Speaker 1: Don't be bare. It's the internet. You're busy. Let's do
Speaker 1: this for February fourteenth, twenty twenty five. I wanted to
Speaker 1: say Friday. I mean, it is Friday, but I don't
Speaker 1: usually say that. For the next hour or so, let
Speaker 1: me help you sort through the world of gaming on
Speaker 1: Game Mess Mornings Live with me Jeff Grubb. Today, love
Speaker 1: is Dead as the elder Ring Night Rain network test
Speaker 1: encounters major problems on PlayStation. But first please join me
Speaker 1: and welcoming today's co host a Game Mess Mornings. It's
Speaker 1: two more. Who's saying, tam, how are you doing?
Speaker 2: I am here and I am alive. What more do
Speaker 2: you want from me?
Speaker 1: Uh? Huh, all right, okay, you know what I was
Speaker 1: gonna ask more, but now I'm feeling like egg on
Speaker 1: my face? What am I thinking?
Speaker 2: It's also, you know, it's Ostall weekend, nba' Stall weekend. YEP,
Speaker 2: it's being held in the YA area. I'm expecting to
Speaker 2: hear a lot of E four E being blasted. Maybe
Speaker 2: some too short.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Damn. How are NBA fans feeling about the All Star
Speaker 1: game right now? Because All Star games kind of across
Speaker 1: the board being you know, kind of crappy.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's not been great for the last couple
Speaker 2: of years. So this year's one was created in collaboration
Speaker 2: with the greatest basketball player of all time, the one
Speaker 2: and only Number thirty, Steph Curry, of course, so they
Speaker 2: hit him up and they're like, Yo, we're gonna come
Speaker 2: to your your backyard or come into your house. So
Speaker 2: what should we do with this NBA thing? And now
Speaker 2: there's a tournament format which is going to be cool. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I think at one point the rookies are like
Speaker 2: the best rookies are going up against like the best vets,
Speaker 2: which is bound to cause some some like intense play
Speaker 2: because those vets don't want to lose our rookies and
Speaker 2: rookies want to be some vets. Yeah, it's going to
Speaker 2: be interesting.
Speaker 1: That's always the thing. It's like, Yeah, I just want
Speaker 1: to see at least some interesting game play, and usually
Speaker 1: these All Star games you don't get that. You have
Speaker 1: to create some sort of steaks, So hopefully that works.
Speaker 2: I'm on the other side where I'm like, we still
Speaker 2: have a season to play. So I didn't go like
Speaker 2: dumb hard on like a goof games.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, for sure, go ahead.
Speaker 2: They have like four days off to recover hopefully. We
Speaker 2: just we played the Warriors.
Speaker 3: I say we.
Speaker 2: I didn't touch a ball. I had no impact on
Speaker 2: that game.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The Warriors played the Houston Rockets yesterday. US Rockets, I
Speaker 2: believe are third or fourth in the conference, and we
Speaker 2: beat them, which was good.
Speaker 3: It was a bit touch and go.
Speaker 2: The Warriors are doing this thing where if they play
Speaker 2: a dog shit team, they will somehow lose. If they
Speaker 2: played their best team in the NBA, they will cook them.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: So I don't know why they Well what's going on
Speaker 2: over there, But we got Jimmy Buckets.
Speaker 1: Now that seems like it's going to go pretty good.
Speaker 3: It's going well so far.
Speaker 2: He's uh, he's doing it. He's he's he's showing up.
Speaker 2: He's like he's been playing really well. And then he
Speaker 2: did like interviews and he was like, I'm not in
Speaker 2: basketball shape. I still need to I didn't play for
Speaker 2: a month, so I need to get fit and I
Speaker 2: still haven't learned any of the actual like plays and
Speaker 2: offensive plays. So he's he's still getting warmed up, which
Speaker 2: is good.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: Excited about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know have enjoy your All Star weekend. It's
Speaker 1: also the four Nations tournaments still happened for hockey, and
Speaker 1: it's kind of like, oh, this it's been really good,
Speaker 1: but you're right, they're all really trying because they're playing
Speaker 1: for their nations and they are they're like getting in
Speaker 1: scraps after the plays, like you know, not fistfights like
Speaker 1: happens in hockey, but like hey, no pushing and shoving
Speaker 1: and people being thrown into the net and stuff like
Speaker 1: that because they're playing hard and there's already been a
Speaker 1: couple of injuries. It's like, oh, oh man, they got
Speaker 1: to go back and play for their teams after this,
Speaker 1: and some of them are going to be hurt now
Speaker 1: because of this. So it's like, okay, these games have
Speaker 1: been amazing, but is that worth it? It's tough.
Speaker 3: It's about yeah, So what's the state of hockey?
Speaker 2: Video games like right now? A NBA like basketball games aren't. Well,
Speaker 2: there's the two K games and they're great, but like
Speaker 2: they don't they're too sim for me, Like I'm a
Speaker 2: jam guy.
Speaker 3: But what's it like over there?
Speaker 1: It's you know, it's NHL from EA uh and and
Speaker 1: that's about it. There You know, there are more indie
Speaker 1: hockey games like Arcadie games happening than than ever before.
Speaker 1: None of them have really like hit super hard. That
Speaker 1: puck game was a lot of fun. That first person
Speaker 1: hockey game that we played on the site of a
Speaker 1: couple like last week, I think, And that one's weird
Speaker 1: because like you have full stick control with the mouse,
Speaker 1: so you can like lift it up and down and
Speaker 1: left and right, and it's very difficult. It's like quop
Speaker 1: but hockey that's actually it's a really good time. And
Speaker 1: then there's kind of nothing in between that and EA's
Speaker 1: attempt at a SIM game that's been pret pretty rough
Speaker 1: for years. My question, I was just gonna say it, like,
Speaker 1: we used to have it so good, Tam. We used
Speaker 1: to get so many different kinds of all these sports games,
Speaker 1: arcadie games, sim games, everything in between that was legit
Speaker 1: just better. I know, it's always like, oh, things used
Speaker 1: to be better. You can't always say that that action
Speaker 1: was better.
Speaker 3: My quest.
Speaker 2: I remember I talked about trying to play NBA Jam
Speaker 2: on a modern console. Yeah, it's been fruitless, sadly, but
Speaker 2: I noticed that nets have a game coming up called
Speaker 2: The Dunk Dynasty Dunk CE Dynasty.
Speaker 1: D Dynasty.
Speaker 3: I wish it looks.
Speaker 2: Like the most I think it's the most free to
Speaker 2: play ass game. Of course, it's like a five v
Speaker 2: five game, but it's got like stylized versions of modern
Speaker 2: basketball players. Like it's got like James Harden steps and there,
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant is, then the NIS is in there, and
Speaker 2: then Joel Embiid absolute bomb flop fucking is also there
Speaker 2: as well. Some reason, my man's on break full time
Speaker 2: getting paid for it.
Speaker 1: I I like those weird mobile games that happened a
Speaker 1: lot of times based on these sports, like, oh wait,
Speaker 1: they're still doing those. Uh. They are all kind of trash,
Speaker 1: but they must somehow always also get major stars to
Speaker 1: be in them. So it's fun to.
Speaker 2: See if anyone knows how I can play NBA gam
Speaker 2: not the original one, right, because I know how to
Speaker 2: play the original one good.
Speaker 1: It is backer compatible because you buy a disc, right,
Speaker 1: and those are hard to come. I know.
Speaker 2: It's the the on Fire edition is the only one
Speaker 2: that I think is available or whatever, and the one
Speaker 2: that you need is a different one. I think that's
Speaker 2: why it's it's it's weird something weirdness with.
Speaker 1: That well, his Lord Xenu has some answers for you.
Speaker 1: That may or may not be the name of an emulator.
Speaker 1: Actually it's Xenu or Xenu.
Speaker 2: I can't remember when i've I have already explored the emulator,
Speaker 2: which is which, which works for me, and it is good,
Speaker 2: But like I don't want to stay in front of auba.
