It's the internet. You're busy. Let's do this for September fifteenth, twenty
twenty three. For the next hour or so, let me help you sort
through the world of gaming on Game Miss Morning's Live with me Jeff Grubb.
Today we have the August Serkana Report, a State of Play roundup, and
more. But first please join me and welcoming today's co host, the Game
Miss Mornings. It's Jan Ochoa. Everybody, Jan, how are you doing.
I'm doing great. It's so nice. You had to have me on
twice. That's exactly right. That's had to have it happen again. I
am looking forward to talking about a bunch of news with you. It's not
Drag's day, so I couldn't have Tamon that was the big thing. Wait
too much? Yes, we told him go to La dude, go to
La go do something. Drag's worthy out there. I'm sure he is.
It's making it happen. He's dragging. He's sliving and dragging, sliving and
dragon punching down, just doing doing the giant lifestyle. But yeah, I
don't know how this was that busy week. Busy week. I don't I
don't like I don't I mean, I like it when it's a busy week,
because then I'm not thinking as much about my own personal exactly, personal
failings and areas where I would try to grow and fail to do so.
Yeah, totally inadequacies. Thinking about all the New Year's resolutions from three years
ago that I still haven't done. How I haven't read a full book and
maybe a year and a half. Oh no, I've I've read two anim
Horse books now, so I can't say I haven't read a book. Yeah,
back downs. It counts. It's like it takes a half an hour,
but it counts. I would hey that that first one not bad?
I liked it, not bad. Yeah, I listened to it while mowing
the lawn. It basically was done that that afternoon. Yeah, I enjoyed
it. That was a fun story, was dramatic, a lot of stuff
going on there. I've not read the second book. How far into it
are you? I completed it and it's it still holds up. I think,
Uh, I think this author knows what they're doing. I'm also surprised
ian the world of Hollywood that we've lived through, where everything is an adaptation
of a book or whatever, that no one has tried to take another stab
at animals? Right, what what stabs have been? Take? Was it?
It was a Nickelodeon show. I think that's it. I want to
say that's it. I never saw a single second of that show that It
must have just been a time when I was not watching Nickelodeon anymore. Otherwise,
it's like opinion was on Nickelodeon when I was watching. I just eventually
caught all of it. I think he was on the tail end of,
like right after Alex Mack. Okay, Alex Mack was the end of my
era for sure. There you go. Yes, the the main kid I
already forget his name was played by the same actor that played Iceman Bobby Drake.
The singer Ashmore. His name Amore. That's Sam Lake's friend. He's
in there. He's gonna be an Allen Wake two pretty soon, so look
out for that. Gonna get more Ashmore at more Ashmore more. That's what
we're getting here very soon. Hell yeah, all right, we have a
mess here. Let's explain what we do about it. Most week days,
I Jeff greb will help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking
news and maybe even some of our own original reporting for all these topics,
I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart.
If you are watching live on twitch welcome, You can always listen to
the show later on podcast feeds by searching for Game Mess Mornings, or find
the RSS on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch the show later
with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. Okay, we have a
lot to get into, so let's start the Morning Mess with the August twenty
twenty three Circano Report, once known as the MPD Report. This is from
Matt Piscatella over at Sirkana. Shout outs to Matt at as always one T
and Matt keep that in mind. Don't disrespect him with two teas. I'll
spare it at your feet if you disrespect him with two t's two. August
twenty twenty three US video game market highlights from sir Kana. August twenty three,
US consumer spending on video game content, hardware, and accessories grew three
percent versus a year ago. That's to four point two billion dollars. Growth
across both content and accessories spending offset a double digit percentage decline in hardware.
A year to date, US consumer spending across video game products was two percent
higher than a year ago at thirty four point nine billion billion. That hardware
spent spending decline was down thirteen percent, at three hundred and seventy six million
to three hundred and twenty eight million. I get the sense that a big
part of that is there was some price cuts on the PlayStation five, like
relative like not like permanent price cuts, but a lot of discounts that were
out there, and I bet the PlayStation five selling pretty close to about the
same. It might be down a little bit, but in terms of revenue
that is down, and it's about fifty million that the whole industry is down
and not not not too much. Just it seems big when you say thirteen
percent, but be a game hardware is like just a kind of a small
amount of the total spending most stuff gets spent on video games. In fact,
it's like three point it's five billion dollars, excuse me, three point
seven billion dollars, So yeah, it's that's a four percent increase over last
year. And then accessories up twelve percent. So again, like if you
like try to like tell a story there people are buying a lot of games.
People who the people who have hardware are still investing in getting accessories for
these systems because they just really that's their main hobby. Video games is something
they want to be spending money on, but not necessarily attracted a huge number
of new customers at this point in their console generation. That'll probably pick up
again this holiday. For August twenty twenty three, the top twenty best selling
games include at the very top, Madden NFL twenty four. As is want
to do. It's always there at the top of the list. You're always
going to get that, and that's that still hasn't changed, even though Armored
cores six fires with Rubicon right behind it at number two. Those are both
new games on the list. In fact, they're the only two new games
on the list. Yeah, I'm just gonna point out here and then we'll
talk about it in a story here in a second. There was an another
new game that launched that month, Immortals of Avium, and it is nowhere
in the top twenty. Actually, no boy, I asked Matt Pisktel about
it. He said, it's number twenty six, including both physical and digital.
So that is that is really rough for a new game like that,
you just you kind of see why what's gonna have We're gonna talk again talk
about that studio, some layoffs. We'll talk about that pretty soon. Ripping
It two though, was still in the top three after being number one last
month. That's very strong for that game, Call of Duty, Hogwarts,
Legacy, Tiers The Kingdom, and Tears the Kingdom doesn't have digital sales.
Then Diablo four, MLB, The Show twenty three, Minecraft and Mark Mario
Kart eight rounding at the top ten, Pickman four at number eleven, still
so exactly, very respectable eleven. Uh, and then throughout the rest of
the top you know. Okay, so the Final Fantasy sixteen here was number
five last month and it's number seventeen now, and we have heard repeatedly sales
have tapered off faster than they were expecting. I think they will probably be
able to boost that up again as like as they put it on PC in
other places eventually. But yeah, I guess that does kind of look like
a pretty major tapering off, not some like panic button thing, but it
still looks like not as good as Pickman four. I guess, right,
Yeah, I guess when you when you look when you look at the brand
recognition of Final Fantasy versus Pickman, it does feel bad for Final Fantasy.
But again, I've we've talked about yesterday, and I feel like we've talked
about exhaustively across all of the Giant Bomb podcasts that it's a lot of the
onus is on Square and Square not wanting to actually accept the blame they are.
