Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to Game mess Mornings with Me Mike Manatti,
your host from GiantBomb dot com. Thank you for tuning
in this episode, we're gonna be talking about Xbox, the layoffs,
the studios, it is getting rid of splitting off selling
a ton is going on over there. Don't worry what
We're gonna get through it. That's because we have Jana
Chow on the show today. Jan how are you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm doing great doing the news with you, mister Menotti.
Game Mike Mornings, everybody.
Speaker 1: That's right. Game Mike Mornings are back this week. Jeff
Grubb is on vacation. I said, it's fine, probably gonna
be a slow news week. I can handle it. What
I have to say it to him in this way,
he understands what could possibly go wrong, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Jeff Grub, please continue to enjoy your vacation.
We'll we'll hold the fort down as best as we hy.
Speaker 1: I hope he got there, did you see? Like he
initially like left got two hours there, then like drove
over one of those like bad tire things and I
messed up his car and had to drive back and
fix that. So hopefully it's not just so hopefully he
did make it to his destination.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dan, and I needed help figuring something out over
the weekend for Catch Me If You Dan, and then
Grub just like slyly drops in like you have to
turn around, got into a car accident, like what the fuck?
Speaker 1: Crub, oh Grub. So yeah, that was a great start there. Yeah,
you're traveling this weekend too. I guess you know. I
don't know how much are talking about this as it
is part of Catch Me If You Dan? Is a
fun video, but I did. I do hope you had
good travels.
Speaker 2: Jan Uh. People will see very soon my interesting interesting times,
interesting prices. We'll also say.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not going to super get into it. Interesting
weekend over here, we kind of had a tornado scare
and I was just like in a restaurant, so like
the lights just went out and looked like hell outside,
and like the weekend manager and you know, even in
times of crisis, you always look to a person of authority,
and you do a lot of soul searching when you
realize that in your situation, that is the weekend manager
at a chain restaurant. But still he was doing his job,
telling us, we know, if it comes down to it,
just duck under the tables, which is what you want
to hear. That's exciting, but hey got through that as well,
So yeah, I think it just was an auspicious start
to the week on Sunday. All right, everyone, before we
get into how the video game industry is holding up
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I think I have to say it now like that.
We have a lot to get into, but let's start
the morning mess with Xbox to reduce staff by approximately
approximately three thousand and two hundred throughout the financial year
by twenty seven. This is from an Xbox Wire post
by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. There's also a memo that
went out to all Xbox employees earlier today. She writes,
we are beginning the most significant restructure in Xbox history.
After careful consideration, I've made the difficult decision to reduce
our team by approximately three thousand, two hundred throughout the
fiscal year twenty twenty seven. This will include approximately one
thousand and six hundred role eliminations today and in addition
so in addition to that, four studios will leave Xbox
to new management. These include Compulsion Games in Double Fine,
which will become independent, keeping their IP and games catalog.
Ninja Theory and Undad Labs have entered terms to join
new ownership with funding to complete their current games Senua
for Ninja Theory and State of Decay three for Undead Labs.
And in addition to that, in France, R Kane is
you know, working on that play game. Their management is
beginning required consultation with its works Council to review potential
strategic options. So we don't really know what's going on there,
but they will not be part of Xbox in the
future as well. All right, let's stop there for right now.
So three thousand and two hundred jobs being cut at
Xbox five studios will be party ways. This is a
pretty big shake up here. What are your initial thoughts
of jan Sorry almost said grub Mikey.
Speaker 2: This is thirty two one hundred jobs. Is an insane
amount of jobs for people, for folks to suddenly be
thrown off into an already volatile market, sixteen hundred of
those happening today. As you mentioned a lot of the
messaging from Asha Sharma, it just continues to read as soulless.
She has a quote later about we need to reset
the Xbox That is the absolute most tone deaf, dumb
shit I've ever heard a CEO say at least this year.
It looks like Compulsion Games and Double Fine have put
out statements since the news is dropped this morning, and
it looks like Compulsion Games will get to retain the
rights to contrast we Happy Few and South of Midnight
moving forward, which I guess is a slight benefit for them.
I don't know if how many times this has happened,
a studio getting spun off or going independent and getting
to keep the IP that it made for its previous
owner parent company.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that part of it. And I don't want to
say it's unique, but you're right. Usually you get to
spin off, but the pair company holds that IP. And
it's the same thing with Double Fine. They are they're
keeping to their IP in games catalog here, so it's
not like Xbox owns Psychonots. Still, if if my understanding
of this is correct, I mean, I don't want to
be like, well, at least they did that right when
they're you know, laying off all these people in you know,
still are stuck in this problem that that they have
right of Well, how are we fixing all of this?
Because in order to make Xbox exciting again, they need
video games and they are losing companies that make video
games out These are all companies that they picked up
in that acquiring spree that they were on right, which
does not feel like that long ago. So the whip,
the whiplash from that gin is still just remarkable from
Xbox is buying everybody to well, uh, never mind, Actually
we need to We need to offload a lot of
this and let me read a bit more, she says,
because she goes into a little bit of that. Our
business today is not healthy. We are operating at margins
that are three to ten times lower the caparable platform
and publishing businesses. We entered Gen nine. I'm glad, she said,
Jen nine just to get Jeff grubbmed with a smaller
installed base and a higher cost structure to grow. We
bet on game pass, multi platform and a broader portfolio
of content. While those businesses have created meaningful value, they
did not grow at the pace we expected. As that
happened our core business weekend and we added more teams,
more investment, and more time hoping for a better outcome.
And now the industry is facing those severe hardware crisis
in its history. We must reset Xbox. Since twenty eighteen,
we have aggressive expanded our superportfolio. While the number of
games created each month across the industry now up paces
the last ten years combined, we now find ourselves competing
only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios.
Is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio.
We have also learned that we are not the best
home for every type of studio. In a typically year,
we lost sixty four cents or every dollar we invested
as we were set Xbox. We will keep independent investors
or independent creators. We will help independent creators succeed by
providing open development tools and audiences to realize their visions.
