Be bad. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this for March
twenty eighth, 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, more studios are getting jettistoned out of bigger companies
as industry volatility continues, and a classic PlayStation franchise may return on Xbox.
But first, please join me and welcoming today's co host to Game Mess Mornings.
It's Marcus Stewart. Everybody, Marcus, how are you doing? I
am doing great. Thank you for having me here. Hello. Everyone,
I'm glad we can have you here. Yeah, I'm especially glad because you
guys, know, you guys have some game and former news to talk about
and all that stuff. We're gonna get into that in a second, but
you know, before that, like, how things been going for you?
How how has this year been going for covering games? It's been kind of
NonStop still since you know, since last year, right, Yeah, especially
because everyone decided to put all their big like ninety hour RPGs within the first
like two and a half months. The only way to celebrate the end of
fiscal Is with a ninety hour RPG. That's how we talk about it here.
That is the goal. So yeah, I'm personally woefully behind all a
lot of stuff. I've not beaten any of those games, and I'm trying
to figure out how to play them all at the same time, and then
realizing that's a mistake. It's probably just focus on maybe two of these at
most, and then that's also a mistake, and maybe she's just focused on
them one at a time. Uh huh, Yeah I did. I did
commit to beating like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, and then I was like,
Okay, well, maybe I'll get to another one of these, and it
turned out it's like nope, used all my game and juice up on that.
So I've been playing stuff, Like yesterday, I did play some Dragons
Dogma two. Yesterday, I'm like kind of getting my footing in that game,
really enjoying what I've been playing. But then yesterday evening, when I
was like I should play more Dragons Dogma two, I fruited around on my
Steam deck and was like, I'm going to set up or fix my emulation
and get things going. I like, there's an update to Mudeck and I'm
gonna get that going and use a new front end to load on my emulators
and stuff like that. So I didn't have like an hour and a half
instead of playing video games and think that's where my brain is at right now,
where I'm just like, uh, I want to mess around and not
do too much else. So so yeah, I get it. But yeah,
new news. You guys have some news over a Game Informer. What's
going on? Yes, So, if you've been following Game and Former channels
over the last couple of days, we announced a basically like a relaunch,
a revamp of our subscription program. For those that don't know, gaven Former
is a magazine still a physical print magazine. For the longest time, you
had to subscribe to the magazine by going to game Stop and signing up for
the Power Up Awards program to you know, get access to the magazine both
digital and print, and over the last several months, that process kind of,
for lack of a better term, broke where the print subscription you weren't
able to get a print subscription with GameStop. Why that happened, I don't
know. It's literally like it's above Game Informer what happened there, and I
know it's caused a lot of confusion and frustration where some people believe that we
were that we stopped making a print magazine altogether and were digital only, which
was not the case. So basically, over the series of months, we've
been working very hard trying to write the ship with that and get back on
track, and it's finally here. So the big change now is that,
yes, you can subscribe to the print magazine again, but for the first
time, I think maybe ever in a very long time, you can subscribe
to the magazine directly through Game Informer without having to go to game Stop right.
So, and if I were it's so inclined, where would I go?
So the url is subscription dot gaminformer dot com. If you want to
go to the subscription page directly, you can sign up for a year,
which gets you ten issues for just nineteen ninety nine, which sounds like a
weird price, but it's actually a fun reference to the year that Game Informer
was founded. Yeah, it's really great. Yeah, I liked it too
when I heard it. So, you know, we've been around over thirty
years now, So for nineteen ninety nine you get ten issues delivered to you
to your door, which is, if you do the math, less than
two dollars an issue, and even each issues eighty four pages of exclusive cover
stories, reveals, previews, profiles, interviews from our staff as well as
God. We have over I think sixty five freelance contributors that we've had contributed
some really awesome features to the magazine over the last year, year and a
half or so from across nine countries together. You know, we are.
Cover art is really fantastic too, always a big highlight for each issue.
But yeah, less than two dollars a month for eighty four pages of just
video game goodness information, all that good stuff the game magazine and the mail
again the way God intended exactly. You get to hold it. And yeah,
some people like to frame them on their wall because of how cool the
art is. Yeah, and you know, in an age where like especially
in the US, like physical like media in general, it's kind of a
yes especially yes, Yes, it's the country's too damn big. It's too
damn big to sell magazines unless you're Game Informer. And that's why I'm glad
you guys are still doing it. So Yeah, like the when it's like
so difficult for anyone to pull this off, the fact that we still have
at least one I subscribed right away, Marcus Aging, I was right there.
I did a year. I'm gonna do another year as soon as that's
up. I can't I can't wait. Yeah, I've seen people really like
just doing two year subscriptions immediately, which is awesome, you know, and
thanks to you and thanks to everyone else, you know, our readership,
uh, you know, our our friends and peers for the support, because
it does you know, it's been a rough year, rough like year and
a half for like obviously the game industry, from like the developer side,
for also for for media to you know, which sucks, and we have
not been immune to that. We've gone through god like several rounds of layoffs,
you know, most recently we lost Blake Kester, one of our writers.
And we're for those that don't know, we're a very small team for
how much we produced. There's a if you know, we have six writers
and five of them are full time, including myself that put the magazine together,
and you know, a small but awesome production team on top of that.
So you know, like we have not been despite us, you know,
being under a corporate umbrella. We have the felt now that's nothing.
Yeah, the bad effects of this industry, well just speak to that.
Like so the subscription, when I subscribe, that money is gonna like go
right to Game Informer, right, it is that money is meant to prop
up Game Informer and not like you know, sneak into game stops pocket.
Right. Yeah, I want to say, like it definitely like I think
gamesp still gets a but they right yeah, yeah, like at the end
of the day, they you know, they're a parent company. But it
is a great way to show that a Game Informer is like it valuable to
the GameStop and help keep us around. It's a great way to support us.
And yeah, I know some people would rather you know that for whatever
reason, don't want to go through Game Stop if you feel more comfortable or
incurr enthusiastic about just subscribing through us directly, because again we haven't had that
in a very long time. Uh, you know, this is the way
to do that. So yeah, it's it's just so like you know,
it's just from like a pure numbers game just to show that like, hey,
you know, we really love game informer. We really respect the legacy,
We really enjoy the work that you know, we put out like this
is the best way to support that. And I then mentioned that the subscription
not only gets you the print magazine, but it also gives you the digital
issue too, so you get both. Fantastic the subscription. So if you
want to read on your tablet or your phone, right, you read on
the tablet, you frame the magazine, put it up in your wall for
the art. There you go. Yeah, so you get both versions of
it for again, nineteen ninety nine, ten inches a year. Sounds great,
That sounds fantastic. That's awesome. I'm glad to hear you guys are
doing this. I hope it goes very well. And yeah, everyone,
sh get out there. Subscribe one more time. It's subscription dot gaminformer dot
com. Yes, all right, subscription dot gaminformer dot com. Check that
out, everybody. All right, let's explain what we do here most weekdays,
I, Jeff Grub, 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 Twitch welcome. You
can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for Games Mornings,
or find the RSS on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch
the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right,
we have a lot to get into, so let's start the morning mess
with Take two buys Gearbox Entertainment from Embracer for four hundred and sixty million dollars.
