You don't mean it's the internet. You're busy. Let's do this for September
seventh, twenty twenty three. For the next hour or so, let me
help you sort through the world of gaming on Games Morning's Live with me Jeff
Grubb. Today, those switch two rumors at Games Come we're probably true and
E three is still very dead. But first please join me and welcoming today's
co host the Games Mornings. It's Jan A Choa. Everybody, Jan how
are you doing? It's really it's still really cold. It's it's going to
take a while from me to get you. Are you not wearing the beanie
because you because you want people to see you know, people are gonna be
asking to see it. Or is it like you're just trying to get used
to it because you were a beanie boy even when you had the hair and
sas those that sixty degrees every single god damn day. I'm so jealous of
you, weather. But like so, I imagine it probably is pretty chilly
up up top right now. It is, and for some reason, having
less hair, when I put the beanie on, I just feel warmer.
Maybe it's just because it's from wool to skin. You know, yeah,
there's well yeah, I mean the hair was probably an insulation layer, right,
Like it's like a little barrier between you and the and the heat generation
of the wool. I don't know if that's That's not how thermodynamics works,
Channatha, No, no, no, that's that's how it works. We're
we're experts, were expert that's that's that's right and absolutely right. I that
was a good time. It packs yet, this was a great time.
I mean not to blow smoke up our own butts here, but I feel
like every single time we all get together in person, no matter like the
number of us that do, it's always a great time. It's always a
great time. Yeah. Everyone is just like in a good mood. Uh.
Everyone is fun to hang out with everyone. It's just it's it's all
all around a good thing. And uh and then you know, we're we're
just doing our thing and then keep bumping into people who listen to it,
to the stuff and watch our stuff. And there were so many of you
and everyone was so nice. It was great. I was I was talking
to my partner late one night and then I was telling her it's like,
you know, it's so easy to engage in like or maybe not engage,
but consume the negative aspects of the Internet, right stumble Upon, like a
common threat or a Reddit threat or like a tweet or whatever that's just like,
oh, like, man, maybe I am the worst person in the
world. Maybe I should just fire myself. But then it's moments like packs
and meeting the lovely, lovely community that we have that's like, okay,
no, no, no, no, it's I'm good. We're good.
A lot of a lot of people got our back, and a lot of
people are on our wavelength in terms of the way that we enjoy the stuff
and the way we engage with it is like how they do and it inspires
them and and that kind of hearing people say that like inspired me back.
So it was it was a very good time. Really enjoy hanging out with
you guys. Well we're gonna do it against you, that's the thing we
were saying, Like you and I talked about it a little bit. Uh,
it feels more special when we get together because it's it's happening somewhat infrequently,
but it looks at least like several times a year, like we're at
a point we're a case of like four or five times a year, and
we make the most of it. We make we do a lot of fun
stuff and it's just if we're gonna try to keep that pace going because it
really works for us. I think. Yeah, And you know, apologies
to the folks where the little meet up hang out after the panel was a
little bit haphazardly put together, because it was haphazardly put together. We are
definitely definitely planning, uh, you know, the next perhaps packs we go
to or in person event like, Okay, we're gonna properly set the time
to plan this stuff out because you know, it's it's very refreshing to see
the folks on the other side. Yes, yes, absolutely, shouts out
to doctor Ryan, always be Clothing Dan, the whole crew, everyone's names
that I'm forgetting, Uh, Like fantastic time all around, like good people,
yes, good people, good vibes. It was a good time now
and I gotta I gotta talk about something real quick. I noticed this when
I when we did the Super Mario Brothers Wonder Direct talk over while you were
traveling. But Nintendo it up a thumbnail for the video for the Super Mario
Brothers Wonder Direct and it's a P and G that they saved us a JPEG,
so all of the transparent layers show up as the checkerboard in the background.
People might have who knows if it's showing up on my obs, but
I just I put it up for everyone to see this. This is Nintendo,
a billion dollar corporation right there. That it's just good work. It's
just good work all around. I tried to like make I think I did
make this our a thumbnail for that video because I was just like, that's
too stupid. I gotta do it. Uh man, that's that's good stuff.
It's yeah, I can't defend that. I just can't believe that got
through. It's so amazing. Good job Nintendo. Just wait the nightmare they'll
be when they discover web pe. Oh, it's it's over for us when
that happens. Absolutely, and they'll be the one that'll like to actually find
a way to DRM it for some reason. That's how Nintendo. Please don't
All Right, before we get into the mess, let's explain what we do.
Hear everybody most weekdays, I Jeff Greb will help piece your gaming life
back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own original
reporting for all these topics, I'll get the input of a bona fide expert
who will make me look smart. If you'll watch you live on Twitch Welcome.
You can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for
Game Mess Mornings, or find the RSS on jibomb 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. Nintendo showed Switch two demos at Gamescom. According to several
sources. This is from Andy Robinson at BGC. Nintendo showed off tech demos
for its Nintendo Switch successor behind closed doors at Gamescom. It's understood that's according
to a new report from Eurogamer, which VGC can corroborate via its own sources.
According to the publication, Nintendo privately showed invited developers specially prepared tech demos
for its next generation game consoles, which could launch next year. One Switch
to demo is understood that shout outs of the scout to have been an improved
version of the Switch launch title, zelled up Breadth of the Wild, running
at a higher frame rate, and resolution than the original game did on hardware
targeting the new consoles SPEX, but there was no suggestion that the game will
actually be rereleased. This is just a tech demo. Another VGC source claimed
that Nintendo's showcase Nintendo showcased epics impressive. The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine five tech
demo, originally released to showcase the power of the PlayStation five and Xbox Series
X in twenty twenty one, running on target spec for its new console.
Jan, that's pretty encouraging, right, I messed around with that demo.
I was very impressed by that. That's an Unreal Engine five demo. That's
the engine that you you know, it's impressive, but also maybe it does
feel like table sticks now that I start talking it out, Jan, that
you kind of need to be need to support the standard level of expectations for
Unreal Engine five for this next generation, right, even if you're Nintendo.
Yeah, but I think for Nintendo, and you know, this is us
moving the goalposts for Nintendo. But because Nintendo is like in a weird half
that compared to the current gens and like they've just held out with the switch
for so long, I feel like this is good for them and them slightly
embracing modern engines and being able to show that, Like, that's wild for
me that Nintendo is able to show Unreal Engine five, because then that kind
of puts them in a place where it's like, Okay, are we able
to port more games to the Switch? Like our third party is going to
find a home on the Switch again? Yeah, and it's uh, you
know, Switch Nintendo Switch was decent for third parties if that third party was
an indie game studio. Indie games did very very well on the Switch,
by far the biggest platform for most indie games released, to the point where
multiple points throughout the generation you were getting games releasing first or only on Switch.
Golf Story the launch game never came anywhere else, I don't think,
which is wild. That's what that game would have sold fine on Steam eventually,
but like, no, they'd rather focus on sports story and do that
instead, and that it wasn't great, But Hades came to Switch first before
it came to the other consoles and did very very well. FAI farm out
this week is I think i'd Switch first. There's another one that happened recently,
so indie games totally gonna They're gonna continue that momentum almost certainly, especially
if the form factor is very similar for the switch to But the you know,
the real question is like the EA's, the Take Two's, the the
ubisofts, these publishers that like have either dabbled or mostly skirted around Nintendo platforms
forever several generations now will making it easier to put the games, you know,
essentially another way say I'm more cost effective to put games on the switch.
