Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to Game Last Mornings with Me Jeff Grub,
your host from GiantBomb dot com. Thank you for tuning in.
In this episode, we're going to be talking about spending
more money on video games and beating the scalpers at
their own game. It's gonna be a good one because
we have Jason Finelli on the show.
Speaker 2: Jason Finelle Friday is back. How are you doing two
weeks in a row? Yeah? I love it.
Speaker 3: Pot doing okay, slowly but surely, pulling myself towards Summer
Games Festa. I I just wanted to start, damn it.
I'm I'm tired and I just want to be in
Los Angeles with my buddies exactly.
Speaker 2: But other than that, things are fine.
Speaker 3: I am very much on the Holy Crap mixtape is
great train that has been taking over the socials.
Speaker 2: But I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I'm booking a Summer Games first appointment as we speak.
Speaker 2: I mean, you gotta do it. I get it. That's
where we're at.
Speaker 3: This is what I have to do. And okay, why
after we go off the air. It's the reason I
like this game so much. A lot of people are
talking about the nostalgia of being a teenager in the
nineties and things like that. I wasn't that I was
three years old in nineteen nineties.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: For me, it's the nostalgia of I just played an
entire game with teenagers and not a single one of
them was doing this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I was saying, yeah, you know what that
that show with the Matt I can't remember his name,
but it's the new Apple Plus show. It takes place
on like a Cape cod kind of island, and I'm like,
it's a modern show. It's contemporary, but they have a
reason why everyone is their cell phones. They're on an
island off the New England shore, like three hours away
and you're not going to get reception. And I was like, yeah,
if I was writing a show today, I would try
to find the setup to not have people on their
phone all the time.
Speaker 3: Widow's Bay according to the chat Thank You Chat, but like,
so there's a part where your roller multiple parts where
you're skateboarding through the town and in one of them
you're skating through a shopping mall as it's being built.
Speaker 2: How many there's hope in the world.
Speaker 3: How many kids in this day of age will will
have seen a shopping mall being raised as opposed to
being raised. That to me is what makes this game
so fucking powerful. That the soundtrack is absolutely absurdly good
when that like the part where they're in the car
and they're just jamming out the silver chair and then
they go to the drive through and they're just jamming
out more with their food in their hands. Shit was
funny that a lot.
Speaker 1: I am I'm with you, I like, I do not
agree with this idea that because of the setting and
the music, it is a nostalgia play for one specific group.
I would point to the popularity among children of Stranger Things.
Speaker 2: Uh. For me, that that's all the proof I needed that.
Speaker 1: These Yeah, you can couch it in nostalgia, you can
couch it in bait, but the kids will be into
it if it's about like children and it feels real enough.
Speaker 2: And I don't like people argued.
Speaker 1: With me when I put made this point on Blue
Sky a few weeks back, Jason that that Stranger Things
is for kids.
Speaker 2: And now guess what the Happy Meal toys are right now?
I we got them yesterday. I couldn't believe this Stranger Thanks.
Speaker 3: I'm like so like Charlotte, what's your toy? She's like
vine Crawler, I said, excuse me. So I looked at
a box said Stranger Things tails for eighty five. It's
this cartoon version.
Speaker 2: I went.
Speaker 3: She's like, Dad, what Stranger Things. I'm like, you're not
gonna like it. I guarantee you you're afraid of bugs,
so I don't think that's for you. But yeah, that
was wild. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: So I like, you know, you can set things whenever
and as long as it feels honest, and this game
certainly does that. It's uh. I think it will rub
some people the wrong way. I was telling Mike last
night on the show, if you were too cool for
these kinds of kids back in the nineties or the
eighties or the early two thousands, you're you're probably gona
feel like you're too cool for this game.
Speaker 2: I was not that. I was not.
Speaker 1: No, I was happily trying to be one of these
cool people, and this game gets that.
Speaker 3: So I'm I'm not gonna sit here and say that
I was a stoner or like getting looking for people
to get me booze on the weekends. I didn't get
drunk for the first time until I was twenty one,
and the first time I ever got drunk, I called
my mom.
Speaker 2: That's the kind of guy.
Speaker 3: But I had friends who were like that, people that
I hung out with in drama club or whatever or
drama group, and that's just they were fine, they were cool.
So I am playing this game and reminiscing about those
people in high school that I was friends with time
wondering what they're doing now, And that's where it got me.
That and the lack of technology and just again the
visual of a shopping.
Speaker 2: Mall being built. Yeah, it was wild to me.
Speaker 1: I think what really got me was the car sitting
on the soundstage with the rear projection. Instead of like,
it's a video game. It's all artificts, So you could
do the artifict however you want. You can try to
make it be like they're really driving the car. In
this memory, it's like, no, we're going to use the
artifice in a different way. And it feels very Wes
Anderson in a way where it's like, oh, yeah, Wes
Anderson does kind of present his movies the way like
video games are made in some ways, like the the
just the vignettes and the and the setting being set
up in a way where it's like, oh, yeah, someone
designed this and this this game does that as well,
maybe in a way that I appreciate even more than
Wes Anderson.
Speaker 2: At this point. But you know, I'm early on Welf.
Speaker 1: I'll finish that game at some point soon and see
how I'm feeling. All right, let's explain ourselves. It's Giant Bomb.
Go to giant bomb dot com, slash join and become
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If you do it, it's going to get you at
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access to some shows that go up early for premium users,
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you can do so early if you're a premium member
giant bomb dot com slash join. All right, let's see
here and then as far as this show goes, most weekdays,
I jef grub will help pace 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're watching live on twitch Welcome, you
could always listen to the show later on podcast feeds
by searching for Game Mess Mornings, or find the RSS
feed on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch
the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube.
Speaker 2: Hello YouTube. All right, we have a.
Speaker 1: Lot to get into, so let's start the morning mess
with Nintendo announces sweeping price hikes for switch To. This
is from Ali Reynolds at Nintendo Life. Nintendo has announced
that the switch To will be going up in price globally,
with the Nintendo Switch Online also receiving a price hike
in Japan. Hardware prices of price revisions are effective from
the twenty fifth of May twenty twenty six in Japan
and the first of September in Western markets, So expect
to rush on these systems right now if you were
waiting on the sideline, I wouldn't be surprise that this
starts like selling out in the next couple of weeks
as people try to get the good price for the
several games that they want to buy. At this point,
Nintendo states that the changes are due to changes in
market conditions and the global business outlook. You know, they
pointed to the culprits heer of tariffs and component prices,
and they said that was causing them, like costing them
like one hundred billion yen. So they want to offset
that because investors weren't happy with them not raising the
price up to this point kind of felt like Nintendo
was between a rock and a hard place. We sincerely
apologize for the impact these price revisions may have on
our customers and other stakeholders, and we deeply appreciate your understanding. So, yeah,
it's going up fifty dollars. Basically it was four to
fifty in the United States. It will now be five hundred.
