Hello, and welcome to side Quest. This is our video game show here at geek Verse. I'm your host. Still mustn't I have with me the Shadow Taylor Field. How are you doing, my friend? I'm doing good. You know, it's it's a great day to be alive. I mean, well maybe not, maybe not for some people working with Xbox, but yeah, seriously, man, come on, what's going on here? Yeah? You know, I'm glad you're here with me today. This is gonna be a fun, juicy episode of side Quests. We got a lot to talk about. I've been playing Animal Well, which is the latest greatest indie game that just came out last week. Huge news from Xbox with some closing of various studios. We're gonna talk about Nintendo, who announced kind of the Switch successor ish They it's an announcement of an announcement, but we'll break that break that down nonetheless. And then we got some updated info on Assassin's Creed and Jurassic Park game, so we're gonna break all that down as well. Should be a good time in terms of the plugs, you know, just go to patron to get episodes early and at freeing Discord Chat with us about all this stuff. My game Taylor is really a scene in one week next Tuesday, May twenty. First, if anyone has not yet wish listed on Steam, please go ahead and do so. If you haven't check out the trailer, go ahead and check that out. And hey, maybe maybe check it out, maybe pick it up when it comes out if you feel like it. I'm very excited for it to be out there in the world. So that's one week away. Any shout outs from you, mister Field, Oh, shout outs? I mean, what do we get up to. We have the I mean the X Men finalees Man, Yeah, that's true. That's this week seven, that's this week looming in soon is gonna be yeah, Akolai ragging the boys. There's some stuff kind of creeping in here that will be covering, which is gonna be pretty juicy. Yeah. Yeah. Also, we're gonna be doing any retrospective for Alien because the new movie is coming out of this summer. We decided, along with the movies, we're gonna do retrospective of Alien Isolation. So I don't know when that will do. We'll do that. I mean, the movie's not out until like what July or August or something so August. Yeah, but yeah, definitely go to Patreon because you can get a lot of those retrospectives early and potentially that isolation one as well, just depends on when we record it. So that's always a good thing to do. Okay, let's let's let's get into it here. We're gonna start with Animal. Well, then we'll get into the big Xbox stuff. But I want to show this game out. So this game, Taylor, do you remember this game? Have you seen this game for Animal? Well, let me pull up a picture here, pull up a trailer. You got to see this thing in motion if you don't remember it, because it is very interesting looking. That was one of the reasons why it stood out to me is just the really cool aesthetic to it. But this is the latest indie game. It is a Metroid Vaney kind of a mesure venue without traditional combat. I would say more about like exploration and puzzle solving than it is about the combat side of things. The reason this game kind of blew up, or has been blowing up, is because Taylor, do you know video game Donkey like that YouTube channel? Yes, I know donk. Yeah, So he started a publishing unit because he's a freaking huge YouTuber. I probably has a shit ton of money, and he this is like the first game that his company is publishing, so obviously had like a big marketing push behind it because he's a huge YouTuber and can get those sorts of clicks and eyes on it. So yeah, it's I'll be very curious to see what the next project is that Big Mode is the name of the publisher that they do, because I think this was a great pick. This is a great find out in the wild, a really interesting, unique game that it's still like a pretty typical indie game genre, but it's just like such a unique kind of spin on it. So I'm gonna be very very much keeping an eye on what Big Mode publishes next because I think that could be a good sign of like, here's a cool, interesting game that you should be checking out. But anyway, I I I picked this up for a couple reasons. It was on my radar because the visuals look so freaking cool. If you, once again, anyone listening, if you haven't seen a trailer for this, go we'll watch a trailer. Just looks so weird and interesting. And then when I heard some previews of it won. Previews were like, this game's really good, so that's obviously a good sign. The other thing I heard was what I just said of people saying that there's no combat in this game, and I think that's kind of a big turn off for me in like two D games in general, honestly, if I'm being reductive, but especially in like Metroid Vanias, I feel like I'm more there for the exploration, getting the powers, uncovering the map, figuring all that stuff out, and I feel like the combat is never really why I want to play those games, and usually it's like a reason that I get frustrated with them is if I have to keep doing this really hard boss by over and over again. So that was one thing that turned me on to it. Now I will say that's not entirely accurate. There is like there are enemies in this game, and they can deal damage to you and you can die, but you don't have like an attack button. You're not getting new weapons in this game, so it's more about like avoiding them, and I guess more of like a platform element of trying to escape from enemies and planning out your roots and that sort of thing. So there is still opposition. It's just not traditional combat in that way. But this game perfect time for this come out because I wasn't feeling well over the weekend, so it's a perfect weekend just sit on the couch and play games all weekend. And so I picked this up and over the course of Saturday and Sunday, put like thirteen hours into it and beat the game. It was just like, that's another thing for me with Metro Vanius. I find if I don't just sit down and play the game like in a very short amount of time, then I'll start forgetting pathways. I'll start forgetting where I was, where I've been, what I was supposed to do. I get really lost in these games very easily, and then I usually just end up getting lost and then I go back to it, I don't know what's going on, and I just don't play it. I don't finish it. That happens all the time. So I think that was perfect for me to just kind of go through and blast through it. And there is still a lot of bonus things I can do, extra secrets and things that I could figure out, but I think I've done most of the stuff that I want to at this point, but yeah, I absolutely love this game. I think it was really really good time from start to finish. Like that. The visuals, as I mentioned, like just such a beautiful and weird and trippy game. I don't even know how to describe its art style, but it seems very retro like old PC games in a way. It reminds me a lot of Noita, which is another indie game I really like. In terms of the visuals. It's got a lot of like Splunky two ness to it. It's got a lot of kind of throwbacks to like older games, like one of your items you have as a Yo yo in here, which just makes me think of Nests and Super Smash Bros. And Earth Brown and that kind of move set. And you know, another thing with this game too, is like most Metroidveniu is right this, You're going around exploring an area and then eventually there's like this big ledge and you can't get up the ledge, and then you go explore elsewhere you'll get a double jump, and then you go back or like, oh, I know, I can go back and jump up that ledge now, and then it's kind of just that over and over again. Getting new powers allow you to do cool and new and interesting things. This game has a really weird, interesting style to it where all of the powers that you're getting are kind of multi tools and you'll discover like other things they can do, and not because you're unlocking up Christom. They just you just figure out a new way it can be used. And just from playing through that, like, I could definitely see you beating this game in multiple ways. And I've heard from other previews people beat the game with only like three or four items, whereas I had like eight or nine, So you can just totally do things out of order, do things in different orders. A lot of these items will do similar things that you need to do, and I'm sure certain areas like only one item will get you through there or get you that to that point, or it's the easiest way. But I had so much fun just quote unquote breaking the game by doing some really crazy stuff with the items here. I love the items too, that they're just very silly, very playful. They are almost of them all are toys. Like you have like a like a spinning top, like a bay blade. You have like a little bubble, a bubble. You're blowing bubbles and then jumping on the bubbles, you get like a bouncy ball, and yeah, as I said, like