He'll be don't be bait. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do
this From March eighteenth, twenty twenty four, for the next hour or so,
let me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game Mess Mornings
Live with Me Jeff Grubb. Today, details leak about the next PlayStation,
while another piece of Sony hardware apparently rots on the shelf. But first,
please join me and welcoming today's co host the Game Mess Mornings. It's Emma
Fife. Everybody, Emma, how are you doing. I am well.
I was away last week visiting with my family, and I got a stomach
bug about halfway through the week. So a real good time. What a
joy, What a joy. But I'm better now. Unfortunately it happened like
two days after my birthday, so I at least I basically got to go.
I visited with my family a little bit, got to see my niece,
and then had a nice birthday. During dinner, I was completely upstaged
by my niece who was in rare comedic form that evening, and then yeah,
got sick and then just kind of like laid in bed until I felt
well enough to drive home. Both both my fiance and I were sick,
so we were we were real fun. We were real fun last week.
That's a good time, okay, but the recovery seems like it's fully taken
root. You're good yeaheah, totally. Yeah, I'm I'm back in action
baby, ready to do this Monday thing as weird as as it is.
Yeah. I made a decision last night at some point where it was like,
I got the kids are in bed, I could I could go see
Doom too at the movie theater. It's long, and yeah, I like,
I did the ten forty showing, so I go see the Imax show
and Limax whatever. Yeah, and it was like, well, okay,
ten forty and then of course I'm like, well that's gonna be like fifteen
minutes. It's until at least eleven. Yeah, it started at like eleven
ten. It was like a full like half an hour, yes, of
commercials and all that stuff. So yeah, that was one thing. But
the movie was very good and I did not doze off or anything, just
sat there and enjoyed the whole thing, so that that was a very good
time. But I did get I did get home and get to sleep at
like three am. Basically after everything was said and done, so then it
was a choice. But I don't regret it, except for I do.
I do fully regret it, just the way I feel right now, Yes,
but that it was a good movie, the very least right movie.
Yeah. Now I'm the troublesome thing here is like now I'm like, okay,
well, I made myself very tired, susceptible, susceptible, maybe getting
sick. And of course packs is later this week, so we'll see how
I rolled the dice and how I pay for it later. In the meantime,
let's explain what we do here most weekdays, I, Jeff Grubb,
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. All right, we have a
lot to get into, so let's get started. With PS five pros specs
have been leaked with improved GPU and upscaling. This is from Chris Scullion at
VGC. Documentation explaining the console's specifications was initially leaked by YouTuber Moore's Law is
Dead, before being detailed by Insider Gaming, then verified by IGN, which
says the document comes from Sony Interactive Entertainment's developer network. The specs suggests that
the PS five Pro CPU will be identical to that of the standard PS five,
but that the new console will have a high CPU frequency mode, which
increases the CPU by ten percent to three point eight five gigahertz but reduces GPU
performance by around one percent. As a result, the GPU itself will be
powered by thirty three point five terra flops versus the PS five's ten point two
eight of terra flops, but this doesn't mean it will be more more than
three times as powerful, not necessarily, As the vergin notes, changes in
AMD's architecture means it's difficult to directly compare terror flops directly between the PS five
and the PS five Pro, and that reality the comparison is more likely more
like ten point two eight versus around seventeen terraflipes, terrraflops, terraflipes, terror
flops. Indeed, the documentation leaked by More's Laws that suggests rendering is about
forty five percent faster. The console's apparent upscaling and anti alisom features are also
listed in the specs named PSSR, which dance or PlayStation's Spectral super resolution a
hell of a name. It's believed this could be the proprietary DLSS like solution
discussed last year by Giant Bomb reporter Joker. Last month, the CNBC cited
a number of games industry analysts who are portally said they expect Sony to launch
a PlayStation five pro console later this year. Yeah, this thing seems very
likely to be coming out this holiday. We first originally heard about a PS
five pro emma of sometime last year in that Maelstrom of there's a PS five
revision coming that will be a slim model without a disk drive. We got
that there would be a PlayStation portal, portable sort of thing that you take
with you and it could stream games, and that was the portal, and
that that happened, and then at the same time we heard about the Pro
and now we're getting these specs right before GDC, when well, now GDC
is here, right as GDC is starting, when almost certainly a lot of
developers are going to be talking to one another. This was going to leak
this week. I think this, this feels like, okay, PlayStation,
let's just go put the information up on our developer portal. Let all the
developers know so they know what they're hearing. It is true, and it's
not like some weird thing they're hearing the second hand of GDC. Let's just
get it out of the way. This is going to happen. Yeah,
a lot of it's lining up to feel like, yeah, this is definitely
true and it probably will come out this holiday. How do you feel first
about a more powerful PS five? So my thing about it is it's kind
of the way I look at these consoles and their like zero point five upgrades
is it's kind of like iPhones. You know, if you are there for
the you know, iPhone fourteen S or whatever, and you haven't gotten a
fourteen already, awesome, That's absolutely what I would go for. But frankly,
we're getting into the territory of like the human I actually can't detect anything
better, you know, in terms of graphics, performance, and games have
gotten so good at hiding their minimal load screens that it's like I don't even
notice anymore. So it's like I will do. I think that this is
something that people will purchase. Absolutely, and there are people who are,
you know, more of tech heads that I am, like, for example,
you know, not not specifically in the realm of PlayStation, but you
know, with my dad, he's such a technology head that it's like he
always gets like the next thing, though with iPhones he chooses to skip them
sometimes, so anyway, but it's like, great, I love that they're
putting out an enhanced machine. Good for them if it's going to cost money
that you could be you know paying uh yeah, now that now the cats
really got opinions on this. He's like, excuse me, I want an
upgraded PS five, But yeah, I mean it's like, I don't know,
my PlayStation five is running great. I'm super happy for people that want
to get this that don't already have a PS five, assuming that it is
actually available in reasonable quantities at launch. Yeah, I think that you're right
to say that this is for a certain audience that shows up on day one.