There are price like it's going up like, let's see
thirty euros in Europe. It has not been specifically announced
how much it's going to go up. In the UK,
it's going to be going up fifty Canadian dollars. So
now it got that price is six hundred and eighty
Canadian dollars.
Speaker 2: Oh man, sorry everybody.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, Japan's going up an equivalent amount. I god,
I think we've been saying for months and months like, yeah,
they're gonna raise the price, They're going to raise the price,
and then as it was taking long enough, just recently
I'm like, I don't think they I think they I
don't think they want to if they can get away
with it. That is the sentiment among investors recently was
that Nintendo didn't seem to want to raise the price,
and that's one of the reasons the stock price.
Speaker 2: Was going down.
Speaker 1: They were again getting mad at Nintendo for not doing that.
Nintendo's pretty good at sort of resisting the pressure from investors,
but this, like looking at the numbers here, I think
they're just like, look, if we don't do it now,
there is no guarantee that the pressures that are causing
us to want to raise the price in this moment
are going to go away. But people might not be
as receptive later on. So we got to maybe just
get away with it while we still can. And that
this is not get away with it as in we're
gonna be taking more money. It is just kind of
getting them back to the amount of money they were
making from selling to switch to at launch.
Speaker 2: They're just trying to come back to that level.
Speaker 1: This still sucks because I think people are already shocked
by that price when it first got announced. Sound it
seems like people are beginning to settle in to accept it,
especially as there were games that they wanted to play,
you know, over and over again.
Speaker 2: You saw that play out with Pacopia, of people.
Speaker 1: Being like, I don't want to get this, and then
a day later they have a switch to to play
Pi Copia. I think Nintendo was happy to get into
that groove, and now this throws a wrench in the works.
Speaker 2: What do you think, Jason? I think it was inevitable, Jason,
real quick.
Speaker 1: I think we're getting that phone interference again from your
damn this phone.
Speaker 2: Yeah go all right, yeah, yeah, all right, go ahead, Now.
Speaker 3: I need a new phone. I think I think it
was inevitable.
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 3: I think I think them raising the prices inevitable. But
I also think it's a very strategic raise in that
it has basically gone back to the launch price with
Mario Kart right, it is not above that. So you
can make the argument is basically, if you waited this long,
you're gonna pay what you would have paid it launch,
But you don't get Mario, don't get that's that's the
extra incurred fee you'll get here, And if you weren't
gonna get Mario Kart, that might not be. It might
just be like, oh shit, I'm paying fifty bucks now, right,
So so optics. From an optics perspective, it sucks. And
I think the main takeaway for me here is Nintendo
felt like a last bastion, right. The longer they could resist,
the longer they could go on holding off these investors
who don't you're not raising your prices, and that makes
me sad, like I give a shoe what they think.
But if now the chaos of the market has convinced
Nintendo to raise I mean, I was always a little worried,
but now I'm starting to be like, oh, how how
long are we in this?
Speaker 2: For? How long is this long haul going to be
survived to twenty five? Jason, That's all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, here's the thing about that. That was eighteen months
ago or whatever, so we're probably passed. We're definitely passed
that by now. I'm I'm just really worried about video
games in general, which is weird to say, not to
be all big picture about it, but from the stories
we're going to talk about in a little while to this.
It is very interesting to me that of the three
companies that make consoles, Xbox has the most positive news
this week, which you know, in a month ago I
would have thought to have been absurd. But I saw
this headline this morning and immediately thought, oh shit, here
we go. This is the one. This is the market
indicator I was afraid of, and here it is right
on my life up.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is the thing where.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the reason everyone thought it was inevitable, the reason
you thought it was inevible, was because it was going
to happen, Like this was just going to happen. Everyone
knew they were going to raise this price at some point,
and you know, I think they did try to put
it off for as much as long as they could.
I think that they are in a position where because
it seemed like earlier this year there were questions around
how excited people were about the switch to, and then
now we're on the other side of that, no one's
really questioning that anymore. And they did get to pretty
close to what they said they would sell. In the
first fiscal year of switch ts. They were saying, I
think twenty million, and they sold something like nineteen point
seven million units in that first.
Speaker 2: Year, so they've kind of like, hey, we've hit everything.
Speaker 1: Let's well, you know, obviously this is going to hurt
our momentum a little bit, but we might have momentum
to spare.
Speaker 2: They and I.
Speaker 1: Think for them that they looked at it as we've
not done Marioette yet, we've not done Zelda. We have
Pokemon Wind and Waves coming early next year, so let's
go ahead and do this now. And it's kind of
similar to what happened with I think Sony and Grand
Theft out of Six, or like, let's do it now
because Grand Theft out of Six will sort of wash
over all. This I just that capital of people's excitement
about video games. It's not like infinite right, Like eventually
it does push enough people out that people get bummed
about the entire business and we just start looking for
entertainment elsewhere.
Speaker 2: Or as many people in check continue.
Speaker 1: To say, I'll go play old stuff, I'll just go
play stuff I already have. This is trying to keep
up with. This is infuriating and it's kind of defeating,
like like you just feel like, oh my god, you know,
kind of get my head above water. Then I turned
to video games, and I'm like, what am I excited about?
And it's like, oh, anything I'm excited about I feel
priced out of. That is going to add up over time,
and these companies continue to flirt with where is the
line for that?
Speaker 2: And I think we're going to find out at some
point here real soon.
Speaker 3: This is supposed to be in escape, and when the
escape vibes are just as bad, if not maybe in
some cases slightly worse than the thing you're escaping from,
that is a problem. I I am. Oh, I know
We're talked about Summer Games Fest already. I am genuinely
interested in what the vibe is going to be, you
know what I mean, Like like it was weird last year,
but then again, there were protests happening all around us.
I had something to do with it this year.
Speaker 2: I don't know what.
Speaker 3: I don't know, Like, there are things to be excited about.
I am looking at my schedule. There are things on
this that we can't talk about yet that are to
be exciting about. But if people don't have the consoles
to play them, or can't afford the consoles or the
PC rigs to play them the way that they're meant
to be played? How long is that excitement going to
last year? You're exactly right, it's it's it's foreboding, and
the news isn't getting any better as we move along
the list of news here. But for now, all I
can hope is this it, and they can resist long
enough to stay here, maybe not price everyone out, and
then eventually, if and when things turn around, go back
to that four to forty nine and start over.
Speaker 1: Basically, Yeah, let's let's talk a little bit more about
how switch T is done and what they expect. So
they're kind of building in a decline in expectations to
this price increase, So switch to is just shy if
twenty million Ali Reynolds at attended life rights. Nintendo has
released its end of year financial data confirming the Switch
two has sold nineteen point eighty six million units. That
is way ahead of like where the Switch one was
at at this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Obviously, as we've said from the beginning, that story is
a supply story. They've had more supply than just about
any consoles ever had through its first twelve months, and
they took advantage of that. And then so there's now
there's a two prong factor to their outlook going forward.
