Oh you know a gummy beer. It's the internet. You're busy. Let's
do this for September twenty twenty twenty three. For the next hour or so,
let me help you sort through the world of gaming on gamess Mornings Live
with Me Jeff Grubb. Today, Phil Spencer tries to clean up the Xbox
League and like a Dragon is coming very soon, but first please join me
and welcoming today's co host, a Game Mess Mornings. It's Lucy James.
Everybody, Lucy, how are you doing? Oh I'm tired. I'm tired
deaf? Okay, so, like an alarm was going off, as in
like it was what was it like or a bell? You know what?
You know what. I even took a little I took a little video.
Okaya, is it picking up? I'm not it might not because if Discord's
noise dampening thing, Discord won't allow it. But no, we'll imagine it.
And I went to bed at like ten last night, and so it
was miserable and I just lay awake and then I woke up a get it
too, and it was still going great, great bananas. You're just kind
of like waiting for the janitor to come. Out with like the Little Keys
and go Bee Baby and turn it off and stuff. But yeah, that's
right, nothing, it was wild. But anyway, other than that,
I'm good. Was in la A last week, you were how is that?
So? Played Spider Man? And I can now finally say that I
played Alan Wake, but I can't talk about that yet, but I can
say that I played it, and I also played something else, a mystery
game you'll have to wait to see. Eventually, one day you'll be able
to talk about all three things that happened independent of one another in la that
same week. But right now, I mean, we talked a lot of
out Spider Man with Tam on BombCast. But I'm interested because I you know,
we've seen a lot of trailers for this, and we always come out
of those trailers in those showcases in the state of Place being like, yeah,
it looks like more Spider Man, And no, I don't think anyone
tries to mean that in a mean way. Tam even said they it's like,
it's hard to say that without sounding negative. But what else are they
going to do with that? And that's kind of still what I want,
And I know I'm gonna be excited once I'm playing it. How do you
feel when you've got your hands on it? So straight off, the bat
spider Man is a character he's not really ever been in my favorite I prefer
my superheroes with a lot more mental illness. So I'm Batman loyal. Whereas
Spider Man I found him. I find him just a little too. He's
got diet mental illness, right, he's like just me kindness. He's working
into it, like slowly, like it's taking him at a time to really
trying to break his psyche. I could just see, I could just see
John go. He's just double boy. He's say that in chat. It's
cute. I don't know, so yeah, So like I don't know,
I've not really connected Spider Man. I don't have a lot of touch points
with Spider Man. However, I did really enjoy Miles Morales, I guess
more so than the original twenty eighteen Spider Man because it was a more short
to contain experience, and I like I like Miles more than more than Pizza,
because I like Miles is kind of like story, more like the fact
that he is so involved in his community more, whereas Peter is just like
I think as well, I hate repetition. You know that. You know
I've said this to you before. You know. You know Will Ferrell's character
in Austin Powers how he can't he can't bear being asked the same thing three
times. Yeah, I can't. I can't do Spider Man's origins again.
I can't do that again. I can't do that again. I like,
and it feels to me just because I'm like the Venom stuff, I'm like
worried about that as well. I know they're gonna like mix it up,
but it's still's basically like hitting the notes, right, And I think I'm
with you on that. And I mean, I think I forgive Batman more
because at least in the games they haven't really dug into it too much.
They've kind of gone straight into the rogue's gallery, whereas with Spider Man,
because I don't know the law as much any references, I'm just like I
kind of hang onto a little bit more. Anyway, that's a very belabored
point to say that I'm not really a big Spider Man fan. I'm sorry.
However, Yes it is. It is more Spider Man and I And
again I mean that in a good way, because the twenty eighteen. Game
was fantastic, controls really well, looks incredible. They have all this new
lighting text so it looks so nice. They're leaving PS four behind, right,
this is PS five on night. Yeah, so I don't know.
Definitely I'm going to get the benefits of that. It looked really nice.
The one big issue that I had was I find the game very difficult to
like at a glance, pass everything because it's so busy, and it's like
I would worry about that going forward, especially because stuff gets really hairy,
very very quickly in that game. Sorry, cover with j just put a
title up Lucy doesn't like Spider Man, and then parentheses the character. Yeah,
I'm glad. I'm glad that you got a chance to play, and
kind of like that's but yeah, you didn't enjoy it enjoyed when I play.
I did enjoy what I play. I just it's not as hot for
me on the list of games that are coming out in October because of that,
Like, I will play it, but I'm not just like, oh
my god, yeah, anyway you're gonna be You're gonna be just right at
that. But in October hopefully rist Deep. I don't know, get out.
You gotta just get in there. Yeah, just take a step there
and move on. So, I don't know, it was was good.
I liked it, as I say. They're also like it is quite funny.
They've got the wing suit and I'm just like, oh, you're just
going for the full, the full Batman Hill. What is that? It's
the biggest fucking gift I've ever seen in Chat? What is happening? Why
it looks so fresh faced? Why am I wearing the It's just a new
emote? Oh my god, Oh my god. Chat is fucking insane.
Now for laudio listeners, there is the biggest Chat emote ever of Lucy Jayne.
Jesus. It's like one thousand, two hundred and eighty by one,
the most HD ship and she's just waving Ah, what stopped? You can
say that. Okay, that's good stuff, all right. So the other
thing that's happening is review and Bargo is up for Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven.
The Phantom Liberty, Phantom Liberty, the Friantom Pain, The Phantom Pain.
Yeah, I played. I played a little bit of this mostly because I'm
like, I want to get some use out of this forty ninety and see
that path tracing tracing. I my OLED TV arrived. I have plugged my
forty ninety in over there, thank you and z XT and holy shit,
it's ray tracing is actually kind of here now, So path tracing real quick.