Make it make more sense for them to do so. Yeah, I
think the answer is definitely yes, mostly yes. There's still the reality that
I think the market that shows up for Nintendo consoles isn't super interested in the
annual sports games from EA like that. It's you. They might do that
stuff. They do it, will do it with FIFA, But I don't
think they put Madden on the switch. They definitely don't put NHL on there.
But if they like see a reality where it's like, Okay, this
is easy enough to do, we'll just do it. Yeah, maybe maybe
that increases the likelihood that it happens. At the same time, most people
showing up for the Nintendo console going to be happy for the Nintendo games and
the handful of indie games that they're gonna be playing, and so this is
not going to make or break the Nintendo system overall, right, No,
No, I think if anything, you know, guaranteed how much the switch
has taken off, that whatever switch too is going to look like it's going
to have a guaranteed giant install base because we're going to have another version of
Mario Kart eight probably plus right, yea plus plus. But you know that
creates the opportunity in the avenue too. If it's easier to port those games
onto whatever the switches successor is, then like you have that install base that
will eventually get tired or want to stop playing Mario Kart and crossing legend of
Zelda. And if that becomes like you know, their console or their their
preferred console to play with, if we maintain like a handheld kind of structure,
then like yo, okay, I could see a lot of folks potentially
checking out Madden, getting a quick game in, or logging onto like war
Zone. If the Switch two or whatever has enough memory to support whatever the
fuck, war Zone two or war zones would be on the switch too,
because yeah, like indie games were able to take off because that was one
of the only other options there. Imagine if like the Triple As start eventually
coming on and it is an easier process for these developers slash publishers, It's
it's like a no brainer, yep. And we know that the farm factor,
the switch is a place where people want to play, even those bigger
third party games, because people a different audience than the typical PC gaming audience
showed up for the Steam Deck and games were selling very well on their according
to the reporting and early worried out of Valve. So I don't know that
people are buying games for this thing and they're buying that, and like the
Asis Roger has had a surprising amount of success. I think the appetite is
there for that handheld form factor. Oh yeah, and so it's like yeah,
if they so if this the word here is like, hey, they're
showing enough Unreal Engin five working with the Matrix demo. Those tech demos not
indicative of what every game's going to run like, but it's at least a
good sign that Nintendo's thinking about this. And Nintendo has begun using Unreal Engin
itself for a handful of games at this point, so it would be important
to them like this is, you know, one of the tools that we
use frequently in this point, and probably with more frequently more frequently they'll be
using it in the future. So the idea that they want this to look
good and have the system be capable of running Unreal Engin five in a decent
way is a good sign all around. H The other side of that is
Unreal Engion has been very good at scaling up and down since four UNRELENTI and
four was very good at that right out of the gate. Actually, the
Switch had a launch Unreal Engined four game with the snake pass or something like
that, and it's like they're like, hey, this scales the switch really
easily. We'll just do some ditherering effects and it's not going to matter so
much on that seven twenty screen. And it's like, okay, so right
out of the gate it worked well on the Switch. Now Unrealentied five kind
of having a similar story on Switch to make sense, and it's it's it's
still it's becoming more and more the tool that more developers are using, even
though you know you already thought Unrelention was already in that space. Every day
becomes more and more like the default for most studios, so it's kind of
a necessary thing for your new console. The demo is said to have been
running using Nvidious DLSS up scaling technology with advanced ray tracing enabled and visuals compared
to Sony's and Microsoft's current Gen consoles. However, it should be noted this
does not mean the switch successor will support will support raw power anywhere near that
of the of the place they shoued five or Xbox Series X, which aren't
portable devices. I think that's this is where my expectations have been jan that
the raw power will be here, but in videos tech should help it get
like near current gen or like the pro models of last Gen. I expect
like the raw power will probably be pretty close to like a base Piece four
that's been the rumors. I think that's right, but a modern day if
you were to make a PS four today with the chips available available to you
today, it would be way better than the PS four that launched back then,
because that thing was just like put together with the Xbox One as well,
and in some ways worse, just kind of put together with spare parts
from netbooks and stuff. They just had no faith then. So it's like
the efficiency of the chips today, the software technology that pairs up with these
chips, and like the chiplet process they use where they can put bespoke processors
that handle these tasks like ray tracing right there on the processor. It can
make you can make a very if you were to make a PS four today,
you can make a very good one, especially with videos the LSS stuff.
So again promising right, yeah, would would it be close to the
PS four pro or just I think pro level? Yes? In terms of
running with DLSS, I think that's that's the expectation. I have, not
not four K sixty frames per second almost certainly not uh, but ten like
ten adp uh sixty frames per second for most games. That seems doable.
It seems fine for me. Like, you know, one of my biggest
like qualms last year was I loved Zeno Blade Chronicles three. I just wish
it ran a little bit smoother. Yep. And like with the tech that's
would be in a PS four, a PS four Pro, potentially you could
one percent get there. And I feel like the way that Nintendo has been
approaching games is you know, it is more art style heavily relying on the
art style versus the actual pure performance right like Splatoon three it is literally oozing
style, right, yes, and that is going to be very different than
Call of Duty. And for me personally, I'm more more tuned to the
art style of Splito and I can't get enough of these squids. Yep.
That's and I think that's been the strength Nintendo's had for a very long time.
I mean with the WEU, so many WEU games look really really good,
and it's all good of the art style. I might think Mario kard
is one of the best looking games ever made. And I came up forever
ago now, I mean, god, we're getting close to ten years right
around that, nine years, So yeah, Nintendo's kind of at a point
point where I think the tech for them it's okay if at plateaus, but
I think they're also like, we recognize the reality of more horsepower is good
in some ways, but we are working with Nvidia, whose software teams can
help us be very creative and apparently like in when in these demos. Again,
this is all based on reporting of rumors and stuff, but it's listen,
we've heard this multiple times now starting with like Lexi saying that this would
happen when she was talking to us back back when a few weeks ago,
they tend to included a diagram with a patent UH in twenty twenty one that
shows a five forty image of being upscaled at ten eighty and it's like,
okay, so they already had that in mind, and now they're working within
video like sort of the industry leader and imagery construction. It's inevitable that DLSS
is going to be supported. I guess the question is like, are they
going to use a chip that could do DLSS three and have frame generation?
This is the tech that that the forty series cards have had that have had
that enabled them to basically create frames between the actual generated frames and then that
you know, the generated by the hardware itself, and that can make it
go from sixty frames per second to one hundred and forty frames per second pretty
easily. You know this. We talked about this yesterday on the show with
Starfield that that mod that enables this and I was getting in one hundred and
fifty to three hundred frames per second. Frame generation can be the thing that
really does unlock the power of the switch compared to these other consoles that are
using AMD and not have the same options available to them. Although FSR three
is coming out and we'll have that stuff and we'll see how that runs.