Speaker 1: Yeah, get it on your steam deck or something. Cut
Speaker 1: that going there? Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's explain what we
Speaker 1: do here most weekdays, I, Jeff Grub, will help piece
Speaker 1: your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and
Speaker 1: maybe even some of our own original reporting. For all
Speaker 1: these topics, I'll get the input of a bona fide
Speaker 1: expert who will make me look smart. If you're watching
Speaker 1: live on twitch welcome, You can always listen to the
Speaker 1: show later on podcast feeds by searching for Games Mornings,
Speaker 1: or find the RSS on giant bomb dot com. You
Speaker 1: can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps
Speaker 1: on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we have a lot
Speaker 1: to get into, so let's start the morning mess with
Speaker 1: switch To units are reportedly selling for forty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: on the Chinese black market. This is from Ali Reynolds
Speaker 1: at Nintendo Life. According to our recent post on the
Speaker 1: switch To subreddit, this via wccf tech, early units of
Speaker 1: Nintendo's upcoming new console are being sold on the Chinese
Speaker 1: black market for nearly forty g's. This is supposedly sourced
Speaker 1: via the same leaker from the Jonghaus shoe forums. Uhgo
Speaker 1: she how zu? I like that one. I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is, but I like that now? What's moorth
Speaker 1: feeling dominic Decoco forums, who revealed that the the CAD
Speaker 1: model for the switch To in twenty twenty four, So
Speaker 1: the people that did that also apparently are selling them
Speaker 1: for forty thousand dollars. They're selling them within an accompanying
Speaker 1: screenshot showcasing messages between the leaker and the post had
Speaker 1: accompanying messages that showcase the conversation between the leaker and
Speaker 1: a black market seller, albeit with much of the detail
Speaker 1: blurred out. You have to wonder why anyone would be
Speaker 1: willing to spend so much on an early switch To unit,
Speaker 1: but the theory is that the leaker is effectively shopping
Speaker 1: the unit out to accessory manufacturers. Building products based on
Speaker 1: specs alone is one thing, but having the ability to
Speaker 1: actually test out access with a real switch to unit
Speaker 1: might well be worth the hassle and money, given the
Speaker 1: potential payoff in the months and years ahead. Of course,
Speaker 1: it's possible that this could all be a load of rubbish,
Speaker 1: but you know what these leakers are like. Give it
Speaker 1: a few weeks and we'll probably see blurry cropped images
Speaker 1: of the unit itself on Fami boards or something like that.
Speaker 2: This text conversation looks suspicious as hell. Yes, it's not
Speaker 2: even yo, my uncle has this.
Speaker 3: Do you want it? It's just like I have do
Speaker 3: you want? Yes? How much I can make that? Shit? Man,
Speaker 3: I'm not saying it's not out there, but you.
Speaker 1: Know, I mean yeah, But at the point here clearly
Speaker 1: is just that it's getting wild out there for the
Speaker 1: switch to and the fact that wait, whether this is
Speaker 1: real or not real, or if it's happening, it's the
Speaker 1: kind of thing like I can imagine this being real
Speaker 1: because people have just gone nuts, and they know when
Speaker 1: Nintendo was promising to talk about it next April. Second. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people still have very little chill when it comes to
Speaker 1: a waiting for that.
Speaker 2: Who's paying forty grand for that? Come on, man, what
Speaker 2: are you getting out of that? You're getting like an
Speaker 2: early version. You cannot resell that thing, Like you can't
Speaker 2: be like I bought an early version of the switch
Speaker 2: and now I'm like, I'm I've got a one of
Speaker 2: the kind of thing because the moment you try and
Speaker 2: sell that or show it to anyone, Nintendo is gonna
Speaker 2: stick a knife through your throat immediately, like you're cooked this,
Speaker 2: You're done.
Speaker 3: So what are you doing with this thing? It's not
Speaker 3: even like it's just it's just for your own benefit.
Speaker 2: You're like, I lost forty grand and I have this
Speaker 2: bundle of wires and PCBs that is the switch too.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't even like get interpol or the FBI involved
Speaker 1: or whatever, And it's tend to be like we'll handle
Speaker 1: this ourselves and just to centegrate you, just yeah, they'll
Speaker 1: melt you where you land.
Speaker 2: El Sakarai, you can make his YouTube video tomorrow. We
Speaker 2: need him for something, and Sacarai just straps up and
Speaker 2: he's like, this is why it takes me so long
Speaker 2: for make Smash games.
Speaker 3: I have to fucking kill.
Speaker 1: In house assassin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I like can imagine that when sakara is
Speaker 2: not making Smash he's basically living the John Wick life style.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's that. What was that movie where the guy
Speaker 1: was the game show host and he like used like
Speaker 1: the award for the show was like, Oh, the couple
Speaker 1: gets to travel around the world and it's like, you're
Speaker 1: traveling to Moscow because he needed to go like to
Speaker 1: Moscow to secretly assassinate someone.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sounds amazing.
Speaker 1: That's what That's what Sacarai is doing. He's out there
Speaker 1: living that life. Okay, yeah, forty thousand dollars, you're right,
Speaker 1: what what do you think? I get the like theory
Speaker 1: here of you pay that money and then you take
Speaker 1: the thing around and you go to all these Chinese
Speaker 1: manufacturers who won't care where you got it from, and
Speaker 1: they see like the chance to get out ahead of
Speaker 1: the curve and have products ready to go for them
Speaker 1: to switch to launch because they got a model early
Speaker 1: and we're able to test it out make sure everything worked.
Speaker 3: Are they paying for that access? I imagine?
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I think they would pay for that
Speaker 1: access at least. You know, again, this is all just
Speaker 1: I could I could see that being the way things work,
Speaker 1: though I wouldn't be too surprised if that's mostly the
Speaker 1: way A lot of this stuff went down. Although you know,
Speaker 1: they really can make these things based on the CAD models. Sure,
Speaker 1: it'd be better to have a physical hard wherever you
Speaker 1: take the CAD models, you three D print your own
Speaker 1: thing and get.
Speaker 2: As close as I have seen switch to accessories yeah,
Speaker 2: that people have made in person and held them in
Speaker 2: my hand and it's like, oh, so this is what
Speaker 2: a switch is going to feel like. I've held like
Speaker 2: a three D version of the switch too, because it's like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it was whatever. It's everyone that you don't need to
Speaker 2: pay forty grand for us crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I Also, I'm like skeptical that it even turns
Speaker 1: on this forty thousand dollars switch to and if it does,
Speaker 1: it's like booting into the bios or whatever and you
Speaker 1: can't even get into the operating system.
Speaker 3: So no chance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just I says that it's just a dumb thing
Speaker 2: that someone is doing. Probably if it's real, it's just like,
Speaker 2: why are you doing this?
Speaker 3: Good for you man?
Speaker 1: Yep, exactly. Wait a couple of weeks and we're gonna
Speaker 1: get all more information.
Speaker 3: I have a request for you.
Speaker 2: I needed to load up your so onboard with you
Speaker 2: know the you know, the the kind of announcements on
Speaker 2: the street fire two when they go to a different country,
Speaker 2: whereas like China, China, you should have one of those
Speaker 2: ready for each area, so that if we were on
Speaker 2: this story you would have pressed down, it would have
Speaker 2: been like China, and then you could like carry on.
Speaker 1: Actually love love that, actual get like the motion graphics
Speaker 1: to come up with like the stream decks so it
Speaker 1: can be China and then actually has the plane flying
Speaker 1: or whatever, and you.
Speaker 4: Can like a yeah, you're also slande England to super
Speaker 4: prefer to when they put came in there, England wasn't
Speaker 4: the one that why are you doing it like this?
Speaker 1: You have changed up your energy for this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, what's going on?
Speaker 1: Super England? Uh from Software apologizes for eldin Ring Night
Speaker 1: Rain tests server problems. This is from George Yang at
Speaker 1: game Spot. From Software has issued an apology for the
Speaker 1: connection issues currently plaguing the elden Ring Night Rain network test.
Speaker 1: From Software's Japanese player support account on Twitter said that
Speaker 1: servers are currently congested, which is making it difficult for
Speaker 1: players to match with each other. The account suggested to
Speaker 1: continue trying and apologize for any inconvenience. It seems that
Speaker 1: like the PlayStation servers are being hit particularly hard night fare, Yeah,
Speaker 1: go ahead.
Speaker 2: It's crazy that they have to apologize for this thing
Speaker 2: when the express purpose is for this to happen. Yep,
Speaker 2: it's like it's for any development. This happens with order
Speaker 2: others that we're so sorry that you cannot connect to
Speaker 2: this network test.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm always like, man, I couldn't do this that
Speaker 1: job where I wrote this message because I'd be like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry you couldn't connect. Well, let's give you your money back.
Speaker 1: Oh you didn't pay for anything, Okay, Well then what
Speaker 1: go do something else with your time? Like what are
Speaker 1: we talking about here?
Speaker 2: I mean like it's like again it's a symptom of
Speaker 2: people thinking these parts of the kind of cycle are
Speaker 2: old to them. And also it's like, you know, the
Speaker 2: publishers shouldn't use this as a marketing be like I
Speaker 2: don't think from software does that.
Speaker 3: There are a few companies that I'd.
