Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Mess Mornings with Me Jeff
Speaker 1: grub your host from giant bomb dot com. Thank you
Speaker 1: for tuning in. In this episode, we're gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about Spiro and then a bunch of shitty things. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a good one though, because we have Janet
Speaker 1: Choa on the show. Jan how are you doing?
Speaker 2: Am I? The shitty thing is how what's happening here?
Speaker 1: Jan? We're gonna be talking about Spiro and jan and
Speaker 1: then a bunch of terrible things.
Speaker 2: Oh thank god, my fragile ego can't handle that right now.
Speaker 2: Post Summer Game Fest, I'm okay. Grubbed a little ty tie,
Speaker 2: a lot of tie tie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, same, same.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. I was glad to be, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, done with all that. But it was a
Speaker 1: lot of fun getting through that. Uh those Summer game
Speaker 1: game Fest gig at night shows with you, Jam and
Speaker 1: you always do a great job. That was a lot
Speaker 1: of fun stuff. It was great to see the results
Speaker 1: of that. People can go check it out now, still
Speaker 1: showing up on podcast feeds, all that stuff, unless it's
Speaker 1: not because of a cas being whatever. But we'll figure
Speaker 1: it all out, everybody, But yeah, I'm home. I'm beginning
Speaker 1: to recover my voice starting to come back, things like that.
Speaker 2: How are you feeling, Gosh, greub On Tuesday. Off Monday,
Speaker 2: I felt okay. For some reason, I had a lot
Speaker 2: of flight delays. I left SGF campus and the gang
Speaker 2: early to get to the airport early. My flight was
Speaker 2: at nine pm. My flight didn't leave until twelve thirty am.
Speaker 1: So oh, that's man, that's rough. Okay, that's cool. Thankfully
Speaker 1: you to have like a very long You could have
Speaker 1: got home about the same time, though, probably huh had
Speaker 1: you just driven? Yep?
Speaker 2: If I drove, I remember Greg Miller had a bit
Speaker 2: a couple of years of like I'm just going to
Speaker 2: take the Greayhound bus. Yeah, and then that was one
Speaker 2: of those moments where I thought maybe Greg was onto
Speaker 2: something here. Yeah, but Monday felt mostly okay. Tuesday, after
Speaker 2: we had talked over the direct I was fading in
Speaker 2: and out of sleep all day. It was it was
Speaker 2: something to be beholden to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I definitely know how you feel.
Speaker 2: Like.
Speaker 1: I was kind of watching you guys. I thought you
Speaker 1: guys did a good job, but I was falling asleep
Speaker 1: as I was watching it. At getting on the plane
Speaker 1: and it was kind of feeling bad for you guys,
Speaker 1: but I guys did a great job. I don't know. Listen,
Speaker 1: this is definitely the week after SGF where it's like,
Speaker 1: let's just get through it. Let's get to the weekend
Speaker 1: and get to next week and we could start all
Speaker 1: over there fresh. So we'll do our best today everybody.
Speaker 1: In fact, let's get on with it. We're giant bomb
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Speaker 1: we're going to keep at it over here. Thank you
Speaker 1: again for all that support. As far as this show
Speaker 1: goes most weekdays, I Jeff Grub 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 Games Mornings, or
Speaker 1: find the RSS feed 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: Xbox needs great games, so it may close another studio.
Speaker 1: This is from Andy Robinson at VGC, and we'll get
Speaker 1: into it. Jan, I'll say this start this off. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm surrounded by pretty level headed people
Speaker 1: and so like I'm not too surprised by this story.
Speaker 1: I feel like Jane, whenever I talk to you about
Speaker 1: Xbox over these last one hundred days of Asha Sharma's
Speaker 1: reign or whatever, and before that, the jangling keys that
Speaker 1: we've been seeing, I know you've never been too impressed
Speaker 1: by any of that. You've always kind of been kind
Speaker 1: of been like, huh, yeah, well I'll believe any of
Speaker 1: this when I see it. And even then, you've just like,
Speaker 1: it's Xbox, it's Microsoft. We kind of know their whole deal.
Speaker 1: So let's get into it here and kind of talk
Speaker 1: about it. But yeah, like I said, not too surprised
Speaker 1: that we've immediately ended up back here. Xbox could be
Speaker 1: about to shut down one of its game studios as
Speaker 1: part of it, as part of expected significant cuts reportedly
Speaker 1: taking place next month, it's claimed. On Wednesday, Xbox CEO
Speaker 1: Asha Sharma published a note sent to staff in which
Speaker 1: she shared realities that we need to navigate, such as
Speaker 1: that it's annual revenue has the client by nearly half
Speaker 1: a billion dollars in five years, so the money it's
Speaker 1: making annually is down half a billion like each year. Basically,
Speaker 1: hardware costs are up for x since last year, and
Speaker 1: its studio system is qu overextended. Did not explain what
Speaker 1: that meant. According to a Bloomberg report, the note to
Speaker 1: staff was sent in advanced of planned significant layoffs across
Speaker 1: the Xbox business and a reduction to its marketing and
Speaker 1: other budgets, and a new report published by the Verge,
Speaker 1: it's claimed that those cuts could also see the closure
Speaker 1: of an unnamed Xbox studio. Sources suggest the cuts could
Speaker 1: even involve a studio closure or change to the Xbox lineup.
Speaker 1: It's said if the layoffs go a go ahead, it
Speaker 1: will mark the fourth consecutive year of cuts at Xbox
Speaker 1: as whether it's a challenging gaming market that has also
Speaker 1: seen tens of thousands of job losses across the wider industry. Now, Jane,
Speaker 1: I mean, like these layoffs, you know, they are nothing new.
Speaker 1: This is part of a trend that's ongoing. Like, certainly
Speaker 1: AI is a part of that, but I think we
Speaker 1: should always remind people it's also just mismanagement and a
Speaker 1: lot of times these companies are using AI to tell
Speaker 1: investors things are good and we don't need these people
Speaker 1: any more because we have AI, and that has from
Speaker 1: the beginning been a lie. They're laying these people off
Speaker 1: because they have mismanaged everything so poorly that they have
Speaker 1: ended up in this situation because they do not know
Speaker 1: how to sort of navigate these things, and then they
Speaker 1: get to a point where it's like they have no
Speaker 1: other option other than to take them billions of dollars
Speaker 1: that they make in in profits every year and pay
Speaker 1: the people to make great games and actually get out
Speaker 1: of this mess, which actually, jan when I say it
Speaker 1: out loud, sounds like a pretty good option. So I
Speaker 1: just don't. This is what we keep saying when we're like, hey, okay,
Speaker 1: they're trying all these other things, what's going to change?
Speaker 1: It feels like nothing's gonna change.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I know that there is the sentiment that, like,
Speaker 2: oh hey, when a new CEO takes over, that's normally
Speaker 2: sign of layoffs incoming. I think these layoffs had been
Speaker 2: incoming from Xbox from the way, way way before the
Speaker 2: Darma Yes was even in conversation for taking over from
Speaker 2: Phil Spencer. It's I find it very ironic that Xbox
Speaker 2: grub talks so much about about the health of the
Speaker 2: company and wanting to bolster the future of the company,
Speaker 2: and based off of all of the news stories, the rumblings,
Speaker 2: the reportings, the interviews that we've seen over the last
Speaker 2: couple of months, that health of Xbox isn't actually the
Speaker 2: health of the company in terms of the games being developed,
Speaker 2: the games being published, the games are being put out,
Speaker 2: the people consuming buying playing those games. It's just the stockholders.
Speaker 2: They are just doing this to appease the people up top.
Speaker 2: They don't give a shit about the people that work
Speaker 2: for them, and it's very unfortunate to see. I know
Speaker 2: that there was some renewed fervor or a little bit
Speaker 2: of excitement behind Xbox, but it always to me, like
Speaker 2: you mentioned, felt like smoke and mirrors. This is just
Speaker 2: the keys jangling to try and distract people from what
Speaker 2: is actually incoming and mismanagement and continued mismanagement of this company.
