Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Bess Mornings with Me Jeff Grub,
your host from giant bomb dot com. Thank you for
tuning in. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about
getting the twenty twenty four Game of the Year banned
back together and capcom nurfing cousin marriage. It's gonna be
a good one because we have Jan and Choa on
the show. Jan, how are you doing?
Speaker 2: I don't know what that means, Grub, nobody does? All right? Cool? Cool,
that's that's an interesting way to hear about the headlines today.
Speaker 3: Uh huh, that's how it goes. Sometimes.
Speaker 1: It's just that they're doing their thing. Hey, good news,
they barely changed anything.
Speaker 3: Well, we'll talk about it. But how you been Jan?
Speaker 2: You know, I just feel like fistfighting a whole medical
organization due to their ineptitude in handling patients and just
dumping them out aside.
Speaker 3: America's greatest pastime.
Speaker 2: Exactly exactly, you know, apple.
Speaker 1: Pie baseball taxes, hating the medical infrastructure we have here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and let me tell you I want I'm trying
my hardest, Grub not to hate people at the various
levels of this ladder because I understand they're beholden and
they're agents in the matrix. Right, yeah, exactly right. Their
hands are tied. But perhaps when you know they know
information and they see a four or eleven older Filipino
woman desperately waiting for answers, maybe you fucking inform her
and you don't just wait around there looking on your phone,
you fucking idiot. Sorry, yep, yep, it's uh boy.
Speaker 1: Any sort of interaction I have with it, it's like
we've just messed up and we don't know how to
clean ourselves up. We've covered covered ourselves in shit as
America and are looking at it and be like, well,
can't do anything about this.
Speaker 3: It's it's great stuff. I love it.
Speaker 2: It's fantast right grub Yep, it's good stuff.
Speaker 1: I played some Tomadauci life. Here's the thing. Emmy was
so excited. Yes, she literally could not sleep and I
to go check on her, and it was like I
wanted to check it. She's like, so how long till
it sounds like that doesn't matter, you have to go
to sleep. And then I checked on her and it
was midnight and she was still up. So I went
in there real quick and showed her and she made
one more character, and immediately she's just like, oh, I
get it, Like this is going to be everything I
could tell the like it really fits into her way
of playing games, which as someone who was like play
games a certain way for a long time, jan the
way that kids play games where they're just it's about play.
It's not necessarily about accomplishing something in the game or
like getting to the end.
Speaker 3: It's about play.
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, we are going to come up with
characters and tell ourselves stories. Tom Adagi Life might be
the perfect video game. It's crazy how well it fits
with their brains.
Speaker 2: I'm curious if this is going to be for younger
gamers like the Gimmicks, right, if this is going to
wind up being an on ramp to something like the SIMS.
And I know the SIMS isn't quite doing like the
curated scenes and tableaus that Tomodacci Life is doing, right
uh uh, and you kind of have to make more
of your own fun. But I wonder if like the
Gimmicks will wind up wanting more modularity with the world
that they can create and more specifics than something like
Tomadacci Life is able to do that being said, folks,
Tomodacci life quick look for living the dream out now,
grub Dan and I have a fantastic time visiting kfabe
Island and learning that apparently grub dogs love lobster rolls.
Speaker 1: They really really do. God, what a moment. Yeah go
check that out everybody. It's on the website right now.
Speaking to the website, let's explain ourselves. We're Giant Bomb,
we're independent games media. We need your support to keep
making things happen over here. Go to giant bomb dot com,
slash join. Become a premium member, gets you add reversions
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you portal pals, it's gonna get your new grubs. Next
premium I'm probably gonna record today, So make it happen
and get that satisfaction of knowing that you're supporting independent
games media. As far as this show goes most weekdays,
I Jeff Garb will help peace your gaming life back together.
That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our
own original reporting for all these topics. I'll get the
input of a bona fide expert who will make me
look smart. If you are 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 feed on GiantBomb dot com. You can also catch
the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Hello YouTube.
Speaker 1: All right, we have a lot to get into, so
let's start the morning Mess with Prince of Persia. The
Lost Crown development team reportedly reunites set to pitch new
ideas to Ubisoft. This is from Alex Hopley at Game Reactor.
We're getting the back together. Well maybe we are, as
it's believed that the development team behind Prince of Persia
the Lost Crown, which was previously disbanded to go work
on other titles at Ubisoft like Assassin's Creed, is being
allowed to reform at the company. In a now deleted
post on Blue Sky, French journalist Gauthier Gauteau's andres claimed
that Ubisoft has brought the development team back together and
is letting them pitch new ideas once more. Considering the
post is now deleted on Blue Sky, it may be
the case that something is amiss with Gautos's reporting, so
keep your salt shakers handy for this one. However, this
might be a glimmer of hope in Prince of Prince
of Persia's future. After the cancelation of the Sands of
Time remake, it did seem like the franchise was all
but dead and buried. However, if the Lost Crown developers
are keen on making some sort of sequel to the
game which brought in millions of players, it's possible it
will have.
Speaker 3: A strong audience already.
Speaker 1: That is one of the things that did happen here
jan is since they seemingly disbanded this team, or did
disband this team, it does seem like Prince Persia of
the Lost Crown specifically has continued to pile on more
players as word of mouth like slowly spread and then
the price.
Speaker 3: Came way down. It's been available for as low as
ten dollars.
Speaker 1: People can get it now for like twenty to thirty,
and that includes physically at a lot of places. At
that price, it's like the easiest recommendation in the world.
And then it does seem like people are taking that
up and picking up this game so maybe the mathematics
have changed behind it since they disbanded the team, and they're.
Speaker 3: Like, you know what, we were wrong.