Speaker 2: Be like, if you play early, you can get into
Speaker 2: our beta test, if you know what I mean, which
Speaker 2: is like if you did that, then you've got a
Speaker 2: leg to stand on where you're complaining that you can't
Speaker 2: get in. But I think most people should be like
Speaker 2: a little more. I think companies should be a little
Speaker 2: more clear about stuff breaking, especially from like they're not
Speaker 2: super super well versed in like large scale networking in games.
Speaker 2: Even they're like core games, they almost have a a
Speaker 2: kind of like a drip feed of networking in their
Speaker 2: games unless you go into PvP and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: But this is the first game that they've made which
Speaker 3: is like very very very focused on put a network
Speaker 3: element of it.
Speaker 2: They should just come out and been like, big text,
Speaker 2: this is going to break. It's the point, do not complain, yep.
Speaker 1: And you could see like, of course there's going to
Speaker 1: be conflicting desires of what like the different sides want
Speaker 1: to get out of this. You know, from software clearly
Speaker 1: just actually wants to test and see if this is
Speaker 1: going to work. And then Bandy namcoes like, great, we
Speaker 1: will kind of like position it as like a big
Speaker 1: exciting thing for fans, so they could start building up
Speaker 1: momentum for the for the marketing, and I'm sure from
Speaker 1: Stuff's like okay, that's great, but no, like we have
Speaker 1: a specific purpose here, like yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2: We went to a preview event and the networking was
Speaker 2: like not great there, Like it had a stumbles and
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff, and it meant we were limited
Speaker 2: and how much how long we could play, like we
Speaker 2: were getting like one player would get kicked out like
Speaker 2: halfway through a run and that kind of stuff. And
Speaker 2: I remember like the Namco people, just like the Bandaid people,
Speaker 2: freaking out. They were like, oh my god, this sucks.
Speaker 2: I was just like, hey man, you do not have
Speaker 2: to worry about it. That's this is the point, Like
Speaker 2: this is gonna happen. Just just it will be fine,
Speaker 2: Like I'm playing enough to get a good feel for it.
Speaker 2: And I felt so bad for them because it felt
Speaker 2: like they owed us something which I guess they might
Speaker 2: have considering like we flew out there and you know
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff, and they had they had, like
Speaker 2: you know, intention to have like preview coverage artist. But
Speaker 2: I was just like, it's an online game, pre release
Speaker 2: in a very weird environment where your networking isn't ideal
Speaker 2: in any way. This is gonna happen. And I was
Speaker 2: just like, oh man, I wish I wish it didn't.
Speaker 2: They didn't feel this like under the gone to have
Speaker 2: a perfect experience already, and like I played it. I
Speaker 2: played it enough to write a preview and also like
Speaker 2: talk about it, so I had no issues with it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it was it had a it was Bomby.
Speaker 2: That's what it's going to be like, It's going to
Speaker 2: be there. It will probably be that way when it launches.
Speaker 1: That I suppose we're gonna ask you, like, where, what
Speaker 1: is your expectation level for this ability at launch? I'm
Speaker 1: with you. I think that it's else.
Speaker 2: Almost every like multiplayer focus game has a has had
Speaker 2: a rough goal of it to begin with, or has
Speaker 2: a high chance of it. I can't think of very
Speaker 2: many games that came out and launched perfectly like no issues. Most,
Speaker 2: I guess the only ones that I could reliably say, now,
Speaker 2: oh it's going to be fine.
Speaker 3: It's call of Duty. But that's because it scaled up.
Speaker 2: Remember Modern Warfare, like the first one, when Quality for
Speaker 2: Modern Warfare came out, I remember having a rough time
Speaker 2: with that BA and so also when the game came out,
Speaker 2: it was a bit rough.
Speaker 3: But they've had what almost a decade.
Speaker 2: Of being able to scale up and also use the
Speaker 2: same kind of infrastructure to move from one to the other.
Speaker 3: Game like Overwatch was rough for a little bit.
Speaker 2: I think the only one that I can really think
Speaker 2: of recently that didn't have an issue big enough for
Speaker 2: it to become like newsworthy was probably Marvel Rivals. I think, yeah,
Speaker 2: because that, as far as I can tell, just launched
Speaker 2: and has been fine interesting for a long time, right,
Speaker 2: so interesting for a long time. And NETS is a
Speaker 2: company that has a lot of online games, much bigger
Speaker 2: than most.
Speaker 3: People, Like they've got these weird freaking games.
Speaker 1: Games with huge audiences because exactly exactly, and you would
Speaker 1: see I guess the expectation most people would say as
Speaker 1: well as Banda is a huge, huge company, they should
Speaker 1: be able to hook this up and figure it out.
Speaker 3: And it's like they are a huge company.
Speaker 2: Name the one Bandai game that is online, it's techn
Speaker 2: like that's the that's the biggest game they have, and
Speaker 2: that's a very different kind of infrastructure network wise. Again,
Speaker 2: like if I'm I don't think there's I'm not trying
Speaker 2: to make excuses for for either of them. I think
Speaker 2: that I have more personally, I have more willingness to
Speaker 2: let this stuff figure itself out in the early days.
Speaker 2: And also like I'm just trying not to be entitled.
Speaker 1: Two things yep. Yeah, Well, you know, we'll get this
Speaker 1: game when it comes out, and like you said, probably
Speaker 1: be rough in the meantime, a test going down. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna let it ruin my time. You know. Clearly
Speaker 1: this is what they want because they are only letting
Speaker 1: people play at certain times, right, so they won a
Speaker 1: funnel everyone in at the same time they're stress testing.
Speaker 1: So this is the whole thing working the way it
Speaker 1: was intended. All right, let's keep moving here. Microsoft has
Speaker 1: more games slated for PS five this year than Sony,
Speaker 1: and then in parentheses so far this is from Chris
Speaker 1: Compiendo or Compendio at GameSpot excuse me. Microsoft's cross platform
Speaker 1: release strategy puts the company in a unique position this year.
Speaker 1: As it currently stands, there are more Xbox first party
Speaker 1: games than Sony titles confirmed for a PlayStation release in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. The February twenty twenty five State of
Speaker 1: Play live stream on Wednesday contained announcements for several games,
Speaker 1: but the presentation showcased very few first party PlayStation games,
Speaker 1: instead highlighting many third party titles like Monster Hunter, Wild's
Speaker 1: and Borderlands four. The only notable Sony published PS five
Speaker 1: titles shown where a Day's Gone re release Lost Soul
Speaker 1: Aside and House Marks Sorrows, which is schedule for twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six for those keeping scrack, and as pointed out
Speaker 1: by Eurogamer, Sony's PS five confirmed PS five games confirmed
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty five are Days Sewan remastered Lost Soul Aside,
Speaker 1: MLB The Show twenty five, which also releases on Xbox
Speaker 1: and Switch, Ghost of Yota, and Desk Stranding two on
Speaker 1: the Beach. Release Windows from Marvel's Wolverine Intergalactic, The Heretic Prophet,
Speaker 1: and Marathon from Bungie have yet to be confirmed. Marathon
Speaker 1: supposed to come out this year. It is supposed to
Speaker 1: that is supposed to launch this year. Yes, we probably
Speaker 1: don't hear about it until Bunchie talks about it themselves
Speaker 1: sometime around April. They do their own events like that
Speaker 1: around that time of year, so they'll talk about that
Speaker 1: then either way, though, I mean, I get what this
Speaker 1: is that I think there was an expectation coming out
Speaker 1: of the last two ish years that Okay, Sony's had
Speaker 1: some time, PlayStation studios have had some time. We didn't
Speaker 1: get a ton of games from them in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: so twenty twenty five should be when a lot of
Speaker 1: things begin to hit, and that also doesn't seem to
Speaker 1: be the case. Not that, not that I think Sony's
Speaker 1: output for twenty twenty five is embarrassing or something like that.
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty solid. It's just as fun. You know,
Speaker 1: Xbox has more games on the PlayStation than Sony. That's
Speaker 1: a weird thing, and I think worth being like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's going on over there? And I just think it's
Speaker 1: a combination of factors, right, tam, where the live service
Speaker 1: strategy clearly distracted them and making games takes longer. Is
Speaker 1: there any other thing that you're that makes you worried that,
Speaker 1: oh is there something some deeper problem?
Speaker 2: No, it doesn't make me worried at all. Like I'm
Speaker 2: I'm I'm a normal I think I'm largely a normal person,
Speaker 2: Like I can, I have the ability to be normal
Speaker 2: about So when Microsoft is like, hey, we're putting this
Speaker 2: game on PlayStation, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't it would automatically freak out.
Speaker 2: And be like, oh my god, my beloved box has
Speaker 2: one less game when it or locked to it. It's
Speaker 2: just like I don't care, man, Like you could put
Speaker 2: that on anything you want, I'll play it wherever I can.