Speaker 2: You spend a billion dollars, You have this Xbox of
Speaker 2: over summer game Fest where you have five stories of
Speaker 2: a building. You give free Xboxes to all these people
Speaker 2: that get invited or buy tickets to go, and you
Speaker 2: are all smiles and saying like, oh, we're great, We're
Speaker 2: doing so good, and then this comes out. It's just bullshit.
Speaker 2: I don't, I can't. I haven't trusted Xbox an extended
Speaker 2: period of time, and I'm going to continue to not
Speaker 2: trust them. On top of all the other stuff like
Speaker 2: the BDS boycott. I just don't want to engage with
Speaker 2: this company.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they last year they Xbox closed Perfect Dark developer
Speaker 1: the Initiative. In twenty twenty four, it closed Arcane Austin
Speaker 1: Alpha Dog, which is working on that Mighty Doom game,
Speaker 1: and then it closed High Fight Rush developer Tango game Works,
Speaker 1: although that ended up going to Crafton after someone had
Speaker 1: to come up through and save it. So the remaining
Speaker 1: studios include The Coalition which is going to release Scars
Speaker 1: of Work, E Day Games, which recently did South of Midnight,
Speaker 1: Double Fine, Halo Studios in Exile, which is working on
Speaker 1: Clockwork Revolution, one of the recently announced exclusive Xbox or
Speaker 1: at least console exclusive games. Then it has Mo Yang
Speaker 1: which is Minecraft Ninja Theory which just announced the new
Speaker 1: game as well, Obsidian Playground, Rare Turn ten, Undead Labs
Speaker 1: which is stayed at the KA, and World's Edge which
Speaker 1: is Age of Empires. I'm not gonna sit here in
Speaker 1: like like Fantasy Book, which one of these studios is
Speaker 1: going to get closed. That is far too grim for me, Jane.
Speaker 1: I will say though, if I had this lineup of
Speaker 1: studios and just couldn't figure out how to how to
Speaker 1: get great games out of them, to make the Xbox
Speaker 1: platform an exciting place, I just would have nowhere to
Speaker 1: put the blame except on the people above all of
Speaker 1: these studios. That is, that's a that's a you know,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of killers in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like it's a it's a story we have on
Speaker 2: on the docket later talking about Q one two six revenue,
Speaker 2: but it's real quick. It's talking about how single player
Speaker 2: storage even games are still successful and still a contender
Speaker 2: for game sales. Right, Xbox, you have so many of
Speaker 2: those studios that can deliver on that exact type of game.
Speaker 2: I've seen the sentiment around the internet and our chat here.
Speaker 2: I really worry about a studio like Double Fine and
Speaker 2: Asha Sharma, other Xbox leadership not recognizing the you know,
Speaker 2: importance of a studio like Double Fine, let alone the
Speaker 2: importance of a studio like anyone else that they own.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we did mention or I did not mention r
Speaker 1: Kane Leone, which is another studio they have. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about them actually in a little bit. Matt Booty has
Speaker 1: something to say about Blade and a couple other games,
Speaker 1: and that's you know, We're like a lot of the
Speaker 1: rest of the news is going to be sprinkled in
Speaker 1: with Xbox stuff, good stories, bad stories, whatever, stories, and like,
Speaker 1: you know, going forward, I'm gonna keep talking about Xbox
Speaker 1: and there are a lot of people who work there
Speaker 1: who are now responsible for the state of this of this,
Speaker 1: and we're going to kind of keep covering stuff from
Speaker 1: that angle as best we can and then also trying
Speaker 1: to dissect and figure out what these executives are are
Speaker 1: doing here. Yeah, I think that, you know, this does
Speaker 1: come after yesterday Ashra Sharma had that internal memo being like, hey,
Speaker 1: it's my first hundred days. Things can't continue. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have to make some changes. I just don't see the
Speaker 1: pathway to how these things change enough based on what
Speaker 1: they're going for, like with hey, exclusives back, coming back
Speaker 1: to the Xbox console, that would really change the fate
Speaker 1: here unless the games are going to be so much
Speaker 1: better that they cannot be ignored. And it does sound like,
Speaker 1: you know, coming out of this, that they're like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: but we don't want to actually be spending too much
Speaker 1: more money making these games. We want to come back,
Speaker 1: We want to close some studios, maybe reorganize some studios
Speaker 1: so they are not as big of a drag on
Speaker 1: our on our bottom line. You know, it takes money
Speaker 1: to do this stuff right now unless you're going to
Speaker 1: get very creative, and I just don't. It does not
Speaker 1: seem like that is in the DNA of Microsoft and Xbox.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the ending of that Xbox showcase this past Sunday,
Speaker 2: I think is indicative of how out of touch and
Speaker 2: out of tune the company may be overall. I know
Speaker 2: that there is still a sizeable call of duty audience
Speaker 2: that is excited about every new annual release. But to
Speaker 2: end that showcase, which I think, you know, a lot
Speaker 2: of us were like fairly positive on, you know, there
Speaker 2: was something for everyone there. To end it with a
Speaker 2: dud that is a call of duty DMZ mode from
Speaker 2: like a wonky angle just shows how out of touch
Speaker 2: they are. And you alluded to it during that talk
Speaker 2: over grub, But it felt like this is something that
Speaker 2: copilot told them to do, that copilot thought would succeed,
Speaker 2: right It's.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, And I'm like, I don't think that's
Speaker 1: over state and things. I think they're letting ya I
Speaker 1: run the company. I think they are going and saying
Speaker 1: here are my problems, what are my options? And the
Speaker 1: options are the thing that that like, you know, any
Speaker 1: analysts in this injury industry could have told them, which is, hey,
Speaker 1: you were you had things exclusive and your your numbers
Speaker 1: weren't good enough. And and this is you know, she's
Speaker 1: talking about the last five years. How the the you know,
Speaker 1: the revenue has declined, you know, five hundred billion dollars
Speaker 1: or something like that, five hundred million dollars and like
Speaker 1: over so over the last five years, they have shifted
Speaker 1: from things being exclusive to things not being exclusive. That
Speaker 1: didn't improve numbers. So it's like you go back and
Speaker 1: say to the thing, here are my problems. What can
Speaker 1: I change? Here's what I'm doing right now. And the
Speaker 1: only thing you can really change is, okay, we'll make
Speaker 1: stuff exclusive and maybe that will get people to buy
Speaker 1: hardware again, because that's where you're seeing the biggest losses
Speaker 1: in your in your revenue right now. You're not selling
Speaker 1: enough consoles. It's it's insanity.
Speaker 2: That's the other aspect, Greb. Like that I was also
Speaker 2: alluding to, Like you talk about the health of the
Speaker 2: company as a whole. Yet you have a completed game
Speaker 2: that can and would succeed only PlayStation five. You've seen
Speaker 2: how well Forts a Horizon has done. Yet because you're
Speaker 2: bending to the buzzword of exclusivity, you're going to withhold
Speaker 2: that game. You actively do not want this company to succeed.
Speaker 2: You were just trying to satisfy whatever buzzwords there are
Speaker 2: in that moment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it. You know, for a long time now,
Speaker 1: I've heard that the people in charge of Xbox, you know,
Speaker 1: the Matt Booty's, you know, the Phil Spencer's now Asha
Speaker 1: Sharma's just they do not have vision. There's there's visionless.
Speaker 1: They are working backward from data, which you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of these companies do actually look at the data
Speaker 1: and that's important, sure, but you need to like use
Speaker 1: that to inform these ideas that you have that are
Speaker 1: bigger than that. So you can find the green pastors,
Speaker 1: so you can find the blue oceans or whatever. And
Speaker 1: Xbox has just never been able to do that. And
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it's just this big
Speaker 1: corporation taking oxygen out of the room from an industry
Speaker 1: that did just start in garages. It did start in
Speaker 1: people's basements making games as a hobby. Like you know,
Speaker 1: you go back to the eighties and the microcomputer scene
Speaker 1: in the UK, where it's just people like basically making
Speaker 1: games for pennies if they were selling the games at all,
Speaker 1: and it was just like, hey, it was a passionate thing,
Speaker 1: and they got dollar signs in their eyes to a
Speaker 1: certain degree. But then the corporations thought that it would
Speaker 1: become something that it just never was going to be,
Speaker 1: like it's about buying and playing games. And Microsoft always
Speaker 1: reviewed it as some pathway to the living room where
Speaker 1: we can get windows into the living room. What does
Speaker 1: that even mean? What did it ever mean? It never
Speaker 1: meant anything. It was never a real thing. It was
Speaker 1: never like, no one was clamoring for that. Just Xbox,
Speaker 1: if you can make us some games, we'll buy some
Speaker 1: video games. That part worked for a while, and it
Speaker 1: worked up through the Xbox three sixty, and then they
Speaker 1: got dollar signs in their eyes again with the Xbox one,
Speaker 1: like all right, now we see the telemetry. Everyone's using
Speaker 1: this to watch TV. That's the future. We're gonna plug
Speaker 1: cable boxes into this thing and that will be there.