This is from Hayley Williams at GameSpot. After months of rumors that Embracer
Group was looking for buyers or Borderlands developer Gearbox Entertainment, the studio is now
officially being sold to two K parent company Take two Interactive and a deal worth
four hundred and sixty million dollars. Gearbox was one of Embraser Group's biggest acquisitions
when it bought the company in twenty twenty one, and a deal worth up
to one point three billion dollars. As the deal was based on Gearbox reaching
certain milestones, it's unclear how much of that one point three billion Embracer ended
up paying out beyond the three hundred and sixty three million in guaranteed upfront payments
now. As reported by Brian Corescente on Twitter, Take two Interactive as purchase
Gearbox for four hundred and sixty million, which will be paid out in Take
two shares. The purchase includes Gearbox Software in Texas, Gearbox Montreal, and
Gearbox Studio Quebec, and will cover Gearbox ip including Borderlands and Tiny Team as
Wonderlands, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukembe. The
sale doesn't include Gearbox's publishing arm in San Francisco, which published Remnant Too and
has publishing rights to the upcoming hyper Light Breaker and other upcoming titles. The
sale also excludes a number of studios purchased by Embracer through Gearbox Software, including
Cryptic Studios, Lost Boys, Interactive and Captured Dimensions. Take two has said
that Gearbox will operate as a studio within two K, which has a long
history of partnering partnering with Gearbox on the Borderlands series. Gearbox will continue to
be led by its founder and CEO, Randy Pitchford and his management team.
Not too shocking here, right, We knew that Embracer was looking to get
rid of a lot of these studios that it did acquire, which you know,
Embracer was all gas, all gas, all games as acquiring and now
it's all break all, break all, break on trying to like get rid
of these things whatever Embrace. There's a mess when it comes to Gearbox.
When it comes to Borderlands, there was no chance that two K in Take
two. We're gonna let that like that, that team crumble or fall apart
because it's too valuable, valuable to them. They've had so much success with
Borderlands, so the safest way to deal with that is to make the acquisition
themselves. Here we are, Take two now has Borderlands and Gearbox, and
then they don't have all of the other cruft that can't that comes with Gearbox,
like the publishing arm. They're like, no, we just want the
team that makes the game that makes us money. That's all we care about.
And that's how this deal seems to shake out. Any thoughts on this,
Marcus, I'm excited to see Tiny TEENA and GTA six. It definitely
feels like that's more of a possibility now, right, And why not cross
promote those games? Yeah? But Matt Moxy and W two k uh huh,
Yeah, that's where it really needs to happen. Yeah, this industry
is very volatile right now, and this seems to be a kind of like
a pretty common occurrence where the studios either like has just been acquired, is
now getting acquired again, or is spinning off to be independent. We'll have
a story about that here in a little bit. And I guess the good
news here is these teams aren't like being shut down, I suppose, but
this also just feels like, man, they are playing musical chairs because people
are not like they were making all these acquisitions because that like looked like growth
on a spreadsheet, and now that now that that no longer looks like growth,
they've been you know, caught holding the bill on all these things.
They're like, actually, we can't afford to pay for these studios. What
were we thinking? And the you know, the answer was they weren't thinking.
And so now like sort of the natural evolution of a studio like Gearbox
ending up at take two, it's like, okay, that makes some sense,
and they're just they're probably just gonna make a lot of border Lands games
going forward for take two and two. K I know that Gearbox wanted to
like spread out and start making some other stuff. That stuff was recently canceled
or put on the shelf, although I know that the reporting is is that
in addition to another Borderlands games, which we'll talk about here in a second,
they have other games in the works, But I would expect two k's
like, no, just make the next Borderlands, maybe even make the next
Tiny Tina and then we'll talk. I mean, is that your expectation.
Yeah, I mean this was a good time for them to pick them up
with the movie coming out this year, so they get to benefit from whatever,
you know, whatever good sort of like trickle down that movie brings.
You know, whether it's good or bad, we'll see, but like you
know, like Borderlands, hype will be a thing again around the time that
movie comes out, and if it does well, just the idea of like,
oh yeah, we got a bunch of upcoming projects based on this like
potentially really successful movie, and that's that's ours now. This is great,
So, you know, good timing for them. And like you said,
I didn't really worry that Gearbox was any like shutdown danger of like they're just
too big and valuable for like you know, like they're gonna get sold off.
So that was never really my concern. So I don't know if I
thought. I guess I never really thought who would buy them, would take
two something about I was like, huh, I don't know if I thought
they would be the ones to do it, But that makes sense. I
guess, yeah, I got when you like sit down and think about it,
it's like, yeah, they're too valuable to take two. So this
is like four hundred and fifty million dollar four hundred and sixty million dollars is
sort of like an insurance payment where it's like, Okay, now we know
that this team and this IP are protected and we have it. And really,
I mean, then like take two spending four hundred and sixty million dollars
to own the Borderland's IP that you know that a loans probably kind of makes
this deal worth it for them. Then the fact that they get the team
making it that that's only going to help. And I suppose that means they
get you know, if the movie does well, which who knows. I
honestly have no expectations for that movie, but if it does well, I
guess they get that money as well, so they get the you know,
built in synergy that you were talking about when it comes to Embracer though that
you know, large wing offers whatever. A CEO of Embracer had a statement
saying, this is like us on our way to becoming leaner is how is
basically what he said, a leaner more profitable. And it's just like,
man, you were the fattest duckling of a company during acquisition season when everyone's
making acquisitions and the money was cheap out there, and you were buying everything
out there, and everyone's looking around like, man, you guys seem unwieldy.
You have hundreds of studios and and you know, maybe almost a thousand
games in the works. How are you going to make this make sense?
And they never had an answer when people ask that question, and here we
are that they because there was no answer. And as soon as they got
on the like steps to profit as the question mark, yes, that was
Embracers, Like that was where they lived in that question mark on the chart.