I mean, these things she's saying are all true. I
don't see how any of it helps their ultimate problem,
which she admits, like, oh, yeah, we know, we need software.
We have to make Xbox exciting. Gosh. I mean, do
you have any more hope or faith in the future
of Xbox after today?
Speaker 2: Jen? No, I don't, and I'm not trying to be
a pessimist about it either, Mikey, I just don't. I
have zero to I have zero faith in Xbox Microsoft
moving forward. They keep talking this game about getting to
more players and reaching out to more audiences, but with
what I just don't see like Halo coming back or
Gears of War moving the needle in any significant or
substantial way. She talks also about like focusing on Minecraft
out of all things, and like kind of going to
that as a platform. I I don't think they're going
to get there, And unfortunately, I think it's going to
continue to get worse at Xbox.
Speaker 1: Right, And you know, I think we're all happy that
you know, these studios aren't just being straight up shut
down compulsion games in Double Fine, though, like you know,
I do worry, Okay, they're independent now what because it's
still a very scary video game market for them, and
you know, I don't want to frame Xbox is some
kind of safe net. But that brought them investment. Uh
you know, to to make us Psycho Knots to Double Find,
had to get a lot of crowdfunding, which you know,
that's that's not as much of a thing anymore, it happens,
but not as much of a thing. They used to
own the fig remember that or fig right, that's that's
that's not a thing. Uh like that I'm aware of,
But you know they did all of that and also
needed a lot of Microsoft's and Xbox money to make
that game happen. So can Double Find go out there
and make a Psychonauts three US? I don't know, Maybe,
probably not. Are they just going to be able to
keep making small games and hoping that one of those
hits and brings in a lot of revenue. It's a
similar thing for Compulsion games. I mean, want Ninja Theory
Undead Labs it sold. We don't know who. I mean,
there's only there's only so many potential buyers for these
studios really, so, and.
Speaker 2: Mikey, we should mention that Ninja Theory and Undead Labs
had games shown off in that Summer showcase show from
Xbox right like the K three.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: And I feel like audiences that that audience is a
very dedicated audience that have been clamoring for another State
of Decay game to come out. And then there was
a lot of excitement when that finally that trailer dropped
during Summer Game Fest, only to see this come out.
And then there was the other news that popped out
about promoting a new Senuous Saga game kind of in
order to generate interest in selling Ninja theory, right, which is.
Speaker 1: Insane, insane. It looks like it worked. I guess, I
guess they found a seller. But yeah, it's just insane
to sneak that into what it's supposed to be a
game showcase for your consumers to get them excited about Xbox. Right.
So again, again, what is the future of those studios
under this new ownership? Are you know this new Senua
comes out and how how does that game perform better
than the previous Senua. It's the third one of these
still that you know, the sales of Hell Bay two
weren't enough to make Xbox happy. Are the sales of
Senua going to be enough to keep whoever this new
ownership is happy? Uh? I don't know. It's it's hard
to see that Astrostronomer continues. We're also making reductions across
other units, in some cases shifting investment to focus on
higher priority projects. These changes vary in size across Activision,
bethessa' ZeniMax, Blizzard, King, Mojang, and Xbox Game Studios. None
of our first party, publicly announced games or projects are
being canceled as part of these reductions, but publicly announced,
I think is the important term there, right, So who
knows how many unannounced projects have been canceled or aren't happening.
I mean, there's there are some projects that I have
heard about in the past that I was excited about
jen and Wait from the get Inunce that I am
just now expecting to never see. Frankly, some like you know,
old franchises returning and I'm like, that's probably not happening
any more. Jason Schreyer over at Bloomberg, writing about this,
noted a xenomax will be impacted significantly by the roalization,
but will not be reduced to only fall Out on
Under's Elder Scrolls. The publisher will also still work on Wolfenstein, Doom,
and Quake. Okay, so the xenomax factor there, I suppose,
is interesting. Of course, Elder Scrolls and Fallout that's the
most important Wolfenstein. Nice to see mentioned there as well. Doom.
Of course, an ID quake is interesting because out of
all these, it's been the longest since a quake game.
So yeah, pardon me, is like, all right, you know,
we had three of those Dooms and I've liked them,
but halfway through Doom the Dark Ages, I felt fatigued.
I wonder if, yeah, that the next game from ID
or least somebody at Zenmax is just Quake.
Speaker 2: Does do you think we see another Indiana Jones game
at this point?
Speaker 1: It's weird that that's not mentioned. Uh, but again, focus
doesn't mean only so I maybe although you know, they
say Wolfenstein yeah, which makes me think that, but their
next project is Wolfenstein over there, and maybe they could
do an Indiana Jones after that, but games take so
long these days. By the time they get there one
or they're like, boy, uh is that worth doing? At
this point? I hope so I do like that. No,
you know, there was some scare about Obsidian earlier and
then people like go, oh that you know, they're fine,
But you know, I don't see a Vowed on this list.
I don't see the outer worlds on this list right uh.
And Obsidian was making a lot of smaller games, which
you know, if we're focusing on these big ones, you know,
are we gonna get things like Pentiment again? I kind
of doubt it. So what is the future of Obsidian
are they Are they going to get to make the
Fallout now and before It's like, well, be as the
proper wants to make Fallouts, but they're busy with Starfield,
and by the way, Starfield no one the list. Yeah,
not shocking. I don't think we're going to see Starfield too,
But they're working on older Scroll six and Happen Forever,
and that game is still probably a ways out. And
I wonder if part of this, if Asha Sharman is like,
there is no way we are going to wait for
you to finish Outerer Scroll six and then roll out
a Fallout five that is going to come out mid
twenty thirties. We are just having Obsidian make fallouts. That's
just me fantasy booking, I suppose, But I mean, if
not that, what else is Obsidian's future in this new Xbox.
Speaker 2: It's hard to even predict or forecast anything with how
things have been going and at the rate that they
have been going. Mike like, at this point, I don't
know what to expect from like Halo or even Gears
of War or Forts anything that feels safe at Xbox.