They are the Taylor Swift lyrics of like, Hi, it's me,
I'm the problem. It's me, where it's like, oh no, how
could we do this? We're doing so bad? Who did this? Oh
shit, it's us. It's us, Yes exactly. I'm not expecting this
to like to be the end of the story for Final Fantasy sixteen or anything
like that. But yeah, I guess I could see why they might be
a little bit worried about it. It is behind games like God of War
Ragnarok, something that came out a year ago. It was that that was
number twenty seven last month, it's number sixteen this month. I guess that
shows that things can bounce back up and down depending on sales. I bet
a big part of God of War Ragnarok, though, is people buying those
discounted PlayStations and maybe getting God of War Ragnarok alongside of that. That makes
some sense, And then my Final Fantasy sixteen is among Grand Turismos seven Miles
Morales and Rainbow sixth Siege. Yeah, okay, I've always been on the
other side of this fence. But do you think part of the confusion with
Final Fantasy sixteen is because of the number sixteen and that like people assume,
like the general gaming audience will assume like, oh, I think that's related
to like fifteen. I didn't play like the other twenty or other fifteen games,
so I'm not going to check out this one. So Yoship said that
same thing where he's like a little bit worried about that. I don't know,
you think that, I think everything has to be on the table for
like explaining, you know, I'm not a lack of excitement, but just
like I think I was expecting the Final Fantasy brand to be at a certain
place and it doesn't seem to be. So what's happening there? Final Fantasy
fourteen clearly is and I don't know, maybe that's the answer. Maybe,
like people who are are looking for a Final Fantasy Fix Fix have found out
that hey, MMOs can do that consistently with friends over time, and so
I'm good over here. But yeah, I mean maybe, but I think
it probably goes back more to what we were saying about. Hey, Final
Fantasy sixteen tried to be this broadly appealing thing, and that was enough to
to make it feel sort of a little bit more generic than people wanted it
to. And they were what they wanted, something that's like a very specific
experience that they could dive into and really sink their teeth into. And this
is again that's like kind of going to spoon spoon feed you a little bit.
Now you kind of have to play it to realize that. So I
still think like people the name recognition people buy Final Fantasy sixteen. I don't
know, maybe there is something about dropping the number right, but I would
be surprised if they actually ever do that. Yeah, I'd be surprised too,
even though I brought it up. Two things that just crossed my mind
before, I completely forget about what they are, and oh no, I've
forgotten what they are. Do you just burst out whenever they occurred to you?
Again, Hogwarts legacy is still the number one best selling game of the
year so far year to date, although that's Legends all the Tears. The
Kingdom was right behind that, and that's physical only again, no digital sales,
they're so quires. The Kingdom one was certainly probably is the best selling
game of the year. Then Diablo four, Call of Duty Modern Warfare to
Star Wars, Jedi Survivor, Madden NFL twenty four, Resident Evil MLB,
The Show twenty three with no I think no Xbox and Switch digital sales included
there, and then Dead Island too, and Final Fantasy sixteen right at the
top ten. Apologies I remember, now, uh yeah, there it is.
Here's the fortunate reality that I want to pose it to you, grub
and our audience everyone watching live. Here is is Final Fantasy as a franchise
now considered or going to be considered by future gamers a boomer brand. I
think that anything that is uh weebish can't be boomer ish, right at least
that at least that this generation maybe next gen, and I'm talking about human
generations now. I guess there, I guess there. I will probably be
alive during a day where there will be weebish boomer stuff won't there. Yeah,
we wish boomer stuff is dragon ball Z. I guess so yeah,
yeah, I guess if I was like, oh, the's like, hey
do you watch anime? And I said Dragon ball Z, they would probably
call me a boomer right. Yeah. Yeah, that's upsetting. So because
I bring this up, and I think I brought this up yesterday when with
the Sega Atlas comparison. But like, you know, some of the new
hotness is Persona you know, like those Yeah, everyone loves the Persona kids,
so in every form that they take, and I feel like Persona five
Tactica is probably gonna do okay. Where you know, people just want to
hang out with a bunch of a bunch of friends. Maybe that's why fifteen
did so well, is people just want to hang out with friends. Yeah,
exactly, it's a it's a buddy hangout game. I'm looking at this
this top ten or top twenty best selling games year to date, and Fontal
Fantasy sixteen is in the top ten. Now it's moving top ten, it's
moved down a spot. But I mean, but okay, I'm like that's
good. But then I'm like Dead Island two is ahead of it now,
Dead Island, but then I go Dead Island two. It's a multi platform,
so okay, but then it's like Street Fighters six it's like right behind
it, and I'm sure, yeah, that's also a multi platform, but
it's Final Fantasy sixteen about the same amount of excitement as a niche fighting game.
I mean, Street Fighter six's not a niche fighting game, but fighting
games are niche, and then straight Fighter six being at the top of that.
But you think fal Fantasy sixteen is the top of JRPG's I don't know.
It's hard to like parse this stuff just based on the information that we
have, but I do. I'm like interested in diagnosing what happened to this
game and to see if it's like, is it really success is it really
some kind of failure. I don't know. It's the square factor in that
this has been like a very heavy year for video game releases in general.
I mean, I don't I bet occasionally on conference calls they say that to
investors, but that's not something investors really care to hear about, so they
kind of have to be careful about some of those kinds of things, right,
they'd be like, what, no, we don't we don't care about
that. You know, Remnant two continued to do really well this month,
but it's at number thirteen for the year, although it's moving up pretty fast
on this list, but it's still behind Final Fantasy sixteen in terms of total
sales. So yeah, Matt. In NFL twenty four, I mentioned that
Jumped Or was immediately number six on the list for bestselling games year. That's
pretty impressive. Spending on video gain content in August group four percent versus last
year to three point seven billion on console and PC platforms. Growth in digital
premium downloads off set to clients across physical software and digital add ons. Non
mobile subscription spending fall four percent, while Censor Tower reported mobile gaming growth of
two point five percent. Madden NFL twenty four was the best selling game of
August, instantly becoming the sixth best selling game of twenty twenty three year to
date. This is the twenty fourth consecutive year in which a Madden NFL franchise
release was the best selling title of its launch month. That's that's consistency right
there. Launch a month, dollar sales of Madden NFL twenty four software excluding
digital add on spinning grew by double digit percentage when compared to Madden NFL twenty
three a year ago. Wow, I don't actually, I don't know,
like grub in any of the social media circles that are gaming related that I
follow, I don't think I've seen anyone grub anyone talk about Madden, not
even anyone like reposting like a preview or review. I have on my Steam
friends list one person playing Madden frequently, and that man's name is Ron Funcious.
So he said, so he's been there, and I'm like, oh
man, supern Functions wants to play Madden NFL. Uh. I've played a
couple of matches and that's about it. That's that's what it are. You're
right, I haven't heard anyone else tie, but you don't. It's it.
That's what's happened. These things splinter off into their own audiences, and
that that happened a while ago, and now it's like there's very little crossover
between the people. You know, we did that Forts of thing, and
then like you know, I get yelled at by Forts of fans who are
like, no, I played five million hours of this game. I'm like,
you're right, this we're not for you. This this video is not
for you. You should be going to the forts of content creators, which
one million percent exist and we just don't have that cross pollination anymore. But
yeah, Madden still very successful. I feel that same way with like the
souls Born community, Like, who's that big YouTuber in that sphere Vati Vidya?
I think, yes, sure, I never knew his name, but
yes, yeah, I know who you mean, And like I don't really
follow the souls Born universe, but like I come across his stuff very frequently.
