Hello, and welcome to side Quest. This is our weekly and you're gonna
show here at geek First and I'm your host, Till Muss and I have
it with me the clown Prince of Shakuff's Travis Snell. How are you doing,
my friend, I'm doing good. I'm excited. We got a good
couple of weeks coming up. I know on side Quest we've got a big
episode. I'm sure you'll t so that's gonna be tons of fun comic cons
upon I said, Pool Wolverine. So it's like a lot of cool things
happening for the next two weeks. It's a it's a fun time. So
uh yeah, I'm glad to be back going after my three to four week
like in a row, took two weeks off, but now I'm back.
So now you're all well rested in talk. Yeah, exactly was your was
that your nickname already or did you pick that based off the title? Now
all the title because I had nothing, So that's all credit to you.
That's good because I was like, I didn't because I'm like, I'm sure
I've done Sony before. I didn't have anything clever for Xbox and like I
see that I'll do that, you know. So yeah, I feel like
I can kind of get away with it. On Psyequist, I just say
I'm the host and I kind of don't worry about it. That is your
title. But yeah, as you mentioned, next week should be a fun
episode. So next week is the release of Deadpool and Wolverine, and so
in honor of that, we are gonna be doing as we've done many times
before, We're gonna make a multi versus smash pros type roster. For if
Disney has just an umbrella company was to make a platform fire a fighting game
like that, what would the roster look like? So that should be very
spicy because that has Marvel characters, that has Star Wars, that has Pixar,
that has all sorts of other random properties that Disney owned. When you
look through the lists, Travis, I don't know if you started getting ready,
but if you just look at the ip that Disney owns, it's like,
wow, they own all sorts of random things that you don't think about
on the dad to day. So I know, just because he's gonna try
and shut it out, are we including the Fox brought properties as well?
Because I don't see why not right, it's there. Hey, they own
it, come up from some guys. That's it's good to talk about that.
So, you know what, I wouldn't be mad about. Imagine a
fighting game we have Mickey Mousko against the Predator. That would see a lot
of stuff. I mean, compared to any other of these lists that we've
done before, this one's gonna be the hardest to like stick to a for
it just because of the monster potential of like Marvel alone, we could do
that, and we have done that. I mean you and did like the
X Men Legends roster, and that alone was like a juicy roster of characters
that would work. So it X Men, you kind of have your Okay,
these have to be in here. I feel like with each brand you
probably have two to three characters like, oh, that's a half, but
then a lot are very close, you know, very close. You know
I've won that I'm gonna be fighting for. I don't want to say because
I don't think it's a top tier one, but I think it is,
so I'm excited to do that. It's gonna be a good time for Comic
Con and Deadpool come up. See if they even make the list. You
know because they're newly Disney and I don't know, so yeah, and then
one other is not really announcement, but you might get a bonus episode this
week. My my friend is releasing his game this week on Team This game
called Siege Breaker. It's been in early access for a few months, but
it's I believe, going one point zero this week, which is pretty exciting.
So I was gonna ask him see if he wants to do a little
discussion hop on the podcast and just talk about the game and maybe do a
little kind of interview with him. So you might get a bonus episode there.
But if not, people go check out that game. I have played
it a lot in like testing and whatnot for him, and it's it's a
really fun tower defense strategy game. It's really cool, So go check that
out. And yeah, we'll do some other shot outs later, but let's
get right into it. Let's start with the games we've been playing. Travis,
what do you got going on in your neck of the woods here?
Just Elvin Ring Still, I'm still working on that. I'm in a tough
spot right now where I'm trying to obtusly get to the DLC. But I
think I'm in a spot where I think there's a few areas but not that
I've explored everything, but explored everything where it's kind of locked, and I
feel like I'm in this tough area where there's a lot of areas that are
very easy for me, and then something are really too hard. So I
feel like I'm in a boring portion where I'm kind of xpe farming because that's
where I find like I go to areas well, I've done everything of note
here and in the other areas, it's like, okay, I could,
I could probably beat this boss, but I want to spend three hours like
do pluging away. I don't know. So that's where I'm gonna try to
diverse a plan. One time. There's like some area that I've talk about
before, I can't remember where. It has like that dragon outside the castle
and it's like a very like saar On looking place where all the guys are.
They have their maces and if you kill them you get a one thousand
XP. I've had one day where I'm just gonna be like I'm just gonna
throw in a podcast and just spend like five to six hours, and it's
like cheating a system. But I just feel like there's a lot of them
going through ks and I'm getting stuff but not and I think I'm like seventy
four seventy five, so I still got a ways to go, But I
just feel like a lot of the places that there's a few I still got
I'm gonna explore. There's ones I want to go around. But that's been
fun because there were some areas I still actually hadn't explored, and it's been
good going there. There's this like camera are always bad the names, but
there was a really good tower section that was kind of like the in the
right corner of the map there, and it's a one that has two bosses
where you're fighting one and then when they get down to like the like twenty
five percent their health, another one pops up and that one's the ish because
whatever my weapon said is perfect for that first boss, but that second boss
not so much. So I've also been changing because I was a big strength
guy, so I've been putting a lot more on the HP and whatnot to
try and help that out. So that's where I am where I'm some fun
exploring. But now I'm kind of worried because I got to look and see.
Okay, I think everywhere I've explored now it's like to continue exploring,
you gotta beat so and so and so and so, and I don't know
if I'm quite that level yet. So not that I want to go in
there and just make it easy, because that only Rea is not easy.
But I still also don't want to do a time thing because I've done there
before where you're like, I could have just came back and done this later.
So I'm hoping that I can try to find maybe one more quest or
a couple quests that will, you know, get me a couple more I'll
beat your bosses, that can get me leveled up a bit more if I'm
just gonna be looking for runes and selling lots of weapons. So that's where
I am in a in a spot where it was I think it was last
week because I haven't played as much because I'm in the middle of writing because
we're filming some stuff soon, so I want to My nights have been kind
of knackered to that right now. But one of these things was like I
don't know what to do, and that's the worst thing when you're kind of
gone everywhere and it's like, Okay, well what should I go do?
So that's where and I haven't done the whole like check on reddit the best
way to move up or this and that, so that might be the way
just so I can like kind of move forward. But I've just goning around,
like, well, I've been here, and I've been here, and
well, I've been here, and I don't think I can do that.
I've been here and I don't think I can do that. So I'm in
a tough spot with it right now, so I have to I might just
also have to do the X before me and then just take the bullet and
go just go spend a bunch of hours with the boss and everything like that,
you know. So, and that's because I've done that before and it
was nice because there it's tough because I went back when I played it,
and I went back to a boss. I can't remember the boss's name,
but it's when you go into kind of a cave situation. It's very big
and he jumps around a lot. He's kind of almost like a bird like
thing. It looks very much like in Lord of the Rings when they get
the Army and the Dead, where it's very smoky water and stuff, and
I remember before I was like, I'll come back to him, and then
when I play this time defeated him kind of like nothing. So that's where
I was like, Okay, that's where it's like, do I want to
go to any boss and spend three hours because this was a good example if
I just came back and it really like first try done. So it's like
that's more like for me wanting to use my time worthy like that's what I
want to do. But that's the that's the push and pull of I'm not
finding any big bosses right now to get XP from, so we'll see.
I might try to go I might try to do a little farming then kind
of make a rank or look at ranks of hardests and kind of be like,
Okay, I'm just gonna work hard enough to get to this guy defeat
him because there's one I was close to. It's just like I think my
weapons weren't great, so I might go back come there and that might change
some things. So I'm still enjoying it. Luckily, I'll ring still tons
of fun, but I'm in a place where I just like I don't know
what I should do really next, and that's kind of tough. So yeah,
I don't know if I had a moment like that, Like I think
when it got to the end of it and I just maybe had like you
know, I had didn't explore every single looking cranny, but I had like
maybe two or three bigger bosses left, and they were just like really freaking
hard, and I just had to like, Okay, I gotta buckle down
and just spend a few hours do forty attempts and like, yeah, get
these guys kote at this point. But yeah, I guess I felt like
there was just since the map is so big and there's so many different areas
that, yeah, I don't know if I ever really hit a wall like
that. So I'm not sure what the my best advice would be, especially
it shard for me to remember like the specifics of the order and like you're
talking about that dragging outside of the Castle'm like, I can't remember what that
section is off the top of my head. No, I think I gotta
do it. You do and just buckle because I haven't done that. I've
done that. If you are fighting a boss that that's that is that difficult,
when you kill them, you'll probably get a ton of souls, right,
so it probably give you a couple of level ups or more. So,
I don't know. Maybe it's like, okay, it's an investment of
time, but then maybe the reward is greater and it will be greater if
you do it now then if you come back in a few levels. Anyway,
so yes, that might be the play. I suppose that's what I'm
thinking. So I think I'm gonna kind of have a one two plan.
I'm spending night, spend, maybe look at a few other areas and xp
f M, and then pick a boss and go okay, which one seems
relatable? And that's probably because I haven't had like I think there's one boss
that was a struggle, but after a few attempts, I still did it.
Where it's been a while since I've done that, where it's been like
okay, I remember the second or third night when I played the game,
and there's some boss where I didn't have the levels, but I could ride
the horse, and that's where it's okay, I'm gonna kill an even cheek.