It's promising. But yeah, I'm I've been hopeful about this for a long
time. People have had like low expectations for the switch to hardware, and
I've kind of like set my eye a little bit higher. It sounds like
I'm, you know, might get what I want here. Jan Yeah,
I'm curious to Oh Greb, you can turn on the headline. Oh yeah,
thank you that I I'm curious. You know, in this instance,
when the technology is so early grub in this type of environment, would they
show it pretty much just in an enclosed case or a box before it's even
close to like production, right, because they wouldn't be showing it in what
they currently plan to release right to the audience yet, right because that hasn't
even been hammered down. They're mostly just working on the guts. It's it
seems like the idea here is that they showed a target hardware is how it's
running on target specs, So what does that does that mean? It's like
in a PC, and that's it's possible. Probably not, though they probably
have video making helping it make some prototype hardware, and then that is probably
some sort of box like thing, and then they have the prototype of what
they're thinking the hardware is going to look like, like like in a case
right next to that. That seems plausible and likely that you know, but
this thing is about a year out according to the rumors, but when it's
going to launch, you know, maybe a little bit more than a year,
probably a little bit more than a year, So they probably have a
pretty good idea of what this thing's gonna look like. They probably do have
early working prototypes somewhere, although I would be surprised if that's what they brought
around to show developers. They have to keep the handheld form factor right like
it is, like they have to real This would be the biggest fumble by
Nintendo if they chose to go to step back and go to a set console
that you can't take mobile or can't also become mobile, because they have to
have seen the influence that they themselves have had on something like the Steam Deck,
like the PlayStation portal or the Asis. Roger right, yes, absolutely,
I mean yeah, they and they know, and this is what they've
been building towards two, right because with the WU tablet and now the switch,
it's fully realized. Just just make it. Just just release it with
an old from the start. Nintendo. Yeah, that's I really hope they
do. It doesn't seem like the gun at the rumors it's going to be
an LCD screen and that's a real shame. Do you know what Mike's going
on about in chat overlapping? He seems very upset. Guys. I'll just
I'll just remake the overlay to move the hashtag. Okay, listen, that's
not me, that's that's on Jan Jan. It's all you. I'm throwing
you under the bus. Look at how that happens. Uh, I blame
our sweet little art boy, Sweet little art boy, did you but show
them? Get your ass in here. You have to answer for your crimes.
That's right. I'll always go to that choke. He's doing well.
I do too. Charles Martine and Jeru Miyamoto put out that video about the
future of Mario's voice. Nintendo dropped a video that previously teased that it previously
teased, in which Jurumomoto and Charles Martiney talked about the change of Mario's voice
actor was foosed on social media a short while ago. Martine, who voiced
Mario and other characters from Nintendo for decades, is now a Mario Ambassador.
Nintendo said that in this role, Charles will continue to travel around the world
and meet fans, performing the familiar voices at events, signing autographs, and
enjoying interacting with you all. Martine recently said that he wasn't actually sure what
being Mario Ambassador in tales. We talked about that yesterday. He also confirmed
that he isn't retiring from voice acting as a whole. Nintendo of America President
Doug Bowser commented on the situation as well, but basically saying like, hey,
yeah, this it was nice. We're moving on. Meanwhile, Super
Mario Brothers Wonder will mark the first time that we'll be hearing a voice other
than Martine playing Mario, but Nintendo is keeping quiet on who is playing the
part. Apparently we won't find out until a round launch in October. I
watched this video, it was just kind of what you would expect them.
Then were you explaining the situation? And then Martin is saying I will be
places, and then you know, doing the Mario voice saying hi to everybody,
and then Miyamoto being weird been like and he'll sign autographs for you.
It's like, oh, okay, all right, that's I guess I will
I guess that's fine. Yes, this is still it still feels strange.
But I mean, how strange gonna be when they're like, hey, we
plan to keep working together and we're gonna keep paying them, and he's on
the staff and he's gonna show up at events and talk to fans directly on
our behalf. Uh this it is probably some like philosophical idea about what they
need for the future of their of their stuff. Uh. I just I
don't know. I just don't know where this comes from. Jan I do
you have any idea to any thoughts that are new here? Because I just
don't know what to think anymore. Here's my thought, grub, and I
think everyone needs to approach this from a wrestling uh mind. The answer.
You're right, Martine is basically signed to a ww Legends contract. But it
really is it's like we're gonna keep taking carry a buddy, but we just
don't want to use you right now. We're just gonna keep you on the
payroll so you don't go anywhere else. But you know, well, well
we'll wheel you out when we need to. And hey, you keep signing,
We'll keep signing the checks. That's me, Doug Bowser is exactly what
it sounds like. And it's uh, I guess you know, let's get
to the next story, because it's like, maybe it relates to how they're
thinking about this. Nintendo is evolving into an entertainment company. According to Doug
Bowser. This comes from Liam Dulan at Nintendo Life. Nintendo has mentioned on
a number of occasions in recent years how it wanted to go beyond video games
in the company's American president, Doug Bowser, has now reiterated this. During
an interview with The Washington Post, Bowser mentioned how Nintendo is currently evolving into
being an entertainment company, with gaming as a nucleus of the overall business model.
Well. Nintendo has dabbled in other areas such as love hotels and playing
cards throughout its history. It's recent pushing other areas like theme parks in the
movie industry have been significant game changers. It's also teamed up with Toya cons
Lego and released the multiple mobile games. The Naway president went on to mention
how Nintendo is ultimately competing for people's entertainment time and engagement and exposure to the
company's IP is always the main priority when introducing new new devices and platforms.
Nintendo's president Shuntaro for Okawa has also mentioned in the past how the aim is
to expand beyond the core business of gaming and increase the number of people who
have access to Nintendo IP around the world. Mario's creator Shaghiam Miyamoto has mentioned
in the past how Nintendo would like to expand into a variety of fields with
its characters by collaborating with other companies. This is this still sounds right.
So they started this initiative jan when Awada was still around, when he was
still alive, and he was trying to shift them past the WIU when WEU
was clearly a failure, and they're like, okay, let's reassess. And
his plan was like, okay, well, we're going to fast track the
switch and we are going to begin licensing our properties more aggressively, something that
we shied away from for decades because of the really bad Mario Movie in part,
and part it was that. I'm sure there was other reasons, but
in part it was the Mario movie that they didn't like. I think it's
fine this uh you know, it's hard to argue with the results. Right,
The Mario movie has been very very successful, only Barbie's beating it this
year, I think. And then the theme park has been very very successful,
and and it seems like primed if they were to put anything else from
the Nintendo world in there, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Animal Crossing, whatever,
it's going to be just as successful. So it's like you kind of
can't help but go down this route if you're Nintendo. Right. Yeah,
this also makes me think where and I know you said that a watta started
to move the company this way, and it makes me think with Doug Bowser
making the statement that is this kind of gonna be what maybe Nintendo of America
is kind of like there Wheehouse, Yeah right, because like Kyoto has always
like been hesitant about like giving a lot of responsibly over over to Nintendo of
America. Nintendo of America famously a marketing company, and I always say a
law firm, like they're like the first president after Arakawa, who who was
from Japan and came and I think like he was a son in law of
I can't remember his name now, the first president of Nintendo and and then
after him, the next president of Nintinto of America was Howard Lincoln, the
lawyer who won a bunch of cases in court for Nintendo of America. Like
that's how much they are and grand as just we enforced the law of Nintendo
Land. I think it makes sense a sense in this century to kind of
shift and light Nintendo of America be the entertainment company side of things. They
have. They can have relationships with Hollywood, relationships with theme parks, and
they could facilitate that creatively with obviously Miamoto probably still taking a very large role
in both of those things, something he's already done for both the movie and
the theme parks. So yeah, I think that would be a good use
of Nintendo of America going forward. Yeah, honestly, And you know,
we went to Universal Studios in LA recently and a lot of that park I
think could just be repurposed for Nintendo, like keep the current Super Nintendo Land
whatever they're calling it where it is. But then a lot of the surrounding
parts of that park could definitely be readjusted to reflect Nintendo, and I feel
like that would do wonders like there's currently the Simpsons ride, and Simpsons isn't
owned is currently owned by Disney right or Fox Disney Hey. Universal. As
much as I hate to see that giant Krusty the clown Head torn down,
tear that shit down, you could totally add Donkey Kong. Like we mentioned
some breath of the wild Legend of Zelda attraction, but hear me out,
grub. A big thing that has helped revitalize Universal Studios outside of Nintendo World
and Land and the Harry Potter stuff, has been these Halloween horror nights Luigi's
Mansion. I think Luigi's Mansion is they have to do it, and they
need to do it, like they need to do it soon. It seems
clear they're not gonna do it this year. They probably would have already started
talking about it. Sure, sure, next year has to happen. It
has to happen. I need it real bad, right, And also,
you know, if they want to include like a water park, just have
it be Splatoon themed. Yes, that'd be grid or Aildelphino probably split Doug
get on the phone, make it, make it happen, Doug, I
mentioned that Arakawood was I think the son of law of Yamauchi, whose name
I couldn't remember, and people like Nepo baby. It's actually interesting in Japan
how it works a lot of time, or how it used to work.