But maybe that's just because, like, you know, friends with someone
like Tam right, and Tam is heavily entrenched in that Yep, exactly.
Oh yeah, Iron Pineapple is another one. Yes, exactly, all those
guys we got to be like big with a niche game off this list Grub,
Trombone, Champ influencers. Yes, that's whatever. Hell yeah, let's
see here. Long okay. Armored Course six fires roupcom was the second best
selling game of August and ranked This is the twentieth best selling game of twenty
two three year to date after one month in the market. The release of
Balder's Gate three helped drive one thirty two percent growth in digital premium download spinning
in the PC Cloud and non console VR content segment. Digital sales of Balder's
Gate three are not reflected in the best Selling Titles chart as publisher Larion Studios
is not a panel member. So yeah, let's see that's uh boulders Gate
three. Is that why it's Okay, it probably wasn't on this list,
and that's why that makes sense. Okay, it'll almost because I mean think
about it, PC, this is not the PlayStation five version. So it's
like PC is like almost all digital. Uh like I don't know, maybe
sure percent of sales or physical. I honestly have no idea, but it's
some very very very tiny number. But when it launch its on PS five,
it's almost certainly going to be up on this list. Then. Speaking
of a video game, hardware spending fell that thirteen percent, as we mentioned
when compared to a year ago, to three hundred and twenty eight million.
PlayStation five dollars sales fell by single digit percentage in a month when compared to
a year ago, while both Switch and Xbox series declined by double digit percentage.
PlayStation five was the best selling hardware platform in both unit and dollar sales
for for August while Xbox was ranked second in both measures. That's happened before
where Switch was number three on both measures, but not not very frequently,
and I think it only happened recently. So clearly switches on the outs.
We know this, but it's gonna have those months where it's up and down.
I imagine what happened with a Switch specifically, is everyone shot their loads,
so to speak, for Tears the Kingdom, and now like if it
like you bought it, then there's not a lot of people who are like
waiting for the next thing after that, They're like, no, I was
waiting for Tears of the Kingdom. I bought it, then all right.
That's does it for the Circono report. I think overall video games spending continues
to be pretty good. The growth is there, The industry is doing pretty
good. I think, yeah, a lot of big blockbuster games are succeeding,
but then there is the halves and the have not here. So Ascendance
Studios lays off about forty five percent of its workforce. This is from Sophie
McAvoy at Games Industry Dot. Is California based Descendant Studios has laid off about
forty five percent of its employees, the studio set in a statement. Ascendant
studio CEO Brett Robbins announced the news on X, calling it a painfully difficult,
but necessary decision. The layoffs come three weeks after releasing the studio's first
game, Immortals of Avium. According to Polygon, forty employees were let go
from the studio. As of April twenty twenty three, the independent developer employed
over one hundred people. A former worker told Polygon that low sales are the
primary reason for the layoffs. Another set of several more employees were dismissed and
the weeks leading up to the announcement. So I asked Matt about it.
It's number twenty six on the MPD. Uh, that is I remember way
back where I would. I've been following the MPD for a very long time.
I know it's something most people don't care about, but I find it
fun. It's usually like a good way to understand how these companies sometimes make
decisions. And I remember seeing a new game would launch and it would almost
invariably be in the top ten of the MPD, let alone the top twenty.
Yeah, if it's a new game, just because it's a new game,
any new game, and then it was what was the follow up to
from Volition, not not not their open world crime games, but the one
that they did after that, No, like they was I can't remember,
it was like they launched it and it was this it was like number like
sixteen or seventeen on the list and Ancients of Mayhem, thank you chat,
I really appreciate that. As of Mayhem launched and it was like number fifteen
to number sixteen on the list. I'm like, that's weird and bad and
kind of worrisome because there was a time when a game could just come out
and be new, and they would have a certain amount of marketing, and
that marketing would work and they would get to a certain point on the chart,
and I think the suddenly gamers became more discerning and or they were finding
those niche audiences to be a part of that we were talking about where it's
like, no, I'm happy to just spending all my time over here with
these games or this one game, and so a game like Ages and they
have could be like, hey, I'm new, so buying me, and
it didn't work anymore. And that was a long time ago. Since then,
I think both. I think gamers have been like, you know what,
I want to try more new stuff. Yeah, sure, But also
I think publishers have become more discerning as well about the stuff they put out.
Even even with all that in mind, the Mortals Vadium coming out and
being number twenty six and yeah, it's a busy month, of busy time
of the year, basically a very strong year, that is a very low
number. And I was I spoke to someone who's kind of familiar with this
over Adia, the numbers are tragically low for the same else of Immortals of
Abium, Like, way lower than you would even expect for a game that
didn't selll very well. Like you're okay, we can look around. Not
a lot of people talk about Wortals of Avum. It seems like it didn't
sell well. No, it's way below that actually, So, I mean,
when I talked to Matscatel on Twitter, he's like, yeah, I'm
looking at the numbers that that he has with both the digital and the physical.
It's like lines up with what he's hearing from this developer and explains why
they had to do his layoffs. Unfortunately, what do you what do you
think wrong here? I guess we could. I mean, it's just a
game that didn't stand out. But is it that simple? I in my
head, I hope that it is not that simple. Also, it is
a very confusing and generic name for a game name, and honestly, Greb,
it's I don't think it's a case of there not being an appetite for
the style of game. You know, we see people clamoring for anything similar
to a BioShock all the time, or like a narrative heavy first person shooter,
even though you're shooting with your hands here and it looks very pretty,
but I still had no interest in it when it came out. I don't
know if the marketing just didn't work out for it either, which is very
disappointing. And I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned
the Agents of Mayhem comparison, because I just tried to look up that game.
I have no memory of it at all. And I think now,
especially where time is just so such a commodity, I don't see a lot
of folks reaching out of their bubble unless like there is a lot of hype
or a lot of excitement for the game. I mean, look at going
back to the Orcana reports of everything that is like on that top there,
there's some type of name recognition, and I don't see a lot of new
games breaking through that that's top ten specifically, Like there's Madden, Armored Corps
six, and I know it's been years, decades even Also paulters Kate three,
right, but not on this list, but we know a massive,
massive, massive, massive success that's like exactly those Yeah, sure, Armored
Cores six and Paulter Skate three feel like new things, but they are doing
things that might feel new using existing properties. So it makes every risk that
much less, right, It mitigates a lot of the risk. Yeah,
And then, like sixty dollars is a lot for a lot of folks,
especially when they are intending to buy a handful of games throughout the year.
I'm looking at the audience that bought Hogwarts Legacy, like they bought a whole
ass console for one game, and now they're going to be very choosy with
like, oh shit, maybe I shouldn't have spent five hundred dollars, and
like the sixty bucks, I'll just be very choosy. I guess I'll pick
up Madden, Yeah, because I love Wizards in football. Yeah, I
mean they're people with the safe bets, like they want things that make their
purchase feel worth it. Yes, but that that doesn't mean that they're going
to be like, well, that means I'm buying every game. They are
still looking for very safe investments in terms of I'm going to spend seventy dollars
on this thing. I want to get a lot of time out of it.