For people that that don't know most of that ray tracing you've seen in
games, it's going to be reflections, maybe some ambient occlusion stuff, maybe
if it's just a few other like tiny little effects. Really, the whole
idea behind ray tracing, though, eventually is global illumination. The whole world
is getting treated. It's having its light treated as if it was a real
object moving through a space, and you could do global illuminations. So a
light bounces out of a room, hits an object, you know, takes
on its color, then bounces off of that and so on. Couple of
times we've had that in a couple of games, but even in those games,
it never looked the best, and it didn't look as good as rendered
lighting from an artist, or if it did, it looked like about even
And the promise was always like, hey, this is gonna be the next
gen of lighting tech. This is going to be better lighting and it's like,
well, we'll see. And now with Nvidio DLSS three point five,
they have this new de nois in tech that really does amplify the effect of
ray tracing. Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven Family Liberty is the first game to use
that, and when I was playing it, I was pretty blown away.
I am very impressed now with this effect. Now it's one game so far,
so again, I'm not going to tell you and go get a forty
ninety or forty series card just for this stuff. But after five years of
being promised ray tracing, to see it in effect and actually deliver was pretty
cool. And then I started playing the game and there's some good set pieces
in there. I like a lot of the stuff that they're doing. I
think that this is a game that if you enjoyed cyber Punk the base game,
they really distilled it down to the stuff you're really that you're going to
enjoy even more here. I think, I don't know, you played a
lot more of this and you seem to really enjoy it. So what would
you say, Well, I love I loved the original Cyberpunk. I love
spies and thrillers. This is very much a political thriller too, isn't it
like because it's like starts with a plane crash of the President of the United
States or the New United States. The one the only bad thing I can
say about it. And I feel uniquely able to comment on this because I
have a fucked up accent. Idriss be British or be American. Stop swapping
in the middle of a fucking sentence. I know how hard it is,
and I do all the time. My accent is terrible, but it's just
when when all of your tension is on Idris Elba, I'm just like,
mate, you're taking me all across the Atlantic. I am going on a
journey with you. Anyway. Interest Alba lives on it, lives on an
island by himself in the middle of Atlantic, and that's just what happens.
That's what happens the accents there. But I'm not it's not interest yet.
So yeah, I'm curious to see what that's like. Oh you are,
so I'm really early. Yes, I'm like in that. I'm still in
that first like set piece. Basically there is a set piece in that that
like, uh, I'll just say it's a pay where the whole approach to
that level and then actually doing it. I was giggling because they've nailed it
so much. I really really like it. Yeah, like if you like,
I think people are over those e three demos of Cyberpunk at this point
where it's like, hey, you're gonna go and you're gonna have this chance
to like work out this situation however you want, and the game's gonna respond.
And the Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven turned out was never actually that game.
It is a bunch of pretty good writing in a world that looks really nice,
with some characters that animate and look very well, look really well.
And then on top of that, it's like a pretty fun action game.
Uh. And then for me it's like, okay, well, now if
you can have something that is like just is a DLC that focuses on all
that stuff, and that seems like what they've made, that's the ideal form
of this. So yeah, I'm pretty excited now. I mean Gamespots reviews
out can out of ten, so I just love that stuff. So and
you're like eight nine hours into the game, Oh wow, okay, and
it's it's bigger. Yeah I thought it was going to be. So the
only elephant in the room is can't publish footage that we've captured until Monday.
Yeah, we're still embargoed on on our footage. We were going to do
a quick look Lucy and I and then uh yeah, so we're kind of
figuring out when we can pull that off. But yeah, right now,
it's like they have b roll footage. I think if you are you're either
seeing people broken bargo accidentally almost certainly without knowing it because it was buried in
some some documentation that you couldn't do this, or you're seen the same Bear
role. So I'm looking forward to the Digital Foundry going over the tech and
stuff. But I'm sorry, Yeah, I'm very excited. It looks incredible,
Yes, it really, it looks great. I don't know why they've
done that, honestly, but you know, it looks great. It plays
well, like all the changes, like to the skill tree, the way
that like it rewards you just for doing stuff, which is kind of the
thing that I love about, you know, games like Wolfenstein, where it
just kind of reinforces behaviors and you really cleverly they the way you can respect
anywhere anytime. The new music is great. Dogtown is fun. If there
is a oh there's a place you can go, there's them like really really
fun, Like the side gigs are really good. I'm just like basically gushing
about it now. But I also have a Blade Runner tattoo, so yeah,
of course I'm going to love something in a dark it's like but it's
it's like I yeah, I really enjoyed Cyberpunk at launch, I did not
have. I played on a PS five on a disc on a disc PS
five using a disc of a PS four version, and I did not have
That was like many issues in terms of console play. That was like the
ideal way to play it, right, Yes, incredible PS four version on
PS five, yes, and now playing on PC and like, I haven't
played the console versions of two point No. I'm find some thotique can speak
to him, but like, yeah, this is the it's the tits,
guys, It's really good. That's all I got for you. We'll have
more coverage of it for sure. I'm excited to play more. Although I
got so much to play, but I did. I did enjoy what I
played a bit so far. My my RSI has been very very bad recently
as well, which is really shit you're doing you and stretches and stuff or
what do Yeah? Yeah, I'm like, yeah, I was kind of
worried about it. All right, let's explain what we do here most days,
I, Jeff Greb, will help piece your gaming life back together.
That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting for all
these topics up 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 Game Mess Mornings,
or find the RSS on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch the
show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube, but not Hello
YouTube right now? Lies not Hello YouTube live? That's right, Hello YouTube,
but later. Okay, we have a lot to get into, so
let's start the Morning Mess with Xbox Boss Phil Spencer addresses Microsoft Mega leak.
