He'll be go'll be beer. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do
this for April twenty ninth to 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 Grub Today, more rumors about next gen hardware and
is the future of Fallout closer than we think? But first, please join
me and welcoming today's co host the Game Best Mornings. It's Lex Luddy.
Everybody, Lexi, how are you doing? I'm not doing too bad,
grub Grub, can you do me a favorite? Send me your video over
Discord too, because it's really fucking me up not being able to see Yeah,
I don't. Yeah, that's something I never think about other people's perspective
that would require me to consider their feelings, and that's just not gonna happen.
I gotta do it. Okay, I'm being demanded. I got a
warning. There's two things. One we're gon we're gonna talk about Shogun here
in a second to I am urbed up to the eyeballs. All right,
I've been going yeah, I've been going heavy on the on the mate uh
and it's the many things that me and Lionel Messi have in common. Our
love of Sherva mate is near the top. It's near the top. So
uh, I'm never gonna forget the moment on the summer game Fest couch where
I tried it for the first time and then I'm just like continuing to like
to sip on it, like I'm gonna be drinking this all night, and
Channa Choa comes in the room and just takes it away. And he wanted
to try it, but mostly he was saving my life. Mostly he was
protecting me from myself and just drinking that all night. Yeah, I'm I'm
worried if Jordan brings Buckfast to me, show that you that you will just
die. You will not get out of Everyone's got to die sometimes, So
I mean, listen, if that's how I gotta go, that's how I
gotta go to live and die in La. That's right. Uh, I
let me try some let me there we go, all right, I'm setting
up some stuff on the stream deck as well. Okay, yeah, I
still can't see your video. I think your second cameras, Oh is it
broken? Okay, well you know what, then I'll do this. Let's
go to obs a virtual cam and this might be distracting as well, but
this is what we have to deal with. Is that happening here we go?
Okay, that's something, Okay cool? Yeah. I finished Shogun and
that show was way better than I was thinking it was. They really understood
what they were doing. They'd put a bunch of ideas like in the bank,
and then they cash it all in at the very end in just some
incredible ways. I'm the the end scenes with Marco where she is standing up
to the system was probably one of my favorite things I've ever seen. It
was so well done. What do you think of that show? Yeah?
I think Annie. I can't remember her second name now off the top of
my head, but the actress for Mark. She was also in the Monarch
Legacy of I Didn't Know. Yeah, she's really good in that too,
and she's had like a breakout year between those two and like that, between
those two shows, I think like she's like the next big thing because she
is so fucking good in the two of those. And we talked about in
the pre show Yaboushi is like just the best dirt bag never conceived for TV,
just so fucking well characterized like basically a Yakuza character, and Cosmo Jarvis,
along with having a great name, has a very good fake British accent
for New Yorker. Yeah, I mean he is definitely doing that. I'm
not the first person to point this out. He's definitely doing the Democracy manifest
like he's doing that whole thing, and that is a great choice. That
was a really smart character move to be like, I'm just gonna choose,
choose a really strong character portrayal, portrayal and an accent and just go with
that because trying to do a subtle British accent wouldn't work. His accent definitely
did though, because it was so much fun. Did you see I posted
this on Twitter. I came across a doss game based off of the Shogun
books and it's like fucking incredible. It looks so fucking cool. It's like
pixelage visual novel style. It looks so fucking cool. I think I remember
a game like it was it just called Shogun. Yeah, it was just
called Shogun. I think I've remember seeing this game. I didn't realize it
was based on the books and probably the mini series because the mini series is
very popular apparently if someone can chat and find it. I was tweeting about
it like last week or something. It looks really fucking cool. I was
like, I should load up doss box and try this out. Yes,
that sounds like fun. You know we should do first though, was 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 were watching
live on Twitter, which welcome, You can always listen to the show later
on podcast feeds by searching for game Mes Mornings, or find therss on giant
bomb dot com. You can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps
on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we have a lot to get
into, so let's start the morning mess with a rumor that several rumors actually
to kick off today. This first one is switch to said to be fully
backward compatible with a larger ten ADP screen. This is from Ali Reynolds at
Nintendo Life. Another day, another switch to rumor, following hot on the
heels of a recent report detailing a new magnetic controller setup. The latest information
dump comes courtesy of Chinese peripheral peripheral manufacturer Mobipad. According to Mobipad's blog posts,
they just put this up on a blog, so this is kind of
weird. The switches successor will be a conservative evolution of the current models,
more akin to a refined pro model as previously rumored. The systems screen will
indeed be larger and support ten ADP resolutions. The current switch is maxes out
at seven to twenty, while the new larger joy Con controllers will adopt an
elect electromagnetic suction docking structure controlled by electric current in addition to the ZL electric
struction. The electric suction is definitely the thing I'm searching for in life.
The In addition, the ZL and the ZR buttons are apparently metallic white.
The new controllers will actually include a completely new button on the left side and
right side. No further information has been provided to clarify what this button will
be called or how it works, but we're certainly intrigued. I wonder if
it's like a squeeze, because I remember had a one of the pixel phones
had like you know, you hold a phone like like a candy bar or
whatever, and then you squeeze the sides of it and that registered a touch,
but it didn't like feel like a button. It was just like kind
of like a sensing how much force you were putting down. I could see
something like that being one of the tricks they go for. That'll really make
the one to switch cow Milking mini game way more immersive. This is what
I'm thinking. Yes, I mean, come on, it loves that.
That BS like, why wouldn't they go for something like that? And then
finally, you know, pair that up with the haptics. You're really getting
up in that utter. That's that's the future I can imagine. Okay,
so who knows how accurate this stuff is? There A lot of this blog
post seems like it's informed by current like parts manufacturers giving information to mobipad and
stuff like that, But who knows how much of that is like them talking
to actual partners, and how much of it is them like sourcing stuff from
other blog posts online or forum posts or something like that. Them trying to
get ahead of the curve and then putting this blog post out there. It's
like, this is definitive when we really don't know that's the case. That
said, all this stuff seems pretty reasonable. I'm inclined to believe that most
of the stuff is probably happening. The conservative evolution is the thing we're all
expecting. That's the least surprising factor, right, Yeah, I think like
a lot of this lines up with what we've been hearing for a while.