I did, but it took like a like a whole night to do
that, and that's where it's like I haven't you know, Allen Ring,
you got mentally prepare for that. It's like, okay, I need to
I haven't done that in a while. And that's where it's like, oh,
like because I want to progress, but that's a weird game where that
is progressing. But it's just weird to be like, hey, I'm gonna
spend my three to five hours of gaming just on this one area, right,
So, but I think that's what's gonna happen. But that's pretty much
it. And then we played some Call Duty this weekend. There's nothing too
big update wise, it's kind of the same, just kind of rotations on
the maps. Nothing, I don't think anything too curious. But what I'm
looking very forward to, we don't know what it is yet. On July
twenty fourth, Call Duty is doing a WWE crossover. Oh yeah, and
so in the they revealed it in the video and in the video there's a
shadow of three characters and yes, bubb and Dave, we're all theorizing him
Taylor and we think we've well the restling people. Taylor had no idea who
these people were, but the two wrestling peep we think we figured out who
the left and the right is, which is funny because it's my favorite male
and female re Ripley and Cody Rhodess and be so I'm happy. But then
there's a guy in the middle that people have been like, we don't really
know, and now there's rumors because John Cena this week has been following call
Duty that it could be him. So Taylor had this theory because he said
the way they revealed it, every time they've done that type of trailer,
it's been an actual battle pass, not just skins what people thought. And
now it's like, well, we have two people, and usually when they
do these skin sets, it's like in groups of two or three, so
I guess there could be four, but it's like we have three wrestlers.
And now John Cena Taylor might be right that we might be getting to the
battle pass and if that's the case, and Jill Eldering might have to take
a seat because I'm gonna have to unlock everything on that battle pass because if
it's to E Centric and they got their second biggest show come out this year,
so it's like if e Centric, like playing is John Cena, planing
is Coy Rhoads. So that got me very exac even if it's not.
I'm excited because I didn't have really WW and called duty on my Bengo card.
But I'm excited to see like because I feel like John Cena if he's
in there will be the Poplaron. I'm excited to see like a bunch of
John Cenas all the time. So yeah, look out for that, I
guess. And we'll talk about that when that draws. But that's the only
thing I've else been playing and whatnot, so I can let's see, it's
still a month away. It'll probably just be on Ringing w and then Star
Wars. That's why I'm not starting any new games right now until Outlaws because
obviously the review and everything, so after that, like I said, I
think the tag plan might be we're all ringing now in Wake, but I
don't want to do anything new right now. So yeah, yeah, I'm
in a similar spot where I'm just trying to juggle the things that I have
been playing, so I have one new thing to talk about. But yeah,
I'm still working through the Elder Ring deal. See, I'm still playing
Mad Max. It's like just the perfect you know, just I want to
kill half an hour at the end of the Night kind of thing. Yeah,
Mad Max is not like Ellen Ring, so it's like I think it's
a complete one eighty of like you want a different plays style, Yeah,
but you've got to be in the mood for Olden Ring, where I'm like
almost always in a mood to play. Yeah, have the Mad Max vibe
on where I just put on a podcast on the background and then just getting
the car and cruise around the lacelane exactly. Uh. And then I'm still
you know, working through Alien Isolation, which is a lot longer game than
I thought it was really, so that's taking me some time, and because
I really want to start Still Wakes the Deep, which is another horror game
that came out recently on game Pass, but I don't really want to double
up. I want to make sure I'm finishing Alien Isolation before I jump into
that. So that's that's where I'm trying not to get, you know,
not to add too many things on my currently playing list. Cool poster,
I like that Still Wakes the Deep here. Yeah, I've heard really good
things about it. It's been a pretty low key launch, I think,
but it's everything I've heard has been really good, so I'm excited to check
that one out. But yeah, also talk about when you get to because
I might put that on my my backlog list because I like the looks of
it so far from the images, so yeah, you know, it looks
great. But yeah, like the new the new thing, which is not
a not a new thing, it's an old game. But what I've been
checking out is Donkey Kong Country Returns. Oh I guess specifically the three D
the three DS one. So yeah, we talked about this recently because at
the most recent Nintendo direct they announced the Donkey Kong Country Returns, the newest
port of it. So it's a wee game. They are upported to three
DS, and now they're poorting that version, that three DS version back to
the switch, obviously taking out the double screens element of it and then just
like making it switch afide and all the other ways. But you know,
seeing that, it's like, okay, it's gonna be like a full price
game, or like a nearly full price game. I want to play the
game, but I'm not interested in that. So I found a three DS
cartridge for like ten bucks, and that's perfect because I don't need this switch
version, which doesn't really seem to have anything new, And I always am
looking for an excuse to whip up the three DS because I just it's a
great piece of hardware. That's always my thing. When I go back to
it every few months or years, is just wow, it's really solid,
Like the screens are huge. Really it's more convenient to take around than a
Switch. Feels less flimsy in that way, and I just hate joy cons
so much so playing Switch on the go like not really ideal for me?
Or was that? Like the three d S and the form factor of it,
So it's always fun to go back to it. But yeah, I've
been playing through that, which has been a good time. I know you
were an SNS guy, but were you a Donkey Kong country guy? Like
did you play those games back in the day one or two? I think
after that, and like I think I all played them as far as you
know. Fran had him or I had him. I think one and two.
I won't say burned in my mind. It's like a metal gear where
it's not like I can from certain fish to tell you, but just remember
lots of game time in the hands as a young fellow and stuff. Because
I also think they had a two player Aleman, right, I think where
it's like the Marlo Luigi where you would switch out maybe or anything like that.
Yeah, I forget what it would actually if you have two controllers,
but the gimmicks of the game where that, like, yeah, you have
Donkey Kong as your main character, and then Diddy Kong is your backup.
When don Kong gets hit, You're playing as Diddy Kong. And then the
second game was Diddy Kong and then Dixie Kong, and then the third game
was Dixie Kong with Donkey Kong Junior. I think, so they just kept
like changing who the main character was tagging it like taking the tag team member
from the last one and making them the protagonist, which is kind of fun.
But I have fond memory of those and that's why I feel like I
played that with my dad and sisters at that point. So yeah, no,
I had fond memories of one and two and that more more so one,
because I feel like that's one of those that just almost like came with
it when you bought it, or someone that was just to go to your
parents would be like, hey, Mario Donkey Kong, get those two games.
You know if they didn't even know anything about it. So yeah,
I mean, because I was looking into this recent, I was kind of
surprised at how few like Donkey Kong platform or games there actually is. Like
there's other there's Mario games where Donkey Kong appears, like Marvelus Donkey Kong or
the original Donkey Kong, but where you actually get to play as him or
the rest of the DK crew. It's actually very few games, like you
have those three original ones on SNS, and then the next one was that
we won all those years later, and then the Tropical Freeze of course on
the WEU, and then that got ported to the Switch. Right, So
yeah, only truly like five games in the series, and there's all sorts
of like ports and versions of those games. And then had you ever heard
of the Donkey Kong Land games. I literally didn't even exist until today when
I was just looking at these up, and it seems like they were essentially
ports of Donkey Kong Country those three games. Oh yeah, boys exact same
they have the exact same like cover ex that they've just Yeah, so they
were just for the game Boy, like the original game Boy, so they
were probably d makes to some extent because the game Boy is a lot less
powerful than the Snees was obviously, so I think they're just like ported versions
of those games, but like simplified, and since they were probably changed quite
a bit and short and quite a bit, they gave them different names.
But I had never even heard about those games. So yeah, I and
Donkeyong Country, like Snees I've always talked about, is kind of my blind
spot with Nintendo. That is not one I ever owned and never even had,
like a I don't even know if I've ever seen one in real life,
like other than like at a video game store, Like I don't think
I've ever had a friend growing up that owned one. So I just never
played any of those games until more recently, of like I don't know,
playing maybe like a game Boy advance port of a game, or more specifically
like on the Nintendo Switch online going back and checking out some of those games.
And that's not where I've played the Donkey Kong Country one, two,
and three, and I haven't beat any of them, but I just you
know, played for a couple hours through each of them to see what they
were all about, and you know, they're not really my thing, like
I think back in the day, if it was a contest, I would
have been way more a fan of Mario than I would have been Donkey Kong
Country. Like they're they're they're a lot harder, they're a more precise with
their movements. It feels like a little bit less explorative, Like it's a
bit more linear, I suppose. I mean, you know, Mario one
and two are pretty linear games as well. Three is when they kind of
crack it open more. But yeah, and even like the art style and
like that sort of design, Like I like the more colorful, like cartoony
nature of sixty four than I. Then it's interesting the art style of those
con those games. They have a really weird art style to them. But
I don't know, they've never really been ones that I obviously not have known
nostalgia for those original games, and so yeah, when I played through them
somewhat recently, it was like, a, Yeah, they're all right,
but they're not really I'm not gonna like keep playing through them or master these
games like I've have with some Mario games, for example. So I guess
all of that to say that playing through Don Kong Country returns on the three
DS It's been really fun so far, and I'm surprised how much I'm liking
it. It's it's Donkey Kong's the main character and then Diddy Kong is the
backup. But it works differently where if you get hit as Donkey Kong,
you don't turn into Diddy Kong in this game. Instead, you just have
like you can get hit three times a Donkey Kong. And then if you
have Diddy Kong with you, then he rides on your back and he has
like a jet pack on as well, so you can just like have an
additional float mechanic. So when you have Diddy Kong with you get this like
additional movement, and I don't know if there's any other changes. I guess
you get, you get more health, Diddy Kong can kind of like take
some shots from you, so yeah, there's kind of like less of a
move set change, but I guess you do get a little bit because you
have that like kind of floatability to it. But I love I think this
game is really beautiful, looks great on the three DS, and one of
my favorite parts about it. One thing I always loved about Crash was like
the it's like a two D platform or game. But then like you can
go like you know into the background and into the foreground. There's like a
little bit of layering to it, and like a Little Big Planet kind of
did a similar thing, and this game has that to an extent, but
it's more just like there's these background areas that you're you jump in a barrel,
you get shot to like the way background, and so you're kind of
like a little little guy way in the back, which I think I wonder
why they chose to do that for the Wei version for the three DS.
