Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Mess Mornings with Me Jeff Grub,
Speaker 1: your host from giant bomb dot com. Thank you for
Speaker 1: tuning in. In this episode, we're going to be talking
Speaker 1: about a silent hill in every pot, and everyone but
Speaker 1: Mike loves Splatoon Raiders. It's gonna be a good one
Speaker 1: because we have Jeff Backler on the show.
Speaker 2: Jeff, how are you doing?
Speaker 3: I'm doing well. I'm wearing the gaming shirt I got
Speaker 3: in my subscription box. It's super sick. Apparently Katamari Damassy
Speaker 3: is the thing I like and I but no, I'm kidding.
Speaker 3: I'm a diehard. Yeah, I'm og soon as again came.
Speaker 1: At first one like I was like, I gotta get
Speaker 1: this game. I have no idea really what it's going
Speaker 1: to be about, but uh yeah, right from the beginning
Speaker 1: I was there for Katamari.
Speaker 2: So I'm very excited about that shirt. Looking good.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you pal. I'm very happy to be
Speaker 3: here on Jeff Jeff's Games Morning.
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, I'm uh, I am.
Speaker 1: I played a little bit of Splatoon Raiders and now
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm trying to wait and see if I'm
Speaker 1: gonna end up agreeing with Mike or we have a
Speaker 1: story here about doing very well with the user reviews.
Speaker 1: But that's what I have been playing since I got back.
Speaker 1: You've been playing anything back? Are you been checking in
Speaker 1: on any games this week?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been trying to convince myself that I should
Speaker 3: play more of Halo y same.
Speaker 2: Yes, Uh.
Speaker 3: If I could just insert a little aside here, I've
Speaker 3: been soft locked no less than four times now in
Speaker 3: this game because like, the war Hoog will get stuck
Speaker 3: on a rock or something, and then I can't get
Speaker 3: back into it. The game like, won't let me drive
Speaker 3: the war Hoog when it's like, you know, sort of
Speaker 3: split on something weird and I have to restart the checkpoint.
Speaker 3: Guess where the checkpoint was. It was right after my
Speaker 3: war Hoog got stuck, So I know, Yeah, it's happened.
Speaker 3: I'm not Joe, I shit you not. It happened twice
Speaker 3: last night, and I was like, what the fuck is
Speaker 3: going on? Yes, chat mechanize. I had to malay the
Speaker 3: shit out of my warhaw so that it moved a
Speaker 3: few frames off whatever collision was happening, so that it
Speaker 3: could detect the opportunity to enter and drive it again.
Speaker 3: Look I think, Yeah, I'm having an okay time with it.
Speaker 3: I feel bad about shooting grunts. We've talked about this,
Speaker 3: of course, but yeah, I don't know. I'm waiting for
Speaker 3: a couple other things to open up for me. But
Speaker 3: that's what I'm playing right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have not had those experiences yet, but definitely
Speaker 1: sounds a little bit like Halo.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'll probably stick with it for a.
Speaker 1: Little bit longer, but yeah, there's other games coming, and
Speaker 1: once those get in my purview here, I'll probably drop it.
Speaker 1: It's nothing, not like the game has any problems. I'm
Speaker 1: just not like overwhelmed with the emotions to play that
Speaker 1: game or something like.
Speaker 3: It's a rest stop game, you know what I mean. Right,
Speaker 3: I'm a little bill in there waiting for the tank
Speaker 3: to fill up and then I'm bouncing off this thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, Zacy Sacy says street Fighter two.
Speaker 3: Yea.
Speaker 1: I am imagining Ken coming out and just beating the
Speaker 1: shit out of the war Hug thinks it's.
Speaker 3: Kind of what I had to do. My other guys
Speaker 3: are like, what are you doing. I'm like, I gotta
Speaker 3: move this all right, I need the PCs like stop,
Speaker 3: don't do that.
Speaker 2: I'm not walking. Yeah, it's insane.
Speaker 1: All right, let's explain ourselves. We're giant Bomb. Go to
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Speaker 1: If you do, you are supporting independent games media. We're
Speaker 1: doing this thing, and we're doing it with your help
Speaker 1: if possible. We really appreciate everybody who has come through
Speaker 1: and supported us. It enables us to do all kinds
Speaker 1: of fun, cool stuff like the recent road trip, and
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Speaker 2: It also gets you ad free versions of the show.
Speaker 1: As far as this show goes most weekdays, I Jeff
Speaker 1: Greb 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 Mes Mornings, or find the RSS feed
Speaker 1: on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch the
Speaker 1: show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube.
Speaker 2: Hello YouTube.
Speaker 1: All right, we have a lot to get into, so
Speaker 1: let's start the morning mess with. Double Fine has laid
Speaker 1: off twenty three staff after going independent. This is from
Speaker 1: Chris going In at VGC. Double Fine Productions has announced
Speaker 1: that it has laid off twenty three members of its
Speaker 1: development staff. The studio, founded in two thousand by former
Speaker 1: LucasArts veteran Tim Schaeffer, was acquired by Mike, was acquired
Speaker 1: by Microsoft in twenty nineteen and developed rad psychoedouts to Keeper,
Speaker 1: KILLN After and KILLN after That. Following news last month
Speaker 1: that Xbox planned to cut thousands of jobs as part
Speaker 1: of what CEO Asha Sharma called the most significant restructure
Speaker 1: in Xbox history, however, a number of Microsoft owned studios
Speaker 1: to faced closure. Some of those studios started negotiating with
Speaker 1: Xbox to go independent in an attempt to avoid complete closure,
Speaker 1: and Double Find was successful in these negotiations, along with
Speaker 1: South of Midnight studio Compulsion Games. As a newly independent studio, however,
Speaker 1: Double Find has found itself having to cut costs to
Speaker 1: remain a going concern, which it says has led to
Speaker 1: layoffs Double Find Today, Double Find Productions let go of
Speaker 1: twenty three members of our staff. As a small, tightly
Speaker 1: knit team, these actions are not taking lightly taken lightly.
Speaker 2: Only the survival.