I don't think it actually feels safe or has stable
ground to stand on at this point, and especially like
like you mentioned, the video game development cycle is expensive.
It does take a long time, and it doesn't seem
like leadership at Microsoft and Xbox is willing to wait
and see how things pay off or or give anyone
the proper leverage or not leverage, but the runway to
try and build something up.
Speaker 1: Right exactly, you know, are we going to get any
new franchise. I think it's a shame that Avowed and
Outer Worlds too kind of couldn't reach a bigger audience.
It's sort of weren't accepted a little bit more, perhaps
by an audience that could have been interested in them.
God ob City and that is such a talented studo
and a student that actually made games for Xbox, right.
I mean, that's been a big part of the problem.
It's just where are the games. Obsidian was recent releasing games.
Maybe they were all eight out of tens or seven
out at tens, and we didn't get the big the nine, ten,
ten out ten game of the year, especially if you're
a coward who couldn't get into Pentiment. But gosh, they
were making video games for that platform, so that was something.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Try Er continued, noting studios in the Bethees organization like
It's software making Doom and Zennemac Online studios making our
Schools Online are not shutting down, but are cutting a
significant number of staff this morning for sources. Yeah, so
out Schools Online has been out for a long time
and it's still getting content still probably enough players that's profitable.
Do wonder how much longer that goes on. Surprisingly, hear
like it is getting significant layoffs because again, you know
those Doom games seems like they always did well. And yeah,
presumably now they are going to work on on Quake
if you know, like it's getting mentioned like this, but yeah,
you know, yeah, go ahead, Mike.
Speaker 2: Do you see a future where they try and spin
Quake and just try and capitalize off of like nostalgias
Sake for the name and make something like here's an
extraction shooter, Here's a looter shooter.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's what I worry about with Quake, where
you know, I'm I'm old that when I think of Quake,
I actually kind of think of the single player games
one and two. But sure, I'm still concerned that, Yeah,
they're gonna think about Quake three and they're going to
once life service. You know, there's been there's been attempts
at that, so I'm even relatively recently that everyone. A
lot of people have already forgotten because they've never Super
took off. But you know, we don't make those kind
of deathmatchy classic arena shooters like that anymore. You'd have
to turn it into I mean, like, I think Marathon's
gonna scare them off of making an extraction shooter, but
they're gonna try to do a live service. I guess
I don't. But my hope is that you just get
the Doom team. You have to make another great action
packed first person shooter campaign, but with Quake. And I
don't know if that means the more gothic Quake once
or that more sci fi Quake two style, but just
something like that, something that gets us a little bit
away from the hell Demon thing that is beginning to
feel a little bit rote to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that would require imagination. Mike, and I don't
feel like current Xbox leadership at least has any form
of imagination that isn't fed to them from co pilot
all right back.
Speaker 1: To uh Asha's memo here says in addition, Mojang and
King will now report directly to me. These studios have
increasingly become platforms in our largest bi monthly active players.
They bring critical geographic demographic in different differentiation to experts. Oh,
they bring differentiation. God, we all know what that means,
all right, Mojing. Yeah, so you know these are the Yeah,
Minecraft and Candy Crush. They make a lot of money. Uh,
and Xbox owns them, so there's that. It's always this
weird question to me of like, how does that add
value to Xbox aside from just the literal monetary value
they bring in. There's no way to kind of turn
especially Candy Crush, there's no way to turn that into
excitement for our next Xbox console. Minecraft very similar thing,
because those games come out everywhere. There's no way there's
going to be a Minecraft too. That is that the
Project Helix exclusive. So you know, they're important in a
revenue sense, but beyond that, I don't I barely even
think about them as part of Xbox. They're kind of
their own things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent, Mike. I can understand the language
of phrasing Minecraft as a platform because that is probably
the easiest for them to try and spin off and
like twist into some weird rope blocks marketplace to try
and scam more people out of money. But It's interesting
to hear them phrase King Games and candy crush also
as a play form at other because in my head,
King Games is just candy crush, and those people are
not like you mentioned, Uh, Mike, you the conversion process
for trying to get those people excited about a new
Halo or a Gears those aren't. That isn't event diagram,
That's just two different circles.
Speaker 1: I mean, Avery, part of their problem is the fact
that the platforms now are things like Minecraft and not Xbox. Yeah,
the Xbox should be the platform, and then people buy
many games. Uh, it's a big problem that you know,
kids will just buy or play at Roebox or a
Minecraft or a Fortnite and play all these experiences with
their within there. It's a great value for them. Doesn't
seem to be great for the video game industry and
converting people who play one or two games into fans
of the hobby and the way that you and I are.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't see any of these any of this
news and the statement of trying to reach a billion
plays and with the price increases to the Xbox consoles
that happened.
Speaker 1: Gosh was that last week Mike, I gotcha.
Speaker 2: I don't see how any of this is supposed to
inspire confidence in reaching more players or like bringing the
Xbox into more homes.
Speaker 1: Okay, here's kind of some closing statements here. For Ashall,
we know that great technology gets better when it gets simpler,
not bigger. Today, in some parts of the company, work
passes through as many as fourteen layers of management. Our
platform teams are forty percent larger than they were at
the start of this generation, even as our player base
and play time have declined. That complexity has slow decisions,
blurred accountability, and made it harder to deliver for players.
As we weset Xbox, we will simplify if we will
reduce management layers to no more than five and where
possible three. The first time we were establishing a Chief
operating officer with end to end p and O responsibility
across content, hardware, platform services. Ellen Shang has been promoted
this role, will report directly to me. Yeah. We always
hear this from these companies, right, like worrying it's smaller
and swifter. It's actually it's all these all these unnecessary
employees that are the problem. There's just too many layers
to our decision making, and yeah, she never says like,
you know, we're gonna use AI to make big swifter,
But it's Microsoft, like what are what are they investing
in a lot right now? What what do they care
about a lot more right now than video games? At Microsoft,
it's AI.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean for you look at Microsoft the company
and they're investing an obscene amount of money into data
centers and into copilot. So it is hard to divorce
that from and with the news at Xbox of like,
of course AI is going to be heavily implemented in
whatever future Xbox has coming up, And I don't know, Mike.
