Speaker 1: You know he like a dummy bit. It's the internet.
Speaker 1: You're busy. Let's do this for August first, twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: That's I was like, wait August, and then I couldn't
Speaker 1: get first out 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. Oh no,
Speaker 1: it's Agust. But first please join me and welcoming today's
Speaker 1: co host the Game Mess Mornings. It's Jan to show everybody, Jan,
Speaker 1: how are you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm feeling great. Last time I was on Gay Mess
Speaker 2: Mornings was a Monday, and I felt very discombobulated, not
Speaker 2: weird and work at all. I have been looking forward
Speaker 2: to taking a nap since then, and I have not
Speaker 2: taken it taken a nap. So I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go onto my schedule and put it on asana. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna take a nap.
Speaker 1: That sounds good. Idea. You got to ye. If you
Speaker 1: put in sona, you can do whatever, like as long
Speaker 1: as it's in there, like people can't argue.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna put on the game spot us on it
Speaker 2: to snap, okay, stand back everyone, threat or anything.
Speaker 1: It's just a declaration. It's it's a power move everyone.
Speaker 1: It is commanding the universe to let you nap. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I'm proud of you. You should go take a nap.
Speaker 1: You earned it. Absolutely Glad you're back though, you're We're
Speaker 1: back in the swing of things over here. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then immediately we got more stuff happening later this month.
Speaker 1: It's just gonna kind of be non stop, so we'll
Speaker 1: get out of the circa things once again as well. Uh.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm feeling pretty good over here. I uh yeah.
Speaker 2: The Giant Bomb team is in high demand.
Speaker 1: High demands travelers. Uh huh people. Uh, people are asking
Speaker 1: for us by name. Yes, walk into a room and
Speaker 1: no one really looks up, but you can feel the
Speaker 1: vibe shift. You could feel it.
Speaker 2: I'm convinced people don't know my name. But when I
Speaker 2: also get addressed in an email, I'm like, oh, that's me.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. When I show up and they have lighters, I'm like,
Speaker 1: they got these from me, they knew I was coming.
Speaker 1: That's only for you, grub, That's only for me. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I did check. Today's the first day you could check
Speaker 1: to see how many hours you spent a Nintendo World
Speaker 1: Championship any eth edition, because this switch is kind of
Speaker 1: a weird bad system in some ways. And it's fifty
Speaker 1: hours five zero. I've spent fifty hours in that game
Speaker 1: came out. That's like twenty five hours a week or
Speaker 1: something like that. Yeah, I like that game. I like
Speaker 1: it quite a bit. By the time I was done
Speaker 1: with astros like eight speed run challenges, I had spent
Speaker 1: like eighty or ninety hours. I think that shows the
Speaker 1: power of leader boards. Had this game had leaderboards, that
Speaker 1: number would be higher, without a doubt, Mummy, Yes, oh boy,
Speaker 1: I'm a broken toilet of a man. That's right, our wolves,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Let's just get into this one, everybody.
Speaker 1: Let's just do this and explain what we do here
Speaker 1: most weekdays. I Jeff Grubb. It will help piece your
Speaker 1: gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe
Speaker 1: even some of our own original reporting. For all these topics,
Speaker 1: I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who
Speaker 1: will make me look smart. If you are watching live
Speaker 1: on twitch welcome, you can always listen to the show
Speaker 1: later on podcast feeds by searching for game Mes 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: Bungee announces mass layoffs less than two months after Destiny
Speaker 1: to the Final Shapes launch. This comes from Eddie mccuitt
Speaker 1: game Spot. We talked about this a little bit yesterday,
Speaker 1: but let's get into it and kind of try to
Speaker 1: answer as many questions as we possibly can. But let's
Speaker 1: recap first here from Eddie. Destiny developer Bungee has announced
Speaker 1: a significant round of layoffs and what is just the
Speaker 1: latest example of a major studio cutting hundreds of jobs.
Speaker 1: The company also revealed a brand new game, but it
Speaker 1: will no longer be developed internally and is shifting to
Speaker 1: a new internal studio at PlayStation. In a blog post,
Speaker 1: Bungee executive Pete Parsons confirm the company as cutting about
Speaker 1: seventeen percent of its workforce, or around two hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty people. Late last year, Bungie had a round of
Speaker 1: layoffs affecting more than one hundred people due to rising
Speaker 1: costs of development and industry shifts, as well as enduring
Speaker 1: economic conditions. It has become clear that we need to
Speaker 1: make substantial changes to our cost structure, and folks development
Speaker 1: efforts entirely on Destiny and Marathon a key one there.
Speaker 1: Everybody will talk about that here in a second, the
Speaker 1: executive said, layoffs are happening at every level of Bungie.
Speaker 1: And if you go on Twitter and you see people
Speaker 1: from Bunge's talking about getting laid off, it's from every
Speaker 1: studio across the board. No one was spared. Basically, it's
Speaker 1: that rough. And that's seventeen percent numbers. Gen Like, when
Speaker 1: we talk about these layoffs throughout this year, it's been
Speaker 1: five to eight percent. Bungee already had around a layoffs
Speaker 1: last October, so to have another seventeen percent cut, they
Speaker 1: are making deep cuts at Bungie. It is going to
Speaker 1: be a completely different company after all is said and done.
Speaker 1: But let's get into some of these details. Pete Parsons
Speaker 1: was talking there because Pete Parsons is not leaving. That
Speaker 1: is the CEO of Bungie, and to say he's disliked
Speaker 1: seems like at this point a little bit of an understatement.
Speaker 1: The response to him on Twitter from former Bungie employees,
Speaker 1: people who had already left and people who were likely
Speaker 1: laid off in the last round. They mostly hate this
Speaker 1: guy and they blame him, and they think it's mostly
Speaker 1: his fault. Do you think that a new Bungee can
Speaker 1: emerge while still under Pete Parsons in any way wholeheartedly?
Speaker 2: No, nothing with confidence or any sense of longevity to
Speaker 2: the team. I would feel, you know, I think as
Speaker 2: a fledgling new developer breaking into the scene, having Bungee
Speaker 2: on your resume is going to be incredibly impressive. I
Speaker 2: just don't know how long that sentence would be honestly
Speaker 2: under Pete Parsons, because you know, I feel like Destiny
Speaker 2: too made him massive swing back into the audience's like
Speaker 2: positive side and the good side. And only to hear
Speaker 2: this immediate, not immediately, but like a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: after that DLC dropped has got to be gutting. Especially
Speaker 2: it's hard to be a Destiny fan on top of
Speaker 2: staying on top of all the lore and whatever is
Speaker 2: happening constantly in that game. Content lately far and few between,
Speaker 2: especially substantial content that hits with majority of the audience
Speaker 2: and brings any laps players back into Destiny. Have you
Speaker 2: seen grub the I think I saw this posted by
Speaker 2: some ex bungee folk. The car auctions I.
Speaker 1: Saw, I saw a little bit of this. The number
Speaker 1: I saw it was like potentially up to two point
Speaker 1: three billion or millions. You'd be million dollars in classic
Speaker 1: car auction wins just by Pete Parsons.
Speaker 2: Just by Pete Parsons. Yes, Yeah, And if a CEO
Speaker 2: is I don't know parsons other investments, if he has
Speaker 2: any or his other projects, or is what his bank account,
Speaker 2: But if a CEO is making that much money to
Speaker 2: be participating in fancy used old car auctions, I think
Speaker 2: the problem doesn't lie at the bottom line that he
Speaker 2: is cutting and cutting lies at the top. And this
Speaker 2: is the pattern we've seen, like across the board with
Speaker 2: majority of these layoffs right grub Like the people at
Speaker 2: the top, the CEOs whatever, sweet people don't want to
Speaker 2: take the accountability that any of anything underperforming or being
Speaker 2: too costly is on their part. It's always the problem
Speaker 2: is always the people that are actually making the games,
Speaker 2: which does not make sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially in this case where you know a lot
Speaker 1: of that money for Pete Parsons likely came from selling
Speaker 1: to Sony in the first place, where you know he
Speaker 1: had a huge steak in Bungee likely and was able
Speaker 1: to get. I don't know. It would have surprised me
Speaker 1: if his compensation alone was five hundred million dollars or
Speaker 1: something like that. As part of that deal or something
Speaker 1: like that could be that high. So he's got a
Speaker 1: lot of money sitting around that he's going to spend
Speaker 1: on and that stuff whatever. But when he made that deal,
Speaker 1: he was making promises on behalf of all of Bungie
Speaker 1: and put them in a situation that led to this.