Their outlook for the next fiscal year for selling switch
twos is significantly lower than what they've actually done for
the first year, so they sold about twenty million million.
For the second fiscal year, they are expecting to sell
about sixteen point five million. Now, it's not always like
one percent consistent that year two does better than year one,
but there is a typical bell curve of systems sell
a certain amount in year one than usually a little
bit more in year two, and then year three and
four and five. It peaks, especially around year four. Now,
in the past you could count on that because lowering
prices would bring more people in. That is not what
we should expect this time around, obviously, but you should
still kind of see an increase unless things have been
completely flipped on their head, which I think is.
Speaker 2: We had Matt.
Speaker 1: Piscatel on the show a few weeks back when he
was when he had the most recent Circana report, and
you know, we kept talking about like, yeah, this is
a launch system unlike any other in terms of the
amount of supply, and that really kind of throws all
of the numbers off in terms of what you can expect.
I think the demand from people who would not normally
be showing up right about now has already been met
because people rushed out to get these things because one
they could, they were available, and two everyone knew these
prices increases were coming, so they kind of were motivated
to act. That will just mean inherently there's less people
to buy the system in year two. But do you
think that is a trouble spot? Is this worrisome for Nintendo?
Not if they see it coming right.
Speaker 3: It'd be one thing if they had this ultimate hubrist
and they were like, we're going to sell more in
fiscally year twenty seven than we did in twenty six,
and then they have to come back and change their
projections in the middle of the fiscal year. Right, if
they can sort of prepare for this and see maybe
try to compromise for it somehow, or or just basically
buffer themselves from it, they can come out the other
side potentially in greener pastures and maybe in fiscally year
twenty eight it goes up a little bit, or in
fiscal or twenty nine it goes up a little more.
But I like that they have the foresight to know
that this is not going to go the same as
the first year, right that that is a level of
self control that is kind of rare in any business sense.
Right now, just look at all the AI data centers
and the reason these prices are going up to begin with.
So I admire their restraint, but as I said in
the previous segment, just as a whole, I have this
sense of dread and foreboding and Nintendo is not immune
to that. Granted they have, as is our next point,
their their software that we know about is is a
nice diverse sort of portfolio, but a the big holiday
thing we still don't know that could affect sales, be
the rush on consoles that you mentioned between now and
the price going up. Who that could have They could
sell another million in the next two weeks, right, three weeks,
and that might yes, and that might impact their forecast
as well, maybe bring it down a little bit further.
But I think the elements are there. It's just there
are things that they cannot predict or account for that
are making them do this. And if they're wrong, and
they can be pleasantly surprised, right, but I don't blame
them for doing it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so right, And I think it's like just
there's just so many like friction points, the price increase
being number one, obviously, but everyone to check keeps pointing
out rightfully so that everything else is going up at price,
grocery prices, like you're gonna get hurt from every angle.
And no one in this moment is looking around like
feeling like, oh, I could see the light at the
end of the tunnel.
Speaker 2: I see us getting on the other side of this.
It does.
Speaker 1: It feels like inflation is going to go bonkers here
again soon, like we were beginning to get it a
little bit under control. And now the war, the strait
of hormoose, these two things are causing all kinds of
chaos in how people can predict what just your ability
to get food, their ability to fertilizer as a farm
any like a farmer anywhere in the world. These are
going to cause prices to go up like crazy. And
then uh, you know it's we're gonna have a new
fed chief here in the United States here in a
little bit.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And for all of his problems, uh Powell, Chirman Powell
did a pretty good job of like slowly landing us
coming out of the last hyperinflation that we had, and
there was a soft landing almost, It's like the wheels
were coming down, and then tariffs came in like crazy,
and it went wild again. And now they're going to
install someone who is going to do Trump's bidding, and
that is lower interest rates, which, hey, that will be
great for a lot of things, it's gonna be really
bad for inflation. And so it feels like inflation is
going to go crazy again. And that is like everyone
is already traumatized from last time.
Speaker 2: We're not gonna be able to handle it.
Speaker 1: We've been weakened and we're already kind of weak as
a society, like in the United States where we've been
coddled in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2: We're gonna it's gonna be bad.
Speaker 1: And so I think if you're a company trying to
predict what you can do in the next twelve months,
you've got to come in on the low side because
the uncertainty is unlike it's been in a long time.
And we've been dealing with uncertainty for years. So to
say that that means something, it's gonna be for sure.
Speaker 3: Any indicator you need, and what if you don't believe
what Jeff is saying, go outside and check the gas price.
Gas price at my local gas station is the highest
I've ever seen it.
Speaker 1: In my stand in a grocery store and listen to
people talk like, yeah, that's that's one thing I've been
I've not been doing, but like I can't help. When
I'm at the grocery store, I will overhear conversations of like,
I haven't heard people like having these tough financial decisions
that they're facing in the grocery store in a while.
And to have like multiple families having those conversations, you know,
it's anecdotal, but I don't think it's I don't think
it's a wild point to be like, yeah, that is
happening across the country.
Speaker 3: No, No, of course across the world. And if you
look at like Mike, our groceries are done online. I
go and pick them up from the grocery store ordered
on my wife's phone. And if you just go and
look at like from last year to this year or
two years to this year, the purchase history and how
much that price has gone up and the number of
items in the cart has gone down, it's staggering. It's
it is. It is a staggering thing to look at. So,
and that's the essentials. So now we're talking about video games,
which are as much as people like to think they
are or like to make them in their lives, they're
not a central They are entertainment only. And yeah, and
the non essential things will be the first things to
be hit, the most gaming chief among that, I think.
Speaker 1: So again, let me double check this. So this is
the price of the switch to is gonna go up
here very soon? For in Japan, they said, let me
double check here whether they say is I saw is
Japan and September one here, So September first is quite
a ways off. And they argue they're gonna almost certainly
have a pretty big direct between now and then. And
if they announce like Ocarina of Time remake, I mean
that I'll get a lot of people who have been
sitting on the sidelines because they wait for a Mario
or Resulded to move. Then they're probably gonna sell quite
a few switch just before this because of that stuff.
So what other games do they have to get people excited? Well,
I just don't you know, I don't know if excitement's
gonna be enough to sell a five hundred dollars switch
to to a lot of people.
Speaker 2: But here's what they have. They did lay this out.
Speaker 1: Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is coming May twenty first,
Star Fox is June twenty fifth, Fitness Boxing three, which
I guess they publish a Nintendo switch To edition, is
coming July sixteenth, and then yeah before that, Rhythm Heaving
Groove is July second, Splaittoon Raiders is July twenty third,
Busy July, Fire Emblem, Fortune's Weave is twenty twenty six,
no date beyond that, and then Pokemon Winded Waves is
twenty twenty seven. There is several big gaps in the
calendar that they are almost certainly an to fill in
here with their Nintendo Direct that people say is coming
in June, and I believe it all right, So yeah,
Oker En of Time feels like that's really real at
this point. Do you expect anything big beyond that? Is
Ocker En of Time and Fortunes Weave, fire Emblom sort
of the tag team Holiday games here.