So listen. I don't think this makes them all that much leaner,
but it does save them some money. I'm sure that paying the salaries and
the benefit packages of the people working in Gearbox is expensive, and so you
don't have to do that anymore. And then you get some money on the
side here. Yeah, I don't think this changes much for Embracer all I
thought. I think this maybe extends their period of being able to make some
more sales down the line. But Gearbox was the big one for them for
sure. That was like the biggest studio, the most expensive studio. So
it probably doesn't help to some extent. But I don't think we wake up
tomorrow and like now Embracer is, you know, headlong into making games and
making profit. I don't I think this doesn't necessarily like fix their problems.
What do you think? Uh No, I feel like this is still gonna
be a thing for at least the next year, if I had to guess,
Yeah, yeah, I almost don't know what that looks like when they
when they've shaved up enough of themselves to say like, okay, we're we're
level again, We're good, and then like how did they grow after that?
Because it's like there's no way they can go on like another big acquisition
spree god for the foreseeable future, and I think they'd be maybe a little
bit gunshy to do so after this. I just I'm more curious about like
what is like post trimming the fat Embracer look like like what do they have
left? Right then? Yeah, like and then just sort of their strategies
for growth beyond that or that they just like, Hey, let's just let's
just make money what we have and maybe not get too like, let's just
put our Infinity gauntlet down for a while and in internal pen weird thanos part
of ourselves that we've been we've been running on for the last couple of years.
Uh, yeah, I don't know, but yeah, I'd say like
the next year or so it is still going to be like a yeah,
offload phase. It's yeah, it's clear the acquisition season is fully over and
now they're in just try to survive season. It feels like all right.
The next Borderlands game, however, is in active development. This is from
Eddie McCoo at game Spot as part of the wider announcement that Take two has
acquired Gearbox from Embracer. Take two announced that Gearbox is now in active active
development on the next Borderlands title. In February this year, Gearbox founder and
CEO Randy Pitchford tease the company's next game, saying it is the greatest thing
we've ever done. Oh, Randy many believe it's the rumored Borderland for The
latest entry in the main series was twenty nineteen's Borderlands three. In twenty twenty
two, the spin spinoff Tiny Eighteena's Wonderland was released, and a sequel is
reportedly also in the works for that. Yeah, I mean almost certain,
Like would you expect them to do take any other risk in any other direction
other than a Borderlands four. To me, that makes all the sense in
the world. What do you think, Marcus, No, that makes sense.
I mean again, with the movie coming out, is like, yeah,
this is the time to like double or maybe even triple down on border
Lands, like just assuming like, hey, this is gonna be. It's
gonna people are gonna really want to play Borderlands once Kate Blanchette is on screen.
So yeah, I didn't. Tiny Tina did pretty well for them,
right, So yes, Tiny Tina did I think exceeded expectations, is my
understanding? Yes, okay, yeah, and you know that had been the
first one in a while, so yes, yeah, like I fully expect
like yeah, just of course more border lamp. Sure, yes, I
right, that's seems to be the safe bet. That seems to be the
thing where like if you are at Gearbox and you have to make yourself as
valuable to these companies as possible, that own you. Uh yeah, Borderlands
is probably the direction you're going to go in Borderlands. And then and then
when you're like, oh, okay, we're gonna make a Borderlands game Borderlands
four, I don't think you try to mix it up. I don't think
you tried to make like, oh, Borderlands World and it's going to be
the big live service, ever, ever lasting version of Borderlands. I don't
think you've been messed with that. Just keep making Borderlands as is until maybe
the formula doesn't work. And because Borderlands three I think also exceeded expectations,
it did very well for everyone involved. So yeah, I think you just
kind of stick with what works, yeah, which is less exciting for me
as someone that's kind of like tapped out of Borderlands after the lasts, like
i'd say, after two really right of like man, I kind of would
like to see a bigger swing with it, not in a live service way,
but like, oh just something like I don't know, I guess Tiny
Tino is like the closest to that, but like, yeah, like again,
this is me personally, it's like I would like to see something bigger
and a little bolder with that series. But like I said, it does
make sense, just like, yeah, just it ain't broke, you know,
just keep doing it. Yep, yeah, exactly. And I think
that for these games. It's like I'm someone who mostly I think I agree
with you, where I'm like, I'm not necessarily thinking, oh, I
need to get back into a new border Lands. But if they keep making
them and they and then people still have this positive buzz around them, I
could see myself being like, you know what, why wouldn't I check back
in on Borderlands four? It has been long enough? Yeah, I always
check in. Yeah, I play all of them. Yeah, it's it's
Borderlands. It's cool. Yeah, I know. I didn't play Tiny Teens,
Wonderland or Borderlands three, so I'm like, if a Borderlands four were
to come out, I probably would check on on that one. So yeah,
like, you recharge the exactly recharge my interest. And I think that
so it makes sense. And then that's a little bit easier for me to
hop back into than something like a Destiny too, where it's like, you
know, it just keeps building on top of this Foundation, and there's more
and more and more, and now it's intimidating, and I'm like, I'll
just wait until you put out something called Destiny three. I'll check in at
that point, all right. Sega sells Relic and we'll cut two one hundred
and forty jobs across UK studios. This is from Chris Dring at Games Industry
dop Biz. Sega has sold Relic Entertainment and will cut two hundred and forty
rolls across Sega Europe, Creative Assembly and Sega Hardlight. Relic is best known
for the Company of Heroes and Dawn of War games, and recently developed the
New Age of Empires for Microsoft. Relic will transition to an independent, independent
studio and will no longer be part of the Sega group of studios. Meanwhile,
the majority of the two hundred and forty job cuts are across Creative Assembly
and Sega Europe. Well, there will be a small number of cuts from
Sega hard Light. There was no mention of other Sega UK studios, including
two Point Studios and Sports Interactive. Creative Assembly has already suffered a range of
redundancies following the cancelation of its Hyenas project last year, and then there's quote
here Sega is working closely with Relic on this shift and we wish them the
best for the future, wrote Jurgen Post, who is the newly appointed head
of Sega of Europe. I want to sincerely apologize for the worry and understandable
distress this news will cause, particularly for those directly affected. These decisions have
been incredibly tough to make and they follow meticulous consideration and deliberation with leadership teams
across the business. This is not another so we just talked about, like
hey, musical Chairs over there with with Gearbox and border Lands, you know,
going from it being independent to being bought by Embracer and then being bought
by two K while they try to make sense like where that fits and who
has the money to actually afford that team? And I meanwhile, for a
lot of other studios it's like, hey, either we might just close you
down, or do you want to figure something out? And repeatedly now we
are at the very least And I suppose this is good news, Marcus,
that these teams are finding ways to spin off to be independent. I don't
think there's like a ton of money out there for them to get investment.