I want to get a lot of value out of it. Hopefully it
has something I can do with my friends online all this stuff, and hopefully
it's something that I can like talk about so I have like something to share
over the digital water cooler or whatever. And I think maybe that that last
one especially hurt Mortals Babium because it really had zero word of mouth and no
one was streaming it, you know. I think you can look to something
like Walter's Gate three maybe eating its lunch a little bit, where it's like
everyone in the world was talking about that game when a Mortal's Babium arrived,
and it just left no oxygen in the room for that game to burn.
So I also think partially the the w GA and the SAG SAG after Strikes
had a partial impact on this game as well. Like the main voice actor
is like, and I don't an actor in Hollywood, like a working actor.
He's been on like a couple of Netflix series, so maybe they were
kind of leaning into him promoting the game. Lucy. Yeah, it's like
and that was at a comic comic con. Yeah, right, But he
didn't attend, I think because I didn't know that he didn't attend. I
think because and maybe some other voice actors from the game in support of the
strikes. So it's mostly just the game development team. It's a bummer and
and hey, it looks like a very visually stimulating game. At the same
time, I think it may have been too much for some people, or
it may have just felt more of the same and rather than something distinct for
people to check out. I wonder if, if you know, we're gonna
get out of this generation eventually, if this is gonna be one of those
ones like hidden Gems or something that people like, Hey, this is actually
not that bad. It's like surprisingly good, and once we're out of like
this time where where it feels like there's a stink attached to it now because
it feels like this failure or something, and again not trying to be harsh
or hurt anyone or kick anyone whether down. Clearly the studio leading people off.
That's awful, But I mean that's that is a real sense that is
happening right now. As we get a further away from that, I bet
people are gonna be able to go back to this game and have a totally
fine time with it. That many people are probably doing that right now,
just not enough to move the needle for the studio or for EA. This
is an EO original game as well, obviously, I think I would like
an examination of that partnership what that looks like. EA Originals at one point
was like, Hey, we are going to work with this indie studio and
we're gonna publish their game. And I just dropped my batter ring. Oh
my god, We're gonna publish their game and give it the EA platform.
And now it's like we're gonna work with We're gonna take a Coe Techno game
and make it one of ours. I think it's Coe Techno, and we're
gonna take this other massive thing that we should just be probably be publishing as
an EA game if we really believe in it. But instead it's a partner
original game, and maybe we're taking less risk and letting the developed take some
more of that. And yeah, we're putting some money up, but we're
not putting as much money up as if it was an EA game for real.
It's like, oh, okay, I mean, maybe that's not how
it works. That's just kind of what it feels like in this situation where
we are hearing about the studio getting laid off or late late enough forty five
percent of its workforce, and EA is nowhere to be found on any like
Noah has nothing to say about this. So it's like, oh, you
know, what is your responsibility here? What what was your say in the
marketing? How would you help on that? And clearly they've had successes with
it Takes two, a massive, massive thing, But in that game I
think was the success success based on its reviews and it's kind of neat novelty
of the two player thing. And then people and people love Divorce. That's
just it. That's it. End game of the year, and Divorce always
wins game of the year. We know that now. Yeah, look at
every single giant bombed game of the year. It has a thread of divorce.
Uh he a game for real? Okay, let's let's move on here.
PlayStation State of Play round up. Bennett Foddy's new game, Baby Steps,
got a new trailer. It's at leased in twenty twenty four. I
think that game looks like so much fun. I'm not sure about the humor,
if how that's gonna work, But like, I never know about that
stuff in a trailer. I need to play it for myself to feel it
in context. I don't know, how about you. Yeah, I looked
fine. I like all of these style of games. I like Bennett Foddy
a lot, love what a weirdo that goes through. I want to I
want to watch an interview Danny Go interview Benett Foddy. Yeah, for real.
I talked to him once where I was like, I can't remember what
it was about. I think it was about were using assets or buying assets
from the store and like making games based on that, and Benetfott he's like,
I'm a huge defender of that. I mean, obviously he made Getting
over It like that, which is a commentary on that, but he's like,
no, I'm a huge defender of that because like occasionally you're gonna get
these really cool ideas that you either are and either diamonds are the rough or
just diamonds like without the rough part at all. It just so has to
be surrounded by stuff that we typically view as crufft or as cheap and therefore
less worthy. But I am to me, I'm like, for me,
I'm like looking for something that has a different vibe in the way that punk
music can have a different vibe in that in that medium, and it's like,
this feels like people just like slapping shit together and going for it.
And then Benett Foddy kind of the king of that stuff. And so yeah,
I'm very excited about this game, really looking forward to it. Uh.
Then there was Ghostbusters Rise of the Ghost Words for PSVR two. Also
this I'm using this round up. Sean Turbo Sean put this together for me,
So shout out to Seawan Sean. That's coming October twenty sixth Resume before
Remake update that's getting a v VR mode coming this winter. And then the
eight A side story Separate Ways is finally launching next week, that's September twenty
first. Very good journey. So hey, you know, yeah, I'm
a big ATA one fan as well. So as or most people except from
Mandy. Apparently he says she's overrated. What he said overrated just a wild
way to say. Mike, why because he's a bad person. What he
can't even he can't even like blame that on the drugs. He was totally
sober when he said that. Uh, yeah, he's too cool for school
over there. I'm I'm too good for eight oh long Avatar Frontiers of Pandora
was shown again. It's released in December seventh. Yeah, I'm excited.
I'm really I don't have high hopes for this. I just have hopes for
it. Jen, I just want to spend some time in there again.
I like I've been saying this a little bit. I've been hearing a little
bit of murmuring out of some play tests that are happening. Yourself does this
quite frequently where they have these play tests, And a couple of things that
stood out to me is like, yeah, confirmed, it is definitely like
a far cry rees skin of sorts. They're they're doing extra stuff on top
of that. But then the thing that that that I heard was the park
core or like the running through the woods, like those scenes in the movie.
They do a really good job of recreating that so that when you are
moving through that world, you feel super capable and powerful. I'm like,
yeah, that's the ship. That's all I need. Yeah, just a
tree onto my ekron and just go injected into my fiberglass bones. I love
that they're fiberglass bones. Jen. I think about it every day. I
swear I think about it every day. Okay, that game yet December seventh,
and it looks all right. It looks okay, and it's a look
greaters. Look, let's all right. I'm down. I'm down. Yes,
I need it. Ubisoft needs it. Jimmy Jimmy Cameron doesn't need anything,
but I hope he gets it anyhow. Ghost Runner two release date is
October twenty six. There's a demo available now. People are playing that ghost
Runner one was very good. Uh, I don't know. So I was
like glancing away. I looked back and then it looked like the character was
v I'm like, is this cyberpunk? Nope, Nope, this is the
ghost Runner two. That's what it is. But it continues to look very
good. Uh. PS five Deep Earth collection Dual Sense controllers and console covers
shown, including Volcanic Red cobalt blue and sterling silver. U. It definitely
looks red, white and blue. I don't. I look closer at these
colors and something feels, I don't know, muted about them. I don't
know if I like them. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, uh,
they're a little matted, right, Yeah, is that what it is?