I think it makes a lot of sense with like the three D you know,
the three D effect that the that the console has. It adds like
an interesting layering effect to it where you're like in the background there. But
it's just it's just a fun way to shake up the layers of the levels.
And yeah, I think I'm just so surprised at like how like the
game is very expansive. There's tons of a huge cuts sne like huge set
piece type moments, Like it's just a very like it feels like a very
high budget like two D platform or game, like more than I would expect
from like a just a Nintendo thing. In general, let alone Donkey Kong,
and obviously Donkey Kong hasn't had a ton of these games, so anything
is kind of a shake up for the formula. But just I'm really enjoying
it really, you know, solid mechanics. It's a pretty simple game.
It is hard as well, but you do get a lot more checkpoints and
so yeah, it's just been a really enjoyable time. And yeah, this
is probably my favorite Donkey Kong game other than like sixty four, and sixty
four is you know, loaded with nostalgia. Yeah, so so yeah,
it's been I'm glad that I can finally get into this series because Dropical Freeze
has always been on my list and when I can find that for like a
cheap price, I'll definitely pick that up because I want to play through that
as well. But yeah, this has been like a really nice surprise hit
because yeah, considering I didn't really care much for the like the original three
games when I played them recently, that's cool. Yeah, so I don't
know if there's much else to say about that, but yeah, shout outs
to Donkey Kong, and I hope we get something new from him. I
really want that other three D game. I think me and you talked about
that like probably a year ago at this point, because it was rumored,
But now it's like, I don't even know if that's a rumor anymore.
I feel like that just kind of fell the wayside, and now we're just
getting like a remake of a game that's already been remade before. So it's
it's unfortunate. I want to see some more justice for my boy Donkey Kong
over here. You know, it's good that it always shows up in the
sports games, the carts and whatnot, but he needs he needs more more
new games, Like he should have a new game every two years, I'm
gonna say. And right now, it's like every decade. It seems like
you get a game back in like the early like the GameCube era, into
like the DS. We I feel like with the Jungle Beat games and like
King of Swing, like you were getting a lot of random stuff, but
they were all felt like weird spin offs. And so yeah, it's been
a long time since we've had just like a Donkey Kong era. I feel
like it's just so rare to get a new game from him. That's why
I want that a movie to come out because I think Nintendo for some reason
doesn't think and maybe I'm wrong, maybe that is a situation, maybe all
those other games they've produced don't sell that well. But for me, I
feel like he is. Oh I'm not sure. I'm not counting anyone else
from the Mario family. Okay, I'd say Link. You can say like
this link Zelda, but I'll say Link as firmly behind Mario as the second,
you know, like the face of Nintendo. But after that, I
feel like DK would be third. I think maybe Pokemon sneaks in there,
but that's yeah, a bit of a technicality because it's partially over by Nintendo.
Right, So yeah, if they if you didn't have that asterix on
them, then I think d K because you know, I don't know if
you could get every two years, but I think at least at least four
years at least every time, Kong or Yoshi are more. Oh so that's
where or recognizable character. So I said, if you and Mario and just
took out the rest of the family, if you put in the family,
I think Yoshi as well, Like he has his own series and like in
Smash he has like a different logo than the Mario characters like they kind of
consider him. I put Yoshi and Luigi above don Kong now with Luigi Mansion
everything, I know it's similar for sure, yea or Luigian generalized, and
I just think people like him. I just feel like if you were to
it's like whether it's movie game, I feel like if you put Don Kong's
face or Luigi's face, Luigi now has moved past Luigi and Yoshi. I
don't know that's a that's a very I still like, well see because I
mean with the sequel movie, Yoshi gonna be in there, and like kids
are gonna be obsessed with Yoshi. I think, yeah, could be herege
and we need like another last one was Wooly World, right, but I
want another, Like yeah, I don't think there has been a new game
since then, because even like Kirby gets like random, weird little spinoff games,
but I feel like Yoshi has never really gotten just an abundance of games.
It's usually just yeah, there's a two D platform where every once in
a while, we got to go back to the island. You know,
even if it's just a remake like Super MARIOORPG, we need to we need
to go back to the island. That's what I've been. That's a that's
a Travis jam. So I'm hoping that happens. Yeah, and the thinking
too with Donkey Hungkuse. I feel like, you know, Zelda and Mario
are two characters in series that just get games regularly no matter what anyway,
And so with like movie, Like with the Mario movie coming out, they
didn't really have like a brand new game to pair with it. They did
have Wonder several months later, but it was still like not a perfect pairing.
But then they had like all sorts of other random games coming out,
Like they had new DLC for Mario Kart eight, they had like these remakes
of different games coming out. And with Zelda, you know, Tears of
the Kings came out last year. Theyred have this new Zelda game coming out
this year. I'm sure they'll have like if at the worst case they have
like you know, something like Twilight Princess or win Way or remake in the
Wings that they can just drop whenever that movie's coming out to get that like
easy easy synergy. But I do feel like Donke Yong would would require more
work from them. I don't know, if they have as much as they
could just whip out moments notice because also some of those older games are owned
by Rare, which is Microsoft, and like, I don't know where the
right size, Like I don't know if Nintendo can just drop without costing it,
without spending a dime don Kyong sixty four on their service because of the
rare element of it, I assume they have like a full rights of it.
But like, if they do, why haven't they already put it on
there? That seems like a very big miss so and again that seems like
a great one to remake too, if they don't want to do don Kong
game, that would be a I think a prime one to remake. So
yeah, yeah that or yeah, even at the very least, just put
it on Intend to switch on labs so people can can check it out there.
But yeah, shout outs to Donkey Kong. We're gonna get into the
news sequence here, but first let's I'll tell you a little bit about how
to support us if you like what we're doing here. I like this that
you came up this, Travis kind of you know, let's take some ad
some of the shadows, take some of those things away. From the start,
yes, and step of them later in so we can get right into
the juice the things that people want to listen to. But yeah, we're
switching it up here. But yeah, shot out. You know, check
out our patreon if you want to get episodes early and add free all sorts
of retrospectives. What are the latest things drop in on our Patreon? Well,
the last two days ones in the public feed, but that one's not.
We have the Apocalypse retro and the Logan retros. So Logan retro's up
there, andyone ready for Deadpool olveren. You got a lot of good good
stuff there, check it out exactly those are We only got two left.
We got the Logan one retro and then we got the re release of Dark
Fienix that you, Me and Kirkland did years ago. So all the x
ME and ones will be back Prime audio feeds. And then and I think
it's next week. I could be wrong. Well I'll just say next two
weeks, I don't look it up. And next two weeks you're gonna have
a Prometheus and Alien Versus Predator retros going on there. And yeah, and
also just describe because there's lots of details and fun stuff for gearing up to
Geek for his day. Soon, we're gonna I got another thing to ask
Patre. We're gonna give our trivia time on the newscast this week, me
and Delm we're gonna do a spin and see who's on the team. So
if you want to get on our trivia teams during the join phase two tier
or higher. And yeah, there's been lots of supportal race, so it's
gonna be think it's gonna be a fun day. So lots of good stuff
on there. Yeah, and then you guys are still doing the boys.
House of Dragon is going on right now. Uh. Comic Con is gonna
be next week where the big Marvel panel looks like, so that should be
some juicy news as well. Now they're doing a Deadpool and Wolverine pan on
the Thursday, which I think they're just screening the movie and talking to the
actors, but maybe some juice will come out of it, you know.
But yeah, next two weeks should be fun. Yeah, good stuff.
And then yeah once again in GVDA that is on August third, the Saturday,
so mark that on your calendar, come check it out, hang out
with us for the day. Uh, we're gonna be playing some games.
We're gonna be you could, yeah, get including the games if you want
to jump on the Patreon and all that, so it should be a good
time. Other than that, you know, enjoy the discold. You can
leave a review for the show. You can check out my game on Steam.