Speaker 1: Of our of our studio would ever make us consider
Speaker 1: such a painful action. Our transition to becoming an independent
Speaker 1: company also means becoming a size that we can sustain. See,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think everyone knew this was part of it, right,
Speaker 1: Like the idea here of Microsoft, Oh, we're laying off
Speaker 1: these people and then we're going to let these teams go.
Speaker 2: Well, those are also layoffs.
Speaker 1: Those are job cuts that no longer exist that a
Speaker 1: new company, newly formed as independent will have to sort
Speaker 1: of create out like out of thin air.
Speaker 2: For the most part, not entirely.
Speaker 1: Obviously, having the infrastructure there to take a studio independent
Speaker 1: and start making stuff well ensure some of those jobs
Speaker 1: can transition.
Speaker 2: But the money's gone.
Speaker 1: The money was coming from Microsoft and now it disappeared,
Speaker 1: So they were always going to have to probably make
Speaker 1: these cuts. So it's like, yeah, double fine, is lay
Speaker 1: enough twenty three staff? This is still part of the
Speaker 1: Xbox layoffs though, right, that's right?
Speaker 3: What are we so is the implication that there is
Speaker 3: no new backer here? Or I mean sounds like no, right,
Speaker 3: if there is nothing to support staffing these twenty three
Speaker 3: people that are having to be let go after this independence.
Speaker 1: Yes, so that's what it seems to be the case
Speaker 1: for both Double Fine and Compulsion that they quickly were
Speaker 1: able to extricate themselves from Xbox from Microsoft, but any
Speaker 1: conversations that might have been involved with new publishers, new
Speaker 1: financial backers, or very early and are nowhere near completion
Speaker 1: when it came time to actually make these the jump
Speaker 1: to independent.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, if.
Speaker 1: There's money waiting in the wings, it's not like it's
Speaker 1: it's probably not happening anytime soon. And so yeah, they're
Speaker 1: they're kind of out there on their own, which means,
Speaker 1: you know, I believe that Double Find took all of
Speaker 1: their IP with them, right, So they're they're selling video games, right,
Speaker 1: they have income from that, and that's it. That's probably
Speaker 1: what the budget that they are sort of giving themselves of, like, hey,
Speaker 1: we make a certain amount of income from selling our
Speaker 1: catalog games. We can rely on that, and then if
Speaker 1: we want to staff back up or grow again, it
Speaker 1: will really have to come from getting a big third
Speaker 1: party partner to come in with some money to publish
Speaker 1: one of our games, and it's not easy to do that,
Speaker 1: right now, that's kind of all you hear, is like
Speaker 1: how difficult it is to find that cash?
Speaker 3: No, and I don't know how much reporting there is
Speaker 3: on the specificity of their IP ownership either, right, Like
Speaker 3: does it does it mean, like you know, fully sort
Speaker 3: of being able to capture all the revenue from the
Speaker 3: legacy library of stuff like the or is it only
Speaker 3: stuff since acquisition? Like what is how does all that work?
Speaker 3: I think the thing everyone you know should not lose,
Speaker 3: should not should be still able to take away from
Speaker 3: this is that it is like you said, the you know,
Speaker 3: the sort of fallout from Microsoft's decisions, right, Like, this
Speaker 3: is a thing that was brought on by that. I
Speaker 3: don't want I don't want them to get away with
Speaker 3: any sort of like you know, avoiding negative press after
Speaker 3: this is announced, because this happened because of the divestment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they clearly we're trying to shape this
Speaker 1: in such a way, Like going back I think to
Speaker 1: the leaks about hey, these these teams.
Speaker 2: Might get closed down.
Speaker 1: Oh no, they're in negotiations to sort of go independent,
Speaker 1: and like they framed it in such a way that
Speaker 1: when they did go independent, it will it.
Speaker 2: Looked like the best case scenario.
Speaker 1: It looked like, okay, yeah, these these teams aren't going
Speaker 1: to get shut down. So you know, you would see
Speaker 1: the boot looking fanboys out there being like.
Speaker 2: Sarah, I heard it was going to be a bloodbath.
Speaker 2: This isn't a bloodbath.
Speaker 1: These things aren't closing, and it's say, oh, honey, you
Speaker 1: just can't see that they really did pull wool over
Speaker 1: your eyes or you're happy to help them do it.
Speaker 1: And yeah, the money that was going into this industry
Speaker 1: from Xbox, into these studios evaporated, and that meant that
Speaker 1: was always going to mean job cuts.
Speaker 2: And it's like this.
Speaker 1: Distracts from the fact that there's other unsung cuts happening,
Speaker 1: including that we keep saying it a bunch of contractors,
Speaker 1: a bunch of contract studios getting completely the rug pulled
Speaker 1: out from underneath them, and those people, those contract studios
Speaker 1: have jobs that they are cutting that will not be
Speaker 1: counted toward the eventual what was at thirty two hundred
Speaker 1: total that Xbox is saying that they are going to cut.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, yeah, so these cuts are way worse already.
Speaker 1: And yet we're still celebrating the fact that this team
Speaker 1: now has to go out but is essentially the worst
Speaker 1: time to find funding for a game in a very
Speaker 1: long time.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I also got to stop seeing this fucking quote. I
Speaker 3: gotta stop seeing this quote the most significant restructure and
Speaker 3: Xbox stop saying so I don't want to that implies
Speaker 3: some sort of like achievement, that implies some sort of
Speaker 3: like awesome thing. Just shut up, shut up. I don't
Speaker 3: want to hear that anymore.
Speaker 2: Stop.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a sort of no humanity in these uh
Speaker 1: in these quotes, and that one feels especially sort of detached.
Speaker 2: From from what is actually happening here. You know.
Speaker 1: They also call it stuff like this is the reset,
Speaker 1: and everyone, I think asks the right question that reset
Speaker 1: to what what is what is the thing that Xbox
Speaker 1: considers to be zero that they are going to reset
Speaker 1: to and build back from?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Right, reset implies a rebuild, right like reset replies like
Speaker 3: wiping the slate clean and like, you know, going to
Speaker 3: some sort of rehab of sobriety and like you know,
Speaker 3: getting a new start on life. It doesn't mean like, oh,
Speaker 3: we murdered everyone. That's not the reset, Like, come on, right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: and the.