the yo yo throwing like a frisbee around, which does all this different stuff, and like all of those things, like I said, kind of have different mechanics to them, and some of them I locked, like after I beat in the game, and it's like, man, I would love to see what it'd be like to get this mechanic first and try and solve some puzzles, because I can definitely picture on my mind some puzzles that I could have solved them differently had I had these things. So I don't know if it will be when I replay for that reason, but I think it is just a really really cool design. And like I said, it's more about the exploration than it is the combat focus. So it's a lot of just figuring out where to go, how to get different places, exploring the map, filling in all the details, solving puzzles, a lot of a lot of puzzle solving, a lot of flicking switches and pressing buttons in this game, but they're all really fun and really engaging. And yeah, the map is really great in this game, which you know for Metro a veins is a big turn off if they're very confusing or don't give you enough info. But this one, you can draw on it with like a pencil if you want. You can fill in little stickers, you can light it up in different ways. So yeah, I cannot recommend this game enough. I think if you're a fan of metro vein is, it's like a no brainer. But even if you're not, because I don't really consider myself a fan of that genre necessarily, but this one really worked for me. If you're into just platformers and sple puzzle solving two D games, I think this is like a must play. And I think it was twenty twenty five thirty bucks somewhere in that ballpark, and I would definitely recommend it at that at that price point. So yeah, huge shout out to Animal Well. Just that kind of came out of nowhere for me a little bit, and now it's like one of my favorite games of the year, and I think it will. I think it'll definitely land in my top ten by the end of the year too. I still still really enjoyed it. So there you go. That's Animal Well. Check it out. Nice. Have you played many metroidvanias in your days that is that as Jean Rugers, Castlevania, Metroid, Hollow Night, any of these kind of things. Uh, I don't think I've ever played a met Troid, but me and Rubin did play a Castlevania for a Rod or Not episode, so that was rough. But it's never really been my jam, Ruben. I mean, it's definitely up Ruben's alley. He loved Metroid is his, it's his his Cream of the Cream, Cream of the Crop. Yeah, yeah, I loved Metroid read that game was great and I really enjoyed. I mean back in the day playing Zero Mission on the GBA, So I do have some ones that I really enjoy but like those are really only two. Like Hollo of Night I enjoyed, but I never ended up finishing it, which maybe I'll go back and do before a Silk Song comes out. And yeah, Castlevania, like I picked up the GBA collection on Switch. I've been playing a little bit of them, but like, I don't know, it's a little bit dry in terms of the gameplay for me. So hopefully Ruben's not listening to this and it isn't gonna grill me for it. But Yeah, it's it's fun to find one in the genre that I do really enjoy and it's kind of fit for my tastes as well. So yeah, there you go. There's that one. And how about that we jump right into kind of the big the big point of discussion for today, which is that Xbox has decided to close down four studios, including Arcane, Austin, Tango Game Works. The other ones are Alpha Dog Games and Roundhouse. So we're gonna go through these one by one. But you know, this is obviously this sucks. You hate to see layoffs. Layoffs are all over the place in the industry. It's crazy. Even saw today like Square Enix is planning to do a bunch as well, they just announced that. So it's just a never ending barrage of layoffs. But you know, there's also like the ante up here is that they are just straight up closing these studios as well. And there's a couple I guess Silver Linings, like one of these studios is closing, but everyone from that team is moving over to a different studio. But for the most part, they're just closing these guys. They're done. They're kicking them all out, and it's really sad. And it's like, even on top of this, like back in January, Microsoft is doing a bunch of layoffs like an insane amount, and that obviously trickled down two Xbox where they were laying off other people as well, So just across the other teams, there's already been a ton of layoffs this year, like almost two thousand, I think, and this is kind of just adding on top of that. But this is the first time that I can recall since they're kind of been going crazy with the acquisitions, that they've actually closed and studio since they started doing that a few years ago, like since Game Pass existed. I don't know if they've actually closed a studio before. I'd have to go back in the annals of time. I know the closed line head at some point, but that was quite a while ago now, But I don't know. What are your very top level thoughts before we go into the nitty gritty of all this, Taylor, Well, it's not something I really expected, to be honest, and I know people are talking about like, well, if you don't have the money to be keeping these studios open, why would you buy them in the first place, And it's it makes me, wonder did they do all of these purchases just to really acquire the ips over the team that was responsible for creating some of these amazing titles. I feel like that's pretty shady. It's not very kind, especially because a lot of these people that lose their jobs then they forfeit any kind of say or control over projects that they were really passionate about. And they plus, you could just buy the IP off them without buying the company totally, totally, and I feel like it's just a it's a big large conglomerate, is that the right word for it, Like a mainstream kind of huge entity thing these days to do just to like I'm gonna buy it all and just suck you all up in the my umbrella and and then just have at you the way I want to have at you. I guess it's just left a poor taste in my mouth. I feel really really bad for all these workers. Yeah, I I mean, you know, we last year we did the Arcane Retrospective, where we did an entire retrospective on every single game Arcane has ever made from arcane Austin and arcane Leone, which you know at some point that the studios kind of split off into their own things, but I said in that retrospective Arcane, both of them kind of collectively as one, if you look at it that way, my favorite studio. And so here we are getting this announcement, and it's heartbreaking for me. And even though I understand Red Fall was not a well received game, and I didn't even like it that much, didn't like it at all, thought it was pretty bad, but like this is my favorite studio, man, this is one of my favorite studios. And yes, this new this current version of ourcanne that we had is like a little bit different than the one that made Dishonored and then going on to make Prey, you know, to the greatest games of all time, both in my top fifteen all time games, and now they're just gone like this in the blink of an eye. Like the teams are a bit different since then, you know, after Prey orfl cal Antonio, like the director left and he brought some people with him, and then there was like a lot of turnover in the Red Fall development because a lot of the team didn't really want to make this game. So it's like I've I almost have already said my goodbyes. To Urricane Austin, like the one that I know and loved, like a year ago, pretty much when Red Fall came out and we got all these reports of what actually happened behind the scenes. But this is obviously like tons of people being put out of work and just finally closing that door and giving them no chance at redemption, and a lot of this, Like I find the timing on a lot of this really brutal and really just totally fucked up, Like with the High Fi Rush stuff and Tangle, we'll talk about that, but with Red Fall too, Like there's been all these reports of that. This month is when they were planning on releasing their big update for red Fall, with like new characters, getting the offline mode in there, among other things, and like people have been cruising through the Steam database stuff and seeing like all these updates on the back end of Steam, so it seems like they were almost ready to push this update but then not even getting the chance to kind of finish that. And I don't know, maybe this wasn't the end of it, maybe this is just another update, but like that timing just leaves a bad, poor taste in my mouth. And for a couple of reasons. One is like, well, first of all, they promised a lot of this stuff with pre order bonuses, which I got because I'm a big Arcane fan. I wanted those extra characters. And so then they're not gonna finish that, and they're gonna do it's unclear if