Speaker 1: Like here's an HDMI in and an HDMI out. Let's go,
Speaker 1: and what what are you talking about? This is how
Speaker 1: we end up here because they never really wanted to
Speaker 1: be in this business in the first place. It was
Speaker 1: always a means to an end, and if everyone in
Speaker 1: this industry is feeling used by these big corporations, yeah,
Speaker 1: that there's a reason for that. That's exactly what they
Speaker 1: were trying to.
Speaker 2: Do, all right.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Also, Greb, like you know it as a youth growing
Speaker 2: up and seeing like the the inception of Xbox and
Speaker 2: then how originally how it felt like it was originally
Speaker 2: to how it is now. It felt like they were
Speaker 2: moving the needle right of, like, Hey, this is where
Speaker 2: we're going to put first person shooters, make them work
Speaker 2: on a console. You want online multiplayer that's stable and cool,
Speaker 2: where all your friends are. This is where it's at,
Speaker 2: achievements and everything. The summer of Xbox Arcade was wild
Speaker 2: to see all these indie games that I previously felt
Speaker 2: were only beholden to the PC are now coming to
Speaker 2: my home console. That felt great. And then to see
Speaker 2: any type of innovation thrown out the window and then
Speaker 2: stomped on, and then them force feeding me like whatever
Speaker 2: vision they have is just absolutely disappointing.
Speaker 1: Yep. Absolutely, Hopefully there's some alternatives coming along. Yeahlex from
Speaker 1: Hey steam Os that that would be nice, if only
Speaker 1: because it would open up Linux in a big way,
Speaker 1: and we could just get an open source future. That
Speaker 1: would be ideal. All right, let's stick with the theme
Speaker 1: you self disclosing multiple studios resulting in up to three
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty job losses. This is from Andy Robinson
Speaker 1: at VGC. You'd be soft disclosing it's Winnipeg and Belgrade
Speaker 1: studios and restructuring its Barcelona office, which could result in
Speaker 1: as many as three hundred and eighty job losses. VGC
Speaker 1: understands Ubisoft Barcelona will be restructor restructured to focus solely,
Speaker 1: excuse me, on Rainbow six projects. In addition, Ubisoft has
Speaker 1: internally announced organizational changes within its global publishing team, which
Speaker 1: we'll see role reductions across the company. Winnipeg was founded
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen and comprised around one hundred employees. It
Speaker 1: focused on developing technology for Ubisoft's game engines. And they'll
Speaker 1: and snowdrop you know a little bit of a question there.
Speaker 1: It's like, that's not just like they were some fly
Speaker 1: by Night support studio. This was not just like, oh,
Speaker 1: we can help you a little bit here. They were
Speaker 1: crucial to developing the technologies that enabled all those Ubisoft
Speaker 1: studios to work together in conjunction with one another on
Speaker 1: cutting edge game software. Because one team was responsible for
Speaker 1: making sure that stuff was up to date and the
Speaker 1: documentation was all there, it does call into question the
Speaker 1: entire way UBI Soft is going to be making games
Speaker 1: going forward. This closure, the closures, and restructuring come as
Speaker 1: part of Ubisoft's global cost saving plan, which so far
Speaker 1: has resulted in the cancelation of at least six games,
Speaker 1: the postponement of seven others, and multiple studio closures, resulting
Speaker 1: in hundreds of job losses this year. Another another wrinkle
Speaker 1: of this Jan You stuff apparently reached out to press
Speaker 1: and was like, hey, we got something we're gonna out soon.
Speaker 1: Do you do you want to do? You want to do?
Speaker 1: You have to agree to an embargo and everyone's like sure, yeah,
Speaker 1: like that's the normal. And then the embargoed information was layoffs,
Speaker 1: which is not something that's normal. I've never seen that before.
Speaker 1: No one I can't imagine, no one I've worked with
Speaker 1: would have agreed to an embargo for layoffs had they
Speaker 1: known that's what it was going to be. That's that
Speaker 1: is just diabolical.
Speaker 2: Jan absolutely insane. I there's a lot of CEOs to
Speaker 2: hate grub Uh sure, nine percent of them minus hours
Speaker 2: he's the one percent the good. But we just we're
Speaker 2: talking about mismanagement at Xbox, and this has been a
Speaker 2: long recorded case of absolute mismanagement from Eves Gumont and
Speaker 2: the whole Gumont family. With Ubisoft, this is another company
Speaker 2: where I don't expect anything good to come from and
Speaker 2: I don't have much hope for them with the existing
Speaker 2: leadership that they have on top. You have fantastic franchises
Speaker 2: within your library, yet you completely mishandle them, You mishandle
Speaker 2: your employees, you shit on them. It is God. I
Speaker 2: hate Eves Gambant, and I feel especially upset about the
Speaker 2: folks that are going to be losing their jobs in
Speaker 2: a market that is already overcrowded and overflooded with people
Speaker 2: searching and scrapping for those same jobs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's you know, it's gross to see, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's smooth w and chappoints out. This is the family
Speaker 1: that built WB soft and now they're tearing it down.
Speaker 1: And that's that's not how publicly traded companies are supposed
Speaker 1: to work. One of the ideas is like, you know,
Speaker 1: you build a company. Then you sell it publicly to
Speaker 1: people who can buy the steaks, and that means it
Speaker 1: spreads out the ownership and it spreads out the steaks
Speaker 1: that people have, and now you have to answer to
Speaker 1: all those people. So all the people that work there
Speaker 1: should have a little bit more protection because it's not
Speaker 1: like at the whims of one crazy family and it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is the worst of both worlds. You have to
Speaker 1: deal with all of the demands from investors to grow
Speaker 1: and the insanity of one family still kind of controlling everything.
Speaker 1: So that I mean, really it kind of gets behind
Speaker 1: like what is driving the mess? That is you be soft.
Speaker 1: This is another company that just needs to make good
Speaker 1: games and dig them out. I think we talked about
Speaker 1: it recently. The list of games that they're working on
Speaker 1: very familiar. So again, what's going to change. They're going
Speaker 1: to make Assassin's Creed, They're going to make Far Cry,
Speaker 1: They're going to make some Tom Clancy games, and then
Speaker 1: they're going to experiment with stuff here or there. But
Speaker 1: you know, they're doing a Reman, a ray Man remake
Speaker 1: a Reman, and it's again no cool. I like ray Man,
Speaker 1: you know, but what were you really doing? To change
Speaker 1: the fate of this company and it's numerous employees. The
Speaker 1: fourteen thousand or so that still work there. I mean
Speaker 1: maybe it's down to twelve thousand now, but that's still
Speaker 1: an astronomical number for this industry and really for any industry.
Speaker 1: And where's the guidance to sort of build this company
Speaker 1: for the future instead of just trying to scrape by
Speaker 1: to the next win. And it just feels like that's
Speaker 1: all they're doing, is like, maybe we can get another
Speaker 1: good Assassin's Creed game out there that people like and
Speaker 1: maybe not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can. You can remake another Assassin's Creed and
Speaker 2: push and scrape to a next one and it can
Speaker 2: be good. But that is not enough at this point,
Speaker 2: at the scale that you operate under, and after all
Speaker 2: of your previous decisions, I don't think it is enough
Speaker 2: grub to move the needle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, again, going back to that, like a closing down Winnipeg,
Speaker 1: which you know worked on Snowdrop, worked on a bunch
Speaker 1: of those engines. Is this another company it's going to
Speaker 1: start doing the painful transition over to unreal It's not
Speaker 1: like things are you know, rosy over there. Either, they're
Speaker 1: dropping an Unreal Engine six because a lot of developers
Speaker 1: have been tearing their hair out with Unreal Engine five.