Speaker 1: Vision still is very fuzzy on how they get to
Speaker 1: that rebuild or whatever. Right now, it still feels like
Speaker 1: the goal is cut as much costs as possible, make.
Speaker 2: This lean for whatever purpose, whether that.
Speaker 1: Is just to make just to spend less money on
Speaker 1: this thing, or to make it easier to eventually offload,
Speaker 1: which continues to feel like a possibility here. Meanwhile, Xbox
Speaker 1: had some issues where Xbox Live I guess I don't
Speaker 1: do they even call it Xbox Live anymore. Their internet
Speaker 1: services went out. There was a big outage, and people
Speaker 1: obviously during this could not launch a bunch of like
Speaker 1: digital games that they owned that required sort of authentication
Speaker 1: through servers. There was issues with like, you know, talking
Speaker 1: to friends or whatever. All these problems with the Xbox services,
Speaker 1: but it also affected physical games. If you had a
Speaker 1: disc and you put it into your system, it also
Speaker 1: tried to reach out to a server and said, hey,
Speaker 1: you can't play this, and Xbox like, hey, that's actually
Speaker 1: not the way it's supposed to work, and we are
Speaker 1: going to fix that in the future. So Microsoft now
Speaker 1: says physical game, our physical Xbox games are subject to
Speaker 1: entitlement verification. Although discs are supposed to remain playable offline.
Speaker 1: During Sunday's nearly day long Xbox outage, some consoles failed
Speaker 1: to use the saved entitlements that normally let those disc
Speaker 1: discs launch without contacting Microsoft. Yeah yeah, some of those.
Speaker 1: Yeah they failed. Excuse me. An upcoming system update is
Speaker 1: intended to prevent that failure from happening again. Xbox CTO
Speaker 1: Scott Van Valet attributed the broader outage to an external
Speaker 1: licensing service. So we kind of got some details about
Speaker 1: this yesterday and didn't know exactly what it was. He said,
Speaker 1: the company will conduct a full post incident review, hard
Speaker 1: in the dependencies used for signing and game launching, improved
Speaker 1: detection and containment, blah blah blah, and communicate more clearly
Speaker 1: during future events.
Speaker 2: Toms like that. I know. Yeah right. It's like, okay, buddy.
Speaker 1: People just want to play their games and you're out
Speaker 1: here being like this is the next broader outage will
Speaker 1: be better.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So that does feel like they're still trying to make
Speaker 1: it feel like, yeah, discs have a special access path
Speaker 1: towards you being able to play them because you have
Speaker 1: a physical verification thing you can put it in the
Speaker 1: system and it should just work.
Speaker 2: Uh, and you know, it.
Speaker 1: Does feel like Okay, yeah, that's that's what people want
Speaker 1: to hear. It didn't work, And it does feel like
Speaker 1: you Xbox are about to go the pathway that PlayStation
Speaker 1: is setting out right now of at the very least
Speaker 1: extremely de emphasizing of physical media, if not fully pulling
Speaker 1: that out of the next system. But they're they're they're
Speaker 1: saying the thing where the hey, no, your discs should
Speaker 1: have that functionality going forward, and we're sorry it didn't work.
Speaker 1: Does this like feel like a weird moment to remind
Speaker 1: everybody that disks function that way when it doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like the future of discs themselves is very certain.
Speaker 3: I mean, it couldn't happen at at at a more
Speaker 3: suspicious time, right, Like yeah, it's it's certainly not encouraging
Speaker 3: in any sense I think, you know again, and knowing
Speaker 3: what we know now about not being able to trust
Speaker 3: anything that comes out of that camp at all, you
Speaker 3: just I guess have to kind of live in this
Speaker 3: very precarious situation of like, yeah, this demonstrates the fragility
Speaker 3: of having physical media and the reliance on that working
Speaker 3: with what is being called an external licensing service, which
Speaker 3: implies that like Xbox doesn't have that in house, they
Speaker 3: like somehow have a third party service verifying all and
Speaker 3: authenticating like discs, and that system talks to the Xbox
Speaker 3: network and gives them the okay even though these things
Speaker 3: are supposed to work without having to call home.
Speaker 2: I don't get it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't know. It's certainly
Speaker 3: not a good sign. If you've got hardware with a
Speaker 3: disk drive. I feel like that is now this valuable
Speaker 3: collector's item. Don't get rid of that, hold on to
Speaker 3: that thing. Yeah, certainly not an encouraging forecast for our
Speaker 3: you know, software ownership future.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's I still feel like if if Xbox is
Speaker 1: serious about this reset or whatever and re establishing its
Speaker 1: platform as a place for people to buy buy games,
Speaker 1: and that you know, specifically the console, they're they're making
Speaker 1: a bigger deal about Xbox console exclusives.
Speaker 2: Games they'll be on PC but then not on PlayStation. Uh.
Speaker 2: And the reason you do that is to sell more
Speaker 2: Xbox consoles.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: So it's like, Okay, they're they're serious about that side
Speaker 1: of the business. You supposedly they are presenting their themselves
Speaker 1: as being serious about it. Well, one thing you could
Speaker 1: do in this moment clearly is to say, hey, we
Speaker 1: are going to be different than Sony when it comes
Speaker 1: to physical media and support it for longer. No promise
Speaker 1: is about forever, but support it for longer. And they
Speaker 1: have a sort of reverse Xbox One PlayStation for a
Speaker 1: moment where they could say we're we're the disc side
Speaker 1: of the of the argument now, and so if you're
Speaker 1: mad at Sony, come to us. And I don't know
Speaker 1: all these opportunities to do that, and they haven't said
Speaker 1: that yet when they were like, hey, we're going to
Speaker 1: decide today four hours later that we are going to
Speaker 1: make years of more exclusive like moments before Summer Game
Speaker 1: Fest and kind of change the language on that if
Speaker 1: they're willing to act really fast on stuff like that,
Speaker 1: but not on this. To me, it sounds like no,
Speaker 1: Microsoft is going to keep going in that direction of
Speaker 1: discs will be deprecated as well, and it's unfortunate, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I thought these companies were still competing. That would be
Speaker 1: such a moment of competition. It doesn't feel like that's
Speaker 1: in the cards, right.