Speaker 3: It's fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think that it's a symptom of Microsoft specifically.
Speaker 2: I think it's the result of the kind of the
Speaker 2: economics of making and releasing games in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: with the in the state of the world as it is,
Speaker 2: like and yes, to some degree, the fortunes of Microsoft
Speaker 2: and Sony dictate where they put these games and how
Speaker 2: much outside of their own box and their own like
Speaker 2: traditional wheelhouses they go. But like if Microsoft was in
Speaker 2: a better position like they were, you know, they were
Speaker 2: still like doing three sixty numbers, and you know, Halo
Speaker 2: was still as popular as it was in the Halo
Speaker 2: three days, they probably wouldn't be putting any of their
Speaker 2: games on of course.
Speaker 3: On anywhere else. But we're not in that world.
Speaker 2: We live in a world where it is insanely expensive
Speaker 2: to make a game, and then when you release that game,
Speaker 2: for you to recoup the cost and even make a profit,
Speaker 2: you need to sell an astronomical number of copies. That
Speaker 2: would take most games will take maybe like seven, eight, nine,
Speaker 2: ten years of a long tail sales kind of lifetime
Speaker 2: for you to get close to doesn't make sense to
Speaker 2: lock it to one thing anymore. You have to put
Speaker 2: that thing everywhere. You need to make your experience as
Speaker 2: ubiquitous as possible to stand any chance of being financially
Speaker 2: viable or stable even for the going, you know future.
Speaker 2: So that stability has to come at the cost of something,
Speaker 2: and it is exclusive access, and that is how it's
Speaker 2: going to be. And people are gonna moan about it.
Speaker 2: That's that's on them, Like it's that's what you're gonna
Speaker 2: It's gonna happen whether you like it or not, because
Speaker 2: ultimately they need to make money their corporations. They want
Speaker 2: to make money. They don't care that you feel sad
Speaker 2: and bad that you're green is now playable on the purple.
Speaker 2: It doesn't make any difference to them. Man like complaining
Speaker 2: all you want, it's gonna happen.
Speaker 3: I expect that.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised if Sony started putting games on
Speaker 2: Microsoft consoles.
Speaker 3: At at some point.
Speaker 1: Point.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I mean like they have MLB, so like
Speaker 2: there's one there, you go like that. Sony is more
Speaker 2: focused on PC right now, which makes a lot of
Speaker 2: sense because that's again ubiquity. It's there. Microsoft has already
Speaker 2: been in PC, so they don't have a lot of
Speaker 2: they're not seeing the return that they probably want from
Speaker 2: it because they created an ecosystem that involves Xbox and PC.
Speaker 2: So the only real un you know, on unexplored territory
Speaker 2: is the PlayStation or even the switch. Who knows when
Speaker 2: that comes out, and it's if it feels like it's
Speaker 2: like capable of run decent, if it's Cape, if it's
Speaker 2: on par with a series s at least, they'll probably
Speaker 2: be like, hell, yeah, let's pull all our games on there,
Speaker 2: Let's put Game Pass on there. Let's do it because
Speaker 2: we need that money. So it's gonna happen. I don't
Speaker 2: think it's an issue with Microsoft. I don't think it's
Speaker 2: an issue with Sony. I don't think one is doing
Speaker 2: better than the other leading to this. I think it
Speaker 2: is the nature of the business and the economic context
Speaker 2: which they exist in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think what happened was they looked
Speaker 1: at their own performance, and not even relative to Sony,
Speaker 1: just like their own performance, especially Starfield, and Starfield's clearly
Speaker 1: the one that just Okay, we're gonna put out Starfield,
Speaker 1: and this is the one that is going to kind
Speaker 1: of set the tone and it's going to be this
Speaker 1: massive console selling game, and it wasn't for the most
Speaker 1: For the most part, I mean, I think I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's doing sure, I'm sure it's sold fine, but I
Speaker 1: don't think it changed the factor of how many Xbox
Speaker 1: they were selling. And once they realized Starfield can't do it,
Speaker 1: nothing can Nothing's going to be able to do it
Speaker 1: like we thought Starfield might, So we have to kind
Speaker 1: of shift our strategy. As far is PlayStation though, Uh
Speaker 1: that that lineup for this year, how do you feel
Speaker 1: about it? Again? It's let's the Day's Sewan Remastered, Loss
Speaker 1: Source Side MLB, The Show twenty five, Ghost of Yo
Speaker 1: Take Death, Randing two, and Marathon. That's good. You know
Speaker 1: we're gonna list them all out like that. That's a number of.
Speaker 3: Decent run yeah.
Speaker 2: Like, I mean, it's very clear which one of those
Speaker 2: games is the big Sony game, and it's Ghost of
Speaker 2: Your take. The smash hit success of the first Ghost
Speaker 2: of Tushima is has given them plenty of reason to
Speaker 2: expect big things from this game, and I expect it's
Speaker 2: going to be really good like that. That team hasn't
Speaker 2: put out a awful game ever, as far as I
Speaker 2: can remember anyway, Like even though even the the worst
Speaker 2: Infamous game is still pretty good and enjoyable, and yeah,
Speaker 2: that is a solid, solid anchor game for this year.
Speaker 2: I do think that they probably the rest of the
Speaker 2: games around it, other than Death Stranding, are probably not
Speaker 2: as a big deal, right And I think even as
Speaker 2: someone who loves, you know, PlayStation games and Xbox games,
Speaker 2: you generally want a kind of you want these landmark
Speaker 2: games to look forward to, and perhaps Only doesn't have
Speaker 2: a bunch of those right now. And for me, like
Speaker 2: these you know, random character action game that looks like
Speaker 2: every other random character action game of today is not doing.
Speaker 3: It for me. But I'm still not upset about it.
Speaker 2: Like there's still I just I just don't put as
Speaker 2: much reliance on first party games being the games that
Speaker 2: I look forward to and enjoy, Like I've got Monster
Speaker 2: Hunter coming up, Like I just played a bunch of Avowed,
Speaker 2: you know, There's there's a whole load of games out
Speaker 2: there that are coming out, you know, and and I'm
Speaker 2: not too worried about it.
Speaker 1: And I think that's like what we saw in that
Speaker 1: last quarter from Sony's earnings yesterday, where it was like
Speaker 1: that the best quarter ever sold a ton of PlayStation
Speaker 1: five so a lot of that was the PlayStation five
Speaker 1: Pro launched. Sure, but I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: are just saying, hey, I want to play games, and
Speaker 1: I know the PlayStation is going to have them, and
Speaker 1: then they and the third party games did very well
Speaker 1: in the last quarter for PlayStations, so I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: that is going to be the thing that that just
Speaker 1: carries it. But its like, is video games by and.
Speaker 3: Large, Yeah, I do.
Speaker 2: I do, Like maybe it's unfair of me, but I
Speaker 2: do discount a lot of these conversations where it's like, no,
Speaker 2: he needs more of these games as as like they're
Speaker 2: a bit like disingenuous, so like they don't come in.
Speaker 3: They're not a good faith kind of discussion.
Speaker 1: Narrow the very narrow vision what game.
Speaker 2: They also, Yeah, because I feel like they are discussions
Speaker 2: that happen with the undertone of team sports where the reason, yeah,
Speaker 2: the list was, the reason that they are mentioned is
Speaker 2: because they need to be a you know, a clip
Speaker 2: in the in the PlayStation ammove reserve to use against
Speaker 2: the opposition, because if you actually cared about just having
Speaker 2: good games, you would also factor in all the third
Speaker 2: party games, all the indie games that are coming out
Speaker 2: work conversation, Like you would factor those in and be like, oh, no,
Speaker 2: it's fine. We don't have a Spider Man three, but
Speaker 2: we have x y Z game, small game, hair, small game, hair,
Speaker 2: third party game, third party game. I'm not too worried
Speaker 2: about it. But no people specifically want I need a
Speaker 2: Sony game because then I can lord this over someone else.
Speaker 2: And yes, there is some value to having a Sony
Speaker 2: game because you know, they make games that are certain
Speaker 2: type and they have you know, institutional knowledge about the
Speaker 2: hardware which is pushed forward. But I don't think most
Speaker 2: people are thinking about that. They're thinking about how can
Speaker 2: I shit on Xbox fan over heir, over there, you
Speaker 2: know whatever.
Speaker 3: It may be.
Speaker 2: Like the Warriors, the best game come out, banger, it's
Speaker 2: so much fun, Like no, it is really count and
Speaker 2: it was like sitting down and being like I'm waiting
Speaker 2: for a new Warriors game, but it's out there. Like
Speaker 2: what you're complaining about as a new game like it
Speaker 2: came out a surprise is good play it.