I'm like hesitant to say anything too much when it comes to a switch too,
because the last time I did that, like ten months later, Nintendo
are like, we're pulling out of game's cal't yep. So I feel a
little bit responsible for that. But yeah, I don't have any new information
that anyone else has. But from going back to what I heard then,
they were showing people prototypes of the switch to and that was very much so
like software prototypes. It was then showing off what they were what the switch
could do. It wasn't them showing off the functionality and things like that.
So it makes sense that those are the things that are now being finalized.
If this is a twenty twenty five release, they do have to go to
manufacture at some point, and like they know this is gonna sell out a
lot when it first releases. Based purely off of how well the switch sold
and which demand there is for a switch to they know there was going to
be a lot of demand very early on for a switch, So I imagine
we're going to get like actual hardware leaks sooner rather than LaSure because they will
just have to go to manufacturing early so that they have enough of stock pilot
these ready. Yeah, that was another rumor that happened last week is that
the device is going to manufacturing right now, and that was also based on
talking to you know, sources that supply parts and components things like that,
and that wouldn't be too surprising part of that report. Though. One of
the reasons people are skeptical of it is because that report was like, hey,
in the system could still come out this year. In fact, that's
what they're going for, and all eye every other report recently has been they
are moving the launch of this device from this year into twenty twenty five and
not they don't know exactly when in twenty twenty five. So either way,
it probably is going to manufacturing, as you're alluding to, right now,
and so it's going to leak. This stuff's going to get out there.
That probably does encourage them to come out and announce what this thing is in
some like vague terms here pretty soon, right, if it's going to get
out there anyhow, they probably want to control the messaging or it's Nintendo.
What do you think, maybe they don't care. I mean that is what
they did last time, where months before we had any idea of what the
switch actually look like, they were like, Hey, we're making a handheld
hybrid, please be excited for and you cut it to the back of a
chair in a van and a weird van. I'm like, I think about
that video all the time. Yeah, they left it like that for months,
and people were making their fucking photoshops of oval shaped handhelds and things like
that. So like there's plenty of precedent for them to just say, hey,
we're working on it. Here's the rough outline, and just so that
people stop fucking asking them, because I think it's kind of becoming a headache
for them, Like it's becoming a noose around their neck when it comes to
selling any new game is like, hey, okay, but where's the next
thing. Like as soon as Princess Peach came out, it wasn't like,
hey, this is a good game or whatever. It's like, hey,
what when's the next Real Mario coming out? And when's the new console?
And that's gonna happen with any of the releases that they have from now until
that next Switch comes out. Yeah. I think the also the conservative evolution
kind of going back to that is it's not surprising me because no matter what,
Nintendo is kind of stuck to this TikTok, like hey, big tick,
where like one generation we are going to make a big leap forward and
then the next generation is a talk where it's an evolution of that, and
it's not too different. They don't nes to Super Nintendo as was very popular.
They did it again with Super Nintendo, the game Boy very popular.
They did it again with a Game Boy Advance DS very popular. They did
it again with three DS. Even like the GameCube, which which like didn't
sell a ton, They're like, this still works for us. The Wii
is going to be an evolution of that. Based on terms of the hardware.
It's two you know, two game cubes duct taped together, if you
remember that. So Nintendo has a long history of making a big push with
a device and then the follow up device is very similar, and I think
that history is likely to repeat itself in terms of like what the market's going
to be like this time as well, because like the nes largely uncontested,
right, and then everyone looked around like, hey, they figured it out,
let's just do what they're doing slightly different. And then you have the
competitors, like the Genesis that's happening this time right where the Switch figured it
out, Everyone's hey, we can do that. And now you have the
Steam Deck and you have reports that Sony and Microsoft are also doing handhelds because
everyone's like, hey, we know it can work, and we're going to
match that. Do you think that that environment sort of guarantees that the switch
to can't be as successful as the Switch one or what? Do you think?
I think that like, the Switch too is prime to be more successful
than the Switch one because people are fucking fervent for it, like they are
rabid first in a way that we haven't seen since three PS two coming out,
like people fucking wanting a console to be outright now. And I think
that there is like even within my casual friends, there is an appetite for
a new Nintendo Switch console because they understand that will be cool to play bigger
games on their on their handheld device. And I think that like purely the
idea of even if it is a marginal upgrade of like hay more games on
at sixteen now, like that, even just being able to say to a
normy friend of yours like I hate the games run way better now and they
look better now, and you know that it's still the same console. I
think there is a genuine excitement for that among like people who aren't very into
video games. Yeah, I think so. I spent some time with my
switch over the weekend. I also I also finally fixed my switch. Like
the thumbsticks both broke in different ways. The right thumb stick wouldn't click in
anymore, which was really frustrating. The left one just the pad like rubbed
off and so it was like this bear plastic and that was annoying to use
as well. The kids were fighting over the switch. I'm like, screw
it. I have these thumb stick replacement parts that I've had sitting around for
forever, and I spent like an hour and a half last night got it
all working. I felt very proud of myself. So who needs a new
switch to I could just fix switch lights. That's great to send them to
me. You should just make your own switch to exactly. That's that's the
dream, all right. Moving ahead here, Microsoft wants to up Fallout five
development. That's according to another rumor. This is from Jonas Maki at Game
Reactor. There have been plenty of reports and signs that work on the Elder
Scroll six is now in full swing at Bethesda, while they also continue work
on Starfield, both in terms of maintenance and new content. In addition,
they are in some capacity also working on Fallout five, where we previously reported
that the creators of the Amazon Prime series Fallout were given some advanced information so
that the story would not clash with the upcoming game. But when will it
be released? Unfortunately, it seems like a very very long time from now,
and Bethesda has repeatedly said that they will launch the Elder Scroll six first,
which is likely several years in the future. But now there is a
glimmer of hope. After the success of the Fallout series and the surge and
interest in the games, Microsoft is now looking to speed up work on the
next adventure, and in the latest episode of Xbox two podcast, Windows Central's
trustee editor Jez corden I Jess says the Xbox team wants to find a solution.