Speaker 1: This is all due to him being like, we can
Speaker 1: meet these demands from Sony that we need to make
Speaker 1: in order to maintain our independence, which was not just
Speaker 1: important to him, it was important to ever win at Bungee.
Speaker 1: That's why everyone kind of went along with it, because
Speaker 1: they were going to be able to maintain their independence,
Speaker 1: and the only way they wouldn't be able to do
Speaker 1: that is if they had some sort of catastropticostrophic failure
Speaker 1: or the numbers the initial numbers were too high, and frankly,
Speaker 1: they just they promised too much. Because Destiny too was
Speaker 1: in a situation where it can have success. It had success,
Speaker 1: Lightfall did pretty well, and then the final shit is
Speaker 1: critically beloved. People thought this is the best Destiny two's
Speaker 1: ever been. But if you look at the numbers, like
Speaker 1: I put a chart here at the bottom of this
Speaker 1: story jam from steam dB, which is you could see
Speaker 1: that Lightfall came out in like what was that's around
Speaker 1: early twenty twenty three, and the number of concurrent users
Speaker 1: on Steam peaked and then we see just now at
Speaker 1: this d mark here either the one the image you're
Speaker 1: looking at jen is when the final shape came out,
Speaker 1: and it's about as high as Lightfall. It's basically right
Speaker 1: in line they got. They had the same performance in
Speaker 1: the market as Lightfall, and it's like, yeah, they have
Speaker 1: the players that are playing are playing Destiny now and
Speaker 1: they did not shape this game in anything in any
Speaker 1: real way to be like, this is a relaunch, This
Speaker 1: is going to be an onboarding event for new people
Speaker 1: to come in. This is paying off a year's long event.
Speaker 1: This is the culmination of ten years of storytelling and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. It is going to be very hard
Speaker 1: to attract new players at that time. And this is
Speaker 1: when they needed to be growing to be able to
Speaker 1: keep up with their with the deal that they made
Speaker 1: with Sony. So when you have six hundred people, and
Speaker 1: you know, once you did have pretty decent compensation, like
Speaker 1: pretty generous compensation packages relatively compared to the rest of
Speaker 1: the industry. And then you spend four more months on
Speaker 1: the final shape compared to what you spend on Lightfall,
Speaker 1: and then you get the same performance, and really it's
Speaker 1: kind of a little bit worse because it is declining
Speaker 1: faster than what Life Ball did in terms of concurrent players.
Speaker 1: You could see that. It's like it's a recipe for
Speaker 1: this sort of thing. And after you know, keeping the
Speaker 1: right people, which is something that Pete Parsons said to
Speaker 1: employees last time during the last round of layoffs, and
Speaker 1: then they come out and make a great game and
Speaker 1: it performs in line with what the expectations should have been,
Speaker 1: and then everyone gets laid off because they didn't do
Speaker 1: something magical. That is clearly mismanagement by Pete Parsons and
Speaker 1: the whole executive leadership team. So and now, to be fair,
Speaker 1: people on the leadership team are getting laid off. There
Speaker 1: are like the chief business officer, there's a handful of
Speaker 1: people from the c suite level that are getting laid off.
Speaker 1: It's just not Pete Parsons, and that's why people are like,
Speaker 1: step down, Pete, you should just resign. And I don't
Speaker 1: think it's out of the question because BUNGHI is moving
Speaker 1: under PlayStation Studios and maybe once that transition happens, Sony
Speaker 1: will cut him. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I either way, if when Pete Parsons leaves, the sore
Speaker 2: spot for me is that he's going to get a
Speaker 2: generous package as he exits the company. Either way, whether
Speaker 2: he gets cut from Sony or PlayStation from a top
Speaker 2: level or he decides to leave on his own accord,
Speaker 2: he's going to have a generous compensation package as he exits,
Speaker 2: despite gutting the company and like you know, displacing hundreds
Speaker 2: of people and now especially across the board in different
Speaker 2: levels of Bungee, right, Like I hate whenever we have
Speaker 2: a massive round of layoffs, just seeing people pop up
Speaker 2: on Twitter saying like I've been at this company for
Speaker 2: X amount of years and you see like the loyalty
Speaker 2: from like those employees. You see how much working at Bungee,
Speaker 2: working at X Studio meant to them, only for the
Speaker 2: rugs to get pulled underneath them, like and it absolutely stinks.
Speaker 1: Grub Yep.
Speaker 2: It's great to see that Destiny Too is able to
Speaker 2: like reach that same number of players, but like the
Speaker 2: drop off is so immediate, and you know, like maybe
Speaker 2: pouring those same people if you didn't let them go,
Speaker 2: could sustain that player count for an extended period of time.
Speaker 2: But I feel like the Destiny Too audience is just
Speaker 2: going to keep coming back for like maybe a big
Speaker 2: event like this, and then drop off immediately. And I
Speaker 2: don't know if like those spikes are going to keep
Speaker 2: Destiny Too healthy or even if that playership there is
Speaker 2: to translate eventually to Marathon. And now I worry about
Speaker 2: Marathon's launch as a whole.
Speaker 1: Yep. And uh, you know, clearly we like the thing
Speaker 1: that can get new players in is something like a
Speaker 1: Destiny three. But let's let's talk about that that quote
Speaker 1: from Pete Parsons where it's let's see what at the
Speaker 1: end there, we need to focus development efforts entirely on
Speaker 1: Destiny and Marathon. So what does that mean? Well, basically,
Speaker 1: they are going to continue working on Marathon and Destiny Too.
Speaker 1: They're going to keep making new content for Destiny Too.
Speaker 1: Now when it comes to Destiny to the expectation, uh,
Speaker 1: I believe internally is that the future content will be lighter, smaller,
Speaker 1: to take less time than what the final shape did,
Speaker 1: require fewer people, so there will be expansions and updates,
Speaker 1: but they will be sort of not a shell of
Speaker 1: their former selves, but they could. They'll definitely have that
Speaker 1: vibe about them. And then Marathon, Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2: That's definitely not what the any two audience wants. There
Speaker 2: has been conditioned to expect. Do they know, are they
Speaker 2: waiting for things to blow up in their face?
Speaker 1: Scrub it? I mean, I don't know. I feel like
Speaker 1: they're in that one of those rocks and hard places
Speaker 1: where they feel like they don't have enough to like
Speaker 1: start something new and to and they feel like they
Speaker 1: have to make money now and to like shift like
Speaker 1: they are not ready to go to Destiny three. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about it more here in a second, but they
Speaker 1: are not ready to do that. And so it's like
Speaker 1: it's got to be on Marathon. That's still years away,
Speaker 1: but they are gonna get working on that. That's the
Speaker 1: next big release that they're hoping will hit. So got
Speaker 1: a lot's riding on that, and you feel like things
Speaker 1: could blow up in their face when it comes to
Speaker 1: that if it doesn't go the right way. Now, Bunch's
Speaker 1: still a very talented team. They still will have a
Speaker 1: lot of talented people there, but morale's got to be low.
Speaker 1: And believing that Marathon is the answer to all their
Speaker 1: problems is likely something that no one there actually believed.
Speaker 1: So yeah, destiny to continuing to go, probably starting up
Speaker 1: some some new seasons or whatever, and and and being
Speaker 1: being the primary going concern is is going to be
Speaker 1: number one? And then Marathon being right there having a
Speaker 1: lot of people working on that now, uh there. It
Speaker 1: was that third game, Gummy Bears, which did leak a
Speaker 1: while ago. Uh it is it was when it leaked,
Speaker 1: it was a mobile mobile like game. And that is
Speaker 1: spinning out onto onto a a new team that will
Speaker 1: be under PlayStation Sony Interactive for entertainment, but they will
Speaker 1: be in a an office that's still in like Bunchie's office.
