Speaker 1: He'll be don't be bab it's the internet. You're busy.
Speaker 1: Let's do this for November seventh, twenty twenty four. For
Speaker 1: the next hour or so, let me help you sort
Speaker 1: through the world of gaming on Game mess Mornings Live
Speaker 1: with Me Jeff Grubb. Today we get the latest on
Speaker 1: Grand theft, Auto six and Nintendo has to answer to
Speaker 1: its investors. But first please join me and welcome you
Speaker 1: today's co host and returning champion to Game Mess Mornings.
Speaker 1: It's Jan a joa Jan. How are you doing?
Speaker 2: I have Risen the happy use ease, okay, Risen, Yes,
Speaker 2: of course, yeah, you're for that joke.
Speaker 1: That's It's very good. How you doing bad?
Speaker 2: I'll you know, health wise, I'm okay, Well, I'll I
Speaker 2: don't know where or when I'll talk about what happened,
Speaker 2: but well it'll eventually. Maybe you know what we talk
Speaker 2: about enough health problems of the mental and physical variety
Speaker 2: on voicemail dumb truck. Maybe I'll save it for there.
Speaker 1: That's good. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2: I did ask three doctors if consuming nine hot dogs
Speaker 2: in quick succession did affect my health, and they all
Speaker 2: three of them looked at me, and I felt the
Speaker 2: gears turning in their head of did I go to however,
Speaker 2: many years of medical school to hear this problem and
Speaker 2: they all said, no, okay, it's okay.
Speaker 1: You're in the clear. So Giant Bomb is not liable.
Speaker 1: There we go. That's that's all we were looking for. Everybody. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's uh in the clear. Yeah, hey yeah, voicemail dump
Speaker 1: truck sounds a good place. Well, we'll air all of
Speaker 1: our medical histories on there. Let's do let's do it
Speaker 1: sending your health questions everybody, because we got that.
Speaker 2: We totally got that. Uh and Grub, I know that
Speaker 2: we would do the plugs at the end. And I
Speaker 2: know that this is a video game news show, but
Speaker 2: because of current state of events. By the way, fantastic
Speaker 2: message from the Tippity Topity Yesterday's episode of Games Mornings
Speaker 2: with Jason Finelle shouts out to Jason Hunt.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Yeah, absolutely, good boy.
Speaker 2: I just want to take this time to further re
Speaker 2: emphasize Grub and I know I'm springing this on you
Speaker 2: do it. GiantBomb dot Com will forever be a safe
Speaker 2: haven for our BYPOC friends, women across people that identify
Speaker 2: as women, our trans friends, forever and always we bang
Speaker 2: with y'all all right, forever and always. So if you
Speaker 2: don't feel safe, you can at least feel safe in
Speaker 2: this little pocket of the internet. And we love you
Speaker 2: kiss on the cheek yep.
Speaker 1: That's uh, it goes doubly yep. We uh just want
Speaker 1: you to feel safe here. That's it feels like the
Speaker 1: thing we can control. Uh, and so we're gonna do
Speaker 1: our best to make it.
Speaker 2: Make that so despite all the dumb bs that we
Speaker 2: talk about and the different names that we come up
Speaker 2: with as vanity u r LS for this website. Uh,
Speaker 2: and maybe maybe I do fond over after fictional characters
Speaker 2: too much, I still support you over that.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, you're more important than our desires for video
Speaker 1: game characters. All Right. We've decided that once I will stop.
Speaker 2: Being the text avery wolf with his tongue rolling out.
Speaker 2: And but if anything we bang with.
Speaker 1: Show yep it's a yeah, double horny dot com, but
Speaker 1: doubly safe dot com as well. Everybody, Yeah, yeah, just
Speaker 1: keep coming hang out here, like like, I think that's
Speaker 1: what's something you can control as well, right, Like, go
Speaker 1: to the places you know, go to ground, right, go
Speaker 1: go someplace where you can recoup recover and we kind
Speaker 1: of like do our best for that for this to
Speaker 1: be that place for you. So yeah, keep keep hagging.
Speaker 2: And hey, if that message bothers you at all, that
Speaker 2: we support our trans friends, support women, support bipoc people,
Speaker 2: then you know, get.
Speaker 1: Out of here. Get out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, learn or learn?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, just I promise you I'm happier
Speaker 1: than you if like just try it, just try being
Speaker 1: like more like us, and I promise you'll be happier.
Speaker 1: It really is the truth and has a house. What
Speaker 1: about that? Yeah, exactly, Yeah, just to do better. All right,
Speaker 1: let's explain what we do here most weekdays, I Jeff
Speaker 1: Grub will help piece your gaming life back together. That
Speaker 1: includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own
Speaker 1: original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the input
Speaker 1: of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart.
Speaker 1: If you were watching live on twitch, welcome. You can
Speaker 1: always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by
Speaker 1: searching for Game mess Mornings, or find the RSS on
Speaker 1: giant bomb dot com. You can also catch the show
Speaker 1: later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right,
Speaker 1: we have a lot to get into, so let's start
Speaker 1: the morning mess with Grand Theft Auto six is still
Speaker 1: on track for fall twenty twenty five release. This is
Speaker 1: from Tom Ivan over if you GC the Grand Theft
Speaker 1: Auto six release date remains on track for fall of
Speaker 1: calendar twenty twenty five. Publisher Take two confirmed the games
Speaker 1: planned launch window hasn't changed as part of its second
Speaker 1: quarter financial results on Wednesday. The first Grand Theft Auto
Speaker 1: six trailer was released in December twenty twenty three, confirming
Speaker 1: a planned twenty twenty five release date. It racked up
Speaker 1: more than one hundred million views in just two days,
Speaker 1: surpassing the lifetime the use of GTA five's debut trailer,
Speaker 1: making it one of the most viewed trailers in YouTube history.
Speaker 1: Updating its financial guidance in May, Take two narrowed the
Speaker 1: game's release window from calendar twenty twenty five to the
Speaker 1: fall of next year, a fall of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: During a subsequent interview with CNBC, Take two CEO Strauss
Speaker 1: Zelnik discussed the process of deciding product release dates and
Speaker 1: how companies know when the time is right for the
Speaker 1: creative perspective. From the creative perspective, there are elements that
Speaker 1: you can actually measure, for example, the number of bugs
Speaker 1: in a title, and every one of us will make
Speaker 1: sure we have as few bugs as possible before we
Speaker 1: allow Shut up, Strauss, you're not doing what do you
Speaker 1: talk about? However, in the case of an extraordinary title
Speaker 1: for which there are extraordinary expectations, it's not really about bugs.
Speaker 1: It's about creating an experience that no one's seen before.
Speaker 1: And Rockstar Games seeks perfection in what they do, and
Speaker 1: perfection is indeed hard to measure. It really is more
Speaker 1: subjective than objective. Boy, that's a bunch of bullshit, But yeah, whatever,
Speaker 1: Hey GTA six. They started off saying twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: I think when they were saying that jan we were speculating.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of analysts were expecting that to
Speaker 1: mean potentially early twenty twenty five. They never said that.
Speaker 1: When they did narrow it down, they narrowed it down
Speaker 1: beyond the current fiscal year. And the reason we thought
Speaker 1: it would be this fiscal year, so like by March
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five, was they had big ideas in
Speaker 1: their head and that they were telling investors about big
Speaker 1: numbers for the next fiscal year or whatever, or for
Speaker 1: the current fiscal year that we're still in, but that shifted,
Speaker 1: and so you know, kind of a delay, not technically delay,
Speaker 1: but a little bit of a delay. So they put
Speaker 1: it in late twenty twenty five. So the things already
Speaker 1: kind of had a many technical delay, but they're not
Speaker 1: right now they're saying, well, there won't be another one.