They're currently formulating plans on how to get the next Fallout here for us
sooner rather than later. That's what they're talking about. From what I understand,
a possible solution could be that Obsidian, which previously made Fallout New Vegas,
is given the task of creating an intermediate game so that Bethessa continue working.
It can continue working on Starfield and the Elder Scroll six before seriously tackling
Fallout five. A solution at least would appreciate that many fans would appreciate as
Fallout New Vegas as a fan favorite. I mean, we've had this conversation
a lot, right LEXI, where we're like, hey, Fallout five,
it seems forever away. They should figure something else out. They should maybe
get Obsidian to do it. Obsidian is also very busy, but they at
least all it's nice to hear that Microsoft seems aware that this is something that
they need to figure out. Right. Yeah, I have to be quite
careful here so I can say that like those those definitely the discussion you brought
up years ago. Now almost like Obsidian were approach about Fallout New Vegas too,
and that did happen. I also know that it wasn't just Bethesda being
like, hey, we don't want someone else making this game. It was
also partly Obsidian going, hey, that would be a huge scale for us
that we have pushed that we have backed away from. If you look at
this comparison between you know, New Vegas to the Outer Worlds, the Outer
Worlds is a quite more manageable scale for that development team. And so I
think there were a lot of people that were very BGS focused of BGS don't
want someone else making way. It was never only that, yeah, yeah,
but also there is a part of other companies don't super want to make
Fallout games within Microsoft because they have freeway to make their own projects. And
why would you work with a partner that we know, like we know BGS
is quite controlling of Farout because they're telling the TV show runs what they can
and can't do in their show to a certain extent with the plot. So
why would you, as whatever studio want to work with a BGS who are
being quite controlling of thisip when you could work on your own game like a
vowed or you could work on whatever you're working on. Microsoft are looking for
people to make another Fileout game. They want another Fileout game. They're annoyed
that there was not a Filout game ready to go, and I think pure
speculation would be though is probably someone at Microsoft saying, hey, there are
a lot of people working at like, why haven't we scaled up Bethesa to
the point that it can be a two game studio and if people are vas
in demand for Bethesda games, why is it that we haven't grown that studio
to a size where we could work on a Fileout and a Skyrium successor at
the same time. Yeah, so there's currently no Fallout in development. Yeah,
I can say that more or less as a fact. And there's also
a very it is very unlikely that Obsidian are going to be the people to
make the next Fallout. And I think that is the quagmire dash that Microsoft
have found themselves in. And they founded themselves in this situation with a lot
of the companies that they now own, where they bought all of Activision.
They bought a shitload of IP with Activision, but Activision is so built around
the call of Duty machine. Now they have all these IP and no one
to make the games for them. And they have this with a bunch of
different ips and a bunch of different studios where you know, Phil Spencer will
go on stage and he'll wear a Hexan T shirt and he said, I'd
love a new hex in, but they don't have anyone to make a new
hex The studios grown on trees. Yeah, so I think that this is
the problem Microsoft has is that on one hand, the developers within Microsoft are
very happy that they give that Microsoft gives them the freedom to work on what
they want to. On the other hand, there's a genuine bitch of confusion
of it is quite strange that they haven't just come in here and told us,
know, you're working on this right and and that hands off mentality,
you know, was reported back with red Fault of Microsoft weren't very hands on
with that, and then it led to our gain speculation on what they should
be making. And Yeah, I think Microsoft's in a weird spot because on
one hand, it's great that they're giving their studios, you know, freedom,
on the other hand, the studios sometimes feel like the operation blindly because
they don't have direction from higher up. Yeah, it's like you wonder like
when is it in Microsoft's not just best interest, but sort of like they
are they feel like they are much just pull the reins on some of these
studios and say, hey, we need to guide you in this direction because
this is going to get the greatest return. We know you know, maybe
not better than you, but you know as well as we do that we
need to fall out as quickly as possible. So like that that has happened
with three four three, where it came out and it didn't perform in the
way that it needed to perform. And now the rains very much so have
been like they had a big leadership change, they had a big turnover in
staff, and that can only really be a sign that Microsoft was saying like,
no, we want a different direction for what you're working on, and
or a different leadership on heading up what you're working on. So I do
think that there is like we've been talking about this for years of like Microsoft,
when are Microsoft going to get their games out? When are they gonna,
you know, start having all their games releasing out of consistent cadence.
They're starting to hit that consistent cadence, But I don't think they're still happy
with the games that they get out there and right from a all a shade
of point of view, and I think that Phil Spencer having to apologize for
Redfall was kind of like a watershed moment for them of like, I wouldn't
be happy if I was apologizing for a game being bad, but also like
it's on him. He should have been overseeing that game more closely, he
said, so he said to himself. So let's uh, like put ourselves
in the shoes of maybe Phil or Sarah Bond or whatever and and think about
Okay, so Obsidian is looking at the prospect of a Fallout New Vegas two
equivalent that wouldn't necessarily have to be New New Vegas too, and like that's
that would require too much of a scaling up that we're not prepared for and
that we're not really down with. Okay, So then what kind of falled
out project do you think they could get out that would make sense? You
know? Maybe still with Obsidian, Maybe not though, because for me,
I'm like, hey, if you have reportedly Oblivion, an Oblivion remake that
is going to marry the Bethesda Game Studios engine, a creation engine whatever it's
called, with Unreal engine. So the visuals we've done by Unreal, all
the stuff in the background will be done by the traditional Bathesta Game Studios engine.
