 --> 00:38:46.159
find this old TV series Blu Ray
and it's like where do you get those

643
00:38:46.199 --> 00:38:51.920
anymore? Because even like Target only
hosts like whatever is like new and then

644
00:38:51.960 --> 00:38:52.639
they get rid of it, and
it's like well, okay, then how

645
00:38:52.639 --> 00:38:55.719
do I get something old now?
And it's really like, well, Amazon,

646
00:38:55.800 --> 00:38:59.800
I guess it's like really like the
move, and I have I living

647
00:38:59.800 --> 00:39:01.280
in this city. There's not a
Walmart for a while, like at least

648
00:39:01.280 --> 00:39:05.360
thirty minutes from a Walmart, so
I don't I was like, I don't

649
00:39:05.360 --> 00:39:07.679
know where I buy like old television
shows that I'm looking more specifically, and

650
00:39:08.039 --> 00:39:10.440
best Buy comes to mind. Yes, but it's like, well now this

651
00:39:10.880 --> 00:39:14.199
very much could be out the door. Yeah, if I was trying to

652
00:39:14.199 --> 00:39:17.280
buy an old TV show, Like
there's an old CW kind of cheesy show

653
00:39:17.360 --> 00:39:22.280
that I that I liked, Ever
would it was done by the guy that

654
00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:24.840
would go on to do like Arrow
and all those DC superhero shows on on

655
00:39:25.280 --> 00:39:29.360
CW or whatever, And I'm like, ah, yeah, I would I

656
00:39:29.400 --> 00:39:31.440
start They only ever put the first
season on DVD, So I'm like,

657
00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:36.199
okay, uh, piracy gotta just
kinda have to go pirate it, like

658
00:39:36.239 --> 00:39:38.440
that's what you know. And at
certain point, it's like that the certain

659
00:39:38.440 --> 00:39:45.880
point that stops feeling like piracy and
it becomes like the the Internet is a

660
00:39:45.920 --> 00:39:49.119
library. At a certain point where
it's like I am just basically borrowing this

661
00:39:49.239 --> 00:39:52.519
from from you know, the ether, because I want access to it and

662
00:39:52.599 --> 00:39:55.960
you are providing no way to do
that. And that is like, that's

663
00:39:57.000 --> 00:40:00.480
coming hard for movies right now,
where like the old MOVI, these old

664
00:40:00.519 --> 00:40:02.599
TV shows, like you said,
those are the ones that feel like they

665
00:40:02.599 --> 00:40:07.440
are going to be lost media more
and more frequently here very soon, and

666
00:40:07.559 --> 00:40:13.480
there is no obvious solution other than
archive dot org doing God's work. And

667
00:40:13.639 --> 00:40:16.599
I and that's I do. I
do worry about that with gaming as well.

668
00:40:17.679 --> 00:40:22.960
You know, the Switch has sixteen
thousand games and eventually Nintendo is going

669
00:40:23.039 --> 00:40:25.960
to turn off those servers, and
not all of them. A lot of

670
00:40:25.960 --> 00:40:31.960
those are digital only, and that's
its own problem. But the problem I

671
00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:37.360
will also that problem also will be
solved by backing these things up in places

672
00:40:37.400 --> 00:40:40.119
like archives and and you know,
in torrents and things like that. And

673
00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:44.559
I know these big companies hate hearing
that, and I'm like, fucking do

674
00:40:44.599 --> 00:40:46.920
something about it, but they don't. They don't have any solutions, so

675
00:40:46.960 --> 00:40:51.880
I think we have to keep finding
our own, which is frustrating, but

676
00:40:51.960 --> 00:40:54.000
I again, what's the alternative here? So I'm not the guy that spent

677
00:40:54.039 --> 00:40:58.920
one hundred dollars on a Vita memory
card because that's how much they were,

678
00:40:58.960 --> 00:41:00.159
and then like when they I found
out the store was like, oh,

679
00:41:00.239 --> 00:41:02.599
you can't get your Vita gas anymore. Well, I better pay one hundred

680
00:41:02.599 --> 00:41:07.280
and ten bucks for this Vita sixty
four gig card and then load up all

681
00:41:07.280 --> 00:41:08.840
the games that I have and that
I really want to play again and just

682
00:41:08.880 --> 00:41:13.239
have it there forever so I never
have to access to servers again. That

683
00:41:13.280 --> 00:41:17.239
wasn't me. And the same thing
with the three DS. The completion is

684
00:41:17.360 --> 00:41:22.920
video where he bought all of the
the was it the three DS and WEU

685
00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:25.480
games or whatever, And I'm like, imagine doing that for the switch,

686
00:41:27.320 --> 00:41:30.920
those sixteen thousand games like that would
be a several years long project probably to

687
00:41:30.960 --> 00:41:34.559
do all that. So I hope
it does leake to like a like the

688
00:41:34.639 --> 00:41:37.559
existential question like I've always thought about, like we're going to be the last

689
00:41:37.599 --> 00:41:43.280
generation with nostalgia just because old stuff
is everywhere now and always accessible and it

690
00:41:43.280 --> 00:41:45.119
never used to be, so we
always like, oh remember this, and