Speaker 3: Probably, But as far as the Nintendo Direct is concerned,
I have a bit of a tinfoil hat thing, right, Oh,
let's do it. Let's put the tin foil hat on.
So now we all have to look over our shoulders
for the surprise Nintendo directs, you know, six o'clock cons night.
I just thought I was, you know, I was at
my kids dance recital dress rehearsal, making sure they're and
I'm looking at my phone, and all of a sudden,
people are freaking.
Speaker 2: Out about Fox.
Speaker 3: If you watch that direct, right, they make it a
point to say that Star Fox and his team have
appeared in all sorts of things, and there are two
games specifically they to show at the end of it,
Star Fox.
Speaker 2: Adventures and Smash Brothers. Right.
Speaker 3: Both of those were involved in heavy, heavy rumors before
that direct, one that there was two Starfocks game, one
to remake, one a new game in an adventure style,
and the other is the next Smash Brothers game.
Speaker 2: Whatever that looks like.
Speaker 3: Right to name them in this out of nowhere direct
makes me think that they're sort of priming us for
those two things to be part of a future announcement.
Speaker 1: Am I overthinking on this? I don't think you're I mean,
look the specifics.
Speaker 2: Who knows? I think mostly though you're spot on here.
Speaker 1: I think Smash Brothers like it all feels connected, and
I like the tenfoil hat here. It's like almost unnecessary
because everything that we've said, like all of the reasons
Nintendo was making a big deal about Star Fox being
in the movie and positioning in there despite like you know,
Chrisldandrey Melisander or whatever the guy's name is over at
at Illumination, he was saying, Oh, we wanted star Fox
in here. We asked me Moto if we could use them.
Sure you did, Like we know what happened now there
was a game coming, and everyone got together and like, hey,
can we put star FUCKX in there to sell the game?
And can we sell or can we make people excited
about the movie because there's a game coming and it's
synergy and stuff like that. It's pretty transparent what's going
on here. And the reason you would want to build
up star Fucks, I think is because also that is
a character people recognize from Smash Brothers, and you can
then feed whatever happens with this game back into that,
and then that game could feed back into Yes, the
follow up Star Fox game that I do think is coming,
whether it'll be like Starfocks Adventures or some amalgamation all
those games I don't know, but you're right they named
that game there was that it was Smash Brothers, and
there was a bunch of other Star Fox games that
did not get called out in the same way. I
don't think that is coincidence. I don't think that that's
just like, oh, they just picked a couple of games
out of a hat. I think that was deliberate.
Speaker 3: Now Adventurers could end up on game qbnso.
Speaker 1: I think certainly that is happening. I think that is
the one thing I think is a safe bet coming
out of this.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, but yeah, so that both both of those
things being in that direct, and then remembering the rumors
of two Star Fox games and then just this week
earlier this week was the Smash Brother's rumor. I think
that they have sak A right back in the Smash
Brothers minds or whatever that was. Yeah, something there is.
There is a fire underneath all this smoke. I just
don't know what it's burning yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what was So Sacharai did Kirby Air Riders right,
So it's like, yes, if I mean, certainly they want
to have Smash ready to go soon.
Speaker 2: Usually they have it in year two.
Speaker 1: So we're just coming up on that, like right now, ish,
I think if they have that ready to go, and
I still I'm still the opinion it's going to be
a smaller rather a smaller update rather than a full
new game edition. Yeah, switch to edition exactly, with a
lot of extra stuff. I think they will do that,
But that's something they can get ready for early next year. Like,
I don't know if that's a holiday game this year.
That at this point that feels crazy, but I guess
it could be.
Speaker 3: What do you think knowing that, well, no, not with
Aaron Ryder is coming out for them saying knowing that
crazy son of a betch it would be a shadow
drop on the game when the direct happens. No, I
could see it in a well, let's see it in
twenty eighteen. It released the day after the Game Awards.
So it could be their December.
Speaker 1: Game, yes, and they do that, yes, which specially their
Smash Brothers has been in December multiple times now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Metro Prime four was December, I think, so it
could just fit right into that slot, and that alone
could carry Switch to even with the price increase, could
carry Switch to holidays.
Speaker 1: The Smash audience is its own thing. And it's massive,
and they do not miss a game. They show up
as soon as that game is available. That's when they
buy the system. That's that's the thing that Nintendo. You know,
for as much as they might have been dragging their
feet or presented themselves as dragging their feet on raising
the prices, they knew they can get away with it
because they have all these activation points yet to come,
Smash Brothers being I think maybe first and foremost the
most obvious one, like the guarantee you are no matter
what you do, as long as you put on an
update to that game, that audience will show up to
play it on on switch to and then Mario and
Zelda being right there with it, and all those being
yet to come, it's like, yeah, they kind of feel
like they have a lot of slack to work with.
Hopefully we find out a lot more soon early June Direct. Please,
I want it. I want to see what's going on.
If you I already bought this system, I'm pot committed,
so let me see what games you've got. And I
hope that they could keep justifying new people coming in
and buying that system so that we keep getting cool games.
But I don't blame anyone who's going to look at
this price right now and just be like, no, thank you.
I've got other ways to play games, and I'm gonna
protect my money because these companies obviously don't care and
they don't. All Right, we got plenty more to talk about,
but let's go ahead and take a break. When we
come back, headlines like sonyse financial reports and man bungeee
getting dinged a little bit there. We'll talk about that
after these messages. If you want to skip out on
these GiantBomb dot com slash join and become a premium member,
we will be right back. We're back with Game mess Mornings.
I'm Jeff Grub. That's Jason Finelli on a Finelle Friday.
Let's get to this next story. Sony forecast lower gaming
business sales a mid memory price surge. This is where
I'm Sam Nussy at Reuter's Rudters had a summer here
with which I'm gonna skip, but we could refer to
that if we need to. Let's see here they write,
Sony opens a new tab forecast on Friday annual sales
at its gaming business as is gaming. Did I just
read a new tab? Even though it's just written in
here like it's part of the story.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: That's how Reuter's had it sales It's gaming business would
fall six percent to four point four to two trillion
dollar a yin that's twenty eight billion dollars, due to
lower hardware sales as its PlayStation five ages and as
the industry grapples with a surge in memory chip prices.
The Japanese company, however, said it expects gaming profit to
rise thirty percent due to higher first party software sales
and the absence of an impairment loss it recorded a
year earlier. Let's see here the PlayStation five is in
at six year on the market. The profit forecast incorporates
investment in Sony's next generation platform. Sony has received a
bunch of Basically, they go on to talk about they're
making more money from their gaming business than they've ever made,
and yet there's a.
Speaker 2: Lot of problems still.