Speaker 1: Is that sort of thing that also doesn't feel like
Speaker 1: an answer, But that's not under Bungee anymore. Right, that's
Speaker 1: under PlayStation Studios. It's outside of Bunge, but they are
Speaker 1: not closing that down. Now. What is going on the
Speaker 1: shelf is payback. This is what was also leaked and
Speaker 1: reported to be maybe Destiny three technically not Destiny three.
Speaker 1: They internally they would refer to it as the next Destiny.
Speaker 1: I don't know necessarily what the distinction is there, Jam,
Speaker 1: but they think there's a distinction there. But that is
Speaker 1: going on the shelf indefinitely, according to the people I've
Speaker 1: talked to. And so either way, like, let's be clear,
Speaker 1: a Destiny three or Next Destiny is just not the
Speaker 1: thing that they are going to be coming out of
Speaker 1: this looking toward, let alone working on in any real way.
Speaker 1: And next Toy is a very good one, chat, thank
Speaker 1: you very much. I don't to me, it sounds like
Speaker 1: a mess. I don't know, it sounds like a huge mess.
Speaker 2: And like these messes start from the top crub right,
Speaker 2: like they come from mismanagement across the board, and especially
Speaker 2: like you are screwing with a developer that has a
Speaker 2: deep roster of very talented devs and then like how
Speaker 2: do you expect any of them to work at full
Speaker 2: capacity when most of their teams that they've worked with
Speaker 2: for years and years developed deep bonds and like just
Speaker 2: like workflows together are are now gone suddenly from the company,
Speaker 2: like Morales like you said, it's got to be at
Speaker 2: an all time low, and especially when you are trying
Speaker 2: to solve the problem of Destiny to retention and then
Speaker 2: trying to lure new players laps players back into Destiny three.
Speaker 2: That is like the that isn't an uphill climb at
Speaker 2: this point, Greb, you were climbing up a greasy, oily
Speaker 2: ladder at this point. And I don't know about you,
Speaker 2: but I don't normally like to do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I try to avoid that wherever possible. We just
Speaker 1: clarify a few things here from my notes and from
Speaker 1: some stuff let's here. Yeah, those expansions for Destiny too, expansions,
Speaker 1: they're not even using that term internally anymore. They're calling
Speaker 1: them content packs. So like what that should put it
Speaker 1: into perspective, Like what you should expect from Destiny to
Speaker 1: going forward. They want Destiny to to keep being a thing,
Speaker 1: but the investment level is going to pair back in
Speaker 1: a significant, significant way. Meanwhile, they still think Marathon is
Speaker 1: actually coming out in twenty twenty five, So I'm correcting that, right,
Speaker 1: I said years away twenty twenty five, and I'm told
Speaker 1: that expectations are sky high. They are enormous for that game.
Speaker 1: So that goes back to that leadership of what are
Speaker 1: you telling PlayStation and then what are you putting on
Speaker 1: the line. What's the collateral that you are putting that
Speaker 1: you are betting and putting on the table that that
Speaker 1: gets lost if you don't hit those expectations. And based
Speaker 1: on what's happened time and time again now with with
Speaker 1: Bungie under under PlayStation, probably a.
Speaker 2: Lot I would have to imagine there are rumblings within PlayStation.
Speaker 2: They made this huge investment in buying an acquiring Bungee
Speaker 2: because they knew how much of an asset it could be,
Speaker 2: only to see you know, player account dwind and then
Speaker 2: now all of this like negative buzz about the company
Speaker 2: prior to even to this round of layoffs, Like still
Speaker 2: I feel like we were feeling the effects of the
Speaker 2: last round of layoffs and the only thing to kind
Speaker 2: of like put that to bed was the positive reception
Speaker 2: to the last DLC that came out for Destiny Too.
Speaker 2: And now this happens again. I got to feel that
Speaker 2: people at PlayStation they have to be upset at this mismanagement, right,
Speaker 2: like they have to step in at some point, and
Speaker 2: maybe they're stepping in ever so slightly with like the
Speaker 2: Little Gummy Bear team. I hate that. That is the
Speaker 2: most intriguing thing from this.
Speaker 1: They're stepping in in a big way though. I mean
Speaker 1: by shifting Bungee under PlayStation, that's something we talked a
Speaker 1: little bit more about yesterday and that I talked about
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Yeah, Herman Holt now fully is, like I say,
Speaker 1: runs Bungie. He's not like taking over Pete Parson's role.
Speaker 1: He's not the CEO of Bungie or something like that.
Speaker 1: But like any other studio, Bungee now exist under Sony
Speaker 1: Interactive Entertainment's PlayStation Worldwide Studios banner, and that that clearly
Speaker 1: is going to be very different. It means they have
Speaker 1: to answer to to PlayStation in a way that like
Speaker 1: just a little bit ago, every PlayStation studio was answering
Speaker 1: to Bungee, like and if they had a live service thing,
Speaker 1: it's like, hey, is your life service thing good enough? Well,
Speaker 1: here's Bunchie to tell you no or yes? Oh my lord.
Speaker 2: Is Pete Parson's response single handly responsible for the Last
Speaker 2: of Us project being shelved in Concord making the green light.
Speaker 1: I mean, it definitely seems like that's a big part
Speaker 1: of it. Now, whether that's like Pete Parson's showing up
Speaker 1: or not, I have no idea.
Speaker 2: I'm a blame them, Yeah, I'm a blame them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that seems fair. But yeah, I meaning Goober.
Speaker 1: We do know the last of Us Factions game was
Speaker 1: like big part of that was was a Bungie showed up.
Speaker 1: It was like this, there's some issues and there almost
Speaker 1: certainly were there almost certainly weren't going to be problems
Speaker 1: with that game running it's a live service, but they
Speaker 1: showed up and highlighted them. And Sony I don't know
Speaker 1: if they panicked or something, but they definitely pulled back
Speaker 1: from that game because of that. So, yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: It's it's a mess, is what it is. And I
Speaker 1: feel for everyone that is going to have to like
Speaker 1: try to like push through this. There's that the two
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty people who are just cut. There's one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty ish people that are being moved from
Speaker 1: Bungee over to Sony Interactive Entertainment, And I bet a
Speaker 1: lot of those people are like, wait, what does that
Speaker 1: look like? What am I doing? What job do I? Like?
Speaker 1: What do you am? I? Really going to be protected here.
Speaker 1: It's yes, what does that mean? It's got to be
Speaker 1: very confusing, and again having just you know, a couple
Speaker 1: of mistakes made by people at the top who are
Speaker 1: too busy buying cars instead and having like rip apart
Speaker 1: so many people's lives one way or the other, either
Speaker 1: losing their jobs or being shifted around and whipped around
Speaker 1: to some other department. That is rough stuff. And I
Speaker 1: just don't know how. I mean, I think part of
Speaker 1: like when I look at the player numbers of Destiny
Speaker 1: on on Steam, I get people are like just the
Speaker 1: morale of the community seems low. They're like, wow, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't want to all play that God, and then
Speaker 1: like but I'm gonna invest my time in that, and
Speaker 1: they're just gonna give me content packs going forward. It
Speaker 1: feels like a death spiral.
Speaker 2: It feels like a death spiral, especially when you know
Speaker 2: there are other games as a service live service games
Speaker 2: out there that are I don't want to say, taking
Speaker 2: care of their community where at least addressing the needs
Speaker 2: in a more dynamic way than Bunge has been able
Speaker 2: to because of all of the shit happening there. Grub
Speaker 2: uh refresh my memory please, What is Marathon supposed to be.