Here's what Spencer told employees. This comes from Arnew Vandevelle. Did you see
that name? Am I anywhere close to that? Probably not. They're at
WCCF Tech No, No, yeah, er no vandevelt I'm like, I'm
like leaving off the D at the end, all right. Xbox boss Phil
Spencer has addressed that Microsoft mega leak through both a memo to employ and publicly
on Twitter. As most of you will know by now, a lot of
internal Microsoft slash FTC documents were leaked over the weekend and yesterday after internal files
were attached to a single publicly published document and not correctly correctly hidden afterward.
Following the league at the FTC issued a statement that it wasn't responsible for the
league, and the judge oversea in the case also clarified it was Microsoft who
provided the link for the files. Information that was leaked included includes details on
the Xbox Series X revision, as well as Microsoft's next gym console, alongside
remasters A Fallout three and Oblivion a whole bunch more. We talked a bunch
about this on the Bobcast yesterday. In a memo email to employees, as
obtained by Tom Warren over at The Verge, shout out to Tom Microsoft.
This is for internaloys at Microsoft. Phil Spencer now has now addressed the massive
league, saying that although this is utterly disappointing, many documents are more than
a year old and the company's plans have evolved since then, as expected,
Spencer also said that the league shouldn't have happened in the first place. A
similar, somewhat shorter message has also been posted on Twitter by Spencer, where
he said, We've seen the conversation around the old emails and documents. It
is hard to see our teams work shared in this way because so much has
changed and there's so much to be excited about right now and in the future.
We will share real plans when we are ready, Lucy, I'm I'm
of the opinion that this isn't that big if a deal. I think in
like a couple of weeks, were like, no one's really going to be
talking about this anymore, And in like a month or so, no one's
even going to be thinking about it anymore because there's just not that much scandalous
in there. There's not that like, sure people will reference it, but
it's just not that big a deal. But I don't know, how do
you share that opinion? Oh, the emails, yeah, weeks, the
leak itself, the leak, well, yeah, the content leak itself,
the contents leaks. No, the fat expectation has now been set. People
are going to be unbearable about the Microsoft lineup for the next three years.
Yeah, but it's like the timing on all that stuff is already. So
I mean there's like a couple of games and there there's like a Doom Day
one A three. Yeah, there's like what else, the Fallout three remake.
Yeah, but this is going to get asked about that. But like
a lot of those things are also Yeah, we heard about the Oblivion remake
already. These things are pretty predictable. I don't know. I think maybe
in terms of like the hardware revisions, like oh, here, you're not
gonna have a pro but Phil Spencer's been saying that, So I don't know,
I don't I don't see the like the negative side here really not at
least obviously there's some negatives like having your stuff blown out there and air it
out for everybody, and for stuff to be completely criticized without having the context
of like all of the emails that were around it. But I don't know,
it just doesn't seem that scandalous. It's not scandalous, no, but
it is going to impact them going forward, like in terms of their relationship
with the community, because the community is going to be like, well,
you did this and now you're doing that like it's going to be something that
no one's gonna win. That's true. I agree that it's not gonna like
a fuck Xbox. Like overwhelmingly the sentiment was like, oh, holy hell,
we're getting just on and three, We're getting a full out re remake.
Let's fucking go. But at the same time, it's just like duff
a secret for a reason, especially in game development, where things change,
things are gonna slip. For sure, things might get canceled, But because
they've been on that dock, people they're gonna get asked about it, and
it's going to be would be especially bad for something like dishonor three. Right,
if we go like two or three years without hearing about dishonor three,
at a certain point, you're you're correct. The fandom for that series and
for Xbox in general, it will be like, well what about that?
You know, it's been forever. It's been forever, and Microsoft's like,
we never publicly confirm that, but you're right, the audience will still remember
the week. For sure, I was gonna say, you're asking you're asking
for nuance on the internet in twenty twenty three, and I just maybe it's
just been online for too long. I just fundamentally don't believe it exists anymore.
Yeah, that's that's completely fair. In terms of like how this affects
Microsoft's relationships with partners, right, you think they get you. We can
take like Nintendo's frustrated that, hey, why why are you talking about buying
us in this email? That's that's mad. It makes us mad. Probably
not, I don't know, what do you think. I don't think Nintendo's
gonna give a shit. I don't think Valve's gonna give a shit. They're
like, oh no, we're multi billion dollar corporations who are doing fine.
But it's I mean, I can't speak for him, but it's kind of
a compliment. If you know, a company like Xboxes and Microsoft is wanting
to wanting to buy them, I don't think that's gonna be I also don't
think it's malicious to say that in business either, to be like, oh,
yeah, we want to buy I want to buy. These companies talk
about buying things all the time the time, and the other companies aren't well
aware of that. Like that, I mean Microsoft's mergers and acquisitions, like
Team has ongoing relationships with all these other companies and probably reaches out to them
all the time kind of talk like just you know, putting out feelers or
whatever, and that's there's nothing malicious there and everyone sort of understands it.
Yeah, I think Nintendo would probably still be like laugh them out of the
room, just like they did back in like whatever or the early two thousands
when Microsoft went to Nintendo was like, hey, we want to buy you.
Nintendo's like that's very funny. Now leave, But that Microsoft also is
like recognizes that that that's what happens too. Like you say you're gonna buy
someone and they don't want to be bought, they can laugh at you.
So it's like, yeah, it's all just part of doing business and not
not that strange as well, you know. The most upsetting thing from the
emails though, discovering that Phil Spencer is a colon dash parentheses smiley face,
guy, Oh, I don't give you don't. I do think that's a
generational divide, right, the dash in there, because like you're you're you're
probably thinking, like the proper way is colon parentheses, right, no,
no dash, No you don't need a knows No I don't. Oh yeah,
I got Dan Dan City has correctly written the worst emoji, the worst
smiley face emoji, which is the colon upwards. Yeah, and then this
point. Yes, I definitely dislike that. Yeah, but it takes me,
it takes me back to like the Nokia three thirties or the thirty three
tenths, which is, you know, those are the ones that were built
into that where you could just like put pulm up from the menu. Yeah.