So you're getting that up and ready. Is there like an expand alone
equivalent, like a successor new content for New Vegas two that you could do
or for New Vegas one that they could do and put out for like forty
dollars? Is that something that could happen in it with a smaller scale and
you sort of are practicing using those tools to get ready to maybe use them
yourself something along those lines. Do you think that could happen? I think
it's interesting because like the conversation around those games was that they were always kind
of held together by sellotape and like lubber bands, which makes them quite difficult
to remake. Like it's any project you do. Going in and working on
those isn't a small undertaking, even if it is a smaller scale remake or
something like that, Like that old Oblivion remake is probably taking as long as
it has because that room has been going around for years. Yes, because
like it is a difficult thing to get working because the creation engine is such
a difficult beast, and when you're you know, if they are working with
Unreal arnish, you suddenly have to get these unreal developers up to date with
your own proprietary engine, and like that's difficult, and so they're in a
really tough spot that the ideal would be, Hey, maybe they go make
a deal with some enjoy the RB, they go make a deal with some
you know, Zoum or someone, and they say, hey, go make
a limited experience in the style of Disco Elysium. But in the Fallout universe,
do I think that's gonna happen. Probably not, But like it is
genuinely really staggering. Like Microsoft owns in Exile, but there's the Game Studios
and Obsidian, like the three companies that are most connected and ingrained with the
Fallout franchise, and and like the history of the Fallout franchise and the creation
leads behind thatsh and they can for the life but them figure out a way
to get one of these games out. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's really
strange, and I think that it's not going to be a story that is
going to end anytime soon. Yeah, But at the same time, I
think that this challenge is an opportunity. It is an opportunity for them to
figure out. Okay, we're in a bind because we want more Fallout,
it is a very difficult prospect to put out there. How can we get
creative and get something out there that also feels like it makes the splash but
doesn't take six seven years and doesn't cost two hundred million dollars. What can
we do? Can we figure out a game that fits that that narrow set
of circumstances? And the answer right now feels like probably not, But I
think they should try because I think a big part of making games make sense
of the future is solving problems like this and not just going, well,
we just can't make that happen. Fall is too it would be too expensive
and of an opportunity costs lost if you don't figure out something here. So
now's the chance to sort of get creative, get on the ground, talk
to the developers, hear out ideas, and try something new. Just it
would just totally make believe, like like creating a game in or head over
what we wish they would do. That year has gone everywhere. I'm willing
to bet no. No, that was my headphone to stand don't worry her
was really excited the herbs over there and safe We're okay, We're okay,
okay. But imagine if like they got someone like Double Fine and Tim Schaefer
to work on even if like a visual novel or something like that. Sure
just something in their style in that universe as someone else's take onish because I
think like the I haven't talked about this on any content, but like,
I really enjoyed the Fallout show as a TV show, and I thought it
was really well made. The things that I didn't like about it were that
it kind of bummed me out for the direction of the franchise being so bees
focused. And I say that as someone that likes a lot of Fallout three
and likes a fair amount of Fallout four. But I think like the way
that a lot of the factions, like the Enclave, who are always black
isles sort of big bad, are kind of just non existed place. How
probably was going to be like you use my stuff? Yeah? Yeah,
I do think that that gave me a bad vibe, like, oh,
it's unlikely that we're going to get to see other creatives work in this universe,
and I really like to see other people make cool shit in this universe
because so many, so many cool like Tim Kaine, Josh Sawyer, all
these creatives have touched that franchise in different ways, and they've all had their
different spin Onish. And I think it would be a shame if it just
became a Bethesda property, a singular Bethesda property, because I think universes like
that deserve to have other people come in and do weirdship with them, and
there's plenty of room for it in the Fallout universe. Yep. And I
think it's uh, it's also time to start looking at that where yeah,
Todd Howard is relatively I'm going to be making these things for a very long
time. Todd needs to get the idea of, you know, letting other
people in and starting to expand that, because I think that's only going to
benefit these franchises going forward. Alright, let's take a quick break. When
we get back, a lot more headlines, including a Game of Thrones video
game and how smartd teasing something maybe to do with returnal Right, after this,
all right, we are back at it. I know there's more important
news stories, but we have to scroll down. We have to scroll down
the list. There's one here near the end involving Kingdom Kingdom Heart's movie reportedly
in the works. It's from Kenneth Shephard to Kotaku. Kingdom Hearts Square Enix's
Disney Cross Final Fantasy Crossover has been around so long it's surprising we haven't gotten
some kind of animated series or film before. Now. Thanks got close at
one point about twenty years ago, and you could find a rough animatic of
the pilot feed turing the original games voice talent. But according to the rumors,
something on a much bigger scale might be in the works over at Disney,
an animated theatrical film. This is a threat. The source of this
is Disney citric outlet The diz Insider, a disgusting name I hate, saying
that a site founder, Skyler Schuler wrote about the Kingdom Hearts movie in a
mailbag post. Sane sources has told the site a film adaptation of the crossover
RPGs could be heading the theaters in the future. Yeah, okay, yeah,
at this is one of those I'm like, I'll believe it when I
see it sort of thing. But what, I don't know, what do
you think. I'm going to give my polite analysis first, which is I'm
willing to bet that whatever deal they have is that this isn't going to be
a retelling of like the first game. It's going to be a continuation and
it's going to be fucking battling for anyone who games. Yeah. Yeah,
it's really going to be just totally impenetrable. And my less nice analyzing of
this comes up with so Mike Manardi, Okay, we need to talk about
Mike. We have to. Yes, we need to talk about Mike.