691
00:41:45.760 --> 00:41:49.360
with kids now it's like, hey, remember that song I listened to like

692
00:41:49.400 --> 00:41:52.519
twenty minutes ago because I have access
to it always yep. Yeah, And

693
00:41:52.639 --> 00:41:58.599
you know, and there's the convenience
factor is compelling that that's why this stuff

694
00:41:58.679 --> 00:42:01.960
moves the way it does. But
obviously it's a trade off. Obviously we

695
00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:07.280
are losing something in this process.
And I saw best by going under the

696
00:42:07.719 --> 00:42:13.159
almost sooner because we had we had
one of the few, like Fries Electronics,

697
00:42:13.159 --> 00:42:15.320
which is big in California. Yeah, we had one and it shut

698
00:42:15.360 --> 00:42:19.599
down entirely, and I was that
was bummed because that was like computer components,

699
00:42:19.599 --> 00:42:21.239
you know, like, oh,
I'm gonna buy a graphics card and

700
00:42:21.239 --> 00:42:24.840
the power supply and now I don't
that's all again Amazon and you know other

701
00:42:25.360 --> 00:42:29.159
other websites, and I'm like,
well, that's I would rather go to

702
00:42:29.199 --> 00:42:30.880
one place and pick it up.
And there's not a whole lot of those

703
00:42:30.960 --> 00:42:36.360
left. Yeah, we must protect
protect microcenters everybody. Micro Centers is my

704
00:42:36.480 --> 00:42:38.559
store. Although the one, the
one here in Cleveland's on the other side

705
00:42:38.599 --> 00:42:42.159
of Cleveland, so I actually haven't
been out to there yet. But the

706
00:42:42.159 --> 00:42:44.480
one in Columbus I would go to
all the time, all the time,

707
00:42:45.280 --> 00:42:47.360
even the one in Denver. All
right, let's keep moving here. Xbox

708
00:42:47.400 --> 00:42:52.599
Series S Starter Bundle includes three months
of game Pass Ultimate for three hundred dollars.

709
00:42:52.679 --> 00:42:54.559
This is Addi McCoo at gang Spot. Ahead of the holiday season,

710
00:42:54.559 --> 00:42:59.760
Microsoft has announced a new Xbox hardware
bundle. The Xbox Series S Starter Bundle,

711
00:42:59.800 --> 00:43:02.360
as it's called, is aimed at
people new to the Xbox ecosystem.

712
00:43:02.679 --> 00:43:07.440
The three hundred dollars bundle comes with
a five hundred twelve gigabyte Xbox Series S

713
00:43:07.840 --> 00:43:12.039
and three months of Xbox Game Pass
Ultimate. The new bundle launches October thirty

714
00:43:12.079 --> 00:43:17.039
first through the Microsoft Store and retailers
and retailers across the globe. I'm surprised

715
00:43:17.079 --> 00:43:21.719
it's taken them this long to include
something like three months of game Pass With

716
00:43:21.760 --> 00:43:23.840
the Xbox Series S. That always
felt like a no brainer, right.

717
00:43:23.840 --> 00:43:27.400
You put that in there, give
people a not just a taste, but

718
00:43:27.480 --> 00:43:30.559
like make them reliant on Game Pass
to the point where it's like, well,

719
00:43:30.599 --> 00:43:34.519
wake goes level, yeah, and
it's hard to live without now.

720
00:43:35.840 --> 00:43:37.159
And you know, even three months
feels like maybe you could do like six

721
00:43:37.199 --> 00:43:39.679
months or something like that, but
you know, whatever, three months that

722
00:43:39.679 --> 00:43:47.000
that's fine. Like this is Microsoft
also positioning some new package of Xbox against

723
00:43:47.000 --> 00:43:51.480
these slim ps fives. Do you
think this is compelling to people who are

724
00:43:51.480 --> 00:43:54.159
not in the Xbox ecosystem. At
the moment, I'm currently not in the

725
00:43:54.239 --> 00:43:57.960
Xbox ecosystem, and I saw this
in me like I could probably get me

726
00:43:58.039 --> 00:43:59.679
one of those. Okay, yeah, well all right idea. So I

727
00:43:59.760 --> 00:44:00.559
mean, and it's like, you
know, again, it's a matter of

728
00:44:00.559 --> 00:44:04.320
degrees right where it's like, you
know, maybe you're five to ten percent

729
00:44:04.360 --> 00:44:06.800
more likely to pick it up,
but that's a lot of people over time.

730
00:44:07.760 --> 00:44:12.360
I don't know. Is this something
where if a big game drops next

731
00:44:12.360 --> 00:44:14.360
SERI, is this the one you
would go get? We're like, oh,

732
00:44:14.440 --> 00:44:16.039
hey, I can get that on
Xbox and play it on Xbox Series

733
00:44:16.079 --> 00:44:19.159
S and have it on game Pass
so I don't have to spend anything extra

734
00:44:19.239 --> 00:44:21.719
and three hundred dollars, I'm all
in on the system and I get the

735
00:44:21.760 --> 00:44:24.840
game. So is this the one
you would get? Absolutely? I think

736
00:44:24.880 --> 00:44:30.199
that again, I have I have
been a physical person in most of my

737
00:44:30.239 --> 00:44:32.039
gaming, and I think that the
Xbox Series S would be the one where

738
00:44:32.039 --> 00:44:35.280
I'm like, okay, well,
at least this is all game pass.

