You know, we um it's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this
for September eighth, twenty twenty three. For the next hour or so,
let me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game Mess Mornings Live
with Me Jeff Grubb. Today is a it's a major Nintendo franchise, finally
making a comeback after almost twenty years. But first please join me and welcome
me today's co host a Game Mess Mornings. It's Timor who's saying, everybody,
dam how are you doing? I am okay, I am very okay.
You know, very okay, Okay, I can accept that. What
what are we gonna go to make it better? I don't know, man,
I don't know if we can get to bad today. I think this
is just a very okay day. And sometimes, you know, okay,
accept you have to accept that very okay as good enough. Yeah, at
a certain point in life, you gotta take those as dubs. You gotta
say that that is a way it could be worse. Yeah. Yeah,
is Friday. It's dregs day. So it doesn't mean that things will improve
over time, but you know it's for now, it's just very okay.
I'll have my tea over the course of the next hour, and then it
will improve too. Quite good, quite good, damn if I want to
do still be like I have like a starter tea for a boy from from
the Midwest. Do you have recommendations? Would you grow up? Would you
grow up on? I grew up on very highly caffeinated British like, so
for me, like I I wish I wish you were a hair or something.
I could make you a chie, like a nice South Asian chie.
It's got like it's time we get together to make it happen. That a
little bit of spice to it. It's got like cardamm it's got like a
little bit of anna seeds. You know, it's it's cinnamons. It's really
nice. And ginger is really good. But if if we're talking like if
you want like actual kind of caffeinated tea, I would recommend probably Yorkshire tea,
which you'll probably have to import to get it here, a little splash
of milk, you'll be good. If you're talking about like non like British
that I'll tea milk tea. I would recommend starting with a like a mint
tea or a jazz mint tea. I think like Twining's is pretty good.
That's that's when I can reliably get right Twinings. Yeah, you can very
easily right okay everywhere? Yeah yeah. Because I had this spressover this morning
and people notice it, I'm gonna be I'll be jittery on the show.
There's no way around it. Everybody, we just got to deal with it.
But I'm like, I should I should maybe throw some tea in the
rotation. That sounds like an alternative that would be very good for me.
Tea's very for me, It's very relaxing. I don't use it for caffeine.
My caffeine tolerance is just crazy now because I used to drink tea three
cups a day minimum, two tea bags per cup. Okay, So I
was lost in my body to the point where I eventually it had like a
full breakdown. And there was a couple of years ago I developed like an
intolerance to caffeine. So every time I drink it, I would feel awful,
like genuinely sick. So I'd like weaned myself off of caffeine and then
came back slowly. And those are British teas as well, So it was
intense. Yes, the real deal stuff. Damn, I I gotta say,
I'm I'm starting to come back to life personally. I I my brain,
my body, everything goes into hibernation in the summer when it's hot and
then it falls basically here, it's getting into the sixties finally where I'm at
in Cleveland. And then and then football's back and the Lions kicked off the
season. I'm a Lions fan, and they played very well last night and
say, oh man, it's it's very cool to for that. That's weird,
wonderful. Yes, it's one. It's it's it's very strange because they've
been bad my entire life. They've never really had a good season. They've
had a couple here and there, flukes, and so they just they went
they beat these super Bowl champions from last year and in their in their city.
So it's like people are getting their hopes up in a way that I
think is very dangerous for a team like the Lions, because I think you
tend to find a way to always be fit. But so far, I'm
fun. I'm a basketball guy. My team is a warrior. So I
got nothing right now, right, But if you had, I mean you
got that good stretch and that teams that seems still fun to watch. Oh
yeah, they rule. I mean like it's going to be interesting to see
because you don't get into the finals last last season. But let's see what
happens this season. I think they're gonna Yeah, I think I think they're
They're very hungry, Chris pol Now, we got rid of my boy Jordan
Pool, which made me sad. But Jan's boy Draymond Greened, that's all
he needs. Raymond. Draymond is the he's he's he's ready. He's a
scientist. Uh yeah, yeah. So but mostly I'm just like, oh,
okay, falls here. That means just falls here. I can start
coming back to life and having a personality again. I'm feeling good about that.
I don't have to be on autopilots, so I'm looking forward to it.
The shows will get spicy. Everybody look forward to that as well.
All Right, before we get into this message, to explain what we do
here on this shows most weekdays, I Jeff Greb will help peace your gaming
life back together. That includes a breaking news and maybe even some of our
own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the input of a
bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If you were watching live
on twitch welcome. You can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds
by searching for Game Mess Mornings, or find the RSS on giant bomb dot
com. You can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube.
Hello YouTube. All right, we have a lot to get into,
so let's start the Morning Mess with the return of a classic Nintendo series might
be being teased for an upcoming Nintendo direct. This comes from Tom Ivan f
VGC, and of course that's Tom the Machine Ivan. An upcoming Nintendo director
could feature news on the return of a classic Nintendo series. It's been suggested
that zero news maybe being teased by Twitter user Pioro, who has a strong
recent track record when it comes to the Attendo leaks, including outing Super Mario
Brothers Wonder ahead of its official announcement. How do you feel about these leaker
names? Tim Lincoln is terrible. We've been here, man, that we
have been here, Like, I hope it's true, but I refuse to
believe it at this point. I don't blame it if it's If it's really
coming back, right, it's a remake and remake. But I just again,
I'm not trying to be cynical. I love F Zero, I want
F Zero, I just do not. I just do not see a market
case for it. Yeah. The best I can get is people know that
Captain Falcon from Smash. Yes, that's not enough, man, that is
not enough. I feel like the Also, it's like it's been gone so
long that people will have a very baseline understanding of what it is. When
it appears the broader people, they will look at it and go racing game.
And I just don't think racing games hit as hard as they used to
think. You have a couple of franchises will make it work for a Grandurismo
and Mariel Car is the other exception. I mean, like Ugusoft has the
crew which are trying to everyone's one about the crew. Tam about to say
it's not popular, but like they make it worse through sheer force or just
incessant releases. They just never stop releasing it and they keep coming and adventure
and just through like saturating the market, they get some share of that market.
Of that. You're not wrong, that's so true, It's so true,
Like so many things that you BESTOFT does, but especially the crew.