they're gonna refund me and the other people who bought this like money, or if they're gonna refial like store credit, which should not be ideal. I'd rather just have the money back, you know. So that part of it is kind of brutal. But also without this game of getting an offline mode, because it's an always online game, it means that whenever they decide they don't want to support the servers for this anymore, which could be very soon, because why they want to pay the cost, this game is just gonna be dead and delisted and will not be playable. And that is heartbreaking. And yes, I know it's not an all time great game by any means, but still from a game preservation standpoint, it's like they really you know, I'm not gonna say like, oh yeah, just let them do this update and then lay them off. That still sucks. But the timing is just it's just gross and I just I hate it. And I was man like I'd say probably more than half of the days. And this last year I check the Arcane Discord waiting for updates for this game. I just I'm excited to jump back. When they did the sixty frames, I jump back in and wanted to check the game out and just giving it as many chance as I possibly can because I love the studio so much. And yeah, so I've just been anticipating these updates and now they're just kind of gone without any any info on them. Really, it's it's pretty pretty sad and disappointing. And yeah, I don't know, I don't know what the future of Arcane Austin would have been. Arcane Leone still exists, they're still making Blade, and who knows what they'll make after that. But this is a this is a real real heartbreaker for me. And they said with Red with ar Kane Austin specifically that some of these people are gonna be going to other studios, so not one hundred percent of them have been laid off, but it seems like Harvey Smith, who is one of the big directors there, who was like the director of dishonored and Dishonored too is gone too. So that's like from Xbox, like just a huge bunder to lose top talent like that, who's like one of the greatest minds in video games, not even being hyperbolic there, and they just they just kick them out too. So that's just across the board, just such a stupid decision that I absolutely hate. Like they have so much fucking money, Like, I how how expensive could it be for Xbox to keep these studios considering how much money Microsoft makes as a company. It's like it's nothing. They're not even laying off, they're not closing out like ten studios or something. It's like, how how expensive could it have been for them to want to keep these these companies afloat? It Just the money side of it doesn't really make sense to me. They're getting like some kind of severance I imagine, right, I would imagine, so yeah, yeah do in this case, Yeah, let's see where do I want to go next with this? I think you know another thing for me too. At the timing is a few months ago. I think it was what November December when the Activision Blizzard thing finally officially closed and went through and then we saw I think it was back in March now is when they put Diablo four on game Pass. But that is the only thing that they've done with Activision blizzed so far, and so to me, it's like they're you know, the reason they're doing this is because they're not seeing the growth that they need, uh or they want. Rather, I don't think they need it, but they want it. They're not seeing the growth that they that they want here with game Pass in particular, and that service not the numbers not growing enough. But it's like, you guys have bought all this ip for seventy billion dollars and you haven't You've only put one game from that catalog into game Pass at this point. Like if they went and dumped all the old Call of Duty games or even the most recent one in that service, all the Activision Blizzard stuff, there's hundreds of games that you could just drop in the service today. I don't see why you can't put in right now. Maybe that would have boosted your numbers up, Like why aren't you trying that? Why aren't you doing that like as soon as possible? To me, it seems like such a stupid decision to make this, To make this decision now after like, maybe that would be huge for the service and bring in tons of people. I'm sure the Call of Duty side of it would be even if it's not the newest game. Just to have that catalog, I'm sure would bring a lot of people in and would you know, show them that, oh, I'm gonna get all these Call of Duty games in the future on game Pass. Cool, I'm gonna get into the service now and start playing these old ones or something. So I don't know, I don't know what's taking them so long to get these games on here, and they're just putting one one game dab before, not even day and date, and so I don't know what's why. Why do you think they haven't added anything from that the rest of that catalog, Yain. I was thinking about it actually, and I was wondering, maybe there's some weird restriction in how this deal went through, some kind of limitation or something. Maybe there's it could just be out of spite, maybe because we saw that there was like a little bit of tension from other companies, and maybe it's like, Okay, if you're going to be getting these titles, we don't want you to just be throwing it right away onto games Passes. Want there to be a long buffer period or something like that, just to maybe give them a little bit of a benefit or give them a fighting chance. I don't know, because if they did dump everything onto games Pass, for example, then I imagine it would be a huge, huge blow towards PlayStation for example. So maybe there's something in the fine print that just has them on a waiting period. Yeah, I don't know what that would be. Like. If there's other games that have timed exclusivity, that makes sense, But for like the old catalog and for games that are already on the Xbox Store, I don't really see. They own that shit, why can't they just put it on there. It doesn't really make any sense to me, So I don't know. I hate the timing for that reason too. Let's see. I think the red fault thing is pretty shocking that they are doing this, like and refunding people like the deluxe content stuff. That's pretty unheard of. I can't think of another game that's done that or another company that's had that situation happen before, can you, I can't. No, Yeah, that's pretty wild and then so Tango Game Works. So this is the other side of the token here where it's like, okay with Red Fall. Yeah, the game wasn't very successful and maybe they were just too far out from like the next game, and that's where Xbox decided that they weren't really worth it to keep along. But Tango Game Works just released Hyphi Rush last year, which was like a hugely successful game. I guess it wasn't maybe successful in the metric of directly getting people into the game Pass subscription service. Maybe that was the only metric they care about, and they don't care about reviews or perception or like fan reception. I don't even know what the sales were like on the on the store side of things for just like outright buying the game. But I also think the timing of this is really dirty. Where the game releases last year, big new pillar for Xboxes that they're gonna be putting their games third party, some of them, at least hi Fi was one of the first four that's gonna do that, and so I feel like it's it's really dirty in my opinion, to just keep those developers just around long enough to like make this port for PlayStation and then immediately kick them out. That game came out like three weeks ago on the PlayStation store, So that's just super dirty. Hate that, but that just kind of shows like, well, what do they want from these studios at this point? That was a super successful game? Is that not enough? Red Fall was kind of the you know, we can look at that. It's like, oh yeah, obviously they're gonna get rid of that studio. That's where I've heard some people say, but I'm like, what about Hi Fi? That game was really successful. How can that not be enough to keep a studio alive? That that side of it doesn't make any sense to me. None of this does, But neither does that. Yeah. Yeah, also with Tango. So you know, one weak point for Xbox, of which they have many, is is like their sales in Japan are just atrocious, Like that's just not a market that they are very good at capturing. PlayStation and Nintendo just run wild over there, while well Xbox has just like pitiful numbers, and Tango was I think maybe Activision Blizzard might have some Japanese studios. I'm not too sure, but in terms of like the catalog prior to the Activision Blizzard acquisition that was the only Japanese studio and so not that one studio is gonna make you super successful in that region, but I think that's like a very like great studio to have on your team in order if you're trying to crack into that market. That's a