739
00:44:35.679 --> 00:44:38.880
I'm not going to buy any getty
games like physically for this device. And

740
00:44:38.920 --> 00:44:43.280
then it's like, okay, well, the Xbox ecosystem is now digital only,

741
00:44:43.320 --> 00:44:45.320
so they've kind of also they've just
moved me now into a digital only

742
00:44:45.360 --> 00:44:49.679
future. But yeah, at the
same time, I mean game passes,

743
00:44:49.719 --> 00:44:52.119
game pass right, you got all
the hot like both all of the like

744
00:44:52.320 --> 00:44:55.159
some big titles and then also throwing
like the tiny indies that are just like

745
00:44:55.159 --> 00:44:59.199
breakout hits, and it's okay,
this is this is a good deal and

746
00:44:59.280 --> 00:45:04.000
I would this get me there this
it also it feels very specifically aimed at

747
00:45:04.039 --> 00:45:07.519
people who are maybe way more casual
than you are, because it's, uh,

748
00:45:07.800 --> 00:45:09.400
this is the five hundred and twelve
gigabyte model. There is a one

749
00:45:09.480 --> 00:45:14.039
terabyte Xbox Series S that's three hundred
and fifty dollars, but that they are

750
00:45:14.079 --> 00:45:16.239
not including that in this There is
no bundle for that with three months of

751
00:45:16.239 --> 00:45:20.719
game pass. So it's like,
man, it's it doesn't it come with

752
00:45:20.880 --> 00:45:22.159
a month of game passes. It
might, you know, Honestly, I

753
00:45:22.360 --> 00:45:25.599
would say I would guess two weeks, but I don't know. I don't

754
00:45:25.599 --> 00:45:29.800
know for sure. I do miss
the like the deals you used to be

755
00:45:29.840 --> 00:45:31.639
able to get for like, oh, this is like thirty bucks for like

756
00:45:31.960 --> 00:45:34.920
you know, a lot, like
six six months of it, And I

757
00:45:34.960 --> 00:45:37.039
used to five those I mean the
one the one dollar deal for for game

758
00:45:37.079 --> 00:45:43.320
Post one that was popular for a
while. Yeah, I I do.

759
00:45:43.360 --> 00:45:45.199
I wonder if this like moves the
needle that much for Microsoft, but I

760
00:45:45.400 --> 00:45:50.880
will say that this is moving in
direct the right direction. I think bundling

761
00:45:50.920 --> 00:45:53.880
Game Pass with the hardware is probably
the right thing to do for Microsoft to

762
00:45:54.119 --> 00:45:59.480
get people excited about the hardware,
something that has been sort of up and

763
00:45:59.519 --> 00:46:00.920
down for them, especially this year
where they haven't had a lot of games

764
00:46:01.000 --> 00:46:07.159
until Starfield, the Xbox hardware sales
were kind of like they were going down

765
00:46:07.360 --> 00:46:10.079
compared to the year before. So
I think reminding people that hey, this

766
00:46:10.159 --> 00:46:15.719
is just an all in easy package
might effectively help them reach out to people

767
00:46:15.719 --> 00:46:19.679
who were like on the on the
sideline when it came to Xbox itself.

768
00:46:20.159 --> 00:46:22.119
You got to have an answer for
the PlayStation slim, right, Yes,

769
00:46:22.719 --> 00:46:24.599
this is what it is as well. Yes, I think so. And

770
00:46:24.920 --> 00:46:30.119
they don't seem to They don't intend
to do a pro model and they don't

771
00:46:30.119 --> 00:46:31.159
seem to have and they also kind
of said they're like, hey, no,

772
00:46:31.320 --> 00:46:36.400
the Xbox series s is already kind
of our slim. So I think

773
00:46:36.800 --> 00:46:39.480
them finding new ways to package this
stuff up, obviously adding more storage to

774
00:46:39.480 --> 00:46:43.920
the Xbox Series S and putting that
as a black model. That was also

775
00:46:43.960 --> 00:46:46.159
part of this I mean, to
be fair, it's prettier. Yes,

776
00:46:46.239 --> 00:46:50.760
I in the PlayStation. I like
both. I like both a lot.

777
00:46:50.840 --> 00:46:53.599
I do you like the weird pop
collar? I do, yes. I

778
00:46:53.639 --> 00:46:57.559
do think it's ugly, but in
an interesting way that I really that I

779
00:46:57.559 --> 00:47:00.920
find appealing. It's that that scene
from America Hustle where Jennifer Lawrence is talking

780
00:47:00.920 --> 00:47:06.159
about the nail polish and how it's
it smells rotten but you can't stop smelling

781
00:47:06.239 --> 00:47:09.199
it. That's how I feel about
the PS five. But again, you

782
00:47:09.239 --> 00:47:13.599
know, I get why people don't
like it, because obviously it's rotten.