Speaker 1: And one of those things that they brought up is Bungie. Essentially,
they said Bungie's not worth what they paid for it.
It is what that impairment thing is. So we'll kind
of get to that more here in a second. Before
we talk about that though sounds like Sony is in
a strong position, but every time they have these like
financial reports and talk to their investors, the investors always
come away from it being like, Yeah, the business we
thought was doing good PlayStation is doing fantastic, but we
don't see where the obvious growth points are. And that
has been Sony's sort of issue for years now of
like they've done a great job of optimizing the business
that is successful for them, and now the investors and
every want to look around, like how can you squeeze
in even more money out? And I go like, man,
I don't, that's your problem. Figure it out. But they're
making it our problem because they keep saying, well, one
way we can do this is getting more money from
the people who do spend money on video games. And
the problem is everyone in this industry is having that
same idea at the same time, as evidence by the
last story. So PlayStation more price increases could come, but
I think they would be a little bit more stealthily
presented where it's like, oh, we'll just raise the price
on some success race here or there. But they're going
to find more ways to make more money off of us.
Despite the fact that they've made more money this past
quarter than they've ever made before.
Speaker 2: How do you break this all down? Jason?
Speaker 3: The Japanese company said it expects gaming profits to rise
thirty percent due to hire first party software sales. Yeah,
that's solfware. I mean, what are we talking about, right,
Wolverine's going.
Speaker 2: To be huge, right, So I think I think do
we assume.
Speaker 1: Wolverine is right behind Spider Man in terms of like
what it's going to deliver in sales, because Spider Man
is the standout sales success for PlayStation reasons?
Speaker 3: Yeah, three reasons Insomniac, Marvel, and Mature. I think the
mature rating is gonna help that game. I'm sorry not
to interrupt you, but uh but yeah, I think I
think people trust in Somniac with Marvel and there it's
a new take on Wolverine, which you the Venom parts
of Spider Man two I think will be closer to
what the Wolverine experience will be, If that makes any
sense at all. I get what you're saying, like, like
Spider Man is more agile swinging around. Venom is more about,
you know, beaten face. So I think I think if
you wanted to try to get an idea of what
to expects with more blood and gore and guts and
all that stuff.
Speaker 2: But yeah, if it is.
Speaker 3: It just Wolverine though, like that's where my Did Sorrows
sell that well?
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't know, We don't know except for
the like there was a story yesterday. I think it
was Push Square or the six Axis, I can't remember.
They were trying to do like early reporting on sales
for Sorrows, and they said that the April games chart
that Sony puts out for like PlayStation network sales or whatever,
Sorrows was like eleventh in North America and seventeenth in
Europe after just a couple of days on the On
the UK chart for physical only, it was behind Tomadaci
Life and Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven Ultimate Edition, which I
guess I didn't realize was new and had come out.
But it's like okay, So they presented it as it
might be a little weak in terms of how it's doing.
I would say, we still don't know for sure, but
that game's seventy dollars. I just got to imagine a
lot of people are waiting on the sideline for that
thing to go down.
Speaker 2: In price.
Speaker 1: People don't want to pay seventy dollars for a lot
of games, and I think for as good as house
Mark has done, is like clothing themselves in the look
of a premium PlayStation studio. I think they've done at
an admirable job of that, making their gameplay style look
like one of those big expensive games. I think there's
a lot of people who are still like seventy dollars
a lot of money, but we'll find out. I don't
think Sorrows is part of this conversation, though, Jason, if
that's what you're asking, I think it really does come
down to Wolverine.
Speaker 2: Oh well, Marvel to.
Speaker 1: Con Yeah, I mean yes, yes, publishing that, Yes, they
are systems is developed party?
Speaker 2: Is that is that first party? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And I have counc's first part. If you're publishing its
first party, yes.
Speaker 3: Okay, so maybe that'll maybe they see a little more
in that than other people do. Now, look, I'm as
much of a fighting game sicko as the next guy.
That is, if not number one, top three on my
list most anticipated games of the year, But is that
going to move that much software for PlayStation fans?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Are they really just banking on this new take on
it again. It's Marvel again. Marvel and Sony seem really
intrinsically linked this year.
Speaker 2: They made a lot of money together.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, so I don't know, I don't I
don't see where what games they're coming out with except
for what we already mentioned.
Speaker 2: Did baseball sell that well?
Speaker 3: I mean there's no ports, yeah, a ton, but like
there's still a couple of million sellers there.
Speaker 1: What where where is this coming from? So, I mean,
I'm trying to like what would have been the big
game from the previous fiscal year from them, that would
be a comparison point. So I yeah, so I think
Wolverine's bigger than Ghost Toyota gosti Ota is a very
successful game, but it's I think Wolverine's going to be
an order of magnitude larger than that, And so that
that would explain a pretty large chunk of that increase
that they're expecting.
Speaker 2: Sorts of the hardware.
Speaker 1: They are saying a six percent or no, this is
across the board, a six percent drop in annual gaming sales.
So it's like that's a that's a pretty big number,
and they do kind of chalk that up to the
hardware and then just losing money from selling hardware due
to the increased cost of memory. But you're right, like,
when it comes to people buying games and getting excited,
they're they're seeing a big reason for that, a big
increase for that.
Speaker 2: You know, A part of it could.
Speaker 1: Just be a wake effect of Hey, we're going to
sell a lot of PlayStation fives when Grand Theft Auto
six goes out, and in that moment, I bet this
is so saying that we're betting people will buy one
or two other games, and very likely that's going to
be a first party PlayStation game. In a lot of cases,
actually it's probably gonna be like NCAA Football and Madden.
But yeah, maybe the third game will be a PlayStation
first party game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Okay, that makes a little more sense to me
that I could see just add on sales. Basically, you
could you could see an uptick in Yota, you could
see an uptick in maybe God of War, Ragnarok and
stuff like that, stuff that people who have waited this
long to get a PlayStation have not actually played yet. Okay, Okay,
that makes a little more sense to me. But as
far as like what was coming out for the rest
of the year. I went to the number one resource
for games coming out unfortunately, Game Reformers number two. My
mind always goes to a Wikipedia video games release in
twenty twenty six. And so they had other than what
we just talked about in tocon and Wolverine coming. They
have Harai in Hunters Gathering that multiplayer, right, yes they do.
And then they're publishing the new Kina Kenna Scars.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, so these are yes, these are small, you
know they they are. They're likely going to have a
PlayStation state of Player showcase here soon.
Speaker 3: To leaning up to UH Summer Games Fest as they
normally do. It's usually the Wednesday or Tuesday before. Yeah,
but they have their big like what what could be?
Speaker 2: What could that be?
Speaker 1: Because like we're Intergalactic, the Heretic Profit, the Heretic Profit.
Intergalactic is probably not coming out until next year or later.
Speaker 2: Like that Corey Barlog.