That's probably what it is. Yeah, it's just like there's not they're not
sparkly. I don't know. No, like the PS four controller had a
little bit of like, oh, if it catches the light's like, oh,
there's a little bit of shine to it. Right. But then I
just I don't think I like anything. Matt relate Matt Colored. I like
Matt Black a lot sometimes. Uh yeah, but I mean I like Matt
LeBlanc, will love Matt LeBlanc. Just like the darkest black black out there
for sure, Matt LeBlanc. Uh. But other than that, yes,
I don't know. I looked at Maybe it's just like in pictures or something
like. Maybe I could see it in person, my opinion would change,
but right now, I don't know. Then they had the game talking over
Hell Divers two. We're just coming February eighths five PC. I don't think
we had a date confirmed before this, so that was good. And yeah,
another one of those the ones where I'm like, I think this looks
fun, I need to play it. Yeah, it is going to be
one of those. Uh you know, we played Hell Divers one maybe like
a month or so ago. We all enjoyed our time, a good time.
I can't wait to do that in third person first person. Yeah,
Like we're bringing the camera down behind the back, basically the PlayStation camera position,
so that you know what that worked for like GTA, right, we
had the top down camera, you know, Hell Divers guy symmetricsh kind of
whatever worked with Zelda worked for Zelda, It's gonna work for Hell Divers.
Absolutely. Another Spider Man two trailer also closed out the show later by showing
a crap ton of costumes, including the digital for the digital Deluxe edition.
That Spider Man two trailer, I'll continue to look like a good Spider Man
game, you know what. I like that they really showed the expanded city
so that you're not just in Manhattan, right, you're also in queens and
stuff. And they also showed like, Okay, yeah, I know what
you're thinking, how am I going to swing in these places where it's mostly
residential homes and not sky rise buildings. Well, here's the thing, Miles,
morolics can glide and and we're gonna give you all these other things as
well, so go and have fun in those ways. It's like, okay,
you know what they've thought about this. I trust this studio. I
bet this is gonna be just as fun to explore. And even when like
I do need to swing and I can't because there's no building there, Spider
Man still runs fast, jumps very far, all these other things that'll be
good as well. Give me Peter Parker's uh moten bicycle from Spider Man too
that he failed to deliver pizzas on. That's right, Godda, I'm gonna
bring up Spider Man too every single for everybody. He's just a boy.
It's tressed the boy. It's just the boy. Tales of a Rise you'll
see Beyond the Dawn coming November nine. Do you ever played Tales of Her
Rise? I can't remember if you said, yeah, I like Tales of
Her Rise. I thought it was interesting that a DALC chapter is coming so
many years after the game. I think Tales of Her Eyes unfortunately got buried
amongst other JRPGs. But if folks are clamoring for something like if you kind
of liked Final Fantasy sixteen but it didn't quite click with you, I would
definitely recommend Tales of Her Eyes. Tam. Apparently it's confirmed that both Spider
Man can glide. So there you gotta thank you. Shout out to Tam
who has played the game. That's what he was doing out in LA.
He's playing Spider Man, playing some other stuff. He checked out all nineteen
inches of venom, checked out each and every inch of venoms. I don't
know what they said. They just said venom, just nineteen inches of venom.
Yeah tells yeah, Tale Surprise what that is a weird one. I
wonder like, why not can they do it as an expand alone? I
feel like that would be such a better things like this far removed. Yeah
I say that, But then you know other either anime games or RPGs do
the same thing. You know, Pokemon's getting it's DLC, Zeno Blade does
this, so maybe that audience, this must work for that audience. You
know, Monster Hunter switched from having standalones to having DLC, so it must
be totally fine. I also assume that this is potentially in an effort to
try and boost sales of the original game. I can't imagine the Tales of
Rise is still a full price title, so I'm assuming maybe it's clocking in
right now at forty to fifty dollars, and then this DLC is what twenty
ten to twenty, So you're getting people to buy back in at the full
price of the game originally. Yeah, and people are noting that this is
gonna play two did expand alone? Okay, usually they do that, so
yeah, yeah, but what you're saying, like, yeah, like people
want they have fondness for these games, and these games are a lot of
times just more than short experiences, and they want to come back to that
world, and this gives them an excuse to do so. I think I
think there's probably something there. Let's see a Hunky Star Rail pulls into the
PlayStation five station on October eleventh, the best Birthday Gift grub. Yeah that
that game has something like twenty million monthly active users. That fucking insane.
That's it. Huh. It's bananas, and it's gonna probably even more once
it's on PlayStation five. This is the one that persona right. Yes,
yes, this is the very quick turn based game. It's actually pretty good,
and that's the thing gets you an impact. It's actually pretty good.
Course. Yeah, I've never heard anyone be like I didn't like that.
Everyone always seems to have a good time with these games. Yeah. Hey,
Bacalar, if you're watching, can I expense like a bunch of money
for Han Kai Staril for video coverage and my birthday? Sure? Man,
he jumped in real quick. It said it all right. Foam Stars open
beta party for PS five will be September twenty nine through October one on PS
five. The full game is coming in early twenty twenty four. Every time
I see this in my eye, but I'll have fun with that. It's
I hope that it sticks around, you know. I feel like it'll entertain
the zeitgeis for a little bit. I just hope that there is a long
lifespan to it. Who knows. I mean, people are still playing Splatoon
three. The splatooners are not tuning out, so hopefully Foam Stars people have
been Splatoon curious can can tune into Foam Stars. It's fun. Yep,
yeah, I would, uh, I hope that the games like this could
come along and have like a Splatoon like arc where suddenly they are very popular
and we're getting sequels and people play them all the time. But even if
it doesn't, I bet Phone Stars will be fun for a while at last,
and I'll be there for at least the first little bit. Uh.
Finally, Final Fantasy seven Rebirth. Let me just read what Sean wrote here.
Looks so good. Holy shit, let's fucking go. Yeah. I
think that trailer was amazing. It was very entertaining, and it looks should
make the game look like so much fun. I uh, it made me
consider my sins. Yes, yes, like I now feel bad for stabbing
Jason a striker in the back to get this off the top ten list.
Uh and for my own selfish desires this game. Final Fantasy seven remake was
actually pretty good. Integrate is also really good. Got really good. Yeah,
absolutely, I think I'm getting yelled at I'm getting you're mad at me
about Sonic. Also, we saw a cloud on a segue in this trailer.
Kate Sith was in this. We saw Daddy Vincent as well. Uh
m hmm, all right, yeah you said we just mentioned that Matt Mercer
thing. Sorry, the kid was still yelling at me. Daddy Vincent and
yes he I think member stars doing Vincent or cool some something like he's doing
one of them. I don't know because Zach was already had a voice actor,
so it must be Vincent that they announced. So just put just put
Ben Starr in it. Uh. Yes, Ben Star should be most of
the cast. That's how I feel that. You know me, I'm a
Ben Star Mark of course, have have that star be all the Mogles.
Yeah, that would be very good. And just do the Clive voice.