But it seems like there's enough where if you're an established team, you can
make something makes sense where you're either borrowing money or you're getting in a direct
investment so you can buy yourself out from a company like Seka to keep going.
And you know, like does have a proven track record they you know,
Copy of Heroes well, I know Company of Heroes three was a disappointment
for many. I think there's an expectation that it's like they can maybe get
it there over time, or they put out a new one that people do
come around to. Like there's there's a lot of people who really like Company
of Heroes and so there's something there. Why would we let this team just
fall apart when instead they can just go out and be on their own and
keep things going this, I mean, it's it's bad news wrapped in something
maybe of a silver lining here. What do you think, Marcus, Yeah,
it's kind of like the things have to get worse before they can get
better kind of a thing. Yes, Like yeah, it's cool to like
you're independent, and you know, we saw this with a was a Toys
for Bob too, not that long exactly. Toys for Bob yet talk about
them in a little bit. Yes, yeah, so yeah, I guess
like in the long term, it's like cool, you know, I'm glad,
you know, like more studios. You know, being able to be
self sufficient is great, and you know, more power to them. It
sucks at it hath come with the cost of over two hundred jobs, but
I mean, I guess that's just the It's like it's I hate using the
term necessary evil because I feel like that's like kind of like corporate talk a
bit like well, there's no other way. But you know, it's like
I guess that this is like the last like big cut that gets us there.
It's like, so be it. I guess, you know, hearts
goes out to everyone that was affected in that. But yeah, I hope
that, you know, I hope that they can find like you said,
I know, funding is like weird right now, and you know, but
I hope that they can kind of weather this storm and again sort of like
restabilize and and you know, continue making cool stuff like you say, Company
of Heroes three maybe like didn't quite hit the mark, but you know,
like I I hope that that's like, I mean, it doesn't seem like
it was, but like not some like weird death. No, and that
they'll get make a Company of Heroes for or whatever it is that they decide
to pursue because you know, at the end of the day, we need
more studios and not less of them, right, And you know this is
also a team that has proven it can do strong work for higher games,
that new age of empires that got pointed out there. So they have relationships
with Microsoft, who you know they talked about yesterday on this show to Boys
for Bob has that deal like they got spun off by Microsoft, but then
they immediately made a deal to make a game for Microsoft. I imagine that
company, the Company of Heroes team at Relic the age of Mbuyer's team at
Relic could probably make a similar deal if Microsoft is so willing. And Microsoft
does still need games despite whateverone's talking about, like there's a you know,
fewer people playing games, or at least they're spending fewer hours playing games.
That's gonna rebound at some point, Like yeah, it's dipping back down,
but that's going to bounce back up. There are more people playing games overtime
in the long run, that's going to keep going in that direction, You're
going to need to have something there for them, so you can't completely be
like, well, we just stopped making games. We're washing our hands of
it. So I think that if you are a team like Relic that has
those relationships, you should be able to capitalize on those to a certain extent.
And you know, there's also the chance of you know, spending some
years working as a support studio things like that, which I think would be
a shame for a team that has done such I mean, people consider Company
of Heroes and Company of Heroes too to be Game of the Year material.
It's a team that's done some stuff that people truly love. So if they
have to go do work as a sports studio, you know, a little
bit, that would be a shame. Although no shame to the studio having
to like make ends meet, but they could have that opportunity as well and
take some time rebuild and then once the industry is in a better place,
be able to get some of these bigger projects green lighted and go from there.
Yeah. I wonder if this as a universal Microsoft just outright acquires them
because of those existing relationships, right, And I'm like that, I do
wonder like, what is the state of acquisitions right now? Because you know,
I keep saying acquisition season is over, and it's like, because you
look at this stuff, it's like there was a time when these companies like
Gearbox would have gone for one point three billion dollars and now it's like,
eh, four hundred and sixty million at most, We're not going to pay
anything more than that. So it's like a lot of these clearly the prices
are coming down and the fervor is quieting for getting these studios and bringing men
and growing that way. But that yeah, like a company like Microsoft still
has to feed the game pass beast or are they like, hey, no,
we have enough and we need to make do with what we have,
and actually they aren't going to make any more acquisitions. And it's like,
you know, we talk a lot about consolidation Marcus and the problems there,
but there are also problems when the big companies stop making acquisitions, where it's
now a lot of these studios looking like what is the end goal here?
We're trying to grow so that we can be an appealing target for an acquisition
because we as the owners want to like cash out someday and it's like,
if there is no one out there buying, what are we doing all this
for. It's actually we're just kind of like running on a treadmill and we
have to try to make the next big game and that's really tough to pull
off these days. So yeah, it's it's rough out there. All right,
We're gonna take a quick break. When we get back. We have
a lot more headlines to get to, including a new Xbox. We'll talk
about that right after this. All right, we are back, and that
new x X is. It's the same Xbox, but with a new code
of paint and maybe no disk drift. Images of a white all Digital Xbox
Series X console have reportedly leaked. This is from Tom Ivan at VGC.
Images showing a white all Digital Xbox Series X console have seemingly leaked. The
low quality images appear to show a white version of Microsoft's existing console that similar
inform apart from the removal of its disk drive. Exputer reported last month that
Microsoft was planning to launch a white all digital Xbox Series X console this summer.
It claimed that the console will include a few upgraded components, such as
an improved heat sinc, but that elsewhere there will be no major enhancements,
and really that's just them saving money, right. You improve the heat sink
so you can use fewer materials, and that saves them a little bit of
money, which is mostly what these things are all about. It's reportedly expected
to retail for less than the current Xbox Series X console, which launched in
November twenty twenty and has an estimated retail price of five hundred dollars basically,
although it's often available for significally less. And that's the launch Xbox Series X,
so this is going to be less than that, Marcus. So let's
start there. Do you have any Is this appealing to you at all?
A white, all all digital Xbox Series X with no discribe? And if
it is, how much would you pay for it? Uh? No,
I mean I'd say that as someone who already owns a regular Xbox Series X,
so like I don't need one, and also like I'm an old man
and I still like like a dis drive, which I contradict myself constantly because
I don't think I own maybe three physical games of this generation. I am
a digital I'm part of the problem. I just buy digital games. But
I still just like having the option because you never know, you know.
So yeah, I still have a hard time reconciling with the idea of having
an all digital box, even though if I probably ripped that band it off,
I'd be fine. So I mean, like I don't need it,
Like I have a working Xbox. It's cool that it's cheaper. It's always
nice to get cheaper version of things, you know, especially these days,
especially if if it's like a little bit better. It sounds like just like
you know, some of the stuff it's there, it's a little bit better.