Again it is the people at the top blaming everyone
at the bottom, like you know, we have to fire you,
we have to sell you, and it's your fault because
you didn't do the things we need you to do
and we're going to need more things.
Speaker 1: It's right, And again these things that they are told
to do, it changes constantly. It was just not very
long ago with different leadership that there are completely different
directives at what's going on Nextbox that didn't work? So yeah,
you know, again the direction does have to change, But boy,
I just don't Again, none of this points to potential
or positivity or hope for that next Xbox console for me,
which is still going to face this gigantic problem of
it's probably going to cost like around one thousand dollars,
it's not going to have very many exclusives. The big
game that everybody cares about in the world right now
apparently is Grand Theft Auto grandth The Thought of six,
and that is a game that is coming out for
Xbox Series X and PlayStation five. People are not going
to have to upgrade to play that game, So what
the hell is the next thing? What the hell is
there possibly going to be? And are they going to
dare say, like, oh, the next Halo or Outdoor Scroll
six is an Xbox he looks exclusive to try to
get people excited and go to that platform. I kind
of doubt it because that's going to be an insane
risk to take on games that are going to cost
three hundred million plus to make. So, you know, it
just still doesn't feel like, Okay, Xbox like had to
trim some fat, right whatever corporate thing want to do,
And now that they've done that, they're healthy now and
they're looking good for the future. The future still looks
almost impossibly scary.
Speaker 2: For Xbox impossibly scary, and then it just shrinks the
I Ultimately, Mike, I think this like will shrink future
gaming as a hobby, at least on the Xbox front,
because this next console helix or whatever they're gonna call it,
is going to be one thousand plus dollars, like you mentioned,
and what is there to play?
Speaker 1: What is there to.
Speaker 2: Motivate someone to pick up an Xbox versus staying on
the current generation of consoles or you know, we talk
about all the time about how prices going up across
the industry have made it very hard to build an
affordable PC. But at this point, I could see a
lot of people just sticking with current hardware, this current
generation of consoles, especially if that big game people are
trying to play is a GTA six or it is
just Call of Duty, or it is just Fortnite or Roadblocks.
I don't see a lot of people, Like I don't
know what that killer app for a new Xbox would be.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be very interesting when these new consoles
do launch and to see if they're if there is
an appetite for them at all anymore, And there might
be still somehow there. You know, there's gonna be some
people just they're always gonna get excited about those new consoles.
But boy, they're getting really expensive. They are really struggling
to stand out against other options. Uh, you know, a
cheaper option, get a switch to or a more expensive option.
If you're going to invest, may as well invest all
the way, make your own PC, maybe get a Steam deck. Right,
So it's interesting, all right, Uh, why don't we Why
don't we move on from that? Actually, gosh, yeah, that
took us through basically the first half of the show
because we get big news there. So why don't we
take a break. There are some other things we were
going to talk about a few other headlines. Well, we'll
pick through everybody, so stay tuned. We'll be a right back.
All right, everybody game, Mike Moore is still here. We're back.
Let's talk about Nintendo. They got they got stuff going
on too. Notably, they're gonna stop selling the Nintendo Switch
in Europe in twenty twenty seven. This is Jordan Miller
at VGC. Nintendo of Europe has announced that it will
stop selling original Ninteto Switch consoles in early twenty twenty seven,
after which point retailers won't be able to order any
the stock of the entire Switch family consoles. Why is this, Well,
that's because Nintendo announced that later this year it will
begin selling Switch to consoles and accessories with replaceable batteries
in Europe. This is because of twenty twenty three, the
European Union passed a new regulation called the EU Batteries Legislation,
which requires consumer products with built in batteries to make
these batteries easily removable and replaceable starting from twenty twenty Devin, Wow,
let's get you. Yeah, So this kind of reminds me, like,
you know, these these European regulations kind of do move
these hardware companies along. I have them to think, for
the fact that I don't need a lightning port charger
for my iPhone anymore, which you know, USBC is not
a great standard, but at least it's a standard. At
least I can use that one cable to charge just
about everything now. But gosh, I do wonder you know,
if like that everyone's like, well, we're doing this in Europe,
We're gonna to do it everywhere eventually. If we are
just going to start seeing these replaceable battery versions of
hardware as more of the norm not It's like Nintendo
was bellyaching a bit about this, like, ah, these new
versions are gonna be heavier and the battery life's not
gonna be as good. We'll swee. Well, yeah, we'll see,
we'll swee.
Speaker 2: I will definitely take something that I can easily modify
and change and maybe fix on my own, versus having
to drop everything and get a completely brand news switch.
Speaker 1: Mike.
Speaker 2: Just to go back real real quick to the Xbox story.
Speaker 1: I do it.
Speaker 2: I do think because of Europe's stringent employment policy is
why Arcane feel looks like they're in right now, because
they may actually be better protected or Xbox has to
like do a bunch of maneuvering to get through European
employment laws.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, that kind of makes sense. Yeah, and then
you know, back to this switch thing. I guess this
isn't just about like the switch, It's about like the
joy cons. Like a joy Con is going to have
replaceable battery, it includes that kind of accessories. Anything with
a battery really has to sure has to do. This
is my understanding. I mean, the switch one, now, it's
it sucks a bit because the Switch one is a
console that I think is more affordable, not allys even
though the price of that has also gone up recently
because of you know, the healthscape that would do all
through right now. This affects Europe, so in the US,
which ones can continue to be sold, and that console is,
like you know, if you care, is inching towards that
PlayStation two all time top selling thing, although they keep
finding more PS twos that sold to the mouth of
that number keeps going up. Yeah, that's interesting thing there.
Next up, Way Forward announced it's the next Chonte game
with the animex both the twenty seven release windows from
Andy Robinson, a VGC Lost Stories from VGC. Thank you
so much of them all over there do great work. Yeah.