I just I would I would love I hope I'm wrong. I just don't
see it for F zero like I want to see it. I hope that
GX is the one that they do. I would love it. I'd be
very excited for it, but for me right now, and maybe it's because
it's a defense mechanism where I try to be hurt again, but I'm struggling
to see it happen. Yeah, So I'll say that the among the rumor
mill for Nintendo stuff since like late last year earlier this year, F zero
g X coming back has been a popular rumor. I guess it's how I'll
phrase it. It's one that is, it's frequently reared its head and to
the point where you know, I've never been able to confirm it personally,
but it's it's also not one that's been Oh that's easy to debunk as well.
It lines up with it to know right now that the way that they've
treated GameCube games as like these are good to pick up, take and move
over to the switch and they'll they'll do relatively well. And I think they
do it in the line of like Metroid Primary mastery. That makes sense.
Yeah, I mean, like that's the reason why I think it would happen.
But it's also like, what's the next step in that business case exactly
for Metroid Prime, is there's another Metroid Prime, and also Metroid has just
had a moment with Dread, so there's a business case to be made there
F zero only really as Captain Falcon is in Smash and that's about it.
There's no current business case. Like if they were doing it, and I
hope they are, like I said, it would just be like a kind
of like a tip of the hat or not at their head to fans of
F zero, which I think that we deserve something and they give it to
us. F zero when it comes to rumors as well, is also one
of those ones where I'm not trying to I'm not trying to like talk down
the credibility of this leak up. Yeah, any want. Yeah, it's
very easy to anyone, for anyone to say anything about F zero and get
a lot of traction out of it. It was It's the same for Metroid
Prime. It was the same. Anyone could say Metroid Prime. I heard
there's a new metro Prime coming and it didn't really matter if you were credible
or not, you would pick up some traction F zero is exactly the same.
Again, I'm not saying this Pyro person or whatever your nonsense name is,
is lying. I'm just saying, like, it's is one that we
have to be careful of. Yeah, it happens so frequently. His his
his leaks recently. The one the reason that like people would be like,
oh well, I'm I am choosing to believe this is Uh. It was
the Super Mario Brothers Wonder and Super Mario RPG remake that that he was the
one the source of those leaks that happened right before that show. So everyone's
like ready to believe him, and you know this direct probably is happening next
week and uh, and they have to have something in there. And so
it's like maybe that F zero rumor that is a frame like that, But
I also know exactly what you mean. And we've also seen with like some
of these lakers who have been very accurate in the past, it's like something
changes and then suddenly the sources in a solid anymore that could be happening.
I was Priora this morning also tweeted a gift of Donkey Kong from the movie
like rolling into the screen. Donkey Kong is another one that we've heard repeatedly
as a rumor, But that one is that one seems less easy to pin
down because that like it's been all over the place. There's a three ding
Donkey Kong. No, it's a two D Donkey Kong from from the two
D Marrio team. It's like, well, now we know what the two
D Mario teams working on. That's definitely not Donkey Kong. Or maybe Donkey
Kong's DLC in there, who knows. So maybe this is the three D
Morrow team making a Donkey Kong game. What does that make sense? Well,
they're probably gonna do a Donkey Kong movie after this movie was very successful
and they got Donkey Kong stuff going into Universal studios, so maybe they want
to synergize with all that stuff. It's very easy to take the circumstantial evidence
to him and be like, well, of course that makes sense. At
the same time, like, I think that would be a good and cool
move for them to be like, here is a new take on Donkey Kong.
A separate from what what Retro was doing, separate from what Rare was
doing before that and re establishing that character something that they have remodeled the character
recently. It's like, oh, we're gonna kind of go in this direction.
So I would like to see that, but I don't know, what
do you think? I think it makes sense again. Donkey Kong is another
one that we have. You know, people who are have the inside knowledge
have heard about many many times. Yes, many times, I've heard about
a new Donkey Kong game, like you said, so many times and so
many different variations. And the other thing is like things like you said,
change you you of all people know what that happens. Where it's like the
amount of times I have been told that, I very quickly have learned that,
hey, when someone tells you this is going to happen, like I
don't tell a lot of people because I know that especially Nintendo especially, they
can they can decide, oh, we're actually not going to do this right
now, We're going to save it for six months, and then you look
like a fall for We know for a fact that they did that with Metro
Prime Remaster because that was the one that that like radio they like people went
back like oh, this was like submitted in Germany in twenty twenty or something
like. That's why I did not say shut Metro Prime, because I was
like, I know what's going to happen here, and it happened. Donkey
Kong is another one where it has been flowing around for a very long time.
It does make sense for it to kind of be the next thing that
Nintendo or anything that Nintendo does. I'm not one hundred percent sure if it
would be an internal team, especially given that internal team when when the choice
is make them make a new Donkey Kong which could be good, could be
a success, or make them make a new Mario like which is definitely going
to be access regardless. I don't know if you put that team, like
the three D Mario team on a Donkey Kong game, maybe you put a
three D Marrio team on Mario and Donkey Kong Squash the Beef game or ever.
Yeah, that's that's what I'm thinking, Like there's a there's a chance
here that you still play as Mario in this Donkey Kong game. Like I
think that's a fantastic like unite Donkey Kong and Mario again, since like you
know, from the early days, like go back to that. I think
that's such a clever idea. I hope that's what they're going for. And
I would love to see the you know, the Nintendo three D team Mario
three married team handling that franchise or handling that character. But at the same
time, I just would love a new Donkey Going game is great. You
know, I love for Donkey Kong. He's he's the European uh Nintendo mascot
of choice for us. Really, I didn't really, I didn't know that.
It's like he's like shows up maybe as frequently as what Mario. No,
it's in like it's rare. That made him right, Oh well he
would you know, shug hear me about him, made him like a for
the arcade game and then yeah, and then on the current Donkey Kong that
everyone thinks I was definitely rare. Yes, that's exactly definitely, he's our
He's our kind of boy. Yes. So yeah. I played ship tons
of Donkey Kong country when I was a kid. Jim Ryan's a big fan
of Donkey Kong. He's like another European Let's go, Yeah, let's go.
I think that everything you said about Donkey Kong is is spot on.
It's something that I would like to see if they have an idea for it.
They feel like, I hete we have a really cool thing that we
want to do with this That would be cool. But you're right, I
still like, underneath all these rumors, I'm like, the next thing from
the three D Mario team is going to be a follow up to Super Mario
Odyssey. Like they didn't they didn't give DLC for that game. Uh.