I don't think it does this way anymore. Maybe it still does. But
the way that that Japanese companies would stay in the family is that the they
wouldn't make their son the new CEO. They would find who's gonna be in
the next CEO and then have that person married their daughter. Oh, it's
like it was, and that's I's pretty sure that's what happened with Arakawa.
But that's something that happened frequently in Japan, and how they would keep family
businesses as family businesses. If that's incorrect, feel free to write in let
me know. I don't mind correcting myself on the show. All right,
let's keep going here. E three confirms no twenty twenty four LA event with
complete reinvention reportedly planned for twenty twenty five. This is from Andy Robinson at
BGC Events Company. Reid Pop has parted ways with E three organizer the ESA
following the last minute cancelation of this year's event. Following earlier reports, the
ESA also has also confirmed it will not hold an E three at the Los
Angeles Convention Center next year, although it's claimed it has not outright cancel plans
for a twenty twenty four event of some kind. According to Games Industry dot
is, the trade body is working on a complete reinvention of the E three
show for twenty twenty five. Wherever we heard that before. E three was
due to return for its its first in person show in four years this summer
is part of the multi year deal with packs organizer Redpop. However, after
months have built up an uncertainty, the show was canceled in March. At
the time, Redpop claimed that it simply did not garner the sustained interests necessary
to execute it in a way that wood would showcase the size, strength and
impact of our industry. In a new statement, Repops games event boss Kyle
Madison Kish said, we have enjoyed our time working with the ESA, appreciate
and appreciate their commitment to the games industry as a whole. While we will
not be involved with the future of E three. We look forward to seeing
its evolution and where the EESA takes it. The ESA is sort of running
out of partners here. The ESA tried to run the show itself, couldn't.
They tried to partner with eight bit uh A bit. The ended up
doing what what is it? I am a bit? Thank you? Yes,
I am a bit and Jeff Keely Uh they did? They left and
did their own thing called Summer Gamefest now and I am a bit runs most
of that show and Jeff Keeley does the showcase. And then they went read
pop like the natural sort of op there as the company that runs packs.
Now, Hey, we want this thing to be a profitable show where people
come and do stuff and play games and the industry gets together. RePOP does
that, and now RePOP no longer does E three. They were gonna do
it, they never ended up pulling the trigger on that. I don't know
where they go from here. Does the EESA try to take it back over?
I mean, good luck? I think the problem with something like this,
Jen is that you need to have people with who have done this before
on your staff. And how do you as the EESA attract that kind of
talent when you've been known to be such a shit show. And I think
the answer is you don't, and what you end up foisting these responsibility voices
of the word of the week, by the way, foisting these responsibilities on
people who have never done this sort of thing before, and then you look
around months later like why is everything a mess? Well, it's because you're
making people who have no idea what they're doing try to figure this stuff out
to no fault of their own. That that's the continued fault of the ESA.
Right, Yeah, you're right, they're running out of partners. I
don't even know at this point who they would try and up other than like,
I don't know what they would they take a stab at, Like yo,
hey I GN you guys, you guys want to you guys watch could
maybe do something? Yeah, but I think I gns are happy to do
their own thing. I don't think totally. Why would they want to partner
with the with the three or the YESA in the ass? I think?
I mean, the E three name is still a lot there's still a lot
of value there, So a lot of value. Yeah, there's an an
incredible amount of value but at the same time, I feel like the value
is just getting progressively tainted. It just keeps stepping in gloom at this point
where I think some of the general public has seen enough headlines of like E
three is dead, it is dead now, and then Summer Game Fest is
here, just Keeley in a beach chair, and like Sunglass is just lounging.
That's right, looking, good looking, looking strong, working on that
tan. Jeff Keeley is gonna just keep eating that that lunch. Though.
While E three is popular and as valuable as a brand, gamers also move
on pretty quickly and ut and the momentum is moving in such a strong different
direction here that I think it'll be hard to I just don't believe this idea
that this is going to be completely reinvented in a successful way for twenty twenty
five. I don't think ready three in twenty twenty five, or watching anything
called you three even by then. I still think A three will come back
at some form in the future, but I think it'll be a longer break
and sort of get sold off. The naming rights will get sold off to
someone else, and they'll do something called the three, and it'll be weird
and and probably problematic. Who knows. Yeah. E three is gonna create
like a go fund me and then you're gonna have to buy speaker hats from
them. Well listen, yea three hotel. Yeah, Tari buys E three
and we and we get the three hotel. I listen, I'll book a
room. I'll go right now. Yeah, my room's in Kenschel Hall.
So I'm so I'm so sad that the Autori Hotel never opened up. As
soon as that got announced, they reach out to me or like, we
got a room waiting for you as soon as it's open. I'm like,
hell, yeah you do, let's go. I can't wait. Never happened.
I just wanted to hang out with Nolan Bush now everybody, I mean,
we all do U. E three confirms no, twe I'm sorry.
That's what the when we just did? You know what we're gonna do instead
of me repeating a story I just read, We're gonna take a break and
when we get back, we'll continue with the news, including talk about what
Starfield do. What that Starfield do. We'll talk about it when we get
back. After this, we're back. Starfield's Xbox exclusivity yielded a better product,
Todd Howard says from Tom Ivan at VGC, but thus this. Todd
Howard has discussed the benefits of Starfield being an Xbox console exclusive. In an
interview with the BBC, the games director said the ability to focus on fewer
platforms always resulted in better products. When you're making something exclusive, then the
more you can focus, he explained, you know, this is the hardware
or the thing are playing on, so the ability to focus on that always
yields a better product. While Starfield isn't available on PS five as the would
once have planned prior to its acquisition by Microsoft, the game is also available
on PC and other platforms via Xbox Cloud Gaming. You do want people to
be able to access it, of course, Howards said, but being with
Xbox means there's an ease of access for us, and I've told we're expecting
more people playing this launch than anything we've ever done before, and that's despite
the success of our previous games. I do also think people attach brands to
certain games. When you think of Zelda, you think of the switch,
and I think there are times when that could be a real benefit. I
think there's no doubt that a game like Starfield benefits from having this sort of
this is an important Xbox game behind it in some ways. I mean,
clearly being on more platforms is helpful in the obvious ways, right, more
platforms means more people, but by people putting their expectations in weight of like
this is Xbox trying to make things real in terms of their strategy, it
puts a lot of It puts a lot of expectations on the game. But
if the game can mostly live up those expectations, which which it seems like
Starfield is doing, people sort of get like, get more motivated to go
check it out. And I think that's worked out for the scam. What
do you think? Yeah, I think that has been a lot the motivating
factor for a lot of the audience, where it's like, well, this
is one of our only games, let's let's check it out. Or you'll
have a lot of people being like I don't necessarily like space, or this
isn't my type of game, but this is all I got. I'll check
it out. And it's you know, game pass right, It means I
don't it's a game passed now, so why wouldn't I check it out?