great I don't know, that's a great feather in your cap, so to speak. So and then also like the side of it, like I don't think they have many other studios that make horror games. Hell Blade is kind of scary stuff, I guess, But other than that, like that's that's kind of like another potential point that you know, obviously Hi Fi was not a horror game, but before that making Evil Within in Ghostwy or Tokyo. I feel like that's like a very valuable studio in terms of uh just diversity in terms of objects for Xbox. So another wild dishes in there to get rid of them. Do you think that the shadow drop angle of it had anything to do with it, because for Hi Fi, that was one of the games back in January Direct last year. Yeah, they shadow dropped it. They announced it in that direct and then dropped it right away, So obviously they didn't give it like the marketing runway that other games are gonna have, and so maybe that could lead into why it wasn't financially as successful as they once again wanted it to be. But yeah, do you think that was a blunder in hindsight to do the shadow drop for that? Yeah, I mean if you do, if you do a shadow drop, I feel like you absolutely are just to me, you shoot yourselves in the foot. I mean you at the same time, like, I don't know, it feels like you're not giving it the right amount of like attention and spotlight and that focus to really give it that fighting chance. I just feel like it's just kind of like, oh, here it is, moving on to the next thing. And yeah, I mean I personally, I didn't have a lot of interest in Hi Fi rash. That looked cool. I thought it was fun, and I feel like it was definitely it was always popping up here there. But yeah, it's it's just it's really poor. It's poor execution. Like whatever they're trying to figure out, I don't know, I don't know. Yeah, No, I mean it has me worried. Is like I feel like the marketing for hell Blade hasn't been very good that's coming out next week. I feel like they've like barely talked about it in recent times. And that was like one of the that was like the launch game, so to speak. With the announcement of like the series X was like hell Blade, and so they don't really seem to be supporting that game coming out with a like hitting in a huge way, which it should be. It should be one of their big temple titles. And like are they gonna do that for Indiana Jones as well, like not even really bothered to market it a whole lot of and just like you know, essentially two directs in a year, I don't really know what else they're doing to make these games shine. So it's like to extent, like not even down to the student at that point. If that's more of the marketing thing above them, Right, you can't rely on the fact like oh, like help Blade and Indiana Jones, you can't just rely on those titles to sell a game. You do have to market it. You do have to build that hype up. And well, I mean I'm not getting help Blade. I mean I'll maybe dabble in it, but for me, seeing them do these Viking like performances. That's not necessarily the kind of marketing that speaks to me when they do their presentations. Yeah. Yeah, So the other studios were, you know, admittedly smaller ones. Alpha Dog Games is one of them who had worked on mobile games. I guess. I show also mentioned like all of these closures are within the kind of Bethesda arm which they still definitely show as like a separate part within Xbox. They want to say it's one all big, one big happy family, but that's definitely not the case and how things run, it seems so. Alpha Dog Games make mobile games. Most notably and recently they made Mighty Doom, which is like game I don't think I talked about on side Quest, but I actually did play. I downloaded it a few months ago and had a really good time with it. It's like it's kind of like a top down, little arena doom thing. It's kind of got like a chibby sort of art style to it, but it's a really fun, Like, you know, if you just are sitting on a ferry or something like that, you just wanted to want to kill some time, it's a really good game for that. So that studio is closing in its entirety, and then the support for that game is going to end later this year, and then Roundhouse Games. It was formerly Human Head Studios. They've made all sorts of things over the years. They made the original Prey, like not the twenty seventeen Prey, but like the OG one. They made Brink, which I didn't realize that's a game I played back in the day. Shout outs to Brink, and then Dungeon Defenders too. I don't think I ever played the sequel, but the first one is one I really enjoyed. And that studio is not the studio is closing, but that team is being folded into the older Scrolls Online team, so they're not getting laid off in that way, whether they're just closing that studio. So obviously that's not nearly as bad as the other cases here with Tango and Alpha Dog, who are just completely going getting shut down. So yeah, I don't think we'll really have we don't have as much attachment with these studios necessarily, But yeah, that's it's once again, it's too bad. I don't know. I'm guessing those are smaller teams in terms of team size, but I don't I don't really know, I don't think they were really pushing these studios as much as they have been their other ones, which makes sense if they're just making these other types of games, or I think Groundhouse is already kind of more of a support studio anyway, working on other games, including maybe Red Fall. I think I saw that they potentially like were support studio and some extent to Redfall as a company. So yeah, I guess, let's see what's the next thing I want to talk about. So in their announcements and their various wording and verbage about this talk about how they want to kind of refocus on high impact games is what they called it. So I take that to mean like Call of Duty. Obviously other big Triple A games, your Starfields of the World. I guess Indiana Jones would fall into that camp. I think had hell Blade would fall in that, but I don't even know what their definition is. But I I hate that. I hate I hate the idea, just the thought that Xbox is acquiring Activision Blizzard, like just for call of duty and to make more call of Duty because obviously that is a great bonus, and I play some call of Duty here there. But I love the idea that Obsidian got to go make Pentiment, which is this weird little visual novel game with a really cool style, like totally unique game, and I love that Xbox was able to give them the resources to make that. I loved that Xbox was able to support the development of Hi Fi Rush, which is a weird, small, interesting, cool rhythm action game, and obviously that didn't turn out to them keeping Tango around, but I love the idea that they were supporting these teams to make smaller, interesting, weird games that would he round out the game Pass portfolio alongside the big heavy hitters like Your Star Fields and Your Call Duties that are gonna be like the console. The console. Uh, I don't know big Day one releases right that bring people in, and so I don't know this. They still have tons of people obviously, tons of different studios within Xbox, so hopefully there is still room for that. But this doesn't really excite me about the future of Xbox if we're just gonna not support these cool, weird, smaller kind of quote unquote indie games within these bigger studios that have like multiple teams on certain things. I don't know, how do you do you take that in to mean anything different than me or any any thoughts on that kind of maybe restructuring of their kind of strategy here going forward. No, I think as much as I love Call Duty and some of these other main titles, I think that to buy into these companies and to just not pay mine to disband the the indie side of things is kind of very uh again, I've said this before, Shady, I think that it's it's very unfortunate, it's very sad. Yeah, I feel like if I was a business owner I was buying a new company, I would want to utilize everything that's going on, because even those smaller groups and those smaller projects that have been created, they they have a place in that company and they're they're building themselves up, and so just just to cast it aside and kind of like a focus on like, oh, well, we know what sells, that's just just that's not fair because you can't always rely on what sells, and that's just money speaking. You got to try and experience, experiment with new things. And that's where like the indie genre is so fascinating because you can really create a lot of new things. And so if they are just shafting those to the side. It's it's unfortunate. Yeah, I think that it's kind of a separate topic here, but I just feel like the last since the series X has has come out. Obviously, I you know, got back in the Xbox ecosystem and I've really enjoyed it as a console, and I game Pass is a