783
00:47:15.800 --> 00:47:19.159
Uh. All right, I'm gonna
skip this. Well, you know,

784
00:47:19.199 --> 00:47:21.519
we'll talk about this real quick.
Teck and eight was delayed to avoid Street

785
00:47:21.559 --> 00:47:23.840
Frider six and Mortal Kombat one.
Uh do you think that that makes sense?

786
00:47:23.840 --> 00:47:27.639
I think that probably makes sense.
I don't know how much. I

787
00:47:27.639 --> 00:47:30.119
don't. I don't know how likely
it was ever that that game was going

788
00:47:30.199 --> 00:47:32.440
to come out this year. I
bet it was something along along the lines

789
00:47:32.480 --> 00:47:37.760
of, hey, we could maybe
get that game out this year. But

790
00:47:37.800 --> 00:47:39.280
look at what's coming out, street
Fighter six and Mortal Combat one. You

791
00:47:39.320 --> 00:47:43.760
know what, let's just actually release
it like next year, like we kind

792
00:47:43.760 --> 00:47:45.880
of always were, uh it was. It's probably the right call though,

793
00:47:45.960 --> 00:47:49.440
right, those are the big the
big boys in the fighting game scene.

794
00:47:49.559 --> 00:47:52.119
You might as well, even if
you're teching, you might as well just

795
00:47:52.159 --> 00:47:54.159
wait a little bit longer and come
out next year. Right. The space

796
00:47:54.199 --> 00:47:58.400
is crowded right now. Yeah,
it's a real heavy space, and it's

797
00:47:58.480 --> 00:48:00.599
what you know, people are taking
side. Of course, I'm more of

798
00:48:00.599 --> 00:48:02.719
a Street Fighter person. I'm more
of a Mortal Kombat person. It's very

799
00:48:02.840 --> 00:48:06.079
rare. You hear that. Well, I'm the tech in person. I

800
00:48:06.079 --> 00:48:07.480
mean, of course there are people
who prefer it over all the other ones.

801
00:48:07.480 --> 00:48:10.800
But when you have the two main
sides coming out, you know,

802
00:48:10.960 --> 00:48:15.280
give it a break, come back, come back, and it'll be better

803
00:48:15.320 --> 00:48:19.400
for your sales. Yeah. Radasan
reveals that Taking A was initially set to

804
00:48:19.440 --> 00:48:22.800
launching summer twenty twenty three, but
that they decided to delay the game two

805
00:48:22.840 --> 00:48:24.800
years ago after learning that this would
mean going up against another fighting game.

806
00:48:24.840 --> 00:48:29.719
He doesn't want to say the title
of probably street Fighter six and More Combat

807
00:48:29.760 --> 00:48:35.199
one, and Ushaun and Chad,
who's a FGC freak, mentioned the heradus

808
00:48:35.199 --> 00:48:37.280
talked about, Hey, let's spread
these out so that there's always something for

809
00:48:37.320 --> 00:48:40.320
the fighting game community to get excited
about, because that helps out all fighting

810
00:48:40.320 --> 00:48:44.599
games. And I think that's that's
proven correct so far. And I think

811
00:48:44.800 --> 00:48:49.639
the momentum that's been created by Street
Fighter six and Mortal Kombat one this year

812
00:48:49.840 --> 00:48:52.559
could easily carry forward to a TECH
and eight, and I would like to

813
00:48:52.599 --> 00:48:55.119
see that happen. The fighting game
community has really been invigorated. Yes,

814
00:48:55.519 --> 00:48:59.599
absolutely, let's keep that wave of
rolling right, Let's throw in a soul

815
00:48:59.599 --> 00:49:05.719
caliber sometime. We're good to go. Uh all right. EA's soccer series

816
00:49:05.760 --> 00:49:08.440
expands into a new genre. This
is from Eddie mccoitt game spot. EA's

817
00:49:08.559 --> 00:49:14.239
hugely popular football slash soccer series,
EA Sports FC, formerly known as FIFA,

818
00:49:14.400 --> 00:49:19.719
is expanding into a new genre.
EA has announced EA Sports FC Tactical,

819
00:49:20.039 --> 00:49:24.360
the franchise's first turn based strategy game
for mobile. Basically, you're gonna

820
00:49:24.559 --> 00:49:28.280
so you're gonna collect your players and
move them around a field in a turn

821
00:49:28.360 --> 00:49:30.119
based way. And it's I think
it's just gonna be normal soccer, but

822
00:49:30.159 --> 00:49:34.119
turn based and Alex, I think
I would really like this if they made

823
00:49:34.119 --> 00:49:37.599
it like super silly, like if
like you could have if you could like

824
00:49:37.639 --> 00:49:43.320
put up barriers or whatever, like
big inflatables like a paintball field or whatever,

825
00:49:43.360 --> 00:49:45.800
and you're like sneaking around and doing
stealth soccer. I think that would

826
00:49:45.800 --> 00:49:51.280
be cool if it's just regular soccer
fields and regular soccer players. I'm not

827
00:49:51.360 --> 00:49:53.480
like too excited about this, but
I don't know how about you. I'm

828
00:49:53.480 --> 00:49:58.320
trying to look up right now.
What was the Blood Bowl? You ever

829
00:49:58.360 --> 00:50:00.280
heard of? Blood Bowl? Yeah? Yeah, Blood Bowl. That was

830
00:50:00.519 --> 00:50:04.519
like the tactical like almost turn based
football game. And I think that that

831
00:50:04.559 --> 00:50:08.159
you could do a very similar thing
where yeah soccer and Blood Bowl was.