It's called Potion Problem. Uh and uh yeah, thank you everyone who
picked it up through the Steam Summer sale. Got a few more hits there,
which was nice to see. But yeah, any any other show notes
from you, Travis, No, I don't think so. I think soon
all those shows will be ending, so we'll have a couple more newscasts coming
up, and we have h we're doing. I don't have it on the
calendary at for us, So that's about my bad on my front. But
we're soon in August, we'll be doing our Superhero draft. We're delaying it
a little bit because usually before we forgot about that, I gotta get gotta
start thinking about Yeah, usually we do before Comic Con, but this year
we're doing Africaus dead Pool Olvering's right there, and we thought, well that
could be a fun and right now I think we're I think it's like Umi
and Kirkle and a tie, so it's like that could be a good way
to I'd rather someone win than a tie, because tie is fine, but
I like someone had the bragging rights going next year, so I think and
plus me Comic Con. Hopefully they don't announce actors, just projects. But
yeah, that'll be coming up soon as the Superhero draft, which I know
people love the draft, so that'll be uh, we're fresh that so right
on. Okay, Yeah, with that, we're gonna cut to the you
know, regular at break. Will be right back for some more video game
news. We'll were right back. Okay, we are back. So two
things we're gonna talking about here. One is just kind of talking about the
PS five the Xbox and kind of how their sales are doing relative to their
previous consoles. But I first want to start, I think with game Pass.
So game Pass is getting some shake ups here, it's getting some changes,
so let me just kind of first go through and break it down as
best as I can. I will say there was no articles out there that
I could find that just really nicely condensed the information. It was kind of
confusing, but it was also kind of confusing the way it was announced and
talked about. So it's it's all over the place, but I'll do my
best to kind of relay that information. That's why I'm sure most people listen
to this podcast listening to if you have Twitter or x whatever you call.
But Warrio sixty four is great for that because he did like a thread and
he had like bolt points of boom. That's how I read about it.
So he was actually on the more condensed ones than it was out there.
So but then you have to, you know, be on the Twitter format
which is like, you know, limited information per tweet, and it's yes,
I do have his open on my screen as well, so it's it's
it is a good place to have it over there. But I guess,
just a general what's happening here is that Game Pass the price is increasing across
the board. Every tier is receiving a price increased to some extent, some
of them less than others, some of them just for the annual like because
you know, if you get like if you buy it annually rather than monthly,
you get kind of like a discount there. But like now that discount
is it's still a discount then if you just bought it every month. But
it's like less of a discount. So that's kind of confusing that they would
increase just an annual not the monthly. I digress as Taylor would say.
So, yeah, the price is increasing across the board. The previous tier,
game Pass Console, which is one of the tiers you could subscribe to,
is going away, and instead they were InTru producing a new tier called
game Pass Standard, which is similar but different in some way. And then
yeah, so that along with that comes to some changes as well. Uh,
and so we will talk about that, but I guess just here's here's
how the tiers kind of currently work. For anyone who kind of forgets,
I'm gonna use USD here, you know, converted to your local currency.
We're Canadian, but we're in ease USD because that's what every website uses.
Of course, I don't know unless there's maybe IGN dot ca A. I
don't know, does IGN have like a Canadian branch where they translate to I
don't think so. I know there's like an IG in UK and whatnot,
so we'll see about that. But anyway, so yeah, there's game Pass
Core. This is ten dollars a month, and so this is essentially when
when they when they got rid of Xbox Live like game like Gold Xbox Gold,
they kind of replaced that with game Pass Core, but it is a
different service where you get like a very you get a limited selection of games.
I think it's still like forty or fifty games in there, but that
pales in comparison to like the I don't know, three hundred ish that you'd
get from a regular game Pass subscription. So there's game Pass Core and that
comes with Xbox Live, so you can play games online. And then there's
you know, like Fortnite kind of gets is an exception to the rule because
it's so big, So that's game Pass Core. Once again, game like
price is increasing on all these so I won't mention that. And then that's
pretty much just a standard and Xbox Live so it's pretty much Live, yeah,
plus like you get games, but now you don't get like the two
games every month with Gold, like they got rid of that, so you
kind of just get like a standard library. And I have not kept up
with how much they update or changed that library. And it's not just it's
like Xbox Games like something. There's like I think a Sauce Celeste is on
there, so there's other random indies and things, so it's not just strictly
like first party things. The next year there's PC game Pass, so this
gives you access to game Pass, but only on PC, not on the
console. And this is pretty much the cheapest one. So honestly, if
you're a PC gamer, like you go to go like, you have a
kind of the best here, and so I think the only change with this
PC game Pass is the price. I don't think there's any other change happening
to it whatsoever. And then there's game Pass Ultimate and this is now going
up to twenty dollars a month. This was actually the price of Ultimate increased
last year by I think like a buck or two, and now it's going
up by like, yeah, three or four dollars depending on your you know
area. So now it's gonna be up to twenty dollars USD a month.
And game Pass Ultimate it includes everything has a play in there. You have
access to PC as well as console game Pass. You have access to uh
cloud saves as well or not cloud saves cloud well, I guess cloud saves
is one of the things, but also cloud playing of games. UH.
You have access to everything, including you know, Day one Xbox releases,
and so I guess the purpose of game Pass Standard, which is the new
tier, and we don't know the price of it or yet, I think,
or actually I think I wrote it down a fifteen ninety nine, so
it's kind of an in between there is Standard will have a huge selection of
the game Pass library most games, but going forward, it will not get
the day one releases, the Day one first party games. So when Call
of Duty drops on game Pass when Avowed, or Indiana Jones or Elders Scrolls
six, any of these, when they drop Day one into game Pass with
Standard, you will not you will not be getting those games anymore. So
that's kind of like replacing the console. Now, I'm I'm a little confused
with Standard if that includes PC or if it's just for console, like if
it's replacing that console game Pass here that existed, and I can't find any
information about this, So that's my one confusion point. I guess I would
assume it's PC and console, but maybe because they have the PC tier,
maybe I'm wrong about that, but it is. It is a little bit
confusing the way they've they've laid it out there, but really the kind of
idea here is that, yeah, those day one games like Call of Duty,
they want to make sure that you're playing top dollar for it, but
I guess they still want to have that lower price option for people who aren't
don't feel like they need those day one games. So with that comes a
lot of questions of like, Okay, well how long does it take for
like a game to then get added to the service later on if it's the
first party thing. But yeah, with all that, and I don't think
I laid it up the most logically, but it is very changed though.
Yeah, Like I feel like game Pass is officially more confusing than PlayStation Plus
y, which we've made fun of when that revamped and added all its tiers,
and I still don't know what they're all called or what they'll do for
you. I'm obviously not a PlayStation five owner, so I'm less invested there.
But yeah, I feel like with this game Pass and Xbox is officially
more confusing, and so they lose that battle now for what it's worth.
But yeah, what is your I don't know what are your takeaways or the
biggest takeaway from these changes happening here with game Pass one. Yeah, just
to hit on the confusing. I think that is the case. I think
it's not too bad yet, but it is reminding me of when they talked
about, oh, eventually if the with the series and stuff like that,
I've already lost track of just like this generation to the last generation. Once
they start doing the series, it's or series that and even with the next
one, it's like I wish it was. I think PlayStation was smart with
just to keep the numbers and then if you want to update, just say
that's pro and that's the regular. I think that's saying the same thing with
the disc like pro slim and then that those are the only variations. Yeah,
even if you had the Xbox five disclosed version, just done easy like
that, Like so that's all You're always confused me, Like the more winning
GO generations, I feel like this confused me as well too. To me,
it should just be like you have just your standard ARO with all the
big games, your PC one and then the big games even then I don't
know if you need to go that much, but like Ultimate PC and then
Standard I think that should have been pretty much it. And yeah, I
don't know. Obviously everyone was not happy with like the price hikes, but
it's like that's just gonna happen in society. That happens everywhere. It happens
with theaters, PlayStation will do the same, All the Disney plus netflixes do
the same. Like it's just the way the economy is, unfortunately, and
all these places are not making as much money as they want to, so
that does suck. But at the same time, you just listed off all
those big games they've come out, right, and if they want to try
and make a little bit more, they have to do this because, like
I said, I've been in broken rerg with these past few years. It's
it's great for us. I always preference that it's great for us as the
gamer, but for as a business. I never understood how it was working
for them, And I feel like they're trying. They've they've they've dug their
heels in and they've said we're sticking of the game pass and what they say
a bout like twenty twenty eight, they're gonna have this number of subscribers that
they're not gonna hit, especially now upping the price, because I still I
think some people take advantage of it, but I just don't think as much.
I think most of the people taking a manager of games Pass are already
doing that. Like, I feel like the people that are on Xbox that
okay, if they get Call Duty. I think the majority is that.
Like I I think there's enough people in the general audience that might not even
care about games Pass and still just will buy it out right or buy it
on a PlayStation, which we'll talk about the number comparison, Right, I
don't know if there's enough people to bounce the the Okay, it's going from
eighty dollars to twenty dollars, but there's so many people jumping in the games
Pass. It's like myself, I was never gonna buy Call Duty, but
they're still getting my twenty bucks a month. Right, Oh maybe I'll download
call Duty, sure, but you didn't get any more money from me.