fantastic service. But I also feel like, especially in the last maybe a couple of years, I thought that the the wording and the presence of like the Xbox executives like Phil Spencer, Matt Booty, Sarah Bond, these people, I thought it like the the way they would speak at these events. I feel like they were very open and honest, and they just felt more relatable in a way, and I was really digging it, you know, I was drinking the kool aid, so to speak. I was like, Man, I'm really liking this new era of Xbox. And even if their consoles not selling as well as they wanted to and their numbers aren't as you know, skyrocketing as they need to be, me as a player, I am incredibly satisfied and I would intend to keep going ahead as this being my primary console. But you know, with this play today or last week when this was announced, Like I feel like they just kind of threw all that goodwill in the trash for me, and it really just made me see like, oh yeah, like I need to remember that these are just corporo piece of shit people who will don't give a shit about their employees whatsoever, and they're just gonna to drop out of there just they're just lying. They're just trying to get into our back pocket. Make them seem like friendly faces that we can trust, but it's just it's just not true. It's not true, and so much of what they said, especially in last year, have been just blatant lies. And like Phil Spencer, I thought it was really brave of him to go on these different podcasts like kind of Funny right after Red Fall came out and was a disastrous launch, and he came out and he was very honest about that. He took responsibility. He's like, oh yeah, we as like Microsoft as overseeing this, like we should have had a bigger hand in this and supporting the studio and making sure it was right before he released it. Then then why Phil, why why are they the ones taking the fall for this and getting and losing their jobs and you just get to sit there with probably a bigger paycheck in your pocket than you've ever had before. So I yeah, they've They've really done a lot to sour my opinion of them, which is too bad because, like I said, I I've really enjoyed kind of where I'm at right now with the with the console space and where game pass is at. But yeah, they've really ruined a lot of good faith here. I feel like, and I don't know if they're on the tier of Embracer yet, but I feel like with this one move they really put themselves in that ball camp of like man embraceror piece of shit company. We all hate Embracer as a company that there wors They buy up all these companies and they just spit people out layoffs all the time. Xbox is like in that camp now to me, just just because of this one day here. So I think they've really fucked up here. And you know, it's also such a confusing situation where a lot of people are like calling for Phil and other people's jobs at this point. But it's like, man, I feel like with how Xbox is formed right now and how many fucking studios they own and how many IP they have? Who are you going to put in that job? Now? Like it is such a difficult position to put anyone in this place and say, oh yeah, manage all these like whatever it is fifty one hundred studios or whatever they have now with the Activision Blizzard stuff, manage all this stuff effectively, Go Like that is gonna be such a hard job for anyone to fill. So it's like, yeah, you kick out Phil, sure, why not? But who are you gonna get to phone this? Are they gonna do any better? Or is they gonna take them ten years to figure out how to manage the current portfolio? And then at that point, who knows how many people have had to have been layoff because the Xbox has not been super successful in that time. So I don't know if that's like a strategy or something. Maybe I'm talking about ask Maybe this makes no sense, but to me, it's like I don't know if that like gives fill job security because like I don't know who you gonna get to do to fill in all that. Like you know, when you're like starting a new job or something like that, and someone's about to leave and they're like doing the training and they're giving you, you know, teaching everything in a couple of weeks. There's no way filler anyone could do that in a couple of weeks for how many teams they have under them at this point. Now, if they keep like put this this is a separate thing and Activision Blizzard they keep their separate people there, maybe it makes it easier, but like that's like what at that point, I don't know what is it even for? Why even bring them in? Why not just make deals for specific games to be on game Pass and build a partnership that way. So yeah, I think they've really really fucked up here, And I don't know. I think the timing of this is very intention too, of doing it now middle May and then a couple of weeks they'll have their Xbox showcase and hopefully from their perspective, people forget about this stuff. But like, I'm not gonna forget about this. You destroyed one of my very favorite studios of all time, so it's it's not gonna be something all overlook, And it makes me like I'm gonna be watching that showcase in June and I'm like, oh, this game looks cool, but like, is this gonna get the studio closed down because it's not some big successful model of the game, and Xbox is now pivoted in like, I don't know, a few days in terms of what they want their strategy to be. I don't know. I've lost a lot of faith and a lot of trust in Xbox and that sucks because I feel like they did a really good job over the last few years of building it up and then they just chop it down just hecap me, just like that. I don't know, are you feeling that way at all? Doom and gloom like I am on this in terms of the grand scheme of things? Where are you at on that that side of it? I think I think you're kind of going the right way. I think at the end of the day, I just feel like it's it's not fair and I don't like that. I feel like Xbox has this trend of just making one step forward two steps back, and this has started with the ever since they put out the Xbox One and it's like, oh, you need internet connection to play this console. Yeah. Ever since then, it's just been a murky, murky road forward, and I feel like a company should not be making decisions this poorly. It shouldn't be that hard. I don't have any experience running a gaming company or a huge industry like Microsoft, but I feel like a fair amount of us could go in there. We could make some pretty good calls. I don't know if I don't know if it would last. We might go bankrupt within the first month. But I think that there's a few decisions that needed to be made, more so from like a gamer's perspective or a perspective that is not full just a shareholder's hand, like just in the pot. And I feel like that's at the end of the day, the call by shareholders, they're just saying, like Phil, you know this hell all has to close down. There's money bleeding into these little divisions. I don't like that. I like seeing the money come from these guaranteed income generators, and so we need to focus on that right now. And you're looking at all the l's like red Fall and oh yeah, we had High five Rush, all these different things, and it's just it's poor decisions. And then other people pay the price for the company's poor decisions. So it should be illegal, shouldn't it, Like spend seventy billion dollars to buy a bunch of stuff and then just lay off a bunch of people. I think that was part of the agreement was that they weren't allowed to lay on off from Activision Blizzard with that, but then they did anyway, And I don't like nothing came of that being against like what they signed up for. So I could be mixing up some details there, but like, I don't know, it just there's no way you should like one. They were really they overpaid for actors and Blizzard in the first place, and I don't know, even just a tiny fraction of that would have kept these four studios alive and well for like, you know, decades. That's just like in terms of the comparisons of like how much these things cost. So I don't know, it's just incredibly irresponsible, just just so fucked up. Yeah, that really is. Yeah, And I don't know, I feel like everywhere you look, it's just happening. Like Sony closed down London Studio and had a bunch of layoffs earlier, laying off people from like Naughty Dog, Like how are you nail? Nail? A lot of people from Naughty Dog, like the one of the most successful companies in the world. Embracers going crazy, Screenix is now doing it. I feel like there's very few, Like I don't think Capcom has had to do any in the last couple of years. They seem to be nailing it. They have like the perfect scale right now. And then like Nintendo is so secretive stuff, but I'm sure that would be coming up in reports if they were laying people off. So I think Nintendo obviously the switch is very, very successful, but