Speaker 1: Not that they wouldn't be tearing their hair out if
Speaker 1: they were making their own engine. Still like this, that's
Speaker 1: a very complicated thing to manage, but yeah, like that.
Speaker 1: That was one of the keys to this to success
Speaker 1: for UBISAW for a long time is they just had
Speaker 1: this infrastructure that was unparalleled in getting a bunch of studios,
Speaker 1: like fourteen different teams all around the world working on
Speaker 1: the same thing. And if that's beginning to fall apart,
Speaker 1: to me, it's like it spells the end of what
Speaker 1: Ubisoft was and they're gonna have to try something completely different,
Speaker 1: and they do not seem set up to do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think they're quite set up to make
Speaker 2: any type of bold or positive moves as a company.
Speaker 1: All right, let's uh, let's go ahead and get to
Speaker 1: the break. We got plenty more to get into after this.
Speaker 1: If you want to skip out on these ad messages,
Speaker 1: go to GiantBomb dot com sus join and become a
Speaker 1: premium member. We will be right back. All right, it's
Speaker 1: Game mess Mornings. I'm Jeff Grubb. That's Janichoa, let's get
Speaker 1: into this next story, and again, a lot of the
Speaker 1: stuff's gonna be tainted by what's going on with Xbox,
Speaker 1: but let's try to like still suss through some of this.
Speaker 1: The Elder Scrolls six exists. This is from from Francesco
Speaker 1: Katchatore at Polygon. In a controversial day for Xbox, after
Speaker 1: recently appointed CEO Asha Sharma warned of incoming personnel cuts,
Speaker 1: almost killing all the goodwill the company accrued. During Sunday's
Speaker 1: Xbox Game Showcase, Chief Content Officer Matt Booty did the
Speaker 1: only thing that could distract fans. He mentioned the Elder
Speaker 1: Scrolls six, unfortunately reading between the lines of the usual
Speaker 1: corporate lingo and word salad that says a lot without
Speaker 1: saying anything. The conclusion is an unfortunate one, but those
Speaker 1: the Game Studios much anticipated game is not coming anytime soon.
Speaker 1: In an interview with Variety, Booty addressed several hot topics,
Speaker 1: including Xbox's return to exclusive games with Gears of War
Speaker 1: E Day and Clockwork Revolution, the console's upcoming twenty fifth
Speaker 1: anniversary this November, and his partnership with Sharma. The most
Speaker 1: intriguing answer came when the interviewer asked the inevitable question
Speaker 1: about the Elder Scroll six and the game's absence from
Speaker 1: the Games showcase. Here's Booty's full response. I would say
Speaker 1: one of the more challenging balancing acts of something in
Speaker 1: a job like mine is balancing that you want to
Speaker 1: go show the world all the cool stuff you're working on,
Speaker 1: and you want to get them excited early, but we
Speaker 1: also know that we want to wait until the right moment.
Speaker 1: And when you decide to show it, I mean, don't
Speaker 1: say it like that. You want it to be the
Speaker 1: best you've got. And also you got also that when
Speaker 1: you show the game, you're also giving the promise of hey,
Speaker 1: it's coming soon. So I can tell you, having visited
Speaker 1: Bethesda and sat with Todd and seeing Elder Scrolls playing,
Speaker 1: it looks amazing and it's coming along well, and we'll
Speaker 1: make sure to announce it and really reveal it at
Speaker 1: that same time or at the right time. Excuse me, So,
Speaker 1: I guess the one new thing here is someone has
Speaker 1: played the Elder Scroll six outside of Bethesda. It's an
Speaker 1: Xbox executive, and really nothing else has changed that this
Speaker 1: is still a game that is in the works. It's
Speaker 1: coming along soon and I just don't. I don't know.
Speaker 1: It does feel like this is another jangling key, right,
Speaker 1: This is another moment of we'll say the thing that
Speaker 1: people kind of have been asking about or have been
Speaker 1: asking about a great deal for many many years, and
Speaker 1: really nothing's changed. It's probably still years away way, but
Speaker 1: I've played it, so are you excited?
Speaker 2: To me?
Speaker 1: This is the same mismanagement we were just talking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for people that do as many interviews as they've
Speaker 2: been doing grub, I feel like there's some level of
Speaker 2: media training that needs to be enacted where you can
Speaker 2: just say we don't have further updates right.
Speaker 1: Now, yep, yeah, I mean yeah, or just.
Speaker 2: Moving on from the question. And I know, based off
Speaker 2: of how games media and games journalism is and we'll
Speaker 2: get to the plate story in a second, people will
Speaker 2: latch onto every single word that gets said. But this
Speaker 2: just feels like a nothing burger of anything. And it
Speaker 2: also feels a little irresponsible of a response to like, Okay,
Speaker 2: yeah it exists, sure, but there's nothing tangible to this grub,
Speaker 2: Like we're not going to see this anytime. You could
Speaker 2: say an Xbox executive play this, sure, who's the executive
Speaker 2: how much did they play? What is this?
Speaker 1: And you know, there are still a lot of questions around,
Speaker 1: but does you know Starfield didn't hit the way that
Speaker 1: that everyone needed it to. That is, you know, that
Speaker 1: was not the beginning of the end for Xbox, but
Speaker 1: that was the end of the end in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways where it's like that is what convinced them
Speaker 1: that they needed to go third party in all but name,
Speaker 1: and they needed to start like putting their games on
Speaker 1: PlayStation more frequently because they needed to get more sales
Speaker 1: than they were getting from these games that take forever
Speaker 1: to make. The older Scroll six feels like it's going
Speaker 1: to have all of those same concerned it's going to
Speaker 1: be big expensive, Yeah, I guess, but this is not
Speaker 1: the biggest Dutio in the world. But they're still big
Speaker 1: and they do take a long time to make their games.
Speaker 1: But a lot of is writing on this one this
Speaker 1: and you know, is this one going to be exclusive? Honestly,
Speaker 1: by the time it comes out, there could be a
Speaker 1: whole new CEO at Xbox or a whole new owner
Speaker 1: at Xbox. You know, private equity who knows, uh, things
Speaker 1: could change a great deal by the time this thing
Speaker 1: actually happens, but it just continues to feel like another
Speaker 1: set of jingling keys. As we said, let's it was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, go ahead, greb. If we actually look at the history,
Speaker 2: it should have been redfall that saved or either saved
Speaker 2: Xbox or led to the downfall that is.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's the lunchpin you pull, that's the cornerstone. You
Speaker 1: pull that and things fall apart. Let's stick with this
Speaker 1: Xbox Game chief. Hence, Marvel's Blade could be shown later
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six after missing the Xbox Games Showcase.
Speaker 1: This is from Brandon Lowry at Windows Central. Last weekend's
Speaker 1: Xbox Game Showcase was Microsoft's latest, big, big gaming presentation.
Speaker 1: In future trailers, blah blah blah, we talked about everything, notably, However,
Speaker 1: one game that was absent from the show was Marvel's Blade,
Speaker 1: the new single player game, a new single player third
Speaker 1: person action adventure title from Bethesda and Arcane Leone who
Speaker 1: did Dishonored and Death Loop that sees you play as
Speaker 1: the legendary vampire Hunter anti hero of the comic book
Speaker 1: first announced in twenty twenty three. During the game, words
Speaker 1: we've already or we've barely heard or seen anything about
Speaker 1: it since earlier this week, one of one of the
Speaker 1: people at the studio, the lead concept artists, responded to
Speaker 1: someone asking about the game with let us cook. I
Speaker 1: you know, Jam we talked about it, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I haven't heard about it. Was
Speaker 1: that when one of the games got canceled and people
Speaker 1: freaked out, and so I went to go look, I'm like,
Speaker 1: let me double check. Seems like the game is coming
Speaker 1: along just fine. It is in the works. But this
Speaker 1: is a this is a team at Microsoft that is
Speaker 1: you know, they are probably not feeling too hot about
Speaker 1: where they're at because Arcane Leon had a strong relationship
Speaker 1: with Arcane Austin, which did get shut down, and I
Speaker 1: don't know, I bet they're just not happy to like
Speaker 1: do with it. What They're not there to like make
Speaker 1: Microsoft Xbox look good. They're there to make the good game.