Speaker 1: Game is probably I mean, it might get announced, but
I wouldn't expect it this holiday.
Speaker 2: I mean, I.
Speaker 1: Think it's all I think it's wolve Raine, Like it's
wolve Raine and the g t A six Wake Effect.
Speaker 2: And the and the unexpected remake of Viv Viv Ribbon. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Okay, well never mind, that's the first ten billion seller.
It's just issued to every person on earth. All right,
let's you know, there's a lot of other aspects of
let's let's talk.
Speaker 2: About that Bungee side of it.
Speaker 1: Sure, so Sony is admitting Bungee is not worth what
Sony thought it was worth. Yeah, So the PlayStation business
is doing fine, operating income hit a record, but buried
inside of that that whole thing was a write down
for Bungee of one hundred and twenty point one billion yen,
which is around seven hundred and sixty five million dollars.
And that's against Bungies, intangibles and other assets. All that
really means is they're saying, hey, we have this asset
called Bungee on our books, and we spent.
Speaker 2: X for it.
Speaker 1: And so like when we talk about like what we're
worth that that worth was built into that number and
Bungie was a part of that. Now, as we reassess,
we kind of have to like pull back, and as
they do this, I'm sure they get a tax benefits
and all this stuff, because it's like, we're not worth
as much as we said we were because this this company,
this company's IP, the things that's putting out just aren't
producing what we thought they would. And you know, I
got I gotta think here, Jason, that the real story
is when PlayStation and really Sony acquired Bungie to be
like our live service experts, our team that is going
to unlock the world of live service to us and
show us what that like, how it ticks, and what
it do. And I think Bungie gave them the answer,
and that answer was it's hard to shit out here.
We don't know what we're doing, and we are the experts.
We don't know how to guarantee a hit in the
live service space.
Speaker 2: We know how to spend a lot.
Speaker 1: Of money to make a game, but even we don't
know how to get one of these out the door
flawlessly with all the excitement intact. And even we do
it with like a back going back to Destiny too,
that is up and down, up and down, and there's
just as many downs as there are ups. And I
think Sony's got to be like, okay, man, that was
an expensive lesson to learn.
Speaker 2: At this point.
Speaker 3: What do you think I think that they are definitely
licking their wounds here, and I think Bungie hasn't exactly
helped themselves with some of the insane decisions they have made.
There was a good thread on Blue Sky I was
reading about how Destiny Too now, which is supposed to
be their foundation, right, it's supposed to be the game
that makes them the money that allows them to do
other things. At this point with you know, going back
to the first Destiny it being thirteen years old, Apparently
if you were to signed into Destiny To for the
first time, you're like, you're thrown in seven expands, multiple
expansions in where are people characters you who already know
who you are and familiar with you, but you don't
know who they are. It's completely incoherent. So anybody who's like, oh,
what's this Destiny thing all about, They're going to jump
in and be like, what the hell's going on here?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 3: Why is this happening? As somebody has said in chat,
if you're a new user trying to play Destiny To,
none of that shit makes any sense, right, So that'll
take you right out and you go try and play
something else, and then you have Marathon, which it sounds like,
is performing where they want it to.
Speaker 1: It's not performing where they don't want it to. But
it's performing pretty well. I think it's performing better than
people should have expected, actually right, but it's not doing
what they needed to.
Speaker 3: And I think it really caught fire when it first launched,
but that seems to have sort of mellowed out.
Speaker 1: And found its audience of because like you know, every
week it's on the near the top of the Bomb
twelve and I know, again that's basically anecdotal, it is,
but I think that excitement is there in that community,
but it's just it's not as big as they needed
it to be out of the gate.
Speaker 3: Yes, but I will say the vibes around Bungie are
not great. Tuesday night, I was at my local card
shop playing Magic and one of the guys there, big
big Bungee guy played Destiny Forever. Playing Marathon now. He said, like,
it's one thing to support Marathon the way that you
already said, but but Destiny too. They basically abandoned, like
we don't know when the next expansion is coming out,
even their their established fan base is like, what the
hell's going on here?
Speaker 2: Is that true?
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, I'm not following it, but I
thought someone in chat the other day mentioned that, oh,
there's an expansion launching soon. But I just kind of
glanced at it, so I really really, honestly, you know, he.
Speaker 3: Made it sound like it was pushed back a couple
of months. I don't really follow it either, but yeah,
I I dote. This doesn't I mean, you're gonna look
at that number seven hundred and sixty five million dollars
and be like, oh, holy shit. But when you really
dig into it, it kind of makes sense. It's almost
like Sony was sold a bill of goods. Yeah, you know,
like they made They overpaid, for sure, they absolutely overpaid.
There you go, next to spansion got delayed till June.
Thank you, mister Papa. Chat in twitch chat, someone yeah,
well there it is. Yeah, so someone else said July.
Other said we don't know, so.
Speaker 2: There it is. There it is. There's my point being made.
Speaker 3: In real time, nobody fucking knows what's going on with
Bungee or their games, and that's a problem, and that's
why this happens.
Speaker 1: All right, let's let's keep going here. There's more to
this Sony stuff. They did talk about AI and from
Steve until see Steven Tailby at push Square.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: They'll get to the right appear in a second, but
I'll point out the Uh. There was a time recently
where I've been saying there's big companies in this world
that like have a moratorium on using AI, and one
of those companies was Sony. The other one I think
is Nintendo that they kind of tell their developers do
not use it. We are afraid if you use it
because of legal reasons, So just don't use it. That
does sound like that is changing over a PlayStation. Maybe
not regenerative AI, but they do seem to be a
little bit less concerned with that. So during a Q
and A session following the release of its latest financial results,
Sony and PlayStation's top brass outlined plans for the use
of AI technology within the business. It seems that the
through line guiding the company's approach is that AI should
serve as a tool to aid creators and make certain
processes more efficient, rather than replacing staff. You know, we've
heard this basically every time when a company starts talking
about it.
Speaker 2: And I think we all have the same feeling about it.
Speaker 1: Yes, that will be the story from the company until
they could start reducing costs, which we know what that means,
job losses, job cuts, and so it's like one thing
is true until the other thing is true. And it
does feel like that is because that is the other
side of the coin of Hey, we are a company
that is making more operational revenue than we've ever made
from our gaming business, but we don't know where the
growth comes from.
Speaker 2: So we're going to tell our investors.
Speaker 1: We're going to make more money from the people spending
money on games.
Speaker 2: The other thing they can do is.
Speaker 1: Costs, cost reductions, and that's the AI is the one
thing that these companies keep saying is a way to
do that. So it does feel like we are just
waiting for that other shoot to drop. But how are
you feeling about PlayStation kind of come out and be like, hey, yeah,
we are pretty gung ho on this AI stuff.
Speaker 3: I know what you're thinking. I'm thinking I'm going to
get loud here, and I am still very much I
don't know about that, man, because if you read this
example that they gave no creative they're probably giving the
example that makes them look the best.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, but this mocking.