Speaker 1: By fall twenty twenty five, we're gonna be playing this thing.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I keep feeling like, now we got
Speaker 1: to get one big delay for this thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this game is I hate to use this, bru,
Speaker 2: but it feels too important and too big to not
Speaker 2: take all of the time necessary to address whatever bugs,
Speaker 2: to address whatever else needs to happen with the release
Speaker 2: and the launch of the game. That I do feel
Speaker 2: like they have been very vague about a specific time
Speaker 2: window that narrowing it down to even fall twenty twenty
Speaker 2: five at this point still feels like they're padding out
Speaker 2: time to fall twenty twenty five or like latter half
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty five, early twenty twenty six. And it
Speaker 2: feels like that I don't want to say that read
Speaker 2: that in the tea leaves, but it feels like it
Speaker 2: is a distinct possibility for GTA six, especially if they're
Speaker 2: talking already talking about addressing all of these bugs now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we you know, and there's a lot from
Speaker 1: Take two here in the news today, and a lot
Speaker 1: of the stories are addressing exactly what you're getting at
Speaker 1: when you when you started there that GTA six is
Speaker 1: so important. I mean, obviously it's I think it is
Speaker 1: important to the industry, but it's clearly massively important to
Speaker 1: the future of Take two, to the point where it like,
Speaker 1: as that game goes, so does that corporation because they
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of other eggs in their basket
Speaker 1: that you know. That's one of the things we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about here in a second from them. So
Speaker 1: they you know, saying they have to get it right.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's software plus art. It's difficult and weird,
Speaker 1: and and they're gonna, you know, we'll put something out
Speaker 1: and it might not resemble what the game will look
Speaker 1: like in five years time. Like of course we've we've
Speaker 1: been through that dance a bunch of times now. But
Speaker 1: I think ideally what they're looking for here is put
Speaker 1: out a game that just gets a bunch of tens
Speaker 1: and has a working online mode that they can start
Speaker 1: to like build onto immediately and just immediately restart the
Speaker 1: engine of a game that can sell two hundred and
Speaker 1: five million copies, which is you know, we again. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about that in a second. So yeah, honestly, how
Speaker 1: do you get to the point where you feel good
Speaker 1: about putting out a game like that? It feels impossible.
Speaker 2: It feels absolutely impossible. Gro But at the same time,
Speaker 2: I feel like the landscape of game releases has become
Speaker 2: so different and expectations have become so different. If if
Speaker 2: GTA six decided to launch as like an open beta
Speaker 2: or like a beta phase or unfinished phase, like a
Speaker 2: before they hit one point zero, people would still eat
Speaker 2: that up. People would still be flocking to download GTA
Speaker 2: six and play it in whatever state it's in, even
Speaker 2: if it's maybe just a stripped down GTA online mode
Speaker 2: or the full story isn't there yet. I think if
Speaker 2: Rockstar wanted to go to that approach, they would still
Speaker 2: sell Gangbusters.
Speaker 1: M h. I think correct.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if they wanted to treat it like, hey, you
Speaker 2: guys test out all the bugs for us, people would
Speaker 2: jump at the chance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and uh, that might be pretty similar to what
Speaker 1: I think, you know, the online mode ends up looking
Speaker 1: like for this uh, you know, I imagine it does
Speaker 1: go something like GTA six launches and it is very
Speaker 1: much about these new characters and their world and the
Speaker 1: story there. And then there is a GTA online mode
Speaker 1: that sort of resets the clock in the way that
Speaker 1: the SIMS often does or the Madden games at the
Speaker 1: beginning and a generation does or you lose several significant features,
Speaker 1: but they make big promises about what the future could
Speaker 1: hold and yeah, and so you kind of like start
Speaker 1: small and it does feel a little bit like a
Speaker 1: testing period and maybe really maybe it is you know,
Speaker 1: gt online origine kind of launched that way unfinished, you know,
Speaker 1: not really very robust, easy to bounce off of, but
Speaker 1: it had some juice and that was pretty obvious right
Speaker 1: away to the developers, which is why they immediately went
Speaker 1: into supporting it. And now here we are several years later,
Speaker 1: and it is just this machine that prints money.
Speaker 2: Even if they even if GTA six has like a
Speaker 2: bad initial launch that is full of bugs, I don't
Speaker 2: think it would hurt it in the same way that
Speaker 2: it hurt games like Cyberpunk, yeah, or even Fallout seventy six.
Speaker 2: Because I think the name GTA six, people will just
Speaker 2: the greater general audience will just grin their teeth and
Speaker 2: grit their teeth and bear it, yeah, because they want
Speaker 2: to be in that world or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's there's not a lot of other
Speaker 1: options for getting that thing because you know, Grand Theft
Speaker 1: Auto has has pushed out all the other competitors in
Speaker 1: the space and really nothing you know, rises to its levels.
Speaker 1: So and it's a cultural, you know, iconic institution now,
Speaker 1: you know, with the trailer did come out for Grand
Speaker 1: Theft Auto six and it is instantly, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the most watched videos for a trailer for a
Speaker 1: product ever. So it's you know, Grand Theft Auto has
Speaker 1: that sort of cachet and I think people will want
Speaker 1: to love it no matter what. Now, you know, if
Speaker 1: it's fundamentally broken and like people are losing their saves
Speaker 1: and things like that, it's so big. It could also
Speaker 1: like turn into a really big thing where it's like
Speaker 1: you know, Cyberpunk had news stories and stuff like that
Speaker 1: written about it in the mainstream media. That could happen.
Speaker 1: But I think Grand Theft Auto just will is this
Speaker 1: unstoppable force, right, and there are no immovable objects you
Speaker 1: can put in front of it.
Speaker 2: I'm expecting GT six to have new stories around the
Speaker 2: launch regardless. Oh right, for whether it's like I can't
Speaker 2: believe they're letting people steal cars in a game. They're
Speaker 2: shaking butts.
Speaker 1: They are shaking butts. To see that in the trailer
Speaker 1: and the butt the butt shaking. The physics technology was
Speaker 1: very impressive, which is what I respect. I respect the
Speaker 1: technology all right. Like I said, there's a whole bunch
Speaker 1: more of you know about GTA six, about GT five,
Speaker 1: about Take two. Uh speaking of g t A six
Speaker 1: and maybe, hey, what was this game? Is this game
Speaker 1: gonna work on the Xbox Series S? The developers are
Speaker 1: saying they're not worried about it. That's according to Eddie
Speaker 1: McCoo at GameSpot. Grand Theft Auto six is in development
Speaker 1: for the PlayStation five and Xbox Series X and S.
Speaker 1: But how will the game look and perform on the
Speaker 1: relatively less powerful Series S. We don't know for sure,
Speaker 1: but Take two boss Strauss Zelnik is not losing sleep
Speaker 1: over it. During Take Two's latest earnings call Excuse Me,
Speaker 1: Zelnick was asked about the Series S being, by design
Speaker 1: a lower spec console. Compared to the series X and
Speaker 1: P S five g t GT six is expected to
Speaker 1: be a boundary pushing game technically speaking, prompting concerns by
Speaker 1: some that it won't be a great experience on the console. Look,
Speaker 1: we support the platforms where the consumers are for as
Speaker 1: long as there there, and we find a way to
Speaker 1: support platforms despite different levels of tech. Our labels are
Speaker 1: really good at that. I'm not really worried, and I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I buy this because you know they are
Speaker 1: going to want to put this thing out on PC,
Speaker 1: supporting a wide variety of of skew or of you know,
Speaker 1: capabilities there this you know, this is also a series
Speaker 1: that you know historically, you know, GT five launched on
Speaker 1: the Xbox three sixty in the PS three, right, And
Speaker 1: that's always messes me up whenever I remember that because
Speaker 1: I just do not associate that game with those consoles
Speaker 1: at all. But that's where it started. So them like
Speaker 1: kind of building this game for Xbox series s and
Speaker 1: having that in mind, it is probably something that's happening.
Speaker 1: But they're also building it in such a way that,
Speaker 1: like they know this game is going to be around
Speaker 1: for a long time, so they can continue to improve
Speaker 1: it and update it for a very long time to
Speaker 1: take advantage of new hardware as it comes along. That
Speaker 1: sounds right to me.
Speaker 2: How about you, absolutely grub They want to hit uh,
Speaker 2: they want to hit every everyone where they're at, especially
Speaker 2: if you look at the math and how there are
Speaker 2: still people playing Called of Duty, the madd Ends of
Speaker 2: the World on PS four, playing Fortnite, even on PS
Speaker 2: four Xbox Series s. Rock Star is gonna try and
Speaker 2: hit those people where they're at still because they don't
Speaker 2: have to move consoles, they just have to move copies
Speaker 2: of the game. I think there's also a world where,
Speaker 2: maybe six months down the line from the initial console
Speaker 2: PC release, we'll see rumblings of GTA six coming out
Speaker 2: on phones. Yea, because you know, we see Apple talking
Speaker 2: all the time about like, hey, you can play Resident
Speaker 2: Evil four on your phone. It looks great somehow justify
Speaker 2: spending sixty dollars on your phone for a game. I
Speaker 2: think that world is quickly going to also come to
Speaker 2: phones as well as the old generation of consoles.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's possible that God, yeah, the old
Speaker 1: gym I think they will probably look something like this.