It's it's easy enough to do that, and I think you know clearly,
uh they that that's worked out really well for them. I mean to the
point where this this next story Starfield passes one million current users on launch days,
comes from Antie mccou at game Spot. After years of development, a
big delay and a big delay, Starfield finally landed on September sixth for all
players. The launch day was a huge success, as Starfield surpassed one million
concurrent players on all platforms of cour to Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer, this would
seemingly count players across the Xbox series, X and S and PC, as
well as many other places you could stream the game via the cloud. Thanks
to all the players who helped us reach this great milestone, Spencer set on
social media, also extending congratulations to the developers that path as the game studios.
This is not too surprising. We've seen games like boulders Gate three hit
like eight hundred thousand occurrens on Steam by itself, h you know, and
just just just Steam alone. So a game like Starfield that's available on game
Pass getting over a million on launch day, even though it's like as second
launch day, that doesn't really matter too much that this is the real launch
day. Yeah, that's that's not too surprising, and it's it's kind of
where this game should be and and the fact that it did hit it shows
that things are working, Game Passes working. The game is still selling,
like the you know it hit had like two hundred thousand players or something like
that on Steam alone in the early access period, where people would have had
to play one hundred dollars to play the game. So it's like it's sales
aren't being hurt. It's just like all around, people were excited for this
game and all the things that's associated with are benefiting as a result, right
And you know, I can see I can feel Phil Spencer's smile as this
happens, of like folks signing up for game Pass to at least check this
out, and then Todd is politely smiling nodding behind him like okay, yeah,
okay, thanks Phil, Yeah, okay, cool. Yep. It's
it's the kind I mean, I think that game Passes in a really strong
place right now in terms of the offering. Uh and yeah, and that's
because the third party games that keep putting in there have been mostly fine,
too good, and they're at least like it. It is at least content
to make it feel like your subscription is worth it. But sometimes it's like,
you know, the pretty like lines of p is coming to game Pass
here pretty soon, and it's like, and that's been a very cool and
for most people that's like, oh, that's just another game. They're not
thinking about, oh Xbox first party versus third party and stuff like that.
But you still do need those first party exclusives to really win over everybody,
and now this feels like the start of that in some some major way.
We'll see how people feel about Hell Blate two in Force a Motorsport and Perfect
Dark and Avowed and all these other games that are still yet to come.
But Starfield did need to hit. And while it's, uh, you know,
it's it's reviews weren't like a ninety seven on Metacritic, it's still is
it hit high enough for a bethestic game which is going to just live on
forever and be completely transformed through mods, that this strong start is going to
be something they're building on for the next ten years almost without a doubt.
Let's yeah, there was, yeah, just kind of do you think that
this this uh has any of this confirms sort of Microsoft's decision to keep these
games exclusive. Obviously there they did something different with the Activision acquisition, but
I've always heard that like Elder Scroll six definitely will all so be exclusive to
Xbox and PC. Do you think that's still true, because I mean maybe
that could have changed after all that stuff they went through with the regulators.
But I think probably based on this, they're like feeling good about that.
What do you think I think they're one hundred percent feeling good about it.
I think they'll they're fine with exclusivity, but if your platform supports Xbox Game
Pass, then they will play ball in that regard. I could see them
quickly switching it to exclusive to Xbox Game Pass or something similar to that,
versus just on the Xbox console or chest on the PC. Because you know,
we've seen rumblings for forever now about like what if the Nintendo Switch had
Xbox Game Pass, or you know, what if the Steam Deck had an
official Xbox Game Pass launch or some some deal or like that that you didn't
have to like do a couple jump through a couple of hoops. I think
they're more they're going to feel more or confident that they can pull that off,
and especially you know with the momentum that they're starting with Starfield and this
is going to carry on to like you know, hopefully we see like a
million concurrent users playing fortsa and you know, like we will that like a
racing game, will we'll get that type of shine. And I'm interested to
see how the Baton can continue getting passed. Hopefully it can you know,
ye, yeah, maybe not a million current Forts, but it could get
closets. Horizon five it did very well again and a lot of it that
was an early access. But we need to pay one hundred dollars for the
game. It's like we sold a million copies for at one hundred dollars on
Steam before anywhere else. So it's like, yes, you know, for
what it's worth. Grub. This morning, I got an email from seventy
saying like, hey, just letting you know that we're going to make these
changes to PlayStation Plus, and then I immediately canceled my subscription. Yeah,
despite knowing like the couple of benefits like cloud saves and all that jazz,
but I've still been paying for PC game Pass and I don't even use it
every single month. It is just that thing where it's like there is some
utility in it because you know, like you said, I can check out
a miscellaneous or a random game for the low barriers entry yep. And I
think for them it continues to be important to have people feeling good about game
Pass. I mean, games are still selling as as retail products. They
are having a lot of success on that side of things. Game Pass subscription
sales sort of a plateau a little bit because consoles are tapped out. You've
got to imagine that a big game like Starfield can maybe move the needle there.
As more people show up for Xboxes to play the game, they will
also show up for game Pass. And I think you know, people are
saying, hey, I want to two year delay on Like let's say the
game Starfield shows up on PlayStation five and two years from now. Does that
really hurt stuff here? What's like the way they talk about game Pass,
maybe it does. They want they want people to be like, hey,
in five years, I'm like not just now deciding I'm gonna get around to
playing games, So I'm gonna get an Xbox, I'm gonna get some form
of game Pass. And they want Starfield to be front and center there as
like this is where you could play that, and that that probably still makes
sense, although I wouldn't be surprised if things change in five years and Microsoft
looks around, like, you know what, Starfield on PlayStation. It doesn't
matter. Point, We've kind of maximized our return on that investment. Let's
go take it somewhere else, right, Yeah, further down the line,
one hundred percent when things change. I think their current strategy doesn't support that.
But that strategy is not some like written in stone somewhere right right.
You know, they're moving forward with all of their business deals. Doesn't Starfield's
exclusivity to the Xbox that doesn't quite matter for them for the call of duty
stuff. Sure, so they can move forward with the Activision deal like all
right, we'll play ball, but Starfield they can hold on to that gem
and then, you know, further down the line, if things do change
and they do need to READAPT then like all right, we'll throw Starfield there,
and then I could one getting a decent bump on the PlayStation. Yep,
agreed. Uh, if if that happens, we'll see no idea,
no idea. Internally, I know that they allegedly for years they've they've been
thinking it's best to keep these things for real deal exclusive because that'll have the
biggest positive effect on game Pass. And as long as game Pass is still
the core strategy, I don't think that will change. But I don't but
that can change at any moment in the future. If that strategy changes,
all right, keep moving here, Apex Legend Studio. Respond has very exciting
projects coming, EA says. This is from Haley Williams at Game Spot.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson has teased that there are some exciting upcoming projects in the
works of Respond Entertainment while speaking that the Goldman Sachs Communocopia plus Technology Conference twenty
twenty three, which just can't be a real name for something this is from
Video Games Chronicle or that that the Video Games Chronicle did theritin reporting here,
Wilson also touted EA's purchase of Respond as maybe one of the most incredible acquisitions
ever done in the industry, which is kind of hard argue with. I
think maybe only what's the Spider Man Studio Insomniac. Maybe Insomniaco is like the
only better deal there. Speaking of on the subject of acquisitions, Wilson said
that EA has only done a few acquisitions and called out it's twenty seventeen,
four hundred and fifty five million dollar purchase of Respond as potentially one of the
best in the industry. The EI CEO praised Response ongoing work of Apex Legends,
as well as as it's continued success with a Star Wars Jedi series.