They that those teams usually work in such a way that, hey, we
have all these extra ideas that we have to on the floor, We're gonna
come up with a bunch of extra ideas and a sequel here is going to
build on that. We've seen them do that with Galaxy. We see this
is all the team just do that with Tears of the Kingdom. So it's
like my expectation has always been that there would be an Odyssey two or excuse
me, or some variation on that that follows up on them. But if
if you know, there's no reason they couldn't take those ideas and change things
up and and have Donkey Kong in there in some way, that could be
cool as well. The timing though, because if this is from the three
D Mario team. You would expect that to be a a big, big
release for them, and they was something that they were like, hey,
this could do twenty five million copies. Is there enough time to announce this
game and get it launched on the Switch before the Switch two comes out?
That That's where I'm like, not, you're about any of this anymore?
Yeah, I mean, like the timing is a bit strange, especially with
Wander coming out, and if everything we heard about a new Switch turns out
to be true, it could be I don't think I think the Switch to
you know what it could it could kind of indicate to us that the Switch
and Switch Too might be closer than we realize. And there's like some level
of backwards compatibility and also scalability on how a game performs, like or they
could just release two versions of a game. You know. They haven't been
beyond that before, especially when the game that they know is going to be
successful, take to Switch one version of this new Merry game or whatever it
is and put it out or Donkey Kong game and then also a Switch Too
version. They did did that for Breath of Wild and the Wiu and Switch,
So it's not beyond them, but it would be a bit strange.
Yeah, I guess. Like, you know, people in chat are given
a whole bunch of different scenarios here. It's like people, hey, there's
a whole year probably between the now when the Switch two comes out, so
that game can come out and early summer or like March or something like that.
Yeah, I guess so. But it's again like why wouldn't you say
it? No, But regardless of if you want to save it, if
you're launching a new piece of hardware and you have a Mario game, like
you, that's an absolutely slam dunk. Like that's how I feel too.
Yeah. I mean like, even if it's a case of like we just
put a Mario game out, they're not gonna hold it. I imagine if
they have a new piece of hardware out like this, like just put that
thing out right now. It worked for Breath of the Wild and right a
Nintendo Switch, so I imagine they're just like, yeah, if it's done,
us for that show out with this new thing. I think it would
indicate also that they probably have plenty of other stuff working in the works right
now that they could launch a switch to console with. Even though they've just
launched a Zelda. They will have a two D Mario on the switch,
and then something from the three D Mario team, and if that goes on
switch one, it's like, well, what's left on for the system?
But this is a Nintendo that is working in a very different way. We'll
talk about it here. Actually, let's get through it right here in this
story. Tam I know you talked to Tezuka Tessica about Super Mario Brothers development.
Here's like a little bit similar to what you told me. But I'll
ask you if your thoughts on this afterwards. Super Mario Brothers Wonder dev's had
no deadlines during the prototyping phase. This is from Jonas Maki at Game Reactor.
The two D games in the Mario series have long lagged behind the three
D releases in terms of introducing new creative elements and mechanics. However, this
looks set the change with the upcoming Super Mario Brothers Wonder, which introduces a
number of gameplay innovations and power ups, not least the ability to transform into
an elephant. The fact that the game appears to be more experimental may have
something to do with the fact that Nintendo had no internal deadline during the game's
prototyping phase. The game's producer, Takashi Tessica told Wired, I wanted to
prevent people saying from saying, we won't make that deadline. So that's why
we didn't do it. We can't do it. Whether Super Mario Brothers Wonder
actually feels as fresh to play as it looks, we'll find out on twentieth
October. Tell you know what, it feels pretty fresh after we played it
twice. Damn. So you've talked to Tessica and you had he told you
something similar. What's the vibe you got like that this no deadline thing during
the prototype and phase. It's something he touched on with you. We talked
about in this interview. Clearly this is something that they think is unlocking some
extra potential in this Mario game, right. Yeah. So I spoke to
Tescasan and Morrison, who both worked on the game, and they've worked on
They're like they worked. You look at their credit list and you're like,
god, damn, they like or a year of Mario and then yeah,
Tesica did getting one of my favorite games of all times in one of them.
I think maybe Morrison also worked on a metroid know and then so they
know what they're doing. Yeah. And their general thing was like, we
didn't set a deadline up until we were a year out from completing it,
so it was cases like the prototype phase, etc. Essentially, they were
like, we'll figure it out once they have the rock solid foundation and know
exactly where they're going. That's when they were like, let's set this deadline.
Yeah, And I think that's definitely been It's clear that every part of
the development process and like the workflow and pipeline was designed to ensure that they
were coming up with the most interesting ideas and being able to execute on them.
I think the thing, the thing that everyone is latching onto is that
there were no deadlines because that's something that's very commonly discussed in video games,
both people who cover it and have like a professional insider interest in it,
but also people who play games. They know that deadlines can be a big
issue when it comes to when it comes to developing games, and it's and
it's a it's good to see that stuff. For me, what they told
us, like me and Lucy did the interview, and what I found more
interesting was they had no kind of like barriers on who could submit ideas for
Wonder another thing which is a very very cool thing. So like basically they
were like, we're making a new Mario game. If you have an idea,
holler at your boys. And they said, like a bunch of ideas
is that they actually ended up using came from the sound team as more than
anyone else. So that's why it's like a very different kind of game.
And also from based on discussions, I had a lot of the development team
on Wonder is very very young, and Tesca and Mari indicated that like they
were the young staff or challenging a lot of the kind of taken for granted
elements of Marry experiences. Namely, we talked about this, for example,
we talked about this in the interviews, like there's no timer on those games,
on those levels anymore, like and that was something and one of the
younger a couple of the younger team came up. I was like, do
we need a timer on this? Why is this a thing? And they
laid reassessed it, and it turned out they didn't need a timer on it,
which makes perfect sense because when we were playing it, we didn't want
to run forward. We wanted to goof around and explore and do stuff,
you know, and it made perfect sense. The idea of a game where
you're collecting this item had does something different each time, or like does something
different depending on stage, inspires wonder and if it's doing that, the last
thing you want is people just legging it forward and not really taking the time
to have fun with it. So yeah, it seems like the lack of
a deadline is just one of many things that Nintendo did to create a well,
or at least they present as creating a very comfortable, very open,
very kind of idea and new Blood driven development and ideation environment. And based
on what we've played, which is admittedly a extremely limited slice, a very
small slice, it seems to have some magic that Marya hasn't had before,
which is very exciting. I mean again, we could be getting debated pretty
hard, but a limited slice, but I am extremely interested in seeing what
else is in that game. Yeah. I came home and my kids wanted
to play a new Super Mario Brothers You Deluxe, Damn, and I when
I was playing that, my main I this is actually kind of rough for
me to go back to after playing Wonder just a lot. It just feels
static and and stayed and just kind of like it's just there's something musty about
it where it's like, God, it doesn't look alive. It doesn't.