That you know, the nerd tax that we often pay if we do
get excited about new hardware, Like we're going to be right there. And
there's that that huge there's a huge segment there, millions of people who count
themselves among like, hey, I want the new thing, no matter what,
regardless of how much use I got, are the last one whatever,
I just want to be on the cutting edge. And that's who these devices
are always meant to monetize. I mean Nintendo does. And then Nintendo has
done this for years and years, going back generations. Uh you know the
Game Boy Color kind of being a very good example of like, hey,
we're really going to introduce a new feature and give you a reason to get
excited. It was still a game Boy underneath, so it's like that like
they then they did that repeatedly. And the person that these things sell to
is the person who buys a system on day one, and it is the
most likely to give these companies money. So of course they're taking advantage of
that. As far as like the draw here, I think, you know,
tim percent more powerful in those CPU, like the CPU being the same
is not surprising at all because they want to keep compatibility between the PS five
and the PS five pro so they were never really going to switch up the
the CPU. That's the you know, the Xbox series X and S use
the same CPU for a very similar reason. So them coming in with a
you know, huge improvements to the GPU, likely having a little chiplet on
on the GPU for driving this PSSR feature, which is probably gonna use AI
technologies to upscale stuff. That makes sense as well. It's something that the
original PS five probably couldn't do without causing more performance issues, So you know,
kind of focusing on that makes some sense. I just don't know what
the marquee feature is here, because nowhere in this reporting and in this documentation
is Sony really talking about eight K. And I think they know that that's
a non starter that most people will be like I I just bought a four
K TV and I and if I'm honest with myself, I barely see the
difference between that and ten eightpm in many circumstances. And I think people are
gonna like, like, I am not going to buy into the eight K
thing. I think it's already coming gone and people are not going to do
that. So what does Sony come out of the gate with this. I
think it will be this upscaling stuff so that means, hey, more of
your games will actually run at what looks like four K and sixty frames per
second. And I think that's there will be a lot of people who are
excited about that. It's just not as easy as when the PS four Pro
came out and they're like, this will do four K. The other thing
couldn't do four K. This can do four K. This one's going to
be a little bit more difficult to market, and yet I think it's probably
going to stand just about as good a shot as the PS four Pro did
at selling. The PS four Pro never sold better than the standard PS four.
This probably won't ever sell better than the standard PS five, But I
still do this makes sense for them and for a bunch of other reasons.
For one, it keeps them in good coots with AMD to make sure that
they're like stepping along the architecture there and improving things and getting things ready for
the next console. And speaking off for getting things ready for the next console.
No price detailed here. Like we've talked about previously, this could very
easily set up the price for the next them where this thing is actually six
hundred dollars, so that when the PS six comes out and is around six
hundred or more, it's part like they've already stepped us up that ladder.
So I get why it's happening. Sure, am. The other question that
was, like, boy, this feels strange in a year when PlayStation has
already told us they're not going to have any sequels to their main franchises,
so it's like there's a dearth of games, and yet they want us to
buy more hardware and I will probably, but I no get it. What
do you think? I truly that is the thing that confuses me about Sony's
strategy in general for this year, as you say, because you know,
obviously they have exclusivity deals with studios like Squarenis. Obviously they had a huge
launch earlier this year, you know, just last month with Final Fantasies having
rebirth. But as far as what's coming up on the PlayStation five this year,
it is kind of like a, well, I don't know, because
we're just in a year where we don't have a lot of confirmed dates for
big Triple A kind of title game releases anyway, So instead they're leading into
hardware, like buy this new hardware to play no new games? Yeah,
and and it's like, so what do they pair it up with. I
mean, they probably they probably will have some stuff, But my biggest concern
is I'm a huge fan of the Astrobat games. The astroback games are always
paired with new hardware. Yes, I was like, oh, we're gonna
get a new Astro this year, which I've repeated this a bunch of times.
I've heard we're getting a new Astro this year. Well, I better
be able to get it on my regular PlayStation. I do not. I'm
really hoping that, like, the big thing for PS five Pro isn't some
bundled Astro thing that only works on there to show us upscaling. That's that's
I hope that's not what happens. But beyond that, it's like, you
know what they'll do is have some definitive edition of Spider Man two. They
will have a bunch of these games that have already come out of PS five
and they'll do their best to dress them up and be like, look at
how much better they are on the PSCI Pro. And that'll be nice for
some people, especially people who are super into that ecosystem and are playing those
games over and over again. Sure, but I bet it would help if
they had some big new game to push it alongside of. And it doesn't
look like that's gonna happen. But this thing coming out this holiday, I
guess the other discussion here is how does Xbox respond. Clearly, they've said
a bunch of times now that they don't intend to release a point five console.
I mostly think I believe them on that, but I wonder if they're
gonna try to do the leap Frog thing, which so this comes out the
end of twenty twenty four and then by twenty twenty six, PlayStation's not going
to have like something to like the PS six at that point, but Xbox
could have the next Xbox at that point. Does that sound how to you?