Speaker 3: It doesn't. And again, this really all goes back to
Speaker 3: the trust that they completely obliterated in front of the
Speaker 3: entire world, yes, back in June. You know, it's the
Speaker 3: same story over and over again. Forgive me if you
Speaker 3: hear wood chipping going on in the lawn. They are
Speaker 3: we're good, kind of which we said, chopping up some
Speaker 3: trees from storms we've had. Yeah, it is us. There's
Speaker 3: just no like trust. There's no faith invested in any
Speaker 3: of the things that are coming out of their mouth.
Speaker 3: So I hate to just sort of like paint everything
Speaker 3: with such a broad brush, but like, this is the
Speaker 3: reality of it now, and I don't think anything will
Speaker 3: really change that dynamic. I think the proof will be
Speaker 3: in the pudding, you know. And I don't care what
Speaker 3: they say. What matters is what they do, and those
Speaker 3: actions will speak louder than their you know, sort of
Speaker 3: like messaging whatever pr sort of stuff they are putting
Speaker 3: out there. That's what's going to resonate, That is what's
Speaker 3: going to be tangible, and we'll be able to sort
Speaker 3: of conduct analysis on the other side of that stuff. Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Don't know.
Speaker 3: I just can't see a future where like they are
Speaker 3: somehow capturing the good guy energy of being the physical
Speaker 3: media you know brand like, honestly, do you do you
Speaker 3: see that? Do you see that happening?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: I mean no, no, it's you know, it's there was
Speaker 1: a five percent chance, just because I could see them
Speaker 1: talking themselves into Like I could see Asha Sharma going
Speaker 1: to copilot being like, all right, what are the opportunities
Speaker 1: for today to make a make a difference here to
Speaker 1: I kind of get people excited, and Coviolt would be like,
Speaker 1: there's something about physical disc over at PlayStation maybe if
Speaker 1: you took the different tach Like I could see her
Speaker 1: talking herself into it and on that side of things.
Speaker 2: But clear anything wrong.
Speaker 3: I didn't like that, resigns.
Speaker 2: I'm talking like that, respond that's gonna cost us money.
Speaker 2: Disk drives her bad.
Speaker 1: We are already losing money on our consoles, as we
Speaker 1: will talk about in a story later in the show. Everybody,
Speaker 1: all right, let's see here. Uh you know, let's get
Speaker 1: to this one before we take the break. Your Coonambi
Speaker 1: wants a new silent Hill every year.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think they they're at a point where it's like
Speaker 1: that's actually a prop it's not a threat. That's exciting, uh,
Speaker 1: Gabe Gerdwin, Kurt Indovino over at GameSpot Road from Kurt.
Speaker 3: Kurt's delivering this message specifically to me.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's like a telegram at your door, and he's
Speaker 1: singing it here. Over the past few years, we've seen
Speaker 1: a major revival of the Silent Hill franchise, with twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four Silent Hill Too remake offering a spectacular reimagining
Speaker 1: of one of the series' most beloved entries, while titles
Speaker 1: like Silent Hill f and Townfall propel the series forward
Speaker 1: and seek to redefine what a Silent Hill game can be.
Speaker 1: Turns out, having so many Silent Hill projects developed at
Speaker 1: the same time was a deliberate strategy set by Konami
Speaker 1: and a way to prove to fans that it's serious
Speaker 1: about the franchise. Speaking to game Spot at a media
Speaker 1: roundtable event, Konami producer motoy Okamoto made it clear that
Speaker 1: the company views Silent Hill as a major part of
Speaker 1: its business. The main reason why we decided to have
Speaker 1: multiple titles in the works, like three games in the
Speaker 1: works at the same time, was because we wanted to
Speaker 1: convey to the players that Konami is serious about coming
Speaker 1: back into the gaming landscape. A part of the strategy
Speaker 1: behind that was to work on multiple games at once
Speaker 1: so that we can have annual releases or have an
Speaker 1: annual release of a new Silent Hill game every year.
Speaker 1: That way players will know that it's not a facade.
Speaker 1: We're serious about coming back into the gaming space and
Speaker 1: providing players with new games.
Speaker 2: Say, but like having this idea of like, okay, first of.
Speaker 1: All, recognizing that the Konami's sort of standing with gamers
Speaker 1: had slipped quite a bit because it did seem like
Speaker 1: they had abandoned that traditional audience.
Speaker 2: Recognizing that Silent.
Speaker 1: Hill is a very good way of sort of countering
Speaker 1: that if they can do multiple games. But then being
Speaker 1: able to do multiple games and so far make them
Speaker 1: all pretty good, at least the big ones that I
Speaker 1: know that like interactive television show thing was kind of
Speaker 1: a joke that people hated, But I don't know what's
Speaker 1: Silent Hell without one.
Speaker 2: Of those as well.
Speaker 1: But to have like two out of the three so
Speaker 1: far hit really hard, and now we have the third
Speaker 1: one upon us and seems like that that could be
Speaker 1: excuse me, that could be good as well. I think
Speaker 1: Konami's serious, and I think they moved exactly what they
Speaker 1: were trying to prove here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the proof is in is in what's coming out?
Speaker 3: And Jan and I actually just took a look at
Speaker 3: town Fall. Video is up on the site now and
Speaker 3: the YouTube channel. Uh it's you know the way I
Speaker 3: kind of we discussed it, and the way I kind
Speaker 3: of put it was like, oh, it almost seems like
Speaker 3: they're kind of like franchising out Silent Hill, where it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: what kind of some hell you want to do? What
Speaker 3: kind of and uh, screen Burn, which which developed Townfall.
Speaker 3: The way the story goes, I think, And Jan, you're listening,
Speaker 3: keep me honest if I say something completely out of pocket.
Speaker 3: They kind of just pitched this ta Konami, this this
Speaker 3: idea of the story, and and I was like, Yeah,
Speaker 3: this this dope, go for it. So I like the
Speaker 3: idea that like Silent Hill, can have a new kind
Speaker 3: of flavor on top of whatever story, Uh people want
Speaker 3: to tell a team wants to tell. I think that's
Speaker 3: really interesting. I think that rules. That's a smart way
Speaker 3: to go about doing it. And what we saw, what
Speaker 3: I watched of the b roll and what Jan has
Speaker 3: played and has reported back, like they are doing kind
Speaker 3: of they're pushing the they're moving the needle in the
Speaker 3: way that I think is kind of smart and new
Speaker 3: and fresh, especially with the sort of like pocket TV
Speaker 3: mechanic that they've got going on in town Fall. I
Speaker 3: think that's really smart. Uh yeah, I really dig it.