Speaker 1: It comes out for Xbox Series X and S and
Speaker 1: PlayStation five, and then we're sort of like in a
Speaker 1: holding pattern until you know. It'll take advantage of the
Speaker 1: PS five pro obviously, but then I think next year
Speaker 1: we get the PC version, and then not long after that,
Speaker 1: like by the next year, we could have new Xbox
Speaker 1: hardware by it's one twenty six, so they probably just
Speaker 1: focus on like supporting the next new thing, and at
Speaker 1: that point they won't need to support older consoles anymore.
Speaker 1: You know, as much as we've seen the weird things
Speaker 1: like many big games get backboarded to PS four and
Speaker 1: UH and Xbox one, that probably won't be necessary for
Speaker 1: a game launching in fall of twenty twenty five, that
Speaker 1: we actually should be pretty decoupled from those consoles by
Speaker 1: that point, especially a game that can dictate people to
Speaker 1: go out and buy new hardware if you don't have it.
Speaker 1: If you are still on a PS four and you're
Speaker 1: playing Fortnite, one of the things you've probably been waiting
Speaker 1: for is, you know, a big game to give you
Speaker 1: a reason, and that probably has always been GTA six.
Speaker 1: So I think they will take advantage of that and
Speaker 1: just ride or die with the current gen and then forward,
Speaker 1: But yeah, Xbox series s not being a problem. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll see. It probably will be almost certainly is going
Speaker 1: to be demonstrably less performative than the other versions. But
Speaker 1: I bet it's not going to be some huge issue
Speaker 1: for this game, especially you know, they probably have some
Speaker 1: of the best tech people in the industry able to
Speaker 1: take advantage of this stuff. So we'll see.
Speaker 2: I've seen amount of people, yes, for real.
Speaker 1: All right. GTA five has now sold over two hundred
Speaker 1: and five million copies. This is from Andrew McLarney at
Speaker 1: Dual Shockers. Rockstar game's most popular title, GTA five has
Speaker 1: achieved another monumental milestone in terms of its already towering
Speaker 1: sales figures. In addition to its excellent sales record, GT
Speaker 1: five also remains the most watched game on streams worldwide,
Speaker 1: which speaks to its broad popularity across the gaming community.
Speaker 1: You know, at least at twenty thirteen and now is
Speaker 1: you know, over the time, over time and several versions later,
Speaker 1: two hundred and five million copies. It's just in a
Speaker 1: completely different stratus here obviously, you know, I think they
Speaker 1: talk about it here. Yeah, it's sold, it's selling well
Speaker 1: because people just like GTA. They associate like GTA as
Speaker 1: a cannon game, a mount rushmore of video games that
Speaker 1: you just get when you get hardware. But I think
Speaker 1: also the online mode and being able to get certain
Speaker 1: like bonuses in the game and Shark cards that you
Speaker 1: can use on stuff in the game whenever you buy
Speaker 1: the game has caused people to go out and repurchase
Speaker 1: GTA five multiple times, and that has racked, you know,
Speaker 1: just completely caused them to run up the score here
Speaker 1: to two hundred and five million copies sold it.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it feels I don't know why I
Speaker 2: get offended that. It feels unfair crubb yep, it offends
Speaker 2: me for whatever reason. But hey, it this game is
Speaker 2: I think I have. I want to say, I might
Speaker 2: have three copies of this game. Oh and I can't
Speaker 2: pinpoint where I have this kit.
Speaker 1: I think I own it Xbox three sixty now because
Speaker 1: it came with the Xbox three sixty I bought for
Speaker 1: Black Club. I definitely have it already. I think I
Speaker 1: have a digitally on Xbox one and PS four, I
Speaker 1: want to say, and then PC. So yeah, I got
Speaker 1: like four copies. It's that just happens, right with these
Speaker 1: really big games. It sort of just falls in your
Speaker 1: lap sometimes, but yeah, it goes beyond that, like us
Speaker 1: just sort of happening to get three or four copies
Speaker 1: like that. Sure, that accounts for a lot of the sales.
Speaker 1: It does not actually account for two hundred and five
Speaker 1: million copies sold. That is just not normal. And so
Speaker 1: that that's where the GTA online stuff comes into play.
Speaker 2: I'm really curious to see, Yeah, exactly how much GTA
Speaker 2: onlines et influence in like the last couple of years,
Speaker 2: specifically grub has has skyrocket that number if there was
Speaker 2: like a giant jump because of the prevalence of streamers
Speaker 2: playing GTA online and RP servers. I always thought that
Speaker 2: gt online RP servers were a very niche thing until
Speaker 2: I saw how big they act.
Speaker 1: That's one of the reasons the most watched game on
Speaker 1: on Twitch is because those AREP servers, roleplay service people
Speaker 1: that pretending to do stuff for people that wonder what
Speaker 1: we mean. Yeah, the role playing servers are massively popular.
Speaker 2: It makes me curious, Greb that I think there was
Speaker 2: a world where g t A five or g t
Speaker 2: A online was not popular, and then we were still
Speaker 2: talking about Second life sure.
Speaker 1: I'll still talk about Second Life with you if you want. Man,
Speaker 1: don't don't you worry? Yeah, I I you know, I'm
Speaker 1: very curious, you know, remembering back to new stories we
Speaker 1: talked about on this show of rock Star acquiring the
Speaker 1: you know, the people that make Grand Theft Auto five
Speaker 1: role playing possible? And what does that look like in
Speaker 1: g t A six? What is that? How do they
Speaker 1: sort of present sent that to the community of players
Speaker 1: that don't know what that is, but clearly enough of
Speaker 1: them are going to because it is so popular on
Speaker 1: Twitch that you know, it's just become part of what
Speaker 1: Grand Theft Auto can be. But how does a company
Speaker 1: sort of incorporate that themselves and does that take out
Speaker 1: some of the magic if it's like officially sanctioned. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I'm very curious, kind of can't wait to
Speaker 1: see how that all plays out, all right. Sticking with
Speaker 1: Take two, Take two Interactive Software subsidiary Private Division has
Speaker 1: been sold to an undisclosed buyer. This is from sal
Speaker 1: Romano at Gamatsu. Take two Interactive Software is sold independent
Speaker 1: games focused publishing label Private Division to an undisclosed buyer
Speaker 1: as it shifts to focus on larger game projects. The
Speaker 1: company announced Take two Interactive Software CEO Strauss to seale,
Speaker 1: and they con told Games Industry DP is that buyer
Speaker 1: will will be disclosed relatively soon. The purchase includes the
Speaker 1: Private Division label and all of its live and unreleased projects.
Speaker 1: Take to Interactive Software, however, will continue to support Moon
Speaker 1: Studios Action RPG No Rest for the Wicked, not Wicked
Speaker 1: Wicked Wicked, which launched under the label in early access
Speaker 1: four PC via Steam on April eighteenth, and is planned
Speaker 1: for a full release across PlayStation five Xbox series consoles
Speaker 1: and PC. Currently, Private Division and developer Way to Workshop
Speaker 1: are planning to release single player life simulation game Tales
Speaker 1: of the Shire, Lord of the Rings game for PlayStation
Speaker 1: five Xbox series consoles, Switch and PC VA Steam on
Speaker 1: March twenty fifth, twenty twenty five. Yeah, this is I
Speaker 1: think kind of just just saw Straslnik say it, where
Speaker 1: he's like, every game that Private Division worked on and
Speaker 1: published was a success. They did great on everything. It's
Speaker 1: just you know, not enough money for what we care about.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh man, so okay, that's weird. We like
Speaker 1: only the biggest stuff matters to Take two, And I
Speaker 1: guess if you're sort of you know, growing off the
Speaker 1: averages with Grand Theft Auto. It makes anything that isn't
Speaker 1: like a Grand Slam home run look like a waste
Speaker 1: of your time, and clearly they decided it was a
Speaker 1: waste of their time. But to hear like, no, this
Speaker 1: is a label that did its job exactly as we
Speaker 1: set them out to do it and they succeeded, and
Speaker 1: like no problems there, but we don't want it because
Speaker 1: it's just not making big enough games. It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: where do these games go? This is just a weird
Speaker 1: thing to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this feels bad grub where people are doing their
Speaker 2: job and doing their job well, but for whatever metrics,
Speaker 2: it's still not good enough for the parent company.
Speaker 1: Don't get it. Did my discord messages go off? There?