Speaker 1: We see now how this can build up slowly, and
maybe we can take that momentum and do something with
a sequel.
Speaker 3: What do you think.
Speaker 2: I am a little bit hesitant about this news, Grub.
I'm happy that the team may possibly be getting back,
may either because they formed it or they developed a
fantastic game. It was our game of the year two
years ago. At this point, it has.
Speaker 1: To be twenty twenty four, right, I wrote here, but
I'm not sure if that's exactly exactly right.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure it was, I think so. But you know,
it was deservedly won our Game of the Year because
I feel like it captured all of our attention, and
you know, this whole website is so dang metroid vanyappilled
that of course that game, and it also helped that
it was a fantastic game.
Speaker 3: It was fantastic.
Speaker 2: The part that makes me hesitant, Grub, is that this
is still falling underneath the UBI Soft umbrella, and if
Ubisoft made that decision to spread out that team, potentially
cut some of those developers out. Of the company and
let them go. I'm not super confident that Ubisoft is
going to follow through and even listen or entertain some
of these ideas, especially with how we've seen uv Soft
handle various other projects, specifically Prince of Persia projects.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's you know, maybe things did change and
they're like, okay, yeah, we are. We would be more
happy with a game where we can make it at
a certain budget tarry level, and then we put it
out and over the next couple of years it gets
to one to two million copies sold, and maybe in
this moment they're like, thumbs up, that sounds awesome, But
we know how fickle these companies are, and it feels
like three months from now that will be the kind
of thing where you bring that back into the boardroom
and it becomes poison to the people sitting there as
they're like, no, it has to be the biggest swings ever.
Speaker 3: We're back on that bandwagon.
Speaker 2: It's it's an insane line of thinking to not realize, oh,
if we give something the proper amount of runway and
then kind of course correct in terms of price, then
we can eventually make up for that. And also just
having Prince of Persia of the Lost Crown has to
be a smaller budget title compared to the other things
that Ubisoft has been trying to do right.
Speaker 1: Right, all, Yes, all those ones that ran into like
the like brick walls for whatever reason, whether that's coming
out to zero acclaim and zero or whether it's like
a failing in development, It's like, yeah, all those projects
probably were bigger, more complicated, And then do they.
Speaker 3: Really have that much of a higher ceiling?
Speaker 1: Maybe they do two D games like A Prince of
Persia of the Lost Crown always seem like they're fighting
in an uphill battle these days, but this one, you know,
over time just seems like it won that battle. And
it's probably a story they can tell right now internally
at Ubisoft to say, look, we have the ones that
we know we're gonna make. We have our Assassin's Creeds,
our far Cries, a handful of other things we know
we're going to keep making those. We do have this
massive development team of ten of ten thousand plus people
across the world. We should be like diversifying somewhat what
else can work. And it's like, okay, so this doesn't
have the highest ceiling, but I think you can prove
it does work, and so can you just make the math,
like set out with a mathematical equation that works from
the beginning. If we spend this much time with this
many people and it does x amount sales, we will
no matter what, be happy. The rest of what's happened
at Ubisoft be damned. And it's like, yeah, that was
like cool, That's maybe the way this whole thing should work.
And it feels like a lot of the time it
doesn't right.
Speaker 2: It it it doesn't make sense to be gra because
it it feels like at this point, at this juncture
with how video game development and funding for it is,
it is the same. It feels like the same cost
analysis of them dumping millions and millions of man hours
and dollars into a game, a live service game that
is ultimately going to get canceled or get the rug
pulled from underneath it a month maybe two months after launch,
versus a single player game or something smaller in scope
that will eventually make up for it and like you said,
eventually sell one two million copies. I think part of
the problem also with Ubisoft is correct me if I'm wrong,
but I don't believe the Lost Crown launched on Steam, right,
it was on that?
Speaker 3: I think that might be right. Yeah, that sounds right, Jane.
Speaker 2: I think it was through whatever Ubisoft launcher they had.
So again, they're like shooting themselves in the foot here
by not putting it out on the biggest storefront on PCs.
Speaker 1: Yes, and we've seen that happen a bunch of times
now where a game gets hurt by not doing that,
And why.
Speaker 3: Would this be any different.
Speaker 1: In fact, this might be the exact kind of game
that would receive the most amount of damage from not
being on Steam at launch.
Speaker 2: And I feel like with you know, other two D
games like God of War, Sons of Sparta not necessarily
sticking and landing with a lot of folks, that is
an opportunity to make a renewed push of like, hey,
this didn't land for a lot of people, but this
game for sure did. And if you missed it, it's.
Speaker 1: On sale and it's uh, you know, there's always the
possibility that you know, it says gonna start pitching youb
be so off new ideas. Maybe it won't be a
Prince of Persia, But I just think you should let
this team stick to what they're strongest at, and you
can make more games in this style.
Speaker 3: I mean a I think someone a chat must have
said this because I saw.
Speaker 1: Two D splinter Cell and I didn't like read the
rest because it was going by fast and we were
having a conversation Jan, But I think they must have
been getting that a two D splinter cell metro aid
Vana in the style of Shadow Complex or something like that,
that would be great as well. I mean, you could
really do a lot of fun stuff there with a
path traced ray trace lighting in a two D environment
and and have that be like a physical element that
you could play around with. And in a two D game,
it's like, oh, you can really control that in a
way where performance wouldn't be such a big headache, and
you get that that character come to come back, and
then it's another new Metroidvania game which will just feel awesome.
So yeah, they could do something like that and I
would welcome it.
Speaker 2: Mark of the Ninja is a good blueprint to base
at Stealthy. I saw someone mention it in chat there,
but you could apply that not only disciplinter sell, but
they won't stop making assassins. Creed Games, Grub Yeah, a
two D assassin's Creed game that kind of relies more
on the stealth aspect I think would do well.