Speaker 3: And this sort of design seems like it would lend
Speaker 3: itself to this cadence of a new Silent Hill every year.
Speaker 3: You know. It's like it's like the new Madden, you know,
Speaker 3: and they just changed. They're just got update in the roster. No,
Speaker 3: it's more than just updating the rosters, new locations, new stories,
Speaker 3: but still having that same DNA. This is uh, this
Speaker 3: is smart. You gotta give them credit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 1: It's what we've kind of been saying for years, even
Speaker 1: before Coonami like showed back up on the scene. With
Speaker 1: this recent strategy, it's like, hey, it seems like Capcom
Speaker 1: over there has got it all figured out right. They
Speaker 1: have a way to at least every other year or
Speaker 1: ever like one point five years to have something in
Speaker 1: Resident Evil, whether that's a remake or a new game,
Speaker 1: and then it also has it's got all of its
Speaker 1: other pillars with Monster Hunter or whatever, and it delivers
Speaker 1: on those relatively frequently. And then it's trying some other
Speaker 1: stuff here or there. Why doesn't every publisher sort of
Speaker 1: try this overall strategy?
Speaker 2: And Konami, I think, looked at it.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, yeah, we actually should do that, and
Speaker 1: it seems like they're building up in a reasonable way
Speaker 1: to that. They're not like they didn't go whole hog
Speaker 1: and try all of it at once. They're like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's focus on the most important part, which does seem
Speaker 1: to be get one of your main franchises back in
Speaker 1: order and get people believing in it again.
Speaker 2: They Capcom had.
Speaker 1: To do that with Resident Evil has easily succeeded, and
Speaker 1: now it's like bouncing back and forth between the remakes
Speaker 1: and new games, and I think Silent Hill obviously stands
Speaker 1: to do very similar to that. And then it also
Speaker 1: seems like I could follow a similar arc of Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: now that people believe that Silent Hill is this going
Speaker 1: concern when they see a new one's coming out, maybe
Speaker 1: more people will than ever will decide to jump aboard
Speaker 1: the train. It's like, oh, I know that I can
Speaker 1: trust Konami to continue investing in this, so I'm not
Speaker 1: going to be wasting my time if I want to
Speaker 1: get into something new and really throw myself into the
Speaker 1: lore and go back and play all the old games,
Speaker 1: because it's like, oh yeah, if I do that, there's
Speaker 1: going to be a franchise waiting for me on the
Speaker 1: other side.
Speaker 2: So it really just has worked out in about every
Speaker 2: way that it could.
Speaker 1: Now I guess the question is can Kunami sort of
Speaker 1: expand on this that, Like you said, they are franchising
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff out there, working with a lot
Speaker 1: of sort of external studios again in a wise way,
Speaker 1: like I think the Neo Boards did the Silent Hill
Speaker 1: f game and that was like a support studio that
Speaker 1: worked with Capcom, and I think Squerannic's on a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff. But it's like they have experience working with
Speaker 1: these like Capcom, this successful publisher, let's go bring them
Speaker 1: on board.
Speaker 2: That's smart.
Speaker 1: But the Konami also said they want to expand their
Speaker 1: internal development as well. That's I mean this, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be a chance that they hit a roadbump here. Do
Speaker 1: you think they will be resilient enough to sort of
Speaker 1: like keep pushing forward on the strategy.
Speaker 3: That's a tough question to answer, but I I mean,
Speaker 3: I do think they are playing it in a way
Speaker 3: that seems thoughtful, right and sort of almost like future proofing.
Speaker 3: And I do think that's playing out right. I do
Speaker 3: think they're being kind of rewarded for it so far.
Speaker 3: Uh it's it's you know, it's tough to tell, right, Like, okay,
Speaker 3: uh so every indication is sort of saying like, oh,
Speaker 3: town falls at the very least will be a solid experience, right.
Speaker 3: I don't know, there's a fourth game, hit a roadbump, right,
Speaker 3: and then where are we there? Right, I think we'll
Speaker 3: have to sort of take the temperature if and when
Speaker 3: that that that happens. But I do think they are
Speaker 3: playing it in a way that feels calculated and and
Speaker 3: feels kind of smart. It is, you know, just going
Speaker 3: off off the reception of of f and how almost
Speaker 3: universally uh uh, you know a lot of that game is.
Speaker 3: It's it's definitely confidence inspiring for sure. I think how
Speaker 3: you will go out and say selfishly like the horror
Speaker 3: genre is probably the one little bright spot in the
Speaker 3: world of games right now that seems to really be
Speaker 3: hitting a groove, having a third, fourth, fifth, win, whatever
Speaker 3: you want to call it. So those people like me
Speaker 3: were eating well now for sure, but the precarious nature
Speaker 3: of this industry certainly can't predict what would happen if
Speaker 3: a substantial you know, speed bump lays ahead, right.
Speaker 2: Yep, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Rich Batic gamepoints that that Konami also has a new
Speaker 1: version of its e football game on switch that got
Speaker 1: rid of all the micro transactions micro transactions, so it's
Speaker 1: kind of just like a new pro evolution soccer game.
Speaker 1: That sounds cool. I might actually do exactly that.
Speaker 3: There is something encouraging about the kind of like pushback
Speaker 3: that the you know, that part of the world is
Speaker 3: sort of like putting out there right like they're does
Speaker 3: seem to be now at this moment, this tangible sort
Speaker 3: of like oh, you know, the the US based kind
Speaker 3: of like methodology business model is so toxic and shitty,
Speaker 3: like what if like that wasn't the case, And that
Speaker 3: is I do think cultural in a big way.
Speaker 2: I agree.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's I think kind of great to see.