Oh my god, Yeah, I think you're right. Like that's like
getting this some of these the candid conversations and seeing how these people actually communicate,
that's been somewhat more interesting than any of the other details. I mean,
listen, I'm excited about Have you been mentioned in anything? No,
thankfully, not thankfully, I mean not in these emails because this is all
like FTC stuff that related to the Activision acquisition. Yes, I definitely had
a conversations at at packs where it's like, yeah, your name comes up.
Okay, okay, but I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. But but
yeah, I think that's like, Hey, a new Xbox controller with with
the haptics that makes the sound and stuff off that. Yeah, I want
to I want to get that. But that's probably next year they'll talk about
when they talk about it, and I think a revised Xbox Series X without
a disk drive. I'll be interested to see how they message that, how
they position their whole lineup. I mean there is you know, all these
things came from slides that have all these details, and they it's like,
okay, okay, I see what they're what they're going for here with all
this stuff, Like the lineup for the mid gen devices is going to be
Xbox series Xbox Series X and then the other Xbox Series X that doesn't have
the disk drive, so they're going to keep a disk drive Xbox Series X
out there. But there's been some like backlash, people like hey, they
are now trying to do the thing where they're forcing people to go all digital.
Do you get the sense of the X I definitely get the feeling like,
yeah, they are trying to be a little bit more aggressive about that,
especially when they're talking about their next gen plans where it's like, hey,
we're going to have the power of the cloud is coming back and we're
gonna have a browsers that we're gonna call Xbox going forward. I don't know,
do you get that sense well, shouts to Red Valentine and shouts to
let's see for this. But like the court documents are revealed that seventy five
percent of Xbox series own as a Series S owners. Yes, that's right,
we didn't know that. It's like the series S is very popular in
in places outside the United States, Like this series X does pretty well in
the United States, but everywhere else people are getting the series S as like
a secondary thing to go along with their PlayStation that they talk about that in
the UK sales chart all the time, drings like hey, yeah, like
this game sold way better physically on the PlayStation than on Xbox. But Xbox
games in the UK are mostly digital at this point, like those that's where
almost all the sales are happening. So they're kind of making it happen anyhow,
So I don't yeah, I think it's not too surprising that all digital
series X will come. Do you think that Microsoft would do the thing where
that PlayStation is reportedly doing, where they'll have a external disk drive that you
can plug in like USB. I would love that. Yeah, I don't
say will do it, but I would genuinely love that. I think it's
right answer just yeah, actually put your moneyway mouths and show that you care
about being able to support boxed copies of games. Some of us still like
physical media. You know, I did last night? Would you do last
night? Built another shelf? Baby, put my trinkets on. Anyway,
none of us still like it. Let's see. Yeah, I'm taking a
look at some of these other documents here real quick, here we go.
I don't know, we've talked again. We talked a lot about this on
the bomb cast, but like just kind of picking out stuff like, hey,
they're not going to do a handheld device themselves, but they're talking about,
Hey, that is something that we want to support, So they're going
to keep supporting third party companies that are making those devices. That's uh,
something I think we've already seen coming to come to fruition with them supporting SOUS
for the Roger ally uh and I think they're going to probably keep going with
that, which is probably the right move. And then and then yeah,
I don't know, do you how do you feel about an xbox that's a
cylinder. That's another thing I was a sticking point for jan oh. One
that looks like my A L E X A. Yes, exactly. It
really does. Wow, it looks exactly like that. I can't say it
because she'll she'll hears buy an Xbox. Sorry, I just want to set
it off for everybody. I mmmm, well, my own personal thing is
that I don't mind. It looks nice, but I can't fit it in
my TV unit. And also now that i'm PC, if I need it,
Yeah, you know what's nice. That's why they're not doing a pro
right, because there is a pro Xbox and it's the PC. Because every
game that could like run better, you would just if that's what you care
about, get a PC instead, right, I mean, so it makes
sense. I just then I guess, like I always wonder. You know,
once you have people on an Xbox console, they're in your ecosystem,
and then everything that they're doing is making you money. If you're Microsoft,
same is not true when they're building a PC. In fact, you're losing
out on most of that because most of that's happening through Steam and not the
Xbox Game Store. But we'll see how they execute this. This is all
stuff that is maybe a year or more away. I know it's it's it's
eight it was still in the first story, but can I just say that
I'm not stoked with I turned on my PC this morning and they've you know
how you have the wool papers that it all goes through, and I have
mine selected to be the nature stuff. You know what. I was wanted
to tend my PC on this morning, grub what stack Field? They changed
my desk okay, line stepping, and I was like, no, I
don't like that. I also don't have stack Field on this PC, so
okay, huh it was just a random Starfield image, right, it was
No, it was it was the It was the kiosk that is very cheeky,
I think is the word cheeky is the words? Okay, well I've
never seen them do anything like that before, but if they were going to
do it with the game, was probably was going to be this one.
I just wanted my pictures of my puffins, of course, I mean,
those puffins come up on mine all the time, and my daughter loves,
she loves trolling everyone in the house. But being like, look at those
penguins, she knows they're puffins. She's like, those are penguins and then
she laughs because everyone gets mad, like, no, those are puffins.