Speaker 1: Sorry everybody? I muted the tab there? There we go, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're good now. Yeah. I'm like looking at kind of
Speaker 1: the history of Private Division and being like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean they did a lot of cool stuff games that
Speaker 1: I think would like, you know, we're big outer worlds
Speaker 1: things like that. Now clearly they don't have outer worlds anymore,
Speaker 1: but it's like, you know, games like that where like
Speaker 1: your first one is a pretty big hit, and it
Speaker 1: feels like if you stick with it and you keep
Speaker 1: investing in the franchise, the sequels could be even bigger. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's clearly a plan there, but I don't know. I
Speaker 1: think this this run to this sort of sprint to
Speaker 1: the top of let's only make bets when they can
Speaker 1: be and when they can have the biggest possible return,
Speaker 1: and diversification is only for like those big, those big
Speaker 1: like one. Are we gonna make this kind of big
Speaker 1: bet or that kind of big bet instead of let's
Speaker 1: have seven medium sized bets. I mean, for me, I
Speaker 1: think it has had a had a detrimental effect on
Speaker 1: the quality of the industry overall, and it has left
Speaker 1: massive chasms open in the kinds of games available on storefronts,
Speaker 1: and we've had to turn to indie developers, which have
Speaker 1: they have been picking up the slack, which has been great,
Speaker 1: but there's definitely, like, you know, I think there's been
Speaker 1: you know, word from multiple former executives talk about like, hey,
Speaker 1: we try to get these big companies to care about
Speaker 1: double A games and they really should like feel a
Speaker 1: responsibility to build that up because that contributes to the
Speaker 1: overall health of the industry and every choice they make.
Speaker 1: When we see them make like something like to their
Speaker 1: investors and they're like, here's what we're doing and why
Speaker 1: we're doing it, it's always like, Oh, they just have
Speaker 1: there's no way that they're ever going to be in
Speaker 1: that space ever again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel terrible for games that I feel like
Speaker 2: could have been I don't want to say could have
Speaker 2: been good, but could have hit the mark or could
Speaker 2: have found like their niche audience where they become hits.
Speaker 2: I look at a game from God was it last year,
Speaker 2: Immortals of Avium, and think, you know what there, I
Speaker 2: think there was a really good game there that just
Speaker 2: needed a little bit of editing, a little bit more
Speaker 2: love and time, and like a double A game like that.
Speaker 2: We definitely need stuff like those types of games. Grub
Speaker 2: because I'm very tired of Triple A games.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2: I understand that I'm not the audience for like the
Speaker 2: Big Call of Duties. That being said, I am enjoying
Speaker 2: Blop six, but we do need that space of other
Speaker 2: games of like, oh, this is like the thirty forty
Speaker 2: dollars game that isn't necessarily hurting a studio, but it's
Speaker 2: like moving a studio along.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean I even when I do show up
Speaker 1: for a Blop six, it doesn't move me that much anymore.
Speaker 1: There was a time when Call of Duty definitely did,
Speaker 1: and I just even when it's like this is a
Speaker 1: really good one of those, it's not just fun multiplayer,
Speaker 1: it's got an interesting campaign all this stuff, but you know,
Speaker 1: it's coloring within the lines it is. You know, it's
Speaker 1: filling in. You know, it's paint by numbers, and you
Speaker 1: know that they have to do it that way because
Speaker 1: they have to mitigate risks and they have to like,
Speaker 1: you know, just like make big investments and things that
Speaker 1: people have already said the proven that they wanted, and
Speaker 1: so when they deliver a good one of those, it's like, great,
Speaker 1: we do want this absolutely, but it just doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like fresh and new and exciting, which is I think
Speaker 1: an important aspect of gaming. Like from the beginning, it's
Speaker 1: always there's always been this emphasis emphasis on novelty and
Speaker 1: innovation because again software plus art, like you like you
Speaker 1: want to be able to do something new, because you
Speaker 1: can do something new in video games. So those biggest
Speaker 1: bets are always going to be sort of leaning away
Speaker 1: from that sort of thing because it is it increases
Speaker 1: the risk and if you're making a big bet, that's
Speaker 1: the last thing you want. So do that in the
Speaker 1: medium sized games, do that in smaller games. And I
Speaker 1: thought Private Division was the answer for that, and clearly
Speaker 1: it actually was the answer for this thing that we're
Speaker 1: talking about. It's just that is not it's not just
Speaker 1: not a priority for Take two. It's something that they
Speaker 1: consider complete distraction.
Speaker 2: Man, it just feels scummy grub, Like I want Private
Speaker 2: Division to to continue to succeed and continue to do
Speaker 2: a great job, per find like a proper support system.
Speaker 1: Yep. Speaking of scummy, there was back back in May,
Speaker 1: Blueberg reported that Take Too had closed Roll seven and
Speaker 1: Intercept Games as as part of this private division stuff,
Speaker 1: like sort of like streamline in it so they could
Speaker 1: sell it, uh, and straus Zelnik was like, we didn't
Speaker 1: close them. They confirmed that they have closed Roll seven
Speaker 1: and Intercept Games. Zelnik has now said that that has happened.
Speaker 1: So just God, that one frustrates me because I like,
Speaker 1: I've reported stuff before and CEO has been like, that's
Speaker 1: not true, and it just very much is. But it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, Horse's mouth to say it's not true, so
Speaker 1: Jeff Grub must be lying. Uh so when you know
Speaker 1: they get their come up and something like this, I
Speaker 1: appreciate it, but boy, just weird choices. I just Struss
Speaker 1: the one that always strikes me as a bit weird
Speaker 1: when he does stuff like that. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I guess they got. When you got GTA six, you
Speaker 1: can kind of afford to be weird and make brash
Speaker 1: decisions and leave behind smaller bets and just focus on
Speaker 1: the biggest thing because it will make more money than
Speaker 1: all that stuff combined twenty thousand times over all. Right,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. When we get back, let's
Speaker 1: talk about Warner Brothers. Nintendo talk to its investors plenty
Speaker 1: more after that, right after this, all right, right back
Speaker 1: into it. It is earning season. Warner Brothers did theirs
Speaker 1: as well. Warner Brothers Games lost enormous amounts of money
Speaker 1: this year. The CEO blames lack of consistency. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: this is from Darren Bonte, you said game spot. During
Speaker 1: today's Warner Brothers Discovery Q three earnings calls, CEO David
Speaker 1: Zaslov commented on the companies gaming and film divisions and
Speaker 1: how they'll be expected to deliver more consistency with their releases.
Speaker 1: It has been a tough year for Warner Brothers Discovery,
Speaker 1: as several of its high profile releases, including Suicide Squad, Killed,
Speaker 1: The Justice League, Multiverses, and Joker far Adu, have drastically underperformed.
Speaker 1: Zaslov said that the company's games business is currently underperforming
Speaker 1: its potential and that inconsistency remains an issue in its
Speaker 1: various divisions that's via the Verge. Zaslov added that Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers Games revenue declined declined thirty one percent between July
Speaker 1: and September when compared to the previous year, as Mortal
Speaker 1: Kombat Won launched during that window in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: so it was a tough comparison. Multi Versus in particular,
Speaker 1: has led to a big shortfall for Warner Brothers Games.
Speaker 1: They said we took another one hundred million plus impairment
Speaker 1: due to the underperforming releases, primarily multiverses, this quarter, bringing
Speaker 1: a total write down year to date to over three
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars in our gaming business, a key factor
Speaker 1: in this year's studio profit decline. Yeah, this is where
Speaker 1: it's like you know, this is a company that has
Speaker 1: their own studios internally, are making their own games, and
Speaker 1: they've had some successes, but like Boy, they always feel
Speaker 1: overshadowed by when they have their missteps. Their missteps always
Speaker 1: seem to explode into bigger missteps, and I think Multiverses
Speaker 1: maybe is a good example of that where you know,
Speaker 1: Multiverses had some juice when it launched, it had some excitement,
Speaker 1: but Warner Brothers was like, Okay, that means we're turning
Speaker 1: this into an ongoing, live service game that is going
Speaker 1: to be this money printing thing for a very long time,
Speaker 1: and that's the only way we're going to be happy
Speaker 1: with it. When it was very clear i think at
Speaker 1: the time and especially now after they took it offline
Speaker 1: from their you know beta as they called it later
Speaker 1: and they're like, it was early access, and we're going
Speaker 1: to bring it back and we'll relaunch it and we're
Speaker 1: going to do the same basically the same exact thing
Speaker 1: all over again and hope for different results. It's been
Speaker 1: clear this entire time that they should have just gone
Speaker 1: the route of what like Nickelodeon All Stars Brawl does
Speaker 1: or whatever it's called, put out a product. Just put
Speaker 1: it out for forty five to you know, sixty five dollars,
Speaker 1: release it with you know, have a couple extra characters
Speaker 1: as DLC, and then put out a multi versus two
Speaker 1: in three or four years. You know, when people are
Speaker 1: pining for it, I just make it a product. Why
Speaker 1: why can't you do that? And it's because these companies
Speaker 1: are addicted to this notion of you know, endless money,
Speaker 1: and they thought they could do that there. So MultiVersus
Speaker 1: becomes this big thing that they invested a lot of
Speaker 1: money in and it blew up in their faces, right.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent, it blew up in their faces. I
Speaker 2: feel like public perception of Multiverses was already skewed from
Speaker 2: the jump, and then it definitely soured a lot of
Speaker 2: people's mouths when they took it down, claiming like, oh,
Speaker 2: we'll bring it back, and when it came back, there
Speaker 2: was zero to no fanfare, and then it already had
Speaker 2: that dirty reputation of like, y'all took this down and
Speaker 2: y'all were one hundred percent sure why you took it down?