832
00:50:08.280 --> 00:50:12.079
It was like the next iteration of
like you know the where like you know

833
00:50:12.119 --> 00:50:15.559
your monsters and you can like bribe
the refs and kill you know, kill

834
00:50:15.599 --> 00:50:19.599
the other players and stuff like that. I think that this could very well

835
00:50:19.760 --> 00:50:22.039
do. This could do something again
a little more silly, right, you

836
00:50:22.079 --> 00:50:25.239
know, do get you know,
get experience level up. Put give me

837
00:50:25.280 --> 00:50:30.440
a skill tree for my player.
Yes exactly exactly. I uh, make

838
00:50:30.519 --> 00:50:35.920
it x calm soccer, but even
even sillier I think is what I want.

839
00:50:35.960 --> 00:50:37.360
And you know, maybe the maybe
the possibility is there, but they're

840
00:50:37.360 --> 00:50:44.000
gonna have licensed, licensed teams and
licensed players from a premier league in Bundesliga

841
00:50:44.000 --> 00:50:46.199
and stuff like that. So the
the soccer freaks out there will be well

842
00:50:46.239 --> 00:50:51.039
served again on some specialty moves.
Right, give me fill a special meter

843
00:50:51.239 --> 00:50:53.000
exactly. Yes, there you go. I want several different meters to fill

844
00:50:53.079 --> 00:50:58.760
up. That's real gaming to me. Okay, let me bring in this

845
00:50:58.920 --> 00:51:02.519
real quick. There we go.
The next story is Call of Duty Mobile

846
00:51:02.639 --> 00:51:07.559
adds a cat that turns into a
gun. It's finally happened, Alex.

847
00:51:07.639 --> 00:51:12.960
We finally have reached peak video games. Call Duty Mobile. You can play

848
00:51:13.000 --> 00:51:16.039
as a anthropomorphic cat who has a
cat that runs alongside you, and then

849
00:51:16.039 --> 00:51:21.199
when it's time to fire, the
cat transforms into a sniper rifle and people

850
00:51:21.239 --> 00:51:25.599
who are watching the video are seeing
this. Can we talk about the fortnitification

851
00:51:25.719 --> 00:51:30.079
of Call of Duty? I mean
it was inevitable, right because the way

852
00:51:30.119 --> 00:51:35.039
that these games are going to succeed, like as live service games, especially

853
00:51:35.079 --> 00:51:37.960
Called Duty Mobile, a free to
play game, is you gotta sell shit

854
00:51:37.039 --> 00:51:40.840
to people, and people want to
buy wacky stuff. They want to show.

855
00:51:40.880 --> 00:51:45.519
I mean, I guess, yeah, I haven't paid attention to Call

856
00:51:45.559 --> 00:51:46.760
of Duty in a while, but
I have a friend that plays religiously.

857
00:51:47.119 --> 00:51:52.400
Last game it was like the anime
attack on Titan, Like Titans are in

858
00:51:52.440 --> 00:51:53.719
there, Godzilla's in there, and
then all of a sudden, she gets

859
00:51:53.760 --> 00:51:57.280
killed by Snoop Dogg. It's like, wait, what is happening now?

860
00:51:57.320 --> 00:52:01.480
It's next Lander shooting laser ib with
Nicki Minaj. It's like, wait,

861
00:52:01.920 --> 00:52:07.039
why is all of this they put
in this? Have you heard of Helsing,

862
00:52:07.320 --> 00:52:12.599
the anime from the eighties, It's
just doesn't doesn't matter because it's hot

863
00:52:12.599 --> 00:52:15.480
and it's the new anime character in
Call of Duty? Yeah? What?

864
00:52:15.119 --> 00:52:17.480
Yes, this is the one that
Christian was yelling at me about. Yes,

865
00:52:17.760 --> 00:52:22.480
yes, I've heard about Helsing.
Uh And I say that like five

866
00:52:22.519 --> 00:52:24.800
other people watched Helsing and apparently one
of them works on Call of Duty?

867
00:52:24.920 --> 00:52:29.440
Weird. Do you the design of
that heusing character in Call of Duty?

868
00:52:29.440 --> 00:52:30.159
How do you feel about it?
Is it? Is it good? Or

869
00:52:30.199 --> 00:52:34.719
is it up to your standards?
It looks it looks pretty solid the anime.