Speaker 1: I think it's a It just provides an alternative to
Speaker 1: the strategy. I think it was kind of pushed by
Speaker 1: Western studios, which was we are going to make the
Speaker 1: fidelity higher and higher, and that is the one way
Speaker 1: that you sort of stand out. And then as these
Speaker 1: Western studios, especially ones in the United States, become too
Speaker 1: expensive because you know, it's an expensive place to live
Speaker 1: or whatever, but then you know the studios are ingrained there,
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, wait to outspend the other studios here,
Speaker 1: we'd have to like spend this much more time on it.
Speaker 1: That becomes unsustainable. There had to be an alternative, and
Speaker 1: I think a lot of these Western studios were like, well,
Speaker 1: we're not We're not going to look at the alternative.
Speaker 1: We have one way of doing things, and everyone else,
Speaker 1: especially and especially it seems like in Japan, they hey,
Speaker 1: let's come up with some other ideas. And obviously they
Speaker 1: don't have the same cost of living necessarily, but because
Speaker 1: it's that is a more more affordable country in some ways,
Speaker 1: but that like even take that out of it, it
Speaker 1: just seems like they're like, hey, we believe there's another
Speaker 1: way to approach getting people excited about these games, and
Speaker 1: it's working. I think ye just having meamoto out in
Speaker 1: the past week, being like, you know, make games that
Speaker 1: are that you care about, not that you're trying to
Speaker 1: make globally appealing. That feels very different than a lot
Speaker 1: of the Western studios, and it feels like that has
Speaker 1: trickled down throughout.
Speaker 3: Japan without a doubt. I mean almost like overnight. It's
Speaker 3: there's like this epiphany of like, oh wow, not being
Speaker 3: shitty turns out that's a beautiful way to live and operate,
Speaker 3: and you can be a business and not be shitty
Speaker 3: and still make money and still be okay. So yeah,
Speaker 3: it's certainly an indictment in terms of the American system.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that is the story. That is a situation
Speaker 3: we're in right now.
Speaker 1: All right, we are gonna take a break. When we
Speaker 1: get back, plenty of more headlines to get into. We
Speaker 1: will touch on those after this. If you want to
Speaker 1: skip out on these ad messages, just go to GiantBomb
Speaker 1: dot com slash join. You can get the ad free
Speaker 1: versions of this show and the others right there. We
Speaker 1: will be right back. All right, We're back with Game
Speaker 1: mess Mornings. It's jurifom Jeff. Let's go ahead and get
Speaker 1: into the next headline here. A Dragon Age trilogy remaster
Speaker 1: may be impossible without rebuilding BioWare knowledge. This is from
Speaker 1: Chris Scully and at VGC. Dragon Age fans hoping for
Speaker 1: remasters of the original trilogy may have had those hopes
Speaker 1: dashed by BioWare veteran and dragon Age series producer Mark Dara.
Speaker 1: Dara was at BioWare for twenty three years and was
Speaker 1: executive producer on the dragon Age series before leaving the
Speaker 1: studio in twenty twenty during the development of dragon Age,
Speaker 1: The Veilguard and An Excuse Me. In an interview with FRVR,
Speaker 1: Dara was asked if he thought the first three games
Speaker 1: in the series, Dragon Age Origins, Dragon h two, and
Speaker 1: Dragon Age Inquisition would ever get the same sort of
Speaker 1: remaster treatment BioWare's Mass Effect trilogy got with the release
Speaker 1: of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: Dara explained that a trilogy of remasters, which he proposed
Speaker 1: would be called the Champions Edition, was originally part of
Speaker 1: the plan while he was at BioWare. I think what
Speaker 1: you want is a Champions Edition. That was always my plan.
Speaker 1: We're going to do a Champions trilogy. We're going to
Speaker 1: retroactively turn this into like, these are three games with
Speaker 1: three different important figures, and we're going to group them in,
Speaker 1: collect them together. We're going to retroactively turn them into
Speaker 1: a trilogy. The problem with this, however, is that this
Speaker 1: is no longer a quote. The problem with this, however,
Speaker 1: is that while all three Mass Effect games ran on
Speaker 1: Unreal Engine three remaking remasters relatively manageable, the first two
Speaker 1: dragon Age games ran on versions of BioWare's bespoke Aurora Engine.
Speaker 1: Dragon Age Origins ran on the Eclipse Engine, which was
Speaker 1: an advanced version of Aurora, while Dragon h two ran
Speaker 1: on its successor, the Lyceum Engine, and then dragon Age
Speaker 1: Inquisition ran on EA's Frostbite.
Speaker 2: I remember at the.
Speaker 1: Time when a legendary edition was happening, sure that people
Speaker 1: were asking me about and then so will they do
Speaker 1: Dragon Age after that? And what I was hearing internally
Speaker 1: was always it's this problem. It is that when you
Speaker 1: do work on Mass Effect one, it like carried over
Speaker 1: to two and then to three, but.
Speaker 2: Three needed less work.
Speaker 1: So it's like they're kind of like really getting a
Speaker 1: lot out of all the efforts that they were making,
Speaker 1: and it would it would mad It made a lot
Speaker 1: more sense, and it also helped then that Mass Effect.
Speaker 2: Was already a real trilogy.
Speaker 1: So they it didn't require as much work on that
Speaker 1: side of things to make it make sense. Packaged up
Speaker 1: like that dragon Age just didn't. So they once they
Speaker 1: were presented with all those problems and especially the engine issue,
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, well, we're not going to be able
Speaker 1: to make that really make sense. Now they're at a point,
Speaker 1: as Star points out, where all of the people who
Speaker 1: had that institutional knowledge about how to work with those
Speaker 1: previous engines are gone, So it would be kind of
Speaker 1: an even bigger hill to climb to get this done,
Speaker 1: making it less likely than the moment where they already
Speaker 1: decided not.
Speaker 2: To do it.
Speaker 1: So this this feels like one where if they get
Speaker 1: back around to doing a dragon Age trilogy sort of
Speaker 1: collection or whatever, it's gonna be way down the line
Speaker 1: where they were gonna fully like remake these games, and
Speaker 1: we're kind of nowhere near that right now, right, I.
Speaker 3: Mean, yeah, everything's so fragmented with these different engines that
Speaker 3: does not seem like I mean, this is almost like
Speaker 3: a it's almost like a non excuses, but like an
Speaker 3: explanation of like, here's here's how you need to be
Speaker 3: realistic about trilogy, right I think.