So Way Forward announced the news during a panel on
Anime Expo in Los Angeles this weekend, where it shared
artwork for a redesigned Chante along with the twenty twenty
seven release date for the unnamed new game. No further
details were revealed. Chante is a platformer series in which
players control the half Genie to transformed into various forms,
each with their own abilities. The last Chante title, last
year's Risky Revolution was technically a totally new game that
it was a revival of a two thousand and four
Game Boy Advanced game that was canceled before release. Hey,
if that's there, you go this, there's some good news
for you. I like Chante. They're they're fun games there.
And you've ever played a Chante game before jan Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I played that one that came out on Uh gosh,
now I'm questioning my memory. There was a GBA one, right, that's.
Speaker 1: The g BA. This is the GB There was a
Game Boy Color one was the first one. Then there
was this g B A one that was canceled right
before release, and finally just only recently got released. And
then there have been some other ones. There's there's half
Genie Hero was the one that was Apple Arcade then
got ported things. The Seven Sirens is not the one
that's really metro Venia. I think that's the best one.
That's the one I played through.
Speaker 2: And I'm really good I did. I did play the
Game Boy Color Chante. Now that I'm looking at.
Speaker 1: It, Ah, that's like, if you have the actual cartridge
for that, that thing actually is a oh relatively rare,
relatively rare. So yeah, these are these are fun games.
I like that it's a continuing series. I think that
they're better when they really lean into being metro Venus.
Sometimes they're a bit more linear than that. Like I
said that last one was originally part of that big
Apple arcade push, right remember that? Oh then got poored
it to other things. So yeah, well I will be
looking forward to this one. Cyberpunk twenty seven to seven
just hit another massive sales. Mile Stones is from Eddie McCoo,
a game spot that sales of CD Project Reds twenty
twenty RPG Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven continued to grow as
the game has now passed forty million copies sold. The
big new sales Miles Don't came at their Steam's latest
stale saw the game's price fall down to eighteen dollars,
representing a discount of seventy percent. It's on sale for
that price until July ninth. The game is selling out
of a faster right than the Witcher three Wild Hunt,
which sold more than sixty million units to become one
of the top ten best on games of all time.
This is a bit of a reminder to me jan
that things to turn around sometimes when this game came out,
everyone was just really mad. They're really mad at its
shoddy performance and it's bugs and just the rough state
of it, and people were willing to forgive this one
very quickly when some patches came out, because people desperately
want these really big, really high end, kind of fancy
open world RPG games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm glad that they were able to turn it
around and kind of win back those people that were
very disappointed. I do wonder how much the Netflix show
factors into renewed interest and people buying and converting over
to playing actual Cyberpunk, because that show has become very popular.
I know, they released the season two trailer recently, so
I wonder if more people are getting into Cyberpunk because
of the show as well as well as like the game.
You know, it will go on sale occasionally, and it
is just a better game to play now versus when
it originally.
Speaker 1: Launched, even as a pretty good switch to port somehow,
which is yeah, I mean, that's that's that's impressive that
we got there. Uh boy. I wonder when we see
more of Witcher four, because you know, expectations kind of
keep mounting because now this game is stelling faster than
Witch Your three? Is Witcher four going to sell faster
than Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven? Now what why do you
think Cyberpunk was able to turn it around? It's something
like a something like a starfield not really kind of
still sort of state a sort of middling that we
was able to reach that kind of turnaround moment with
expansions or some big patch. Do you think there was
just inherently more to Cyberpunk that fans were excited about.
Speaker 2: I think so. I think maybe there is more interest
in the type of game that Cyberpunk is and the
overall aesthetics and trappings versus h what some people may
see as just another space game, you know, both very
buggy at launch, right, But yeah, I think with Cyberpunk,
maybe that is a game because anytime I've seen any
videos on Cyberpunk now, Mike, it's a lot of people
that have like heavily moded the game and it has
become one of those forever games, much like a Red
Dead Redemption two or a GTA online where people are
just picking apart and adjusting and modeling the game in
such a way that that is maybe the only thing
or they're the major thing that they play.
Speaker 1: Keanu Reeves probably helps also, yeah, that too, all right.
Halo campaign involves a box version will come with the
physical discs so that players can have tangible items to
add to your collection. This is by Jordan Miler VGC.
But I am looking forward to this now that for
like the next few years, whenever a game does come
with a disc, people are gonna be like, yeah, because
we care about gamers as if they aren't. You know,
within the next ten years, also going to be giving
you fucking codes in a box.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: The physical versions of Halo Combat A Campaign Evolved will
include a physical disc, Halo Studios has confirmed following the
news that the physical version of GTA six would come
with the code in a box rather than a physical disc.
Follow by the news that Sony plans to end the
production of physical versions of New Places and Games at
twenty twenty eight, players have voice concerns that others in
this industry would follow. Now, Halo Studios has comment another situation,
assuring fans that they will have a tangible item should
they pick up the physical version of the upcoming Halo
campaign involved writing is part of a QA on the
Halo Waypoint website Senior community manager John Jonzik confirmed that
the box version of the game will include a disc. Yes,
spying the Xbox or PlayStation version of It's right, there's
that of Halo campaign evolved at your local retailer, or
was on gaining the physical game case and disc that
you have the tangible item side your collection Elsewhere in
the Q and A was also confirmed that the game
one clude machineum mode. Hey, that's good. Maybe maybe Red
is Red Versus Blue still a thing they come back
when this happens. That'd be fun. Let's make our own
mikey okay, Yeah, yeah, we'll do it. We'll do it ourselves.
And I was gonna I'm gonna remake Red Versus Blue
off of memory. Maybe we should just do the dizzy thing.
Maybe we should make a live action remake of Red
Versus Blue. We'll get the rock. We'll put a wig
on him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we'll put a wig on him. We'll recast
uh Caboose was Caboose the character in Red Versus Blue?
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was a caboose.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll recast him with a younger caboose.
Speaker 1: We'll see the yellow one. I never liked that there
was like in one of the reds was just yellow.