People are fucking out there on Twitter talking about meeting their friends at Summer Games.
First, I'm fucking out here ready to meet my fucking nemesis because that
man, that man child is out there fucking acting like Kingdom Hearts isn't A
is A is a good through the video game? And it's not. It's
just not and also something to be done at this point, there's nothing to
be done. We can't can't stop them. Mike Manardi is the Saw of
video games journalists. And I mean that in the worst way possible parenthesis negative.
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, okay, uh, anyway, yeah,
sure whatever, I'll go see this movie. I have a movie past thing,
so like I can go see any movie for like fifteen, you're a
month now, Yeah, why that sounds a good deal. Yeah, I
mean, I wouldn't be surprised if this happens. Wouldn't be surprised if it's
just something that pops up on Disney Plus, wouldn't be surprised if it just
did turn into an animated series instead. We'll see this is something, but
it will only be playable through mobile phones on Apple arcage when the moon is
in twilight and there's a solo eclipse that those are the only times you can
play it. I gotta say, look, as someone who like all has
only played Kingdom Hearts one and really dislike that, the idea of a movie
doesn't like upset me all that much because it's like, okay, yeah,
I think the characters are fine. They seems like see it seems kind of
like a better format, seems like it could be fun, even if it
is incoherent. I think if it's like a fun adventure, I'm like totally
down as catalog, like yeah, just do that. Then then I can
see people liking it, like yeah, sure, why not. We'll see.
We'll see what happens with this complete mess. All right, they should
make a movie about the bouncer. The bouncer should just be in there should
be part of this Kingdom Hearts universe, all right. Another rumor, The
Finals developer in Bark is making a Game of Thrones title. This is from
Jonas Mackie at Game Reactor. Swedish developer in Bark Studios is of course best
known for last year's hit The Finals, but we also know that they have
the action title Arc Raids in development. But perhaps they are now so big
that they have more teams developing games. According to rumors from Redanian Intelligence,
the developer has joined forces with Korean publisher Next Sound to release an online role
playing game based on Game of Thrones. According to the source, the game
will be set between seasons four and five of the television show, with the
Wall in Winterfel being the main areas we will visit, at least initially.
Other than that, details are scarce, but the setup will apparently be reminiscent
of Diablo Immortal, a weird reference point. This is the first time we
have heard anything of about this, and if the information is corrected, it's
likely to be a huge project, of course, rumor nothing guaranteed here.
It could be conversations could be something more. Embark is a pretty big studio
already, they were. I just hope that the latest. The last time
they reported how many people they have employed, it's like two hundred and eighty
two. I think they had a handful of layoffs when everyone else was laying
stuff off, so it's probably still around two fifty in that range. They
do have arc Raadors coming out still. That was their first game they announced.
They put out the finals. They're running that. But I think,
like you know, making deals with with publishers like Nexon is the kind of
thing which I thought Embark did get acquired by somebody, but maybe I'm misremembering
that. I can't remember exactly. I think they just got funding. I
think they just got funding from someone to do arc Raadors. Okay, that's
that sounds right. Let let me ask you then, LEXI. Is Game
of Thrones something that you are excited to explore in a video game, So
this it's weird. I actually I went out this morning for a cup of
coffee and I went to like my local bakery, and I know the person
that works there, and she mentioned that she had been watching Game of Thrones
and that she had just caught up with the final of the original series,
and even now all these years later, she was like, that was really
bad. It was interesting. Yeah, she was like she was so I
talked to her about it like a couple of weeks ago before she watched the
final episode and she was like, I'm so excited to see where it goes.
And then today she was like, I was really bummed out. And
I think House of the Dragon is doing some bit to like improve sentiment towards
that series, just because that show is like competently made, yeah, and
seems pretty good. They also definitely are scaling up production on other spinoffs because
they're working on a second spin off TV show which actually they just cast the
main actors in that and one of them used to be a B player for
conduct, which is all yeah. So they are definitely like trying to keep
the Game of Thrones IP alive. So it would make sense that they try
video games again, but this hasn't gone great the two times that they did
it. Previously they did that, I didn't hate the Telltale game. The
Telltale game, I thought, yeah, it's grand. It just sold really
poorly and they didn't know how to that was when people were the most oversaturated
with Telltale stuff. I think that and the guid into the Galaxy games really
underperformed for them. And so yeah, I think like there is there is
room for it. But also I just don't know if a Diablo style action
or PG is like what I want to do in that universe. Could I
could see being like on the Wall and doing raids out into the you know,
the North, into the wilds out there. That's that's an idea,
and I could see Diablo being a good fit for that. I just I
think my thing is Game of Thrones is you know, it's a character driven
thing, like it is the characters, whereas something like you know, I
don't know, Star Wars or something is a symbol driven thing. Like it
makes sense that you can make a loop game around Star Wars because a lightsaber
is a really fucking cool thing to gesh. Game of Thrones, like,
I don't know, it's just fucking sword yep, Like there aren't There aren't
really that many objects in that universe that are It doesn't feel like a loop
game if you were adapting. Ah, And so I'm curious to see how
they approach it. If they do do this, but yeah, like I'd
be interested to see this at least. Yeah, And I think I'd be
more excited if they were just like, yeah, I mean Diablo, but
really, we're gonna just make a gauntlet, just make an Arcadie action RPG
game where your characters. Yeah, they level up, but it's not like
a loot game. It's more just like they are gonna be what they are,
Like, you're gonna have Archer, You're gonna have someone that kind of
does like a faux magic. Obviously, there's not like explicit you know,
sparks flying out of Wand's magic in Game of Thrones, but there's still some
magic in there that you can maybe make work in a game like this.
But hey, they're gonna go for this. Obviously. If you're gonna make
a big game based on a big franchise, it's got to be and it's
something that you wanted to be a live service game or you know, MMO
adjacent. You got to make it something that can last. And I see
Diablo Immortal as something that's like, yeah, that's a good fit, I
suppose for trying to make something based on Game of Thrones that can can last.