Speaker 1: Even like even if the people that aren't like in
Speaker 1: the list war they're still like a work backward from
Speaker 1: like this point of Oh, I spent a lot of
Speaker 1: money on this console. I'm deeply invested. I need something
Speaker 1: to make it feel special to justify that, and that's
Speaker 1: where I think the like the best case scenario or
Speaker 1: the best read. But I think most of the time
Speaker 1: you're right. It is something to lord over others, and
Speaker 1: that's where they feel the value comes from. And that
Speaker 1: is you're right, disingenuous and bad faith and not really
Speaker 1: worth considering. I just think, hey, overall, games are taking longer,
Speaker 1: and it's definitely not making things easy on Sony, and
Speaker 1: obviously that live service was at this point, I think
Speaker 1: we can call distraction because it's not their strategy anymore
Speaker 1: by and large. But I think a lot of this
Speaker 1: just comes down to the timing. Windows got shifted around,
Speaker 1: and twenty twenty six definitely should be a really big
Speaker 1: year for PlayStation first party. If that is something that
Speaker 1: you're deeply invested, then.
Speaker 3: I want to say something about one of these games.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hit it.
Speaker 2: Marathon bungeee yep, I'm begging Mary than got that name,
Speaker 2: get rid of that name. Nobody gives a shit about
Speaker 2: the Marathon name, other than maybe you and some nine
Speaker 2: year old farts some fuddy duddies, And you could just
Speaker 2: put any other name on there and act like it's
Speaker 2: a brand new IP, because let me tell you, you ain't
Speaker 2: saying selling a lot of games based on the Marathon IP.
Speaker 5: Also, your SEO is dog shit already, Like you are
Speaker 5: fighting decades of running people, the running people, so the
Speaker 5: running people are going to beat you.
Speaker 2: Also, it's just like a bad name, like marathon. I
Speaker 2: call it something, call it something else, man, anything else,
Speaker 2: just not Marathon. I'm begging you give the game a
Speaker 2: chance by calling it any other name.
Speaker 1: I do look forward to see how they try to
Speaker 1: position this game, and like, when they like really start
Speaker 1: talking about it, do they even bring up the mac
Speaker 1: game in any explicit way. I bet they barely even
Speaker 1: reference it, if they reference it at all. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure they did in that first trailer, But going forward,
Speaker 1: how does it? How does that help them? It doesn't.
Speaker 3: What's the what's the benefit?
Speaker 2: Like, there's no benefit because everyone goes, we don't care,
Speaker 2: we don't we don't play games.
Speaker 1: Do I need to play that? First? I gotta go
Speaker 1: get a macintosh.
Speaker 3: It's available on like PC now.
Speaker 2: But again, it's not that good man, it was, and
Speaker 2: it wasn't that good back then either. Like so, I
Speaker 2: don't know why you're like other than like this is
Speaker 2: all heritage. Witch, who cares? Man, get over and grow up.
Speaker 1: Hey. People used to say that was good for a
Speaker 1: Mac game, and that meant something.
Speaker 3: Steve Jobs cared.
Speaker 1: Okay, he didn't care about anything, all right, fading to
Speaker 1: black for a quick break. We'll be right back after this, everybody.
Speaker 3: Yeah, give me one second to grab something.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna bring back bring us back in
Speaker 1: while Tam is taking care of that. He's actually sitting
Speaker 1: down right now. There we are, Okay, I'm bringing us
Speaker 1: back in right now. Microsoft has Oh nope, I just
Speaker 1: did that one. Astrobot gets PS five Pro support and
Speaker 1: new levels starting now. This is from Georgian at GameSpot
Speaker 1: PlayStation is.
Speaker 3: Well, nobody cares about that again. Let's move on.
Speaker 1: Game of the Year from the Dice Awards and from
Speaker 1: the ki Lees. So hey, pretty good spread there to
Speaker 1: get both the game developers and the games journalist. PlayStation
Speaker 1: Is announced that PS five Pro support has been added
Speaker 1: to added to Astrobot, and the first of five additional
Speaker 1: levels is live in the game today. According to the
Speaker 1: PlayStation Blog. The PS five Pro support comes with a
Speaker 1: constant resolution boost while still running at sixty frames per second.
Speaker 3: The first what's that constant resolution?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I don't, I don't really know.
Speaker 3: Us stopped boosting, Yeah, boosting, just.
Speaker 1: Clear boosting NonStop, never not boosting. The first of the
Speaker 1: five new levels will be added today, which is TikTok Shock.
Speaker 1: Imagine it's one of the game one of the levels
Speaker 1: using the slow down power slow.
Speaker 2: Motions, coverment or come in for it. They're gonna be like,
Speaker 2: let me shut that TikTok clock thing down.
Speaker 1: TikTok Shock no way. The remaining ones will be released
Speaker 1: weekly on Thursdays at six am Pacific time. It's awesome
Speaker 1: they keep supporting this game. Uh yeah, and they clearly
Speaker 1: I had a plan. I do that.
Speaker 2: It's also cool that it's not just like we have
Speaker 2: a new themed level. It's actually like separate from that stuff. Yes, hey,
Speaker 2: we got an actual level. We made this and the
Speaker 2: kind of like selling point of it is that we
Speaker 2: made a new level, not that it's got character from
Speaker 2: X game in it.
Speaker 3: It's good for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I also like PS PS five Pro Sport cool.
Speaker 1: I bet, I bet you don't see it too much
Speaker 1: like when you're playing the game. I bet you don't
Speaker 1: notice it because that game already ran great and looked fantastic, right.
Speaker 3: I reviewed the PS five Pro.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you don't see that thing in many
Speaker 2: games at all.
Speaker 1: That's just where games are at, and I think this
Speaker 1: one's going to be especially so. But whatever, people spend
Speaker 1: their money on a PS five Pro, you want to
Speaker 1: see that the game is going to support it. And
Speaker 1: I bet, I bet these kinds of things like add
Speaker 1: up over time, right, They build up over time, tam
Speaker 1: where okay, it's getting new levels, and now it's got
Speaker 1: another batch of new levels. Oh and it supports PS
Speaker 1: five Pro. Okay, yeah, and well oh at one game
Speaker 1: of the year and it's just one game of the
Speaker 1: year from Dice. These things build up, and I think
Speaker 1: eventually it like breaks the seal on a new tier
Speaker 1: of people who were maybe never really considering this game
Speaker 1: until all that stuff happened, and now they're more likely
Speaker 1: to buy it.
Speaker 2: If you want to see the power of the PS
Speaker 2: five Pro, I'll tell you exactly how you can see it, right,
Speaker 2: this is specifically how you can see it. You fire
Speaker 2: up Demon Solisery mastered. Right you go into the first
Speaker 2: area of the tutorial. After you run through that little
Speaker 2: tunnel and going through the water and come out, there's
Speaker 2: a little corner that has a flickering flame on it.
Speaker 2: It's got like a lantern there. Keep an eye on
Speaker 2: that lantern and then fire up Demon sells remastered on
Speaker 2: another PlayStation five, an older one. Put on side by
Speaker 2: side and you will see the power of the PS
Speaker 2: five pro. But because let me tell you that flame
Speaker 2: looks legit good on. I stayed at it and I was.
Speaker 1: Like, this is sick.
Speaker 3: Anyways, moving on.
Speaker 1: Seven hundred dollars flame right there. Hell yeah, it was
Speaker 1: all right, let's keep moving. UBI Soft revenues decline thirty
Speaker 1: one point four percent to nine hundred and ninety million euro.
Speaker 1: This is from Sophie McAvoy, a games industry dop is.
Speaker 1: Ubisoft has released its financial results for the nine months
Speaker 1: ending December thirty first. The firm remains optimistic, despite a
Speaker 1: decline in revenues and netbookings, that the upcoming release of
Speaker 1: Assassin's Creed Shadows will turn their fates or turn the
Speaker 1: fade around. Pre sales of the title are reported to
Speaker 1: be tracking solidly and on par with the franchise, the
Speaker 1: second highest earner Odyssey, but just kind of across the
Speaker 1: board over there at Ebisoft, everything is down. Revenues down,
Speaker 1: their back catalog sales, uh, you know, those are down there,
Speaker 1: and that's for like the last nine months, they're down
Speaker 1: like thirty percent seven percent. Uh, and then for the
Speaker 1: last three months things are also down pretty significantly. You know. Really,
Speaker 1: it really is coming down to Assassin's Creed Shadows must perform,
Speaker 1: must perform and kind of maybe overperform. So the game
Speaker 1: has to be the best Assassin's Creed, a Game of
Speaker 1: the Year contender, and then just all that needs to
Speaker 1: then snowball into getting a bunch of people to want
Speaker 1: to buy the game. I think for them to really
Speaker 1: stand a shot of turning things around over there, I don't.