Yeah, it'll probably have like a smaller chip. It'll probably have a
smaller system on a chip so that they do need less heat, sinc.
So that's probably what this is. They're like, they're getting better performance,
but what they're going to instead of using that to get better performance of games,
they'll just like lower the clocks, have it run at a lower heat
and so a lower frequency, which produces less heat, which means they need
a smaller heat sinc. And all those things combined enable them to make something
that saves them a lot of money. And that's what this will be about,
is saving them money. Yeah, I wonder if they would like if
this will replace the current Series X, Like, will they just sell through
what's left and stop manufacturing it or if they're going to continue to produce those
all alongside this other one. Probably not. And the reason I say that
is because it's less money, right if they are charging this for charging less
money for this, I think part of them is like, we don't want
to backtrack on the games we made in increasing prices. So this goes in
at four hundred and fifty dollars probably that's where I would expect it to launch
at, and then the other one stays at five hundred, and then you
just have both on the market. For one, you don't want to have
a lot of people being like they are definitely trying to move us to all
digital. Even though they are, they don't want to make it obvious.
So that's what is happening. They want to say the options, then we
give you options, and then you can decide, and they're going to they
want to keep doing that. I don't think they want to like pull that
away and make it clear what they're trying to do. And then you know,
if you begin if you have a five hundred dollars system and now the
five hundred dollars system goes away and you only have a four hundred and fifty
dollars system when you go back to launch a new new hardware for next generation.
Now it's like, oh, we're jumping from four to fifty to whatever
that price is for that next thing instead of five hundred, five hundred to
whatever the price is for the next thing. And people's heads that's just like
more a difficult challenge for Microsoft to overcome. So I think keeping both in
stores will be the answer for them. It provides a lot of like solutions
to their arguments they make with gamers all the time. I think the only
downside is that messaging, which has always been the big problem with the Xbox
series brand is the confusion of like, well, which one is which?
What's the difference between an X and a S? And now you have another
X out there, so ven there's two x's, and then you have to
be like, well, which one one has a disc and one does it?
So like what do you call the X without the day? Is just
the Xbox Series X Digital Edition? And then like how is that immediately clear
to someone that just add a glance, It looks at a bunch of Xboxes
and goes like, Okay, what's the one we call the SAD again?
Right? I mean I know that was for the Xbox one s all digital
the SAD, but that's now what I associate with these digital ones. The
Xbox SAD is back. Everybody here we go, Xbox D, x hyphen
D and it's like minus disk drive is what it means. And they'll think
that it's really clever, but it's actually extremely confusing. Oh yeah, that's
almost certainly what's going to happen is they'll have something they think is clever and
we'll all be like, what does this mean? Or it'll be something stupid
when we look at it like that that's a joke, right, and it's
like now they mean it all right. A big shake up at Nintendo testing
center ahead of switch to Nintendo, and I think this comes from Kataku.
Shout out to Kataku. Nintendo of America is restructuring the small army of contractors
that help test its games and hardware in its Washington State headquarters, the company
confirmed to Kataku. According to our current and former contract according to four current
and former contractors, the result is a massive downsizing that comes amid layoffs or
layoffs across the rest of the video game industry, and after the Mario maker
reportedly delayed the launch of a switch to successor until twenty twenty five. These
changes will involve some contractor assignments ending, as well as the creation of a
significant number of new full time employee positions, a spokeswork person for Nintendo told
Kataku in an email. Contractors at Nintendo of America who feel undervalued and underpaid
have long called in the company to make them full time red badge employees instead
of exploiting loopholes in seasonal work requirements. While some of them are now finally
getting converted to direct hires, others, including testers with over ten years of
experience, are getting the boot, though Nintendo says everyone impacted will receive severance
packages. When contacted for comment, a spokesperson for Nintendo provided the following statement.
Nintendo of America has reorganized its product development efforts or its product testing functions
to drive greater global integration in game development efforts. The changes will also better
align INA with interregional testing procedures and operations. These changes will involve some contractor
assignments ending, as well as the creation of a significant number of new full
time employee positions. For all assignments that are ending, the contractor contractors' agencies
with INOA Support will offer severance packages and provide assistance during their transition. For
those contractor associates who will be leaving us, we are tremendously grateful for their
important contributions they've made to our business, and we extend our heartfelt thanks for
their work and the service to Nintendo. Marcus So, I think really the
underlying store here is that Nintendo probably just doesn't have a lot going on for
this next year, and they're looking at, hey, we have all these
contractors that are here to test games, and they've kind of gone through and
tested all the games that we have ready to go. And Nintendo is a
company that does testing and and and think sort of and development like way ahead
of time, and then they keep these games on the shelves, and it
feels like the games that we're gonna get this year from Nintendo, you know,
we're about to get through here in a couple of months the games that
they've already announced, including Mario Paper, Mario the Thousand Year Door, and
Luigi's Mansion two HD. And then after that there's not a lot left for
them to talk about because the've alread announced that those two games and nothing else
after that. But if they have games to release after that, it's likely
going to be stuff like the fire Emblem remake that has been rumored and been
finished for quite some time, or a Metroid Prime two and three HD remasters,
which have also likely been done for a long time. And then there's
a handful of other games that are probably in a similar position. So it's
like they don't have a lot of big, first party Triple A games for
these people to work on, and it sounds like instead of keeping them around,
they're just going to end those contracts and reorganize and move on from there.
But it's like, man, even Nintendo, I get there. They've
delayed the switch too, But even Nintendo doesn't have a lot of games coming
up for these for these people to work on. It just feels that we
went from this high tide of a million games coming out because the pandemic ended,
and now we've fallen off a cliff. It feels kind of rough out
there, Marcus, what do you think? Yeah, I mean no,
that's that's been the story of like just all these layoffs, right, like
everyone rode the wave of the pandemic and then it fell abruptly into everyone's like
oh crap, okay, what do we do? So it is it's not
surprising, but it is weird to hear Nintendo being part of this because they've
been largely absent from like all this talk about like mass layoffs and stuff like
that. So it's like, oh, there it is, there's theirs.
It finally caught up to them, you know. So yeah, I guess
it sucks. You would think that once the switch to does come out,
which you know, whatever next year, whatever that's supposed to be, right,
could pay to keep them on board for like whatever you got going on
over there. But again, if they have nothing of like what they just
be. I mean, it feels like there's always something you give them to
do. But if they think like you're just gonna be sitting on your hands
basically until we have switched to launch titles ready to Go or or whatever,
that looks like I guess, you know, I can only assume they looked
at their pipeline it was like, well, the gap between then and now
it's too large. It would be it would make more sense to just you
know, say goodbye to somebody's people, So you know it sucks. Yeah,
yeah, I mean this does feel the kind of thing where it's like
these people probably were in a position to like, Okay, we're here.