Speaker 2: Are you going to take it away again? And on
Speaker 2: top of that, from my slight association with people that
Speaker 2: are into smash I understand that it just wasn't a
Speaker 2: smash hit with them as well. Also, Grub, you know,
Speaker 2: if several things are failing and uh, you know, movies,
Speaker 2: video games, maybe it's a problem at the top perhaps.
Speaker 1: I mean, and we do know that with the Suicide
Speaker 1: Squad where it's like they're just the game's not coming together,
Speaker 1: it's not coming together. Well, you know, your rock Steady,
Speaker 1: so it just will come together. Put it out, and
Speaker 1: it's like, well that you know, that's not a rock
Speaker 1: Steady decision. That's I'm sure, I'm certin. I'm sure that
Speaker 1: with some people at rock Study maybe buying into the
Speaker 1: kool aid, they're drinking the kool aid a little bit,
Speaker 1: but that that that belief did come from the top
Speaker 1: of it's rock Steady, that they will make this game
Speaker 1: good because they're rock Steady, that rock rock Steady magic,
Speaker 1: and and uh that that repeatedly we've seen that be
Speaker 1: executives making that air and then it blowing up in
Speaker 1: their faces in that way as well.
Speaker 2: Like I just don't understand Grub. Like after I understand
Speaker 2: that the original Suicide Squad movie critically panned, and I
Speaker 2: think it did okay, box office wise, But why return
Speaker 2: to that well with the James Gunn movie that was
Speaker 2: actually good and then with the game several years later
Speaker 2: after Suicide Squad or the name Suicide Squad had like
Speaker 2: that dark cloud hanging over it. Why, especially when Warner
Speaker 2: Brothers has so much fantastic ip we saw it all
Speaker 2: in Space Jam two. Why release bad games?
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 2: Why not make good things? Grub?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was like I think going with Suicide Squad
Speaker 1: was always confusing. That was always a weird one, uh,
Speaker 1: because I mean, I mean, as you point out, like
Speaker 1: we got a few years from like not even a
Speaker 1: few years, like a few months removed from from the
Speaker 1: release of that movie, the first Suicide Squad, and it
Speaker 1: like the feeling on that changed really rapidly. But I think,
Speaker 1: you know, the executives are just looking at the bar
Speaker 1: graph and like that movie made a lot of money,
Speaker 1: made a ton of money. So let's, uh, we know
Speaker 1: that's a powerful I p let's have Rock Study work
Speaker 1: on that. And Rock Study I'm sure they had did
Speaker 1: have us say in it a little bit, maybe feel
Speaker 1: comfortable because they were they like saw the bar graph themselves.
Speaker 1: But it's like, I think we could have all told
Speaker 1: you that this was not going to be the thing
Speaker 1: that was going to be something that people cared about
Speaker 1: this many years later, and then that definitely got proven
Speaker 1: when the James Gun movie came out, and you know
Speaker 1: it was it was on Max, but it just didn't
Speaker 1: have the same It didn't land with the same you
Speaker 1: know thunder. It was a thud. All right, Let's shift
Speaker 1: gears over to Nintendo. Nintendo did have its earning its
Speaker 1: report earlier this week. We talked about that a bunch
Speaker 1: yesterday and on John BombCast, but they now had a
Speaker 1: chance to answer investor questions. And I've got a couple
Speaker 1: of these here the Bend Machine translated, so there could
Speaker 1: be some errors. Will do our best to sort through it, though,
Speaker 1: you know, most of these are our pretty standard or
Speaker 1: Nintendo Games pretty standard answers, but we'll talk about them
Speaker 1: anyhow in today's presentation. This is the first question, by
Speaker 1: the way. In today's presentation, it was mentioned that the
Speaker 1: successor to Nintendo Switch will be able to play Nintendo
Speaker 1: Switch software and continue to support Nintendo Switch online. Given
Speaker 1: this won't the motivation for current Nintendo Switch owners to
Speaker 1: purchase the new hardware immediately upon release, be diminished. How
Speaker 1: does Nintendo plan to convey the unique appeal the success
Speaker 1: or console to these consumers and customers? And I think,
Speaker 1: I think what they're saying is like, you know, if
Speaker 1: it's similar enough that like to switch, games will just
Speaker 1: work on this new thing, how this new thing feels
Speaker 1: special and not necessarily that they get like new games
Speaker 1: won't be exciting. But the answer comes from President Shintaro
Speaker 1: for Akawa, who said, we explained that the successor to
Speaker 1: the Nintendo Switch will allow users to play software designed
Speaker 1: for the Nintendo Switch. Given the wide adoption of the
Speaker 1: Nintendo Switch, we believe that making it possible for customers
Speaker 1: to play they're existing Nintendo Switch software on the successor
Speaker 1: console is the optimal choice. This compatibility will allow customers
Speaker 1: to continue and enjoying the games they've already purchased and
Speaker 1: select their next titles from the extensive library available for
Speaker 1: Nintendo Switch. We will provide further information about the successor console,
Speaker 1: including the compatibility with Nintendo Switch, at a later date.
Speaker 1: As a company that offers integrated hardware and software entertainment,
Speaker 1: we are committed to showcasing the appeal through various approaches,
Speaker 1: as we have done in the past. So I mean, really,
Speaker 1: what he's just saying is, look, look it it's silly
Speaker 1: not to take advantage of the success that we had
Speaker 1: with the switch. It would be silly to leave that
Speaker 1: library behind. Customers would not like it if they've invested
Speaker 1: all that stuff in the switch one and it could
Speaker 1: work on switch to but it just doesn't. So like
Speaker 1: on that side of things, didn't really have a choice.
Speaker 1: And then at the same time, when it comes time
Speaker 1: to make the switch to feel special, well, we're Nintendo.
Speaker 1: We'll make Nintendo games that are only playable on the
Speaker 1: switch too, and that sort of takes care of itself.
Speaker 1: That sounds right to me.
Speaker 2: How about you one hundred percent grub especially when you
Speaker 2: have already built out that audience with people that have
Speaker 2: so many switches, why not keep catering to them, or
Speaker 2: keep appealing to them, or justify people upgrading to whatever
Speaker 2: the switch too will be of like you could take
Speaker 2: your games with you. Yeah, it's fine. I see that
Speaker 2: as a definite incentive. There's tomp Tomp in Chat mentions
Speaker 2: that the PS two Gangbusters because it was backwards compatible.
Speaker 2: I thought that was super cool. As a kid of like,
Speaker 2: I can keep playing my PS one games. And there
Speaker 2: has to be that generation of gamers as well, younger
Speaker 2: gamers that may be hesitant to like, oh, can I
Speaker 2: not play that anymore if I move on to the
Speaker 2: next console. But Nintendo seems to be understanding of that.