I've got attacked by a Puffin once who won. Don't me. I'm not
gonna win for the Puffins. All right, let's let's move along here real
quick. Here's some sense of how much money Microsoft paced for day one game
Pass launches. This is one where we didn't get much into yesterday on the
Bomb Cast. This from Eddie mccou at game Spot. The Big Xbox Document
League has revealed many things that Microsoft never intended to be made public, and
one of those is how much money Microsoft might pay a publisher to bring games
to game Pass on launch day. Game Pass getting day one new releases is
a major perk and incentive to encourage people to sign up and stay subscribe,
to stay sub subscribed, and Microsoft might pay top dollar for this. Xbox
Vice President Sarah Bon send an email to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and Xbox
CFO Tim Stewart, among others, detailing what it might cost to secure major
third party games coming to that game Pass on launch day. Supporting to note
that the prices mentioned below are not actual prices paid by Microsoft, basically estimates
some of the numbers included. Let's see here Lego Star Wars thirty five million
dollars Dying Light two fifty million dollars red dead Redemption two is going to be
five million dollars per month, and that wouldn't have been day one. Let's
see here Balder's Gate three five million dollars. And then let's see they were
gonna pay or they thought they would have to pay three hundred million for something
like Star Wars Jedi Survivor and two hundred and fifty million for Suicide Squad.
So five million for boulders Gate three, two hundred fifty million for Suicide Squad.
That sounds right to you, right, Lucy, good lord. Now
these are like internal estimations like yeah, and also when is this from?
When is this again? Yes, this is at least more than a year
ago. This must be before everyone one one million percent. In fact,
Larry someone from larryon came out was like, yeah, this is not strange
to us. We totally get this. Everyone thought this, We kind of
fight this. Yeah it was Michael said that, and then herseven posted I'd
love to see him to talk with that analyst or something. Huh, Yes,
that's what it is. It's just some analyst who looks at a million
of these games and tries to work backward from some theoretical model and come up
with a number. Uh and ETA five twelve to fifteen million per months per
month, Yes exactly. Oh my god, that game is ten years old.
Like fucking cuts off to Rockstar. Man. Honestly, they did what
everyone is desperately trying to do, and they did it ten years ago,
saying yeah, like what okay, so that came out in twenty thirteen,
right, so yeah, yeah, okay, so yeah, heist for the
year after, because when did online launch? Online wasn't there you No,
I think it was. It was there at launch. It just was.
It was super busted in a lot of ways. Some people are like I'm
waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting, and then like a couple of months
later they got their ship together. It's so like ten years ago is like
a game that's still super relevant, like GTA five from twenty thirteen. If
you go back ten years, it's stuff like Knights of the Old Republic and
Prince Persia of the Santa Time, and like Civilization three fucking game Boy Advanced
Games. It's like, man, that's like those felt like retro games by
the time twenty thirteen was around and it's like GTA five is. If someone
called that a retro game, I would die. So yeah, all right,
let's move along here. Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth release date is set
for January twenty fourth. That comes from Darren Bonthus at game Spot. Sega
has confirmed that Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth will officially launch on January twenty six,
twenty twenty four, for PCPs five, PS four, Xbox Series X
and S, and Xbox One. The direct sequel to the seventh mainline game
in the series before it's renaming made things slightly confusing. Like a Dragon Once
Again stars former yakuza Ichiman Kasuga as he heads to Huwaii to search for his
long lost mother. Kasuga won't be alone in his mission, as he'll be
joined by a long time Like a Dragon protagonist Kazuma Cure You whose Days,
whose days might finally be numbered after he reveals that he's been diagnosed with cancer.
The limited number cry I was gonna say, this seems like like this
is what the ideal video game right where it's like it can be. It's
so silly, it's so absurd. They lean into being absurd. Every little
clip you see from the game is absurd and in at the same time,
it's incredibly emotional with characters that people are super attached to and you can't wait
to see what happens to them next. It's it's it's like it's a soap
opera and I don't know, I'm always so impressed by by this stuff.
I really like like a Dragon, that's the one I played the most of
and enjoyed quite a bit. I'm very glad that they are sticking with that
style and with those with those themes. So you are you're You're a big
cure you fan. Yeah, you're getting ship for your pronunciation of kazma kure
you. By the way, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to tell you what
else is new Jaska itchy? But yeah, oh god, i Yaka is
a zero. Playing that in twenty twenty was like, God, that was
my game. Man, it took me three months. I put so many
hours into it. I wept. It's just they're so good and the way
they balanced the complete ridicul listeness with like just the most hard hitting emotional storytelling
beats you've ever heard. I'm I'm going to be a wreck. I'm gonna
actually be a wreck, and I'm so excited. But also this year alone,
we've got We've had like a dragon, what was the we had the
guidance? Yeah, yes, right, we had is man man with his
name or whatever, man without a name, Man without a name played a
little bit of that at games come and now we're gonna have this and it's
like, yeah, fans are feasting, were feasting, but also help me
this too, money yes, I mean yeah, not like the man who
erased his name. Thank you. It's not like these are tiny games.
They're all very beefy and big and there's a lot to do, and I'm
I'm I'm like, okay, the next one I'm going to check out is
going to be infinite wealth, because I'm like, that's the mainline one.
I will kind of just let these other ones stay on the side and I'll
check back in on each of the on That's that's that's who I care about.
Uh UK. Regular regulators are reportedly due to rule on Microsoft and Activision
merger next week. Something a story that like we used to talk about every
day now here it is all right, Lexi's gonna yell at me for how
I say, what's up? LEXI? No? No, I just wanted
to bring you back to the actual important stuff, which is the side activities
that they detailed in their live stream. One of them, yeah, one
of them is Clazy Taxi but you're basically an Uba Eats delivery guy. And
one of them is called Sicko Snap, which is Pokemon snap but you're snapping
sickis Yes, this sounds great. Soljimon, which is basically Pokemon. Okay,
I had that one before, right, they had that. Yeah,
they've expanded the actual like gameplay of this. You you now battle other opponents
opponents. The real most important thing, of course is Sega bass Fishing is
in the game, so that's what I care about. And Strike Ouch or
whatever the hell it's called. Yeah, yeah, there's another game, you
know, like like a Dragon, the seventh one. I guess I had
a bunch of great side stuff and I expected them to keep like leaning into
that, so I'm glad that they're doing that. Here. What is Cabaret
Club. Cabaret Club is in Guiden. That's is that the one where you
run like a cabaret I guess like you become it's like a management sim.