870
00:52:34.840 --> 00:52:38.000
Yes, okay, it's just strange
about why anybody would Helsing in twenty

871
00:52:38.000 --> 00:52:43.159
twenty three now and now a cat
that turns into a gun is pretty is

872
00:52:43.159 --> 00:52:46.800
a pretty solid move. Yeah.
I mean I think that this is the

873
00:52:46.880 --> 00:52:51.119
thing that makes it difficult for a
lot of these live service games to make

874
00:52:51.199 --> 00:52:54.360
sense over time. Is Hey,
you could make a really cool thing like

875
00:52:54.519 --> 00:53:00.000
a Last of Us factions that probably
plays fantastic. It probably is a really

876
00:53:00.079 --> 00:53:04.119
style game that people are really going
to enjoy playing, But are you going

877
00:53:04.159 --> 00:53:12.400
to have an intrinsic incentive built into
the game to show off your fun your

878
00:53:12.480 --> 00:53:15.199
fun cosmetics, and then will the
fun cosmetics fit in and do the developers

879
00:53:15.239 --> 00:53:19.559
want to like reach out and do
the work to license stuff? And it

880
00:53:19.599 --> 00:53:21.880
said, well that that starts to
not make a lot of sense for a

881
00:53:22.039 --> 00:53:24.199
Last of Us game, especially one
that's supposedly was going to move the story

882
00:53:24.199 --> 00:53:28.679
along. So it's like, okay, yeah, that's that's probably not going

883
00:53:28.760 --> 00:53:30.840
to work as well. Call of
Duty is like, we have to make

884
00:53:30.840 --> 00:53:34.679
this work because that we are competing
with Fortnite, and that's the option I

885
00:53:34.679 --> 00:53:37.440
guess. I played Fortnite, you
know, recently, was like surprised to

886
00:53:37.480 --> 00:53:42.480
see how many other people use sort
of the Fortnite original skins, not stuff

887
00:53:42.679 --> 00:53:45.000
that were licensed, Like we go
and play and we're like, hey,

888
00:53:45.039 --> 00:53:47.679
wouldn't it be funny if we were
all John Cena And it's like, yeah,

889
00:53:47.719 --> 00:53:50.760
that's a lot of fun. But
like the kids, I think,

890
00:53:50.800 --> 00:53:53.320
are like, oh, I'm going
to be this original Fortnite character instead,

891
00:53:53.440 --> 00:53:55.880
And I'm like, Okay, I
guess. I guess you're spending enough time

892
00:53:55.880 --> 00:54:00.280
in here that this is the ip
that you care about. But most these

893
00:54:00.280 --> 00:54:02.000
games would struggle to do that,
like you could only sell so many army

894
00:54:02.039 --> 00:54:06.079
Men soldier skins and a Call of
Duty. I think I was gonna say

895
00:54:06.119 --> 00:54:08.440
is that most most people who were
really big in it for the military aspect

896
00:54:08.480 --> 00:54:10.800
of left long ago. I think
that they've moved on to a lot more.

897
00:54:12.559 --> 00:54:15.400
I know people who still played Battlefield
and talk about how amazing it is

898
00:54:15.440 --> 00:54:17.199
and still going strong and how they
really made it good again. And it's

899
00:54:17.239 --> 00:54:20.679
like, really, okay, I
did not I was not aware that that

900
00:54:20.760 --> 00:54:22.400
was still a thing, Like I
thought it had kind of died on the

901
00:54:22.440 --> 00:54:27.400
vine. But people are still playing
it like religiously, so Call of Duty

902
00:54:27.400 --> 00:54:30.239
has no other option I have.
I have also two very young nephews,

903
00:54:30.280 --> 00:54:31.679
and I asked him that they're playing
Fortnite, like for like two hours.

904
00:54:31.760 --> 00:54:34.320
I'm like, Oh, which character
are you gonna play? And they're like,

905
00:54:34.360 --> 00:54:38.280
I'm the Banana and I'm like,
not not Ripley who you know exactly?

906
00:54:38.400 --> 00:54:42.360
Not not Mike Lowry from Bad Boys. I don't know who that is,

907
00:54:42.440 --> 00:54:45.559
Okay, but I do. I
do want to get the crew together

908
00:54:45.599 --> 00:54:46.840
and have all of this be Nicki
Minaj and Call of Duty. I do

909
00:54:46.960 --> 00:54:51.079
desperately want to do that again.
You got you got to unlock the next

910
00:54:51.159 --> 00:54:57.079
Land, the the hot Lander or
something from the Boys where you could shoot

911
00:54:57.119 --> 00:55:01.559
lasers out of your eyes. Yes, all right, let's do a Sonic

912
00:55:01.599 --> 00:55:07.400
Superstars review. Roundup game is coming
out soon. Still, the reviews are

913
00:55:07.960 --> 00:55:10.159
coming in as well on Metacritic as
the time. At the time of when

914
00:55:10.159 --> 00:55:14.519
I put this together, it was
at seventy four. IGN gave it a

915
00:55:14.559 --> 00:55:17.000
seven out of ten, said,
while the campaign is still enjoyable, Superstars

916
00:55:17.079 --> 00:55:22.719
multiplayer component are far worse options than
anything in past Sonic games. Wow,

917
00:55:22.079 --> 00:55:25.760
Like digging Emeralds out of the rough, Sonic Superstars new ideas end up feeling