Yeah, sure it plays like a Mario game, yeah, but it's the
creativity just isn't there compared to Wonder. Yeah. I talked to Jan about
this quite. We all talked about it once we played. But like,
this is a game, these are changes and this is a different tack than
it needed to take, primarily because you know, they have technology now that
can support it, but also we live in a post Mario movie world now,
and Mario Movie was an incredible, big success, but it's weird to
say that it probably created new fans as if there are still people who don't
know don't like Mario, which is wild, but they're death finitely are.
I mean, Lucy mentioned it on on the podcast that we did from the
Bed Jan's Room at Hotel Room. Her nieces are now into it and they
weren't before. But like, this is a post Mario movie. Mario game
and the Mario movie set different expectations now because you're seeing Mario in a way
that you never have before like close up, you get to see him emoting,
You get to see them having personalities, you get to see them speaking
more than we have ever seen. If you if you kind of create the
new fan base with that movie, who you know, are now interested in
playing games, and then the first game you release after that is a the
same kind of very pulled back. We can't see Mario's face not emoting.
You know, she's not emoting. It's very limited in terms of the personality.
You're gonna have a bit of an issue there with consistency, and you
want to make the most of the kind of amazing performance of the movie.
And the way you do that is by upping the game on how it's animating,
how how it shows the personality, and it does it in more ways
than just like expressions as little flourish his hair in there. That makes you
feel like, oh, they have really thought about making every aspect of this
charming in a way that yeah, kids and newcomers and people who have come
from the movie will be like, this is my Mario yep, and I
think I mean take it so like the game, it looks very promising because
of all that, and like we're film pretty good after playing it and it's
like, that's that's awesome for Mario. Is Nintendo applying this similar level of
thinking about, Hey, a long prototyping phase something that you know, when
developers refer to this concept, they call it the process. And it's actually
Mark Sarney's credited with coming up with this of a very long prototyping phase and
then at least almost certainly at least the same amount of time later spent on
actually defining the fun and polishing it up and stuff. And Nintendo's like,
hey, yeah, that's working for us. Respond is famous for this.
They have really long phases. It's the process that gave us NACK one and
nack that's right, clearly against that, clearly it's unassailable. That's damn right.
So but you know, you hope that. Okay, So if we
go back to that, looking at or we got a Zelda recently, we
got a we're getting a two Dmorrio, we might be getting some from a
three Dmorrow team going into and all that could happen before a switch too is
here. Clearly they will have either decent backward compatibility upgrades something to make all
those games be there day one for a switch too in some better form that
seems likely, But that's not exactly what we're thinking. We're like, Okay,
how do you have a strong launch with new games? Well, the
truth is is that they have maybe they have some of these other teams work
doing the similar thing of taking a long time to get stuff ready, and
they think that those some of those games are going to be promising and a
very strong way to launch of Switch Too. I guess we'll see. That's
I I has think. I think it's more likely that we get an fdo
or remake for Switch two than for Switch one. Yeah, I could say,
what one the one that's really curious to meet TAM's Metroid Prime for everyone,
And it's just kind of defaulting to this idea that Metric Prime four is
going to be a switch to game now and I still like, I still
think they try to get it out on the system, which means we would
have to come out soon in the next year. Yes, And yeah,
I mean, given the was it the development reset thing that they did fairly
recently could be weird. It's that might feel recently, Tampa, I think
that's like been four years now. It's been like four years, which week
because they have not said shit sets It's been completely silent. So I mean,
that's that's the That's the Nintendo game I won the most. Like I'm
when it comes to the Interno franchises, I'm a Metroid boy. I love
Zelda and I love Mario, but one million percent I'm a Metroid guy and
and like that's the one I'm desperate for more information on. But yeah,
also like I'm just to plug it again. I will have my Mario interview
next week. Fantastic. I wanted to have it up this week, but
it's been so busy. I also asked them, like why they took out
the interactions between is, you know, picking up each other and being menaces
and that kind of stuff. And it's got a really interesting but very obvious
kind of like uh answer to it. Probably not the one that you expect,
but I was like, okay, yeah, that makes perfect sense.
And it was funny because when they were answering it, they could also tell
that I was. I was like, I was the person causing problems in
these themes out It's like, sorry, you can checked on the couch,
And I got very exciting and had to show everybody, Uh, that's a
good kiddie. Look all right, you know what, let's take a quick
break. When we come back, we're gonna talk about Phil Spencer talk about
Elder Scroll six exclusivity and more. We'll be right back after this, and
we're back. We're talking about more gaming news here on Dregs Day on Gay
Mess Mornings. Xbox Boss, Phil Spencer us potential Elder Scrolls six exclusivity.
This comes from Tom the Machine Ivan as well over a VGC. Microsoft's head
of gaming has addressed the subject of whether the Elder Scroll six will be an
Xbox exclusive. Following this week's release of Starfield Bethes, the game studio's next
game will be a new entry in the long running fantasy RPG series. Starfield
is availed for Xbox Series X and sp PC via Windows and Steam and Microsoft's
game Pass subscription service, which lets players play titles blah blah blah. It's
but as the game studio's first release since Microsoft acquired its parent companies ZeniMax Media
in twenty twenty one. Notably, Starfield is not available on PlayStation consoles,
which it will also be the case for an upcoming Indiana Jones games set to
be published by Bees the softworks. In an interview with Bloomberg this week,
Xbox boss Phil Spencer was asked whether Elder Scrolls six will also be exclusive,
and how Microsoft decides whether it's on the right track with this release strategy.