they haven't had to do that as far as as I know recently, So I don't know Xbox mostly, but also so any really need to get their shit figured out here, and and yeah, howe you stop acquiring until you can like keep track of what you currently have. And I hope this is not just like the sign of things to come and we don't get like more and more of these layoffs, like a hope from Xbox is the last about and hope in general is the last of it. But as I said, more Square EnEx stuff today, so it's not gonna be the end of it. But yeah, I don't know any other thoughts on this that we haven't talked about yet. I think I can think of okay, let's take a break. We'll be right back. Okay, we are back, and let's talk about Nintendo. Let's talk about Intendo, who is not laying people off, which we love to see. But what they did do is they laid out their their plans for the next few months here. So obviously they're June Direct month or not monthly yearly. June Direct is happening. Uh. They confirmed that at this June Direct will be Switch games and Switch games only. But then within this fiscal years that takes us to the next what is it? March? End of March is when they will announce the successor to the Nintendo Switch. What do you think about this, Taylor? What do you What do you think? What do you think about the Well, there's two sides of it here, but yeah, I guess what do you think about the switch successor announcement? Is that do it for you? I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that we just got I feel like we got the switch last week. To be honest, I'm when you tell me that we got this what nine years ago? Uh? What where did that time? Though? And I have to think seven. I remember we were in your room and we were just trash talking when it was right, well, since the announcement, it might be nine years, but yeah, I came out in twenty seventeen, but that's true. Yeah, I just I can't fathom that it's been that long. It still feels like such a like my Switch feels like a brand new console. I love it. And now just the concept of the next generation coming out for this console, it just kind of blows my mind. But I'm very excited for it, I really really am. I love my Switch. It's a staple. And the thing that I'm going to miss is most of these titles not being available on this Switch two point zero or whatever you want to call it, because I love my little library of Switch games. And so if I'm hoping they would do something along the lines of maybe like a Nintendo DS that also plays game Boy Bands games, that would be just like that'd be perfect. Yeah, yeah, I mean, we've heard so much about the Switch too, without actually hearing about it officially from Nintendo at this point, and almost I think every report has been that this sequel to the success or to it is going to be like very much a Switch to like it's going to be just an improvement. But it's gonna be the same sort of thing. I think that makes a lot of sense because once they've gone to this hybrid home console portable console, like, I don't think they can really go back at in this time until people are like nostalgic for a handheld only device again. But even then, the switch for a lot of people is a handhold only device and it works pretty well for them in that way. So yeah, I feel like we are going to get very very much as like a two point zero, but it's gonna be like the same idea. And yeah, everything we've heard is that it will be fully backwards compatible, which is great. Hopefully there is you know, performance enhancement for older games. I always think of Ultimate Line three and how I wish that game would just run better, run at higher frame rate and stuff, But so many other games could benefit from just having that extra power upgrade. So hopefully that works pretty seamlessly and doesn't require all these crazy patches and stuff for these older games, like a next gen patch we think about on like a on Xbox or PlayStation sort of thing. But yeah, I think we can very much expect a very similar console, but just just maybe a little bit of better screen, more processing power. I hope better joy Cons, not just for the drift, but just like better erganomics. Like joy Cons at this point just straight up give me hand pain like they have probably given me Garble Tunnel or something. So I hope that's better. I hope that's a big improvement on the next one. What do you? U will do more of a you know, discussion on this later when it's probably closer, but yeah, what do you? I don't know what is your biggest thing on the wish list for a switch too, because for me, I don't, I don't. I really just want that. I just want stronger I want sixty frames, I want a little bit better visuals. I want better loading times and a better controller. So maybe that's asking a lot already, but like, I don't think I don't want anything out of the bag. I don't want Nintendo weirdness, and I don't think with their new like CEOs and stuff that they've had since the Switch release, I don't think they're doing weird stuff anymore. I think they're doing like buy the books, things that make money. And I think for the switch too, like, yeah, don't do some weird thing, just do the SQL console. Yeah, no weird stuff. I don't need no Labo two point zero any of that. I I've already done Labo two point Oh I hope not. I have not followed that whatsoever. I would love it if they just had the switch set up with larger internal storage. I don't need. Uh, that would be good. I know we can just keep swapping out like SD cards, but I'm not a fan of that annoying. It is very annoying. So larger storage would be great handheld or the joy Cons, sorry, that would be That would be nice if they rEFInd that a little bit more, because even when you look at the next generation between PS three, PS four, PS five and same with Xbox, the controllers change slightly, and I feel like everyone that upgrades it just feels like it's more contoured to your hands and a nice like a better vibe, better feeling. So they should do that with the joy Cons. But we'll see. I mean I can also see Nintendo be like, oh, your joy Cons will also work on the new switch as well, So I think that would be smart, and unfortunately I do. My expectation is that the joy Cons are not going to change all like maybe a very slightly improvement. I do think that will be backwards compatible as well, which means that it won't change a whole lot. So that sucks. But that's that's like my deepest dream, I think, but I really don't expect it to happen. Let me ask you this, Do you think there is a chance that there's something Microsoft related that could be announced with this, like and the game's pass library is available on the Switch two point zero or something like that. No, I don't think so. No. I think that. I think we're just gonna we're gonna keep getting more and more of these Xbox games coming over, Like they had those first four games going over, well two of them went to Switch and then all four went to PS five, I believe, And I think we'll see more of that, But I don't think we'll get I don't think we'll ever get like a game pass on the Switch. Honestly, I don't like what is. I guess Nintendo would like take a cut out of that, but I don't. I don't think they really need to. Like, I think they're pretty good at just holding it down with Nintendo so online in that game being this older catalog of games, So like what would be on the game Pass for switch thing, it would be like, well, Xbox games could be in there, and there's a few of those, but they've kind of stopped releasing a lot of them, and as I just mentioned, they are bringing some of them more over now. But I don't really think Nintendo wants to devalue the the cost of games on their system, which I think something that's something Xbox is definitely done with the inclusion of game Pass. I've bought a whole lot less of their games. They got me in a monthly level, but I'm not buying Starfield is First Pathies, the game I haven't bought in a very long time, right, And so I don't think Nintendo wants to train their audience in that way that makes sense. Like obviously with the back catalog games, it's different. Okay, this GBA game, you're not technically paying for it, you're being for the subscription. But I think that's very different than the day and date things, and I don't think Nintendo wouldever toy with that, at least of the time being. So yeah, I don't see that happening makes sense. So they said they're gonna announce it the fiscal year. We don't know what that means for release date. Do you think they're gonna aim for that same slot of like, what was it, February of twenty seventeen, aim for that kind of thing early of next year, or do you think they're just gonna announce it sometimes this fiscal year for it to come out like next summer or the or next fall. Like what do you think we can expect on Timeline. I think