I'm like, yellow is a different color than red.
Speaker 2: Yeah, donut was that a character?
Speaker 1: I don't remember a donutd I don't remember a donut.
Speaker 2: I watched a lot of early Red versus Blue and
I've forgotten all of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, donut was pink? There was a donut? Was good?
Oh my bad, dude, Okay, okay, I gotta go back
and watch all Red versus Blue apparently. Look, yeah, it's good,
it's good. Hey, hey, remember when this was the thing
last week we were all talking about disks. Welcome to
a new week, everybody. Yeah, right, the whip last year
again is crazy? Hey, like, look, that's that's nice. But again,
like don't don't act like, don't don't don't pat yourselves
in the back too much for this. And then the
next Halo game doesn't have a disc because then I'm
going to be like, well, what happened wanting us to
have tangible items? Right? Where? Where was that a lie? Then?
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah, this this feels just like a time, like
tongue in cheek, like ha ha ha, we saw what's
happening at PlayStation, so we're gonna we were already gonna
put this on a disc and it was going to
be in the box, but now we're gonna definitely tell
you about it because, like you said, Mikey, this is
just going to be a marketing strategy for a lot
of places, just to stick it to PlayStation, but also
just to be like, hey.
Speaker 1: We care for now. It was wild to see like
Dominoes doing like parody sweets in the plates of the PlayStation, like, oh,
we're going all digital Dominoes right, like like the same
like kind of like font and thing. Oh, but it's
that that seems to be reaching containment. Look, we see
that for whatever reason, these companies don't like being kind
of publicly shamed and yelled at online. I think that's
a big reason why Xbox didn't just close down a
double fine, because they are worried about people yelling at them.
I don't know, you know, pardon me shot that they
still care about that. I guess I'm glad that we
still have that power over them. Sometimes it seems like
we have that power over them more so than what
we buy or don't they really care about our online opinion?
So they have to play nice and make sure that
a double find compulsion gets to keep their IP. They
don't just you know, get closed down.
Speaker 2: Wow, Mikey. I mean all you have to do apparently
is yell at Asha Sharma on Twitter and then she'll
properly implement changes because that we were talking about that
last week on the show, about how she listens to
online feedback via Twitter more than perhaps feedback right internally.
Speaker 1: And that's why during this memo, I had to read
Xbox every freaking time in all capital letters, which is
just a super super duper fun. But I guess my
question about that is you think there's any discussions in
PlayStation right now?
Speaker 2: Of but people were more.
Speaker 1: Mad about that than we were expecting. People were more
upset than I thought they'd be. Do you think there's
any hesitation now or you think it's just we knew
there's going to be a backlash. We're going to do
this anyway because it's going to save us money, and
it's money that we do not have to pass onto consumers.
We're not going to make our games cheaper. We're just
going to pocket that. We are just going to barrel
through this. Who's going to stop us? Xbox?
Speaker 2: That is exactly the sentiment I think they have my
key because like, what competition, who's stopping them at this point?
Who do they have to look to across anywhere to
think of competition that they can kind of just dictate
the pace at this point.
Speaker 1: And Turbo Shan and chat Heishan saying they're shutting down
the disc factory in no way PlayStation backtracks. Yeah, yeah,
hard to come back from that, Isn't it hard to
come back from that?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Similar to this, Hideo Kajima's really sad about PlayStation killing
disc and frightened for future ownership and by Andy Robinson VGC.
Kojima has reacted to the news that PlayStation will soon
discontinue disc games, telling an audience that he's really sad
about the news, but more concerned about what could happen
to cloud gaming becomes dominant in the future. Speaking at
the Cinema in Piazza Film Festival in Italy, translated by Gyankee,
the Death Strating and Metal Gear director said that at
least with digital games, users have the data on their system,
something that isn't the case with cloud gaming. This is
a quote now from Cojuma. This production is ending Injoy
twenty eight. This is about video games, but I grew
up with physical media. To find it really sad. Currently,
I've been buying up a lot of Blu rays, such
as various movies and CDs too. Situation is different for
games and movies as they are downloaded to the hard drive.
That means the game data remains on your own hardware. However,
things shift to streaming in the future, that won't be
the case anymore. Streaming subscription services like Netflix or Amazon,
there's a server somewhere. Essentially, just have the right to
turn the tap, and when you do, the data flows.
That's how movies work on these platforms. Right. You'll download
the data, you access it directly through subscription. The consequences
of that is that you don't actually possess the data yourself.
It's funny because like he's expressing to think a similar
sadness to everyone else while reminding us, hey, it's probably
gonna get worse than that, still, right, because at least
right now you are downloading video games and you have
that data on your disc. Yeah, maybe in like ten
twenty years, it is just streaming data to play these
things on your consoles. And there's even less that we
own and again, Sean is right. It's like Cojuba's making
a game that is about the power of cloud gaming.
It's od right. So Cojamun is always this weird duality
of being really excited about new technology. Yeah, constantly having
this uh listfulness and this nostalgia for the past and
telling us how it was better then, but also just
barreling forward with whatever is new and shiny because it's
new and shiny, right.
Speaker 2: I believe we had a story on the show a
couple of weeks ago about how he was working on
an AI or an ad for Prada using AI.
Speaker 1: And there was something actually, there was something about that
where I couldn't tell, like, okay, was that not true
or it was like not as big as those people.
I don't know. I don't know. I'm not sure exactly
what happened with that, but like I don't I don't
know if I've eard seen culture come out just say
like a I is bad. I don't know. I too,
he did, but since then, now that it's actually here,
I don't know.
Speaker 2: If I've heard Okay, I I updates he apparently, according
to chat He, Kojima said he did not know it
was going to be an ai ad. Okay, all right,
but it just seems oh boy, I mean, I'm sad
to see Kojima sad. And you know, he is a
big movie guy, so of course he would feel that
way about physical media, not just in regard to physical
releases of games, but also movies. But it is, like
you said, there is a little bit of irony that
he is working on a cloud game horror game for
the Xbox when this is his overall stance as well.