Don't change a thing, not a single thing. UPO very Joshua, Uh
really really sed. Date announced for February twenty nine, which is, you
know, not this year, regardless of Mike picking up for his Fantasy League.
And then it's on two discs something we did know. Uh. There's
a twin pack with Final Fantasy Remake Integrate and Rebirth announced Seemingly no price given
yet for that. Maybe that's changed, Maybe that's happened since this got written
last night. Pop Fantasy seven Rebirth. Who cares about how it's gonna like
the Square Knicks and how it's gonna sell and all that stuff. I love
Final Fantasy seven remake. Never beat it. I never finished it, didn't
need to. I felt like I got my time out of it and really
enjoyed what I played of it. The combats so good. I'm I'm glad
that Final Fantasy seven rebirth looks just like all that and more, and they're
putting a ton of effort into it. So very excited to get back into
that game. I want Barrett to fastball Special Cloud. Yeah, that's got
to happen, that ass. That's a perfect couple to do that, I
think so. And he just needs to yell Marley the whole time. All
right with that, I think we should take a break. When we get
back, we're gonna have a lot more news, including maybe some worrisome stuff
about that new Paper Mario's tech stuff, Super Mario RPG's music swapping, all
kinds of cool things. We'll be back after this. We're back, and
I'm gonna talk about more news. Early tech analysis suggests Paper Mario's thousand year
Door remaster might run at thirty frames per second. This is from Liam Doulin
at Nintendo Life. It seems the visual upgrades and Paper Mario the thousand year
Door for Nintendo Switch may come at a cost. In early tech analysis by
Nintendo World report seemingly suggest gameplaying, the new version of this turn based RPG
classic will target thirty frames per second. This analysis is based on the Nintendo
Director video upload. Year's part of what's been mentioned based on what we've seen
that the Switch version of thousand yr Door is targeting thirty frames per second.
This is a downgrade compared to the sixty frames per second of the original GameCube
version. This doesn't appear to be an issue with the trailer simply being rendered
at thirty frames per second, as we do, in fact, see a
brief moment of I know, I thought the same thing, brief moment of
sixty frames per second in the trailer for one shot, but that particular shot
appears to have been doubled, to have been doubled in speed, thus resulting
in the perceived higher frame rate. The rest of the trailer never exceeds thirty.
Okay, they could. This could just be Hey, the game's coming
next year, and when it does come, it will be sixty frames per
second. That's entirely possible. Nino usually though, puts these things, has
these trailers closer to where they're actually gonna be Finally, I don't know.
I guess this maybe a little a little bit to worry about. I think
I'll be surprised if we get to the final product and it's actually at thirty
frames per second and not sixty. I'll be disavoided when we get to the
final product. I was trying to think of a joke or in an excuse
where you know, when you flip make flipbook, that's only so many pages,
right, Yes, man, I don't know. I could flip very
fast. Jan I could flip like three hundred frames a second on he gave
me the right paper, Like that should just be a upf We all just
make a flipbook. Yeah, I would love that. We could do like
flipnote Studio on DS or tyes whatever it was. But yeah, oh okay,
I'm sorry. Paul G. Manty just said. Polygon mentioned that that
the death threat for Unity's bosses came from a Unity employee. Apparently still still
a hot mess over there. I'll see if I can catch up on that.
Yes, the right, So the original Game of Paper Mario the Thousand
Year Door on GameCube sixty frames per second. Uh, it's it's kind of
if you're playing it on emulators or whatever, sixty frames per second. This
is a game that has always run really well. They are they look like
they're mostly doing a wonder One remake in terms of content, but the lot
of the assets do look upgrade and improved in a number of ways. Someone
pointed out, like there's reflections on some of the floors, things like that,
and you can do with reflections in a number of ways. It's not
going to be super taxing, but it's still it's like this is mostly that
same game. I'm sure it's made some improvements, but I would expect it
to run sixty frames per second. It's weird that gall g gall Pomati.
Sorry did I said? Yeah, he's in chat everybody. What am I
supposed to do? Paul the biggest Hotti Giamati. That's right, the Hotti
Giamati. He did the Cleveland's best thing ever American American Splendor, American Splendor,
Thank you so much. Yes, I love that movie. That's why
I moved to Cleveland. Jan just hang out with that guy. I get
it, of course, absolutely, Uh, we'll see. We will probably
get a handful of like more trailers of this, it'll probably be in other
directs at that point. If it's still thirty frames per second, I will
then I'll freak out because that game needs to be sixty uh. Super Mario
RPG remake. Meanwhile, we'll let you swap back and forth between the OG
soundtrack and the news soundtrack. This is from Zoe Hanley at Destructoid. After
the Japanese Nintendo Direct, Nintendo updated the web page for the Super Mario RPG
remake. A few new details were revealed, including the fact that you could
swap the soundtrack between the remastered and the Super Nintendo versions. There are a
few games. There are a few games soundtracks that are as indelibly etched on
the caverns of my ears as the ones for the Super Mario RPG. It's
a bizarre and unique mix that sounds nothing like Kochi Kando's more iconic tunes from
the previous Mario games, However, from the bouncing sounds of Beware of the
Forest Mushrooms to the walking bass lines of and My Name's Booster, it's packed
full of top shelf tracks. The soundtrack was put together by Yoko Shimamura,
who did the Street Fighter two soundtrack is one of the best composers of all
time. She made contributions to soundtracks like Final Fantasy as well Street Fighter two,
then continue to through Parasite, Eve, Kingdom, Heart's Final Fantasy fifteen
and so many others. Personally, I'd argue that super Mariopag was her best.
So she's overseen the new soundtrack. Jan like, that's cool. That's
cool and a good thing, and that's fantastic, and I'm like, okay,
I want to hear that new stuff. But I do like that Super
mariopg Supernanto No music does play on my head all the time. So the
idea that get pressed one button and swap between both musics on the fly,
but both set of music on the fly, that's that's cool and that's important.
I'm glad that they're doing this. I can't think of a game that's
done that. I know we've seen games do like the switch between like the
original graphics and the there's something like when you do that. They also swapped
the music, but I don't think i've ember. I don't remember playing one
that's just the music. Uh Tom manis is muky Island did that, but
uh oh cool, Okay, yeah, Grub, I know you, like,
I know you like Super Mario RPG. But I'm gonna say that Yoko
here has had she's she's had a run. One's had a run. Like
I mean, listen Zoe Hanley say SUPERMRPG at the top of her shimmer Borrow's
uh you know the discography. Okay, I might agree with that, but
like street Fighter too, like even like yeah, Kingdom Hearts, I get
it. That music real real, real good shoven more. Just give me
more of her music whenever I can. It's very good stuff. This like,
man, this is ah, this is like a blank check style run
here. Yes, yes, you're right, yeah where It's just like you
start off strong and then what's the rest of your career look like because you
did such great music at the start. Yeah. Absolutely, Like Homegirl could
could have just closed up shop like in two thousands, mid two thousands,
She's still going strong. Oh man, maybe Giles them give me all that
shit? Ye yes? Does that? Me and I How to Meet Bottom
Fantasy seven remake has sold and shipped a whopping seven million units. We talked
to a bunch about this game, so I'll just give the details here From
Jonas Mackie, a game reactor, people could barely believe it it was true.