Speaker 1: And A fans recognize that pretty quickly or like go okay,
Speaker 1: that that that does make sense. It's you know, at
Speaker 1: dragon Age, the last one there, dragon Age, the Vail Guard. Uh,
Speaker 1: it kind of just missed on enough points of of
Speaker 1: sort of being able to win over new fans that
Speaker 1: EA is just not gonna pay it any mind.
Speaker 2: Like EA feels done with it.
Speaker 1: So the idea here that okay, maybe by Where could
Speaker 1: eat like that, whether we talked on the bomb Bywear
Speaker 1: could pitch a new game that feels like that won't happen.
Speaker 1: By Where could pitch like a collection of these previous games,
Speaker 1: similar to the legendary edition of Mass Effect. Even that
Speaker 1: at this point, I think everyone internally would recognize that
Speaker 1: that would be something that EA would not care to
Speaker 1: hear about right now. So it's going to take quite
Speaker 1: some time to sort of shift the fortunes of Dragon Age,
Speaker 1: which is unfortunate because like when I was reporting on it,
Speaker 1: I always noticed it's like, man, the fan base for
Speaker 1: these games is feverish, and it's kind of unfortunate that
Speaker 1: they won't be surf going forward, all right, clear, Obscure
Speaker 1: Studio says it wants to bring it to switch to
Speaker 1: but it's way too early to announce anything.
Speaker 2: This is from Chris Sculling at VGC.
Speaker 1: Clare Obscure Expedition thirty three studio Sandfall Interactive wants to
Speaker 1: make a switch to part of the game, but it's
Speaker 1: still in the process of seeing how feasible it is.
Speaker 1: Following a recent post mortem event discussing the game in Yokohama,
Speaker 1: Sandfall CEO and creative director Gilmbriouh, co founder and CTO
Speaker 1: Tom Gillemaran Giman, Yes, and lead character Yeah, close enough,
Speaker 1: and concept hartist Alan Renaud. We're asked by Automaton whether
Speaker 1: they thought the game could run on switch To and
Speaker 1: whether there were plans for report. The developers replied that
Speaker 1: they did not want to bring Claire, or that they
Speaker 1: did want to bring Claire of Scared to switch To,
Speaker 1: but we're still looking at how to overcome the technical
Speaker 1: hurdles involved in this, suggesting it takes longer for a
Speaker 1: smaller team to figure these out. We are interested in
Speaker 1: looking for a way to do it, but it's too
Speaker 1: early for us to announce anything at this point. It's
Speaker 1: a big technical challenge because we tried to do something
Speaker 1: beautiful with the game, but of course the switch to
Speaker 1: is not as powerful as the PlayStation or the Xbox
Speaker 1: series X, so it's important thing for us to consider,
Speaker 1: especially given the size of our studio.
Speaker 3: I just love that chord. It's like, yeah, like we
Speaker 3: want to put it on the switch too, but switch
Speaker 3: is not beautiful.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a table, you see. We made a beautiful game.
Speaker 2: That's the problem here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we don't want to have to dumb it down
Speaker 3: for the fidelity that only the switch to is able
Speaker 3: of putting out. Yuck.
Speaker 2: Yep. They probably are looking very seriously at this.
Speaker 3: There's a billion of them out in the market, right right.
Speaker 1: Unreal Engine five is a little bit of a pain
Speaker 1: to put on the switch too, but it's worked before.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I played Expedition thirty three on the
Speaker 1: Steam Deck and it looked rough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it was playable.
Speaker 3: I also think it's a I think it's a difficult
Speaker 3: portable game. Yeah yeah, right right, and obviously switch to
Speaker 3: you dock it. It's not portable. But like I get
Speaker 3: what you're saying there. I think, uh, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, look, you just want this out. You want
Speaker 3: a version of it that is serviceable, right, I don't
Speaker 3: think there's gonna be any And presumably you are trying
Speaker 3: to reach an audience that is just a switch playing
Speaker 3: sort of audience that maybe would not have any kind
Speaker 3: of like, you know, disappointment in the perhaps little lackluster
Speaker 3: fidelity of a switch to version of claib Scirit.
Speaker 1: And I think it's like we've been surprised a bunch
Speaker 1: of times now where not only hey, this game's coming
Speaker 1: to switch to, I guess I didn't necessarily expect that,
Speaker 1: and then a lot of those have been like, oh,
Speaker 1: and it looks really good, it runs pretty well.
Speaker 2: That's happened repeatedly. I think it's going to happen here again.
Speaker 1: I think the point that Sandfal the people over at
Speaker 1: Sandfall are getting at is we're a smaller team. It's
Speaker 1: going to take a little bit more work for us
Speaker 1: to accomplish that, unless we've again maybe bringing in a
Speaker 1: port studio, which they might be doing, who knows.
Speaker 3: Right, Look, Sandfall, if you really want to feel good
Speaker 3: about it, maybe you just call it, you know, clare
Speaker 3: obscurit not so.
Speaker 2: Beautiful Expedition thirty thirty two.
Speaker 1: It's knock a down one. Yes, right, that's fair to
Speaker 1: take a little bit of it on our away from it.
Speaker 1: All right, let's let's wrap back to Xbox real quick.
Speaker 1: There's a couple other things happening over there. Xbox is
Speaker 1: reportedly losing around one hundred and fifty dollars on every console.
Speaker 1: Windows Central's just Cording reports that Microsoft is losing approximately
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty dollars on recently manufactured Xbox series
Speaker 1: X and S units, largely because of rapidly increasing memory
Speaker 1: and storage cost Obviously more strikingly Accorded says Microsoft will
Speaker 1: apparently continue losing money on each unit even after the
Speaker 1: August first price increases happen, which, yeah, that makes sense,
Speaker 1: not all, Like those weren't one hundred and fifty dollars,
Speaker 1: so and then they also still expect RAM and storage
Speaker 1: costs to keep going up, so they might be right
Speaker 1: back at one hundred and fifty.
Speaker 2: Dollars a missing from every console they sell.
Speaker 1: As a rough illustration recovering a one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: dollars hardware loss solely through a thirty percent platform cut.