Speaker 1: An extraction shooter? Why? Yeah, because that's the buzzword. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think I listen Marathon originally on
Speaker 1: mac a game. I think I played when it got
Speaker 1: ported to something once. You know, it was a first
Speaker 1: person shooter, an early first person shooter. And now when yes,
Speaker 1: and then two years ago when they were starting to
Speaker 1: talk about this, I bet a lot of people from
Speaker 1: the Bungee team were playing Tarkoff and they're like, we
Speaker 1: could do the Bungie version of this, and that's still
Speaker 1: there's still some promise there. I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: like Call of Duty war Zone was like clearly yeah,
Speaker 1: there was Fortnite, clearly Fortnite right away crack the nut
Speaker 1: on having a very broadly appealing battle rayale game. But
Speaker 1: Call of Duty war Zone was the one that's like,
Speaker 1: and here's like, it's just like Arcadie and uh, and
Speaker 1: it's for that Call of Duty audience and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: There is a world in which Bungie could be the
Speaker 1: one that like cracked that nut on extraction shooters for
Speaker 1: that audience as well, but who knows. It's It's expectations
Speaker 1: seem like they're even higher than like what it would
Speaker 1: look like if they did that. You know, you just
Speaker 1: turning on the volume on that. It seems pretty loud.
Speaker 1: All right, Jan, let's move along here. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: to this next story down here. Dragon Age the Veilguard
Speaker 1: will reveal its release date in August. This is from
Speaker 1: air hittlback Fruru at Game Reactor. Last week, byowhere reiterated
Speaker 1: that dragon Age the Veilguard is still set to come
Speaker 1: out in twenty twenty four and that we'll get the
Speaker 1: release date later this summer. We now something more specific
Speaker 1: about that last part and more. BioWare confirms that dragon
Speaker 1: Age the Veilguard's release date will be announced in August,
Speaker 1: and that's now. That's this month. It doesn't stop there either,
Speaker 1: as the Blood and Studio will also share details about
Speaker 1: its plans for expansions, DLC and more at the same time.
Speaker 1: Last I heard is it's going to be October. Jan. Oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's that was like weeks ago. That could
Speaker 1: have changed. Obviously, they didn't give a date for a reason.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna deal with this, TV. So are you looking
Speaker 1: forward to Dragon Age the Veilguard?
Speaker 2: Yes, I am looking forward to Dragon Age the Veil Guard.
Speaker 2: I know that there was some odd reception when they
Speaker 2: had Bethesa had announced the name change from Dreadwolf to
Speaker 2: the rail Guard. BioWare It's all the bees, man.
Speaker 1: I get them mixed up to conflate them all the time.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to protect the hive, but these different b
Speaker 2: companies keep messing with me. But hearing Lucy James talk
Speaker 2: about her time revisiting Dragon Age, the twenty fourteen game
Speaker 2: a couple bombcasts ago had me intrigued because I never
Speaker 2: checked out the original Dragon Age. I kind of just
Speaker 2: appreciate it from the periphery. But now I'm thinking, you
Speaker 2: boy might try and dig in. We also had the
Speaker 2: Veilguard parts of the Vailguard team in the fandom comic
Speaker 2: con stew To interview during a comic con. And I
Speaker 2: love it when I'm convinced to play a game based
Speaker 2: off of the enthusiasm of the folks making the game.
Speaker 2: Party scenes like there's pr and marketing talk going on
Speaker 2: all the time, and like trailers, they can wow you,
Speaker 2: they can assuay you. But seeing a passionate dev that
Speaker 2: has devoted years of their life to a game, it's infectious,
Speaker 2: and I want to see the game that they are
Speaker 2: waxing so poetically about, so I think I'm also excited. Also,
Speaker 2: I need to fill out and pad my roster for
Speaker 2: Fantasy Critic.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, uh uh yeah, I agree with you one
Speaker 1: on that because every time I hear anything from this
Speaker 1: game about this game, or we hear publicly about this game,
Speaker 1: people seem pretty confident about it behind the scenes, and
Speaker 1: it's that that is infectious, as you said. And yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm looking here. It's still October. Late October though, so
Speaker 1: that you know, again, that could shift between now when
Speaker 1: they actually announced the date, but I expect that probably
Speaker 1: to be the time because it's been the time for
Speaker 1: like what they've been naming for for a while now
Speaker 1: for the last few months. So late October for Dragon
Speaker 1: Age the Veil Guard that feels like a really good
Speaker 1: holiday game, feels like exactly the kind of RPG people
Speaker 1: will be wanting at that at that time.
Speaker 2: So yeah, October not only the month that I and
Speaker 2: Alex Bonyela were born in, it's also it's also gonna
Speaker 2: seems like it might be a month of the Dragons,
Speaker 2: because not only Dragon Age the Veiled Guard, but dragon
Speaker 2: ball z sparking zero right, also dropping.
Speaker 1: It's dragon mont everybody here on giant bottom. I'm back,
Speaker 1: watch out.
Speaker 2: I was gonna, oh but that's not the sound dragon snake.
Speaker 1: Also, I just said, I got a little text here
Speaker 1: says I can't answer chance question why is Marathon an
Speaker 1: extraction shooter? So I like, then the people, the people
Speaker 1: in the know don't really know the answer to that. Hey, hey,
Speaker 1: who knows?
Speaker 2: Uh? I this makes this terrifies me, grou Like, how
Speaker 2: many times do I pop up on a fucking text
Speaker 2: chain to someone?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Right? Yeah, that the ears are burning or the
Speaker 1: nose itches? Which one's that you sneeze? See it makes
Speaker 1: you sneeze? Yeah, like looking at the sun, or when
Speaker 1: people text about you. All right, let's uh, let's say.
Speaker 2: You slide into people's d MS about me. You can't
Speaker 2: do whatever you want? Yeah with my nudes? Oh sorry
Speaker 2: they're out there anyhow. Yeah, listen, everybody stand back.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm looking forward to this game now more and more.
Speaker 1: I think that the game will have another chance here
Speaker 1: to make that new first impression because that souber game
Speaker 1: Fest trailer I think confused a lot of people. The
Speaker 1: cinematic trailer, and I think that they will recognize that
Speaker 1: and whatever they come with for this next sort of
Speaker 1: marketing beat, they will hit hit people with exactly like
Speaker 1: here's the game, and here's what's going to feel like
Speaker 1: to play the game. And I think that'll be a
Speaker 1: big win for that.
Speaker 2: I would love a more focused showcase of the game
Speaker 2: like that. Also, I'm pitching this now. Maybe we play
Speaker 2: through some of the original dragon Age dragen Age, dragan Age.
Speaker 1: Oh hell yeah, that would rule. Okay, let's do it,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, let's take a quick break when we
Speaker 1: get back. There's plenty more headlines to get into, including
Speaker 1: a little teas about the next Battlefield. I think we
Speaker 1: take your nap. All right, We are back and the
Speaker 1: kids are watching Bluey everybody so stand back. Oh no, no,
Speaker 1: look that's inside out to YouTube videos. Never mind eats's
Speaker 1: next Battlefield game, saying it's among company's most ambitious projects ever.
Speaker 1: This is from Eddie mccoough at GameSpot. EA's Battlefield twenty
Speaker 1: forty two was something of a disappointment for the company,
Speaker 1: but the franchise remains popular and is set to expand
Speaker 1: with a major new installment. During EA's earnings briefing, CEO
Speaker 1: Andrew Wilson said making the new Battlefield game is a
Speaker 1: top priority for EA right now, adding that the company
Speaker 1: has high hopes for the project. The community is energized
Speaker 1: by what our teams are doing and excited for what
Speaker 1: comes next. This is not just one of our top priorities,
Speaker 1: it is also one of the most ambitious projects in
Speaker 1: our history. We have brought together the very best team
Speaker 1: coupled with the resources and technology they need to deliver
Speaker 1: an epic battlefield experience. Yeah, then they are using the
Speaker 1: word experience, jan do you think this is something that
Speaker 1: will be set up as a platform and also them
Speaker 1: calling the most ambitious thing ever? Can this be like
Speaker 1: free to play or does it have to be another massive,
Speaker 1: seventy dollars game.