they'll announce it and they'll just say I could I could see a next fall. Actually I could see something along those lines. Yeah, I don't think it's gonna be any time like right immediately following though, Okay, I'll go with I'll go with the fall announcement for the console showing it off, and then it comes out in that February slot again. I think they'll try and just hey, it was successful worked for us once, let's do it again. Timeline works nicely there and then kind of with that, so I mentioned that there's the June announced June showcase. We're not gonna do full predictions, but what do you think like we're gonna get for the rest of the quote unquote switch switch one, Like, do you think we're gonna get any big game to close out this console and like the Final Swan Song sort of game, or do you think that it's just gonna be pretty light direct and then they're gonna go all in with like a huge release window launch, you know, launch games for the new system. H I could see things kind of winding down, But I mean it's not really a Nintendo fashion because I was reading the other day that there was a was it Dark Moon? There were some titles that were releasing out for Yeah, Louis's mentioned. I thought there were some titles in this article I was reading that were still rolling out. But is that the very dead end lifespan of like the three DS, because you mean with the original, not like the HD remake, you mean the yeah, the original. Yeah. So I feel like there's things were like the next console was coming out or something like that, and so it's just kind of like stealing the spotlight a little bit, if that makes any sense. I just feel like they're gonna they're gonna They're gonna release a few things, but they're gonna win it down and they're just gonna pump out, Like here, we got all this stuff coming to this new console. You know what is that game called you Can Shake the Ice Cubes? Like twice at the same time to yeah, we got like one two, three four Switch? Now like the well they had the sequel that came out last year, Right, what the hell is it called one too? Really? What was it called Everybody's one two Switch? Is that what it's called? Everybody Everybody one to Switch? You're right, what the heck is this four? And that game came out and released? I feel like I heard no one talking about it, even like Nintendo podcasts that I listened to. I think, you know, for me, it's like if there's a new Donkey Kong, which I hope it's been so long, a new Mario, and like a Zelda remake, I think it would be the next Zelda thing we'd see that to me, seems like you save that for the launch window, the launch launch day. You want that new Mario game which is probably gonna be ready for that time, and all the remake like that wind Wakeer one that we've been waiting for, a new Donkey Kong. I would love to see something like that, but I think those things are all gonna be saved. And really, my only I guess prediction for like what we get in terms of big releases for the end of this console would be Metro Prime fours because I feel like the marketing cycle around that has been with the switch, the current switch, and I think it might choose some people if they actually end up making that a switch to exclusive title. And that's the thing. We don't know what it's gonna look like in terms of, you know, when PS five came out and Xbox Series X all those games for a while we're still on the previous generation console. Nintendo doesn't really do that in the same way these other console manufacturers have, so it would be kind of unprecedented. But yeah, I'm I'm guessing that they'll have like an exclusive Mario game that you can only get on the switch to because I just feel like that's a very Nintendo kind of thing to do. So yeah, I think Prime four could be the last one. But like that game, I don't know, it's just taking so long and it's got to be ready at some point here. So I think that would be a really cool, like October release. Metro Dredda think came out in October. I think that'd be a really cool October Spooky Season game, and it would be like kind of the Swan Song. I think that'd be a really cool Swan Song started game for the console. Me sure, Crime coming Back. I think that'd be really cool. So personally I want that, and that's I think that'll also be my prediction. It's my want and my prediction. M Yeah, what do you think give me one game that you think would be the the Swan Song if they had one the Swan Song, Because right now they're the Mario Doesnt Your Door remakes coming out, Luigi's mentioned two HD things coming out, and that's really all we know in terms of big Nintendo first party stuff, and those are remakes. So I mean, have they Have they mentioned anything about an Honesty too? I don't think so. They have not officially talked to anything about the follow up of that game. Do you think they would actually do that not as part of the switch to launch title? Huh hmmm. I feel like because I was just thinking like maybe if we get something like GameCube days like Luigi's Mansion kind of like being like a launch title and then may safe like the Mario for after the fact, But I mean, maybe those days have sailed that it's not really kind of in the cards anymore for what Nintendo. Yeah, Next Level Games is uh has been acquired now they are first party x or Xbox first party Xbox so I and that game sold really well, so I think that could be coming next from that studio. Actually is the next one we just mentioned. I don't know if you'd be ready for launch stuff. It seems maybe too soon. I guess that game came with twenty nineteen. I don't know what else they did after. Well they did they Strikers right, Yeah, which came out? Was that two years ago now or last year? Like it was two years ago. That's a few ways of DLC so. I mean that is some That is some time to be working on something. I guess. Yeah, who knows what that would be? Yeah, yeah, I don't know, like a good Swan song game. I mean yeah, nothing really comes top my head. Uh, let me look at my Nintendo. What do we got here? Maybe a Mario sports game? Okay? Maybe what do we get? Football or hockey or something? Hockey would be fun? Uh? Did they do a baseball one for the Switch? They have not done baseball. They've not done sluggers since the Wei I think that's not a bad pick. That's a good one. Yeah, I like that. I'll go with that. I'll go with a Slugger sequel. Let's do it. That'd be really fun to see. I think we're due for a Mario Party slash Sports game this year. We don't have anything announced. I think that would actually be a good one. So good shout out there. Okay, there you go. There's Nintendo stuff. And then uh closing out with a couple of other topics here. So Taylor, a new Jurassic Park Evolution game was just announced that there's no trailer, I don't think or anything to go along with it, but uh, yeah, are you excited for this? What do you what do you want to see from a third game in this series? I'm really kind of flabbergasted to the fact that we're getting a third I thought that they kind of hit it out of the park literally pun intended with that second one, because they added Marine Life, they added a lot more customizations, and I had a heck of a good time with the story. So to get this third one, I don't know really how they're going to expand it, because even the DLCs that they put out with this game, You're getting tons of new hybrids, tons of new creations, park editions, everything like that. The first one also had an expansion for the original Drastic Park, so they've really tagged and tapped into a lot of different types of content. So the only thing I could really imagine is just getting a newer campaign. And on top of that, again, I don't know how these games really fit into being cannon with the films, but I feel like we're on the uptick of Universal really putting their foot forward into a new era of Jurassic Parks because we have that Jurassic Park Survival game which is going to be really focused on that original film, and then we're getting this new movie that's totally new, characters, totally new continue out continuous continuing story in the universe, and now this too. So I don't know, maybe this could be just expanding it and having more builds on the mainland as opposed to just being on islands. So what was the big change between one and two? Mechanically? I would say marine, marine life and not being limited to islands, just having a lot more weathering factors, and just of course you have new species you're dealing with, You're dealing with a lot more problems to your park, and I'd say a lot more limitations too, and not in a bad way, but just in a test way that really try to push you forward out of your comfort zone to really kind of set your park up and really create a sustainable layout at times. And of course just the building components, the things that you can do, and