Speaker 1: And that's what I was kind of talking about earlier.
Speaker 1: When we talk about these stories. There's going to be
Speaker 1: some times where it's like I want to talk about
Speaker 1: the good game that the good people are making, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of good people at Arcane Leone trying
Speaker 1: to do exactly that, and what it means for Xbox
Speaker 1: is kinda who gives a fuck at this point, Let's
Speaker 1: get let's just let us see the good game, no
Speaker 1: matter where, we're going to get to play it. Because
Speaker 1: this is a team that does interesting things. They seem
Speaker 1: to be putting putting together something pretty impressive here by
Speaker 1: all accounts, by what I'm hearing, And you know, what
Speaker 1: does that mean? And if they are that passionate about
Speaker 1: if they deserve to have a chance. But yeah, how
Speaker 1: would you be feeling if you were working on this
Speaker 1: game at Arcane?
Speaker 2: We own right now, jan Ah, the ice around me
Speaker 2: is quickly melting grub right like you see peers from
Speaker 2: other studios, similar other Arcane studios getting let go and
Speaker 2: shut down. Support is leaving you. Who knows how much
Speaker 2: actual communication is happening from the top down from like
Speaker 2: Xbox leadership to Arcane. It probably does not feel good
Speaker 2: and it is probably hampering your actual work when you
Speaker 2: are are seeing everyone around you is studios are getting closed,
Speaker 2: games are getting canceled. I don't think it's a good feeling.
Speaker 2: It's probably a very tense feeling and not a cool
Speaker 2: one like a blood rave.
Speaker 1: Yes right, those are the coolest things you could be
Speaker 1: a part of as a blood rave, and that image
Speaker 1: is steered into my brain. I hope that's in the game.
Speaker 1: I hope there's a blood rave in the game, Like
Speaker 1: if you were making the game, you would make a
Speaker 1: rave of blood. Yeah. I mean, I think we probably
Speaker 1: do see this game actually later This year of French
Speaker 1: studios showing up to like games common Europe sounds right
Speaker 1: to me. Maybe it's there and they've been part of
Speaker 1: a chilly stuff before, so maybe it's opening that live.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the Game Awards again.
Speaker 2: I don't know, what do you think, uh, Greb, I
Speaker 2: think of a fantastic quote in how it feels like
Speaker 2: Xbox leadership and how people are treating this Blade game.
Speaker 2: Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill.
Speaker 1: Some motherfuckers, right, I can't. I think about that every day. Yea,
Speaker 1: that goes through my head constantly, honestly, and any chance
Speaker 1: to use it, I appreciate it all right. Q one
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six revenue figures show there is still demand
Speaker 1: for compelling single player video games. Surprise. This is from
Speaker 1: Sophie McAvoy at Games Industry dot biz Global Game Content
Speaker 1: Revenue increased three point six percent to fifty four point
Speaker 1: one four billion dollars in Q one twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: marking the seventh consecutive quarter of year over year growth,
Speaker 1: according to estimates reported by SMP Global Market Intelligence. The
Speaker 1: content revenue figures cover software in game purchases and games
Speaker 1: based and game based subscription services, but do not include hardware. Basically,
Speaker 1: ten cents still the biggest company in the world, net
Speaker 1: Ease is number two. These are massive companies that have
Speaker 1: ownership over studios all of the world and then also
Speaker 1: have unparalleled access to one of the biggest gaming markets
Speaker 1: in China, so they have what I would call an
Speaker 1: unfair advantage that they're just big and they cannot be
Speaker 1: messed with when it comes to that. But there are
Speaker 1: some notable like game publishers and studios that saw massive
Speaker 1: increases in their revenue over the last year, and two
Speaker 1: of them that this story calls out are Capcom and
Speaker 1: pearl Abyss Capcom Resident Evil, Pearl Abyss Crimson Desert. They
Speaker 1: saw some of the biggest year on year revenue increases
Speaker 1: and it's through their games, which were big single player
Speaker 1: narrative based releases. Capcom's gaming content revenue jumped eighty nine
Speaker 1: point eight percent to four hundred and fifty one point
Speaker 1: eight million dollars thanks to Resident Evil Requiem, the fastest
Speaker 1: selling game in the franchise so far, while Pearl abyss
Speaker 1: Is revenue stared by an astonishing four hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: eight point six percent to three hundred and twenty eight
Speaker 1: point one million dollars, with Crimson Desert selling over five
Speaker 1: million copies. That number just went over six million copies
Speaker 1: just the other day, I think maybe just yesterday actually.
Speaker 1: SMP noted that despite the dominance of live service games,
Speaker 1: Q one continued consumer demand for single player titles like
Speaker 1: Requiem and Crimson Desert. The largest dollar games remain concentrated
Speaker 1: among a relatively small group of scaled publishers and platform
Speaker 1: holders with durable live service portfolios, strong positions in China
Speaker 1: or both. But the quarter offered at least some evidence
Speaker 1: that consumers are willing to give traditional standalone titles. Look,
Speaker 1: should publishers deliver a compelling package? And it's like, I mean, Jim,
Speaker 1: we started off this story scoff and I think we
Speaker 1: can begin scoffing again. No shit, And it's surprising we
Speaker 1: kind of have to keep teaching you this lesson old men,
Speaker 1: like we kind of have to keep hitting you with
Speaker 1: this that like the demand is there, we have not
Speaker 1: gone anywhere. No, this cohort has money to spend on
Speaker 1: this hobby. It is being stretched further than ever. It's
Speaker 1: being over extended in numerous ways. But when we get
Speaker 1: home from spending too much money on gasoline and food
Speaker 1: and in other forms of entertainment, one of the first
Speaker 1: things most of us are still doing is turning on
Speaker 1: video games. And well that's yes, for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: that does mean turning on Call of Duty in Fortnite. Still,
Speaker 1: the people turning on single player games did not disappear,
Speaker 1: and they and they did spend a lot of money
Speaker 1: on hardware, and they're going to continue to invest in
Speaker 1: that form of entertainment. And I just feel like, man,
Speaker 1: what I just said is the biggest no DA in
Speaker 1: the world to the people who listen to this show,
Speaker 1: because we all that's all of us.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, yeah, grew up like I. Despite having a
Speaker 2: fantastic PC, great Internet, I don't often play games with
Speaker 2: other people unless it's here at work, and I have
Speaker 2: a fantastic time when we do fire up a multiplayer
Speaker 2: game for sure. And if I do play a multiplayer game,
Speaker 2: I'm not gathering a group of friends or a party.
Speaker 2: I'm just jumping into like a random round of Deadlock
Speaker 2: or Marvel Rivals. The time when I'm hunkering down and
Speaker 2: playing a good chunk of a game generally is when
Speaker 2: it is a single player game, like I talked about
Speaker 2: the bomb cast, but like the level of immersion and
Speaker 2: getting lost into a world that a lot of people
Speaker 2: feel with a game like Red Dead Redemption two in
Speaker 2: Crimson Desert. That experience and the level of immersion I
Speaker 2: feel in a game like Double O seven First Light, right,
Speaker 2: I'm transported into a fully realized character, and That's what
Speaker 2: I want to be spending the little bit of free
Speaker 2: time I have. Not it isn't always with other people
Speaker 2: playing a Call of Duty, a marathon or whatever else.
Speaker 1: Have you, And it's you know, and I think the
Speaker 1: other part of this conversation we always have is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but what about the kids? Are they getting into this space? Well? Like, look,
Speaker 1: what can we say other than Resident Evil Requiem is
Speaker 1: the fastest selling Resident Evil game ever. That only happens
Speaker 1: if more people than ever are playing Resident Evil games
Speaker 1: that's what that means. So Okay, maybe it's maybe it's
Speaker 1: not all kids, but some kids are coming into space
Speaker 1: a little bit. But you're also active eating new groups
Speaker 1: from slightly older demographics that are coming in and like
Speaker 1: looking for a hobby that is different than the ones
Speaker 1: they've engaged in before, and video games are screaming at them.