We look at it on a case by case basis with the games that we
build, he replied. We want to make sure our games are available in
so many different places on our Xbox consoles, on PC, also via the
cloud. These games can come to almost any web enabled device. We're looking
at millions of millions of players who will have access to Starfield and other Xbox
Game Studios games. It's really about giving players choice around how they want to
play and they build their lives where they build their library of games. Dam
I think that I'll just reiterate that I saw the documents in turn, with
the internal documents of how they decided what they were going to do with as
the exclusivity, and basically what it looked like is they did the math and
they saw, yes, we will lose money by when we don't put these
games on PlayStation, but we are. When we look at it, it's
like that amount of money we're losing makes sense in terms of how it will
feel like an investment into game Pass and make game Pass seem more valuable.
So they're like they're just doing they're considering it the cost of doing business.
And they decided pretty firmly at that time, And at that time was a
couple of years ago now, but at that time they decided pretty firmly.
But as the games for the most part going forward are going to be exclusive,
especially stuff like Elder Scroll six, which I heard specifically was going to
be exclusive. Now maybe that changes. There's always things can always change,
and especially after going through that that gauntlet with regulators, and maybe you want
to keep keeping things maybe more on the level of regulators, but oh yeah,
you know what, we are going to actually consider things on a case
by case basis, So that could change. But mostly I expect Elder Scroll
six to be exactly like Starfield and exactly like Indiana Jones. And Indiana Jones
is maybe the key thing there, because that game was going to come to
PlayStation even after Microsoft acquired ZeniMax. But Microsoft made a deal to actually we're
gonna pay you a little bit extra, or we're gonna put some stuff on
top to actually see if we can keep it on Xbox only, and they
were able to make that happen. Like, why go through all that effort
if that's not your main strategy going forward? So what do you think here?
I mean, like, yeah, it's pretty much exactly what you said.
I don't think I have much to add to it. It makes perfect
sense. I mean, I still I feel conflicted because the logical part of
my brain is like, yeah, I'm unsurprised that they would do that,
But the other part of it is also like I think it's it really does
suck that there's going to be a whole bunch of people who have been playing
Elder Scrolls games on platforms that they have continue to own or new versions of
and they won't be able to access it. But again, like I said,
it's there. They on that shit. Do what you want. I
don't care. Like it's I own every console, so I'm much too.
People won't kind of a believe that on the line given online given the last
few weeks. But like, I love my Xbox, I love my PC,
I love my PlayStation, I love my Nintendo consoles. So as it's
coming out on there one of those consoles, so I'm happy. I'm good.
But yeah, I do, I do wonder, I hope, I
wish it was. I wish there was more transparency in the impact that game
Pass has had on games, especially new ones, Like what is the what
is the kind of translation that is it translating? What is the release of
star Field doing to the kind of membership levels and numbers of game Pass?
And I don't know, Like at a certain point, I'm like, Oh,
is there going to be a certain point where they look at it and
they have released enough major games as exclusives and then reassess whether that strategy is
working, because if they are, let's say they put out of star Field
and it does nothing for them in terms of like long term gain for game
Pass, Yeah, and then like star Field to like test it against.
But and it's like they probably do have expectations of, Hey, if this
meets a certain level, then it's working. What what is the strategy shift
if it doesn't meet that level? I mean exactly feel like do they make
that call after a game like star Field or do they assume you want more
data points like they've had mid here games coming in and out, Like I
imagine like after you've done Starfield, Fauser, maybe even Elder Scrolls, But
Elder Scrolls is really far away. I don't think you waited that long tim
and maybe closer to fifty than forty when that game comes out, And that's
deeply, deeply upsetting exactly. I mean, like between Fauser and and and
Starfield, I think that's two day appoints. You probably need a few more
than that. But I just don't know what else they have coming out in
the near future that they could used to work in. What has what has
the appeal of Starfield? You know, gas yea, Like anybody, I
don't. I don't think it's likely, but I do think there is a
very small outside chance that the policy is reassessed by the time we get to
Elder Scrolls. If a bunch of games leading up to their don't hit,
and someone says we are keeping these games offer platform for other platforms that will
guarantee us ex amount of revenue when they're old, in the hopes that we
get it on through this other service, and that service isn't hitting. With
four games now, top two games, I think it's time to reassess.
And I think that's probably when they do. And if it happens, I
imagine we'll get a kind of ketch up where it's like, oh, Scrolls
is coming to PlayStation. Also, we're gonna put out star Field a version
of star Field. We'll put out a version of wherever the game is not
for us obviously because wass locked. Yeah you got you gotta imagine that.
Well. First of all, like Phil Spencer's in charge right now. I
think he's fully behind the strategy of these on but he's been doing that job
for a while now. He's been doing that job longer than I think almost
anyone has done that job before him. And not just that, like Microsoft,
most of these companies tend to not have leaders that that last this long.
So by the time Elder Scrolls six comes out, he probably will still
be there, still be there, still guarantees he will. And so you
could demagine the world where someone else comes in and they're like, well,
my gut tells me one or two years of exclusivity is good enough, and
then we could put it somewhere else. So it's like, who knows things
could change fast? Yeah, yeah, And like I trust Phil to do
the right thing. I mean, end of the day, he's an executive
who works for a company and there are various pressures beyond that. Beyond just
like he seems like a good dude, and I've spoken to him enough times
to know that he does really care about video game and he video games and
it also really cares about Xbox. So I trust him to do the right
thing eventually, or do the smartest thing for the Xbox business and also to
some degree, the broader gaming ecosystem. And I think, like, if
it came to a point where it was like we got we got a holder
hands up and say that it's not working and for the greater good, as
they saying hot, for us to you know, make some changes, I
think they'll do it. Yep, like based like, you're right, we
have no idea how they're measuring success. Not really we talked about it.
They say it's successful game Pass in general and stuff like that. But you
know, my most wanted Xbox product, Yes, I don't want and you've
able. I don't want a new perfect doc. I don't want any killer
instinct. I want transparency on game boss metrics. That's all I want.
And it's like, you know, we can even if it's doing it,
if it's successful. Right now, we know that these companies. It's about
growth. It's like, is it growing fast enough? We here it's oh,
it's growing very fast on PC. But that's easier because there's not as
many subscribers on PCs. So that makes sense. But we don't know,
but we look at like what evidence we do have before us it. I
think it's pretty safe to say a game Pass isn't hurting Microsoft in any fundamental
way, even when it comes to selling games. Just like look at at
Ford's The Horizon five. That game had like something like a million concurrent or
not a million, like a million people buy it on Steam and Xbox before
it hit game Pass, so it's like that was the more expensive version,
and it seems like Starfield did even better than that, like significantly better than
that. So people are like still buying this game, buying these games that
they can get a game pass and they're paying a premium on top of that
to play a week early. So if they're still selling plenty of games and
game ass is getting like this this sort of different angle at a different kind
of player, that's like, I'm not sure about buying so many games.