Speaker 2: And I feel weird thinking that Nintendo understands their audience. Yeah,
Speaker 2: tech technical in a technical way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but listen, at the very least, they understand what
Speaker 1: gets people to buy a console. And you know, for
Speaker 1: as much as like, okay, when when this question they
Speaker 1: when they say, it's like, okay, I think I see
Speaker 1: what you're getting at. But like, think about how many
Speaker 1: households have two switches, Like they bought a second switch
Speaker 1: when they already owned a switch. So the unique proposition
Speaker 1: there was nothing like other than maybe an OLED screen
Speaker 1: or an improved battery life or maybe a special design
Speaker 1: on it, but those are effectively nothing. That's the same
Speaker 1: exact console. So that unique or the lack of unique
Speaker 1: proposition did not stop someone from spending more money on
Speaker 1: more hardware for the exact same thing. So having something
Speaker 1: that will be in improvement will have games that are
Speaker 1: exclusive to to it, that that is such a vast
Speaker 1: difference of well, that clearly is unique. So Nintendo's already
Speaker 1: figured out how to sell the same thing to people
Speaker 1: over and over again. Now when they have you know,
Speaker 1: now when they have all that going with it, where
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, hey, all the reasons that you got
Speaker 1: you bought a second switch, and maybe you've been thinking
Speaker 1: about getting a third switch for whatever crazy reason. Maybe
Speaker 1: you have multiple people in your house and you're like, man,
Speaker 1: I wish we had one more switch so we could
Speaker 1: pass around this copy of Mario Kart and the kid
Speaker 1: can play that. Well, that will still apply now to
Speaker 1: the switch too, on top of all of the benefits
Speaker 1: you get from having new hardware, new games. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think Nintendo will be just fine there, all right.
Speaker 1: The second question, rising development costs have become a significant
Speaker 1: issue in the gaming industry. How does Nintendo view this
Speaker 1: situation and will the companies R and D spending continue
Speaker 1: to grow? Can anything be done on the hardware side
Speaker 1: to control these increasing development costs? Mia Moto actually answered
Speaker 1: this when it said Nintendo's research and development expenses have
Speaker 1: been rising yearly. Given that the scale of development has expanded,
Speaker 1: some cost increases are unavoidable. However, we place more importance
Speaker 1: on the content we create, rather than the size of
Speaker 1: the development budget. We aim to create products we believe
Speaker 1: will satisfy our customers, investing as much effort as necessary
Speaker 1: to ensure a polished final product. A key element in
Speaker 1: identifying themes worth refining, a principle that has remained unchanged
Speaker 1: since the days of the family computer Famicom jam. While
Speaker 1: personal preferences vary, it is certain that innovations things never
Speaker 1: seen before are always worth exploring. The more we refine
Speaker 1: such novel concepts, the more value they acquire. Our focus
Speaker 1: is on nurturing developers who value Nintendo's uniqueness, enabling them
Speaker 1: to dedicate sufficient resources to reach a satisfying level of
Speaker 1: competition for each game. In the entertainment industry, including toys,
Speaker 1: it is possible to create appealing products based on the
Speaker 1: creativity of ideas without high costs. Not every product needs
Speaker 1: to have high development expenses. In gaming, too, it's possible
Speaker 1: to create fun experiences with a small team and a
Speaker 1: short development period Given today's technology, Maintaining this perspective is crucial,
Speaker 1: and I think we've seen them exercise exactly this over
Speaker 1: the years, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent grub I understand the development costs
Speaker 2: are going up across the board, but I don't see
Speaker 2: it being as big of a problem for Nintendo as
Speaker 2: compared to PlayStation and Xbox because of I think the
Speaker 2: design ethos of Nintendo where hey, what if we give
Speaker 2: Zelda chair or Zelda table yep, versus turning legend of
Speaker 2: Zelda or turning a link into a sad dad game.
Speaker 2: It also feels like the folks behind Nintendo, I don't
Speaker 2: want to say, are more innovative, but more willing to
Speaker 2: play around with odd ideas that may appeal to people
Speaker 2: of all ages.
Speaker 1: I think they just believe in their creativity a little
Speaker 1: bit more. I think that, you know, not more creative
Speaker 1: or anything like that, but they believe that that is.
Speaker 1: And you know, that's what he's saying here, that they
Speaker 1: believe that that is the selling feature more than anything else.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I bet a lot of other companies,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people at Microsoft and Sony
Speaker 1: and various other third party publishers also believe that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: they're like, well, but it's hard, and one thing we
Speaker 1: can do, like pretty easily is spend more money than
Speaker 1: anyone else to make this look better and that is
Speaker 1: its own feature as well, and that has worked, but
Speaker 1: it has led us to the point where at where
Speaker 1: games have felt unsustainable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it feels like Nintendo is continued the design ethos
Speaker 2: that is still very prevalent. Or I guess it's the
Speaker 2: other way around, where indie devs have continued the same
Speaker 2: spirit of Nintendo with their own games and embracing the oddities,
Speaker 2: like you know, I don't know why. The first thing
Speaker 2: to come to mind was I love how weird Octodad is,
Speaker 2: and I love how Octodad has become like a part
Speaker 2: of like the cultural gaming cannon along with something like Quop.
Speaker 2: And it feels like Nintendo is looking at stuff like
Speaker 2: a Octo Dad more so of like, huh, how can
Speaker 2: we get just as weird with with something like Octo
Speaker 2: Dad or bug Snacks versus uncharted, Like Nintendo is not
Speaker 2: looking at the last of us and thinking how do
Speaker 2: we do that?
Speaker 1: No? No, And I think when we do see companies
Speaker 1: looking around and saying how do we do that? It
Speaker 1: is you know someoney Chad just said, like Sony with
Speaker 1: Astrobot learning lessons from Nintendo and being like, hey, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's focus on creative innovative gameplay, a lot of ideas.
Speaker 1: A game that looks colorful and bright and shiny, and
Speaker 1: boy that worked, that worked really well.
Speaker 2: It's it's a bummer also with PlayStation shutting down studios
Speaker 2: that did the weird stuff for them.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, right, yeah, yeah for sure. And it's so
Speaker 1: it's them finding you know, the astrobot feels like them
Speaker 1: doing it maybe in a Sony way that they a current,
Speaker 1: modern Sony way that they could feel good about. I
Speaker 1: wish they still had the old, really weird Sony way
Speaker 1: as well. Oh that would be ideal. All right, let's
Speaker 1: see here the other questions here we have two other
Speaker 1: ones we've read in media articles about in the Nintinuo
Speaker 1: or about the Nintendo Museum that mister Miyamoto gives an
Speaker 1: annual lecture to new employees. Could you describe the contents
Speaker 1: of these lectures, Miamotis said, if you referred to me
Speaker 1: as a genius, if the question goes on and says
Speaker 1: he's a genius and all this stuff in your question,
Speaker 1: but after my annual lectures to new employees and mid
Speaker 1: career hires are around one hundred to two hundred people.
Speaker 1: I often hear them say I thought mister Miyamoto would
Speaker 1: be extraordinary, but he's surprisingly normal, which is reassuring, so
Speaker 1: I think I'm actually quite ordinary. He then says personally,
Speaker 1: I feel like life would be more enjoyable without work.
Speaker 1: But since I do work, I consider how to work efficiently,
Speaker 1: and if I am to work, how to ensure success
Speaker 1: so that the next project becomes easier. That's that's my dude,
Speaker 1: right there, Just wow wow, Like I'm good at this stuff,
Speaker 1: but I'd rather not even do this. It's the John
Speaker 1: Carpenters and the Miamotos of the world that make this
Speaker 1: whole thing go around. I often discuss such creative challenges
Speaker 1: in my annual lecture. The lecture is divided into three parts.
Speaker 1: In Part one, I explained Nintendo's history starting with the
Speaker 1: Hana Fuda playing cards through toys, and Nintendo's history up
Speaker 1: to the present day entertainment company. In Part two, I
Speaker 1: talk about what Nintendo has valued in game development and
Speaker 1: what we consider our strengths. For example, I explained the
Speaker 1: evolution of interfaces, tracing the changes in controllers from the
Speaker 1: days of the arcade games, and in Part three, I
Speaker 1: discuss what game design truly entails many new developers, especially
Speaker 1: those who have played a lot of games, often aspire
Speaker 1: to create more elaborate versions of past games. However, I
Speaker 1: emphasize that game design involves taking various elements from other
Speaker 1: surroundings and imagining what might make an entertainment and entertaining
Speaker 1: video game experience out of that, I also explained that
Speaker 1: game design is is akin to engineering, thinking about the
Speaker 1: heart or kin to an engineer thinking about the hardware
Speaker 1: or development environment at hand, assessing whether one's ideas are
Speaker 1: truly fea and engaging in trial and airr to achieve
Speaker 1: those concepts. Yeah, it's I would like to have to
Speaker 1: see one of those lectures. That sounds cool.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, what a cool guy.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I mean he sets the tone right for
Speaker 1: that whole company one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: It makes so much sense how they don't understand how
Speaker 2: to do things online, but they understand so many other
Speaker 2: important crucial parts of the industry. GREB listening to this.