They're an incredible team, and they've created incredible value for us, for our
sharehold shareholders, and certainly for these global communities of players across the Apex and
the Jedi series, Wilson said, and you should imagine that there's some other
things going on at RESPOND that we're very excited about that we're not going to
talk about, but we're very excited about just giving the quality of that group.
We've gone over these before, but it's like when he says that,
it's like always good to like touch on it again. There are they're definitely
making another Jedi game. They're gonna make the totally the third and final Jedi
game. The second one did very well well enough to justify the work going
immediately into Jedi three. They're going to continue working on Apex Legends, but
they also have a Star Wars first person shooter in the works that's going to
have a lot of I talked about that stylized action and movement. It's gonna
be very kinetic. And then there is that that strategy game that they're working
on with a third party partner that they're like partnering with and they're overseeing that.
And then there is the titan Fall one director's sort of skunk works project
that he's been working on for years and years. Likely also some sort of
first person shooter, but that could change. Again, it's a skunk Works
project, so it's like they're just trying a bunch of different ideas. But
the people who have seen that have been very excited about it. Of course,
this team was also working on single player titan Fall stuff for Apex Legends.
At one point all of that got scrapped. That's not happening anymore.
I'm so sorry for everyone who wants titan Fall three. That's me. I'm
that person. We're not getting it, responds in a funny place, Jeny.
They are definitely the darling at EA, and yet many of the people
that made that possible have left a lot of like a lot of the senior
talent at at Respawn have moved on their their their shares have vested because like
the deal closed in twenty seventeen, it's twenty twenty three. Now, everyone's
shares have definitely vested by now. In terms of getting that money that they
earned from that saleh they took that money, They probably took a lot of
investment money, and they went on and they started their their own studios.
So it's like, I think part of this is like him saying, hey,
Respond is still very important, but we need to keep who we have
and we need to be building them up whenever we get a chance, because
if they don't have Respond, what else do they have, yeah, other
than your annual sports games and Skate four whenever Skate four is going to come
out. Eight. Respond is definitely the breadwinner at EA right now. I
mean there's also the SIMS team, and you know we're also literally and yeah,
so the SIMS sports team, the sports games, these things are known
quantities that that continue to deliver on a certain expectation. Reson Bond does seem
like the one that can produce something new that that also succeeds, and that's
very difficult, and it's been very difficult for EA for a very long time.
Also, they're one of the couple studios out there that are making very
good license games, like you know, especially in making good with the Star
Wars license. They're the one team at EA that could figure it out,
right. Yeah, I mean, those those Dice battle Front games are are
fine. I never really fell in love with any of them, but some
people really like them. But but I do think like those those Battlefront games
versus Star Wars Jedi, it's it's a little bit night and day of terms
of like we have an idea and a sort of a vision here. And
while the tech side of those Star Wars Jedi games at launch have always been
a problem, the games themselves have been very solid. Total. Which one
do you do? What are you trying to do? Your tramplight Spider Man?
Okay, go to the PlayStation logo, go over to to the left,
the blue one. Nope, go down. Yea. This is for
you at home, everyone, This is for you everybody. She's trying to
play Spider Man. Miles Morales. Uh, actually you're already on the place
that she just hit the back button and pick up the pink controller. Yeah,
there you go. Hit the back button. That's all right, Hit
the back button, guys, it's it's here. I'm gonna I'm gonna help
her real quick. Just vamp for a step. Uh something. Spider Man
related folks that I've seen on the Tiki talkies are people doing aesthetically pleasing I
guess swing performances in miles morales to music. I've they've been doing that for
forever now, because I saw that like two years ago, and every couple
of months I'll see it again, and they always have like three thousand live
concurrent viewers for that stuff. It's it's so funny and it's it's so cool.
And I don't mean funny in a in a disingenuous or mean way.
We're just like, hell, yeah, that's cool. It's just video game
as mr stuff. It's yeah, people just love watching Spider Man swing.
I guess I like it too. And I also love watching people unbox a
Spider Man PS five. Yeah, that's I think most people should be consuming
that content. A bald gamer unboxing a PlayStation five. And that's I'm not
talking about you or Mike. I'm talking about Dan, if you at all
like or have fallen down a YouTube shorts hole or an Instagram reels hole.
Just just just pull the plug, just go download TikTok and can lose five
days. Can I tell you why I think this is my my conspiracy theory
jan people China. Well, clearly people are racist against China, Like that's
that's what it goes about saying. But I think the conspiracy theory side of
it is that TikTok is like a very powerful educational tool, Like you can
learn something very quickly on TikTok. Like I've learned more about ADHD by watching
TikTok than I ever did go into a doctor over thirty years. And it's
like that there's something. It's like, So if someone could wield that to
say, promote so realism, I think the people who have been trying to
get TikTok band the United States wouldn't like that very much. And let's say,
I've seen some pretty good TikTokers promoting socialism. So it's like I think
that that scares people. That's my conspiracy theory, everybody, So conspiracy theory.
Don't worry, folks, But if you do go to down at TikTok
hole that's also bad to go outside sometimes touch grass, all right, grass,
I don't know, Yes, there you go. EA's plan for exponential
growth. This comes for Brendan Sinclaic Games, and this redop is I did.
I got a short version of this just because it's pretty familiar stuff and
I just wonder, like, do we think this is possible? EA CEO
Andrew Wilson believes that the company has potential for start up like growth ahead of
it. Wilson plans to achieve this disproportionately by disproportionally investing in IP as a
platform and creating new worlds for players to engage with. Wilson is particularly upbeat
about the potential of its FIFA franchise all now known as the FC Franchise,
and other major EA titles. He believes that franchises can grow even larger in
the future, and that they could spawn universes and ecosystems the same way as
Star Wars and Marvel have. And I would I would tell him, look
at Star Wars and Marvel today, not exactly like at having exponential growth.
They sort of are serving their audiences and on a bit of a stasis.
So Andrew Wilson what the hell are you talking about? Man? What's he
talking about? Jan I don't get it. I don't know, because it's
not like Marvel right now or Star Wars for quality. Yeah, and if
even it was quality, it's like I think it's just like, yeah,
we're getting our subscribers who like that stuff on Disney Plus and what's next nothing
the type which this is the type of stories that pissed me off grub because
I see EA's planned for exponential growth and two weeks a week and a half
ago, we were just talking about the layoffs that happened at EA. Yep,
exactly, Yes, Listen, he's got to say this stuff. I
got What does he does he have to? Like if you just go to
do you don't Maybe you don't have to promise exponential growth. If you are
one of the bigger publishers in gaming and you've been you've like sort of been
at the same size mostly for years, and like you're like one of your
biggest franchises, Battlefield is completely lost in the woods. You just screwed up
the Star Wars licensing deal for a decade straight, like all these the opportunities
to build these universes, you've messed up so far? Why is that going
to change? And I just I don't believe it is, but I guess
I'm not too surprised that he's saying it. Uh Skoal and Bones dev Ubisoft
Singapore facing union action over pay and workplace treatment. Sophie McAvoy Games Industry dot
is. Ubisoft Singapore is facing union action organized by the count of the country's
Creative Media and Publishing Union. According to Kataku, the union voice concerns regarding
workplace treatment, equality and pay at the studio. At the request of the
CMPU, a branch of Singapore was National Trade Union Congress. A ballot exercises
being conducted this week among eligible team members in the studio to determine whether formal
recognition should be granted. Ubisoft told Kataku, Ubisoft believes in the importance of
listening to our employees and fostering an open dialogue, and we believe that we
have appropriate mechanisms and initiatives if in place to continue creating a great workplace.