Like that's like, and that's where I think a lot of people that already
have games Pass. I think we've I think we're seeing other than Netflix,
we're seeing a lot of these apps in movie and TV. They're like hitting
the roof the ceiling of what they can get because there's so many out there
they have to choose, right, And now we even have those numbers with
PlayStation Switch is still massive too, and theirs is not that bad. For
like a couple months of Xbox, you can get a whole year of Nintendo
not even right, so Switch is like the best one. They don't provide
the same ones. So if you want to just play online with your friends,
very cheap to do so for Nintendo, and that's great. That's nice
and accessible. So I get why for they their point of view, they
feel they have to change this. I still feel like they should have done
the heel turn and just said we're not putting a call duty on games Pass
and people would have been mad. But I think they should have done that
and then kept games passed the same way. But they're not. So we'll
see if this works out, but I think, much like some of the
other ventures they've tried it, it won't. I don't I don't know if
you're gonna see a massive increase. I'm not gonna saying you won't see an
increase. I'm sure you will. But is it just for that month,
get called duty and then move on or what this? Even then, people
like to play online, and that's why I still feel like most of the
people that have games Pass would all be already be your base that's buying Call
Duty, because I don't think people buy that game for the the story,
right, Like if Taylor, let's say Theaylor didn't have games Pass, if
he buys it, he's playing multiplayer, right, so he would get the
I guess you said there is that the Xbox Live sort of tier, right,
So I guess yeah. So it's like, Okay, a few you're
gonna get maybe five bucks more from some people. I guess if you get
a bunch of people, obviously it does build up. But I just don't
think you get a bunch of people because I think the Venn diagram is very
similar to Games Pass user Call Duty user. Like Taylor, he is ultimate.
Now what did you just do? You save Taylor sixty bucks? Great
for Taylor, but Taylor every year is gonna and there's people that every year,
whether it's the hardcore Call Duty fans or we say this, like if
there's people in the mainstream that buy three to four games call Duty in a
sports game, sometimes are on those, right, it's like those maybe a
Last of Us, a Spider Man, maybe a Halo something like that.
So it's just like you look at Taylor, who every year is willing to
drop eighty one hundred dollars for him. What a deal. He's already paying
Games Fast now nothing, it's no more money for him, So it's again
great for us. I'm happy. I just the other thing is like,
why when people say, oh, they could never do the call duty thing
on not Games Fast, because that would be bad to me the way he
pitches, Hey, we don't want to close more studios. We actually want
people to be working for us and we want to fund them. And that's
the thing I worry of. If this doesn't work out, it's not gonna
be called duty in those companies taste the kind of victory of or the taste
well, I don't know what I'm trying to say. They're not gonna get
shit canned. It's gonna be people that are working on Indie one and they're
gonna look at a flow chart and they're gonna say, well, you know,
we bought this company, but people aren't really critically acclaimed, but they're
not buying the game on games Pass or they're not downloading it whatever. So
we're not gonna get rid of anything from Activision or any jones from Bethesda.
So you guys got to go and to me, that would have been the
way to pitch it. Like we know we said what we said, but
we also want to create games. We want to give people jobs. So
we're doing this because we know this can facilitate creation of other games. Where
now it's just I feel like you're taking the I think call dude to Usually
if it's not number one, it's two or three of like in the top
ten for money earners of a year, right, so it's just like you're
taking that. You're just you're slashing it. So I don't know, and
the game specific, like I said, the hot price likes, they won't
of course they bug me, but everybody's doing that. It's just it's just
what's happening right now. And if you don't want it, then just get
it for a little bit and then unsubscribed, like just wait till that's what
we do right now, Like we just unsubscribe from Netflix we had for a
few months and saying to the crave for House Dragons, once that's done,
we just boot it and then that that's what you gotta do. You gotta
bounce the same thing. If a game's passed, just wait until there's stuff
on there, there's an easy way to it sucks when they raise it.
Of course, I'm not trying to be like a corporate chill, but it's
just you just gotta have to be when you get it, make sure you
play the games you want, and don't just kind of forget that it's described
because I think this is not the last time this will go up or anything.
So mm hmm. Yeah, I h a lot to lot to chew
on there, and so we'll get into all that. But yeah, for
me, like what you just said, this this was this was the line
for me. I this might sound a bit dramatic, but I'll explain after.
But I did. I did cancel my my subscription on the day this
was announced to the service. And it's just because it's getting to a point
where, you know, since I've had the console, Yeah, at most
I've like dropped from Ultimate down to like just standard or not standard, just
the console one, because I you know, I wasn't using the PC SID
or I didn't need the extra benefits that come with Ultimate, and so I
would kind of like change around. But for the most part, it was
at a price point where, like, you know what I'm using this so
much, and it's nice to have that communists not have to worry about it.
So I just leave that subscription recurring. Yeah, and they had me
for years. Uh, I've been subscribed to it, but now it's at
a price point where it's like, god damn, like twenty five bucks a
month essentially, we don't it's gonna work out to Canadian every single month like
that is getting really aggressive. That's like three hundred dollars. That's like,
yeah, and it's getting to a point that's like a bit too ridiculous,
and just financially, I can't just afford to keep leave that on the recurring
at this point. So yeah, I canceled it because I'm not really playing
much. July, there's like a couple games coming on in game Pass,
but like I don't need to play them day one, and then in August
I don't think there's anything really now it's coming out on game Pass in August,
so there's some things coming on September. So yeah, I'll probably resubscribe
in September. But that's where I'm gonna be with it now, where I'm
gonna have it's annoying for me because I have to think about that if I
consciously think about when I want to cancel it and re renew. Of course,
so from my perspective as a consumer, I'm annoyed because it's gonna be
annoying, but that's just kind of where they're pushing me to. So yeah,
honestly, for me, I think they're probably gonna lose more money on
a yearly basis then they will gain. And obviously for the most part,
it's probably still gonna make the more money. Overall, I don't think everyone's
gonna treat it the way I do. But I'm very much like you when
it comes to subscriptions, where like, yeah, Paramount when the Curse was
going on, or Halo subscribed as soon as it's done, cancel that we
like, as soon as we're done the Alien Retro Disney plus canceling that one.
At Netflix we didn't have for a while after the password sharing thing,
and so like we're always kind of wheeling then dealing with the latest what we
want depending on the shows that we're watching. And yeah, like game Pass,
like it's it's just getting really really expensive, So I'm gonna be doing
that now too, And so yeah, I'm probably gonna unsubscribe here for a
couple of months because I'm not I don't need it much this summer, I
suppose, and then boom in September or something with some of these newer games
coming out. If I'm really intrigued by them, that's when I'll pick it
up again. Obviously when it comes to like avowed, like I need to
play that one. And I mean, I don't know when they release DA
of India. Is. I definitely get it when that comes out still,
But like something like Call of Duty, I don't, I don't really care,
Like I wouldn't resubscribe to play Call of Duty. I've been saying that
it's you know, since it's in the service, sure I'll do it.
But it's just getting a bit ridiculous. So yeah, I'm annoyed they're gonna
lose money on me on a yearly basis. I'm gonna try and keep them
to that by like being you know, being really sure with the when I'm
subscribed and when I'm not. But that's too bad. And you know,
because here's the thing too, is like there the price is increasing. I
think for the people who have recurring set up, it's increasing. In September
so that's where it's Okay, why did I cancel it now? It hasn't
even gone up yet. But to me, it was almost just more of
a reminder of like, okay, I do have to be like this now
with games Pass. So it just it just kicked in my head. I'm
like, Okay, cool, I'm gonna cancel it now because I don't need
this summer. Even if the price hasn't gone up, it's just gonna be
at that point now. So I have that kind of mindset with it.
But you can't play call duty with us? You know? What's that?
How are you even play call duty with us? You know? Well,
war zones free, right, I can play that is No, don't you
still gonna have like the Lives? I guess you need core? Yeah,
I think that's one. So I guess I'm not playing that with you guys,
because that is not worth you know, twenty dollars a month for me,
you know, to like just just have access to that so you can
jump too bad. But yeah, I'll have to be selective, like I
said, probably through the fall. I think there's enough things coming out that
I'll probably be subscribed in there. But that's just how it's I'll play out
Last Trials with you guys. I mean, I guess even then, I
probably I need I need Core, So maybe I'll drop it down to Core
or something like that, Yeah, just to like have the ten dollars one
or something. But here's the thing is, like last you know, it's
a while ago that they like made the I guess bid you could say,
of Activision Blizzard, and then it was last Fall when it finally went through.
And since then they've only put one game on the service from that huge
subset of like studios and IP that they own, and that was DABB before
a game the IRI owned. So since they spent that seventy billion dollars,
I have not as a consumer got a single benefit. And then they're increasing
the price before any other benefits come through. And there's rumors that like,
oh, some other older CALLI Dude games are coming to game Pass this month
or soon, Like I don't, I don't know. I don't need those.
I don't need to go back and play like you know, uh whatever.
It was Modern War for a two remake from like two years ago.
I don't. I don't need that right now. And I don't think there's
that many. I think there's a few people that will check it out,
but I just don't think, like, I don't know, I really don't
think that's a huge selling point out of the things that got you know,
I think that's that's right. Just feel like I kind of hate the timing
and pacing of a lot of their actions this year, a lot of their
choices in terms of increasing the price on this before putting that benefit to your
subscribers out Because maybe when you did a huge drop where you can drop fifty
new Activision Blizzard games, all this every Call of Duty game that exists,
all these other games that they own, benefits for Overwatch, benefits for growing
up. But look at all this stuff for yeah, like do all that,
maybe you'd get a huge influx of new people subscribing to game Pass that
would make it okay, cool, We don't actually need to increase the price
because a punch of people subscribe, But no one's gonna subscribe until you actually
add the Like, none of those new people that you would potentially get,
they're not gonna subscribe until you put those benefits on the service. So to
me, it just seems like too soon for them to do this. And
obviously they want to do it before Call of Duty comes out out is I
think the big reason for the timing. But the timing just feels off to
me in terms of doing it at this time before those other benefits have come
through. So I don't know. I just think that they kind of made
a blunder or a mistake there, so we'll see what happens in the long
term. But yeah, it's just it's crazy because you're right, like it's
probably gonna go up again at some point too, and I don't know.