Speaker 2: I' just trying to be a big tria, a first
Speaker 2: person shooter and how you exist in the lives of gamers,
Speaker 2: because you know, we see Call of Duty making odd pivots,
Speaker 2: but Call of Duty is definitely transitioned to be a
Speaker 2: platform where you have a campaign, you have the multiplayer,
Speaker 2: you have the battle Royale mode. I think if they
Speaker 2: want to make a big, big swing making Battlefield free
Speaker 2: to play and attaching like a decent battle pass or
Speaker 2: parks if you are paying for whatever in Battlefield could
Speaker 2: be good. God, I remember the launch of twenty forty
Speaker 2: two KRUP that was absolutely abysmal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it felt like it had such a chance. I
Speaker 1: remember being excited about like tornadoes in the middle of
Speaker 1: combat and stuff, be like, man, that seems like anything
Speaker 1: could happen. That's great, and then it's just something. It
Speaker 1: just was such a dud or and it was like
Speaker 1: so hard to convince people to play or buy the
Speaker 1: game in the first place and things like that. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: it just had so many disadvantages.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and missing a lot of features at launch as well,
Speaker 2: if I remember right. So I hope at least whenever
Speaker 2: this next Battlefield game comes out, it feels more like
Speaker 2: a fuller package rather than you know, like I'm being
Speaker 2: scammed out of my money here, missing a lot of
Speaker 2: base things that I've quality of life things for the player.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I feel like maybe going free to play, especially with
Speaker 2: a scale that Battlefield plays at, could be interesting. At
Speaker 2: least you could lead to a very good positive boom
Speaker 2: at launch, and maybe Battlefield doesn't take itself so seriously.
Speaker 2: It already doesn't based off of like the clips I've seen,
Speaker 2: they just lean all the way in. Just just give
Speaker 2: me a g They're not gonna have a Captain toadskin.
Speaker 2: What am I thinking?
Speaker 1: Give me a rule though?
Speaker 2: Uh? Throwing the rabbits, No, that's U be soft throwing
Speaker 2: the rabbits anyway?
Speaker 1: Yeah, why not? Yeah, they're done with Mario for now,
Speaker 1: so yeah, go back, give the rabbits the battlefield. So
Speaker 1: I think when they talk about like experience, I think
Speaker 1: they are saying without saying that they see what Cold
Speaker 1: Duty does with its launcher and having all the different
Speaker 1: options for people in there, and they will approach something
Speaker 1: like that with Battlefield. So I bet there will be both, right.
Speaker 1: There will be the seventy dollars Battlefield game that has
Speaker 1: the traditional multiplayer that has a campaign that has all
Speaker 1: kinds of other stuff in there and probably gets you
Speaker 1: extra stuff in the rest of the launcher. But then
Speaker 1: there will be that there's that Ripple effect you know
Speaker 1: right here from Eddie. Let's just read this earlier. Earlier
Speaker 1: this year, it was reported to the next Battlefield will
Speaker 1: have a free to play battle reale mode created by
Speaker 1: Ripple Effect. The next game in the first person a
Speaker 1: shooter franchise won't arrive until twenty twenty five at the earliest,
Speaker 1: and still doesn't have an official name, So you have
Speaker 1: the ripple effect battle Royale mode over here, whatever ends
Speaker 1: up turning into maybe Batterley I won't be the thing
Speaker 1: at that point, but probably And that's free to play
Speaker 1: over here, just like war Zone. And then Battlefield Traditional
Speaker 1: is over here, just like Call of Duty. And now
Speaker 1: I think the problem with that is Battlefield is always
Speaker 1: chasing call of Duty and never matches call of Duty,
Speaker 1: and sometimes and then when it fails to match call
Speaker 1: of Duty time after time, it gets knocked down much
Speaker 1: harder than Call of Duty ever gets knocked down. But
Speaker 1: what I mean, do they have any other options here?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I feel like the Battlefield team is also kind of
Speaker 2: in a good spot because of how much the last
Speaker 2: really soured public opinion, that like, well, anything must be
Speaker 2: a step up from here.
Speaker 1: And I don't know.
Speaker 2: I've always been Battlefield curious grub, but it's also felt
Speaker 2: super intimidating. Anytime we've checked out a Battlefield clone on
Speaker 2: the website, it has given me the hankering to check
Speaker 2: out Battlefield proper, but knowing that it is not in
Speaker 2: like a U, you know, the best state right now
Speaker 2: Bad Bad Company. I keep seeing people throw around. I
Speaker 2: feel like that would be a big swing, that could
Speaker 2: potentially be a big experience for folk, But I don't
Speaker 2: know if that is the appetite of folks at the
Speaker 2: top making the decisions.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I remember this is from years ago that there
Speaker 1: was a Bad Company one and or two remaster slash
Speaker 1: like remake that they were, that they were like kind
Speaker 1: of starting up. And then when Vince Sampella took the
Speaker 1: lead of Battlefield, he was Vince Sampella from Respond. Previously
Speaker 1: from Call of Duty. He was in charge of Infinity
Speaker 1: Ward when they made Call of Duty four and all
Speaker 1: that stuff, and then when they left and started that
Speaker 1: new studio Respond, and then now he's in charge of
Speaker 1: basically a lot of EA's traditional games. He was like,
Speaker 1: look that that is we need that to be bigger
Speaker 1: than what you all are planning to do right now.
Speaker 1: And so what we're gonna kind of shelf this and
Speaker 1: we're gonna put it back behind the break glass in
Speaker 1: case of emergency situation, and we'll go back to Bad
Speaker 1: Company in a different way at some point. Now, who knows.
Speaker 1: I mean, it feels like I don't know. Honestly, this
Speaker 1: feels like maybe the right time, right like coming off
Speaker 1: of twenty forty two, which felt like it should have
Speaker 1: hit and didn't, which is maybe the worst thing you
Speaker 1: could say about that. It's like it felt like it
Speaker 1: should have worked and it still didn't. Uh. Oh, Now
Speaker 1: you're going to be going into this experience where they're
Speaker 1: gonna have a ripple effect. You're gonna have a ripple
Speaker 1: effect free to play battle Royale game, You're going to
Speaker 1: have the traditional multiplayer Is that gonna be behind the
Speaker 1: pay well probably? And then you're gonna have a campaign?
Speaker 1: What kind of campaign? At that point? Why not maybe
Speaker 1: do bad Company and have some co op and stuff
Speaker 1: in there, and then you could start justifying having a
Speaker 1: seventy dollars price behind that content.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Twenty forty two is twenty issuyears away
Speaker 2: from us. We could develop Titans by then. It's true,
Speaker 2: that's right. I went to Titen. Oh my god, grub,
Speaker 2: I would dig the crap out of a battlefield game
Speaker 2: with not like the good Titans we're conditioned to expect
Speaker 2: in Titan Fall two, but like a haphazard, shodily built Titan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like a maybe like a post apocalyptic games and
Speaker 1: people are like piecing together titans and it's more like
Speaker 1: suits of armor, like Knight's armor, that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: or bad forklyfts bad yes, right right, it's just pieced together. Right,
Speaker 1: But it's like it's it's like you have ownership of it,
Speaker 1: and it becomes like a like a ritualistic thing, a
Speaker 1: religious thing in some ways. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Do we just talk about the movie Hugh Jackman hit
Speaker 2: Real Steel?
Speaker 1: But I'm always talking about Real Steel. Real Steel is
Speaker 1: top tier dad movie.
Speaker 2: Bullshit. I love that movie so much. It's so good.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to revisit that when I'm a father. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's real good. It's that and Interstellar. Those are the
Speaker 2: two that, like you have to rewatch Susan Become a Dad.
Speaker 2: That's a double feature.
Speaker 1: Grub. Absolutely, that's a good night right there. All right,
Speaker 1: let's see here. I got the more headlines, including Xbox
Speaker 1: announces twenty twenty four plans for games Com, including over
Speaker 1: fifty playable games. This is from Jordan Miller at VGC.