Speaker 1: What a what a weird time. Yeah, by the way,
we'll see, we'll see about we'll see if that we
see more about that game and tying you back to
Xbox and one we're gonna see more like this Xbox partnerships,
like with coaching productions or like with Toys for Bob
now right where they spun that off Ayarland, it's like, well,
we're not gonna buy a Toys for Bob anymore. We
will just get them to make a game for us,
which maybe that's much more healthy, And you know, I
hope that maybe they will just do things. Hey, Double
Finds Independent, we will pay you to make a Psycho
Knots three. That would be nice, That would be good.
That would be ideal. I don't know if we live
in an ideal world. Uh More, traditional FO Fantasy remix
could happen, as Square Enix says, it'll follow what truly
resonates with fans, even if that's not open world action.
This is by Anthony McGlenn at games Radar during a
question and answer section of a recent shareholders meeting querenex
response to an inquiry over the scale if it's remix
and remasters, essentially we expect more smaller projects like Resonance,
which again, is that kind of a remake of the
mobile game Brave XPS. I think with games that update
and orderitized visuals but retaindditional combat systems, unlike the huge
open world actually driven fol Fantasy seven remake trilogy. The
answer isn't fully committal in either direction. This is the quote. Now.
It's part of our market in approach. We engage in
trial and error to establish what is best for contemporary
customers based on current market needs and trends, the company
says per a transcript, and doing so is extremely important
to us that we strike the right balance between our
approach and the expectations of players who loved the original works.
They're not really saying I neither. I'm certainly not expecting
any other Final Fantasy remakes on the scale of the
seven remake trilogy, which was a giant production. I think
it's ultimately going to pay off because those games are
going to so for a while, even if they never sold.
Insane Hot Case Off the bat Right selling more like
three to five million copies, not ten to twenty million copies,
but people will be picking those up for a long
time to come. This new one's going to be launching
on all platforms or most platforms right away. But you know,
I would like to see a Fan Fantasy eight remake
of fun Facy nine remakes. Sure they don't need it
to be of that scale. I mean, what do you
want from more foun Fantasy remakes? Jam, If that's something
you're even interested in, it.
Speaker 2: Is something I'm interested in. I don't know if I
would would want this. I kind of would want this
scale of like an f F seven, but not split
into three different games. Maybe just like a little bit
of a facelift, some quality of life changes, but that
could just be done in like a remaster versus a remake,
give players the option to switch back and forth from
like original graphics to whatever updated look they have. What
I want, mikey is, I just want Chrono Trigger, That's why. Sure,
that's what I want. And I know, like I'm not
alone in that that is not a new idea. But
hearing this commitment to more traditional Final Fantasy remakes, what
about some more traditional other remixes, well Square huh mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Croucher is interesting because that game is so good.
That game is almost perfect where to me an HD
two D remake of it is it's almost unnecessary. It's
already such a pretty pixel game. To mean, if you're
going to remake that game, I'm like, well, let's see
it in three D, then let's just do that. Then
I guess I can play the original. If you want
to ringmaster the original, make it easier to play more platforms,
that's great as well. But if you're going to remake
Crono Trigger, I might be curious just to see that
be a kind of fancy. And yeah, I don't expect
the fum Phasty seven's remake trilogy situation with a but boy,
seeing fromp Facy eight look that good and with that
combat system with the gun played God that sounds like
it'd be really fun. But now the problem is if
you don't make that three different games that are each
like seventy hours long, instead you just try to make
a forty hour single game. Is that going to suddenly
feel really small now in comparison with what we got
for Final Fantasy seven? Are our expectations kind of too
high at this point?
Speaker 2: And does that for like the consumer aspect, does that,
like you said, devalue in f F eight or in
f F nine, if a remake is only one part
versus like a extensive three part trilogy that is building
upon itself each time that takes like however long to
update you speak about. You spoke about how cool it
would be, Mikey, to have the gun play in f
F eight kind of mapped onto a new combat system
like we got in f F seven. I would love
for it to be. Have you ever played Residents of Fate, Mike.
Speaker 1: No, I want to, but I have not.
Speaker 2: It's an RPG with like cool gunplay. They managed to
pull it off majority of the time. But I would
just love that seeing Squall with his gigantic gun blow
just booping folks.
Speaker 1: Ah God, I mean, I just hope we do get
more because there's those rumors of Fomtasy nine remake and
it's like, oh, maybe that's not happening, and I love
FAMP Fantasy nine and uh, you know again, it's like
I understand why that wouldn't get the same treatment as
Fantasy seven remake. Sure, but like I don't want it
coming out and looking cheaper either, you know, right, I
want that game to get to get I love that
it deserves.
Speaker 2: Would you what about it? Kind of like a d make, right?
Speaker 1: Like yeah, see, I don't know. I don't know, because
I liked, I love the PlayStation one this of that game.
It could be kind of neat, I suppose, but I
don't know. If I don't know if I want to
D make, I want I kind of wanted to look
fancy and sharp and neat and look it could be.
The man of the difference here is that it's just
more of a one to one remake. We don't get
the seven remake combat system. It's still just the ATB
turn based stuff. It just looks really pretty and it
has voice acting and orchestrated in music and things like that.
Maybe that's enough for a final Fantasy nine but you
know ten was a big deal. At some point they're
going to do a big Boy remake of ten. If
any of them was going to get another Big Boy remake,
it'll be ten. And then there's things like the Thirteen trilogy,
which seems really due for at least a remaster of
some kind. I expect we might see that within the
next couple of years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, out of the post final Fantasy seven games, I
do agree with you that we'd sooner see a fancy
schmancy remake of ten and ten two versus eight or
nine thirteen a little bit closer after.
Speaker 1: Ten than eight and nine. Unfortunately, I see how I
messed up your your kind of process. By the way,
by on the flight moving a story up in easts right,
and you still have the Kojuma thing on the rundown.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, jan I don't know what I'm doing. Mikey,
It's okay. We will we will survive through all of
this together, Okay. I've said on this website multiple times
I do have a little bit of fatigue with the
HD two and a half style, so I would be
interested to see if there is like a better take
to adapt like that. PS one blockie polygonal style to
a modern aesthetic and sensibilities, because I do have a
fondness for that PS one look as well, it.