918
00:55:25.840 --> 00:55:30.840
like a mix of both interesting and
ill advised, making it an amusing Sonic

919
00:55:30.880 --> 00:55:35.079
game, but not exactly a super
one good luck, have fun at Sports

920
00:55:35.119 --> 00:55:38.320
Illustrated gave it a nine out of
ten, said Sonic Superstars is the modern

921
00:55:38.360 --> 00:55:42.800
two D Sonic game. I never
thought we'd get it updates the visual style

922
00:55:42.800 --> 00:55:45.159
in a way that feels true to
the classics, while bringing in top tier

923
00:55:45.199 --> 00:55:49.400
level design that allows the core platform
mechanics to shine. And a week when

924
00:55:49.400 --> 00:55:52.480
both Sonic and Mario are launching new
games, it's a good time to be

925
00:55:52.519 --> 00:55:55.280
a two D platforming fan. And
then BGC gave it a four out of

926
00:55:55.280 --> 00:55:59.679
five. Ultimately, Sonic Superstars is
a game design to appeal to a very

927
00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:02.480
civic type of Sonic fan also known
as perverts. I might have added that

928
00:56:02.559 --> 00:56:06.760
part myself. I'm a Sonic pervert. I'd love to hear it the type

929
00:56:06.760 --> 00:56:08.960
of player who maintains that the sixteen
bit era was the best. It will

930
00:56:08.960 --> 00:56:13.760
happily boot up Sonic two for a
quick world to this day three decades later.

931
00:56:14.119 --> 00:56:16.639
If you treat Sonic Mania as something
of a remix project, then Sonic

932
00:56:16.679 --> 00:56:21.920
Superstars feel as the closest we've come
to a completely new Mega Drive Slash Genesis

933
00:56:21.960 --> 00:56:25.599
Arasonic game since Sonic and Knuckles.
It's short and not all of its optional

934
00:56:25.599 --> 00:56:29.639
gimmicks are great, but where it
matters the look, the sound, the

935
00:56:29.679 --> 00:56:32.599
physics, it absolutely nails that early
nineties feeling. And oh how great it

936
00:56:32.679 --> 00:56:37.280
is to finally have that feeling again. Alex. I know that you don't

937
00:56:37.360 --> 00:56:40.000
have a copy of this game,
but but you and I both played this

938
00:56:40.079 --> 00:56:44.800
Summer Game Fest. You are Sonic
fan. What'd you think of when you

939
00:56:44.840 --> 00:56:50.039
played it? I thought it is
definitely a throwback to the sixteen bit era

940
00:56:50.199 --> 00:56:52.079
does feel a lot like that I
do. But they also threw in a

941
00:56:52.119 --> 00:56:57.119
lot of optional extra mechanics, which
can be fun to play in. But

942
00:56:57.199 --> 00:57:00.119
at the same time, it also
slowed Sonic down, and that's where I

943
00:57:00.159 --> 00:57:01.840
was like, Okay, I think
I like I like them, but I

944
00:57:01.880 --> 00:57:05.280
also just really want to go fast, and I feel like this is stopping

945
00:57:05.320 --> 00:57:08.280
me. But at but at the
time, you know, again the Summer

946
00:57:08.320 --> 00:57:10.119
Game Fest, they even said they're
like, we still have a whole bunch

947
00:57:10.159 --> 00:57:13.519
of patching to do and a lot
of like other stuff to update, so

948
00:57:13.559 --> 00:57:16.079
we're still there. We're working on
it. But yeah, I thought I

949
00:57:16.079 --> 00:57:20.920
thought it was interesting. I've still, you know, really like Sonic.

950
00:57:21.280 --> 00:57:23.400
What was it again, the remix
pro Sonic Mania. Yes, yeah,

951
00:57:23.480 --> 00:57:29.039
Sonic Mania is still the gold standard
for me. Yeah, I want more.

952
00:57:29.119 --> 00:57:31.800
I was making eyes at the camera
because whenever I talk about son I'm

953
00:57:31.840 --> 00:57:34.639
like, yeah, anytime you hit
a wall and it stops you, it's

954
00:57:34.679 --> 00:57:37.480
not fun anymore. Because Sonic's fun
when you're going fast and the game like

955
00:57:37.559 --> 00:57:39.920
it always tries to throw things in
your way, like, wouldn't be fun

956
00:57:39.920 --> 00:57:42.840
if you stopped and did this instead? It's like, fuck, no,

957
00:57:43.199 --> 00:57:47.320
that's this. This is terrible.
I think Superstars does something very similar where

958
00:57:47.360 --> 00:57:50.800
it gives you abilities. Now,
okay, I could I could swim up

959
00:57:50.840 --> 00:57:55.159
a waterfall turn into a fish.
It's like, sure, yeah, the

960
00:57:55.199 --> 00:57:59.039
fish thing, that's right. Yeah, I completely forgot about that could be

961
00:57:59.039 --> 00:58:02.199
fun. I I'm willing to give
this chance game of chance, mostly because

962
00:58:02.199 --> 00:58:07.280
I have to because I said I
would play it before New Super Mario or

963
00:58:07.440 --> 00:58:10.239
No New Super Mario Brothers wonder uh
so uh yeah, I'm gonna play through

964
00:58:10.239 --> 00:58:14.119
this game here pretty soon and I'll
see what I think, and I will

965
00:58:14.440 --> 00:58:16.280
I'll be good at Sonic. So
everyone could just shut up about that and

966
00:58:16.280 --> 00:58:21.360
we'll see. We'll see what happens. Yep, meet me too. Seventy

967
00:58:21.360 --> 00:58:22.719
four on o for Sonic though.
That seems pretty good for Sonic game.