Speaker 1: Microsoft has announced its plans for Games comp twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: The Xbox Booth will feature over fifty playable games split
Speaker 1: across first party Xbox Game Studio releases and third party
Speaker 1: Xbox titles. They include Age of Mythology, Retold Ara History,
Speaker 1: I'm Told Man, a Lot of Tellings of History, Diablo four,
Speaker 1: Vessel of Hatred, Fallout, seventy six, Mile Post Zero, the
Speaker 1: new expansion Elder Scrolls Online, Gold Gold Road, and Towerborn
Speaker 1: and Tower Born is that kind of beat them up
Speaker 1: game from the people that did the Banner Saga. Xbox
Speaker 1: will also host exclusive theatrical presentations of Avowed Indiana, Jones
Speaker 1: and the Great Circle and Starfield Shattered Space. Blizzard's Gamescom
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four presence will also be a part of
Speaker 1: the Xbox Booth. The booth will feature a public hans
Speaker 1: on gameplay demo of the Diablo four Spirit Born Class,
Speaker 1: with a Diablo Immortal hellicoury Boss tournament taking place as well.
Speaker 1: A special immersive World of Warcraft experience will also be
Speaker 1: president at the show, giving games comontendants the chance to
Speaker 1: feel the thrill of skydiving in Asaroth. The Xbox Booth
Speaker 1: will also have playable titles from third party publishers like
Speaker 1: Stalker to Heart of Chernobyl Rebellion's Adam Fall, Space Marine two,
Speaker 1: Arc two, Star Wars Outlaws, man Ark two is still real.
Speaker 1: So they're going all out for games Cone. They're going
Speaker 1: way more all out for games come than they even
Speaker 1: came close to for Summer Game Fest now and then
Speaker 1: the Summer Game Pest did it. They had their own
Speaker 1: Xbox mixer and they had stuff there. But I don't
Speaker 1: know if they have fifty games. I should didn't go
Speaker 1: to their thing. But that's not what it seemed like
Speaker 1: when people relate it to me. Yeah, I mean the
Speaker 1: effort behind xboxes or Microsoft and Xbox like saying, hey,
Speaker 1: here are the games, here's what's going on. Be excited.
Speaker 1: Feels mismatched with like where Xbox is at in the
Speaker 1: marketplace right now, yesterday's story of like yet again another
Speaker 1: quarter down forty percent or more for hardware sales year
Speaker 1: over year. But what are the choices they have? They
Speaker 1: got to come out there and be like, we do
Speaker 1: have exciting stuff. You should be excited, and I think
Speaker 1: people be like, yes, and I'm gonna play it on
Speaker 1: my PC. And I think Microsoft this points that's just fine.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I'm I'm glad that they're like
Speaker 1: showing up like this. This feels like, no, there's still
Speaker 1: plenty of momentum behind the other company making video games
Speaker 1: as a first party.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent guarantee, are not guaranteed, agreed. I
Speaker 2: want to see what Microsoft is doing, and seeing this
Speaker 2: huge turnout for games Com makes it definitely makes it
Speaker 2: feel like games Com is like a tour stop for
Speaker 2: Microsoft as they make the rounds until the end of
Speaker 2: the year, until like a lot of these games pop out.
Speaker 2: I'm very curious about Tower Born may feel like the.
Speaker 1: God Greb.
Speaker 2: What was that other months or Hunter like game that
Speaker 2: we checked out that we had a decent time with
Speaker 2: wild I put.
Speaker 1: This Melbourne or something like that. Uh god, yeah, I
Speaker 1: can't I can't remember Wild Wildhearts. Yes, thank you, Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean I enjoyed that. That was fun. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I'd like to see like another take on the
Speaker 2: Monster Hunter formula because, like you know, there are parts
Speaker 2: of that experience that I love Capcom, but Capcom still
Speaker 2: hasn't completely nailed from like quality of life perspective. But
Speaker 2: I want to see what more of that could look like. Gosh,
Speaker 2: if only we're sending a team to games Calm to
Speaker 2: check out all these neat things, to like seeing what
Speaker 2: it'd been a parachute through Ezra.
Speaker 1: An impossible dream jan Quit saying things you know can't happen.
Speaker 2: Ah, gosh, I'm just such a dreamer grub.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I uh Talerborne's when I've been excited about for
Speaker 1: a while. It's uh, it's yeah. It's that like side
Speaker 1: scrolling beat them up sort of thing. I'm gonna I
Speaker 1: have the video right here. I'll bring it up. Let
Speaker 1: me just if I gotta frame it up here. But
Speaker 1: it's like, looks beautiful and very cool, and I think
Speaker 1: it should be something worth checking out. And then it
Speaker 1: has so many other elements going on there that I'll
Speaker 1: have to play to fully understand. But god, yeah it
Speaker 1: looks amazing. Yeah, it's like so yeah, we'll get some
Speaker 1: hands on reports from that game and more and just overall,
Speaker 1: this is Game's com the heart of Europe. Like they're
Speaker 1: right there showing up being like, hey, we want to
Speaker 1: win over this audience. Europe has mostly overlooked Xbox this generation,
Speaker 1: as it has through most generations in the past, but
Speaker 1: especially this generation. And I think that they're just like, look, yeah,
Speaker 1: we maybe we're not going to get you to buy
Speaker 1: an Xbox, but we could still get you to buy
Speaker 1: our games. And I think that's probably the right move
Speaker 1: for them on the long scale, the grand scale of time.
Speaker 1: Jan if we're talking like one hundred years from now,
Speaker 1: I think PC gaming will still be here, probably, I
Speaker 1: don't know about consoles, Like, like you know, all it
Speaker 1: takes is one generation for one of these companies to
Speaker 1: get like to either take it on the chin, or
Speaker 1: to like really to to bone things up, or to
Speaker 1: lose interest, to be like it's not growing fast enough,
Speaker 1: we should just sell it off to some other company
Speaker 1: or something like that that's not out of the realm
Speaker 1: of possibility in the next twenty five years or something
Speaker 1: like this. So when I think about, like, if I'm
Speaker 1: in charge one of these companies and I have to
Speaker 1: like place my chips down somewhere, I also would be
Speaker 1: putting my chips down on PC and open platforms as
Speaker 1: opposed to just trying to grow my walled garden again.
Speaker 1: So I think Xbox has positioning themselves to do that.
Speaker 1: Whether or not they're going to be able to pull
Speaker 1: it off, who knows, But it starts with stuff like this,
Speaker 1: like fifty games at games come.
Speaker 2: Oddly enough, I feel like piece one hundred years from now,
Speaker 2: who knows where will be I'll be in the dirt.
Speaker 1: Or long, yes, long over here.
Speaker 2: But I do see PC games sustaining and lasting, but
Speaker 2: also perhaps handheld games, not mobile games, but handheld games.
Speaker 2: Like I don't know, I could definitely see a revision
Speaker 2: of the game Boy coming out in a couple of years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if Nintendo ever does like that move, I think
Speaker 1: it would do very well for them. I don't know
Speaker 1: what it would be a sign of, like from the company,
Speaker 1: if like there's other troubles or whatever, they're like, we
Speaker 1: gotta go back to the game Boy. But in the
Speaker 1: next like ten to fifteen years, there is still gonna
Speaker 1: be a butter zone where like multiple generations have grown
Speaker 1: up like remembering the game Boy. Like I'll like I
Speaker 1: was I got the original game Boy when I was
Speaker 1: just a kid, and then but like several generations of
Speaker 1: kids behind me got game Boys, like two generations basically
Speaker 1: to play Pokemon games, and they are all gonna be like, hey,
Speaker 1: that name means a lot to me. So yeah, stuff
Speaker 1: like that could happen You're right though, handout games will
Speaker 1: still be a major thing, and I think that'll be
Speaker 1: like the primary way honestly personalized gaming experiences right there
Speaker 1: in front of you. That's always been it for me.