For me, it's annoying that like ultimate of all the tiers have got like
hit the hardest, and the other ones are still reasonable, but then like
they're all missing things that I personally want or want access to, so they
kind of feel useless, Like as we were just talking about, maybe Core
I would be subscribed to for a bit if I really want to play an
online game, but that's like, I don't know, none of the other
tiers really make any sense for me as a user, so I just don't
like that I don't really have the options there. I wish there was more
of like a customization angle to it, where it's like, okay, if
it's already so confusing. Where there's four tiers, there's still console that exists.
If you were already subscribed to that, that tier will still exist in
perpetuity as long as you don't cancel that subscription at some point, you can
keep that going. So there's technically like four to five tiers that currently exist.
Ife, like, at some point, can't we just get it to
a point where you can like customize your experience, where you can pick what
features you want in each of them, and then like they'll essentially nickel and
dime you. So like by default it's pizza, right, you get the
maizza and then and then okay, I want online, so that's you know,
two dollars, I want day one, or I want day one call
of duty specifically, maybe that's an extra three dollars and that kind of thing.
And I just wish there was more customization there in terms of making a
subscription that's right for me and feels like a good price point, and that's
where I would keep it at a price where it is reasonable, where I
can keep it recurring not have to think about it. But then I'm not
like overpaying for features that I don't care about. Do you think that there
is a world or a strategy in which they straight up have like a game
Pass Call of Duty tier or just like a subscription service not called game Pass.
I think they'd want to keep it branded as that, but like a
subscription service tied to Call of Duty. I know there's like passes that exist,
but like followed seventy six has a subscription service, World of Warcraft,
which they now own, of course, has always been a subscription service.
Do you feel like that would have been a strategy or could be a strategy
going forward. I mean, Activision never did it, but I don't know,
since game Pass and Xbox are really deep in this ecosystem of the monthly
subscription service, Like do you do you think that that could have worked like
a game Pass call of Duty or a Call of Duty subscription. I would
hope they don't do that for the like you or a te I guess it
would be easy just games Past Call of Duty, but I did not want
to see like, oh, here's our game Past tiers and then six to
seven different ones. I think something's possible as a subscription with Call of Duty
just purely call Duty based and branded, and it's more that they put it
out there. Of course Xbox going to retweet it, talk about it,
announce everything. But I would like it to be even if it's in the
vein of games Pass something by itself, because then it's just I know,
call Duty is that big, so you could justify having its own thing.
But again it's just for me, the clarity of it, and because then
it'd be like, well do you not get call Duty stuff when you get
your main thing? And maybe Ultimate would say that, like you also get
games Path or you know, call Duty games Pass, So I don't think
it's out of the realm possibility. I think I would prefer to be its
own thing, but I think it is big enough that maybe, But I
guess again the same thing. It's just like, then do people that want
game Pass go Okay, I guess they get Called Duty, But it just
feels like you're stripping Ultimate more and more of like, well you can get
the game here and the other stuff here, DLC packs here, So then
it's just like, okay, what am I? What am I paying for?
Nowadays? You know? Yeah, yeah that makes sense. Let's see
where did I want to go next on this? I feel like i'd something
else with like the Call of Duty angle specifically. But yeah, I don't
know. I'm I'm pretty bummed about this news. I don't like that it
hasn't come with any sort of benefit to it yet. Uh, and it's
uh, it's it's pretty disappointing. I don't know. I just feel like
they've they're getting to a point where it seems like the growth has slowed so
much on one, like the console sales side of it, but also the
game pass like new subscribers, like that number doesn't seem to be dramatically going
up, so instead they're just looking to like squeeze every last penny out of
like the customers they already have, which I think could backfire, Like people
like you, I think, even if it's not a full cancelation, it'll
be more Okay, I don't need to be doing this all time, because
that's that's what happens when you raise them too high, because it's okay,
there's a certain price where you can justify even paying this all year round,
but then eventually get to where okay, now it's not worth it. So
and I think I think it I think will backfire on them. You know,
yeah, what with this new tier standard having uh not having access to
day one games. How do we think that works? Like when this because
it's not that tier's not out yet. I think it's like in the fall,
like prior to Call of Duty coming out. It will be released,
which I think that's slated at the end of August, so yeah, sorry
of October, so probably somewhere in September, I would guess, is when
this, this new standard tier is gonna populate, but with something like I'm
gonna pull hell Blay two out because I came out in May. It was
a day one release, uh, if you want to call it that.
At the time, we weren't using that moniker, I guess, like because
it didn't really differentiate from anything, but now it will. So when that
tier launches in September, is hell Blay going to be included in that as
an example? And then how long for something like a Vowed which will presumably
come on after this tiers launched. How long until that is considered not a
day one release anymore? Yeah, and then it gets put into that rest
of that catalog. I think if they don't put a descript on by time
at launch as let's say it launches September fourth, right, and then it's
like the week before, two weeks before, like okay, when Indian Jones
gets here, it's for this amount of time and then eventual you get it,
so you know the way anything, I don't think they'll do that.
I think it'll just trickle on there, depending on how all the game's doing,
because they don't want to say date, because let's say they say,
oh, it's gonna take thirty days for a game to get there, but
then it's still doing really well in the ultimate pass, and it's like,
well, we kind of shut ourselves on the foot. I think it was
like kind of what we learned with theaters we've talked about before, right where
theears before were or studios were saying doing the forty five day window, and
then people learned and they just waited for VOD for a lot of these things.
And then I'll be like, why don't Peep come to theaters? Like,
well, we know it's gonna be on streaming in three weeks, so
let's just wait. Now the law of studios and that's that's killed Disney animation
for a while. And Inside Out suting great, but for a while,
Family's just new in three weeks, I could spend ten bucks and get this.
So I think that's why it would be smarter than business wise, it's
annoying for us because it's like, okay, yeah, win does it go?
When is it turnout? Over? I could see something hell b like
being there because it's a bigger game for them, but not like like it's
not anything that I think is gonna hurt anything, right, It's kind of
like they can advertise that, but I think it'll be a case by case
basis. I really do at the game, you know, because then if
I flow ups and they just throw it there and see what happens. Yeah,
I guess I kind of figured because they probably want to have some uniformity
with it. I don't think they want it to be we're like, oh,
yeah, this game is two weeks after this game's three months, this
game is two years. Like I think that, Like, I think maybe
the differentiator could be Call of Duty has a set amount of time, and
then every other game has like the same set amount of time. Yeah,
and so I figured it would. I guess it's probably gonna be in that
same like standard exclusivity window, like a six months to a year kind of
thing is typically when like, Okay, this is a PlayStation exclusive, but
it's not first party. After one year, it'll go to other platforms,
And so I kind of figure that that's what we would be looking at here.
I kind of feel like anything that is already out they will kind of
include in there, like hell later, let's say, I don't know,
I guess they I'm thinking that maybe for this new tier, they probably also
want that to launch, like like they want Indiana Jones to come out after
this, So that is another one that they could try and swindle people with,
because that's the thing is like, it's just it's so confusing right now.
Where Core has a set of games that has like fifty games PC game
Pass and Console game Pass, I've always had different because not every game that
is a PC game is also a console game, and so there's already a
differentiation between the libraries there and then some things like only go to PC or
only to console for whatever reason. But now we're having this where it's like
standard and then the Ultimate tier and the access things that also includes EA play.
It's already so confused in terms of Okay, what is in what tiers?
Some things might be very straightforward. If it's like, oh yeah,
Doom twenty sixteen, that's on everything, you don't have to think about it.