Yes, okay, that's the greatest game of whole time. Yeah, that's
what I always I always hear about that, and I get excited about that
prospect, and I'm like, how much do I have to play to get
into that? Can I just have a game that is just that? But
apparently not? All right, let's uh, let's get back into this.
One. UK regulator reportedly due to rule on Microsoft and Activision mercher next week.
Tom Iban and VGC UK regulator, the Competitions and Market Markets Authority the
CMA's likely to rule on Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard next week. The
Watchdogs watchdog is expected to make a preliminary decision on the sixty nine billion dollar
deal nice before the end of the month, according to a Verge source said
to be familiar with the matter. This will be followed by a final decision
decision, which is due to be issued on October eighteenth. The CMA remains
the last major roadblock to the deal closing. It initially blocked the acquisition in
April due to concerns about its impact on the nascent cloud gaming market. Microsoft,
of course, has found a solution to this, which is sell those
rights to Ubisoft, which continues to be a very wild thing. Ubisoft will
be streaming all the Activision games worldwide if this deal goes through. I guess.
So there's I mean, there's not much more to say here. If
the CMA always said, hey, if you're going to have a new sort
of solution here, we're gonna have to go back and do our studies all
over again. So it's going to take several weeks and here we are.
We'll see how this actually shakes out. I'm just you know, hate that
repetition. Yeah, I mean, and this is a one that just really
got driven into the ground. I'm glad it's been let we had a little
break. But we'll see what happens next week. I guess yew Square Enix
wants to upgrade some existing ips to triple A status. This or from Tom
Iban at VGC, Square Enix president to Kashi kire you, I'm gonna say
it right that time has said he hopes to boost profitability by revitalizing the company's
high definition game segment. The Japanese publisher divides its digital entertainment business into three
units, HD games, MMOs and games for smart devices or browser based titles.
During the q and a session held at the beginning of August, which
now has a transcript online. Kure You said that the company was currently examining
its HD games pipeline. Basically, Lucy, they want to take established Square
Enix properties and move them up from what they were before to modern Triple A
games. What who's a ripe candidate for that? What game series do you
think it is? Ripe candidate? The only thing that really comes to mind
for me is something like Front Mission, I guess, or maybe Star Ocean.
But for Star Ocean, say, how many big Triple A RPGs is
so near the Squaenix is really going to be able to invest in. They're
like already struggling to get Final Fantasy to find its place. They're gonna do
that Star Ocean as well. I don't know, what do you think,
Well, they've sold off everything else. They have sold off a lot of
stuff, yes, all their Western stuff. I mean, it's going to
have to be the quiet Man. It has to be the quiet man,
right, quiet Jan. They have get Jan in there, and that's that's
how you make a triple A with our boys. What else do they you
know? I was talking about this last night and I was like, all
right, Google list of Square Enix I P And it's just it's just not
obvious looking at it, at this stuff. It's just it's a kind of
I mean, the bouncer is that it is, that's what they do.
But yeah, bubble bubble there you go, a triple A bubble babble decks.
Oh god, he's back, I get. I mean, Kane and
Lynch, did they sell that long they? I mean, who even if
they have a game studio. Okay, okay, here's the one that actually
makes the most sense. Sleeping Dogs. But oh sleeping Dogs. That would
yes, that would be Parasite Eve. Like Parasite Eve's one where like that
was a big Triple A game for its time, and I think there would
be a lot of excitement if they brought that back, But I don't know.
Yeah, you're right. They they no longer have du sex Hitman legacy
of Kane, Thief or tomb Raider, which all would have been like,
well, those are obvious Triple A games. Sief, maybe they have was
not a good game later later Thief was right, they didn't hit like the
earlier ones. Uh, to ball there you go, bring back to ball
number one. That's that's what they need to do. There's Valkyrie profile,
Zeno gears. I mean, there's stuff that I guess they could make.
It makes sense, it's just not obvious looking at their list of games how
that works. So oh yeah, what's up, kiddo. Oh yeah,
okay, I can help you when I'm doing my show. Okay, I'll
be up there in a second. Thanks. Friend. It's a little bug.
Okay, it's gonna be okay. There's a brain mantis outside our window
for the last couple of days and she's been obsessed with it. Oh,
it looks like a bug. Oh, it looks like a pier. Okay,
I'll get that piper on my show, all right. But it's not
a pier. Okay, looks it looks like a pier. But it's not
a pier. Okay, I'll hope with that. When I SUSI, we're
done here, kid out. Thanks for letting me know. All right,
let's see here. Yeah, she's she's just got me right now. Mama's
at an appointment, so she's she needs help. I'm here and I'm I'll
help her when I'm done. F zero ninety nine. We'll get more tracks
soon, and new modes may follow. This comes from Chris Scullion at VGC.
Ninteno has said F zero ninety nine will be getting more tracks in the
near future, while data miners have uncovered new modes in the game's code.