Speaker 2: It's just so funny seeing like a couple of years
Speaker 2: ago the major focus on what the console is right,
Speaker 2: what the console looks like, how it fits into your
Speaker 2: home entertainment ecosystem only for the Nintendo Switch, and subsequently
Speaker 2: the theme deck to kind of reinfluence of people and
Speaker 2: like kind of like having this thing in my hands.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's for me. That's always been it, like just
Speaker 1: a link's awakening on the game Boy in the backseat
Speaker 1: of the car on road trips as a ten or
Speaker 1: eleven year old. I mean, that's just like when it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: gaming's just going to be everything to me from now on.
Speaker 1: At that's when that happened. I like playing games on
Speaker 1: the TV too, sure, but it's just something so intimate
Speaker 1: to have the games right there in front of you.
Speaker 1: All right, let's hit these last few stories. Dev say
Speaker 1: that working with Apple Arcade is frustrating and like an
Speaker 1: abusive relationship. Zax Wisen from Kotaku writes a new report
Speaker 1: featuring quotes from anonymous developers who have worked with Apple
Speaker 1: Arcade claimed the subscriptions subscription gaming service has no real goals,
Speaker 1: barely communicates with studios. It treats teams poorly, making them
Speaker 1: jump through hoops and wait for months just to get paid.
Speaker 1: One developer even claimed that working with Apple Arcade was
Speaker 1: like being in an abusive relationship. One big problem is
Speaker 1: that some devs have to spend months chasing Apple down
Speaker 1: for their money. The way Apple Arcade works is to
Speaker 1: devs get a large amount of money upfront to make
Speaker 1: the game and then collect royalties from Apple. And I
Speaker 1: just started playing a in the sixty four jungle mix
Speaker 1: in the background. I i't mean to do that. We
Speaker 1: can go weeks without hearing from Apple at all, and
Speaker 1: their general response to time to emails is three weeks
Speaker 1: if they reply at all. Set a developer speaking to
Speaker 1: Mobile gamer Dot is We're supposed to be able to
Speaker 1: ask product technical and commercial questions, but often half the
Speaker 1: Apple team won't turn up, and when they do, they
Speaker 1: have no idea what's going on and can't answer our questions,
Speaker 1: either because they don't have any knowledge on how to
Speaker 1: answer it or not able to share that info for
Speaker 1: confidentiality reasons. Yeah, that sounds like it sucks. That's insane, grub,
Speaker 1: that's insane. That like, and I get that, like gaming
Speaker 1: is not Apple's thing. That's like, maybe that's not stating
Speaker 1: it strongly enough. Well, you do have gaming subscription service
Speaker 1: that you are charging people for, and the whole idea
Speaker 1: is you pay developers to make games that are better
Speaker 1: than the free to play shlock they get from the
Speaker 1: rest of the store. You should probably pay those people
Speaker 1: that have made those games for you. What are you
Speaker 1: talking about. That's crazy.
Speaker 2: I know you have the money, Tim, You definitely have
Speaker 2: the money. God, that feels insane hearing that these indie
Speaker 2: devs that you know haven't some type of exclusive contract
Speaker 2: to remain on Apple Arcade for X amount of time.
Speaker 2: I have to hunt Apple for their money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, jump through hoops. Like it should just be like
Speaker 1: the second the game launches, it should just like automatically
Speaker 1: transfer to their bank account. It should just be automated.
Speaker 1: That's crazy.
Speaker 2: And I give you my routing number. Yeah, Jim, you
Speaker 2: just Apple pay me this ship?
Speaker 1: Yeah? What the hell? Oh God, Plaid like won't let
Speaker 1: them like sign up their bank account or whatever connected
Speaker 1: or whatever. Yeah, and that seems so insane because we
Speaker 1: have seen a steady trickle of.
Speaker 2: It feels weird to say this, but big Apple Arcade
Speaker 2: games finally make the jump to other platforms. We're seeing
Speaker 2: it with Fantasian, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, even
Speaker 2: the gosh, the not Match three, but the puzzle game
Speaker 2: that was pretty big, and it was a big heater
Speaker 2: for Apple Arcades release. Oh gosh, it was like Dungeon
Speaker 2: themed folks at home.
Speaker 1: Grindstone, Yeah, there it is, yeah, Grindstone. Yeah. People try
Speaker 1: to say this is normal for a lot of businesses
Speaker 1: that that that work this way, and it's like, ah,
Speaker 1: I think the reason developers are saying this is because
Speaker 1: it's not normal for the space that they're in. I
Speaker 1: think Microsoft and Sony and Nintendo have a pretty well
Speaker 1: understood process for getting paid. The timeline is very well understood,
Speaker 1: and I think the problem here is not like that
Speaker 1: the people just have to wait. It is that they
Speaker 1: have to hunt down on Apple and make it happen,
Speaker 1: which is not normal in this space. I mean, especially
Speaker 1: not with Steam right over there, just making it like
Speaker 1: the most automated basic thing in the world where it's
Speaker 1: just going to happen in the background and you don't
Speaker 1: have to do much to make it happen. That's the norm,
Speaker 1: and you kind of can't be like, well, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, this is the way things are so well
Speaker 1: they it could be better. We see it right there,
Speaker 1: and it's better for the vast majority of gaming purchases
Speaker 1: in the world when you look at Steam and the
Speaker 1: Xbox Store and the PlayStation store and Nintendo You Shop
Speaker 1: all put together.
Speaker 2: So yeah, Also, wouldn't it continue to build a positive
Speaker 2: relationship between dev's and Apple if they were being paid
Speaker 2: on time? Yeah, where like, hey, we'll continue to keep
Speaker 2: making games for you guys, or we'll tell our other
Speaker 2: indie friends to Well, that.
Speaker 1: Seems like that's the underlying thing here, right jan that
Speaker 1: Apple doesn't care about that anymore. They don't care about
Speaker 1: Apple Arcade. It was an initiation. It's a year's old initiative,
Speaker 1: is more and off, they're not gonna they're not reinvesting
Speaker 1: in that. Then they're not thinking about it actively. That
Speaker 1: is that is old news, and so all the developers
Speaker 1: are unhappy and that's going to sort of slightly poison
Speaker 1: that audience. Against us or that you know that industry
Speaker 1: against us. We don't care. And that's just Apple with
Speaker 1: gaming every generation from the beginning of time. Yeah, PlayStation
Speaker 1: Plus free games for August twenty twenty four. Uh, let
Speaker 1: see your Lego Star Wars the Skywalker Saga for five
Speaker 1: nights at Freddy's Security Breach and Inder Lily's Quietest of
Speaker 1: the Nights. Yeah. These are all coming starting August sixth
Speaker 1: and will be available through August second or September second,
Speaker 1: I should say. And those are the PlayStation Plus free
Speaker 1: games for August.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Lego Star Wars the Skywalker Saga is a massive, solid game, yes,
Speaker 1: and one that's good for families and good for kind
Speaker 1: of any fan of Star Wars. It's really well done.
Speaker 2: It's so funny that when Dan and I checked out
Speaker 2: the old LED Steam deck at Valve, the first game
Speaker 2: that they show us today the capabilities and like, how
Speaker 2: great the screen is on the Steam deck O led
Speaker 2: was Lego Star Wars the Skywalker Saga.
Speaker 1: Yep. I mean you know that's the materials they use
Speaker 1: in that stuff that make it look like real Legos,
Speaker 1: and then combining that with that OLED screen, yep, that's
Speaker 1: very good stuff. All right, let's sa hit this last one.
Speaker 1: AMD reports positive financial results, but gaming business slumps. This
Speaker 1: is from Alberto Garrito at Game Reactor. The crisis at
Speaker 1: the world's leading ship makers is shaking the entire technology sphere.