Like? How things will play out? Yeah? I mean, because,
as you say, what else is Xbox strategy going to be? An
Xbox is an interesting case in particular because, as I've said many many times
before on this show other shows, Xboxes it seems mostly in the business of
selling game pass. So the idea is, you know, you keep an
ex you have an Xbox like the series s, so you have an affordable
price point, you get the console in the home, you get people on
game Pass, and then people will also start buying additional titles because now they
like video games. So it yeah, but at the same time, they
are still in this war and again you know war in quotes of the consoles,
if you will. But by and large, nowadays the price point of
consoles is very pro and it's always been prohibitive. You know, there was
a period of time where you know, certainly when I was growing up,
usually had one or the other. So I have to imagine that this is
a situation wherein Microsoft has the opportunity to focus solely on developing their next generation
of consoles, as they're not intending to do a point five at all,
so you know, they skip that and they can just put all of their
effort into their next thing. So I don't know, Yeah, I mean
I could see an Xbox having a Xbox Series two thousand by let's say,
holiday season twenty five. Yes, I mean, at the very least like
so, Microsoft had that whole hubbabaloo earlier this year where they started putting games
on PlayStation and people were freaking out. So they had their their podcasts responding
to it, and then that podcast, Sarah Bond and Phil Spencer to a
point said we will have something to announce about new hardware later this year,
and then they also said at the same time, and we're also working on
the next Xbox, which will be the biggest technical leap. I forget how
they're putting it, but this is big, a fair paraphrase, the biggest
technical leap that we've ever seen for a console, which won't be true,
just simply won't be true. I lived, I was a lot for the
sixty four to play GameCube and all my stuff exactly whatever. But yeah,
they're making big promises about the next hardware, so they are going to be
in the hardware game in some way, and I think that means this holiday
we get something announced along the lines of a revised Xbox series X that has
more storage, maybe doesn't have a disk drive, that stuff that in the
FTC filings. We saw some of that stuff before, as plants have likely
changed, but there will be some modified version of that. And then yet
we get to late twenty twenty five and they probably have maybe a new announcement
around then as well for something that's going to happen very quickly after sometime in
twenty twenty six. But getting back to the PS five Pro before we move
on to the next story, this PSSR that this is like upscaling, and
I think that this technology is still pretty exciting. I will say that on
the PC side of things, paying attention to that, there's been some backlash
because the implication or the idea A lot of people get in their head and
I think this is mostly incorrect, but it probably in some cases it maybe
does happen, but fans are getting in their heads that developers are instead of
optimizing their game, they're just slapping on DLSS, which is going to lower
the internal resolution, rebuild that image back up to where it should be,
and then that gets you better frame rate. And so they're just doing that
instead of making the game better. And it's like, so the magic's already
kind of been lost of like what this technology is that people are already jaded
by it. So I'm like, I just wonder if this is going to
be the thing that can really help the PS five Pro stand out. And
really, I mean, when you're looking at like games that they're trying to
sell us, they already look about as good as they need to look in
most cases, right, I just don't know how they're going to be able
to market this very effectively. I'm in complete agreement with you. Like I
know that other people have had some performance issues, and we had this discussion
when we were doing our non spoiler review of File Fantasy seven Rebirths, specifically
that there have been some perform's issues. But it's like I play in performance
mode, not graphics mode, and honestly, like I I can't tell,
you know, when it's changing the scaling to like keep the images stable,
you know. And also you know, we talked about the fact that it's
like, yeah, I treat the camera like a camera, like like as
if I were pointing an actual camera and filming to like keep my camera movements
minimal, and so it's not all you know, Blair Witchy, But yeah,
I just I can't see better better than I see and everything looks good.
Yep, you know, I mean, honestly, I think I always
point this out as the game that made me realize games don't need to look
much better than this, and that's like Doom in twenty twenty twenty fifteen,
I was like, this game runs so well on anything. It looks fantastic,
the art is incredible. You kind of don't need to get much better
than this, in my opinion, and I think since then we have plateaut
in a lot of ways. That's when a lot of of GPUs for this
PC came out that would run games at ten eighty p sixty kind of no
matter what. And those GPUs to this day still run most games. You're
gonna have to turn down some things these days, but most games still run
about ten eighty sixty with those same GPUs, not totally, not nearly as
many as like two years ago, but still that's just like we kind of
plateau, and that's why they started pushing four K and race racing and all
these other things, because they just weren't gonna be able to get much more
out of ten eighty p sixty. A year after launch, PlayStation has reportedly
paused PSVR two production due to low sales. This is from Chris Sculling at
VGC as well. Sony has reportedly paused production of PlayStation VR two just one
year after launch so it can deal with a backlog of unsold units. A
new report from Bloomberg claims that PlayStation VR two shipments have been getting progressively smaller
every quarter since the headset launched in February twenty twenty three, and that Sony
has now paused production altogether. The report sites research firm I, which tracks
deliveries to retailers rather than consumer sales, and which says Sony has a surplus
of assembled PSVR two head sets throughout its supply chain. PSVR two was released
in February twenty twenty three at five hundred and fifty dollars, but Sony has
still yet to officially confirm how many units it has sold to date. Well,
I guess IDC has a little bit more here. Previous estimates by IDC's
suggested sales had started slowly, around two hundred and seventy thousand units sold by
the end of March twenty twenty three, but Sony later claimed that PSVR two
had sold around six hundred two thousand units during its first six weeks of availability.
Kind Of like one of the least surprising stories of the last year,
Right one hundred we got PSVR two announced, There just wasn't a lot of
games to get excited about. Everyone's like this hardware is impressive tell us more
about the games, and Sony's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
we will, we will, we will, And then they never really
had much else to go along with the hardware, and now here we are
people aren't excited about people mostly honestly, in my from where I'm sitting,
seems like people have forgotten about it. What do you think, Well,
it seems to me that the people who are really into VR would get an
Oculus or now a metaquest Yeah, because that runs games on its own.
Yesqu history is all around. Like they said, they sent a Questory around
the time I was thinking about the PSVR two, and I'm like, I'm
very very happy with the Questory. So it can run games independently on its
own. Yeah, But then it also has really really good Wi Fi six
e whatever it is, the six gigahertz connection to my Wi Fi router,
so I could stream from Steam wirelessly SteamVR, and I can run all the
games off my PC as well, and it's and it's kind of flawless.
So it's like, I'm just not interested. Like, five hundred and fifty
dollars is not that much for a PSVR or for for a VR headset,
all things considered, but compared to the Quest three and what it can do,
and I know it's a place State or Sonya started saying that they might
try to get it working on PC this year. That's great. I just
too little, too late for me. It's kind of where I'm at with
that. What do they do now with the PSVR two. Emma drop that
price point way down and then maybe you know, it's like, obviously they
can't drop it down to be in the realm of like a controller, but
it's an accessory for the ps five. You need the ps five to run
the PSVR two, correct, that's right. So you're pricing it practically the
same as getting the console in the first place. It'specially more expensive in a
lot of cases because the ps five has been on sale so much in the
last year. If you were buying it today, you would look at the
two and be like that in many for many weeks and be like, Wow,
the PSVR two is more expensive, and again, where are the games.
They're just they're not coming out, And that's the other that's the other
part of it is it's like you have to have something that is so appealing
that it is exclusive to the ps VR two. It's just it doesn't exist,
you know. Yeah, And it seemed like from the beginning that Sony
was not investing in the PSVR two even in the way it did in the
PSVR one. There were a lot of games that came out exclusively to PSVR
one for at least some time, and it was like Sony out there making
deals constantly. Now, in Sony's defense, I think here a little bit,
there simply aren't as many VR developers as there were around the time of
the PSVR one. That no, that ecosystem is mostly dried up. And
then but one of the reasons it seemed to dry up is Sony wasn't there
handing out money either, So right, yeah, they could have done something.