Maybe I'm just personally not that interested in it. LEXI, So we'll
see. House Mark teases a new a new announcement ahead of Returnal's third anniversary.
This is from Chris Scully and at BGC Chap. I need you to
know that this news story has the shortest amount visions furished by glob so I
think his antilaternal bias is showing and you should all give him ship foot.
This is This is all on Chris Scully, and this is all Chris had
to write about it. Chris Mark is teasing that it will make an announcement
on Tuesday. The developer has posted an image on Twitter showing a person's eyes
reflected on a piece of shattered glass. The image simply says tomorrow, implying
more information will be revealed on Tuesday. Tuesday also marks the third anniversary of
Housemark's Late Last Game, Returnal, which was released on April thirtieth, twenty
twenty one. Returnal, Good guest they did Yeah, yep, they did
that co op DLC, which is really really interesting. I actually really really
liked Returnal. I never finished it, but I think one of the best
things to come out of it was the Jacob Geller video on Returnal and I
have no mouth and I must scream. It's really fucking good. If you
haven't seen any egics, that's great. And so yeah, I think that
everyone was kind of taken aback that that studio had really good storytelling chops,
And I'm curious whatever they do next, whether it is more reternal, whether
it's DLC. I'll check it out because I think that Housemark make games like
nobody else do in the Sony portfolio, so they're worth supporting. Do you
think that the most likely thing here is more returnal content or returnal sequel?
What do you think is going to happen here on Tuesdays? The image that
was floating around looks a bish like character. Yeah, Selene's face, and
so I can imagine that game. Also, it's not that it couldn't have
a sequel, it's that like it's kind of just meant to never end,
and especially from a narrative point of view, and so I'd be curious to
see what direction they would take it in. I think Selene is a really
cool protagonist, just as a concept like a middle aged woman is something you
don't see, and she's depicted really fucking well in that game. And I
think that the problems that people like you had with Returnal's gameplay are things that
could definitely be addressed up with a DLC, and that studio has showed through
their years of like top down shooters and arcade style games that they're really good
at iteration and improving game on game, and so I definitely think there's like
a lot of room for them to do something more with that style of third
person bullet hell. So yeah, I'm curious. Yeah, I think I
would welcome a sequel. That's because I think what my issue was. I
don't think, I know. My issue was that I had just played Hades,
and so I'm going into this other Rogue Light and every run felt so
similar that everything started to feel very routine. I knew what to expect,
and I knew how the character was going to play, because even if you've
got a different weapon, basically your loop was always the same. And I
think in a world where every developer has now played Hades and knows they can't
ignore that way of doing things with Rogue Lights in terms of everyone could feel
very different if you lean into that. My expectation is that they find ways
to really expand on this idea in a sequel, and that's my hope.
I hope that they announce a Returnal two tomorrow. It's ready to go pretty
quickly. I think that'd be a great drop for this year. Obviously,
it's pretty quick like that. Three years that's not probably not enough time to
actually get one of these out, But I'm just I'm being very hopeful here,
and I think that would be exciting. I bet Returnal two blows me
away in a way that Returnal one was, like, this is a good
game, but they are missing some key elements that I think are now kind
of table sticks for this genre, and this time around they would nail that
stuff, especially for a studio that does have such a strong history making arcade
based titles, and I think, like you've seen this a lot in the
rogue like genre has changed quite a bit post Hades, So I think like
a studio like how Smart learning from Hades and looking at what worked in that
and what they could apply to Ish would be really really cool. Yeah,
because they definitely seem like a team that would pay attention to the things that
really worked in games like Haites in recent years and Dead Seals and go.
How can we adopt this in a way that like really makes all games stand
out? All right, let's move along here. Escape from Tarkoff dev's flail
after putting PvE behind two hundred and fifty dollars paywall. This is from John
Walker at Kotaku. Multiplayer tactical shooter Escape from Tarkoff Caused Excuse Me caused much
upset in its passionate community last week when it announced it would be adding PvE
to the game, but only for those who spent in astonishing two hundred and
fifty dollars on a new bundle, the Unheard Edition. This was made even
worse after those who previously bought the Edge of Darkness edition had been told all
future DLC would be theirs for free. Making a video game is so much
more complicated today than it's ever been. Back in the day, you made
a game, put the game in a box, then people bought the box
and played the game. That was the extent of the developer's connection with the
players. Now things are such an extreme opposite that every tweak and change is
subject to the court of unpopular opinion, most usually because said developers charging extra
for those tweaks and changes, none more dramatically than Battlestate Game's recent announcement that
it would be charging for PvE in their hit game, Escape from Tarkoff,
has been so called early access since it's released in twenty seventeen. The developers
of Battle State looking looking for fresh income streams to keep the project going over
the intervening in seven years. One such wiiz was the now delisted Edge of
Darkness that charged one hundred dollars for what was described as a season pass which
would provide all future DLC at no extra cost. So it was perhaps not
an enormous surprise that customers really kicked off when they learned that not only would
they not be getting a forthcoming PvE update, but that it would cost two
and a half times more than the Edge of Darkness to be able to play
it. This has led to a lot of outrage ALEXI among fans of the
community, and battle State has begun the backpedaling process and began sort of like
almost negotiating with the community, being like, Okay, what if we did
this instead, what if we did this? And they have now settled on
anyone who did have that Edge of Darkness a season pass will now be getting
access to the PvE mode, but it will be something that happens slowly over
time because the servers aren't ready for it or something like that. This was
a real mess. Do you think that this permanent, permanently damages the trust
that a developer like battle State had built up? Yeah? I think I
saw someone on Twitter being like that. You know that Battlestate are one of
those developers who have built up goodwill for seven years and have managed to decimate
almost all of it. Ish, and that's what I want. This is
like as someone who hasn't played tark Of because I'm not fucking downloading their proprietary
launcher. Shit, I just don't like trust it. Like, yeah,
this seems like an overstep in like a really dramatic fashion, and a mass
misunders of just how much the community will abide. Right. It's trying to
get away with as much as possible, and they got too big in their
bridges, right Yeah, And I think, like, you know when when
nowadays, when I play a online game, I very much tom one of
those people who am like I have no intention of buying any of the DLC
or the cosmetics unless I really like this game. I think the only game
I've done that for in the last like seven years is Hell Divers. That
was the first time I was like, actually, I'll upgrade to the version
that has like the season pas because I'm really enjoying this. And I think
that a lot of people play their games like that now, where they're like,
listen, unless I'm really enjoying it, or it's Fortnite, I'm not
going to invest extra money into this, and then they count on you know,
their whales or whatever to keep the revenue coming out of those games.