Subscription makes more sense to me. It's like this two pronged attack does.
It does seem like it's working based on what we could just view out in
front of us, But it's like, we just don't know if it's growing
fast enough for them to be happy with it internally, and that's something they're
Eventually they might tell us, but who knows, all right. Jean Claude
Van Damn guest stars in Mortal Kombat one and makes a street fighter references from
Jason Finnelli at game Spot. Back when Mortal Kombat one's premium editions were first
announced, Nether Realm Studios revealed that the action movie stars Jean Claude Van Dam
would appear in the game as a skin for Johnny Cage. Today, a
new trailer showcased how the real life movie star portrays the fictional one, and
it's a match made in Hollywood. Those who played as Johnny Cage in the
recent pre order beta tests will recognize the moves on display here, as the
Van Dam skin fights exactly like the normal character. There may be a few
cheeky extra lines, though, as at one point Johnny Van Dam tells Garis,
I'll play blood sport, you play street Fighter, a reference to two
Van Dam's two of Van Dam's films. Van Damn Don's his look and attire
from the aforementioned Blood Sport, which holds significance in the history of Mortal Kombat
in the early nineties. The game was originally pitched as a video game version
of the nineteen and eighty eight film I Love I Love blood Sport, Dam,
I love Jean Claude Van dam I'm very excited about this, and it's
like one of my face, I guess, one of my fasts. I
like the thing where I go on TikTok and then I stumble on the hey
fun intros to fights from Mortal Kombat and Injustice, Like, here's what this
character says to this character, and oh and here's this character flirting with all
the other characters. And it's it's cheesy and hokey and it's fun and I
like it a lot. So I love the getting yes, getting John Claude
Van Dam in on that action sign me up, I'm ready to do it,
my fair raise. Yeah. I love that bit where they're like they
come into clash and moms like I'm gonna kick your ass, and then the
other one's like I wish you'd eat my man. Oh yeah, more combat
baby combat between them cheeks. Yes, yeah, how know how they got
away with a street Fight reference? Fair? Yeah right, that's that's wild.
Yeah, I mean they're not licensing that. I imagine they're talking if
they if they have any beef, who who distributed the street Fighter movie?
If it's Warner Brothers. That was universal. I want to say, I'm
having a God, there's I forgot there's multiple Street Fighter movies. Now it
was universal. Okay, so I guess they would have Columbia TriStar internationally,
and so I guess they would be speaking to the movie licenses more than anything.
But I mean he's yeah, maybe you say lower case s f like
you play like a street Fighter. I feel like what happens is like if
you were a low tier, low to mid tier product that you're you know,
putting out there is make a cheeky reference, people would turn a blind
eye. But when you're making literally millions and millions of dollars off your video
game, that's when someone goes m that seems like it's worth chasing. We
might get some piece of that part. I think these days the fighting game
scene is just like it's not worth fighting with each other. We're we're all.
We all have our our niche or the ones that are left have our
niche, and we should just be having not like since cease and desists when
when another game is having fun, even expense, it could be it could
be laying the groundwork for finally that more combat versus three fire. Oh yeah,
any minute I'm hoping for We've been hoping for for ages and this is
it. This is how it starts. John Killer Vantam becomes like the the
Nick Fury of that universe, and he like travels into different games and is
like setting up his own tournament five characters, bringing more combat characters. Boom,
let's go free Street Fighter X Mortal Kombat. That'll be that'll happen any
minute, right after which one that never came out Street Fight A cross techne
Cross Street Yes, that's right, all right. Twitch Sensation Only Up has
been removed from steams so dev can find quote Piece of Mind and Healing.
This from Ethan gootch Echotaku. Only Up is a brutal jankie platformer that blew
up on Steam earlier this summer after becoming a hit with Twitch viewers. A
number of controversies later It's Creators has removed the kettkey, turned down the volume
on the TV for me real quick. Thank you. It's Creators has removed
the game from Valve's digital store seemingly forever, saying that that they made a
lot of mistakes and need time to heal before making their next game. The
game has kept me under a lot of stress all these months, the game's
developer in indie Solo dev wrote in what appears to be the final update for
Only Up now, I want to put the game behind me, and yes,
the game won't be available on the Steam Store soon. That's what I
decided myself. This is is pretty similar to what happened with What's the Flappy
Bird? Right where the twelfs like, oh I blew up and now it's
too stressful and I wanted to go away. Yeah. I mean, I
don't know what they were thinking. I guess it is something that when you're
one person or very small of them and Timmy don't expect. But I feel
like this is what people want most out of their game, right, Like
you, people hope and pray that this happens to them. Yeah, but
yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like I get it to a certain extent,
you know what form the outside, I'm sure it's it's always like,
hey, that just seems like a lot of money. You keep it to
keep the train rolling and keep making more, but maybe it's enough money and
at a certain point, so I also think it does genuinely become extremely stressful
because like now there now, there, now there are expectations from this audience
that you never expected would reach this level. Like then, now you've got
random major streamers who play this game, like you know, I don't know,
like a who's number one stream in the world whatever, like Distortion for
example, He's not number one streamer, but I've seen him do only up
streams like that. Whole community is now like this sucks. I wish it
was like this. And then you've got that community on your ass and you're
like I just made it a game, please yep, and like the yeah,
now you're committed to support the game, and then you have to consider
do I I can't do this alone. Do I need to scale up to
bring people on? And some people are just gonna be like I don't have
it in me to run a business and a team. And the only way
I can avoid doing that now is just by abandoning this game and telling people
I'm doing nothing with this. This is it leave me alone? Yep,
exactly, you get good because a clean break. I think that if you
know, if you're on steaming, you bought the game, you're gonna be
able to get access and stuff going forward, I believe, And then there
will be lots of replacements. They're are already a ton of clones. There's
like only up like multiplayer clones and stuff like that. And I have to
happen with Flappy Bird as well. But I like these kinds of games,
Tam. I'd like the Jinkie weird games to come that people like I remember
at the time, like with flat Flappy Birds. I remember Jason Tryer was
like, hey, this uses like this is a cop, like just ripping
off Mario Art. And then later he's like, you know what, I
don't care. I apologize for him bringing that up. Who cares. It's
like not that big of a deal. And that's how I feel about this
with this stuff where it's like apparently you use like Final Fantasy stuff. I
don't care. That's that's square Innex's problem. I en a cop for them,
so to me, that's just kind of like, oh, this feels
strapped together in a way that is very bootstrap and maybe a cheap, but
I just something about it feels punk rock, and I'm into it. I
like it, So I'm glad that it burned bright and and maybe a camp
burned for so long. But I will continue to play this game occasionally because
I really like it. Atari doubles down on retro buys beloved Atari homebrewmaker.