968
00:58:24.559 --> 00:58:31.679
Uh okay, let's uh, let's
do the poll from last episode who would

969
00:58:31.719 --> 00:58:35.440
give the biggest flower? Who would
you give the biggest flower bouquet? Too?

970
00:58:35.440 --> 00:58:37.599
And now because I want your answer, would you give the biggest flower

971
00:58:37.599 --> 00:58:43.719
bouquet A Princess Peach, Elephant Peach, Bowzett or wa Luigi. Oh no,

972
00:58:43.760 --> 00:58:47.159
that's that's outing me a lot,
right, so Bowzett Huh yeah,

973
00:58:47.239 --> 00:58:52.280
let's go. It's my answer to
it's Bozett or elephant Peach. No.

974
00:58:53.599 --> 00:58:59.360
Nine percent said elephant Peach, eighteen
percent said Princess Peach. Thirty one percent

975
00:58:59.400 --> 00:59:07.400
said and said bow zat our fellow
pervs, stay away from that subreddit absolutely

976
00:59:07.400 --> 00:59:12.599
well, I mean listen unless you
got unless you have needs. Well,

977
00:59:12.639 --> 00:59:14.559
I would a new pole that I'm
gonna put up here in a second,

978
00:59:14.559 --> 00:59:16.119
and by me, I mean Jan
But first, Alex, why don't tell

979
00:59:16.119 --> 00:59:19.280
people where they can find you?
What hit what you have going on?

980
00:59:19.360 --> 00:59:23.360
All that good stuff? You can
find me at super gg radio on Twitter

981
00:59:24.239 --> 00:59:29.440
we uh supergg radio dot com for
reviews, we review games, our podcast

982
00:59:29.519 --> 00:59:34.719
all podcast services uh we are every
week we play two to three betas demos,

983
00:59:34.880 --> 00:59:37.440
early access games and talk about them
with you guys to let you know,

984
00:59:37.480 --> 00:59:40.360
hey, this is what's hot right
now, this is what what is

985
00:59:40.400 --> 00:59:44.119
coming out, what you should look
out for. Also, you have Lexi

986
00:59:44.159 --> 00:59:45.880
on the show quite often and I
write for them. I do, I

987
00:59:45.920 --> 00:59:49.639
do it. Here's the top you
know, five to ten betas we've played

988
00:59:49.679 --> 00:59:51.480
from the first half of the year, back half of the year, just

989
00:59:51.480 --> 00:59:54.920
because it's like there are so many
start menu right, yep, that's on

990
00:59:54.960 --> 00:59:59.400
start menu. Yeah, and just
overall, just like you know the podcast

991
00:59:59.440 --> 01:00:05.960
super gg radio dot com and and
all all podcast services. Excellent. All

992
01:00:06.039 --> 01:00:07.719
right, the new poll question,
do you shop for games at Best Buy?

993
01:00:08.039 --> 01:00:13.639
Yes? No, I suppose jamybe
we should add a there is no

994
01:00:13.719 --> 01:00:15.159
best Buy by me. If you
haven't done, if you already put it

995
01:00:15.199 --> 01:00:20.280
up, don't wry about it.
We'll get to this question though on Monday

996
01:00:20.480 --> 01:00:23.639
on Giant Bomb. Speaking of Giant
Bomb, later today, we'll be playing

997
01:00:23.639 --> 01:00:28.840
Fasmophobia for unprofessional Fridays. Tune in
for that. I'm gonna be in VR.

998
01:00:29.239 --> 01:00:30.039
Yeah too late, that's all.
That's fine, Janet. I'm gonna

999
01:00:30.039 --> 01:00:32.679
be in the VR. Everyone else
is gonna be playing on their personal computers,

1000
01:00:34.000 --> 01:00:36.840
so I expect to be very frightened. Alex, it's gonna be that

1001
01:00:36.840 --> 01:00:40.280
sounds horrifying, sounds terrifying. I'm
not looking forward to it. Uh So

1002
01:00:40.440 --> 01:00:44.239
that'll happen later today, and then
of course next week we'll be back with

1003
01:00:44.239 --> 01:00:46.840
a bunch of new stuff and all
those goodies. Until then, though,

1004
01:00:46.880 --> 01:00:50.559
Alex, thank you so much for
spinning today talk with me about video games,

1005
01:00:50.559 --> 01:00:52.880
man, I really appreciate it anytime. Thank you all for watching.

1006
01:00:52.920 --> 01:00:55.480
You're the best audience in gaming.
Until next time, have a good one,

1007
01:00:55.559 --> 01:00:59.320
take care of yourself, and goodbye
gig.