Speaker 2: Even even though this is like machine translated, I still
Speaker 2: get the gist of it. It feels like a lot
Speaker 2: of the same philosophy someone like Hyomyazaki has when it
Speaker 2: comes to approaching studio Ghibli films of rather than continuing
Speaker 2: to remake things from the past, let's just draw inspiration
Speaker 2: from life. And I think again, this feels like inadvertent
Speaker 2: shots to PlayStation two xbox of, Like, y'all are just
Speaker 2: making the same shit. What if you made something we
Speaker 2: What if we gave the plumber? When's the last time
Speaker 2: Super Mario Mario Mario had any plumbing device outside of
Speaker 2: Super Mario Sunshine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a plumbing device. Yeah, I don't know. It really
Speaker 1: is just flood huh and that's barely a plump plumbing device.
Speaker 2: Yeah. We instead they gave him a hat that helped
Speaker 2: them possess people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm And you could tell. It's like they are
Speaker 1: like throwing out like basic concept, basic ideas like wouldn't
Speaker 1: it be fun if? And then they work backward from
Speaker 1: that about like can that become a Mario game? And
Speaker 1: you could just tell when you're when you're playing this
Speaker 1: stuff that that's the way it works. You know. Breath
Speaker 1: of the Wild very similar, where it's like you tell, like, hey,
Speaker 1: I have this feeling when I'm like out hiking or exploring.
Speaker 1: Can we capture that through various means? And they do.
Speaker 2: How did he come up with or how did they
Speaker 2: come up with ascend I just want to know.
Speaker 1: I got that. I mean part of me is like
Speaker 1: they just were looking for easier ways to get around,
Speaker 1: like in the when they're developing the game and they're like, okay,
Speaker 1: can we We're gonna put a roof over here. I
Speaker 1: want to make sure that like what happens if the
Speaker 1: player gets up there, Well, here's the easy way to
Speaker 1: do that, and like this is fun. I bet, I
Speaker 1: bet it's a lot along those lines.
Speaker 2: I would love.
Speaker 1: It was a depth tool. Yeah, okay, yeah, awesome.
Speaker 2: Great. In my head, Miyamoto was crafting something and rediscovered glue,
Speaker 2: and that's how we got every up with Ultra hand
Speaker 2: in Tiers of the.
Speaker 1: King yeah and Fuse yeah yeah yeah, both those those
Speaker 1: kind of the glue stuff. I mean, I think it's
Speaker 1: that is the right approach, right, don't have this like
Speaker 1: hard and locked down vision as you are making something.
Speaker 1: If something is fun, I mean, this is how we
Speaker 1: got SimCity, right. Those stories always like, hey, I was
Speaker 1: making a map editor for a helicopter game and the
Speaker 1: map editor was way more fun. So I started making
Speaker 1: a game based on that, and then we got SimCity
Speaker 1: and it's like Yeah, that that is. That sounds to
Speaker 1: me like the exact path to all the best games
Speaker 1: and and and to do that. To scomplish that, you
Speaker 1: kind of have to start with just some fun ideas
Speaker 1: and go from there and be willing to accept that stuff.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like that's exactly what me Emoto preaches
Speaker 1: in these lectures. Yeah, I would love to see this.
Speaker 1: I hope they record them. They should record them all
Speaker 1: so we have them for posterity.
Speaker 2: Got to be on mini DV though.
Speaker 1: Oh listen, I'll get my MiniDV player. I won't make
Speaker 1: it work all right. Last question from the investors. When
Speaker 1: developing new hardware, it's essential to focus on Nintendo's unique
Speaker 1: style of innovation. However, if the hardware is overly unique,
Speaker 1: it might make it might make software development challenging for
Speaker 1: third party developers. How does Nintendo balance innovation with ease
Speaker 1: of development for external software creators. This is from another executive, Shioda,
Speaker 1: who said, the unique functions and features in our hardware
Speaker 1: are not created by the hardware development team alone. Rather,
Speaker 1: they are developed collaboratively with the software team determine how
Speaker 1: we could deliver a unique entertainment experience. Naturally we also
Speaker 1: consider the needs of third party developers during this process.
Speaker 1: In development, we create various prototypes, test how they feel,
Speaker 1: and find the ones that show the most promise. Recently,
Speaker 1: the importance of system software that runs the hardware and
Speaker 1: software has also has also increased. Airfore, system software developers
Speaker 1: now play a crucial role in the integrated development process.
Speaker 1: I think he's probably talking about the operating system here.
Speaker 1: Balancing uniqueness with ease of development is something we have
Speaker 1: valued over the years. Moving forward, we aim to continue
Speaker 1: producing products that reflects Nintendo's unique approach while also considering
Speaker 1: ease of development for software creators. I think this is
Speaker 1: them saying we're finding other ways to be creative and
Speaker 1: not necessarily going full blown. We with this next system
Speaker 1: that's still in us, we still have that and as
Speaker 1: if we choose to go down that roade, that go
Speaker 1: down that road, but we're not doing that with this.
Speaker 1: We're finding other, maybe more subtle ways to express ourselves.
Speaker 1: And I think that's welcome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent, you keep making cardboard pianos, Nintendo. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll still buy them.
Speaker 1: I will still build them along with you. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get these last couple of stories real quick. Tons
Speaker 1: of Dreamcast to Mega Drive, Sega Genesis please titles to
Speaker 1: be removed from digital storefronts. This is from Jonas Mackie
Speaker 1: at Game Reactor. As you may recall, Sega announced announced
Speaker 1: during the Game Awards last year that they were going
Speaker 1: to go big and release tons of games based on
Speaker 1: old franchises, including Crazy Taxi, Jetsat Radio, and Shinobi, and
Speaker 1: just yesterday was confirmed that they have a new Virtue
Speaker 1: Fighter in development. Whether there's any connection between all this
Speaker 1: and the sad announcement that Sega delivered on Wednesday night,
Speaker 1: we don't know. But what is clear that they're now
Speaker 1: removing tons of classic games from sale on digital storefronts.
Speaker 1: This mainly affects the Sega Genesis collection, but also separate
Speaker 1: titles that were originally released, mainly for the Dreamcast and
Speaker 1: Mega Drive. Shawn added a note here, I'm just going
Speaker 1: to read this. Shawn's note. The Steam dealisting of Mega
Speaker 1: Drive classics in particular is a bummer because it's one
Speaker 1: of the only times a publisher has made DRM free
Speaker 1: ROMs available legally for purchase. You could spend a dollar
Speaker 1: to have easy access to it. In the front end,
Speaker 1: they may they made, or copy the file out in
Speaker 1: Windows Explorer to use in any fan made emulator. That
Speaker 1: collection of if it's the right one that I'm thinking of,
Speaker 1: is also the one where you know, you go into
Speaker 1: a little three D room with a CRT and a
Speaker 1: Genesis and there's a shelf and you could pick the
Speaker 1: games up and put them in there. You could play
Speaker 1: them VR even, but you could like add different ROMs
Speaker 1: as well from your own collection and play them in there,
Speaker 1: and that was always cool as well. So this is weird.
Speaker 1: I wonder if this isn't like preemptive to something bigger company.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're gonna do some new collection, Maybe they're gonna
Speaker 1: have their own service or something something. What do you
Speaker 1: think is happening here?
Speaker 2: It's it. It does feel weird, grub. I don't know
Speaker 2: what their next plan would be if it isn't just
Speaker 2: coming up with a collection themselves where they want.
Speaker 1: To They're all gonna be mini games in the next
Speaker 1: crazy taxi.
Speaker 2: Or yeah, just throw them in the next like a
Speaker 2: Dragon where you just spend like fifty cents. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: would let like a Dragon be like my video game
Speaker 2: hub for retrogar.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the way like Animal Crossing on the GameCube. Was
Speaker 1: with my ny S ROMs for a while. Yeah, totally. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I hope there's more to this story. I hope that
Speaker 1: this is the weird bummer that is like the bad
Speaker 1: news and then we get a big swing and it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: they're doing this and it's incredible and awesome. Even in
Speaker 1: that scenario, I think I prefer them not taking any
Speaker 1: of this stuff down. That would be ideal, but yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll see.
Speaker 2: Making it easier for folks that don't want to jump
Speaker 2: through the hoops to do it, sure, but don't take
Speaker 2: it away from the people that are in the know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, So these things are I think they're getting
Speaker 1: taken down actively. I don't know if you do, but
Speaker 1: if you could still buy some of these things, maybe
Speaker 1: I would rush out and try to do that, especially
Speaker 1: the Sega Mega Drive in Genesis Classics, which is Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it looks like it's still on Steam at
Speaker 1: at this moment, but we'll see, Okay. Desth Stranding Director's
Speaker 1: Cut arrives today as a surprise Xbox release. Is from
Speaker 1: Alberto Garrito at Game Reactor. Hedio Kojama and Microsoft have
Speaker 1: been strengthening their relationship for some time. Now, the studio,
Speaker 1: led by the Charismatic Creative, is currently working on an
Speaker 1: Xbox exclusive title, and now we see the two companies
Speaker 1: coming together again with their first release as an independent studio.