And VR is such an interesting thing because it's like, you know,
we have these conversations about oh, what, you know, these next generation
consoles like upscaling the resolution in AK and blah blah blah, and all of
those things are like tangible, and we go, okay, yes, totally.
But I think that by and large we've gotten to a point with like
hand video games you play with a controller on screen that they already, as
you said earlier, look kind of as good as they need to look.
They look super realistic. The issue with VR is that it's not at an
immersive level of interactivity because of the restrictions of having to be in a confined,
you know, defined space to do your VR games, and you know,
the way you travel in VR games, you're not actually walking, which
is what causes a lot of people motion sickness, which is why they often
have that you know, teleportation option as opposed to like guiding yourself, so
you get the IMPRESSI when you're going forward, but you're actually just standing still.
The only way that like VR works for me, and I'm one hundred
percent on board with, is when you do those ones where you're like in
a rat maze. Yeah, wonder one, but it looks like you're on
an imperial ship on most of our you know, like like the Star Wars
one was unbelievable, But I get to walk around, I get to hold
a plastic thing that resembles a blaster and it works, and I feel the
heat when I, you know, step outside and I'm looking at a volcano.
So it's like, uh, VR to me needs that level of immersion
to really make it awesome, and that is simply not possible on a consumer
level, but like you can have in your home. Yeah. I think
there was an early VR game when I got the Vibe pre I remember,
Yeah, I remember going to GDC a long time ago and this was what
VR was like popping off. And I was trying to get a meeting with
Valve, so they would send they were sending people of vibes and and I'm
like I couldn't get in there, or I got busy, got distracted,
and I kind of like wrote an email to chet Felichek, who's a writer
at Valve, like being like because he was like overseeing this, and I'm
like, man, I couldn't get in there. It's bummed, kind of
want to talk to you guys. I want to see if I can maybe
get a vipray. And he just sent me a link and it was like
goick, this, here's what we'll send you one. I'm like, okay,
incredible, So I got that. I was testing early Yeah, he's
a great guy. I was testing early VR games and there was one where
it's like this experience it's like an escape room sort of thing, and the
way it worked is you would be always walking physically through your world and they
would kind of cut these rooms in half, and it'd be like, okay,
can you get through those paneling on the wall? Can you find the
screwdriver to unscrew this paneling? And then you could get down real world and
crawl through. And then now since you've come on this side of the of
the wall of this virtual wall, we've changed what's over here, and just
keep kind of keep looping around and it keeps changing. But that had a
certain size requirement to even function. And I like me as someone who had
prepared and had a pretty decent sized setup or VR in his home, and
even I had to start moving things to make it even bigger because this whole
concept just wouldn't work in a slightly smaller space. And it's like, that
is just talk about non starter. That is a non starter for the vast
majority of people who would be interested in this thing. And then and really,
you're doing that for an experience that people like that, That is an
experience. That's not what I'm talking about. When I want to get excited
about a video game in VR, I still want a full game thing.
And it's like, Okay, there's so many difficult like ins and outs to
making that happen with VR, and clearly we've seen it's it's kind of not
happening in many ways. So yeah, yep, just want to play Beat
Saber and that's it. Yes, a chat to address your question. My
cat was tunneling in the blankets behind me. He loves to be underneath stuff.
And yes, the other cat is like kind of just out of frame
over my right. The sand cat come out. No literally that was the
yeah exactly to some in uh uh sh yeah yeah there is yeah o kittie.
Yeah, hey, I would probably still get a PSVR two if I
could play all the PSVR one games on there. That's another hang up.
Yep, I've been you know, my kids are astro crazy also like I
like it, but I like didn't play a ton of it in front of
them. They kind of discovered it on the ps five themselves. And then
so when the Astrobot's skin dropped for free and Sackboy, we got that and
they both have been going nuts for it. So I'm like, oh,
yeah, there's Astro's rescue mission on PSVR one. I maybe I could like
set that up. And I'm like the idea of setting up a PSVR one
it's just no way that in twenty twenty four. Uh So if I could
like plug in a PSVR two and just have astro work, which I I
don't think it does. I can double check the people, but I don't
think it does. But if it did, I would, I would.
I would probably pay four fifty. I'm not gonna don't know. Five to
fifty just seems so much more. Yeah, yeah, it's it is so
much. As soon as you cross that five, it's it's like pricing something
at four ninety nine as opposed to five hundred. Even though it is five
hundred, it's a dollar. But something about under five just psychologically in our
brains goes, Okay, well, yeah, that's a that's a splurge,
but that's an investment. I'll you know, I'll pay that money. Yes,
But once you get over five, I think you can get into this
mindset of like, oh, that's that's too expensive. I'm gonna have to
wait. I think the real story here has been the story with the secondary
devices from PlayStation from the beginning. You know, they had these PlayStation home
consoles. They do very well. They put a lot of resources in the
making games for it. They have a lot of partners to make games for
it, and they're like, okay, and now we're gonna have the PSP,
and they put a lot of effort into it, and they spend a
lot of money to make bespoke games for the PSP to have the the third
parties come in there and support it, and they it does you know,
it kind of works to a certain extent, and then they and then they
try to try it again with the Vita and it's like, well, now
it's even more difficult because these games are a little bit bigger and they kind
of look like big Boy console games and that's more expensive, and you know,
and now we got to take away resources from these other franchises to like
recreate them on the on the Vita, and that's getting a little out of
hand. That's a bit expensive, and they just there's less support for the
Vita than there was for the PSP. And it's like the same story here
with PSVR one to PSVR two. PSVR one had a decent amount of support
from from Sony and then PSVR two comes out and it just looks even worse
than the Vita in a lot of ways when it comes to the support from
it and I just I think eventually, I think Sony does learn this lesson
that having a secondary gaming device with different games on it is a very difficult
thing to do. Not even even Nintendo doesn't do that anymore. And they
for the longest time had the home and the handheld console, and they years
ago. Now they just brought those two things together. They're not gonna do
that again, so Sony can kind of trying to keep making that happen.