This comes from Benji Edwards at ours Technica. On Thursday, Atary announced that
it will acquire Atari Age, a popular online community for Atari enthusiast over for
over for over two decades. Atari Age is best known for selling Atari twenty
six fifty two hundred and seventy eight hundred council homebrews in high quality cartridge form.
I think they known for selling a baseball cap. That speaker is in
it. Okay, that's Atari itself. That's the proper Atari, that is
definitely known for the speaker. Hat shout out respect on Atari's name. Well,
now now the bringing the two together and Atari Age will be under the
actual Atari itself, Atari's founder. Let me see if I have the name
here, Yeah, Russo I don't have his full name here, but you
Russo, Albert, your Russo. There we go. He will still be
He's gonna be working at Atari now over sin atari Age going forward. And
it seems like this the idea here is Atari, yes, really doubling down
on nostalgia, like like Ben J. Edwards says here where it's hey,
we we could take all these ips and officially put them in really nice cartridges,
something that attari Age has gotten very good at, and package that stuff
up and put them in collector's editions. And you know who's going to be
interested in it. People who are fucking dead. Yes, that's who.
Right now, I'm gonna reanimate and go. I love that game. I'm
gonna buy that I give it off. Do you have any any nostalgia for
that? Eric, It's like I might. I talk to kids these days
and they're like, I don't even really care about any sames fucking cares no.
Like I had my phase where I played all the video games that were
important before I was alive. I did my research, I had an academic
interest in video games. People don't give a shit, man, They don't
care about these old ass games like the best You're going to be able to
do is like, you'll get a few people who are like, for preservation's
sake, we'll try, and if you do a good job of it,
they'll buy it. But like, put out the Atari app on an iPhone
stick all your games in there, charge five dollars for it and get on
with your life. Yeah, I listen. For me, the Atari fifty
was the ideal way to experience that stuff. I want the history lesson.
I want the stories of Hey, we got really high and it made some
bullshit and then people liked it and that's weird. Or we were driving down
the highway and we saw one of our old our game machines and we saw
it, we wouldn't looked at it, and turns out it was one of
the original like six machines ever made. And isn't that wild. I'm like,
yes, that's crazy. Tell me more stories like this. But you
know, they've done a Tarry fifty now and I don't know if I need
another one. Was amazing, it was incredible, it was fantastic. I'm
not playing the hell out of making the making of Karatica. Yes, although
apparently Jordan Metner says Kara Taka I said Karatcha the first time I was talking
about this. Everyone pronounces it differently, but that that is Oh god,
that's so good. That's such a good time, just having these stories told
to you and then playing the game. And we've got to change the battery
pack on TAM's thing. We lost your camera. Tam. It's okay,
we still got you. We'll wrap it up anyhow here pretty soon. Let's
uh, let's get these last couple of stories. Game stops financial. I
don't have about the wet part of it is, I don't have it.
Oh no, Jan had a similar issue recently, so that's that's always scary.
You're back there we go. We got beautiful TAM's face. Games games
financial numbers are improving. This is from Eddie mcooch Eddie mcco at game Spot.
Video game retailer game Stop has released its latest earnings report and the company's
fortunes are improving. The company's total net sales reached one point one six four
billion dollars for the quarter that ended on July twenty ninth, up from one
point one three six billion during the same quarter last year. Game Stop posted
an overall net loss of two point nine million for the quarter. However,
the net loss of two point nine million was a significant improvement over the one
hundred and nine million loss from last year. At the end of the quarter,
Game Stop had one point one nine five billion in cash, cash equivalents,
and securities on hand. Blah blah blah. It seems like they are
maybe the cut cutting costs is working for them. I just this has got
to be a company that just finds a level where hey, maybe we can
speak out a profit every couple of quarters, so something like that, and
that's what keeps us floating. There's no world where there's some real like where
Game Stop to take it's over again, right, I don't think so.
I mean, didn't they have that that executive come out and go. I
think all consoles should have described in it. Yes, that was story was
basically dinosaur says comments. Suck should not come to it. Commets should be
outlawed. If you're a commet, don't come anywhere near a planet. I
think that they should stay away from us. Make up, we should make
a law. Yeah, it's yes. Game Stop out obviously still sees their
future as as selling mostly physical games and use games, and that's gonna be
a ever dwindling market, but I don't think it's gonna It's never gonna go
completely away. So they can find some sort of equilibrium here. Maybe they
can justify themselves going forward. But you know these companies, they need that
growth, so I don't think they need that growth. I would suggest game
Stop tries experiment with with better business practices. Yeah, that's I don't think
it's an option for that's just they don't know how to give that a go.
Maybe some good will from gamers instead of giving them one dollar for the
game that they bought yesterday and kicking them out on their ass, you know
that kind of shit. Instead of that, how about more fun coo pops?
Oh yeah, I love you know what we should do? You should
stop making fun call pop pops of Game Stop executives. I think everyone will
be super into that. I'd be down with that. Uh, last couple
of things here, I'm just gonna mention as well. Then we'll get out
here. The last of US season two is cast Abbey. They haven't said
who yet, but everyone thinks it's gonna be Sharon Barry. I think it's
her name or Shannon Barry. Excuse me, there, we go and she's
from the Wilds and hunters. Uh, people a picture of her. I
think she'll make a fine Abby. Are you worried about the you were we
were a fan of the show, right, have you watched that show?
I've been watching. I think that I thought it was fantastic. Right,
that's what I thought. I remember. So are you worried about the casting
of Abbey? Like, do you feel feel like that's something that's gonna be
difficult for them to get? Right? No? Yeah, okay, okay.