Speaker 3: I think that'd be cool. Yes, absolutely that.
Speaker 1: I mean an assassin's greed game that is just Mark
of the Ninja would be exactly what the doctor ordered
for something for a two D game like that.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, all right.
Speaker 1: There's always the possibility that this is a diversion news
that's got that got put out there to distract from
other Ubi Soft news, like Ubisoft settles with developers who
are laid off laid off after unionizing. This is from
Ethan Gotch at Kotaku. Ubi Soft Halifax would have been
the French publisher's first unionized studio in North America if
it hadn't been immediately shut down after developers they're organized.
Months later, Halifax workers have finally secured a settlement as
Ubisoft moves forward with the cost cutting measures across the
rest of the company. Sixty one union members voted overwhelmingly
for the deal. CW Canada announced earlier this week the
terms of the settlement will remain confidential, but impacted developers
said that despite a tough negotiation, Ubisoft respected the union
quote unquote and acted in good faith, which I'm sure
were the contracted terms that they have to say that
it came as a surprise to all of us and
to the frontline managers as we were in the middle
of many ongoing and new projects and doing great work.
Former Ubisoft Halifax employee John Huffman said in a statement,
we are extremely grateful to our union for negotiating this
package for us. You be soft, you know, kind of
putting a period on this. But boy, is what I
would say to this jan is, every time we think
a company in the video game industry might be union busting,
I bet we're right, and we were right in this case.
You know, this is a settlement. I bet part of
the settlement is no agreement of wrongdoings. So I'll still say,
allege you to cover ourselves legally, but you settled. You
pay them a bunch of money so that you can
make this go away, because you would probably have to
owe more money if you actually went to court, it
would cost you more. So yeah, union busting at you
be soft?
Speaker 3: Very likely? Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially after like hearing the story grub and going
through these points here. If it does feel fishy, folks,
at home. It probably is a little bit, primarily because
the employees let go in whatever settlement probably have to
not necessarily a non disparaging agreement, but make play nice,
I guess, to at least get some type of kickback
rather than just straight up getting let go. It's I
don't know what to do, grub because like, of course
I want these developers to unionize. I think wrestlers should
also unionize while we're at it. But the powers that
be up top are just going to keep swinging their
hammer and trying to squash any of these organizations under
you know, the guys of budget cuts or whatever else.
Speaker 1: Yep, you know, we see these companies constantly looking for
ways to make their bottom line look better, and that
has led them back to cost cutting over and over
and over again. So the urge to do this isn't
going to go away. But Ubisoft does need to like
figure their shit out so they can either sell the
company to someone who knows what to do with it,
or they start putting out games that people are buying.
The last we heard from them as we can, as
they led into this series of layoffs like one month
after another, where all these studios were seeing cuts. Right
before that, it was like, oh, a bunch of games
are coming very soon, and then no, actually we're delaying
all of our games except for like six that we're
just canceling out right.
Speaker 3: We're sort of on the other side of that a
little bit. Now.
Speaker 1: It seems like where maybe this Assassin's Creed for Black
Flag remake or remaster, whatever it's going to be, is
going to come soon. And now there's the word that
they're getting the Prince of Persia Lost Crown team back together.
Speaker 3: Do you think there's a.
Speaker 1: Chance that they are on a path forward or is
it just like the dust has settled from their lowest
moment and we're just waiting for the next lowest moment.
Because I really don't know where to put my finger
on the pulse with the Ubi Soft at all.
Speaker 2: Right now, you'd be stuffed to such an outlier with
all of this grub that I don't know which way
they're going to move forward. You know, nothing is particularly
changed with management at the tippy top, so I don't
have much confidence that they are going to stick to
their guns because it feels like they've just dropped them
all on the floor and don't know which one to
pick up the dust.
Speaker 3: Yes, very much feels that way.
Speaker 1: And it's like, my guess is they are just grasping
at something and that's what stuff like this Prince of
Persia thing is, and we are going to hear a
very different tone in six months as they continue to
just to scramble. So when you said you were hesitant
out of the gate with that previous story, that's where
I settle as well on this where there's just no
reason to have faith that this company is going to
figure things out in this moment.
Speaker 2: And who's to say, grub that they are just trying
to build whatever positive sentiment that they can that they're
going to wind up trying to sell the company and
thin out the company within those the next six months.
Speaker 3: Yep, all right, we should move on.
Speaker 1: Let's get to this next story, which is a continuation
from something we talked about on the show yesterday. Starfield
Nintendo switch to rating has now appeared as well.
Speaker 3: This is from Nintendo Everything.
Speaker 1: The strongest evidence yet of Starfield coming to Nintendo switch
to has come to light following a new rating discovery
over in Taiwan. A new entry has was just added
for the game on Nintendo's console, the classification, does it
include any notable information outside of that, And it's unclear
when the port would release. Previous rumors did say the
Starfield would be coming to switch To, and then it
was like, Oh, is it actually going to happen? And
now this is here alongside jan I talked about it
on the show yesterday. Several other Nintendo Switch to ports
that have shown up at ratings agencies around the world.
That is on top of two first party Nintendo Switch
games that got rated by the ESRB or re rated
in the last couple of weeks, and that was Splittoon
Raiders and I can't remember the other one upcoming gain
I know I'm trying to place it. I'll look it
up here in a second. But point being a lot
of stuff lying in wait for the switch to, whether
it is many of these third party ports from other
consoles and the PC. It's first party games that we
know are coming, and then the first party games that
have been rumored to be announced.
Speaker 3: Star Fox's ockering of time.