Speaker 3: Bird example where they're using it for like in facial
models or animating. Here almost sounds like speed tree for humans.
Yeah right, that doesn't bother me. Speed tree is just
machine learning. That's a little bit different. And they might
be using.
Speaker 2: AI as the buzzword to grab the investor. I believe
that that's part of it as well.
Speaker 3: Yes, but I also think this all serves the greater
notion that they want to start using AI more broadly
and fuck that. So I think there's a little bit
of dumbing down. I think there's a little bit of
things that people wouldn't have a problem with if they
read into it and realized what it was. But just
the fact that they're using this term at all scares
the shit out of me, and I don't want them
to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that you kind of nailed something there
with like the buzzword to throw out to investors. This
does feel like, Hey, we got to sort of say
what they want to hear to a certain extent, and
they do want to hear AI.
Speaker 2: How can we frame this in the best way possible.
Speaker 1: Well, it's like they don't know the difference between machine
learning and AI. Let's go ahead and talk about the
tools that we've specifically built to make jobs easier for
people that are working here and label that as AI
and get these people excited about that. I do think
there's some of that, but you know, we just know
where this stuff goes eventually. And the tale that AI
and like evangelists tell us about, you know, it's just
like the last Industrial Revolution and people complained about all
the tools that we're taking jobs from them, And now
now look at us. We have a bigger economy ever
and more jobs than ever. And it's like, yeah, but
what happened in those two hundred years right after the
Industrial Revolution? How are things for people up until like
labor laws started to change and union started to gain power.
They don't have a good answer to that, cause it's like, oh,
that's what we're about to experience again, and these companies
will just not have to answer to that. They just
have to answer to their investors. And so we keep
pushing in this direction. And it's the slippery slope argument,
but I think we are actually on a slippery.
Speaker 2: Slope, all right.
Speaker 1: PS six release date and price not decided yet, says Sony.
This is kind of a duh story to me. Yeah, no, shit,
Like the release date, released timing. Obviously they have an
idea in mind, but they're moving it because the reality
on the ground's changing all the time. Price they don't
really I mean, they have a price window that they know,
like then they have a scenario written out for all
the possible prices. Absolutely, but they could settle on a
price two weeks before this thing comes out or before
they start accepting money for it. It took a long
time for them to come to announce the price for
the Xbox Series X and S and the PlayStation five
because these companies are like playing chicken with one another
a little bit. They wanted to charge six hundred or
like the other one might charge five hundred and that'd
be really bad. So then they both kind of just
went and like pressed the green button in the prisoner's
to the limbit thing, like we'll both just charge five
hundred and Okay. They don't want to necessarily do the
same thing this time. They want to make as much
money as possible, but they also know that they have
to play within the rules, and that means they just
pick a price at the last possible moment.
Speaker 2: So yeah, they wouldn't have no idea in this.
Speaker 1: Moment, but they're actually going to charge for this thing,
well an idea of like what it costs to make
it that those two things are not necessarily one to
one related.
Speaker 3: No, and also too this time they have the added
wild card of Valve yes with their Steam Machine on
top of it as well, because that will be very
popular to the people to something.
Speaker 1: And Steam Deck too because there's going to be a
handheld PlayStation six right, So yeah, there're gonna be compeating
in a whole other realm.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I was going to say that the Steam Machine
might not affect PlayStation as much as it effects Xbox
because PlayStation is pulling away from pcports, But if PS
six has the hand held component, then it definitely will
have to deal with Steam Deck two. So yeah, I
I don't think we're going to see anything definitive until
like three months, two months before it comes out. Remember
they didn't announce the PlayStation five price until September of
twenty twenty, and it came out in November of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I didn't remember that timeline. I knew it
was crunched down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And yeah, they'll do the same thing again
because they saw that it didn't really hurt them all
that much, and having that extra time, the extra data,
you'd be like, Okay, what is the sentiment as were
a couple of months out, that does help them settle
on a price. Last time, I think it actually ended
up hurting them maybe a little bit, because they were
trying to get away with a higher price, and then
they eventually raised it to that price.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think they.
Speaker 1: Regret not having a higher price because the scalpers just
absolutely ran a rough shot on that early part of
the generation.
Speaker 3: I said steam deck too, I announced a damn thing.
You settled down chatting.
Speaker 1: Go go to galar everybody gaming league, some rumors. Jason
Finelli says, damnit last store.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: Valve opens a Steam control the reservation queue to fight scalpers.
Speaker 2: This is smart.
Speaker 1: Valves announced implementing a reservation queue for Steam controllers to
handle stock shortages. Controllers sold out pretty much immediately. There
is like one very specific thing here here. It is
in order to reduce scalping, users must have an account
that's in good standing on Steam and you must have
made a purchase on Steam before April twenty seven, twenty
twenty six. That will help prevent scalpers from creating an
account and go thank you. Just smart stuff. And now
you know. One of the problems is it's like, well, yeah,
they could do excuse me, they could do this because
you can only get this on Steam rather than going
to a store, and that's a little bit annoying for
some people. But this is one of the benefits of
that is they can really control this and lock it down.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, this is very smart.
Speaker 1: So two hundred and fifty dollars steam controllers on eBay.
Maybe you won't see too many more of those anymore.
And now that'll be nice to see.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 3: It's also a beautiful thing that I don't have to
worry about it because I believe mine just hit my
doorstep while we were speaking to you.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, all right, fantastic. I'll be hard to hear
what you think of it. Yeah, I'll be able to
play with that later today hopefully. But yeah, this is
very smart.
Speaker 3: I love anything that can be done to fight scalpers
in any in any realm, and being a trading card
game guy, I deal with that shit a lot. Fuck
them Fox scalpers right up there with AI and roadblocks,
as my least favorite things in the entire world. Fuck them,
and good job Valve for putting the system in place.
More companies should try and do this.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I don't know that excuse the problem, though. I think
I think most companies like scalpers because they sell the
products either way, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think if anything, it helps, it gives
them information about like what are people willing to pay?
Speaker 2: And it's like so it helps push the price up
even higher.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, but yeah, good for them.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Let's see here, let's get to the poll question from yesterday.
Everybody Mike dropped this one. Are you excited for the
new star Fucks Yes or no? Fifty two percent said no,
forty eight percent said yes maybe you know fifty to
fifty there a lot of people are.
Speaker 2: Just gonna be like, no, I don't not my kind
of game anyhow.
Speaker 1: So you know, I think the uh fretting about maybe
the designs of the characters might be a little overstated,
or at least it's not discouraging people from being excited
about what looks like a pretty good remake of Star
Fox sixty four. Yet again, uh, I think, if anything,
the lack of enthusiasm comes from the fact that it
is another remake.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: Saying that the look of the characters has been overstated
is an understatement. It took way too long to actually
find people excited or not excited about the game, as
I waded through posts after post after posting, how fable
they are. Yeah, you only need the ice bucket challenge yourselves,
all right. Like my first thought when I saw that
I love Star Fox sixty four, I can't wait to
play it again and play it, let my kids play
it and had them check it out.