The massively multiplayer racing game was a surprise release on Switch last week and is
available for all Nintendo Switch Online members. At launch, the game has only
seven tracks from the original F zero, but Nintendo's Japanese website points out that
more tracks will be added soon. Specifically, the first batch of new tracks
will arrive in late September and will mainly consist of tracks from the original games
Queen League. Well. The second batch will arrive in mid October and will
mainly consist of King League tracks. We've been so far been playing Night League
tracks for the most part, however, as reported by Nintendo Life, data
minor Oatmeal Dome, who's someone who's done this a lot in the pass,
has also discovered new modes that aren't yet in the game. The first of
these is Arcade mode, which they say adds a timer and places time gates
on each track. Speculating, Oatmeal Domes says that this mode may involve continually
passing through gates to refill the timer with the last player alive winning. They
also note the presence of a mode called Survival, but point out that there
isn't much data to a company other than a model of a flat square with
a circle in it. If you're trying to imagine, it's just a black
square with a circle hollowed out in the middle of No one really understands what
that means. Yes, Hey, I love F zero ninety nine. Lucy's
been playing a lot of it, super super into it. It doesn't have
a lot of stuff. It is right now seven tracks, and there's something
kind of nice about that because then you get to learn those tracks, and
I don't need a ton of new stuff. I think, get the rest
of these F zero tracks from the original Super Nintendo game in there, and
I'll be happy. Some of these other modes will probably be interesting, but
I think the mode that they have that is the main thing that you go
in there and play is actually really well thought out and has the right balance
for being a Battle Royale game. So I don't need a ton of extra
stuff, but this is nice. This is a nice thing to have.
You You're probably not someone who's to an F zero. But you have a
game that you think would make a fun ninety nine game or a fun battle
Royale Kingdoms Kingdom Hearts is one. I was definitely thinking as well, take
them all out ninety nine Goofies fall on an Island. Yeah no, I
don't know. I actually yeah, eventual e ventual job. Oh no waituh
who said the chats movement? Uh Shavius? Is it just said warrior Ware,
which actually would be very I would adore a warrior Ware ninety knowing that
would be fantastic. That. Uh, that new one's coming out and it's
gonna have a multiplayer and I can't wait for us to get together rank some
friendships, all right. The last couple of stories here, Mortal Kombat one
switch issues will absolutely be addressed. Ed Boone says. This is from Chris
Scollen, a VGC. The various issues with the Switch version of Mortal Kombat
one will be fixed. Series co creator Ed Boone says the game was released
on Tuesday, but in the days before that, players with Premium edition had
early access and we're questioning the switch versions performance. While the Switch version was
never expected to go toe to toe with the Xbox or p S five versions,
it is still seventy dollars seventy dollars for that game and looks rough for
seventy dollars. In an interview with BBC news Beat, Boon says issues but
the Switch version will be fixed, promising it will absolutely absolutely be getting an
update. A number of the concerns of the issues that had come up will
absolutely be addressed. Boon promised it would have been ideal for us to have
released a version that we absolutely wanted, but anything that we're finding a problem
with is on our list and is going to be fixed. These issues with
the game are mostly visual, mostly technical. Now that does affect gameplay in
some instances where the frame rate is so bad that it's eating inputs and things
like that. Those are things I really do hope they're able to fix,
but I'm not They're not going to be able to make that game like look
like a Mortal Kombat one on anything else. It's still going to have those
rough character models, and I'm mostly okay with that. But I also would
recommend don't pay seventy dollars for that game on Switch unless you're absolutely desperate for
some reasons. So yeah, I don't know but I mean as well,
like if you're looking at no slightly informed gamer is going to buy a game
like that on the Nintendo Switch. The switch. Which is problem quote unquote
is that it is so mass market. Mortal Kombat is such a recognizable name.
More kids will have a switch and they'll be like, hey, mama,
can't play let anymore come out my Nintendo. And those are the people
who are unfortunately going to be getting It's it's in a long legacy of kids
getting shit versions for their handheld. I mean more, I think Mortal Kombat
Advanced passage exactly. They have to go through it. Back in my day,
it snowed both ways. Going to get Mortal Kombat Advanced at the Toys
r US and you have to deal with it too, kids. The game
has to be seventy dollars though, because Ed Boone wanted every character Mortal Kombat
want to be voiced by a celebrity. This is from Alex Hopley at Game
Reactor. Celebrity cambios have been a thing for a while in Mortal Kombat.
In twenty nineteen, we saw Sonia Blade played by Franda Rousy. It's just
a riveting performance in Mortal Kombat eleven and we also got to see Arnold Schwarzenegger
voice the Terminator. Now in Mortal Kombat one, we're going to see John
Sina as Peacemaker, j K. Simmons as Omniman, and we've already got
Megan Fox as Natia, Natara Natara. However, Ed Boone wanted even more
Cambia I was speaking with Rolling Stone. He revealed that ned Rome desperately tried
to get John Wick in the game. We tried to get John Wick in
Mortal Kombat and we didn't get it, he said. Boone also wishes to
go even further, and one of the pipe dreams. Pipe dreams he had
was having every character played by an actor, a famous actor. Uh lucy
wi game developers like this? Why are they? Are they such star fuckers?
I like, okay, hang on, how to put this bluntly and
politely? No, not every screen actor is a good voice actor. And
we have seen this time and time again. We have seen this with fucking
Ronda Rousy, with Megan Fox, like John Cena and j K. Simmons,
they're gonna give it all they've got, like yeah, wrestler, and
they're playing their characters, they playing that character. J K. Simonson has
done a lot of voice of work, I mean hell Omniman as well.
They know how different acting for voice acting is versus acting for station screen,
so like why waste the money? And also it delegitimizes actual voice side and
performance actors who are already like air Bud's gone strike two, So like that
is a that is an industry that needs support and like money put behind them
rather than getting in the fucking Oh Patrick in twit chat says, don't forget
Peter Dinklich in Destity, a performance so bad they fucking replaced him with a
well known voice actor scrub from the Face of the Earth. Ye. So
anyway, it's annoying. And like Kiano's great in I like Kiano and Cyberpunk
because he's playing a character. It's all the performance stuff too, but it's
like he's not necessarily going yeah. But you know, for skins, I
think I'm mostly okay with it, like if you're like fine with yeah,
But it's like this, like Megan Fox playing, they're just they're doing the
voice for this character that and that just feels like ed Boone wanted to meet
Megan Fox and that's dumb, Like just meet and then maybe maybe talk about
doing a skin and if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out,
whatever, but don't replace like an actual working voice actor with one of these
Hollywood celebrities. That it's I don't like it. I think it looks kind
of they have like proof of being able to do it. Well, yeah,
if it is, yes, if it likes if, it makes a
lot of sense. But it's like, you know, they got Jean Claude
van dam As a skin and he does his voice for that skin, and
that's a great solution there that that do that stuff all you want. But
I'm yeah, I don't know, I'd like it's he's not alone. Kajima
every time he's watches a TV show, he's like, I'm gonna go get
that person and collect their soul for my game and put them in every single
one of my games from now on. And Pitchford, Yeah, Randy Pitchford
is sucking on the Hollywood set, just like trying to talk to Kevin Hart,
and Kevin Hart's like, please don't look at me. Was it the
denied high fives? Yeah, basically yes, yes, exactly. All right,
Uh you skip this out. You know, we'll hit this one real
quick. Very last story here. Switch version of Evil Dead the game canceled.