Speaker 1: So more evidence of like, at the very least, they
do have a roster of games that they could use
to make a Nintendo Direct one is likely coming soon.
Speaker 2: I believe Fire Emblem was the other game, Greb, that's it,
Thank you fantastic. I am not the target audience specifically
for Starfield, let alone Starfield on the switch To switch To. Sure,
and we've report did this week about the performance and
how many people have been upset with the performance of
star the Starfield Port on the PS five, so much
so that Sony's actually offering refunds for the.
Speaker 3: Game, something they don't normally do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't imagine that Starfield on the Switch To
is going to be the way that anyone should play
this game if you are at all curious. And I
can't imagine that any of the news coming out of
the Starfield Port from the PS five will instill any
confidence and anyone that is still curious about checking it
out and was perhaps possibly waiting for you switch to port.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's certainly the biggest thing about
this story, specifically, all these other games coming to switch
to getting announced, the one was the thing with Starfield
is Yeah, this feels like still it would be an
impossible port to even come to the switch to just
based on how the game runs on these other consoles.
Speaker 3: Now, as always.
Speaker 1: The switch To does have better built in baked in
ray tracing hardware, and there might be some ray trace delighting.
Speaker 3: And Starfield that would help with.
Speaker 1: But my understanding was always that the CPU side of
things is what was really causing problems with Starfield. It's
simulating so many things, it's causing problems across the board,
including on PC and you know, switch to while a
relatively modern CPU, it's not like super modern. So isn't
that going to struggle? And you know, my guess here
would be the safe thing to assume is yes, this
is going to have problems like all these other Pathesta
games have had over the last several years.
Speaker 2: Obviously, but Pathestaa games having problems from decades ago to
this day, grub some that perhaps mess up a whole
recording because they won't they refuse to be captured properly.
Who can say? Who can say?
Speaker 1: It's nothing's happening on that show anyhow, Untouchable.
Speaker 2: Just a bunch of goofballs, Nine Lives of Mister Mastapha
Police for folks at home. If you're not a premium member,
I suggest you sign up go check that show out.
If you ever wanted to get harassed by Jeff Grub
and I that's the show.
Speaker 3: Through.
Speaker 2: I just don't know what is what is Betheesa doing. Grub,
they don't want to make a new fallout. They or
maybe they do want to make a new fallout, but
they're not exactly older scrolls. Whatever number we're up to
is never going to come out. And then Todd is
lost in space. Part of me feels like they like
jammed away at this port to like, oh, there's renewed
interest in space because of the Artemis Tube team. Let's
get let's launch our game or relaunch our game, and
it's you know, unfortunately had very poor performance on the
PS five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: I I keep waiting to see if Starfield is going
to have one of those its back moments like a
Noma Sky's had so many times and every opportunity with
like that first round of DLC. It's saying, no, people
seem to hate this more than base Starfield and with
this these ports, it's saying, no, people are having a
terrible experience with this.
Speaker 3: And that is the takeaway here.
Speaker 1: If there's positive positivity underneath the surface there, I'm not
hearing about it because it's getting buried by the reaction
to the performance.
Speaker 3: All right, let's do this story.
Speaker 1: Forty four percent of games industry professionals have considered leaving
the industry as a result of redundancies. This is from
Sophie McAvoy at gi dot biz. A survey from games
recruitment firm skill Search has found that overall, forty four
percent of respondents have considered leaving the industry due to redundancies.
In the UK, seventy six percent said that they will
be or are considering job hunting outside of the industry.
In twenty twenty six, the annual Salary and Status Satisfaction
Survey collected responses from one thousand respondents across the UK, Europe,
North America, APAC and MINA regions between November twelfth, twenty
twenty five, and February twenty twenty fourth. Twenty two percent
of respondents had been made redundant in the past year,
and twelve percent said they had been made redundant more
than twelve months ago. The leading causes of redundancies were
reduced investment in investor funding, budget CUNTS cuts and a.
Speaker 3: Lack of projects.
Speaker 1: So just overall less money in the space, which I
think we've.
Speaker 3: Kind of been feeling over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: That has led, as the headline says, here jan people
to be like, hey, why do I keep trying to
get a game in this industry? I have skills that
could work elsewhere. I could go work in finance or
big banking, and you know that's Hey, we have so
many games coming out, it's not a problem. It's not
a problem right now. In a couple of years is
when this begins to rear its ugly head where there
are no like senior leaders left in the space and
games that were already mismanaged are going to be even
more mismanaged going forward.
Speaker 2: Right one hundred percent grub It's depressing to read this news.
I mean I could already tell because we have acquaintances
out there that have had to leave the industry outright
just because it's impossible to get another job, or it
is like such a uphill battle, if not straight up
vertical climb to even like get your own studio going,
or to stick around at a triple A place. And
I feel like this also applies not just to the
development side, the publishing side, but also to the pr
side in the media side that we occupy where we
are quickly losing ground to stand on, and we are
just nervously looking around of like y'all, okay, you're okay, okay, cool,
let's keep weathering it out together. And it's just such
a bummer because there is so much talent being lost
that could potentially make whatever her runaway success that these
Triple A publishers are trying to chase.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's you know, as we stay in these
spaces as consumers. On the other side of it, these
companies that felt like, hey, we charted out growth this direction,
and now our growth is way below that. How do
we close that gap? And it's like, I don't know,
motherfucker you, that's your problem, not mine. And they're like, well,
hold my beer, we'll make it your problem. Here is
another set of price increases after the last set of
price increases, which were a great follow up to the
previous price increases, and it's not stopping. No, I mean,
they have every excuse to keep it going. They can
just keep saying fuel prices have gone up. It's like, yeah,
we know we will be paying the most because that's happening.