Speaker 1: Look at this amount of content you have from something
Speaker 1: like a Resident Evil, and they promise to continue investing
Speaker 1: with new games. You know that if you spend your
Speaker 1: time on this, you're going to be rewarded with a
Speaker 1: future that is bright for that series. And Resident Evil
Speaker 1: is raping those rewards and everyone else that's sort of
Speaker 1: copying that is beginning to do exactly the same thing.
Speaker 1: And I think that is like you, just like I
Speaker 1: was saying, I might have said on the couch, I
Speaker 1: might have said in a private conversation, you win by
Speaker 1: throwing the coolest party, Like you win by throwing the
Speaker 1: coolest party that people want to be a part of. Yes, Jan,
Speaker 1: you win by having the coolest party and then the
Speaker 1: kids will want to be a part of it if
Speaker 1: it's the coolest and Resident Evil right now is the
Speaker 1: coolest party. Everyone sees that. It's like I want to
Speaker 1: be watching content creators play that. I want to play
Speaker 1: them myself. I want to play them with my friends,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about them with my friends. And
Speaker 1: that is something that eventually rottrition will win over new audiences.
Speaker 1: I think that's the underlying story to this story.
Speaker 2: I think Capcom as a whole lately has been like
Speaker 2: the party to be at right, because it's not just
Speaker 2: with Resident Evil Reque I'm selling big numbers, but is
Speaker 2: also with like a new ip like Pragmata selling very
Speaker 2: well and performing very well. People wanting to get into
Speaker 2: that game. And I don't know what Capcom is managing
Speaker 2: to do. I actually grab I know what it is.
Speaker 2: They're making video games and that's what is drawing the
Speaker 2: people to them.
Speaker 1: Go figure. YEP.
Speaker 2: A lot of stories today, GREB make me just want
Speaker 2: to shake someone, grab them by the shoulders and shake.
Speaker 1: Them absolutely same. One person I'm not gonna shake is
Speaker 1: Michael Hyam who asked RGG about Tupac let's see, And
Speaker 1: I'm honestly Michael Hyam the person I would want to
Speaker 1: ask this question. So let's see. He over at IGN
Speaker 1: asked a lot of people have concerns about Tupac's casting here,
Speaker 1: saying maybe he should have been left alone and maybe
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have done that. How do you respond to
Speaker 1: those criticisms? And this is Yoko Yama from RGG. I
Speaker 1: think when you're creating any product in entertainment industry, there's
Speaker 1: going to be criticism. You can't really say, don't criticize us.
Speaker 1: That just doesn't make sense. Criticism is a freedom that
Speaker 1: people are free to have. But this, but this is
Speaker 1: something that we thought was a good idea. This is
Speaker 1: something that would add value to our game, which is
Speaker 1: why we chose to do this.
Speaker 2: Not a great answer, No, a terrible answer, Greb. Sometimes
Speaker 2: I feel bad when I pop up on this program.
Speaker 2: The kids may consider me a little too woke, And
Speaker 2: you know what, I don't give a fuck. Yep, my
Speaker 2: eyes are open, bitch. This is a fucking terrible thing.
Speaker 2: The asinine takes that I've seen of like, oh, his
Speaker 2: estate approved it. You fuckers don't even know that his
Speaker 2: estate isn't even run by his family. Yeah, it is
Speaker 2: people trotting out a person that is dead, that has
Speaker 2: no autonomy, no choice over how his image is being
Speaker 2: presented or his remaining family members are are choosing to
Speaker 2: preserve the legacy of this person.
Speaker 1: There's there's like ways to make that make sense, and
Speaker 1: none of it has to do with adding value to
Speaker 1: the game. The game you're trying to sell us just honestly,
Speaker 1: the worst answer they could have given. Like there's like
Speaker 1: something like like he meant a lot, and here's how
Speaker 1: we're going to Like that begins to get at something
Speaker 1: that feels real if you start talking about like the
Speaker 1: the emotions behind it and how much he means to
Speaker 1: you and how much you think you can do right
Speaker 1: by by him or anyone that you put in your game,
Speaker 1: but let alone a dead person who did not have
Speaker 1: a say to then not be able to translate that
Speaker 1: to anything other than we think this makes the game
Speaker 1: a better volume value proposition.
Speaker 2: It's in vane.
Speaker 1: You've lost the prom you've lost the plot. Rgg. Like
Speaker 1: there was a time where like you were cool, you
Speaker 1: were the cool party. This this feels like the exact
Speaker 1: opposite of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Greb, I have a lot of thoughts on this,
Speaker 2: like rumbling around in my head. If this was like
Speaker 2: done in a historical context, right, you're retelling like a
Speaker 2: historical event maybe sure, Yeah, but this is in fucking
Speaker 2: Japan in like what the nineteen twenties.
Speaker 1: I'm right if it's like or like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: a retelling of you know, the Black Samurai story and
Speaker 1: a different context in a different time, and you thought
Speaker 1: Tupac was the best vessel through which to do that,
Speaker 1: And you can explain that in very detailed language and
Speaker 1: through real reasoning why that is the way you wanted
Speaker 1: to do that. Again, I would listen because I like
Speaker 1: dumb stuff like this. The one thing I didn't want
Speaker 1: to hear was just like, this was a great commercial opportunity.
Speaker 1: To me, that's the thing that just makes me sick
Speaker 1: to my tummy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes me like livid also grub just the
Speaker 2: way that uh, media as a whole, and that's music, television, movies,
Speaker 2: video games is so okay exploiting black bodies and and
Speaker 2: in this case, dragging out a dead person without their
Speaker 2: literally without their say or their families say in the matter.
Speaker 2: So much popular culture is is and should be attributed
Speaker 2: to black culture, yet it is not.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: It is constantly exploited, constantly ignored, exploited. And this is
Speaker 2: just another example of people being so fucking out of touch.
Speaker 2: Just because you think it's cool doesn't mean that it's
Speaker 2: actually Okay. Yeah, fucking dorks.
Speaker 1: Also, fuck you, Snoop Dogg. I'm done with you, man.
Speaker 1: It's not doing that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fucking that's the other thing about Stranger that heaven.
Speaker 2: You have a fucking sellout like Snoop Dogg and you
Speaker 2: think it's gonna be cool.
Speaker 1: Oh god, Yeah, that's that's it's yeah, that's the party's
Speaker 1: over all right, Thanks him for asking about that. I
Speaker 1: appreciate that. Let's see here, we got a few more stories. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1: Xbox says hardware pricing boom represents great opportunity for games streaming.
Speaker 1: This is from Alex Forbes Calvin at Games Industry OPIZ.
Speaker 1: Xbox is newly anointed Chief strategy officer Matthew Ball has
Speaker 1: said that the current spike in hardware pricing represents an
Speaker 1: opportunity for game streaming. Speaking at the Games Business Alive,
Speaker 1: the executive said that already a lot more people have
Speaker 1: been using the company's Xbox Cloud gaming. That being said,
Speaker 1: Ball emphasized that streaming was one part of Xbox's you know, strategy,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. All this comes amidst the seismic impact
Speaker 1: of the AI boom that is having huge ramifications on
Speaker 1: gaming hardware prices. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Valve have all
Speaker 1: announced our RP. Like you know, retail price increases for
Speaker 1: consoles due to market conditions. This is a great window
Speaker 1: for streaming. Ball said, it's a great window because there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of outstanding games. We have a shortage of
Speaker 1: console supply, and that is definitely evident in the data.
Speaker 1: We are seeing a lot more people using the platform.
Speaker 1: They are trying it. There are, of course, a number
Speaker 1: of challenges in the market that people are navigating. We
Speaker 1: feel very strongly about a return to Xbox. We are
Speaker 1: very clear, I want to make no mistake around that.