Speaker 1: First the in with Intel's flawed thirteenth and fourteenth generation,
Speaker 1: followed by the announcement of thousands of layoffs at the company,
Speaker 1: and now AMD is releasing troubling data on its custom
Speaker 1: gaming chip division. As you probably know, AMD chips are
Speaker 1: used in game consoles and the Xbox series, PS five
Speaker 1: and Steam Deck all feature them. Now, with the release
Speaker 1: of financial results from Q two twenty twenty four, we
Speaker 1: see a fifty nine percent drop in gaming revenue, down
Speaker 1: more than six hundred and forty eight million dollars. And
Speaker 1: this is almost mostly attributable to the decline in sales
Speaker 1: of Xbox, but we've also seen declines in sales of
Speaker 1: PlayStation five year over year quarter to quarter, or at
Speaker 1: least the United States according to a Circana and Napis
Speaker 1: Catella over there. But yeah, when fewer consoles are selling,
Speaker 1: Microsoft and Sony to a lesser extent, are going to
Speaker 1: be ordering fewer chips, and that is going to hurt
Speaker 1: AMD's revenue. Yeah, did you think. I mean, it's that
Speaker 1: same old story, right jam, we're waiting for GTA six
Speaker 1: or some other game, kind of like that right to
Speaker 1: have the whole industry bounce back. Is that a healthy
Speaker 1: place for the industry to be in. No, it's not a.
Speaker 2: Healthy place to put all our eggs in the GTA
Speaker 2: six basket. I don't care for GTA six, but I
Speaker 2: feel like I've we forced the care.
Speaker 1: It's we have to care. We have no choice here.
Speaker 2: It's like I'm gonna be like the guy in the
Speaker 2: fifteenth row in like the Dune Cave, going like, I
Speaker 2: guess we'll get go with this guy LUs and old gaib.
Speaker 2: Everyone else is doing it. I guess I'll also go
Speaker 2: with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't have Yeah, we don't have a choice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's uh. I mean the whole idea is like this
Speaker 1: will be the thing that gets people. I mean, did
Speaker 1: you see the numbers earlier this week that like a
Speaker 1: significant majority of people are still playing GTA online on
Speaker 1: PS four, Like you can play that on PS five,
Speaker 1: Xbox Series, x PC and all the stuff, but the
Speaker 1: majority are playing on PS four, And so that's that
Speaker 1: like that. They're saying like that, right there is the
Speaker 1: thing that highlights what is going on in the industry
Speaker 1: is that the people that that have found their game,
Speaker 1: they found it last generation and they're still playing that
Speaker 1: game on that system and they have not felt they've
Speaker 1: not been given the compelling argument to upgrade because the
Speaker 1: game is still the same game. Yeah, it's gonna run better.
Speaker 1: It's the same game. People, while we talk about it,
Speaker 1: while I gobble up Digital Foundery, give it to me,
Speaker 1: num numb, numb, numb, the wide, vast broad audience is saying, no,
Speaker 1: that's the same game. And my understanding is when I
Speaker 1: get a new system, I get new games, and that's
Speaker 1: it's it's it's that simple for them. And so they're
Speaker 1: gonna need to wait until that new game comes along
Speaker 1: and it will be g t A six for most
Speaker 1: of them. People point out Elder Scroll six. Obviously, there
Speaker 1: is like eight list of games that are in that
Speaker 1: tier below g T A six.
Speaker 2: But yeah, no, I I I'd agree GTA six will
Speaker 2: save the gaming industry. It's gonna gonna undo all of
Speaker 2: these layoffs. New company. We're gonna be swimming in money, grub.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be it's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be.
Speaker 2: Great, like anecdotally, anecdotally like catching up with our other
Speaker 2: fandom homies that aren't as plugged into games and just
Speaker 2: asking them like, hey, what do you know? What? What
Speaker 2: type of gaming content do you consume? Uh? And then
Speaker 2: oddly enough the answer is people uh streaming or on
Speaker 2: YouTube doing rp GTA online content. Yep.
Speaker 1: It's still huge still, and I had there was a
Speaker 1: lot of content creators I would were like variety streamers
Speaker 1: and started doing that and that's where they like, well,
Speaker 1: this is where the money is. People. I got more
Speaker 1: people watching than ever. I'm gonna keep doing that. All right.
Speaker 1: That does it for the headlines? Does it for the news?
Speaker 1: I have a poll question from yesterday. I think I
Speaker 1: have it right here. Let me just get it right there,
Speaker 1: bang bang boom the news assets. There we go. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to answer this. Have you ever played Killer seven?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I like, touch it, but I'm gonna say no.
Speaker 1: And that's what seventy percent of the audience said. Out
Speaker 1: of the two point five thousand votes, seventy percent said
Speaker 1: no they have not played Killer seven. Thirty percent have
Speaker 1: I think a remaster would go over real nice, swimmingly,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna I'm gonna go well, he said, a
Speaker 1: complete edition. He's already done a remaster in twenty eighteen
Speaker 1: for PC or whatever, and I got that on my
Speaker 1: Steam deck and I am going to go play that.
Speaker 1: But he wants to suit if it do one, wants
Speaker 1: to re release that and and as a complete edition.
Speaker 1: And again, I think that would go over well at
Speaker 1: this moment in time, better than the twenty eight edition,
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen edition. I should say. I got a new
Speaker 1: poll question. We'll get to that here in a second.
Speaker 1: Before we do, though, Jan, what do we have happening
Speaker 1: on Giant Bomb today?
Speaker 2: We have voicemail dump truck popping off. Tomorrow is going
Speaker 2: to be a little bit of an odd day. You
Speaker 2: Dan Manati are out, so I will raise the troops,
Speaker 2: the troops being politely, asking Nicky and Sean if they're free,
Speaker 2: and maybe some other miscreants for unprofessional Fridays, I'd like
Speaker 2: to have a PCR if possible. I'm taking suggestions folks
Speaker 2: for upf tomorrow. GMM, maybe I'll do something in place
Speaker 2: of gmm. Maybe that's when I'll have my vacation slide show.
Speaker 1: Hey there you go.
Speaker 2: Oh god, I don't want to show off my popcorn
Speaker 2: buckets from Japan. It makes me sad inside it to
Speaker 2: own it. But anyway, Yeah, the UPF tomorrow. Hey, maybe
Speaker 2: we'll bust out gt on wine.
Speaker 1: Can I throw a suggestion out for UPF that I
Speaker 1: would like to watch? Shit? No, I'm gonna do it
Speaker 1: any you can't stop me. Uh that new Noman's Sky content.
Speaker 1: I would I'm like interested in, like what that because
Speaker 1: you could play that multiplayer now, there's so much going
Speaker 1: on in there. I think I would like to see
Speaker 1: what's going on there? Oh yeah? Or Killer seven? There
Speaker 1: you go.
Speaker 2: I gotta play Killer seven with you. Grub you gotta.
Speaker 2: I have learn set together.
Speaker 1: Let's let's play some Killer seven. That would be awesome. Yes,
Speaker 1: uh yeah, no, Jance Sky it's right there. Okay, and
Speaker 1: then always be closince. I left a voicemail for that
Speaker 1: Grub country song stuff. Very fun. All right, Well that'll
Speaker 1: be a fun voicemail dump truck. Then later today anything else. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: do you know you'll try to put together tomorrow. It's
Speaker 1: going to be a mess, like you said, But yeah, people.
Speaker 2: It's a fun mess indeed. Oh also, folks, if you
Speaker 2: are hankering for Lego Star Wars content other than the games,
Speaker 2: one of the best interviews Comic Con was interviewing the
Speaker 2: dudes behind Lego Star Wars Rebuild a Galaxy and Bobby
Speaker 2: moynahan is a part of.
Speaker 1: That last fun.
Speaker 2: And they're doing some funky multivers kind of stuff, but
Speaker 2: it's all in the form of Lego Star Wars. So
Speaker 2: I'm pray excited for that joint.
Speaker 1: That sounds great. Bobby moynahan really won me over in Ducktails.
Speaker 1: He's really good in that. All right. The next poll question,
Speaker 1: do you think the next battlefield should be free to play?
Speaker 1: Yes or no? We will talk about that on the
Speaker 1: next Game Mass Mornings. We'll get the results of that
Speaker 1: and talk about that there. Jen, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for hanging out with me today and talking about video games. Man,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: It's the only way I want to start a Thursday.
Speaker 1: Greb, thank you all for listening and watching. You are
Speaker 1: the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a
Speaker 1: good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.