And you, as a company, I get to get it.
You're gonna be paying more as well. You're going to
pass that on to us. We don't get to pass
that on to anybody. So it's gonna just keep coming,
and it's gonna keep getting worse and worse. And so
we're gonna have sort of this resentment to this industry
and we will be looking for every way to save
a dollar and spend less on games and maybe play
more free stuff, or maybe do other things entirely get
miserable on and doom scroll on social media because that's
presented as this free thing as opposed to spending seventy
dollars on a game that's only ten hours or whatever.
Speaker 3: And so people begin to shut down, and it's going
to spiral a little bit.
Speaker 1: I don't know, We're like this industry does all right
through moments like this, but I do not think we're
necessarily at a bottom for they like how bad things
could get.
Speaker 3: But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm always pessimistic about these things. Jan how do you
sort of see through this fog?
Speaker 2: I am kind of with you, Grub, because you know,
talking about people leaving the industry, like that's also not
just ideas, but that's also institutional knowledge, right of Like
folks that know how to use a specific engine, or
people that know how to wrangle and manage and produce
a game or manage a team, and all that is
just going out the window because we have to appease
whatever shareholders want. And it's just a big bummer that
And and I think it's been Microsoft's CEO that has
highlighted short form video as a major competitor and Grub
it's because doom scrolling is free for the most.
Speaker 1: Part, and it's like instant dopamine and all this other stuff.
And it's just like, yeah, people are in that. It's
shifted into that gear right now because we're defitting ourselves
from spending money. We are building this a protective shell.
This this callous against that, and these companies are trying
to break through. And that also means the people who
are still spending money are going to get nickel and
dimed even more as these companies say, Like I think
it's the PlayStation CEO that's like, hey, we'll just make
more money from the same people, and that means prices.
Speaker 3: Go up on everything.
Speaker 2: And the wild part Grub is like hearing I think
it was in the story you just read, but like
that there's not enough money to go around, when I
don't find that to be true because these people at
the tippy top still have so much fricking money, grub
like so much. Tim Sweeney with those recently offs at
Epic insane, give.
Speaker 1: Abou all those WB studios and David Zasloft golden handcuffs
that are like a billion dollars that he's gonna get
for fucking running that company into the ground.
Speaker 2: It's crazy, It's insane, and I don't know how we
on on. And I'm just gonna lump us into the
consumer side. I don't know how we are able to
hold anyone accountable when they just keep getting away with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah and yes, and then they're gonna move on to
the next thing and get a promotion. Every single time
they just fail upward over and over again. It's a
club and where none of us are a part of it.
All right, let's go to a break. We got plenty
of other headlines to talk talk about, including funner topics
like that Street Fighter six movie trailer that I had
a lot of fun with. We're gonna go to this break.
It is a new trailer for the launch of dos
a divas. You can catch the game right now, be
sure to do so. You can get it on Steam.
You can go ahead and wish list if you're not
ready to buy right now, but go check out the
trailer for yourself. Right now, we're back with Game mess Mornings.
That's Jiannachoa. I'm Jeff Grubb. We're going to continue on
now with the headlines, starting with Xbox CCO details unified
approach for the next gen hit Project Helix console. This
is from Sophie McAvoy edgip is, Xbox's first party studios
will collaborate closely with its hardware team as the company
develops its next generation console.
Speaker 3: On the Official Xbox Podcast, CCEO.
Speaker 1: Matt Booty outlined the company's unified approach to Project Helix
and emphasized early involvement from publishing and development teams. One
of the really cool things about us blah blah blah.
Basically he just says that the publishing and game development
side are going to work with the hardware side. It's
it is a pretty old story at this point, right
and he even says we've always done that, So really,
what I'm getting at here with this story, Jann is
we keep hearing about Project Helix, and we hear how
it's different that it's going to be a PC in
the console experience put together, but a PC like underneath everything.
And then it's like that sounds very different. And then
all of the language that they use beyond that is
to set it up very much like this is just
another Xbox, and I wonder it's like, do you think
that that is a thoughtful approach, like they're doing that
because at the end of the day, this is going
to feel like another Xbox or are they doing that
because that's the playbook they have and they don't really
understand how to communicate what this thing is yet.
Speaker 2: I feel like it's more of the latter that they
don't know how to communicate this because they themselves don't
quite know what they're making at this point. Because they
don't know, I feel like they've prompted whatever AI the
Microsoft is using too much to that they have so
much confusion as to they don't know which masters to
serve grub because I am very curious what it looks
like on the ground floor for someone that is still
waving the Xbox console flag, Like, what does that look
like for you? What do you What do you want
from a next gen console? Right? Other than Xbox exclusives
potentially like and more bang for your buck? What do
you want? And the thing is what the console player wants.
I don't think people at the tippy top and Microsoft
are going or interested in delivering on that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think they are interested in using the
interest in it to like keep a strong link between
them and they're they're a like remaining player base. But
I think you're right that that is not the real
motivating factor for them.
Speaker 3: That is not really what they're after.
Speaker 1: But they're not sure how to like make those things
meet up, Like speaking of bringing two like do you
unify unifying two sides of a thing, like can we
unify at Xbox this desire to move on to the
future of what our ecosystem can be while speaking to
an audience that very much wants the ecosystem to continue
to be the thing they've already put a lot, a
lot of money into. And it's like, oh, yeah, okay,
you're not going to be able to figure that out.
That is going to be challenging, and that is why
we keep getting comments like this that just feel like, what.
Speaker 3: Do you guys, what are you trying to say about
this project Helix? Again?