Speaker 1: At the same time, we feel very fortunate and privileged
Speaker 1: to have multiple different avenues for players to play. We
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier that if you want to play on PC,
Speaker 1: you can do that. It's not exclusionary and there are
Speaker 1: hundreds of millions of billions of people who have access
Speaker 1: that way. I mean, he goes on to talk about
Speaker 1: he says more of the same. Okay, look, it is
Speaker 1: always nice to have options. I don't want to hear
Speaker 1: how it's great for this alternative means through which you
Speaker 1: benefit more than anyone else. When people are locked into
Speaker 1: your cloud infrastructure, which you have full control over, that
Speaker 1: affordable computing is over. Like, that is a crisis. This
Speaker 1: is a crisis we're going through right now that that
Speaker 1: you know, we can no longer own the computers through
Speaker 1: which that we like, you know, you go back to
Speaker 1: Arthur C. Clark, you'd go back to all these guys
Speaker 1: originally talking about, Hey, we're gonna get to a point
Speaker 1: one day where the elites control the technology and the
Speaker 1: information and the data and we do not have access
Speaker 1: to it. And then they use that against us, and
Speaker 1: they weaponize that against us, and suddenly we don't have
Speaker 1: control of our society and our democracy anymore. And we're
Speaker 1: living through that right now. And to hear that that's
Speaker 1: a great opportunity for fucking ex cloud. I don't. I'm
Speaker 1: so done with this stuff, especially from guys like Matthew.
Speaker 2: Ball Jan Matthew, you take your ball and go home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm done with these people.
Speaker 2: Absolute loser behavior. It's you see these people in this
Speaker 2: I'm not advocating for violence, I'm not. But if you
Speaker 2: have a really juicy tomato, you know, sure, I'm what
Speaker 2: else to do with it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. For me, cloud gaming is is kind of
Speaker 1: a it's always been an interesting little thing that can
Speaker 1: it's oh that works, that's that's neat. It's a non
Speaker 1: starter for me.
Speaker 2: In a very neat case of course, right, Yes, I
Speaker 2: need I.
Speaker 1: Need to control my my my my own files, my
Speaker 1: own programs. I want to be able to mod my stuff.
Speaker 1: These are this is my software. Once I buy it
Speaker 1: from you, I want to do whatever the hell I
Speaker 1: want to it. That includes, you know, extracting saves and
Speaker 1: moving into other platforms, something I've done before, like, like
Speaker 1: I said, modding the hell out of games. This is
Speaker 1: you know, it's mine now, it's all my computer. It's
Speaker 1: this is my hardware, my software. I want to do
Speaker 1: what I want with it. That is a huge part
Speaker 1: of the appeal of gaming to me at this point.
Speaker 1: And uh, that is non negotiable. Like if it's if
Speaker 1: they start like establishing that that is something like and
Speaker 1: they keep saying the right thing here that it's oh,
Speaker 1: it's just another choice, but we know where they really
Speaker 1: want us to be, and it is them controlling the
Speaker 1: hardware stack. That is what invit kind of keeps gesturing
Speaker 1: towards and it's because they can sell sixty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: GPUs to a couple of companies instead of selling us
Speaker 1: selling US five hundred dollars GPUs or consoles or whatever,
Speaker 1: and that's way more appealing to them and something. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is the kind of stuff that regulation. There should
Speaker 1: be something done about this, we need to have And
Speaker 1: I get that the pricing right now is out of
Speaker 1: control of some of these people, but I'm trying to
Speaker 1: figure out who did this whole air thing in the
Speaker 1: first place. And oh, it's Microsoft, so you're the reason
Speaker 1: pricing is out of control. Maybe rain in the other
Speaker 1: side of the business so that we can have nice
Speaker 1: things again, I.
Speaker 2: Feel like my brain has just been buffering this whole episode. Grub.
Speaker 2: I know, it's just an absolute insane approach to this.
Speaker 2: And also, Grub, I feel like a big not a
Speaker 2: big part.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 2: I don't know anything about video game development, but I
Speaker 2: feel like a good part of video game video hardware
Speaker 2: development is the tinkering aspect, right, getting into the guts
Speaker 2: and the nitty gritty the files of things and understanding
Speaker 2: how that works. You take that away from people and
Speaker 2: you were going to kill the future of this industry
Speaker 2: in different forms than you're already killing it, taking away ownership,
Speaker 2: and it just here's another subscription for you to to
Speaker 2: for us to have you on the line for I
Speaker 2: don't want it. I already didn't want an Xbox, I
Speaker 2: don't want in my clouds.
Speaker 1: Yeah. At this point, it's like, you know, the the
Speaker 1: more we can sort of excize and remove these big
Speaker 1: companies from our gaming lives, the better. Like I do
Speaker 1: still want to play some games produced by the companies
Speaker 1: owned by Microsoft. I really enjoyed, enjoyed Forts Horizon six,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad they made it. I'm glad I played it,
Speaker 1: but I I you know, the next day going to
Speaker 1: another game not being not putting made by Microsoft felt
Speaker 1: a lot better because I just don't want to be dealing.
Speaker 1: They bring nothing to this industry except for pain. At
Speaker 1: this point, it feels like we probably could have gotten
Speaker 1: a Forts Horizon six without them, you know, we you know,
Speaker 1: obviously they owned the IP That's not what I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: But like, this industry will be better without them in
Speaker 1: the long run. And this industry, this hobby, that's the
Speaker 1: side I care about. The hobby where we are tinkers
Speaker 1: and we are just playing stuff because we enjoy it.
Speaker 1: And people were making games in their garage forty years
Speaker 1: ago and those people still exist, and I want to
Speaker 1: be playing their games first and foremost.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of my excitement grub from SGF wasn't
Speaker 2: actually at any of the big shows. It came from
Speaker 2: like the smaller indie titles we played. You were playing
Speaker 2: the demo for blood Dungeon yesterday before Space Ace, Blightening
Speaker 2: Round and blood Dungeon. That those developers, they're like in
Speaker 2: tune with what I want from a game.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: The future isn't with these big, gigantic studios and I
Speaker 2: don't I don't think it ever has been. It will
Speaker 2: come from the people in a basement innovating and doing
Speaker 2: silly goofy ideas like maybe you play as a baby.
Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, yeah yeah. Foconus says no, Microsoft eqes two
Speaker 1: thousand dollar PS six. I don't think Sony's the answer either,
Speaker 1: Like I mean, I think I think we're even Nintendo,
Speaker 1: Like I think we're talking about getting some open source
Speaker 1: hardware going forward, like we're so used to the console,
Speaker 1: uh sort of lifestyle and the console light life cycle
Speaker 1: that we kind of can't imagine a world a world
Speaker 1: without it. Well we are. We're crashing into that world
Speaker 1: right now. That's what we're really looking at. And Microsoft
Speaker 1: is already talking about moving on and kind of changing
Speaker 1: what that looks like because they know they need to.
Speaker 1: They can't keep doing the same thing forever. So uh,
Speaker 1: let's get on the other side of it. And if
Speaker 1: it's you know, stagnant open source hardware that doesn't like,
Speaker 1: like like like improve a ton over time, so what,
Speaker 1: I don't care anymore. Or I just want to play
Speaker 1: cool games, maybe by cool people, and I don't care
Speaker 1: if it's the most cutting edge shit in the world anymore.
Speaker 1: All right, last couple of stories here, Sega's heavily recruiting
Speaker 1: for Sonic Team basically sounds like, yeah, they are beefing
Speaker 1: up for the next big Sonic game. Scenario writer, producer,
Speaker 1: lead planner, lead graphics program er, client programmer, technical art manager,
Speaker 1: and tha engineer. They are going hog wild over there,
Speaker 1: not where hog wild, but they are going wild over there.
Speaker 1: It seems like they're beefing up. I wonder if this
Speaker 1: is still for Sonic Frontiers too, or maybe some other
Speaker 1: new three D Sonic but and I personally think I would.
Speaker 1: I would be welcoming a Sonic Frontiers too, But whatever
Speaker 1: they're going to work on over there, I was pretty
Speaker 1: into that game, so I'd be excited to see what
Speaker 1: the follow up would be.
Speaker 2: Jan should we should we like be scared grub that
Speaker 2: they're recruiting people.
Speaker 1: I think I'm always worried about what Sonic team is doing. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: they showed us Pico Park Sonic or whatever, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to you what that first and foremost. But
Speaker 1: then yeah, I think we should be scared.