And in this case, what they were like, a lot of people could
probably be like, yeah, I'll still play Tarkoff without the season pass because
I'm still getting the Tarkaff experience. I'm still getting what I want out of
Ish. But then they ask for so much money for something that feels like
it's part of the main experience, that feels like it's going to be the
community focus, it's going to be part of the community zeitgeist that it just
becomes unacceptable not to own ISH and charging two hundred and fifty dollars for something
like that is out of their god insane. Yeah it's a big number.
Yeah, it's it's a big number to say that people in one go,
Like, I know plenty of people who have paid more than two hundred and
fifty dollars into SIMS DLC or into water warcraft subscriptions. Yeah, but that
is over time, it's not one lump sum. And I think that this
is just a real misunderstanding of how much someone is willing to pay, how
much money someone's willing to part with in one go, because it's it's a
lot of fucking money. It just straight up is a lot of money for
a piece of entertainment. Yeah, And I think this is the kind of
thing where like they were trying to, like, as we just said,
trying to get away with what they can get away with. They miscalculated clearly.
They tried to justify it saying, well, this isn't DLC, this
is a whole new content, this doesn't count as DLC. Again, I
it's weird that they wouldn't be able to predict that fans would react this way
because the Tarkoff community is very vocal and very you know, like as John
Walker describes it here, feisty, and it's like, well, you know,
so clearly you knew they were probably going to be or I believe you
knew there would be some reaction here, and maybe you just thought people wouldn't
care and you would just be able to monetize those whales that always show up.
Either way, just seems like, you know, a real bad miscalculation,
and you know, you could say, well, if you're so upset
about it, go ask for a refund from this game. And as our
Wolves and Chap pointed out, this is something that the developer sells it through
their own web site, so you don't have the guarantee of you know,
a support community from something like Steam being like hey, yeah, Gil,
come come and get your refund or whatever. It's going to be a little
bit more difficult, especially since the studio seems like they are strapped for cash.
I suppose that's what it seems like this this implies, but I don't
know. I think probably in a couple of years, as long as the
studio has learned a lesson here, they do come back and this is remembered
as an unfortunate speed bump. But this can be the kind of thing that
does sink a game if they don't address it right. Yeah, we've seen
it. We're like plenty of we saw with Destiny where they had a couple
of bad updates and suddenly their player numbers were in a really poor sposh.
And it is so hard to get people to come back. It is so
so hard to get people to return to a game that they have left,
especially complex games that change a lash, and Fortnite's the only one that really
can do it because a lot of that game is so streamlined and intuitive that
it's not that difficult to leave for six months and come back. But almost
every other live game where systems change, where mechanics change, where story evolves,
whatever, it's really hard to get people to come back once they've left.
And I think that's like gonna be a challenge if they don't remedy this
in a way that the community finds acceptable. And that's not saying that like
the community of Reich in whatever they demand, because we all know that like
communities can be wrong when they demand shish, but like, there's totally a
situation where they lose a large chunk of the player base and they struggle to
get them to come back. Yep, I am honestly, this makes me
more curious to check out Tarkoff, which is a sick problem that I have
where I'm like, ah, there's controversy. Time to go hop in and
see for myself. But we'll see all right. W W two K twenty
four has been unbanned after fan backlashes from Alex Hopley, a gameranctor just a
quick one here. What the Status is one of the more well known WWE
two K monitor motors out there, and while he's known for a wide variety
of mods and finding inaccessible content for players, one of the creators most popular
works was allowing female wrestlers to compete against their male counterparts. In WWE two
K twenty four, What the Status It was banned from the game and all
of all the mods were taken down. And now the studio has reversed that
decision after like the huge backlash and after talking to what the Status What the
Status wrote on Twitter, WWE games and I have met on my mods on
how my mods can impact the game. We've come to an agreement, and
a fair one at that. Thank you guys for the support and thanks to
all of you, my ban has been lifted. I am free. So
the modters returning. Seems like they talked it out. Probably would have been
a good idea to talk you out in the first place, right, I
think that's the lesson to be learned here where Hey, you have a community
creator who has a lot of stuff they put in the game using your official
tools. One of the big reasons people buy these wrestling games is to mess
around with those users generated pieces of content, and just doing a unilateral ban
is your right, of course, but when it's an expectation of the game,
probably something you should maybe figure out before you do something as drastic as
that. Maybe talk to the person first. Again, it's the right.