I don't believe you. We will continue to engage with our team members to
gather their feedback and work together to create a workplace where everyone can thrive.
Ubisoft Singapore was previously accused of sustaining a toxic culture in a twenty twenty one
expose the country's Parte Alliance for Fare and Progressive Employment Practices. Subsequently investigated investigated
the studio, with the publisher reporting that the body concluded systems were in place
to handle any misconduct reports. Scoll and Bones has lost its third creative director
though since twenty thirteen, And that's just happened recently Jan And that game is
still supposed to come out in Ubisoft's physical twenty twenty four, which I believe
ends either in March twenty twenty four or June twenty four. But boy,
I don't know. I don't think that that is that game ever really come
out. I suppose it has to still, uh, I don't know why
they don't. They don't just get they had a chance. He was about
to come out like what earlier this year or late last year, and then
they delayed the last minute. Again, Why don't they just pull the plug
on this thing and put it out. I don't get it. GREV,
allow me to put my TikTok podcast or hat on yea, let's do it?
Is Skull and Bones dead in the water. That's good stuff. I'm
sorry, No, that's good Sean. Just take that and then take everything
I said and then make it loop somehow, and that's that's a billion views
right there. No problem, Yeah, yeah, they there are still reports
that the studio is kind of a mess over there. But we'll see what
happens with this, this move to unionize. We'll definitely keep following the story.
There a couple more stories. Mortal Kombat one's new mode is Mario Party
with Fatalities. From Jordan Alderman at Polygon. First of all, everyone,
are we sure that that Dan's not here? We gotta make sure that he's
not here to hear this? Uh the games. The game features a new
single player mode called Invasions. Invasions is a top down game board where players
fight and bite size chunks of combat. Players could choose their combatants and a
cambo to support them. Cameo fighters can be used to attack, throw,
or project projectiles. The game features a Pokemon esque elemental strength and weakness system
Jena my Ghost type sub zero Jen. It's Pokemon with Mortal Kombat and Mario
Party. Evasions will follow a seasonal calendar with new content Mortal Kombat one will
be released on September fourteenth on PlayStation five, Windows, PC, Xbox Series
X, but not the switch. You got it on the switch. It's
already out because it's leaked on the line of people are already playing it.
So that's weird because like you can think Mortal Kombat one, it's gonna be
a big game, and they wouldn't put the whole thing on the card and
you have to download some of it, but apparently the whole game is there
on the game card, So weird. I guess we're gonna have to end
up trying this choice. It's inevitable. Yep, it's inevitable. Yeah,
this is what we've signed up to. This is this is the job.
This is the job, all right. I'm gonnahit These last couple. After
twenty five years, Sega's bringing Daytona USA to a console for the first time.
This is from Andy Robinson at BGC Classic Sega Arcade racing game Daytona USA
two will receive its first ever homeport twenty five years after it was released in
arcades. That's according to the latest issue of Japanese magazine for Mitsu, which
reports that the nineteen ninety eight racer will appear in Like a Dragon guiding the
man who erased his name as the renamed Sega Racing class at two in order
to avoid rights issues. Jan Me and me and Mike just played this at
that game works that we did the meet up at. We saw it and
we were very excited because you don't see Daytona two all the time. You
see Daytona USA Racing all like everywhere. I've definitely played Daytona to a bunch.
It's a great game, especially with ducks. This one had still had
the working hydraulics, like maybe they weren't working as good as they once for
a jin, but definitely you know, you turn the left and then the
thing turns to the right to like mimic the like, oh my god,
I'm like going this way and still felt great. I love that stuff.
I always love that stuff. Sega Rally two was definitely my game, but
I love Daytona two as well, So clearly me and Mike made this happen.
Congratulations, everybody, You're welcome. We'll keep we'll keep doing the good
work. I have a quick question to pause it to the ether here.
No one has to answer this immediately. But I'm going to be under the
assumption that Sega has some type of dealings and wheelings in making the D box
seats for theaters. I wouldn't be surprised, yes, because they like they
definitely were the D Box Daytona Daytona Box, the Daytona Box. I wouldn't
be surprised because they probably do have patents on a lot of that arcade hydraulic
seat technology, because they were the ones that did the most of it,
at least that I saw from my experience of like going to arcades in my
youth. I'll use that that phrase, so I guess that's I wouldn't be
surprised if that's exactly what's happening there. I would be so insufferable if I
didn't work here and made video essays, because I would just draw the stupidest
correlations. I would. I would I would watch that Jan's I would like
that a lot. Don't enable me who enabled me in other ways? Listen
to the BombCast next week to hear I'll I enable Jan. All right,
let's see the last story here. Former PlayStation boss says gaming faces existential threat.
This is when Grace ben fell at Game spot. According to former PlayStation
boss Sean Leyden, non endemic companies like Netflix or Google or on are one
of the biggest threats to the video game business today. Laden spoke at a
keynote on stage with Games Industry Dot bizz head Christopher Dring at the website's investment
summit Submit. I think Latin it says submit, but I think it's summit.
Last week, I actually talked to Chris about this because we were waiting
in line for that supermar rubbish wonder. I talked to Chris a whole bunch
about it, and he was like saying that the event went really well.
But we talked to Laden. Laden was mentioning how that these companies are trying
to come into the space and they don't really know what they're doing, and
then they fail frequently, but they have enough money to sort of fail fast
and push through, and they can even though if it's like easy to look
at Amazons of sort of blusters so far and be like blunders, excuse me,
and be like, oh, they will never make it work. They
have enough money and maybe enough will to sort of force their vision of what
gaming should be into existence in some ways, and that could have knock on
effects to sort of make these other companies respond in such a way that they're
like gaming could fundamentally change, and it's like, it does feel like we've
mostly found a pretty good equilibrium with gaming. Like we could compare it to
movies and music, right jam, where movies you used to buy our movies
and every movie would come out in DVD and every movie would come out on
the highest format physical version, and they no longer do. In every case
a lot of cases, it's like, are we going to get the four
K Blu ray of this? That is who knows? It's impossible to know.