Speaker 2: Know a rough position to be. It's kind of like
Speaker 2: the they kind of have made their own bed right
Speaker 2: now by having Assassin's Creed be a almost yearly franchised
Speaker 2: so long that it just kind of perennially has existed
Speaker 2: in the background of video games for so long that
Speaker 2: people just will automatically know already whether they give a shit,
Speaker 2: Like as Assassage created sells massively, right, Yes, but there's
Speaker 2: a significant group of people who are like, now, I'm
Speaker 2: good with it.
Speaker 3: I don't need to play Assasage great.
Speaker 2: I played that last one, or I played it seven
Speaker 2: years ago, I played ten years ago.
Speaker 3: I'm good. I'm done with that thing.
Speaker 2: But the can they can this game being a new
Speaker 2: entry in a long running franchise that has you could
Speaker 2: arguably say is oversaturated the market a long time ago
Speaker 2: is like the fourth of iteration of this version of
Speaker 2: the game, can that sell enough to rescue a company?
Speaker 2: I hate to say it, man, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I don't think so.
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, best case scenario does really well. Best
Speaker 1: case really want to yeah, But you know a likely
Speaker 1: good case scenario here is it does well enough that
Speaker 1: they can point to investors and be like, this is
Speaker 1: the kind of thing we're going to do more of,
Speaker 1: and it's we're on an upbor trajectory once again, up
Speaker 1: into the right. That's what you want to see. Uh maybe?
Speaker 1: But I also think that maybe people have felt burned
Speaker 1: by you be soft a number of times now. I
Speaker 1: remember years ago ubisofts like, oh yeah, our stock price
Speaker 1: is down a little bit invest now because we're going
Speaker 1: to be back, you know, it's ubi stuff. We always
Speaker 1: come back, and then it's been kind of just declining
Speaker 1: ever since then. I think a lot of investors don't
Speaker 1: want to take a chance on this anymore. And then uh,
Speaker 1: the alternative of like ten Cent winning in the wings
Speaker 1: to be like, hey, we will take you over, but
Speaker 1: a lot of conditions and caveats and losing control maybe
Speaker 1: for the Gumo family, which maybe probably be a good thing,
Speaker 1: but still like it just seems like that's not what
Speaker 1: you be soft in the Guimo family wants to do,
Speaker 1: so they might they might be forced to. Who knows
Speaker 1: how this is actually all going to play out either way,
Speaker 1: though just the numbers are diar here, they're rough.
Speaker 3: Again.
Speaker 2: I feel like, again this is a company that is
Speaker 2: a victim of economics and also its own decision making,
Speaker 2: because I feel like if you had a more diverse
Speaker 2: portfolio actively in kind of like in the market, you
Speaker 2: might be in a better position. But they doubled down
Speaker 2: on one franchise and kind of like rained in the
Speaker 2: business strategy to be like chasing a certain type of
Speaker 2: game monetization games as a service, open world. They kind
Speaker 2: of narrowed their focus, which probably made sense back then
Speaker 2: because it was what was popular, but they did it
Speaker 2: in a way where they shot so many doors that
Speaker 2: it doesn't you know, none of those games are available now,
Speaker 2: None of those projects are available now in a timely
Speaker 2: manner that could help them, Like imagine what Maybe it's
Speaker 2: not huge, but I imagine they might be in a
Speaker 2: better position at least in terms of the perception around them,
Speaker 2: the optics around them, if they actively had a spent
Speaker 2: a cell game that was in the market or at
Speaker 2: least look like it was in them coming to the
Speaker 2: market at some point soon. But it's not like no
Speaker 2: one believes that that thing exists. They announced it, but
Speaker 2: like not seeing it since they're not even doing the
Speaker 2: thing where they show like a like fake stuff like
Speaker 2: they did with like Beyond Good and Evil to to
Speaker 2: try and juice the numbers, it's not even happening.
Speaker 3: Like that's gone. There's no ray Man.
Speaker 2: They just took Prince of Persia, the last good one,
Speaker 2: and just like kicked it to the curb. They treated
Speaker 2: it like it was just they throw away game when
Speaker 2: it could have been so much more. They have nothing
Speaker 2: else but Assassin's Creed to rely on. And sadly it's
Speaker 2: a bed that the Guimeaus made of their own making.
Speaker 2: They made that bed. They got asleep in it now,
Speaker 2: which is unfortunate. And it sucks because I've said this before.
Speaker 2: I always say CEO is making dumb ass decisions that
Speaker 2: the people below them will have to pay for, Like
Speaker 2: they gemos will be fine, absolutely fine. But all those people,
Speaker 2: those developers create, the designers, the people who work in PR,
Speaker 2: people who work in like editorial at Ubisoft, they're going
Speaker 2: to suffer because of this.
Speaker 3: And it sucks.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's a rough situation. They employ so many
Speaker 1: people around the world, around the world, and they've and
Speaker 1: they've said, you know more, you know, restructuring is coming,
Speaker 1: So we know what that means and what that's going on.
Speaker 2: About restructure by getting rid of the a few of
Speaker 2: the executives and letting that money go elsewhere.
Speaker 3: How about that.
Speaker 1: It's obvious where the restructuring is needed. And it is
Speaker 1: who runs that company and has ran that company for
Speaker 1: years now. It is the gem saying to get out.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying ten cents going to make it better?
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, who know.
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
Speaker 2: And I mean, like maybe it will, but at the
Speaker 2: very least, what you can definitely say is these clowns
Speaker 2: have no idea.
Speaker 3: What they're doing.
Speaker 2: Like they they have they have put everyone else in
Speaker 2: a real bad position. And they don't deserve that, because
Speaker 2: I know plenty of people who act there, and they're
Speaker 2: incredibly talented their former colleagues as well, Like they're people
Speaker 2: who used to work out GameSpot and you know, contribute
Speaker 2: to a lot of stuff on Giant Bomb and like
Speaker 2: various other parts of the industry as well, And it's
Speaker 2: just like, you didn't deserve this, man.
Speaker 1: They did point out one positive the crew Motorfest as
Speaker 1: having like the most players at one time that's ever had,
Speaker 1: I think, or something like that. It was a session
Speaker 1: days increasing to increasing by thirty eight percent year on years.
Speaker 1: So hey, shout out to Motorfest. That's not a bad game.
Speaker 3: Good for you.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you'd be stuff got here by you know,
Speaker 1: kind of overdoing it with open world and live service games.
Speaker 3: Right, Oh my god, there was Avatar.
Speaker 1: There's Avatar and you know, Star Wars Outlaws. I like
Speaker 1: both those games, but clearly like they did not hit
Speaker 1: an audience. They were big, massive, expensive and they have
Speaker 1: several live service games that have failed, so let's get
Speaker 1: to this next story. Tam UBSFCF says the plan is
Speaker 1: to focus on open world and live service games year
Speaker 1: after year. This is from Chris Calling at VGC, the
Speaker 1: CEO of Ubisoccess. The publisher is focusing mainly on open
Speaker 1: world action adventure games and live service games in the
Speaker 1: coming years. During a Q and A and following a
Speaker 1: presentation on the company's financial results for Q three of
Speaker 1: its twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five financial year,
Speaker 1: one caller asked if the executives on the panel could
Speaker 1: shed more light on their development pipeline going forward. Yeves
Speaker 1: Gimont replied that the focus was mainly going to be
Speaker 1: on open world adventures like Assassin's Creed and live service
Speaker 1: games like Rainbow six, Siege or The Crew Motorfest for
Speaker 1: the foreseeable future. We have been investing significantly for a
Speaker 1: big pipeline of products for the coming years along our
Speaker 1: two verticals, these being open world action adventure as well
Speaker 1: as games as a service native experiences, and that's what
Speaker 1: we want to deliver year after year.
Speaker 3: Their class, dude, that is that is awesome?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's idiots like, Hey, Eve, your company released a
Speaker 2: game called Fock Cry three. Buy that bad boy up.
Speaker 2: There's a chart in there called vas It's gonna tell
Speaker 2: you something. It's gonna begin with, do you know what
Speaker 2: the definition of insane is? Just let that one play
Speaker 2: out for a little bit. Just play that game. It's
Speaker 2: a banger. Just listen to that for a bit and
Speaker 2: then play the rest of the game. There's a weed
Speaker 2: burning bit and it's cool. But maybe you learn something
Speaker 2: that's something elite dumbas shit happening there.
Speaker 3: It's believable.