It's like, I think we are well past that being something that one company
can actually successfully do. And at this point, if you're gonna have a
secondary device, it needs to be commentary complimentary to the home console in some
way, and I think that's probably gonna lead them to their next device will
be a handheld that is just basically the same as the console, like a
Steam Deck something along those lines. Yep, all right, h next story,
Gotham Knight's Studio is supporting Wonder Woman game. This is from Ed Nightingale
at Eurogamer. Godam Knights Studio WB Games Montreal is supporting development on the forthcoming
wonder Woman game. I keep wanting to say wonder Wall game, which would
be really stupid. Led by Monolith Productions, which created Middle Earth Shadows of
Bard or it's follow up Shadow of War and it's follow up Shadow of War.
It will similarly use the Nemesis system mechanic. According to a job description
spotted by Tech four Gamers, w B Games Montreal is seeking an external development
artist with a mandate to support Monolith on Wonder Woman. Specifically, it's not
too much of a surprise to see fellow Warner Brothers studios assisting each other,
especially considering Wonder Woman will be Monolus's first superhero game. W B Games Montreal
previously worked on both Godam Knights and Batman Arkham. That says Oranges in the
story Oranges bat Arkham Oranges tell ed about it is very funny typo there that
rules. So yeah, I mean, not too surprising, and at the
same time, it's like that's just it's indicative of where gaming's at, where
like, hey, the studio w B Games Montreal that did put Godam Knights
out two years ago, they're not it's too much to expect it to be
working like move under their next game. Now. They need to help the
other studio get the game out because it's going to need so much help that
that's a better use of their time, But then that moves the timetable for
whatever w B Games Montreal would be doing way down the road very likely.
And you know, this is something that like we see across the industry.
I remember, like the Mass Effect four or five, I suppose when I
learned about Oh, yeah, that's getting kicked further down the road because all
the people that we're working on that are going back over Dragon Dragon Age.
So it's like, yeah, that's just the way it has to be these
days. But at the same time, it's like, yeah, it's a
bummer that the that these studios can't focus on what they're working on to get
those things out more rapidly. You know, this is reminding me of a
conversation that I had, And granted this was in regards to this was in
regards to movies rather than video games, but I think that, you know,
video games could possibly stand this as well. What if we just had
a year with this is with film where every single film had a mac some
budget of six million dollars, which is, if you don't know, an
extremely low budget for a feature film. So I think we need to do
that with video games. So we just need a reset. We just need
a year where it's like everybody just get creative, make something small. Uh,
you know, it's we don't need a huge ROI for this to be
a success. And that's the thing is that again, like we're and look,
I'm all for you know, reallocating people rather than you know, canceling
projects and and you know then laying people off obviously, but it's like we
just we just need to like calm down for a second and like get back
to creativity and not capitalism. Yeah, and it's just start thinking. It's
like, man, what is this Wonder Woman game even going to be?
There? Is right exactly? I mean it is just going to be basically
what Arkham Oranges was, or is it Oranges but with Wonder Woman? Or
are they going to go for something completely new? Is it going to have
live service elements something that WB continues to be all hot and heavy for.
Yeah, And it's and it's that means it's you know, it's going to
keep expanding its scope, and that means you have got to bring in other
other studios. But I don't know, necessarily know that that's what anyone is
asking for from Wonder Woman. I know, I know people have to be
cinematic and realistic and all these things that like do look good in commercials and
screenshots. I know there's a huge audience that responds to that stuff. But
at a certain point, it's like, oh, man, that much effort
is going to the Wonder Woman game something. It feels like a like a
not a certain bet or anything like that. But it's also like Gotham Knights
was fine. You know, it's like all of it, if that,
if that, and that's the and the problem is is that this is happening
so often. I And look, I if you loved Spider Man too,
and that was your game of the year, I'm so happy for you.
But ultimately it was just more Spider Man. And Spider Man was a great
game, but it was just more Spider Man. And I mean, Superheroes
is the biggest example of like crazy fatigue. I think that, you know,
when it comes to games, there is a little bit more of an
interest in like a really good Star Wars game, because I think that it's
been a while since Star Wars has like really really nailed it. Though I
do enjoy the Jedi games, but yeah, it's just like you know,
they're so it's like it's so much of more of the same. And I
think that again, we're in an era where we just gosh, I'd love
to see some just new stuff that runs well and is fun. Yep.
And and we'll see. I mean, I get it when you have these
studios sitting around that this maybe is the best use of their time. But
you're right that that fatigue does make me skeptical of all this when it comes
to to Wonder Woman, or if even if it was it was like another
Arkham game, even I was just like, yeah, exactly, and the
Arkham games there there's very good Arkham games, especially Arkham Orange. Yep.
Absolutely, at the very least, I think the Nemesis system is a promising
idea for Wonder Woman, and I hope that that manifests in some cool ways.
We'll see. All right, let's take a quick break. When we
get back more headlines, including where Persona six will show up right after this,
all right, we are back and let's get right back into it with
Persona six will be coming to multiple platforms. A leak suggests this is from
Vicky Blake at Eurogamer. Persona six will be coming to multiple platforms, including
Xbox and Switch Slash switch To. That's according to industry and This insiders Nate
the Hate and Madori, who have each now asserted that the next installment of
Atlas's fan favorite RPG series will be coming to more platforms. From information I've
heard, it does seem that Persona six will be coming to Xbox, Nate
the Hate said on a podcast, so fans, so fans of Persona have
something to look forward to. I'm not on one percent sure if it's like
day and date with PlayStation, but considering the way the Persona games have been
day and date with the multiplatform releases at this point, it may be a
safe assumption to make that Persona six will be day and date on Xbox and
PlayStation. It would be a really big deal if Microsoft was able to secure
that on game pass. A noted leaker Mardori then jumped off onto Twitter to
confirm that Nate's information was correct, adding and it's coming to multiple platforms.