I'm not one of those people that takes on goes to the internet and
is like I cannot believe they cast this person in this role. I was
like, all right, man, no amount of complaining is gonna change it
for me or whatever. So just like, I hope the acting is good
and I hope that they do good casting in that. See, the problem
is everyone who complains about casting complains from a purely physical level. They look
at this person, They're like, I don't like the way they look.
They don't look to it like I don't give a show about that, Like
if that person looks like completely different. But when you go in there,
they've got the vibe of Abby and they're acting their ass off, like fantastic,
good for you. I don't really care. But if you get in
there and it's like, oh, this person isn't hitting, that's that's a
different that. That's the casting and casting issue I can get behind. It's
like this person just didn't put in the work and like isn't performing well and
isn't embodying in that role. Well, but I don't care. Well they
look like well. I learned my lesson there with Chris Evans for Captain America.
I remember being like, well, that's just a bad choice, STA,
that will never work. And I was I was very wrong. He
was a great example. A good example is the One Piece of live action.
Like, I'm watching it. Everyone looks great, none of them can
act. I'm just like, all right, cool, yeah, why would
you do that to yourself? Why are you watching that? I don't know.
I love one Piece of I keep I feel like I'm softening on it
a little more. That's something. I think I'm accepting it for what it
is. I don't. I find it very awkward to watch and I feel
like I'm like, oh God, I hope this isn't what people think One
Piece is. Because it very much isn't but I feel like that it has
the spirit. It's got the spirit. I don't enjoy it much. I
think that the lad who plays Lufy is great, but it's just weird seeing
that kind of level of earnestness come out of a human being instead of like
a very time yeah, exaggeratedly animated group of characters. And it's just it's
the garp. It looks very weird. He's a northern dude with a dog
hat, and I'm just like this, man, It's better than Dragon Ball,
is better than Cowboy Beepop. It's very watchable. I just I think
it's because my background with it. I'm one of those weird anime people that's
like, that's not what I wanted. I'd sam, I just said,
you mentioned the North and I reminded me I played that. Thank you so
much for coming or whatever it is that really cartoon looking game that was a
showcase. Did you end up playing that at packs? I think did you?
No? I downloaded it, but I need to play it more,
okay, because apparently it's got a lot of references that they said people from
the north of England will get and I'm like, oh, wait no,
the British one, the British one, British play that, yes, yes,
yes, yes did you did you notice any of that? Because I
mean, yeah, it's the most British game that me and Lucy what I
laugh and are off. That's exactly because is yeah, I think it's it's
I think it's called thank God your Hair. Yeah, I think your thank
Goodness your hair. But like it opens with someone going, what's all what's
going on over here? What's all this? Then? And it's like pure
just ridiculous, like British like sensibility is kind of mix with a little bit
of Warrior where if ye just going around doing things for people and increasingly weird
mini games and it's just very funny. Yep. I really enjoyed my time
with that final story. Cup Noodles is now making food for gamers. They
always have thank you and good night, Yes, thank you and good night.
I don't know there's a report though they always have been understand what the
official food? Come on, what's what's going on here? All right?
I gotta pull from yesterday. We're gonna get to that in a second.
But before that, tam do we got going on? You got anything you
want to plug anything you want to tell people about. They should be a
new episode of spot On going up today, and me and Lucy were chatting
about there's a lot of games. It's just such thing as too many games,
Like what is the impact of having all these games crammed in together?
And we'll probably gonna got some ship for it, but we're just trying to
say, like, you know, it's kind of weird, right, like
we don't do we get to ready enjoy these games. If we're constantly moving
from one thing to another, it is. It is weird and a consideration
that we should have. But yeah, that'll be up after dark. Podcast
will be up today. There's gonna be upf for the crew A hera GB.
I think that that is still happening, right, is it gonna happen?
I'm sure what was that was? I should get the pull set up?
What was the UPF? Yes, we're still happening, dead bye Frid
dead dead right whatever it is? Yeah, Yeah, that is looking forward
to that. That's happening. Yeah, we got I went through the tutorial
and everything. We can get custom games going, So we're gonna do that.
We're gonna I'm gonna say, there's a good chance we might all be
Nick Cage might be sur yes that that there's a bunch of videos up on
the site now that from the our trip to packs, wh voicemail dump truck
is up. I think Jan is furiously working on the travel log. It
is a big, big beefy thing we start. We started recording from the
point we left to go, which was pre a twenty eight hour train John
and we recorded various were pretty much every day up until that point. So
it's a lot of foot used to go through. So please it would give
Jen a little bit of time to yep, grape through that and put it
all together. The pack's panel we did with Jenna is up, and yeah,
it's there's a lot, a whole load of content out there to check
out, but that's pretty much it. You have today is at one pm
Eastern time, ten am Pacific. Yes, that's so, it's the earlier
time that we've been doing recently. Is when we're doing so in at about
an hour from now is when we'll be making that happen. Okay, the
poll from yesterday, do you really think E three comes back in twenty twenty
five, Ninety two percent of you very skeptical and say no. Eight percent
say yes, Tam, I am with the nose on this one. M
I don't think so. Yeah. I think it comes back in like five
years from someone else who bought the name in rights D three. Every time
someone says, well, E three come back, I see that picture of
Principal Skinner saying pathetic, but it's Jeff Keeley. Huh exactly. Okay,
well let's see here. And then I got a new poll that we're gonna
put up right now. Have you ever played F zero GX, yes or
no? I just want to know. I just want you to tell me
it's okay, it's safe here, tell me the truth. It's okay if
it's a no. But hey man, maybe you'll get lucky and get a
chance to play it on your switch real soon. That would be very nice.
Who knows? Nice? All right, Tim, thank you so much
for spending today talk with me about video games. Man. I really appreciate
it. Thank you very much. Sadly, I won't be here next week
because I will be traveling. Yep, You've got a busy week next week.
I'll be back off to that week, yep. Cool, looking forward
to it. We'll get someone else in here next Friday, everybody for Dreg's
Day. I'm looking forward to that. Here on giant body blessing at Aoya
Junior, we'll get blessing. Then. That sounds fantastic, all right,
Thank you everybody for watching your the best audience in gaming. Until next time,
have a good one, take care of yourself. Goodbye, wait to blad