Speaker 2: I would like a really fun three D platform or
Speaker 2: Sonic game. I think we're it's been overdue. Despite how
Speaker 2: people feel about the Sonic Adventure series, I think Sonic
Speaker 2: needs this win. He's done very well at the movies.
Speaker 2: Let's bring it back home.
Speaker 1: Say what that bobb Z four D one of the
Speaker 1: best Sonic games. It's you can turn into a little
Speaker 1: ball and spin it around and go fast, and it's
Speaker 1: got like like the tubes that feel like those Sonic
Speaker 1: Bonus stages and stuff, and it feels great. It's good.
Speaker 2: Mario Odyssey is one of the best Sonic games.
Speaker 1: I've ever played yes all right and then finally Spyro's
Speaker 1: big comeback wouldn't be possible without first escaping the call
Speaker 1: of duty minds. This is from ash Parish. The story
Speaker 1: is basically Microsoft did do all right by toys for Bob.
Speaker 1: By letting them get out of Microsoft. Is what apparently
Speaker 1: that studio is saying like that could have gone a
Speaker 1: bunch of ways. They could have kept in there working
Speaker 1: on call of duty. They could have closed that studio
Speaker 1: letting them escape Microsoft. The best thing Microsoft did is
Speaker 1: letting let the studio escape Microsoft. And now they're working
Speaker 1: with Xbox to make this Spiro four. Uh cool. I
Speaker 1: guess I'm glad that the studio is able to do
Speaker 1: what they do best, and that is not making assets
Speaker 1: for call of duty levels.
Speaker 2: Can good good for y'all. Grab a studio I hope
Speaker 2: can follow this model and escape Microsoft. Is double five.
Speaker 1: I know, I know they got their money, they got
Speaker 1: the bag, and it doesn't feel like that financial backbone
Speaker 1: that they liked for so long it's going to be
Speaker 1: there for much longer. So double fine our Kane leone.
Speaker 1: There's a laundry list of studios that I hope can
Speaker 1: follow this, and yeah, especially before whatever happens to Xbox happens,
Speaker 1: Like I just like, in ten years, do we still
Speaker 1: think Microsoft owns Xbox or you know, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't think Xbox is only gonna disappear overnight or they'll
Speaker 1: close it down. They might spin it off to private
Speaker 1: equity or something. These studios got to get out of
Speaker 1: there before that happens.
Speaker 2: We we got to do a season one prison break grub. Yeah,
Speaker 2: all right, we have to tax Mike Minatti the schematics
Speaker 2: and blueprints.
Speaker 1: We can't read this, there's too much body hair.
Speaker 2: No, sorry, you're gonna have to get tagged, all right.
Speaker 1: Sorry. There was a Dianic tab open that someone sent
Speaker 1: me of a terrible song and I clicked on it
Speaker 1: trying to get to the giant bomb post here where
Speaker 1: there are threads and polls. In fact, we have the
Speaker 1: poll question from yesterday. We did we? Oh maybe we didn't.
Speaker 1: I don't I not do one yesterday?
Speaker 2: You know what, I didn't write one and I didn't
Speaker 2: check it about it.
Speaker 1: That sounds about right. SGF has killed us all. So
Speaker 1: we have a new one for today. Is what you forgot?
Speaker 1: The pull sys slain MC awsame, thank you, Slaine. Well,
Speaker 1: we have one today, so let's talk about that, everybody.
Speaker 1: We didn't die at SGF and we're just husks of men.
Speaker 1: That's not true. What do you want from the next
Speaker 1: three D Sonic, Sonic Frontiers two or something different? Those
Speaker 1: are your two options. Oh yeah, we did do a
Speaker 1: poll about the Nintendo Direct, A grade whatever, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Drop those in chat right now. Everyone throw your A, B, C,
Speaker 1: D or F in chat right now and we'll see
Speaker 1: which one of which letter I see the most, and
Speaker 1: that'll be the informal poll. But yeah, I do want
Speaker 1: Sonic Frontiers too. I think they had a nugget of
Speaker 1: an idea there, and I want to see them refine
Speaker 1: it in a good to a good degree. Lots of c's, yeah,
Speaker 1: lots of c's from people. There's some b's, some d's.
Speaker 1: I saw one A so far. Jan I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think I think I'm like CUS, No, not C plus.
Speaker 1: I'm like C plus or pnus is where I'm at
Speaker 1: for the Direct. It's just have they shown anything from
Speaker 1: Dusk Bloods and or Zelda or showed any Disney Worlds
Speaker 1: in Kingdom Arts for a series. I don't care about
Speaker 1: beyond like what Disney shit's got to be in there.
Speaker 1: I would have been much happier with that direct, but
Speaker 1: those all three kind of disappointed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't mind it so much for some more
Speaker 2: as mostly I recognize this is not like the take
Speaker 2: that everyone has. I just thought it was hilarious to
Speaker 2: reveal Kingdom Hearts four here and then give everyone five
Speaker 2: seconds of Okarina of Time.
Speaker 1: Yep, I think I did.
Speaker 2: I appreciated the chaos.
Speaker 1: It was a chaotic one. There's definitely some memes that
Speaker 1: I'll be using forever. Koizumi playing thumb war is just
Speaker 1: gonna be what I think about every time I'm excited
Speaker 1: about something for the rest of my life. So there
Speaker 1: we go. All right, we'll get the poll question answered
Speaker 1: for the Sonic one on tomorrow's show as we wrap
Speaker 1: up the week. Also, I think we should still have
Speaker 1: the Last Bomb twelve form going. I'll double check on that,
Speaker 1: but that should still be going. We'll get the results
Speaker 1: of that on tomorrow's show as well. And yeah, let's see,
Speaker 1: it's giant bomb. Everybody jam. What do we have going on?
Speaker 2: We have an episode of Voicemail dump truck popping off
Speaker 2: later today, We're gonna somehow manage to do that, drag
Speaker 2: ourselves to go gab in front of microphones again. Upf
Speaker 2: tomorrow seems like it'll be a grab bag, but I'm
Speaker 2: going to maybe start an hour earlier and just play
Speaker 2: Marvel Rivals, even if it's by myself, because the big
Speaker 2: dog Cyclops is finally in the game tomorrow. I'm so
Speaker 2: excited grub game.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy for you. I want to see him,
Speaker 1: so maybe I'll hop in there see how biggest thighs are.
Speaker 2: The biggest thighs greb. I also had the most insane
Speaker 2: thought and idea, And I don't want this to alarm anyone. Okay,
Speaker 2: this is not a cry for help. Me shaving my
Speaker 2: head was also not a cry for help, Okay, I.
Speaker 1: Knew that, but I'm worried about this one.
Speaker 2: I thought about red downloading Class Royale.
Speaker 1: Jan Ja Dodah is one thing Clash Royale, But like
Speaker 1: what if yeah, you gotta yeah, you gotta play Final
Speaker 1: Fantasy fourteen Final Jansy, Yeah, but you don't la on
Speaker 1: my phone, oh boy, jan oh No, Okay, not a
Speaker 1: cry for help, but clearly a sign of where you're at. Clearly.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about guitar ru man. Come into PlayStation Plus
Speaker 1: next week.
Speaker 2: That's cool.
Speaker 1: If you do, let me know what your clans.
Speaker 2: I'll join, all right, everybody grub it's the one where
Speaker 2: it's there's no clans. It's like the mobile one.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, this is the one that's like, yeah, you
Speaker 1: send out the three guys. I actually never played a
Speaker 1: Clash of Clans. I only played a Clash Royale, So
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's it's I'm sorry everyone, all right, I won't do it.
Speaker 1: Fine, man, people are everyone so worried about Chan? All right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get out of here, everybody and get him
Speaker 1: his intervention. We will be back with the show tomorrow.
Speaker 1: There's voicemail dump truck later today. There is a UPF tomorrow.
Speaker 1: The times moving around on that will let you guys
Speaker 1: know when exactly that's going to start. But thanks for
Speaker 1: hanging out with us all this week. Thanks for hanging
Speaker 1: out with us at SGF last week. Really appreciate everybody
Speaker 1: as always, thank you for listening and watching. Your the
Speaker 1: best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one,
Speaker 1: take care of yourself and goodbye.
Speaker 2: People are telling me cigarettes are better. The clash right