Score Nix announced Final Fantasy seven Remake during Sony's E three press conference in
twenty fifteen. The massive ambitions for the project forced us to wait five years
before the game was finally released in twenty twenty and instantly became a big hit.
Just one year after release, Square nixs launched an updated version called Final
Fantasy seven Remake Integrade for PlayStation five, which was well received, and later
that same year it was also launched for PC and since then is continue to
perform well commercially. And now Square Nix reveals the Final Fantasy seven Remake US
sold and shipped over seven million units. That is that is pretty good,
But I think this is kind of what Square Nix is worried about, where
like that, that's the game did five million relatively quickly on PlayStation four,
and then since then they have had Integrade and they have had the PC launch,
and now we're at seven millions. So it's like an extra two million
for Integrade and for the game. Original game continue to sell and sure it's
been in PlayStation Network and all that stuff. PSM plus ps plus excuse me
and stuff like that. Sure, and that's that's awesome money coming in.
But again, I mean I always say it, and it partially it's partially
a joke, but it's partially not. Luigi's Mansion three is at thirteen million
copies sold, like about double this and yeah, and I just you know,
I was I've never lived in the world where people are like Luigi's Mansion,
that's my thing, and I'm surrounded by people who whose thing is Final
Fantasy. So it's just again maybe hard to rock. But maybe that's just
the difference, like there between a niche audience and something that's like appealing to
families. I don't know. I honestly think part of the confusion grub is
people learning that this isn't all a Final Fantasy. Seven. Yeah, I
do think that's something. I bet that is something that turned a handful of
people off early on in the process, and then they were like, I
will just wait and what does that mean? I guess, And then it's
easy to get distracted and then to not care until you hear like it's all
completed. I think you're right about that. Like, my my best buddy
has decent recognition with the Final Fantasy series. But when I told him,
like, Yo, remake is really good, you should check it out,
he was like, oh, it's a whole game. No, it's it's
just the first disc. Yes, it's like, oh, well, I'm
gonna wait. And even after telling him like you're gonna have to wait like
a decade probably, yeah, it's right, Like we have no idea,
I mean, yeah, it's it's something early on they were very vague about,
and then they were like, okay. When once they start talking about
Rebirth, like it's going that's going to be the second one of the three
part series, it's like, okay, cool, now we know, but
when is the third one coming out? I'll say that the Rebirth is coming
faster than I originally thought it would after we waited five years for a remake.
Uh. It's not like some super fast turn around, but it does
feel a little bit quicker. All right. This next story, Final Fantasy
seven Rebirth is exclusive for three months at least. That's what the fine print
said on the trailer over on the PlayStation YouTube channel for for Rebirth. They've
previously had fine print like this on their trailers for games like this, and
it's never been shorter than six months for a big game like Final Fantasy seven
Rebirth, but this time around, it's like three months. That's the exclusivity
window. And I'm like, to me, that sounds like maybe renegotiating some
of the terms of these deals, because they're like, hey, we're not
selling as much as we need to, and we kind of feel like,
yeah, we're happy about the money you're giving us. Can we like work
work around this a little bit and we're not gonna put it on Xbox.
We're not gonna rush you and put it on Xbox, but really we would
like to put it on PC, maybe a little bit quicker than we have
before, and about soon. He's like, that's that's fine, we can
work this out. There's a new CEO. We want to keep things on
an even keel. Over here, we're doing just fine. Final Fantasy isn't
like our biggest, most important thing. Actually, it turns out like it's
very It's very big. It's part of the story we're telling. We do.
We love it. We love Final Fantasy. Over here, you know,
we love Final Fantasy. But if you need to like shift things around
a little bit so that you could feel a little bit better about your own
financials Square Nicks. Yeah, well we'll help you out with that. Three
months is hey, if it's on PC three months later, that is that
does feel like may that's really quick, they said it. At least who
knows if that's actually how it's going to play out, though, What do
you think three months is like a drop in the bucket in like the world
of video games now? Are Yeah, especially with games that like just are
evergreen and and never really go on many of them don't ever go on sale,
and it's like, yeah, yeah, do these are things? Are
just the games that are always on the sales charts and stuff like that.
Yeah, three months is nothing. And you know, with with the Steam
deck just gaining more popularity and the ass Roger Ali also gaining good traction,
I see a lot of folks maybe wanting to just play it on a handheld
format as well, or just like being able to take it on the go.
I don't remember how Final Fantasy seven remake was when it landed on the
PC, but it was pretty well received. I think, yeah, right,
in general, like three months, grub that's like nothing, especially if
you're like trying to finish off like whatever, you're currently playing. Yeah,
I have no idea what the full landscape of what twenty four is going to
look like in games releases, but it already looks very populated, just like
this year. So I could see folks that may not have a PS five
just waiting if they already have a PC. Yeah, And it's you can
also see like maybe from Square next position saying, hey, when we made
that deal for like six months exclusivity or year exclusivity, And honestly, when
it comes to like keeping off Xbox, seems like Final Fantasy seven remake is
like a two year window. Three year window. Now, who knows that
was on the PS four late in its generation and when there was several like
tens and tens and tens of millions of PS fours out in the world.
Now they're on the PS five, not early in the generation, but they're
still not above like fifty million PS five sold. They're getting close to that,
probably they're not above that yet. So it's like, hey, we're
not getting the same value in terms of the potential audience we could sell this
too, So either we need more money up front or we need a smaller
window, and maybe we prefer a smaller window. I bet they would prefer
a smaller window because the thing probably will do better if it gets the PC
faster this time around. So you know, we'll see. And you know
they mentioned with Final Fantasy sixteen jan Hey, that's got a six month window
and we'll get we're gonna put on PC, probably not right at that six
months though, because we're gonna take our time and make sure it's really great
on PS five and we're gonna keep improving it for PS five and we'll get
to PC eventually, but it'll come sometime after that six month window. It's
like, so they're not rushing over on the Final Fantasy sixteen, But I
wonder if that stuff changes, as like the reality at Square in exchanges and
they need to be making more revenue. All right, Haities two, we'll
return to Hell in early access in Q two twenty twenty four. We talked
a little bit about this yesterday, but to get the actual details from Stephen
Mills at Destructoid super Giant Games released at Development Update for Haities two yesterday,
shedding some light on the rogue roguelike action RPG's early access release plans. The
sequel to Hades will launch an early access in Q two of twenty twenty four
on both Steam and the Epic Game Store. The team went on to clarify
that the exact date, pricing, and system requirements will be revealed later.
Prior to the early access release, there will be also a limited technical test
for a handful of players, hopefully on one of those. This test will
serve as a way to solve technical compatibility issues before early access. Please Greg,
please crack please, we need it. I gotta love Hadies. I
love Haities so much. Just one of my all time favorite gaming experiences.