Speaker 1: Like the pitch is it is going to be more
of a PC than ever before. And obviously the last
several boxes from them have been x eighty six PCs
at their heart with a Windows core and all this stuff. Sure, yeah,
that you know a kernel in there that it's the
same as the Windows kernel, That's not what they're talking about.
They're talking about the Windows operating system being foundational here
to the point where you can install Steam, you can
install the Epic Game Store, and that will be very
different from a council we've had before.
Speaker 3: So how should we think of when we boot the
thing up?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: What is what am I gonna see? Am I gonna
see Xbox? First? Is am I still buying games primarily
through Xbox? Are their Xbox.
Speaker 1: Console exclusives that won't work on PC? Other PCs? Like
it just doesn't seem like that's in the cards, but
they aren't ready to talk about any of that.
Speaker 3: I don't think. No.
Speaker 2: I think Also, it's just such a weird statement statement
that's really a non statement from Matt Booty of like yes, yes, okay, cool,
this is how I have assumed things have been done
for forever. Now, Yes, thanks for clarifying it. I guess, Doug.
The only thing that just popped up in my head
grub that may be potentially appealing is if they try
and pull the rug from underneath valve and make their
own equivalent of like a Steam machine that could run
the Epic Game Store, that could potentially run Steam OS
or let you like backdoor install it in a way. However,
part of me is just concerned that if and when
this comes out Project Helix, it's gonna be riddled with
very miscllaneous Microsoft products that you don't need, like teams.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there's a very strong chance that will
be exactly the case. Yeah, they just won't take that
stuff out. At the very least, it's going to be
riddled with Microsoft design. And that might be enough of
a problem because that was a problem with the Xbox
roger ally handheld. Yeah, you know, it's not such a
problem that that thing is unusable, of course, but it
is less elegant than you would expect from what is
supposed to just be a dedicated gaming device. And now
Xbox Microsoft continue to say they want to get that
stuff right they've said that.
Speaker 3: They've said that before and for a long time now,
and we'll see.
Speaker 2: You know, going back to very very early into the
show Grub where you're talking about how the gimmicks your
kids really resonate with something like Tomadacci life because it
is a method of play, right, they're just playing with it.
It feels like at Microsoft and in other places, the
vision is so blurry now that they forget that that
is what the primary objectives is, to get people to
play things rather than to just spend money.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean, they're a platform company and they look
at everything through the lens of platforms and ecosystems, and
that becomes their product first, and the games become a
secondary thought.
Speaker 2: I so desperately wish these tech CEOs would have a
ratitude moment where their hearts are cured and they remember,
oh the love of the game, literally the game. But
I don't think any amount of rats cooking food for
them will we'll solve Yeah.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the biggest fantasy of Dickinson is a billionaire
the equivalent of a billionaire learning a lesson.
Speaker 3: That's not gonna happen. All right, let's.
Speaker 1: Keep going here, us I'll just read it. Headline writing
is a lost art everybody. Street Fighters six is long
awaited incest nerf is here does basically nothing street I
think this is from I have to assume this is
from Kataku.
Speaker 3: I didn't write it down, but okay.
Speaker 2: Do you think it's from Kenneth Well, I think I'm
pretty sure it's from Kenneth.
Speaker 3: Yes, shouts out to Kenneth Shepherd.
Speaker 1: At the very least, I know it's that Kotaku head
line writing team, and they always crush it.
Speaker 3: Street Fighter six has.
Speaker 1: Been dealing with the problem of its own making for
about a month now. After a put fan favorite fighter
Alex in an incestuous relationship with his second cousin slash
adopted sister Patricia, much to the they just doubled up
the incests, much to the dismay of longtime fans. Capcom
said it would be addressing quote misleading text in Alex's
story that might have led to all the discomfort, and
even released a short story trying to cover its decades
old tracks. Now the long awaited patches out now, and
it does absolutely nothing. The patch notes don't get into
the specifics, as they merely say that the text of
Alex's world story segments have been adjusted, but looking at
the game itself, it seems that the change is to
one line of dialogue in which Alex tells the player
about growing up with Tom, his first cousin, once removed
and the father of his future bride, Patricia. In the
original version, Alex explicitly tells players that Tom is his
late mother's cousin, which would make his daughter Patricia Alex's
second cousin. How could Capcom possibly hope to quote fix
this whole thing with years of established backstory establishing that
Alex and Patricia are blood related. It can't and it
barely tries. Yeah, okay, so this is how you do it.
This is how you patch cousin marriage in your video game.
Speaker 3: I guess no, I don't. It doesn't sound they didn't
change it.
Speaker 1: Really, the foundational elements here all that's still true, and
the one line they took out here, it's not like
it changes any of that law. It just drops a
reference to something that, as the story points out, is
already established law. So that is from that's predating the game.
Just dropping that mention doesn't change anything.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think this is one of the rare
capcom stumbles of this year. You know they're they're on
a heat heat grub with uh with r E nine pragmata.
I guess incest comes for us all huh yep. And
here's the thing. I feel like people will latch onto
whatever story is available in fighting games because it's so
light on most of it, right, Like, we're all very
familiar with what or at least what has happened in
the world of Mortal Kombat, and because the story is
a part of that game, but with Street Fighter it's
kind of less. So we're just like, oh, these two
dudes kind of do the same moves and they kind
of wear the same things, but one wears a headband.
Uh oh okay cool, the guy with like the American
flag tattoo. He's friends with that guy, but that guy's sad.
And then now that guy's just like emits electricity and
oh that guy insane, that's.
Speaker 1: His special power. Yeah, so yeah, I'll read this chat
if you're freaking out about it.
Speaker 3: Alex.
Speaker 1: The line change was changed from whatever it was before
to now. Alex refers to Tom as quote a distant
relative of my mom or something, which is hilarious. Not
only because it doesn't change or contradict anything from before,
as it still confirms the familiar familial relationship between these people,
but because calling someone and cousin a distant relative is
incredibly disingenuous.