Speaker 1: It's just crazy. Like even just to say it, let
Speaker 1: alone do it. You gotta be like, oh, well, we're
Speaker 1: trying some other stuff. We have other ideas, other irons
Speaker 1: in the fire, and know it's like it's the same irons,
Speaker 1: the ones that goddess here. Yeah, I just.
Speaker 3: Like, how how are you?
Speaker 2: How are you convincing the people who are gonna decide
Speaker 2: what happens next that there is better times coming? When
Speaker 2: you're saying you're gonna do the things that you just did,
Speaker 2: that is failing.
Speaker 1: It's not even they're not even like promising that we're
Speaker 1: gonna bring the Ubi soft innovation that we're known for
Speaker 1: to bear on the genres, and we're gonna like do
Speaker 1: new things in it that are exciting in the open
Speaker 1: world in live service space. He's like, just know, we're
Speaker 1: gonna do more of this year after year.
Speaker 3: That.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a crazy thing to say to investors
Speaker 1: when you're trying to convince them that you're going to
Speaker 1: be different in the future.
Speaker 2: Say say you're gonna you're gonna follow up on the
Speaker 2: success of Rainbow six Siege with a new entry in
Speaker 2: that franchise. You're gonna take the Siege model and make
Speaker 2: it bigger and better because Siege was a smash his
Speaker 2: success and it has like powered your esports and all
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff, and it's beloved and that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. Try that, I don't know, Say Sam Fisher
Speaker 2: is definitely back, has a bit of gameplay, yep, and
Speaker 2: try anything else, say Rayman is back.
Speaker 3: Whatever you want. No, they're gonna do though.
Speaker 1: The only other thing they did mention is one or
Speaker 1: one hundred seventeen Pax Romana.
Speaker 3: That's gonna save them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're city building games. That's a little different, right.
Speaker 1: I bet that has life service stuff in it. And
Speaker 1: then they're gonna do some more stuff on mobile. All
Speaker 1: this is coming along well. We haven't provided more color
Speaker 1: for fiscal year twenty twenty six, but we will have
Speaker 1: more to share by the time of May. And as
Speaker 1: I've just said, we have a strong platform for future
Speaker 1: years across these two verticals.
Speaker 2: It's never been more clear. How out of touch these
Speaker 2: people are is unbelievable. This is definitely dementia.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's yeah, for French dementia too, which is really
Speaker 1: rough and just no idea, which you just said, Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, so let's keep going here. Why some fans
Speaker 1: are cheering the return of loot boxes in Overwatch twos
Speaker 1: is from Kenneth Shepherd over at Kataku. One of the
Speaker 1: funny things about being entrenched in the games community for
Speaker 1: years is that you sometimes forget how it might look
Speaker 1: to someone on the outside. That happened to be this
Speaker 1: week when Blizzard announced it would be bringing back loop
Speaker 1: boxes to Overwatch two in season fifteen, afterpping the mystery
Speaker 1: cosmetic packs when the sequel launched in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: When I saw that, my immediate thought was, oh, so
Speaker 1: the people who wanted those bag finally got what they wanted.
Speaker 1: And then I mentally moved on to the next thing
Speaker 1: kind of goes on here, right to explain, like, oh,
Speaker 1: this must look weird to people who aren't into Overwatch two,
Speaker 1: who are like, wait, why is everyone cheering loot boxes again?
Speaker 1: What's going on? Have I slipped into some other dimension?
Speaker 1: And it's like, no, this is the one game where
Speaker 1: everyone's like that was just better, mostly because you could
Speaker 1: earn enough free currency to get a free loot box
Speaker 1: once every couple of days if you were playing regularly,
Speaker 1: and that felt like a pretty fair thing versus what
Speaker 1: it became, which was really expensive items in the shop
Speaker 1: and you kind of couldn't grind out free things over time.
Speaker 1: Although of course it's always like, oh the compared, so
Speaker 1: what's better than that's just random gambling and hoping you
Speaker 1: get what you want in a loop box. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: turns out, yes, that's the case. You were like huge
Speaker 1: in Overwatch. You were. I know a lot of Overwatch
Speaker 1: fans felt this way that the loot box were better
Speaker 1: than what they went to. Were you in that crowd?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the loop boxes were not. I feel
Speaker 2: like early Overwatch days, the loop boxes were a thing
Speaker 2: that would make you feel good about playing and you
Speaker 2: didn't necessarily need to buy them. I did buy a
Speaker 2: few times, but it was mainly because it was like,
Speaker 2: I have now played this game for one hundred hours.
Speaker 2: I'm going to spend a bit of money. Kick them
Speaker 2: some money every now and then to to you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: make make sure that the wheels are still greased and
Speaker 2: they can keep making stuff. It didn't feel predatory, is
Speaker 2: the thing. That's not to say it was a predatory,
Speaker 2: because it still existed at a time when still people
Speaker 2: were using loop boxes to be predatory in a lot
Speaker 2: of ways. But the predatory nature of how you you know,
Speaker 2: monetize games shifted in a way that now over Watch
Speaker 2: two reflects, and it was you know, it was the
Speaker 2: counter Strike Global Offensive skins market that went in to
Speaker 2: the Valoris shop system, which both together basically made it
Speaker 2: so you would buy a skin for like thirty to
Speaker 2: forty dollars baseline, and if you wanted a really good
Speaker 2: one on like in the count Struck, you could find
Speaker 2: the skin that you could then sell for like hundreds
Speaker 2: and hundreds of dollars. I know at least one person,
Speaker 2: my younger brother actually, who like found us, got a skin,
Speaker 2: sat on it and then sold it and built himself
Speaker 2: a new PC just with the with the what just
Speaker 2: with the kind of like money he got out of
Speaker 2: that and I had money left over. And I was like, damn,
Speaker 2: good for you man, Yeah, good for you man. But
Speaker 2: I think he also fucking tricked me into sending him
Speaker 2: that skin because I had that skin my count so
Speaker 2: he was like, Ah, this skin sucks.
Speaker 3: Can I have it?
Speaker 2: Like sent it to him and he was like aha, moltivleyeah,
Speaker 2: And I was like, I don't care.
Speaker 3: You could have just told me you're going to do that,
Speaker 3: or to give it to you.
Speaker 1: I think I got a skirt in early PUBG that
Speaker 1: I sold for fifteen dollars you know of Steam credit doodle.
Speaker 2: When PUBG first came out, they gave Press a series
Speaker 2: of like skin stuff like equipment that was exclusive to
Speaker 2: Press only for a very long time.
Speaker 3: That shit was crazy expensive.
Speaker 2: If you sold it on the Steam marketplace, it was
Speaker 2: like selling for a few grand yep, yep.
Speaker 3: You can believe it had a wild economy.
Speaker 2: That shit was just like rotting in my inventory years
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, I get a shit about this.
Speaker 2: I don't know anyone that sold it, but fucking that is,
Speaker 2: I remember the hearing stories about how much that thing
Speaker 2: cost to buy as well.
Speaker 1: All right, last story here. AMD to introduce the world
Speaker 1: to the Radiant RX nine thousand series. At the end
Speaker 1: of the month, we'll see how this all pans out.
Speaker 1: But yeah, February twenty eighth, they're going to have a
Speaker 1: you know, a show to showcase these new GPUs that
Speaker 1: will be meant to compete with the RTX five thousand
Speaker 1: for Nvidia, although you know, enthusiasts in this space are
Speaker 1: kind of all agree, don't expect anything that's going to
Speaker 1: compete with like the fifty ninety, and probably not even
Speaker 1: the fifty eighty. AMD has just kind of giving up
Speaker 1: the fight on the high end, which is one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why people are so disappointed with the fifty eighty.
Speaker 1: It's because they don't in Vidia doesn't seem like they're
Speaker 1: worried about what AMD is going to do. That said,
Speaker 1: you know, fifty eighties one thousand dollars, most people do
Speaker 1: not buy graphics cards that are that expensive, and once
Speaker 1: you get kind of below that that point, anything like
Speaker 1: seven hundred in below, AMD does compete really well and
Speaker 1: actually does keep the prices down a little bit and
Speaker 1: probably will have really good alternatives. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: the problem just continues to be if you want to
Speaker 1: run a game at like fourteen forty sixty, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of there's a lot of graphics cards out there
Speaker 1: that are already going to do that very well. And
Speaker 1: then if you want to like get the extra little
Speaker 1: gizmos on top, like Rage Racing, well then you kind
Speaker 1: of are stuck back. Going over to in video, yeah,
Speaker 1: actors and stuff is just better.