We know there's gonna be a lot of work because you are going to probably
have us test switch to and to switch to UI and you know, switch
to like the new store and then and then just like the actual using of
the new device in addition to any and all of the games that would have
launched alongside the switch too, and that stuff probably would have been kicking off
like right now, and then for them to be like work to laying all
that stuff, and we don't necessarily know exactly when it's going to be coming
out now, although no time before March of next year, like at the
earliest. That's the internal reporting or that store reports out of those internal communications.
So it say, okay, if you are Nintendo of America and you
are like looking around and be like, we are just gonna probably in because
the way the contract works, and I'm no expert on labor law, but
the way I understand it is like you have to keep these contractors around for
a certain amount of time. But if you keep them around for any time
longer than that, then you do have to take them on as full time
employees or they have to be not employed as you, but by you as
a contractor for a certain amount of time, and then you could bring them
back. So it sounds like they're trying to time that up a little bit
here. And in the meantime, what that what that actually looks like is
Nintendo is paying less money to employ people for their labor, and so it's
basically the effectively the same thing as layoffs because they just are not spending as
much money on labor right now. And it's a shame. I guess good
news for the people that did get those full time positions, and I hope
that these contractors are able to come back and do all this work and when
Nintendo is paying for it. But in the meantime, it's like this just
feels callous, Like all these decisions in this business right now, what do
you when do you expect to switch to to launch? And do you do
you think it could come out by March or next year, because right now,
I'm like, even that seems like they're not even planning for that.
That that feels like if that, if that was happening, it's like,
why not kind of just get started right now? That gives you about a
year to get there with all this testing. And if they're like, no,
we don't even have any games to test for that right now, it's
like, man, really, I don't know. It seems strange to me.
What do you think? Yeah, I don't even know anymore? Right
say, that's where I'm at. I don't know. It's like you could
throw any date, like I I mean, I probably my ceiling is like
I have a hard time believing holiday next year. Like I don't know,
I don't think they could get through a whole another year of like, you
know, nothing basically. So it's almost like they kind of have to hit
that March day just to make this sort of like weird drought of brand new
stuff shorter. But like I just went out the the context of like how
far along it is and what they're trying to do and just anything. It
feels like it's so nebulous now. But it's like you tell me a window,
I'm like, sure, I guess I have no choice but to believe
you. Yep, sir, that's exactly where I'm at, where it's like,
this is a company that is you know, you start you getting a
pattern with them. You're like, Okay, they're going to launch that thing
at the end of this year. They're coming up to the end of the
games they have announced, and then we'll just go into these holidays there will
be a switch to It makes all the sense in the world, and they're
like, no, we want to take a little bit more time on the
games. It's like, oh, yeah, Nintendo is in a position where
they feel like they can do that, so they're going to do that.
But then it's like, okay, well, then what does it look like.
Are they going to launch the game or launched the system in the first
half of the year like they did with the Switch because they did that because
the WEU was floundering, so it kind of didn't matter when they launched the
switch. It's like they just need to get something new out there to restart
the generation for them. And it's like okay, yeah, so I guess
they could do that again, but why would they do that in a world
where the Switch is doing so well and they can kind of like ride that
for some time even if they aren't selling a ton of new Ton of new
hardware, which they actually kind of are still like, it's dipping in North
America, it's dipping in Europe. It's continue to sell very well in Japan,
though, It's like, why wouldn't they just keep riding that? It
seems like they might, so, Yeah, very unpredictable company. It's going
to be hard to know exactly when they're going to pull the trigger on that
device. Maybe Switch too is done, but they're just waiting for metro Prime
four because I really want to really got to launch you with this, so
they're like, we're waiting on you retro. I still am in the camp
where I believe it's possible we get metrod Prime four on the original switch,
but I'm ready to have egg on my face for that. Yeah, you
don't have to say it like that. You don't have to say it like
I'm a terminal patient, like oh really, Oh you think that I don't
want to. It's like, yeah, and when somebody tells you that they
still believe, really that's what you believe, o'maying? I mean, you
know that's that's cool. You know, Judge, You're probably right, though
I'm trying to I'm trying to accept it, but I want to want to
keep believing. I thank you, I appreciate that. All right, Moving
on here, SIG of America workers ratify union contract protecting one hundred fifty employees.
This is for Michael mcwherder and Nicole Carpenter at Polygon. Workers at Sega
of America voted Tuesday to ratify their first collectively bargained contract with the US arm
of the video game company, granting new protections and raises for about one hundred
and fifty full time and temporary employees. Workers in the union known as Allied
Employees. Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega or aegis one important concessions from Saega of
America as part of the contract, building base building raises for all employees,
layoff protections, and a commitment to crediting people on games they've worked on,
including early QA testers. It also affords employees in the union other protections,
including letting workers pursue creative work in addition to their work at Sega and a
guaranteed continuation of hybrid work. Workers will also receive just cause protections, joining
tender clause workers and being the only ones in North America video game industry to
have them, organizers said. In the state of California, where SEGA of
America's offices are located, workers are employed at will well meaning employees. Employees
can employers can terminate employees for almost any reason, provided that reason is not
unlawful. These protections meaning employers must follow a series of strict guidelines before getting
rid of a worker, whether through firing or other means some good news.
It feels like this is like the the one hand that goes with the other.
We are in a volatile time for this business, which is like traditionally
very volatile. So people are experiencing in a way where it's like when we
were in the high times of every game was making a ton of money and
people were spending more time on games through the pandemic, it was very easy
to look around and be like, you know, hey, we'll talk about
unions because protections are needed. And I've lost Marcus, so we'll see if
he hops back in. Oh there he is, But Marcus is already back.
Can you hear me, Marcus? Maybe not, we'll see. Oh
he's getting connected right there. So when we were in those high times,
it was very easy for I think people to talk about unions for the protections
they could have provided for a number of reasons. And I'm make sure I
still have not losing an obs. We're good there. But it was also
very easy to be like, ah, that's a lot of work, why
would we do that. We're kind of getting everything we need from these companies.
We feel secure in our positions, and now that that that volatility has
really come home, I think that these companies are like not are like looking
at employees as human resources that can be cut as needed, and we've seen
that repeatedly now, and so unions are this weapon. I think after so
many years of talking about it, now people are like, we can actually
wield this as a powerful tool to get what we need. And it's awesome
to see that Sega is making that happen. Marcus I says, you're muted.