But for other things, it's gonna get really confusing, especially with this
new like day one release schedule thing. And I feel like I I I
imagine there's gonna be even potentially millions of people who hear, oh, call
us on game Pass. Cool, I'm gonna get that. So they get
standard because it's called Game Pass Standards. Okay, cool, that's how you
play Call of Duty. And then they're gonna go in there. It's gonna
say, oh, you need to upgrade your tier, you can't download this
game, and then they'll okay, well, I've already bought in with fifteen
dollars on And I feel like this is part of it, is they're trying
to like trick people into getting standard for it, but then oh, they
realize, oh, I have to upgrade to Ultimate if I want to get
called Okay, I've already gone this far. I guess I'll just do it
at this point. And I don't know, I just hate that as like
a snake oil salesman type venture. But I just feel like that's kind of
what that's the kind of thing Xbox has been peddling lately. That's their I
think, so the crops. So I don't know. I really just that's
gonna piss people off too. That's not gonna make people happy. And then
you know what, next year, they're gonna say, fuck it, I'm
just gonna buy it on my PlayStation because that was an annoying process. Yes,
and I hate that. And you know, for them, they own
it, so they'll still get the money, they'll still get the cut from
that PlayStation sale, but they'd rather have people dedicated to their console buying their
buying their games there. So I don't know. I feel like for me,
I whatever the next Xbox consoles, I probably won't get it, like
as I'm due to get a PC upgrade and that's probably where I'll play any
of those things for the next few years. But I'm kind of out on
like their next console. I don't really see a reason because I'm sure the
series X that I have is gonna play like whatever their games are for quite
a while. Like I feel like maybe older Scroll six is the only thing
announced that would be not on this like generation and would be kicked to the
next one, but I no matter where that is, I will play that
game day one. I will spend one thousand dollars to play that game day
one because it's my favorite series. Right, So well, then if you
end up getting whether it's PC or exactly, I've always played all just Scrolls
on PC anyway, I don't want to play that on a console. So
and that was the thing A PC, I guess makes more sense because like
they have still been doing those but again with like if it is it is
stranger, then they want to make money making moves. But at the same
time that it is situations where it's like, well but we're still going to
sell them on PlayStation because there's like you where it is Okay, I'm not
gonna do games past. I'll just buy on PlayStation. I have it,
so it's just our computer. So yeah, I don't know. My other
my other thought on in terms of like cause I mentioned earlier how I thought
the timing was kind of kind of bad on this change because the Activisi Blizzard
stuff and they haven't put those games on the surface yet to see what the
growth would look like there is. I kind of just feel like, man,
like they were right on the cusp of releasing a bunch of games,
like obviously Call of Duty is one, but like Doom, Dark Ages coming
out kind of soon avowed Indie, like a bunch of games, Like I'm
sure that would have been opportunity for a ton of growth for the for their
things that I understand well call of Duty they want to get as many pennies
as they can out of people from that. But I feel like that like
that fall season of all these games, I mean, Doom is probably next
year, We're gonna say early next year or guaranteed next year. That's like
a nice swing and then leading into like Fable, Perfect Dark, New Gears,
stag K three, like a bunch of other like really pretty high pro
Maybe stated K is not high profile, but the other other ones are high
profile. So I feel like it's just I don't know. I feel like
they are bound to see a bunch of growth here, like without doing any
changes, and I wonder if any of this stuff is going to like turn
people away. So I don't know. I once again, I just feel
like the timing to some of these things is is not great. So I
think so because I felt like it was they had the bad stuff of the
layoffs. They had the games whatever game, Summer Games Fest, their presentation,
whatever you want to call it, and I think people are still trepidacious
because of what happened. Still was a good day of good showing for them.
And then I think this was just like kind of right back to that.
Where's to me, not as bad as people losing their jobs. I
still think it's could result in people losing their jobs unforetuate loss. This doesn't
work out well and you just get people unsubscribing instead of staying around and paying.
But that's the thing where it just it feels like Xbox they've been like
this for a way a while, but it's just like the two steps forward,
five steps back, you know. That's the thing where And this was,
like I said, I was less than anger than other people, but
I felt like in general, especially from a lot of like the gaming community
that's more bigger in the commune, newer podcast stuff, it felt like it
was a very kind of big face plant thing. I was like, well,
you know, I don't believe the you know, all press is good
press. That's that's a lie, because there's many bad press things out there.
I feel like it's been bad since then, and like you said,
it would have been least better if they had a pitch of we're doing this
to help developers, We're doing this because we're gonna add a bunch of Activision
call duties, so like something along with it, other than just well or
hiking it up because you know why, because we have a lot of big
games out and we want to get you. It was yeah, it was
just right there in your face. So yeah. And then lastly, I
think they should have held off on releasing those four games on PlayStation and then
to them on switch that they did see If Thieves and what was it Grounded
and Rush Hi Fi Rush and Pentiment. I think they should have held off
on that because, like I'm sure they did some I think they I saw
that See If Thieves like sold really well on PlayStation that month, Like I
don't know, did it soll enough to pay for Activision Blizzard at seventy billion
dollars? Yeah, not even not even close. I think they should have
held off on that too, because I think that already has put people on
a point where they're like, Okay, I don't really need an Xbox console
anymore, but I just feel like, man, this this fall for them
is really shaping up to be like a potentially really big fall season, and
so I think maybe they should have held off on that too, because that
maybe would have been a good time for to get people into that ecosystem.
Man, I can get Call Duty through game Pass day one. I'm buying
that console this fall season or this holiday. But now that they see that,
okay, well, I mean I guess they could already do their research
and see that quality is still going to be on PlayStation and switch and things
for years to come. But I don't know. Once again, just all
the timing is off here, and it makes me wonder how much of this
stuff is kind of just them scrambling last second, or how much of it
has been like, Okay, we have planned out the next five years and
we're executing on that. Everything feels very reactionary to me. And they've kind
of all but confirmed that, Yeah, we're bringing lots of the other games
to I mean, Doom is one of them that's coming to other consoles.
They've already confirmed, so yes, other things as well. As It's like,
you just they're giving you so little reason to want their console anymore.
But then I also don't feel like they are making it up with providing enough
solutions for playing game pass elsewhere, like there are other there are cloud streaming
things, but that's gonna be limited based on people's like internet connections and where
they live. But yeah, like I feel like they really maybe before doing
some of this, they should have had some sort of game pass plan on
U on a PlayStation or switch, but I mean, they have so little
control over that. But yeah, everything just feels very reactionary. And then
I'm still salty that they shut down, okay, and of course, well,
of course, yeah, that's what I'm excited for. You know,
hopefully we're all here fifteen and twenty twenty five years later, when we're so
far from this distance and there can kind of be whoever the Jason Schreyers of
that day or I don't know, documentary, but whoever is the big covering
games? Like I want a timeline and just inside events of from that Xbox
E three reveal that starting them off a bad start too. Whenever. I
don't know what the end point is because I don't think the Xbox will necessarily
go away, but like obviously they're changing, Like I don't know what the
end point is maybe, like, honestly, I'm not trying to say this
this way because I still think I don't want pe'll lose their jobs. But
I think if Phil doesn't go, there should be something there. Maybe it's
that Xbox to when Phil Spencer was there. And even if it's not him
directly right because I'm people have been like, oh, it could be worse
without him. Then I just hope one day we kind of get like,
okay, a bunch of people off the record or can be on because it's
been so long, what was it is you're making between here and here and
here? Because just a lot of it just doesn't make sense. They want
to be money hunger hungry and just like gobble everything up. But then there's
certain choices where like I said, they could have done that and they don't,
you know, and then it's it's odd. And there's times where it
feels like they want to make a big push, but then they cut themselves
under there. There's times where I think they've stopped now. But they tried
to do the whole big console push with Terror flops at exclusive games, but
I think they've kind of It's always about games, past games, games,
passed, you know, so I would love a kind of tree of everything
that's happened in like a few little reports. I think it's, like I
said many years away, because I think a lot of people have to retire
lead and I'm sure there's gonna be NDAs and stuff, but I'm very curious
about a lot of choices here because it feels like they're kind of a you
know, master of none. I guess they're doing a lot of things,
but I don't think anything's particular working because I think before the answer always was,
well, games pass is gonna work, and I don't think it has.
And then they they have gone down subs too, So I think that's
the thing where, Okay, if games pasts would have worked out, then
eureka, you get all the money, you're good to go. But because
it hasn't, now there's like a big trickle down. So I know it's
fascinating stuff coming from them sometimes. Yeah, And that's leading into our just
final topic here, which is just kind of a check in on the consoles
sales and essentially that the Xbox series has currently fallen behind the pace of the
Xbox One generation in terms of sales, whereas on the opposite side of things,
PS five is currently outpacing the PS four, which is just insane to
me on on both these counts, I mean less so on the Xbox ships
because they just can't seem to get that momentum right, and they really had
such a lack of exclusive games near the launch of the console, Halo getting
delayed and delay delayed and then being in the state that it was at launch,
and now it's in a really, I think, pretty healthy spot,
but it's not you know, a Monster tier game like some of these other
things that are out there. But yeah, I think once again it's like,
man, they had such a potentially good next year or at least second
half of this year fall and like they've already had some decent releases this year
and in the last year in terms of exclusive stuff that I feel like it's
gonna be harder and harder for them to pick up the pace on the console
sales. And once again, like maybe that's not even a metric that they
obviously they care about it, but I think it's it's a less meaningful number
in a sense than if we'd compare like Xbox One sales to three sixty just
because they're more about getting the money to the subscription than they are the console
in general and having people like buy those games out right. But uh yeah,
it's it's a pretty weird thing to see, just because I feel like
this console has had way wait wait, Like Xbox One had a Sunset Overdrive
and what was out of their game rise Son of Rome it had. I
had a Halo, a Halo that people don't really like, maybe two halos,
and that's it. Like I can't even think of other exclusive games,
like I had nothing for like a whole generation. It was really really bad,
and I feel like the series X has already that crushed it comparatively,
and they have tons of things in the pipeline here, but it it just
shows that it doesn't really matter. Maybe that's because the landscape, but it's
a landscape that they manufactured by, you know, converting it more to this
monthly subscription rather than the meaning of having a console and a big game release,
right well, And I think that's I think both are showing how much
it doesn't matter. The Xbox One doesn't surprise me, but the PlayStation one
did because I knew they are one selling Xbox by I think it's usually number
like one to five or something like that. It could be even one to
six. But it's like that I figured it, and I figure they're still
doing well, because that was always thinking. I think we talk about maybe
last month or at some point some sales came out. It was like I
think the past year or so, i'd say twenty twenty four. There's because
the lack of exclusives, there was like this narrative like, oh, PlayStation's
doing really not poor, but they're on kind of the back foot. But
then some sales came out and we were like, oh, I guess it's
still doing well. And now when you look comparatively, i'm very so probably
because the PS four had such a hot run, Like it wasn't the launch
of it, but Piece four came out, and then I think it's vibe
of it. It just it just felt good to be a PlayStation fan.