Speaker 2: I when I look at AMD, I think that it
Speaker 2: is competitive, but I think of it as competitive in
Speaker 2: a responsible way. Yeah, because they're not trying to match
Speaker 2: end Video because AMD isn't the same kind of company
Speaker 2: that n Video is and Video. I don't know if
Speaker 2: people are paying attention, but and Video is one of
Speaker 2: the most valuable companies in the world right now because
Speaker 2: it is not just making graphics cards.
Speaker 1: Is like.
Speaker 2: Head of the spear on AI and like various other
Speaker 2: chip manufacturing stuff. They are like company number one when
Speaker 2: it comes to that kind of stuff. So their AMD
Speaker 2: isn't capable of making a graphics card that also is
Speaker 2: you know, loaded with AI driven technology that will you know,
Speaker 2: generate frames to make things run better, and they're not
Speaker 2: set up to responsibly compete in that market, and if
Speaker 2: they did, if they tried to, I imagine it would
Speaker 2: probably sink them pretty quickly. It's just like the n
Speaker 2: Video is punching so far above anyone else's weights that
Speaker 2: wait that you just cannot compete with them, which honestly
Speaker 2: good for them, Like they they they made good they
Speaker 2: make good graphics cards, they make good tech.
Speaker 1: And the early investments in AI and a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff was like hey for gpews and it turned out
Speaker 1: that paid off real well for this whole yeah business.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the hope is that they also don't price out
Speaker 2: people and become like you know, they too too expensive
Speaker 2: for most average people, because then that would mean people
Speaker 2: will start looking elsewhere. And AMD is already a good
Speaker 2: option if you want a good graphics card that isn't
Speaker 2: too expensive.
Speaker 1: Intel's becoming a really good option at the country level,
Speaker 1: like so yeah, there's competition there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And ny video also has some like low lower,
Speaker 2: lower kind of priced graphics cards that are still very good,
Speaker 2: like you can buy I think a thirty eighty now
Speaker 2: or relatively cheap and it still runs games really really well.
Speaker 2: I know because I have a thirty eighty in one
Speaker 2: of my PCs, and pretty much every recent game that's
Speaker 2: come out, that's what I.
Speaker 1: Use on this PC on the TV over here. Yeah
Speaker 1: that's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, same, the same.
Speaker 2: Like I have the two PCs hooked up to that
Speaker 2: TV over there, and I just a lot of the
Speaker 2: times I'll use the one that has the thirty eight
Speaker 2: in it because it's just like, I don't need to
Speaker 2: fire up this more powerful like a PC, just leave
Speaker 2: it as it is. And yeah, there are there are
Speaker 2: options out there. It's just AMD is not able to
Speaker 2: kind of compete with n Video because n Video isn't
Speaker 2: It isn't making graphics cards anymore. It is defining and
Speaker 2: innovating technology and hardware and chips and AI and algorithms
Speaker 2: in a way that makes them not a company that
Speaker 2: makes graphics cards.
Speaker 3: They make cars.
Speaker 2: They make Because I went to an end Video event
Speaker 2: and they were showing off what the new graphics cards.
Speaker 1: Are being used for AI and car.
Speaker 2: They were showing us things they're AI and cars. They
Speaker 2: also showed us this lengthy kind of presentation on how
Speaker 2: they've built a an AI model that lets you effectively
Speaker 2: plan out how factories work and you can integrate AI
Speaker 2: to help people more efficiently work in factories. And it's
Speaker 2: had like a lot of these little drones just knocking about,
Speaker 2: moving things away around and people moving in between them,
Speaker 2: and I was like, this is insane, this is crazy,
Speaker 2: and like that, and like buildings like architecture, that's what
Speaker 2: in video makes now.
Speaker 1: Yep, and the like. When they do focus on the
Speaker 1: AI business, they are selling like cards that are ten
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, not one thousand, two thousand dollars, you know,
Speaker 1: fifty ninety. There's some one card that's ten thousand dollars
Speaker 1: and they're selling ten thousand of those cards to one
Speaker 1: vendor at a time. So like, you know, that was
Speaker 1: the thing like oh, Deep Seek, the Chinese AI company, Oh,
Speaker 1: they bought like hundreds of millions of dollars worth of
Speaker 1: Nvidia GPUs apparently or something like that. And it's like
Speaker 1: that's just one company off of them. Oh yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: And all these companies are doing the same thing. There
Speaker 1: are massive investments, and Nvidia is kind of the only
Speaker 1: company really providing the chips for that kind of AI
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. Although you know that one
Speaker 1: of the things deep Seak apparently did was fine. Ways
Speaker 1: to get it that stuff to run better on less powerful.
Speaker 2: GPUs Deep Seek is one of the funniest moments in
Speaker 2: recent tech history.
Speaker 3: But they were just like, ah, we did it. It's cheaper.
Speaker 2: These these people who are telling you a expensive and
Speaker 2: only they can do it airline yep, see you.
Speaker 1: All right. I got to pull a question from yesterday.
Speaker 1: Let's get to it. Grade the state of play where
Speaker 1: four stars is the highest. See here, what will work
Speaker 1: our way up? One star? Eleven percent people? Eleven percent
Speaker 1: of respondents gave it one star season, thirty seven percent
Speaker 1: of respondents gave it two stars, forty seven percent gave
Speaker 1: it three stars, and then five percent gave it four stars.
Speaker 1: So you know, the bell curve is weighted more towards
Speaker 1: the lower side, but more like the plurality of people
Speaker 1: agree three stars. Almost half said three stars, which is
Speaker 1: what I voted for, Tam, I think that showcase was
Speaker 1: pretty pretty good, pretty good, said not everything for me,
Speaker 1: but pretty good overall.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd say three is about right, yeah, about right?
Speaker 1: All right, Uh, we got the result results from that.
Speaker 1: I have a new poll question. We'll get to here
Speaker 1: in a second. Before we do that, though, Tam, why
Speaker 1: don't to tell people where they can find you on
Speaker 1: the internet what you have going on, all that good stuff.
Speaker 2: You'll find me everywhere tomorrow H. I am on Instagram
Speaker 2: as tomorrow H please follow me for various life reasons
Speaker 2: that will help me massively. And I'm on plase guy
Speaker 2: tomorrow H dot com, Twitch is tomor H.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm all tom H everywhere and all over that shit.
Speaker 3: You know I'm saying, You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah? All right, So let's see your new poll question.
Speaker 1: What March games are you most looking forward to? Your
Speaker 1: options are Split Fiction, Assassin's Creed, Shadows, Sweek It in
Speaker 1: one and two remaster, and the first Berserker Kazan starring
Speaker 1: Ben Starr. There you go. We'll get the results of that.
Speaker 1: Talk about it on Game US Mornings here on Giant
Speaker 1: Bomb on Monday. Trying to think, bot.
Speaker 2: If you want to have actual discussion about split Fiction, yes,
Speaker 2: you can go watch Rising Rising Revengeance. Now, I guess
Speaker 2: Giant Bomb Revenge.
Speaker 1: How's that possible, Tam? How that game's not out yet?
Speaker 1: How will we possibly be able to talk about it?
Speaker 3: Previews?
Speaker 1: Sam? To go play that? To go play it?
Speaker 2: So Jan Lucy, we were there playing it, but I
Speaker 2: think it'll be me and Nikki talking about it.
Speaker 1: Yep. We'll also be talking about Avowed, Tam. You've been
Speaker 1: playing that as well. I'm looking forward to that conversation.
Speaker 1: And then we will have Nathan Grayson on to talk
Speaker 1: about his book stream Big It's about Twitch. That'll be
Speaker 1: happening at one pm Eastern, so about an hour from now.
Speaker 1: Look forward to that. Additionally, we'll have a upf after that,
Speaker 1: and then everyone should go enjoy their Valentine's Day. That's
Speaker 1: what I say.
Speaker 2: Hi, Oh man, I have got my Valentine ready.
Speaker 1: Oh this is right? Oh there it is. Look at that.
Speaker 1: Look at that beauty. I already got that. That's Peggy sixteen.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, Bloodborne.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the love of my life.
Speaker 1: You guys you look so happy together. Oh look at that.
Speaker 3: Oh good, it's just for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah yeah, just keep it. Got to keep it
Speaker 1: a tease, Keep it a tease.
Speaker 3: I do have a side piece though, Oh yeah, I
Speaker 3: got I got a side piece.
Speaker 1: Yeah go look oh there you go. Okay, man, that's
Speaker 1: a side piece. That's pretty good too, dark souls. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, Tam, thank you so much, hanging out with
Speaker 1: me today and talking about video games despite your torrid
Speaker 1: love affair with the from Software Library.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Thank you everybody for watching, Thank you for listening. You
Speaker 1: are the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have
Speaker 1: a good one, take care of yourself, and goodbye.