I don't know if you can hear me. It seems like you are
still trying to get connected. Feel free to restart discord if you need to,
and we'll get you back in here. In the meantime. Let's,
uh, you know, let's move on to this next story. Rumored Toys
for Bob is making a new Spyro game. This is from Jonas Mackie at
Game Reactor. There have been a lot of news pieces written about Toys for
Bob this year. First they were negatively affected by Activision Blizzard's layoffs, then
they were thought to be shut down. After that, it was revealed that
they are leaving Activision Blizzard to become an independent studio, and most recently that
Microsoft will publish their next project. So it's been quite a rollercoaster for them.
So what is that next game? When the split from Activision Blizzard was
announced, the studio wrote that our team is excited to develop new stories,
new characters, and new gameplay experiences, which sounds like something spanky new.
On the other hand, during a recent meeting with its staff, a corporate
vice president of Microsoft Studios, Matt Booty, reportedly said that the studio's upcoming
title will be similar to games Toys for Bob has made in the past,
and now the very known Crash for Crash Bandicoot, and Spiro. Content creator
Canadian guy A says in a new video that he knows is that it is
named Spyro for He says he heard this from several developers during Games Developer Conference
and also rumors before that, and it has been an active development since January
twenty twenty four, which like two months ago, so pretty wild. We've
completely lost Marcus now, so I think he's restarting Discord. But this is
something that I'm not too surprising. I think on a BombCast we were talking
about this where we were saying, hey, you know, what would we
want them to do? And I think all of us kind of sailed on,
Hey, a new Spiro makes a lot of sense. They did just
do Crash four, so it's probably some time before they'll get back to Crash.
Bandicoot Banjo Kazuoi is another possibility, but they've likely already have. If
Microsoft is making a Bansho Kazoo, they probably have already gotten someone making Banjo
kazuoi, So that doesn't make a lot of sense. A Spiro game makes
a ton of sense, and Spiro Ford like kind of being like, Hey,
let's forget all those other Spiral games that came out, Let's instead just
make the next real Spiro game. That's something I think worked for Crash and
they want to replicate that with with Spiro as well. I'm excited about this
to a certain extent, And at the same time, I'm like, I
liked Spiro when I originally played it. I played it a lot more with
that Spiro remake trilogy, and I'm like, these are well made games,
They're decent. I just they didn't never blew my socks off, so I
was kind of it was mostly like, eh, I think Spiro's okay.
I'm really that makes it sound more negative than I even Intend. I don't
think Spiro's bad in any way. I just think I would like to if
the studio was doing something a little bit more exciting to me personally. But
I know a lot of people really like Spiro. Any JAMIEH. Christmas U
is a spiral greater than Crash I agree with that, that's true. That's
definitely the case for me personally, at least, although Crash four, I
think maybe Crash for It is actually a little bit above Spiro. Certainly all
right, game developers are being sued for making their games to addicting. This
is from Alex Hopley at Game Reactor. A new lot of lawsuits have been
filed against the likes of Rockstar, mo Yang and Hey Janet Show. Everybody
look at that oh, never mind. I see Marcus. I heard addiction
and I came running. We got the addicted boy himself here. Let's see
if we can get Marcus in here. Marcus are you there? Says you're
muted. I'm not sure if you're gonna be able to get connected. It
seems like you're like some problems with discord. We'll see give them a second.
In the meantime, Alex Hopplia gamer actor writes, a new lot of
lawsuits have been filed against the likes of Rockstar, mo Yang and Moyang,
Mojang, Activision, Blizzard, Epic Games, Roeblocks, and more for making
games addicting. Multiple complaints have come from all across the United States, targeting
game developers for suppose supposedly exploiting players. One lawsuit from Arkansas alleges that a
woman has seen a strong decline in her son's behavior since he started playing addictive
video games. She first noted these behaviors when he was twelve. Other things
might happen when you are twelve years old, but whatever Now twenty one,
the Sun is reported to spend spend three hundred and fifty dollars a month on
games has dropped out of school, been diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and
experiences withdrawal symptoms that result in rage, anger, and physical outbursts. The
suit alleges that it is the creators that are reliable for the damages caused by
their neglectful design, but the game developers aren't going to take this line down.
Their argument is that finding their expression through their games to be too entertaining
is not a reason to have them shut down. A lot of games nowadays
reward you for time spent in them as well as your overall skill. Fortnite's
battle Pass, for example, requires you to keep playing at risk of losing
precious skins at the end of your reward track. So yeah, this is
a lot of the games I think mentioned to this, like Minecraft at the
games, Fortnite and Rowblocks obviously, but this lawsuit like it's just like,
hey, Grand Theft Auto is too fun, too addicting, and I guess
Grand Theft Ato line probably does have like a lot of battle pass stuff,
and there's clearly like dark patterns in all of these things. There are clearly
psychological tricks that these developers are wielding against the player to get them playing for
a longer amount of time because that increases the likelihood that they'll spend more money
later. But at the same time, it's like, hey, I appreciate
the developer's position here that they are making the game more in retaining and making
people want to play for longer, and that's what a lot of people want
from these games. So where's the balance. I think that it won't hurt
to have regulators look into this stuff, to have experts like actually try to
figure out how these games are explaining us. I don't necessarily know if I
trust the government to be able to figure out what the answer to those problems
would be. More information about how these games know how our brains work,
and then using that information against us in a mass way to get us to
spend more money. Yeah, let's let's look into that. That can't hurt.
And at the same time, I don't want the games to be made
worse so that I'm less addicted to them. That doesn't seem like the answer
either. All right, We'll give a Marcus one last chance to get in
here while we hit the quick hits, quick hits, and then and then
one RESTful Trails. PlayStation Store spring sale is on with thousands of games available
at discount, so you can go ahead and check that out now. I
think that's running it at least through the end of the month. Then PlayStation
US as given away immortals of Avim, Minecraft, Legends and Skull in April,
and that's a Skull with one L. I don't know what that is.
Thunderful is selling developer heads Up or head Up for five hundred thousand euro.
I think it's after Thunderful like originally required it for much more than that.
So it's another example of one of these studios spinning off and finding a
way to survive. I think that head Up is going to a new company
that is owned by someone that still works at Thunderfold and I think originally started
head Up. So it's like one of these situations where it's like, eh,
well, we don't want to pay for it ourselves, but if you
want to find a way to make that go, keep going on your own.