Speaker 1: Death Stranding Director's Cut has arrived unannounced on Xbox today.
Speaker 1: The title is available from this morning on Microsoft's Gaming
Speaker 1: ecosystem and is being offered at fifty percent off it's
Speaker 1: recommended retail price for two weeks. A little weird that
Speaker 1: this that had no sort of announcement, but it's possible
Speaker 1: that maybe today is like the first day they legally
Speaker 1: could release this or even talk about it and promote it,
Speaker 1: and so they're like, just put it out and that'll
Speaker 1: be the announcement. Also, it's like it's still strange because
Speaker 1: Sony does own like part of the ipe, like they
Speaker 1: have the trademark and all that stuff. Like when you
Speaker 1: go on Steam, you see that Sony's listed right there,
Speaker 1: even though I don't think they published it on Steam
Speaker 1: with the co Coach Mode productions. But hey, yeah cool.
Speaker 1: I'm someone who's sort of come around in some ways
Speaker 1: on desth Stranding. I always thought it was a pretty
Speaker 1: interesting game, had some cool ideas, but now I'm like,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it for what it is, and now
Speaker 1: more people get to play it. Great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. I am in that same boat
Speaker 2: with you and Dan Reichert of not quite understanding the
Speaker 2: original game, but then with the director's cut, I don't
Speaker 2: want to say completely understanding it, but nodding my head
Speaker 2: politely and saying I enjoy this now exactly.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's It's got some cool ideas for sure. And yes, boy,
Speaker 1: I like I like the way that idiot looks when
Speaker 1: he's carrying a bunch of stuff on his back. That's that.
Speaker 1: It's pretty fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I maybe Norman read us out. But the other
Speaker 2: trappings around the game, the fact that he gets upset
Speaker 2: when you put a pizza box horizontal or vertically instead
Speaker 2: of horizontal.
Speaker 1: Yes, funny, it's good stuff. Like I said, that attention
Speaker 1: to detail that I appreciate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it too much attention.
Speaker 1: Maybe too much? Yeah, all right, that does it for
Speaker 1: the headlines. Let's get to the pole question, the whole questions. Actually,
Speaker 1: we got both of those that we need to catch
Speaker 1: up on. I'm gonna bring those up here. All right,
Speaker 1: looks good, there we go. All right, do you think
Speaker 1: the live action Zelda movie will ever come out. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna man, this is a tough one. I think I'll
Speaker 1: go with yes in this moment. Yeah, I'm good with you.
Speaker 1: I think we're in the minority though. Forty three percent
Speaker 1: said yes, fifty seven percent say no. I want to
Speaker 1: like the last we heard, maybe it was like scripts
Speaker 1: were coming in and weren't they weren't happy with them
Speaker 1: or something like that. But I don't know. Maybe that
Speaker 1: you know, how much can you trust those rumors? And
Speaker 1: that making a movie also sounds like kind of a
Speaker 1: nightmare with that stuff, So we'll see.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: The other pole question, PS five PRO is out this week.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about it? Now? Are you getting it?
Speaker 1: Want it? But I'm waiting or not getting it? I'm
Speaker 1: in the one it but I'm waiting along with eleven
Speaker 1: percent of respondents. Nine percent of respondents say that they
Speaker 1: are getting it, and then eighty percent say not getting it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that this will probably be reflective
Speaker 1: of the final number of people who end up getting
Speaker 1: a PS five PRO relative to the PS five somewhere
Speaker 1: between nine and you know, twelve percent, somewhere in that range.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we'll see how it all lands out. Where
Speaker 1: are you at it on the latest? Like thinking about
Speaker 1: getting one? Still? Maybe not?
Speaker 2: I'm probably not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, well now, yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm curious to see if those those folks that voted
Speaker 2: not getting it if they already have a PS five
Speaker 2: or if they just don't have any interest in consoles
Speaker 2: at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think it's probably a mix of both.
Speaker 1: But I bet the majority probably just have a PS
Speaker 1: five and don't feel the need to get one. Okay,
Speaker 1: that does it for the yesterday's pool questions. We have
Speaker 1: a new poll question coming here in the second. Before
Speaker 1: we get to that, though, GM, why don't you tell
Speaker 1: people what we have going on where they can find
Speaker 1: you all that good stuff.
Speaker 2: I have no idea deal. What's going on on the website?
Speaker 1: Yeah? What am I doing? What day is it? It's Thursday.
Speaker 1: We're not doing voicemail dump truck. We might do something
Speaker 1: else today. I don't know. We'll see, But then tomorrow
Speaker 1: I think we are. We are doing voicemail dump truck tomorrow,
Speaker 1: I think so. Okay, yeah, I think that's happening. We
Speaker 1: originally had it on Friday to facilitate someone's schedule, but
Speaker 1: that's not going to work. Out either. So, but we're
Speaker 1: going to do Friday and yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things.
Speaker 2: I think this may be the only thing I do today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you go get back in bed.
Speaker 2: I may go back get back in bed. Folks, I
Speaker 2: don't know. If you're looking for a distraction from the
Speaker 2: current events of the world, specifically America, go boot up
Speaker 2: a game, Go load up a game. There's a new
Speaker 2: Astrobot level coming out or out.
Speaker 1: Now now, huh. I barely had time for the last
Speaker 1: one because of the extra life.
Speaker 2: So I made a TikTok go go follow me on
Speaker 2: TikTok coffee with It's the same thing as my Twitch. Also,
Speaker 2: I have a twitch coffee with jam as well, because
Speaker 2: grub poison my mind and thinking black coffee black with
Speaker 2: a V instead of an A because I thought it
Speaker 2: was cool in twenty fourteen makes me sound like a
Speaker 2: certain demographic and I don't want to be associated.
Speaker 1: Look, you know you're always my black coffee. Don't worry, man,
Speaker 1: Uh all right, Uh yeah, I'm gonna go try the
Speaker 1: Astrogat level. Spend a little bit more time with that
Speaker 1: last one too, because, like I said, I really had
Speaker 1: no time to play. I played it for like an
Speaker 1: hour total. I there's a lot of tricks in that
Speaker 1: last one. Sambo Nice is saying he likes this one
Speaker 1: a little bit better than that one. So we'll see.
Speaker 1: I thought, so far, I've been happy with all the levels. Uh,
Speaker 1: maybe we'll play that on the website. We might wait listen,
Speaker 1: we might do Blake Club tomorrow. It's it's just kind
Speaker 1: of all down to vibes. How's everyone feeling. We're trying
Speaker 1: to go pretty easy on everybody this week. You know,
Speaker 1: we're still we're still recovering from layoffs, you know, and
Speaker 1: then this, then this happens, so it's like it's one
Speaker 1: two punch. Huh, can't catch a break. Jan goes the
Speaker 1: hospital last week.
Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, I needed blood.
Speaker 1: He needed he needed he needed other people's blood. So
Speaker 1: the rumors are true with Man's a vampire. We knew it,
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 2: I am Blade.
Speaker 1: Oh hell yeah, that's that should be your Twitch account.
Speaker 1: I am Blade. Yeah man, that was just last week.
Speaker 1: Holy crap.
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: If you do want to also, if you want to
Speaker 1: forget about things, go watch the extra live stream. It's
Speaker 1: the archive is up. The whole backup is up. It's
Speaker 1: eighteen hours on YouTube. Shout outs to UH, to Sean
Speaker 1: for doing that. Uh, just put it on because you're
Speaker 1: gonna constantly stumble across some of the dumbest shit you've
Speaker 1: ever seen, and it's worth Why was.
Speaker 2: John Carson dressed up as mister Mime?
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's a why to that. I
Speaker 1: don't know if there's a reason why. All Right, he
Speaker 1: just did and I appreciate it. It was deeply important to me.
Speaker 1: All Right, all right, let's uh. I think that wraps
Speaker 1: it up. Jan thank you so much for hanging out
Speaker 1: with me. To Dan talking about video games, man, I
Speaker 1: really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: That's the only way to start a Thursday.
Speaker 1: Greb, thank you all for watching and listening. You are
Speaker 1: the best audio, dance and gaming. Until next time, have
Speaker 1: a good one, take care of yourselves and goodbye.