Two uh. They kind of followed that up by saying switch and then someone
said, well, does that mean switch to, and Marrori just said yes,
this is the trajectory for the Persona series and a list. I mean,
I remember a couple of years ago, it might have been even like
in the early days of grub Snacks, where we would talk about Atlas and
be like, yeah, I don't know why they don't just put everything out
on switch. And then finally that stuff they get confirmed and now they do
put it down on switch. They put the Persona Games out on PC and
they that opened their eyes I guess, because there was an assumption for a
long time, well, they must have a deal with PlayStation. And then
some people popped up, some people who knew about Atlas and Sega and the
Persona Games are like, I don't think so. I think they just this
is how Atlas does it. They just put it out on PlayStation and then
forget and and so right, it's like, oh, okay, well that
seems like forget launch. It seems like they're bad at business. Yeah,
it's like, yes, that's exactly what it was exactly, And so they
started puting out more places and surprise, it's sold more. And now now
in the last like two years two years ish Atlas said hey, we are
going to support these launches as multi platform launches going forward, and so it's
not too surprising to hear that Persona six is going to be on other devices.
Uh, it might be a little surprising still to me that it's like,
oh, no PlayStation, switch switch to and Xbox all day one.
That's a little surprising. But I think it's that that's where they wanted to
be with Persona, and so if that's their goal for Persona six, I'm
not too surprised. What do you think, I'm not surprised aent. I
mean, it was a huge deal when the Persona games started coming to game
Pass. So if they can secure this as a day one game pass,
that is a sig. It's got a very good relationship with game Patch.
Yes, huge win for Microsoft. Huge win. Ye you know that will
make me go, okay, cool, I'll play this on Xbox instead of
PlayStation because I almost always if it's on Xbox and PlayStation and it's something they're
going to have to buy anyway, I always choose PlayStation. I was just
a PlayStation girl. That's the that was the console that I played the most
growing up. We had an Xbox mostly just used it to play DDR.
Uh So yeah. But that being so, there is a real appeal to
a JRPG on a handheld you know, console, So it makes total sense
that it would come to the switch. That was the biggest thing that I
would always see back when I would you know, stream persona five is,
there'd be people in chat constantly saying, I just wanted to be on the
switch. I just wanted it to be on the switch. I just wanted
to be on the switch, which makes total sense. And I and it's
like for me, if I have the option to get a gigantic game that
you know, the the graphical integrity of isn't the number one thing. Yeah,
I'm going to get it on the switch. I like being able to
take stuff with me and play handheld. I don't, you know, I
don't have a Steam Deck. Congratulations to everybody who does. And but you
know that's the thing is that like the Switch still has that just super easy
support of like here it is, it's on your console, you're playing it
on your on your little handheld situation dock it now you're playing it on your
screen. So yeah, I mean it is. It is very funny to
me that Alts basically just with their games, they just like set down their
coffee and walked away and didn't realize like, oh, actually people want this,
Uh oops, I guess we'll make more's. I think it's as simple
as they just got in the habit of putting the games on on PlayStation and
that was that, and and which is you know it was It looked weird
at that time because so many developers and embraced multi platform releases and including like
putting stuff out on PC that that was becoming way more popular with Japanese developers
at that time, so Atlas being so far behind the curve looked odd.
H So now now we're here it. Yes, this is the kind of
thing where if if it's everywhere, it will sell everywhere. You're right that
coming to game Pass was something that that that got the PERSONA series a lot
of attention with an audience that just had not really noticed it before. And
it worked. And again, Sega has a very good relationship with game Pass.
They keep coming back to Microsoft to put more stuff on game Pass.
I think SONA six is there's every likelihood that it probably won't be game Pass
day and date like the day one, but I think they'll figure something out
to get it on there six months yeah, six months later or something like
that, but you know, who knows, maybe Microsoft does like come in
and cut a check for something like that. I know they think that these
big Japanese games really matter to the perception of like how good of a console
and ecosystem Xbox is. Well, if you really want to put your money
where your mouth is on that PERSONA six is clearly a big winner for that
one. Yeah, and they also well didn't didn't get that, so I
don't know, maybe not right, Yeah, I mean they also famously passed
on BALDERSK because they were like Balder's Gate, Who's going to play that?
Yep, exactly, And they regretted that, and so yeah, they don't
ever want to repeat that, which will it will happen. They'll try to
avoid it where possible. Yes. Ex Battlefield director doesn't have anything positive to
say for EA. This is from Will Nelson at PC Games in Battlefield.
Game director Marcus Lado doesn't have anything positive to say about EA after departing from
the publisher's Ridgeline Games earlier this year. Also known for being a co creator
of the original Halo while at Bungee, Laedo left EA and Ridgeline just as
EA announced it was gutting five percent of its workforce alongside the full closure of
the studio. Ridgeline Games was formally revealed in twenty twenty two, with Lato
set to lead the development of a single player battlefield game following Battlefield twenty forty
two, with fellow EA studio Ripple Effect working on a bigger battlefield project.
Lado left EA and the FPS game earlier this year, right as EA laid
off that five percent of its workforce around six hundred and seventy people. These
layoffs also resulted in the closure of Ridgeline Games, with a single player battlefield
experience moving over to Criterion. After saying that he left EA on my own
accord back in February twenty twenty four, Laido has now released another short statement
on his departure. Not been saying much here since I don't have anything positive
to say about EA, my recent departure, and how so many including my
team, are suffering due to the industries sweeping layoffs, Laido said, Yeah,
I mean, it definitely feels like this is the kind of situation where
a lot of people that kind of came back into these big publishers, especially
a company like EA. Because EA say hey, we're reinvesting, we're starting
up studios, we want to work on more stuff with Battlefield. You know,
it's twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, like times are you know,
we got plenty of fact to work with here, there's plenty plenty of
money here, We're gonna make up a bunch of the stuff, and then
two years later all that stuff evaporates. These people that have to have to
have some sort of whiplash where it's like, God, we just came in
here, we thought we had the support, and then their tone must have
just changed drastically when like someone late like Lado is talking to the executives at
EA and now suddenly they're like, yeah, we're not just gonna not make
the game. We're laying off everybody. This is, this is done.
I would be pretty frustrated as as well, and i'd blade Lado for leaving.
And it's just a shame that so many people got laid off as part
of that. But yeah, EA is a company that felt like it was
finding a little bit of its voice coming out of Oh, everything had to
be live service, and then they started making some successful They did have a
couple of successful live service games, and then they started making more successful single
player games, and it's like, Okay, they're kind of getting their mojo
back here and figuring it out. And now it just feels like, oh,
that's out the window, and this cutthroat company is back to just doing
what it needs to to scrape by and extract as much value from the player
as possible. I don't have much positive feelings about EA these days either,
Emma, how about you, No, I can't say that I do.