Feel free. And then finally, Sony won a patent infringement lawsuit that
said it's controllers used previously existing and protected technology. That was something like a
massive number, but Sony won that. It was like five hundred million dollars
or something. Like that Sony won that they can keep using that, so
they won that patent infringement lawsuit. And then finally RESTful trails to Joseph Lieberman,
video game villain from the nineties. He was one of the main politicians
that was bringing video games as a violent medium that was going to corrupt children
to the eyes of the Senate. The games he would bring were like Mortal
Kombat, I think, like Time Crisis and Night Trap of course, so
that's cue the Night Trap music right there. Joseph Lieberman quote of course lost
that fight. It was something he kept trying to go, keep going,
even after the ESRB came around. They're like, we'll put ratings on games.
Is that cool? And most politicians were like yeah, Joseph Lieberman kept
fighting that and was kind of kept trying to make a big deal of violent,
violent video games. And then he of course was the vice presidential candidate
for Al Gore. So yeah, rest in peace, I guess by Joseph
Lieberman. All right, let's get to the poll question. Let's do that.
And while I'm getting that set up, you know, since Marcus is
having trouble getting conected, let's do one more reminder subscription at subscription dot Gaminformer
dot com. Go to gaminformer dot com, subscribe to them. That happen.
They are doing some excellent work over there, and they have been for
a while hung up, hung out with a lot of people from Game Informer
while we were at PAX. They're part of the Nasty Boys clan that we've
decided is the crew that we're gonna call the Nasty Boys. Uh. They
were a lot of fun and of course they're doing a lot of great work.
So then we check them out. All right, we get this going
slash community. All right, there we go, and here is the poll
question. Are you okay that Larry and Studio's next game isn't going to be
Balder's Gate? I'm bringing that up for everybody. News assets fade ninety six.
This is this the old pole question? Did we not do the new
pole question yet? Again? Getting pretty bad at that? All right,
yeah, wrong, poll, let me refresh. I don't think we maybe
we never put it up. All right, so we'll do We'll do two
pole questions? Oh yeah, why do I You just don't okay? Actually
it's there? Which one are you more excited for? This doesn't work anymore.
It usually it shows Okay, there we go, which one are you
more excited for? Judas from kin Levin, BioShock or neither? Judas from
kin Levin it was thirty five percent BioShock, four fifteen percent, and forty
nine percent said neither, So almost a half are not interested in either game.
But when it comes to Judas from kin Levin, a little bit more
like twice as many people are interested in that. I'm sorry these poll questions
have broke now, so you have to actually click on them to see the
results. That's annoying. All right, A new poll question, how are
you feeling about the future of video games? Great, I'm not worried.
Good, I'm somewhat worried, and bad, I'm really worried. I kind
of want to just take your guys to pull on this a pulse on this,
see how everyone's feeling about video games overall. I'm like, I'm somewhere
in between. I think personally, Mike, I'm a little worried. You
know what it feels like. Ten years ago we were talking about, hey,
the end of consoles, and that felt so absurd. As soon as
the consoles came out, the PS four and the Xbox One, and they
both did very well. And now it feels like all of the concerns we
had back then are happening now where it's like, hey, live service games
and mobile games, they're distracting players and they're gonna take up all the oxygen
out of the room. And back then it's like, well, no,
that's absurd. We're gonna keep getting a million different games. And that was
true for a while, and now here we are there are like five games
that play, people are playing and that's it. And so yeah, I'm
a little bit worried, but I want to see what howe everyone else is
feeling. Maybe games are gonna bounce back in a big way and that's how
you feel, or maybe you're way more more worried than I am. Let's
let's see how everyone's feeling when we answer this poll question and then talk about
it on Games Mornings on Giant Bomb tomorrow for Dregs Day with Tam looking forward
to that, we'll get the result then speaking a Giant Bomb, what do
we have happening? We'll have voicemail dump truck later today and then on Friday,
lookout for upf We're gonna probably play a handful of games I want to
play. Let's see what do I have happening? I want to play that
South Park game. I want to get that going. Hey, we got
ar kiss back? All right? Can you hear me? What the hell
happens? I don't know you went to the Phantom Zone? I guess so
I'm back, Zod says Hi, all right, well, hey, you
want to do that one last pitch for a game and Former subscription? Sure,
yes, so yes, I like you mentioned up top. Print subscriptions
are back Game Informer, but you can subscribe to us directly without going through
GameStop. To do that, you can go to the RL subscription dot Gaminformer
dot com. You can get ten issues of the magazine, both physical and
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Subscription dot Gameformer dot com and tell people where they can find you if you
want to tell them that your Twitter hand or something like that, and where
they can find your work. You can find me on Twitter at Marcus Stewart
seven. That's the number seven. You can also find me on Blue Sky
at the same account, though admittedly I'm much less active there so but it
does exist. And of course you can follow my work on Gameformer dot com.
You can catch us or me on our Twitch channels well, twitsch dot
tv, Slash gaming Former. I easily stream a couple times a week,
especially every Friday. Ongoing super replay series currently playing through the entirety of the
Legend of Zelda the Major's Mask for the first time. Awesome. Yeah,
so that's been a lot of fun. So that'll be happening tomorrow. And
yeah, I think that's all the plugs that I got in my bag here.
Awesome. And then I want to ask this pole question, how are
you feel about the future video games? Great, I'm not worried. Good,
I'm somewhat worried. And bad, I'm really worried. How are you
feeling about the future video games? That's an iss true, the future video
games in terms of like just the products themselves. Perfect question, however,
you need like just seeah, Like, how are you feeling about the you
know, the variety, the quality, the getting the kinds of games that
you like, that sort of thing. I'm feeling good. I guess I
know what's Yeah, whatever's like a good the skill, I'm feeling good about
that. I think a lot of cool games are coming out, whether it's
electricle a or indie stuff. Like, you know, variety has been great
in terms of like on an industry level. I think obviously it's it's not
great, but I try to be positive. I like to think this,
you know, we'll get on the other side of this eventually, so like
in the like longest term, I like to believe that it will work out
or will work itself out in some way or another. So yeah, I'll
leave it at that, like, you know, not great now, optimistic
for the future. As naive as that might be, we'll see, but
I like to, you know, like I want to think that we're going
to get better, you know. I like that answer. And you know,
I think when you're right on the long term, when you look at
the grand scale of time, I think we're going to be on the other
side of this and like thinking back, like remember when things were really bleak
in twenty twenty four, and look how far we've come. We will get
to that point again. I agree with that, all right. Any other
things to clear up? I think we talked about what's happening on Giant Bomb.
Oh yeah, fun stuff, LL app it on UPF and then we'll
have a BCR. We'll figure out what that's going to look like. Tune
in for that as well. Thank you for watching, everybody, Marcus,
thank you so much for hanging out with me today and talking about video games.
I really appreciate it. Yes, thanks for having me absolutely, and
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.