the create you can do is just like through the roof compared to that first one, that first one, I played the living daylights out of it. Oh my gosh, do you like that one more than two? Or or two? Just got those improvements? H two's just got the improvements. It's it's it's really beautiful. And I love the upgrades just with the dinosaurs and how dinosaurs have chemistry with other different species and uh just I find it is so enjoyable flying around in a helicopter and just getting like low and getting in where the dinosaurs are and their padd X the oh yeah, driving the GEP is so nice, just getting right up close in there. Like the photo mode too. I follow the their forums and I love seeing all the other people just submit different like cool close up shots. They try to recreate scenes from the movies in games. It's so nice to see the community just partaking this way. So yeah, I'm excited. Well, I yeah, I played the second one, I think a good amount, and I had a really good time with it. It was really fun a lot of doing it, like in terms of the scenarios versus like the more story focused stuff versus I forget, like I'm sure there's like a free play mode or whatever it is, but I had really good time messed around with it. I like Tycoon sort of games like that. So it's cool if it's the third one coming. But it is kind of surprising because I feel like, especially in this day and age, games like this don't usually get sequels, Like usually you just have one game and it's kind of like not necessarily a live service game, but as you mentioned, like it's just DLC, it's keep content updates. If it's on Steam, maybe it has the workshop stuff, so you have people making user generated content and they kind of just become these ever, ever growing games. So I think it's pretty cool to get a third game here, and I'm yeah, I'm really curious to see what kind of things they add to it. And yeah, as you mentioned, like it's Jurassic Park or dry what do they I guess what do we call it? The Jurassic Park universe or Jurassic World universe at this point, like what is it? I think maybe just drastic universe. I guess, yeah, Jurassic universe. Yeah, it's like it's it's popping off. As you mentioned the other game, and the movies are doing well out the box office, I guess if they're still making them. So yeah, it's just it's a it's a good time to be a fan of this stuff. So I'll definitely be checking out the third one if it's I mean, I think the second one dropped in a game pass at some point, which is why I yes, which is why I picked it up. So I don't know if i'd buy this one outright at full cost by any means, but uh, at some point down the line all this, then check it out. So that's pretty cool. And then also Assassin's Creed previously code named Red, got a new title. It's called Assassin's Creed Shadows officially. And you know, this is kind of an announcement of announcement sort of thing, but I think, yeah, what is it. Sometime this week they're doing what is it a trailer drop or is it a showcase? Uh no, the the I found a leak actually because I was digging into this, So we're getting I believe June they're going to be doing a showcase, which is the leak that they're going to focus on Assassin's Creed Shadows. That's funny the title actually dropped or no, how did that go? The leak I was reading someone found and commented about Assassin Creed Shadows and then Ubisoft slapped a copyright claim on it, and so that basically confirmed all these people like, oh that's the name, that's the name, and that was a month ago, and so now here we are statisfy Shadows is the confirmed name. But in that leak too, people were talking about how June was supposed to be U be soft as doing like an actual like I think at unveiling our showcase on the game. But I think this week we're just getting a like a teaser or first look, maybe a cinematic or something like that. So okay, so it probably won't be a whole lot to chew on at the moment, but they're just getting ahead of it kind of thing, I think. So that's what I suspect. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a great title. I think it's it's differentiates. I think they've got lost in the sauce a little bit with like Odyssey and Valhalla. Hearing some pretty generic names that it's like origins, I'm like, Okay, I got a thing which one is which at this point, but I think this is this is a good one, and I think it's a pretty good name like for the setting as well. So I don't know, is there anything else you really have to say about this today, because considering has there been other leaks in terms of like any info about the game that you know about. Well, from what I've heard people talking about is that the name Shadows is coming from the fact that so you're Ninja, obviously you're assassin, but the blending in factor of this game was again take this with an extreme grain of salt. The blending in factor is supposed to be really invested in this shadow kind of component of this game. So when there's light sources, you're going to be snuffing out light to be blending into the dark. You're going to be really kind of controlling the scenario and just trying to hide more into Shadows and whatnot. It just kind of be more of that Ninja style, which it just gets me going. I just can't wait to think about that. And after Mirage being kind of that homage to the original game, I think that getting into this title and really expanding and getting into the just that juiciness. Because I can't even remember if assassinally Jade came out yet. I signed up for that the mobile batis. I want to try it, but I never I never heard back from it. I really wanted to give that a whirl. And I think Mirage actually is releasing on mobile or has released on mobile, so they're broadening their horizons a little bit. And I think hes is in the works now too. Yeah. Hexs would probably be the next, like mainline one after At the Shadows, Yeah, I suspect. So yeah. Yeah, it looks like Jade came out August twenty twenty three and closed beta didn't let me get in on that. Apparently it's been delayed to twenty twenty five I'm reading here, So that's the release of that one. That's unfortunate then, but then also sorry, didn't they announce the release date of the game is this year? For Shadows. Yeah, November Fifteenthmber, was it, like, you know, probably not shocking, I guess, considering that's what they always kind of do. They usually go fri end of October. Yeah, and so this is like that's prime with my time, with my birthday. I'm I'm gonna be sneaking in there. Oh, it's gonna be good. Yeah, I'm really excited to see this. As you mentioned, they're like all the stealth based stuff, which obviously this series is rooted in, but the name really kind of signals to me that they're gonna go back to that, and I love a good stealth game, So I think that's pretty intriguing to me. Curious to see how they're going to differentiate from Ghost of Tsushima and Rise of the ronin which just came out in terms of being similar like open world setting similarities, all that kind of stuff that the stealth and combat kind of hybrid styles there. But yeah, I'm definitely definitely excited to see this one. I'm guessing that they're gonna do like a classic Ubi Soft Direct and then like, because didn't they do that last year or the year before where they had like their Ubi Selft Direct and then they maybe had a quick glimpse at the game in there, but then they had like their separate twenty minute long Assassin's Freed direct right, yeah, yeah, that's what they did. Yeah yeah, so we'll probably get the same thing here. Cool. Any other thoughts on that one. I'm just I'm over the moon for it ever since they did that quick little teaser and just like the rad aesthetic and just oh he looked just landing on the roof. He was so bad ass. Oh, this is what the fans have been demanding and asking for since Assassin's Creed, like to her Brotherhood, like, it's been a huge fan request. So right, the weight has finally paid off, although most of those fans have probably moved on doing other things. Ghost. Yeah, competitors doing their work for them. That's classic. Okay, yeah cool, Thank you Taylor, Thank you for joining me. This is a fun, fun, but also sad, kind of melancholy sort of episode. We kind of hit all spectrums of it as we do next week. I didn't announce this at the top, but next week we are doing the hell Blade retrospective that's coming out. We're a little bit late on it, so it's gonna come out like the day or two before the new game comes out, so it should get it's a you know, shouldn't be Uh, it's a short game, Soul. Have you enough time to listen to it, check it out, and then jump into the sequel, which I'm excited about. I've been playing through that last few days as well. So yeah, that will be next week's episode. Thank you everyone for joining us, and we'll see you again then bye bye