Speaker 1: Can look sober, going good and like and Square NX
is making a lot of games in that style that
just look awesome to this day, like a Parson Eve
or a Vagrant Story, Like those games are just so
striking and I kind of almost wouldn't have them any
other way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like the indie sorry Mike, but like the indie
side has really like figured out a way to adapt
that PS one hard blockie polygonal art style to like
modern names like that crow Country was really pretty, crow
Coach is very pretty, Anodyne two is very pretty. There
are a couple others that are escaping me right now,
but I wouldn't mind seeing that in twenty with f
F eight give me squall, give me a gun blade?
Speaker 1: Right well, squall, If I'm saying it has that incredible
like screen grab where it's where it's Renault being like,
you're the most handsome guy here and his face is
just like so distorted and blocky and there's like one
I represented by a pixel and it's just incredible. So
it's peak damn it, it's peak all right, Tubber Games
Done Quick. To my toy, sex is happiest week. Little
programming note for you all everyone, If you like speed runs,
you like games done quick. That's happening this week so
they're raising money for Doctors without Borders. I love games
done Quick. I always try to check out the marathon
as much as I can, so, uh, games are quick
happening now. If you can, you know, watch and donate
to a good cause. I haven't even really had a
great chance to look at the schedule this time. Yeah,
that I need to do see which speed runs I'm
going to be watching. But I don't know if you
you usually check out a lot of games done Quick, Jim.
Speaker 2: I may not get the chance to check out a
run as it's happening live, but I will definitely check
out a particular run if there's like a lot of
buzz and hubbub about it after the fact. But definitely, folks,
if you are not in a position where you can
donate to Summer Games Done Quick, even just being an
audience member having the stream on, watching, tuning in and
engaging with it does help a lot for visibility's sake
as well.
Speaker 1: The final game this year is going to be a
clear obscure expission. Thirty three gonna happen. Run. Apparently that
game could be beaten in an hour and twenty five minutes,
So you're curious to see how the hell that happens. Cool,
there you go? All right? All right?
Speaker 2: Dan?
Speaker 1: So as I as I now know, there was no
poll last show because I was Friday. I do have
a poll for today though, just asking people arguing more
or less confident in Xboxes future after today. I know
I'm not writing give with all the capital letters. I
just can't do it. Everyone, your options are more confident,
less confident, or I feel the same.
Speaker 2: I'm you know, I'm very interested to see what the
hardcore loyal Xbox console contingent feels after the news today.
I know I've seen some people say like, well, at
least we get to these studios, get to stay around,
But like, I, what what is the future they see?
Speaker 1: I'm very righteous. Yeah, I mean it could be worse,
for sure, It could be worse, if not the most
compelling argument for why things are great either, right, So yeah,
it's again, it's gonna be interesting when that console comes
out and what happens, then, right, how are people going
to react to that? What could you possibly do to
make these consoles that are going to be more expensive
than ever, have fewer exclusives than ever? How the hell
do you make them exciting? And both sides are trying
to talk about how they're going to make I'm exciting
and final ways to do it. I would just like
to see what those ways are because I just have
a hard time imagining it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, Mikey's just looking at the forecast
of games coming out, not the biggest GTA head in
the world, So sure, I'm not super clamoring for that.
If anything, I can't believe I am super not super excited,
but a lot of buzz generating personally over Splatoon Raiders,
like a single Splatoon game. I went back and watched
that direct and like, well, you know, I could get
down with this. I could dedicate a couple runs to
those squid kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't want to, you know, I don't want
to just be like, well, Nintendo's good, Well, other ones
are bad because ntendo makes its mistakes too, and they
do weird things and they are facing the same issues
as everyone else in this industry. They also seem to
release a lot of video games still, and it's video
games of like various sizes, right, Like, you know, we
we've gotten a Rhythm Heaven and a Star Fox in
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. Right, maybe you can argue, like, well,
I like bigger, more exciting games than those. You know,
maybe those are still coming out in the same cadence
as the other ones, but it's nice. It's nice to
have these games as well.
Speaker 2: There was also I think we missed it, but there
was a I guess a substantial update to Mario Kart
World Tour that dropped last week as well, that added
like a couple more of those routes, So you know,
maybe that game is in a better position as well,
similar to how Cyberpunk saved things.
Speaker 1: Maybe that was what I was wondering, Like, you know,
how was Mario Kart World telling in comparison to eight Deluxe?
All right, then, uh, look, I think we have basically
done in here, so let's talk about what's happened jivebobs.
So then we've got to figure out now a meeting
on Monday where we're going to figure out our content
for the week. But you know I will continue to
be here this entire week, everybody doing a game mess morning,
so don't worry about missing out on that. We're going
to do a Delight club on Wednesday since Grub is out,
so we've had some ideas for that. We'll figure that
out for sure. But we'll get Dan. We'll give Dana
treat and Dan did good finishing space Ace. The Dan's
allowed to have a little fun there for sure. And
I know, I know we've been talking about playing that
what's that? What's that? What's that? Friends loop game that's
like a chameleon. Maybe we'll finally get Mecha kamillion this week,
wait for oh god, damn it. Jam. Well, all right,
we won't do without you. I don't know. We'll figure
something out. Maybe we'll do without you. We'll do it
again when you come back, right, Bud, Right, all right,
I'll do that. Okay, all these people in summer vacations.
I haven't missed a single day during summer except for
that one last week and then the one the week before.
Shut up, don't worry about it. All right with that,
we're out. Thank you, Jan, really appreciate you helping me
get through all this Sevy News today.
Speaker 2: You did an expert job, mikey at navigating the sludge
of news today.
Speaker 1: And thank you for being the best audience in gaming
until the next morning. Mess have a go and take
care of yourself and goodbye.