Speaker 3: Yep. Wait, he's embarrassed and he's trying to cover it up.
Speaker 2: God, it's okay, it's a little too late. Grab you.
It's one of your idioms that I really enjoy. But
you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Speaker 3: You can't. Yes, absolutely not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this one is just going to be how people
will think of Alex and at least partially Street Fighter
six four forever. This is just gonna be on this
game and now on this series.
Speaker 2: It's yeah. I even if they try and retcon it
in like a couple months to a year, it's it's
just gonna stick.
Speaker 3: Alex can build a thousand bridges. He fucked one cousin.
He ain't.
Speaker 1: We were not calling him a bridge builder, is what
I'm saying. That's not what we're gonna be calling him.
Speaker 2: No, No, he could probably do something heinous in the
video games. He could become the primary antagonist.
Speaker 1: Yes, he could do a terrorism and we're not gonna
He's not it's not a terrorist. That's the cousin fucker.
Speaker 2: Come on, like grub like unfortunately, you know some things,
some things even from school or high school, stick with people.
This is gonna stick with Alex and unfortunately I hate that.
A by product of this grub is that it's kind
of lingering around Kenny Omega.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, he's just walking around with that Alex stank
on him.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: He did so much work, so much good work on it.
It's uh so much good work. And Kenny is such
a like the dude too.
Speaker 3: It's a dude.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, Well, speaking of wrestlers and street Fighter,
street Fighter exudes visual identity and charisma, and it's an
official trailer. This is from Alberto Garrito at Game Reactor. Jane,
did you get a chance to check this out this morning?
Speaker 2: I have not grub unfortunately, all right.
Speaker 3: I did, and I liked what I saw.
Speaker 1: I wrote that it reminds me of like or it
makes me think of what the world would have been
like if the original nineteen nineties Super Mario Brothers movie
was a massive hit, and like that sort of camp
became like the default way to adapt a video game
into a movie. This looks campy as hell and like
a lot of fun and straight dog shit, Like it
looks like dog shit, but I don't care because.
Speaker 3: I'm just like, I love it.
Speaker 1: It looks so visually weird and interesting, and they have harsh, bright,
colorful lighting on so many of the scenes in a
way that feels like, yeah, the game is this cartoon
come to life and then made three D. So it's
like it always stood in this position between photorealistic and
completely stylistic, and the movie is trying to adapt to
that sensibility in a way that I find admirable because
it doesn't have some huge, endless budget obviously to accomplish that.
So they pick and choose what they're going for. And
the answer in a lot of those situations, their idea
is what we can do, turn it up to eleven,
just go all the way off the charts, no middle
sliders the movie and I'm into it.
Speaker 2: I am scanning through the trailer now and yeah, Grub
kind of nailed it with the vibe of this movie.
It looks stupid, it looks it's not a bad thing, right,
like interesting, yes, and I feel like we have we're
in such an interesting place with movie adaptations of video
games grub where the I forget the name of the game, apologies,
folks at home. Is it exit eight?
Speaker 3: Exit eight? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Exit eight is like on A is doing incredibly well critically,
fans of the game really enjoy it. But also we're
in a place where, you know, the Sonic movies are
some of the biggest grossing movies now and has changed
Sonic's trajectory now, and you know, Mario doing incredibly well
despite the movies kind of be middling and a little
too loud for Jeff Backlar, but that's okay. And then
we also have like the the Five Nights movies. Right,
we're at a second one and they're probably going to
make a third one because those do so well with
those the audience of those games. I hope this does well.
I don't think it's gonna do critically well, but I
hope this does well because this is gonna remind people
of the campiness of, like, like you said, the original
Super Mario Live Action movie and the Mortal Kombat movie,
because I can't shake that from my head seeing this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and I get, like someone Chad said,
like is good force camp. We'll see and it's like, yeah, look,
I think some people involved might be forcing the camp.
I don't think anyone on the cast thinks they're doing
anything but the coolest shit anyone's ever done.
Speaker 3: They all look so proud of themselves, and that's great.
Speaker 1: That's awesome, not judging them other than to say it's
not that cool and it looks really dumb, And I
love that you are just still going for it and
acting like your shit don't stink, because that just that
has such a strong contrast in the sort of a
spirit of the movie, and it comes through.
Speaker 2: I think forgot fifty is in this movie.
Speaker 3: That's I think that might be like what really set
me over.
Speaker 1: It's like he's just he's just being fifty cent with
a really weird headpiece to make him have the bell
rog hair or whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's great.
Speaker 2: They're gonna make mbs in a dufis, aren't they.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's what's his name? I can never remember how
to say his name, but Polka dot Man.
Speaker 2: PoCA dot Man from Suicide Squad. Yeah. Yeah. Also, there's
a shot of like Guile in full costume sitting next
to the Andrew Cogy who plays Ryu in a hoodie
at a club.
Speaker 1: Yep, yep, and that's Cody is is Gile and his hair.
If they just do the hair and it's the hair
from the game, I'm like, Okay, yeah, they're not cowards,
even like that original campy street Fighter movie, which is
also kind of great, a really good time. So I look,
we're getting the Mario movies. They're making a ton of money,
and I do think that there is something a little
bit of the lost art of the weird adaptation that
that movie completely sands away. And fine whatever, I still
have a good time with those Mario movies. I'm glad
we get these as well. This I think it's gonna
be a good time.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: Hades two is out this week on PS five and Xbox.
The Xbox doesn't have enough reviews yet to get a Metacritic,
but the PS five version being very well received on Metacritic.