This is from Sophie McAvoy at Games Industry Dot is there will be no
Nintendo Switch version of Evil Dead the game and development of new content for the
game on other platforms has ended. Saber Interactive announced the multiplayer game launched on
Xbox, PlayStation and PC last Mayas and Epic Games exclusive initial sales saw the
title debut at number four in the US Monthly charts. It became available to
play on Steam earlier this year, followed by a Game of the Year edition
including all post launched DLC you could just do a Game of ear edition of
anything, huh and a statement shared on x excuse and the statement shared on
Twitter. The Florida based developer said servers will be kept up for the foreseeable
future and any major issues that may arise will be addressed. I mean,
yeah, this is going to happen to some of these games. There's a
lot of these asymmetrical online multiplayer horror games. Now there's more yet to come,
So not all of them are gonna last forever. Not all of them
are gonna last very long. I know people enjoyed this Evil Dead one,
but this is Saber Interactive under Embracer. If something's not working, they're probably
gonna start abandoning things pretty quickly. I don't know, what do you think?
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think you've nailed it. That
which is a show because Evil Dead the game was really fun. We played
a lot of it last year when it first came out, had a blast
very and like, yeah, I just I honestly, I haven't even thought
about it in a good few months, and so when I saw this news
yesterday, I was like, oh, yeah that game doesn't exist, damn.
But yeah, I mean it sucks, and yeah, it's just going
to be more from this Embracer fallout, so we'll see. Yep, there
was a myth Force. I had some layoffs as well. Today another Embracer
studio, which one? What did they do? I can't remember what I
think they can't remember what they work on. I'm sorry, Yeah, if
you want to check that, Oh yes, ye, yeah, the one
inspired by Saturday Morning cartoon. Yes, yeah, yeah, myth Force's name
of the game, right, beam Dog, yeah, Bean beam Dog,
beam Dogs. They did like the boulders Gate enhanced editions and stuff. Yeah,
tonight's missus. Embracer is a problem. Embracer is just a problem for
this industry. Okay, we have a pole. We have a pole from
earlier this week. We get this up for everybody real quick. Uh it
is Will you be upset if paper mariw you're the thousand year door is thirty
frames per second? Is that right that I alreaready answered this one? Let
me refresh her. Now that's uh, that's that's the one I have,
but it's from four days ago. I'll just repeat it even though I think
we already answered this one. Thirty one percent said yes, sixty nine percent
said no. Uh do we forget? We forgot to post a pole for
Monday. Okay, well you know what we'll fix that. We'll do two
poles. There's a new poles. Yeah, we'll do two poles. Why
not? Do you like what celebrities do voices for characters and video games?
Yes? No, no, but it's fine for things like special skins.
So we'll have that up and we'll talk about it on the show tomorrow.
Here on Giant Bomb. Speaking of Giant Bomb, Lucy, what do we
have going on and what do you have going on? Two days? Gonna
be the day where we're going back to the British National anthem. Oh there
it is, I don't know why. Uh yeah, We've got Jeff Jeff's
Adventure going up today, two episodes of Bibo, one of my favorite episodes
of b Bob, and then an episode that I find annoying. So which
ones are they? Oh? Hell? Is it? Is it the clown
one? No? No? The one that I love is the Venus Waltz
one. Oh well, yes, that's a fucking right. And then the
one that I don't like so much is the one where you introduce jamming with
Edward. Thank you Dreff, Walts Venus and jamming with Edward. So I
love Walts Venus and I don't care Walters Venus is is some all time great
television jamming with Edward. Yeah that's that's a silly one for sure. All
right, let's see here. Yeah, what else is happening? You and
I are gonna record the Quick Look and that'll be up around the time of
games. Yeah, that's just how it has to be. I have,
well, I have to figure out because, like I said, I moved
my big beefy PC over there, so I'll just I'll just move all my
mics and ship. We'll do it. We'll do it. Just let me
know and then we've got what EPF yea, there will be a black Club
today at thirty pm. We're probably gonna finish Sonic O six everybody, so
definitely tune in for that. Your last chance to see Dan trust up is
Sonic Live. I feel like it's not my last live probably not the last
last chance, last chance for now for black Club, I imagine he's gonna
put it in his wardrobe like at the end of Indiana Jones. Yeah,
you're just gonna the camera will be panning over to him in his underwear eating
soup out of a can, and it'll be in there in the closet for
sure. For you PF. We want to do party animals. We'll see
how that's gonna work because I'm we can get code or whatever. So I
know it's on game Pass, but it's PC game Pass, and look it's
console game pass in the cloud, not PC game Pass. But we'll figure
it out. It'll be a good time, all right, everybody. Uh
think that we got through that show and that was good stuff. Lucy thank
you so much for talking with me about video games. I really appreciate it.
Everybody welcome. I always have fun me too. Everybody. Thank you
for watching. You're the best audience and gaming. Be back with another episode
tomorrow. Until then, have a good one, take care of yourself and
goodbye. Lucy Waves La la la