The companies won't straight up tell because they don't even know if they're gonna
do it. In gaming. Even with a company of like Microsoft with game
Pass, they're like, we are committed to the choices. You can buy
every single one of these games or you can get them on game Pass,
and both are completely viable to you. And it's digital and it's physical,
and there will always be a physical of all these big games at the very
least, and we've sort of have an understanding of how that works, and
it doesn't seem like anything it's going to change that from the side of these
endemic companies who are once non endemic and just lay them notices them or points
that out. But for Amazon, Google or Netflix at ten sent even,
and so they have incentives to come in there and disrupt that stuff, and
it could be disruption that isn't necessarily what most people who spend a lot of
money on gaming today would want. I'm still I guess maybe I'm still not
too worried about this jam because it does seem like the gaming populous sort of
wags the dog there. We our desires of how we want to interact with
games and buy games is how they have to meet They have to meet us
halfway, and so much meeting them halfway, right, Yeah, they're they
got to be ergonomic grub, they gotta they gotta condition themselves to work to
us and everything. Yeah. And I you know, I'm specifically looking at
that shortlist that Layden mentioned where it's like Netflix, Google, Apple, and
Amazon, and I don't think of them as barbarians at the gate. I
think of them as you know, big dogs that want a piece of the
okay. Uh. And you know, Netflix released one of my favorite mobile
games last year with Point B and you know they've brought a very niche game
like into the Breach out to wider audiences by including it part of Netflix Games.
The only name here that I see that rubs me the wrong way is
Google. But then Google Stadia failed on its own right, like they were
able to buy up big time producers and create these companies and sure they didn't
go anywhere, but people still got their paycheck, that's right. And then
Apple Arcade for as much of up as up and down as it's been.
Hey, Apple Arcade also had that Hell Kitty Island Adventure, which is a
pretty decent, if not good, animal crossing clone for folks that are curious
about it. And then you know, Amazon, they had that giant MMO
that came out. Was that two three years ago? Now? As far
as yes, I'm new World, New World, right, I think so?
I think that is still going on. Maybe yeah, lost dark Lost
dark Lost, it's a lost ark, a new world of them? One
of them? Yes? Are there two of them? Maybe there might be
two of them? I don't know. I think you're right though, Like
Barbarians of the Gate, maybe not so much. Maybe Eric Andres at the
Gate where they're like letting me Yeah, alright, it's in that case,
like all right, just be come here. You're a little weirdo. Yeah
exactly, Yeah, all right, fine, Like what are you doing over
here? Netflix? Okay? You want me to play these games on my
phone? Okay, I'll look into it maybe, and you know, for
what it's worth. I know a lot of people who were saying that Netflix
was going to disrupt the movie industry or the general entertainment industry, but Netflix
has been responsible for a lot of like noteworthy shows and movies to come out
in the last decade, right, yeah, and I do. I always
kind of raised my eyebrows when people are like Netflix like straight up ruined all
this stuff. I was like, Netflix couldn't do that if for one of
the consumers weren't demanding a style of content delivery that Netflix was giving them.
And also, we're coming out of the Golden era of TV and that was
directly because of Netflix. And maybe it wasn't sustainable. I don't give a
shit whatever. We got a bunch of really great TV for more than more
than a decade. It was like fifteen years straight of it, just like
amazing stuff coming from HBO and then Netflix and then all of these services and
if that stuff is going to change a little bit, it was none of
this stuff is sustainable, so yeah, I'm a big surprise there, So
yeah it should get some credit. But like Netflix, Netflix did change the
way we consume stuff, but like I said, only because people didn't like
go into the movies and uh and like you saw, like people would put
out female centric comedies in movie theaters, it's like they wouldn't do very well.
But if that stuff was released as a movie or a show on on
one of these streaming services, they would have blown up and been very popular.
And it's just because like the like that that audience. For a little
while there was like why I don't want to go to the movies. That's
I'm going to go out and have to get dressed up and maybe get harassed
by somebody. I don't want to deal with that. This is much better.
And then Barbie came out and showed that that audience is still willing to
come out and be like, if you can make a movie about us,
we're gonna show up. So it's these things come and go in waves.
And I think the or the problem for these companies with gaming is gamers are
very immobile. We are. We are fixed in our ways, and we
are not going to just like suddenly change our behaviors because you give us a
slightly better deal. It's like, no, I have my collection and I'm
going to keep collecting games the way I have then, because that's what I
love. And I think that speaks to that legacy audience, or that existing
audience that is also exists in TV. You know, I think we were
talking about it here where. I don't know anyone that watches yellow Stone,
but yellow Stone is one of the biggest TV shows. Same thing with the
Big Bang Theory, right, I've never seen an episode, but that show
apparently does Gangbusters. Yep. So for as much as you know, these
x CEOs are talking that there are barbarians at the gate. Sorry if there's
you hear a drilling happening, fantastic, For as much as Doom saying as
they're saying, I think it's because they don't want to share their piece of
the pie. Yep. I think that's absolutely right. All right. We
have the poll question from yesterday. Let's see here, if there's a direct
how many farm sims will be in it? Zero five percent, one ten
percent, two gets thirty six percent and forty nine percent say there will be
three or more farm sims in the next direct. I think last year we
did get about five, got about five. Maybe it was more than that,
maybe it was actually around eight, but it was like that was last
year September to direct. Maybe we'll see if we get even more this year.
Probably not various Fay farm Sure Fai Farms actually out like I think now
as sure this week reviews started going up for that. I was able to
play a tiny little bit of a bit of it, but I've been playing
other stuff we traveled to packs. It's been hard to spend a lot of
time with it. I think it's going to be a pretty solid farm sem
though, with all the magical elements, I think people are gonna end up
enjoying it. Might be a little easy, but I think that's okay for
a sort of a cozy life sim game to be a little easy. All
right. We have a new poll question going up here on Giant Bomb.
But speaking of Giant Bomb, first, what do we have happening on the
site? Jam We got later today Voicemail Dump Truck. We've got an episode
of the Voicemail Dump truck going up later today live as regular programming. Tomorrow,
another episode of Game Mess Mornings shouts out to drags Day. I'm still
a lot sure how to spelled dregs Day, but it's a state of mind.
The R E G S d A Y right, it's gotta be just
that. I'm gonna say it's just one G, just one. There's two
eggs, you know. I guess that, I think, But like the
dregs, I think it's just one G when you're spelling it out. Three
g's okay, sure, okay, you know what three g's I'm down with
yell done down with three guh. Tomorrow we have Unprofessional Fried Dead by Daylight.
I'm looking forward to that. Me too, Me too. I got
a whole bunch of DLC for that game. Let's go. Oh cool,
I gotta I gotta bid Nick Cage. Yes, that's all what I gotta
do. If you miss the packs panels, if you weren't able to attend
Packs West, or you just miss the live streams, they are both up
on YouTube and the site. Now we have the Packs panel with Jenni Steber,
which is a lot of fun, and then the voicemail dump Truck live
at packs West, still plugging away at the Train vlog, the Nintendo Live
vlog, and then the general Pecks West vlog. Lots of videos coming out,
lots and lots and lots of stuff there, So look out for a
little bit, all right. The pull question for tomorrow, for Dregs Day,
I would right here. Do you really think EPRI comes back at twenty
twenty five? Yes? Or now we'll talk. We'll talk about that tomorrow.
I'll see what Tam thinks. Pretty sure, Tam should be able to
get in here. If you can't, we'll find somebody else. But at
the very least we'll have a fun games mornings. I also like no promises
today before voicemail Dump Truck. If I get some time, I might start
streaming Mortal Kombat ten. I might start doing that. Maybe we could play
some of now get the room opened up in the discord, might hang out,
see who's available to come watch replace some of that. But I might
like to get started on that. We'll see, yeah. Either that or
I'll just keep playing Armored Core in my bed over there. We'll just kind
of lay down and play some of X. That's been very good, all
right, Jan Thank you so much for spending today talk with me about video
games. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Jeff Grub. It's my
favorite way to start a Thursday. And you all, you're my favorite audience
in gaming. You're the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have
a good one, take care of yourself, and goodbye. By Scount.