For that version right now, people can check that out.
And then, right as the show was going live, see
here the Neo Geo let's I think it's the Yes,
the Neo AES plus was announced. They're going to release
this thing in November twelfth. It is kind of all
in one way to play Neo Geo games. But I
think you can even use the arcade boards in here?
Is that how that works? Chat remember seeing this and
not having enough time to check things out. But it's
well priced. It's only like two hundred and fifty dollars
for the all in pack. I think you can get
the one with the arcade stick for even less than that.
I don't know, I'm sorry, that is just the arcade stick. Yes,
this is from play On, which is Embracer, which is
kind of weird. But hey, I will probably be looking
into this thing. Never really had much experience using anything
neogo like in terms of shoot hardware, so would really
like to check this out. So, okay, does the old
eight home AES cards? Those are often pretty expensive, right,
so that might be a little bit challenging if that's
the way to do it, But I bet there's ways
around that.
Speaker 3: And it is not an FPGA thing. Interesting.
Speaker 1: I wonder is it just an emulator box? So if
that's the case, that's a little bit less exciting. All right, Well,
I'll look into this more. We'll bring it to tomorrow
tomorrow stories and really cover exactly what's going on here.
It's Thursday, It's not time for the Bomb twelve everybody,
but you do have one more day to put your
game in for the bomb twelve. So go to GiantBomb
dot com. Hit the vote here tab plenty of respondents
so far. Let's get as much of a response as
we can. We'll do that tomorrow. So for now, let's
switch over to the poll question from yesterday. I have
the results right over here. I am going to refresh.
Let's see there all right. Are you excited?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Are you getting forts A Horizon six in May? Your
options were yes, no, no, I'll get it later, and no,
I'll wait for the PS five release. Forty three percent
said just straight up no. Then twenty seven percent said
yes they're going to get it in May, sixteen percent
says no, I'll wait for the PS five release, and
fifteen percent say no, I'll get it later.
Speaker 3: We know this is a massively successful series, so I.
Speaker 1: Wonder if that's you know, predictive of oh yeah, this
is also going to shoot out of the gate really strong,
or if there's a chance people are.
Speaker 3: A little bit tired of forts A Horizon maybe not.
I don't know. It's hard to say.
Speaker 2: You know, we were talking about Rockstar and their positioning.
I believe it is on the BombCast this week, Grub,
and I completely forgot that Midnight Club was a rock
Star Jimmy Jam Yep. People love cars, people love driving,
especially in games. It's too expensive to shoot drive now, Grub,
so people just looking for that escapism and Forts is
definitely Forts A Horizon specifically has definitely been delivering on
that that. I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been more
of an effort from the Triple A side to make
more driving games.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just actually like craving this so bad
that I'm I kind of want to play the Crew
motor Fest, which I know Mike really liked.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I might go do that.
Speaker 1: Although Forts six Horizon six is out next month, so
it's not like it's that much of a wait for
the one that's gonna take place in Japan, which is
a region I really want to play in that game.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I will occasionally think about and I would
never use it. It'd be the stupidest expenditure of my money,
which I probably, you know, should be more mindful of.
But I occasionally just want a racing wheel, Grub.
Speaker 3: I know, yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, we can reach out to like Logitech
and see if they have anything new that's either that.
Speaker 2: Or like one of those guitar hero, rock Band Control
or guitars.
Speaker 1: I did Kickstarter back a new kind of high end
DDR pad and I can't wait for that to get here.
Speaker 3: That's what I'll be spending my time doing is dancing.
Speaker 1: You deserve it chat, Thank you, Jan, That's what I'm trying.
That's all I need people to say, is I deserve
to dance. All right, A new poll question. Are you
excited about the Street Fighter movie?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: No, we'll talk about that here on Giant Bomb on
game this Morning's tomorrow. Speaking a Giant Bomb, Jan, it's Thursday.
We're gonna have voicemail dump Truck. Anything else we should
tell the people.
Speaker 2: For premium members out there, the hottest dating show, Marry
Me Tomodaci, is going to be popping off later today
this afternoon, and folks at home, if you're looking for
something to watch in between the Dump Truck and Marry
Me Tomodacci, the Tomadaci Life Living the Dream Quick Look
as well as the Pragmatic Quick Look are now up
on the site. Both very good quick looks and also
tomorrow Grub on top of upf we're gonna be playing
scam lines with our friend Bailey Myers. You are going
to be doing a launch look of your own with
a grub mota.
Speaker 1: That's right, I'm I'm looking forward to it. People in
chat are saying, hey, Greub, did you cancel your dance
sub for Just Dance? And it's a legal for you
to ask me that you're not allowed shut up.
Speaker 2: Yes, Also, someone can guide me through the process of
canceling your Paramount plus subscription.
Speaker 3: Please.
Speaker 1: All right, let's see, we did the new poll question,
we told people what's happening.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm looking forward to doing grub, madam.
Speaker 1: Everyone just seems to love it, and I bet it's
gonna be my shit at the end of the day.
Speaker 2: So yeah, learning about your taste in games Grub and
what you like and the stories that do resonate with you.
I don't want to gas you up too much. I
do think you will enjoy pragmata.
Speaker 3: Okay, Yes, I'm looking forward to it, is what I'll say.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, we'll be starting that Friday evening tomorrow evening, everybody,
So let's wrap this show up and get onto the
rest of the week. Jan thank you so much for
hanging out with me today and talking about video games.
Speaker 3: Man, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: It's the only way to start a Thursday.
Speaker 1: Greb, thank you all for watching and listening. You are
the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a
good one, take care of yourself, and.
Speaker 2: Goodbye, Gutchikuchiku. We're tickling you today.
Speaker 3: Bye.