Yeah, It's this just goes back to what I was saying earlier. We
need to stop with the big games. Everybody go back make nice games that
look nice, that run well, that are a maximum of like twenty hours
and aren't super expensive. Let's just get back to creativity, because I mean,
like, how do you keep up? It's like, as you say,
EA is trying to scrape the bottom line and get every last dollar that
they can out of their players. I just I feel sad about the state
of the world, and I think that that is being reflected in what's going
on here, and that Lato is totally within his rights to you know,
basically, basically what's happening is that human beings are being treated as commodities and
not people. And it's like, if you are not working on something that
ultimately is going to benefit the company's bottom line, then you're out yep,
And it's you are resources to be fed into the machine or to be cut
off once become a lie ability and it's uh, you know, when all
those laths were happening, I said this a bunch of times. I'll repeat
it. There was a time when laying off a bunch of workers to save
your company money was unheard of, unthinkable, and no one ever would have
done it. And then you know, the seventies and eighties come along and
it became much much more popular. And now it's just now it's the norm,
and it uh, you know, we we have we can take some
responsibility for the society that we live in. Right at a certain point,
it's like, man, maybe it shouldn't be this way, and yet we
keep moving along as if it's normal, and it's just not. It's completely
young, it's completely abnormal. And saying that this is the way it works,
I you know, keep you know, making smaller games. I think
this is what has attracted me so much to like early access and steam stuff
all all this stuff is just either so creative or weird, and a lot
of it's bad, but bad in a fun way that I'm like, Yeah,
this is where I'm happiest right now, Yeah, yeah, all right.
Hell Divers two is selling well ahead of expectation, having potentially hit eight
million in sales. This is from o'shen konke, I can never get I
think it's o'shan. I think you're at VGC twenty four to seven. With
all the server issues the game has had, you likely won't be surprised to
hear that Hell Divers two has probably sold exceptionally well. Hell Divers two has
obviously been the surprise hit of the year, with developer Arrowhead constantly having to
limit how many people can actually play the game within the first few weeks of
launch and scores of players working together to unlock things like Mex and more.
Now, as reported by Bloomberg, we should have a better idea of just
how all the game is doing. According to td cowan analyst Doug Krutz,
Hell Divers two is estimated to sold as many as eight million copies, with
numbers continuing to grow every week. We believe the game has performed well ahead
of expectations. Krutz wrote in a note last week eight million copies sold and
that's an estimation from an analyst, but that's it's probably true. I mean
it feels like it's sold that well. That is very very good for a
kind of new game coming out of nowhere and taking over that. Like most
PlayStation like single player narrative like Triple A Blockbuster games, they come out and
if they have sold eight million by this point, that is an enormous success.
And then they try to get to about ten, twelve, fifteen million,
and if they get to that fifteen million, then they are enormous successes.
They're like very few games like that have sold more than fifteen million copies,
and this game seems destined to do that probably in its first year.
So just a massive success, right, Yeah, I love a happy story.
Yeah, after the huge bummer that is literally anything ea. Yeah,
I mean like this when now, when people are you know, asking to
oh, is anybody want to play this drop in kind of game, it's
always it's always held ivers. I have so so many friends that are that
are deeply into this game, and yeah, I mean again, it's like
good for them because like I don't first, Hell Divers is a blip to
me, kind of like came and went, don't really have any particular memory
of it, and I you know, to me, certainly, Hell Divers
two is very much in the cultural zeitgeist of gaming. Like any everybody in
the gaming world, and even people that are sort of like on the outskirts
of it, this is a title that is crossing over certainly, not in
the way that something like a Mario or a Zelda or Pokemon gains kind of
recognition amongst the general public. But again, Hell Divers is doing well enough
that when and here's a little inside baseball in the advertising world of digital video,
you know, we have clients literally asking about doing content around Hell Divers
two because they have heard it. And these are people who, like they
are not gamers, and they're asking, oh, would hell Divers to be
a good fit for this? And I have to go, oh, not
really, but you're you're right. I mean, it is in that that
zeitgeist point where it's like similar to what elder Ring did, similar to a
handful of the games in the last couple of years, where it is the
trend on TikTok and and yeah, if you can get to that zone.
It's clear that you are some massive hit that that that a lot about most
that the vast majority of games will never get close to correct. Yeah,
I played a little bit more over the weekend finally after it takes some time
off, and yeah, Hell Divers two still very good and I'm gonna play
a lot more of it. I'm gonna try to get some more on this
website too, everybody, so look out. Uh. Modern claims the Star
Wars Battlefront Classic Collection use their work without permission. This is from Jordan Midler
at VGC. A moder has claimed that Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection has used
some of his work without permission. Prior to release matter I Am Shaman claimed
that footage of Star Wars Battlefront Last the collection that appeared and a trailer suggested
that developer Aspire was using his mod. Following this, Aspire released the statement
claiming it had mistakenly used footage of this mod and that it was a placeholder.
Now, following the full release, players appear to have discovered evidence that,
prior to a very last minute patch, the game shipped with the uncredited
mod work. Footage noticed by IGN shows a player on Reddit showing off the
character assage of interest using what appears to be I Am Shaman's mod. While
the current version of the game has removed these animations, Aspire has yet to
comment on how I Am Shaman's work appeared in the game, despite their claims
that they used no uncredited work on the remaster project. On Friday, Aspire
address criticism of the launch of Coursion players to report any issue because there's been
a lot of other problems with the game for a lot of people, mostly
connection issues, but some bugs as well. Yeah, these Aspire Star Wars
remasters, and I do scare quotes because most of the time they are just
straight up re releases ports really what they are, they are. I'm not
sure how I feel about them at the end of the day, Emma,
where it's I'm glad that these games get a chance to come back out and
that they're accessible and I can play them on the switch. That's pretty cool,
But it also feels like, boy, they are just bare bones and
I got you know what, that's an option too. I'm mostly fine with
that part, but it does feel like they are like scraping by and trying
to get away with the least amount of work possible. That's the part where
I'm like, oh, it's kind of obvious that that's the case, and
stuff like this makes it all the more glaring that it's like maybe they were
like sneaking some of this odd stuff in there and hoping to get away with
it, because that would have made it look a little bit better. But
at the end of the day, they weren't crediting or paying the people that
did the work, so they and they didn't want to apparently, so they
just took it out instead of making some deal to make that stuff happen.