Speaker 2: The Internet was like, what that? What do?
Speaker 1: How am I supposed to? How am I supposed to?
Fuck Falcon? But he's got these weird legs. He's got
weird legs.
Speaker 3: My favorite post of all of them, though, on Blue
Sky was Fox McLeod Scottish Pepio hair, Irish Falco Lombardi,
Italian slippy toad.
Speaker 1: Frog ethnicity is frog. Absolutely all right. We got that
pull out of the way. No new poll question because
it's Friday. We're wrapping up the week with the bomb
twelve here in a little bit, so let's get everything
else out of the way. Jason Finelli tell people where
they can find you on the internet.
Speaker 3: Jay, Sorry, I'm laughing at Someone in chat wrote Falco
lum bussy and that's just killing me. Jason Finelli dot
com on Blue Sky, BigMan Finelle on Instagram. Just wrote
up a little primer on marveltocon for the Epic Game
Store blog that should be coming out soon. There's also
a certain gaming and parenting based blog by one Patrick
Kleppik that I contributed to, just waiting to go up.
We've been edding it, talking back and forth. I pitched
that to him at Pax East in that little sports bar.
I said, hey, I got something for you. He goes,
all right, let's do it. And now it'll should be
hopefully soon that'll go up there. Shout out to him.
If you're not if you're a parent of gamers, or
you're a gamer and a parent, cross play is his
newsletter about being both of those and the trials and
travails of that, check that out. And then yeah, just
just planning for SGF. I know last week I said
of the twenty six hours, I had all but what
three and a half four hours booked.
Speaker 2: Now that's down to two. I have all but two.
Speaker 3: Hours booked, And now things are on top of themselves,
and I have to cancel things for double bookings. It's
it's it's rough out here, but that's the name of
the game and that's why we do it. So very
excited to get that going.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's done, excellent, all right, real quick here, it's
first Light double seven, first Light.
Speaker 2: PC specifications went out.
Speaker 1: Let me look for the Ultra here what they're asking
for and RTX fifty eighty that is okay, that's pretty rough.
Thirty two gigabytes a RAM, this is Ultra, everybody, and
then a Core I five thirteen six hundred K. Let's
go to recommended thirty six and or a sixty seven
hundred XT for the GPU and sixteen gigabyte to RAM.
All right, that's that's more acceptable. That's medium settings. Okay,
you can find that. They just posted that on social media.
Speaker 2: Everybody.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's see that's out of the way. Let's talk
about what's happening on Giant Bomb. We got upf later today.
Tune in for that. Jane, are we still going to
try to play some Star Star Wars Battlefront two?
Speaker 2: You said we could, Jan, please, I'm the one that asked.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, all right, we're gonna do some that, we'll
play some other stuff as well. I think it's gonna
be a grab baggy sort of thing. Or maybe we'll
just play Star Wars the whole time. I don't know
sune it for that. That's three pm Easter today, noon Pacific.
And then there's a ton of awesome stuff happening on
giant bomb dot com. And oh here's the thing. Do
me a favor, everybody. Mike's gonna be playing Donkey Kong
sixty four to like help us, like re like get
everyone excited as we had hit our you know, anniversary,
giving you guys a good excuse to be excited to
like re up your subscription stuff stuff like that, but
also trying to get new people in. Tell people about
this thing. Go share it in your discords. Tell everyone
Donkey Kong sixty four. Someone's doing it again. It's time
to bother those beavers once more. Go tell your friends
about Mike one hundred and one percent that thing. It's
gonna be. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be happening
in all week. It's a marathon, so yeah, do not
miss out. That'll be beginning Monday.
Speaker 2: Is he gonna wear the Donkey Kong suit that Lucy wore.
Speaker 1: One yes, one thousand percent. I with my business credit card.
Jason Finelli ordered that for him and had sent to
his house as part of our regular business operations. That
is what we've done here. So yeah, he's gonna be
wearing that exact same costume. We did try to get
the one back from Lucy, but she refused, so whatever.
We got our lawyers out talking to hers. Yeah, it
did look pretty good to be fair, y'all. I did
not know that ahead of time. I legitimately asked that question, and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was amazing. He gave up the goose. I
did not know. Yep, that's fair, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: There's also chance if I get time on Sunday because
it's Mother's Day, I might stream some earth Bound, but
no promises.
Speaker 2: I really want to, but it's a busy time.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be doing our Mother's Day stuff at different times,
so I might be able to do it, but we'll see.
Speaker 2: H tells me you would be needed elsewhere.
Speaker 1: But if that's the case, no, Steph doesn't like to
do it like on Mother's Day because she's worked at
She used to work as a server and she knew
what it's like on Mother's Day, and so we like
to just stay at home and do stuff on different days.
Speaker 2: All right, let's see here. I think we got everything
mostly out of the way. How she learned to poison you?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, probably she's basically yeah, that makes sense. But
all right, let's do it, everybody. It's time to wrap
up the week with the Bomb twelve, the twelve games
that really matter to people who are really playing video games.
I have your results right here, and of course, as
everyone expected at number twelve, Yoda stories what you got.
Damn kids, You goddamn kids, Get off my lawn. Number
eleven is Forbidden Solitaire. Shout out to Forbidden Solitary. I
keep playing that game. It's got so much style, it's
got so much grace. It does not have a funny face.
Number ten is Heroes of Miight and Magic Olden Era.
Number nine is Slay the Spire Too. Number eight is
Mixtape number seven Tobadaci Life Living the Dream. Number six
is Titanium Court. Number five is a Vampire Crawlers. Number
four is Diablo for Lord's Lord of Hatren. Then number
three is Pragmata. Number two is marathon, and that means
number one with our community. This week is Saro's number
one up there with the kind of squash a whole's
face a little bit. It looked too funny. I couldn't
stop myself.
Speaker 2: He's mad about it too.
Speaker 1: He looks like he's mad about it. Man, I'm gwumpy. Yeah, no, no,
only number one? Why not higher? That's what he sounds like, dank.
I'm pretty sure I did a pretty good accent. All right, So, hey,
Bomb twelve, we do this every Friday. If you want
to submit your game, you could do so by going
to giant bomb dot com and if you scroll down,
I'll have the updated list of the Bomb twelve right there,
and then if you go to the left of that,
you're going to see a vote here tab that'll take
you to the Google form where you you can contribute
your game that might potentially be on the Bomb twelve
next week, as we wrap up each and every week
here at Giant Bomb.
Speaker 2: All right, I think that's gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Jason Bonelli, thank you so much for hanging out with
me today and talking about video games.
Speaker 2: Man, I really appreciate it. It is always a pleasure, sir.
I can't wait for the next time.
Speaker 1: 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 goodbye.