I don't know, what do you think being super trigger happy isn't something I'd
associate with the WWE GPS No, never, of course now, And it
is interesting that they're like, oh, yeah, I was talking with w
Dowe Games, not you know, YUSA, whoever makes them matter who is
again? Oh god, it's the team that makes the NBA two k of
not Vicarious Visions. I can't remember. Visual designs something like that, yeah,
and visual concept visual concept yeah. Yeah. But it's like it's it's
very much so like we are discussing it with WWE. We are not discussing
this with the people who make the games. We're discussing it with the people
who make the legal decisions, and it's kind of like what you said about
Nintendo of America last week, where this wasn't day conversation with game developers or
anything, or this wasn't game developers taking down mods or something. This was
lawyers being like, they're doing what And I think that, you know,
WWE is probably in a weird spot at the moment where they're very sensitive to
anything as an outsider looking in who is not in that community, but they
are probably quite sensitive to the idea of having a situation where a male wrestler
could is a female wrestler. We have good reason at the moment. But
I also think that like what the model was doing of letting them be in
cross gender matches is quite cool and is a novel idea and is good for
the community, and it's pretty standard in the games. I mean, Street
Fighter for forever has been doing it, and then Nolan's really thought twice about
it, and I'm willing to assume it is probably just that it's a conflux
of real life yes stories making this mod or not marred making these downloadable characters
have a very different tone to them at the moment, and that's super unfortunate
because like, that's not this guy's fault, it's the ship bags who were
ship bags the WWE. So yeah, I've kind of feel bad when that
he got screwed in this situation, but it's as someone who isn't in the
WWE, it seems kind of shocking that they reinstated him that, like there
was a conversation even had that doesn't seem like from the little bits that I've
picked up mainly through Giant Bomb podcasts over the years, that doesn't seem like
something that would have happened even three years ago of them talking with a community
member and being like, Okay, well we see that you're important to our
brand in some way. Yep. So yeah, it's I guess it's it's
a sign of the times for the WWE as a entity. Thatsh they can
even that they will are even willing to interact with community members to that level
anymore. Yep. It's the kind of thing where I think that they didn't
predict the backlash, and it's I think now they know better and in the
future they'll be that this is the tack they'll take in the future. Probably.
All right, let's get to the poll question. I'm going to bring
that up right now. Do you still use the same joy or do you
still want to use the same joy cons on the next switch. The results
for that are in and they are yes, says or it says nineteen percent
of respondents. Eighty one percent said no, thank you, I do not
want to use the same joy cons. Please redesign them or do something new.
And I think that's that's pretty fair. I think yet one in five
people being like, I have a ton of joy cons, I want to
keep using those, and then everyone else being like I kind of don't like
those things or wouldn't mind something new, especially since when you get a new
system you kind of want things to be shiny and different to make it feel
like it was worth spending that extra money on. Right, Yeah, I
think like, no matter what, they'll have a new issuation of the joy
cons as they know that it's O hint that when you sit down you hold
a different controller in your hand, because that's what next gen feels like,
is a new feeling controller in your hand. And so yeah, I can't
imagine a world where they don't redesign the shape to some extent or the field
based. All right, I got a new pool question. We bring that
up here in a second. But before I do that, Lexi, why
don't you tell people where they can find you on the internet, what you
have going on and all that good stuff. Yes, so you can find
the website that i' on start menu at startmanu dot co dot UK, and
we're currently in the process of reworking some stuff. I'm looking at the website
going forward now that I'm out of college, and how to best facilitate helping
people break into games journalism now that I've been doing it for five years.
So watch this space. You can contact us at hello at startmanu dot co
dot UK if you want to get in and start writing about video games and
get into games journalism in general. I will be at Summer Games Fest.
I will be attending the show representing play Magazine, the PlayStation magazine in the
UK and Europe, and so if you're a pure person showing something for PlayStation,
hit me up. I'll be helping those guys out. I will be
at Games Calm in August, and I'll be at that as a freelancer.
I will be at a thing in Europe in May, which I can't talk
about but I'm excited for. And I will hopefully be on the Giant Bomb
couch at some point so that someone can finally take it to this fucking Mitch
tol Codo. Yeah, Minati joker mug came and steal all of his eight
hundred dollars or whatever he's carrying around on him at nearly high enough. It's
way higher than that. He's got way more money on him. That sounds
good. We'll definitely make that happen. I got a lot of work to
do to get all that ready, but we are in the process of making
that happen right now. All right, new poll question? Are you interested
in a Game of Thrones game? Yes or no? We'll get that up.
We'll discuss it on Game mess Mornings on Giant Bomb on Wednesday. Speaking
of Giant Bomb tomorrow Tuesday, Giant BombCast returns. Look out for that.
That's gonna be a great episode. Uh. And then for the rest of
the week we'll have your your normal entries. I believe I am starting a
Blake Club game on Wednesday. It's my turn. I son of a bit.
I read it the Giant Bomb read it have come to the conclusion of
what game you will be playing. There's a there's a pretty strong consensus,
and I think it is I think they're wrong. I hope they're wrong because
I don't because they think it's going to be Dai Katana, and I don't
think they Mike would have given up Dan Katana and or uh, Mike and
I is going to make you his Mitch. Those are two good so but
also it would be kind of incredibly if they did give both of those up
just to fuck with you. And like, I also hope this isn't true
because I'll be living in Galway for like another two weeks and John Romero lives
around here, and I don't want to get loped into this ship. I
don't want to. I might have to have you, you know, be
an emissary. We'll see, we'll see stand outside of the MAO Games office
and be like, hey, do you want to talk about this game you
hate talking about? Oh boy? All right, Well, we'll find out
there's plenty more happy on gi Bum later this week. In the meantime,
you know, I hope everyone's doing doing well. Do you see you see
that? Are you surprised at all that Stellar Blade came out, and then
the chids weren't happy. They still found something to be reactionary about, as
if it doesn't matter. Oh what's happening? They just need something to feed
their anger. That doesn't sound like them. I don't die. There's something
off here, something bad has happened. All right, thanks for watching,
everybody. Let's see. Thank you so much spinning today, talk with me
about video games. I really appreciate it. Yeah, I'm after go play
Near Replicant, the game that has no sexualization of any just fishing, like
every good game. Yeah and then yeah, and thank you everybody for watching.
You are the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a
good one, take care of yourself, and goodbye.