Hadies two just needs to be more of that. And I mean, I
kind of It's hard for me to think about any other studio has a better
chance of creating fun new ways to interact with their world than having the studio
put Haities two into early access again and say, hey, let's put all
our craziest ideas in this and see if we can refine them, refine them,
refine them and to get another interesting play so that you can have like
twenty five runs that all feel completely different from one another instead of like the
fifteen runs that all felt very different from one another in Haities one. Yeah,
very excited about this. Uh, for folks that have had the Hades
Itch and have just gotten tired of replaying through Hades repeatedly since then, Uh,
if you have an iPhone or if you have Apple Arcade, there's actually
a pretty good teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Hades like there right now. It's interesting.
Yeah, I don't remember if it's actually multiplayer. I think that's what
you said. It's the Apple Arcade one yes, splintered fate. I did
I heard about this game. I had no idea that's what it was.
It's it's it's I checked out like the first level felt okay, felt completely
fine. It came out up in May of this year, so it's a
law. It's been out for a while. Okay, that's I do remember
hearing about this game. I had no idea that's what it was. That
sounds very interesting. I still need to get that I don't know, Mac
Minnie or an Apple TV or something and start playing some of those games.
Digital Clips launches Wizardry, proving grounds of the Mad Overlord remake out of nowhere.
This comes from Zoe Hanley at Destructoid. Digital Clips has announced that not
only are they remaking Wizardry Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. They're launching it
into early access now. Wizardry Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was the first
in the series and launched all the way back in the primordial days of nineteen
eighty one on the Apple two. It was one of the games that popularized
popular Ali and Lose the Dungeon Crawlers, and helped translate tabletop RPGs to the
home computer. It's not the first, however, Rachel Richard Garriott's A Kelabeth
predates it by a year and Dungeon Dungeon Quests just with the Jay Temple of
the app shot you throwing that down real quick for me, kiddo. Thank
you that that came out as well. This is something that digital clips is
very good. Oh okay, hang on, let me turn this down real
quick. Word pronunci pronunced See, I'm messing it up. I tried to
say pronunciation and I said pronounce truition. Words are hard, folks. You
know, we don't really do tongue twisters. The warm up the mouths.
Maybe I'll start including that into the mic checks. How's everyone doing? Clipberd
is not a flub of the tongue. You know that is just that that's
actually doing the rules like they are proper, all right, everybody. That's
why skateboard should just be skibbered. Yeah, that would that would help me
out a lot. Remakes and remasters are nothing new to game preservation, but
I'm really digging the warts and all approach we've been getting recently. Usually some
yes, the more aged aspects get smoothed over, but everything that made the
game special is preserved. That's certainly the case here. Uh yeah. I
think Digital Eclipse is one of my favorite studios right now. I've been playing
that the History of Karatica and really really enjoying. That's just a great way
to do a interactive documentary. Obviously, this is so cool. They did,
Yes, they did a Tarry fifty, but just to take it and
do it with one game, they just they nailed it. It's so cool.
And now they're obviously they also just do these preservation projects and stuff like
that. A lot of it feels like it's driven by their passions, and
I think that's the right way. Let this passionate studio go out find the
things they want to work on, im preserve them. That's cool. I
I bang with digitally Clips so hard because of one of my favorite GBA games,
which is Disney's Lelo and Stitch. Yes, yes, that digital Clips
would pop up. That name would pop up a lot on Game boyd bands
games. They did. They also made Lizzie McGuire on the Go Yo,
well it's a program Studio and the GV version of Triple X. Oh really
yeah, yeah, not the Triple X, folks, the Vin Diesel Triple
The list of games you just said, they would make for a great license
to thrill so I can get in there and play some Triple A Triple X
on a Game Boy Bands. Maybe you should make No, Disney's Lelo and
Stitch is actually pretty good. I was thinking of making Mitch play that for
Blake Club. That's that's a really good idea though, Like that's you're on
the right track. There is there a Winnie the Pool games. There are
a really bad Disney game. Okay, all right, we got we go.
We'll just continue this discussion the years. Yep, the Gears are spending
pick Pickman four is still dominating Japan's sales chart. I just wanted to say
it. For thirty one thousand copies sold in the last week. It's at
eight hundred and seventeen thousand physical copies sold in Japan alone. That shit's gonna
get to a million just physical games. I couldn't be happier, all right,
jan I got the poll question from you yesterday. While I get that
all set up, though, why don't you tell people what's happened on giant
bomb dot com for the rest of it today and maybe into next week.
What we got going on the rest of today is we have unprofessional Fridays.
We moved it up yet again. It is at ten am Pacific one pm
Eastern time. We will be doing who knows, it's still up in the
air. We will listen zero ninety nine on UPF. Yeah. Maybe well
we'll check out F zero ninety nine. Maybe I can. We can play
a little bit of blasphemous two maybe some I'm a P. Maybe is a
P as well? Yeahs a P. It's a I don't want anyone to
take the wrong thing from this, but it is a very Korean game.
Who Okay? That as a lot of implications that I'm both excited and frightened
by. Yes, yes, take take from it what you will. Uh,
but it's it's it's very smooth faces, very moist face, very moist
faces, and then maybe some Mortal Kombat one, although I don't know,
Yeah, maybe not. I have the game if we need it though,
and then we played it on PC. All right, let's see here,
I have a pull question from yesterday. How do you grade the Nintendo Direct?
Nine percent gave it an A. Let's see, eight percent gave it
an F, eleven percent gave it a D, thirty percent gave it a
B. And the number one answer here is C with forty three percent,
So the bell curves kind of in that S to B range. But and
I'm like, I voted see see jan I think that's how I feel.
But it's just because the last one was so good and gave me all the
stuff I need and a lot this one was a lot of updates on that
stuff. So I'm not mad about it or anything. I really I don't
get mad about these things ever, even if they are just straight up like
waste of time. It's like, you know, what's my job, So
I'm still getting paid to do this. I'll live. But you know,
I'm a kind of a little surprised. People are like, no, it's
b this is great. I like it, but I guess maybe people are
into some of the anime games they showed. I don't know. Even then,
as someone that is into the anime games that they will occasionally show,
I would give it like a B minus to a C plus, leaning towards
the C plus range. Yes, that's kind. But yeah, I think
you're right. Based off of the last Nintendo direct that which felt like such
a banger, this one was okay. All right? The new poll question,
will you be upset if Super Mario RPG remake? I'm not, that's
not What if the paper Marian door thousand your door? If paper pasper paper
Mario the fact year door is thirty frames for seconds? Oh? Also get
that on YouTube dot com slash chiant on on the community tab. I will
get that right now. The Star Ocean remake demo is out now? Oh
is it really? Oh? Maybe we can check that out also for we'll
get some stuffs going for this UPF. It'll be a fun one. Well,
we'll do a grab bag of stuff. It'll be a good time,
be good old regular decular UPF. All right, Jan I think that what
that does it? I think you talked about what's happening. We did the
poll, we even take the audience yp but I'll get that in a second.
Jan Thank you so much for spending today talking with me about video games.
Man, I really appreciate it. It's my favorite way to start a
Thursday, and I did it on a Friday. Thank you all for watching.
You're right. Another best audience is gaming. In fact, you know
what. You are the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have
a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.