Yeah, at the end of the day, I think I feel that these
Aspire Star Wars ports are kind of kind of not scummy, but close to
it. I don't know, how do you feel, well, as you
say it's the bare minimum you are Basically it reminds me a little bit of
I think it was in twenty twenty that Nintendo released that like Mario Collection,
and it was games, for example, that had had remastered versions. You
know, if it was like n sixty four, then you know there was
a GameCube version of it, or or you know, more likely a you
know Nintendo DS version, which that that's a whole other thing. But you
know, I think that again, there literally was no quality of life improvements.
It was just a straight port and it just ran a little faster because
the switch loads faster than the N sixty four. So like that's and that,
as you say, is what goes on with these Aspire games. Do
I think that there that it is nice that they exist in some capacity that
people are able to play them. Yes, I do, because by and
large, especially if you look back at like old gaming magazines and things like
that, you know, there are all these games in there that I have
no recollection of whatsoever, because the games industry has done a very bad job
of preserving its own history, and that is something. So again, having
the option to access these games is great because they're not just forever lost to
time. But if you're going to attach a monetary value to them of any
kind of significance, there should be an incentive. But instead they're just capitalizing
on people's nostalgia. Yep, it's I mean, and you're right, and
they are attaching a significant price point, like this game was thirty five dollars,
I think forty dollars in that range on time, and I think I'm
switching all that stuff. It's it's expensive. Yeah, and so that makes
all that all this stuff all the more glaring. And I yeah, I
think that. Listen, if it's a choice between fewer things this is happening
with Star Wars overall and what a fire's doing, I do still choose what
a spire's doing. It's you know, the Ko Tour games got re released
on Switch and that, you know, that's cool. I'm glad that that's
available. I'll take it. But boy, it feels like we should be
getting better for Star Wars than this. And I mean, at the other
the day, it's like, man that like Warhammer forty k seems like it
gets treated a little bit better, Like yeah, there's a bunch of like
little interesting Warhammer games. Every couple of months they get something new, like
a bolt Gun. It's like, okay, well, listen, the Star
Wars Dark Forces remaster is really good. But that wasn't a Spire. That
was Nightdive Studio and that stands out. That's fantastic. But over at Warhammer
they're getting a whole new one of those like out of Nowhere and they got
you know, and that's right after four other games got released. It's like,
man, I mean not that all those Warhammer games are great or anything,
but I still think it's I still think what's happening over there is interesting,
and what's happening over with Star Wars and Aspire is kind of sad and
depressing. So mm hmm. Yeah, I hope we get past this phase
here pretty soon and we get into more interesting stuff for Star Wars in games.
Final headline here, real quick. Platro's clear to one million copies sold.
That's yeah, well done. I was. I played a ton more
Bilatro over the weekend. We did a Friday stream of that, and I'd
like, I was looking at the other guys had way more unlocked. I'm
like, okay, fine, I'm gonna sit down and really play a lot
more. And I got like four more wins or whatever, three or four
more wins. And I did that with a bunch of different decks. So
now I'm fully back into Bolotro. And it's a problem because I didn't play
a bunch of other games I intended to play over the weekend. So fantastic.
Just Bilatro all the time, Pilatro all the time. All right,
I got a pull question. We're gonna get that set up. While I
do that, though, Emma, why don't you tell people what you have
going on where they can find you on the internet and all that good stuff.
Yes, hello, I am at Emma Fife across social media platform that
I don't particularly use. I got a great if you've finished Final Fantasy seven
rebirth, I got a great ending explained video up over on GameSpot. It
is unhinged, and ultimately I don't think I explain anything. I believe the
top comment is thank you for trying is app Yeah, so you can go
check that out, and you know that's that's me. That's what I got
going on, all right. The pull question is is Sonic cross Angry Birds
that crossover event of the year, which is what is how Sega described it?
Twenty seven percent said yes, Seventy three percent said of course, yes,
those are two options everybody. Yeah, this is a weird one.
I keep forgetting every day of my life that Sega bought Rovio and owns Angry
Birds. Now, that's such a weird, weird thing to me. But
angry Bird Angry Bird new Sonic now in Sonic Games instead of releasing cute little
animals, remember you would like jump on the thing and all the cute little
animals would come out. Now it's just a fantasmic god. That should be
the one thing that changes. That should be the crossover at the end of
the year, right there, all right, new Polk question, do you
have a PSVR two? Yes, no, but I plan to get one
and two or in the third one is no and I don't and I don't
want one, so yes, so yes, no, but I plan to
get one, and then no, I don't plan to get one. All
right, that will be the pull question we discussed on Game Best Mornings on
Wednesday here on Giant Bomb speaking a Giant Bomb Tomorrow it's the BombCast. We're
back. Tune into that. You're not going to want to miss it,
and then we will have a whole bunch of other stuff this week. You
know, Blake Club will be back. There was It was a great Blake
Club episode. That's two in a row for Super Dan sixty four, the
Dan of Steel. It's been fantastic. But then there's been those great animations
from Pickle Draft I think is his name, and he puts them on on
Twitter and YouTube where he takes some scenes and kind of rotoscopes and animates him
and the latest one that popped off last night. I was getting out of
dune too right as he tweeted it, and I'm like opening the door,
like laughing really loud and make people look at me and like I'm strange,
and I was, but it cracked me up. It's so well done,
so people should check that out. I've retweeted it. But either way,
a lot of fun stuff happening with Blake Club and then we'll have voicemail,
dump truck upf all that stuff. Look out for it and more on giant
bomb dot com this week. Everybody all right, I think with that,
Emma, thank you so much for spending today talking with me about video games.
I really appreciate it, of course, always always happy to stand up
for creativity. It's right finally someone well, no one else is, but
we got to do it here. Thank you all for watching. You're the
best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take
care of yourself and goodbye.