And then within the two years, maybe I could be wrong by fake.
Within the two years the play station came out, that's when we got that
showcase of dreams, right that PlayStation where revealed everything. So they were on
a roll. But I think that's where this shows more so Xbox Yes,
because they are focused on the streaming stuff. But I think it's just the
narrative of you know, I've said this PlayStation now won them out pacing.
That's odd to me, but I think it's just that they're now the go
to And I think the only reason now they're out pacing is because, let's
say, the love from the PS four is bringing all those people from the
PS four back to the PS five. Yes, so now the people that's
yeah, so the MENI moundum to me kept them the same. I think
if they had some big games, they'd be even going. But this thing
is, I think those other sales are just coming from the people that left
Xbox between one and the X and that's where it is. Because I think
PlayStation now, I'd always never include switch because I think which is a very
Nintendo's on its own island, and it's like doing fantastic, like it's it's
like a it's a whole different type of spectrum with it, can I think,
appeal to a lot more people even than the PlayStation. Right to me,
a PlayStation or Nintendo can be seniors, adults, preteens, kids,
or PlayStation I think is more of a like a I'll say fourteen and up
right, of course, I know an eight year old kind of PlayStation,
but I fact Nintendo is that like everybody paying at the time you mentioned that,
like they're just they're looking to patch that gap right now with Astro and
the Horizon Lego games. So they're even trying to start building that next generation
of PlayStation fans so that keep those generations strong going forward. Right. Yeah,
And like I said, I think we said that I said last month
when we talked about the sales and just in general being a broken record.
I think PlayStation is just a go to. It's just like back and you
know, back in that twenty sixteen to twenty nineteen era, all's Marvel movies
making a billion dollars. So I was just like, if you saw a
Marvel logo, well we'll go see that one. It's like, well,
there's a fox X men, there's a DC but you see that Marvel logo.
Oh no, that's that's the one that's we're gonna spend money. You
just depend on it. I think what will be interesting is the sales of
PS six because but I also don't think so, because I think PS five
is gonna have like a good back half, like I think there's gonna be
a lot of good games coming. Like I know we're near the end of
that cycle, but that's pretty smart too. And I think they're gonna do
this exact same thing they did with the four, where the for as much
as I said it might not work, that's a tras toll. You're wrong.
It didn't matter that they did a lot of the PS four PS five
games, right, because they made a lot of MONEYMPS four, and then
the sales if they're outpacing the PS four, it's like, well what I
thought didn't matter, and they should do. Yeah, they weren't act exclusive
games, but people are so bought into that ecosystem and they know that Okay,
I even not gonna play this my PS four, I might as well
get the PS five down, play the best version of it, because there's
gonna be all these other sequels that I want, and just that that faith
that they're also gonna bring in some new fresh ips and just make it a
place to I don't know, play those kinds of really high prestige games,
high budget games, games that are very consistent in their quality, which obviously
leads into them having consistent sales because people just know they're reliable. And again,
I think the one thing that could have hurt them is what Xbox didn't
do. And I'm happy because I'm a PlayStation user. I'll probably have both.
But we'll see, because I don't need a reason to is they they'll
get all those games presumably eventually, right that at least some of those other
ones where we've talked about like Elder Scrolls and you know, I can't like
Call Duty like some of there might be some of course like dated or maybe
they will be exclusive, but I'd say, so far like the biggest ones
have been are very likely are going to come over. Such thing where if
you would get to p A six and say, hey, you're not getting
Bethesda games, You're not getting Activision games, no Call Duty, then I
could say, okay, you've now more of a reason to be like,
man, should I maybe go that route? But now you really don't.
So I was still surprised what was outpacing. I thought it was still doing
well. I think people have kind of miss h what is it? What's
the expression? Greatly exaggerated their demi appeal. They all it's like it's not
in trouble And now I think they've just established that unless they have a very
bad misstep, I think if they can just keep they roll exactly like this
a big game even what because what do we get this year Spider Man and
what else for PlayStation? Really it's a big, big game, like in
the last twelve months. I mean you're just even this year just twenty twenty
four, right, yeah, I mean you got Fantasy Rebirth, You've got
Rise of their Rown, and you got Stellar Blade as like some smaller ones
specific Yeah, so you've got some interesting ones, but really was it was
just Final Fantasy if we're talking Spider Man, right, or it was that
last year? That was last year? Oh my god. Yeah, So
like to me, at this rate, they're going they really just need like
two Bay exclusive games a year, want to start the year one end of
the year, And I think they're fine unless something big changes, and that's
where I think that that'll work out. I will see what Astrobot is a
big one, yeah, because that was the thing that they I think for
some people because yeah PlayStation they had announced like what they or they didn't really
announce it, but it's just things from investor meetings where they were aiming for
a certain goal of consoles sold in this calendar year or something, and it's
like, but they're like really far from that goal. But it's like,
Okay, it was a pretty lofty goal and they didn't have a lot coming
out, so it's like, that's not really the demise of a console.
It's just like kind of weird that they had that idea in terms of sale
numbers. And I guess they have Concords coming out soon, so we'll see
how that does for them. Yeah, that's that's a loss right there.
Yeah, but yeah, I mean I think that even if this is like
a softer year for them, it's like, Okay, for a softer year,
that's still a decent calendar worth of games really when it's all said and
done, because people seem to really accelerablated obviously, any Final Fantasy is a
big deal. Astrobot looks amazing a new audience for that, and then you
know, for people, there's a lot of people who will be into Concord
even if it won't you know, be the new Overwatch could be, I
guess, but I find that a little unlikely. But yeah, it's like
that's still pretty decent. And then like next Year, Desk, Stranding two
potentially Wolverine, and then some studios have been quiet for a while, like
the Sucker Punch for example, or the Day's Gone Studio what are they called
again, Bend Studio Bend. Yeah, and there's always Ghost to Shushima,
like somewhere around there, you know, Like I don't know when that's coming,
but it's like there's always whether it's next year that you're after, even
if it's just those three and you mentioned a couple of others, but just
even those three, those are some of their bigger ones too, So it's,
uh, yeah, I think it'll all work out somehow. So yeah,
I think so. Any I don't know any other thoughts on this.
I feel like we've been pretty thorough with this breakdown here, which is it's
a good one to do it a little check in every once in a while
on these kinds of things, especially with the the changes to Game Pass.
But I don't know. I'm I'm pretty hope. I'm looking forward to the
second half of this year. There's a lot of fun things releasing outside of
all this this other news that we're talking about, so I'm looking forward to
it. And then I don't know, I think we're set up for like
next year being another big, big year in the year after that. Like,
I feel like there's a lot of things announced right now and it's really
just waiting for things to come out or maybe like ghosts, hum, it's
not announcement. Okay, we know it's coming. We know it's out there
in the eighth the somewhere. Yeah, I know. I always love looking
at the business stuff, seeing what's going on because that kind of tracks like
what decisions people make, even with Xbox when we go okay, we don't
know exactly, we know little things like okay, this goes up because they
want to try and sell be call duty, right, So it's like you
get to see kind of the tea leaves of what's going on. But uh,
yeah, there's a lot of exciting stuff. I think we I think
we have this confirm for you and me and that the guys next week along
with the draft, are we doing the switch up of games? Right?
So yeah, we'll do if we make all four are there, Yeah,
so that'll be pick or change games. We can do that at that point.
Yeah. So no, there's lots of exciting stuff, and again I'll
be excited in the fall because I same way as I was wrong about the
PS four and PS five thing, Maybe this does work with game pass and
it's the secret where there is that many people that have Call Duty that will
just go and go, hey, I buy it once a year, but
I'm gonna get the money here this way. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it
won't be like you say, where it's like, oh, they get on
there and they're confused. In fifteen twenty five, maybe it's just gonna be
boom and they get to talk about record. I'm sure they still will,
but it's about the numbers of it. I don't want to hear oh,
record weekend because I'm sure because Call Duty, but by how much is a
record? By a huge amount? It was like, oh yeah, five
percent now, But that's where I'm excited to see. Maybe I'm wrong because
as we just holdout the PlayStation, I think that thing worked out. I
thought they were shooting themselves on the foot by putting Go Out of War here
and Miles there and everything, but it worked out. So maybe maybe Xbox
will get a big win from this and this will show, Okay, this
method will work. I don't think so, just because like looking at the
history of what they've moved, but that's why you never know in the industry.
So we'll we'll if the touch basin fall out for that, so yes,
definitely yeah, And with that's that's that's the episode right there. Thank
you everyone for listening, Thank you Travis for joining me. This is a
fun one. Next week welling back for another juicy side post episode with the
whole gang, so look forward to that. We'll see you then, Bye bye.