Speaker 1: So basically, there were some math done about Okay, let's
Speaker 1: say they're losing, they're subsidizing these consoles at one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars, what would people have to buy in
Speaker 1: terms of seventy dollars games to make up that subsidy.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, it's like seven or maybe fine, yes,
Speaker 1: seven seventy dollars games is what people would have to buy,
Speaker 1: and that's people aren't really typically buying that many pieces
Speaker 1: of software per console. It's usually a little bit lower
Speaker 1: than that. But of course, the real world use case
Speaker 1: for a lot of people is way different. They're buying
Speaker 1: first party games and they're getting game Pass and they're
Speaker 1: getting they're buying games here or there, or they're borrowing games,
Speaker 1: they're playing free to play games, so there's micro transactions involved.
Speaker 1: I think one hundred and fifty dollars subsidy is not
Speaker 1: where any of these companies want to be. That is
Speaker 1: not an amount that they have been comfortable comfortable with
Speaker 1: for a very long time, which is why the prices
Speaker 1: do keep going up. But they're not going to be
Speaker 1: solved by this most recent price increase that's already already
Speaker 1: been announced. Are we expecting another round of price increases
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty seven?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 3: I mean to what end?
Speaker 2: Right? Like?
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you you know, we we've already seen sales
Speaker 3: start to be impacted. I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 3: There seems to be this like extremely wishful thinking throughout
Speaker 3: the industry that somehow these things will rebound. There's just
Speaker 3: really no evidence that points to that sort of inevitability.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I mean to what end, Okay, you
Speaker 3: rate another round of price right, like what I mean?
Speaker 3: These are now items that are just wildly out of
Speaker 3: the scope of a traditional consumer. They are becoming luxury,
Speaker 3: elite items that you will tell your grandkids about if
Speaker 3: you can afford to have children.
Speaker 1: Right, yes, And then of course it's like sets us
Speaker 1: up for expectations in terms of pricing for the next gen,
Speaker 1: which apparently is all supposed to coming across the board
Speaker 1: from PlayStation and Xbox. And yeah, they're already losing one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars on older hardware that is getting
Speaker 1: up to eight hundred dollars or whatever. New hardware is
Speaker 1: not going to be less expensive to produce. It's going
Speaker 1: to be more expensive in every way it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the pricing expectations I think from everyone for the next
Speaker 1: gen stuff is through the like through the roof beyond
Speaker 1: whatever one.
Speaker 2: Thought was possible.
Speaker 3: And also they fucking did this, yes, well absolutely, yeah,
Speaker 3: they fucking did this. So I you know, we can
Speaker 3: talk about this and keep it up until we're blue
Speaker 3: in the face, but like this situation come you know,
Speaker 3: not one hundred percent directly, but substantially. It was impacted
Speaker 3: by their broader business decisions and the investment in AI
Speaker 3: and the need to build uh you know, data centers
Speaker 3: for endless data centers and all these things that require
Speaker 3: the hardware that is forcing the price up for all
Speaker 3: these things. This is their bed. They shit in it
Speaker 3: and now they got to lay in it.
Speaker 2: Yep. Finally, Actually a couple more things here.
Speaker 1: Xbox and Ubisoft introduced one way console, the PC crossby
Speaker 1: so Xbox and Ubi Suft are granting the Ubi Seft
Speaker 1: Connect PC versions of thirteen games to people who own
Speaker 1: their digital Xbox console editions. Basically, if you buy these
Speaker 1: certain Xbox or certain Ubi Soft games on Xbox consoles,
Speaker 1: you will then get access to the Ubisoft Connect PC
Speaker 1: versions as well.
Speaker 2: It doesn't go the other way. So if you have the.
Speaker 1: PC versions of Assassin's Creed, Mirage, Assassin's Creed, Valhalla, Avatar,
Speaker 1: Frontiers of Pandora, Far Crist Six Immortals, Phoenix Rising, principersha
Speaker 1: The Lost Crown Riders, Republic everyone's favorite, Skull and Bones,
Speaker 1: Everyone's second favorite, the Crew, Two's the Crew, motor Fest,
Speaker 1: Rainbow six Extraction which everyone remembers, Rainbow six Siege, and
Speaker 1: Watchdog's Legion. You will not get the Xbox version like returned, yes,
Speaker 1: and the reverse way. I think, yes, that's how it is. Yes,
Speaker 1: So but if you have the Xbox version, you get
Speaker 1: the PC version. I don't know who this is really for.
Speaker 2: Jurff.
Speaker 1: I don't know, like what needle this is even trying
Speaker 1: to move. I suppose that Xbox and Ubisoft, trying to
Speaker 1: tighten their relationship, suggest something like one about the other.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but they they were definitely like they
Speaker 1: already had the situation where if you have Xbox Game
Speaker 1: Pass Ultimate, I think you get a small version of
Speaker 1: Ubisoft subscription service on Xbox. So they've had this close
Speaker 1: relationship and it really doesn't seem to have helped either one.
Speaker 2: So I don't know.
Speaker 3: Nobody knows there U BEI selft login information, what do
Speaker 3: you do?
Speaker 2: Oh my god? Right, who the fuck is being like?
Speaker 3: Oh second old, now I'm gonna download connect you. Oh,
Speaker 3: come on live in the real. I don't know who
Speaker 3: this is for. You're right, who are you people? Where'd
Speaker 3: you come from? What your gaming habits are? Incredibly confusing?
Speaker 3: I don't know. This seems like how did this even happen?
Speaker 2: You think? Right? Right?
Speaker 3: What sort of weird footnote? This is like when a
Speaker 3: team like like trades and like you get like conditional
Speaker 3: draft picks and it's like, oh, this is this is
Speaker 3: a result of something like that.
Speaker 1: Right, and it's like it definitely feels like a conversation
Speaker 1: that started under the previous regime and sort of just
Speaker 1: carried forward under its own momentum or something. It was
Speaker 1: so close to the finish line that they just they
Speaker 1: just went through with it, because I can't imagine, like
Speaker 1: this was like on ashes Sharma's to do list when
Speaker 1: she started the job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm at I'm at the goal line, but you
Speaker 3: gotta give me the crossby on on on Ubisoft Connect.
Speaker 3: That's the only detail that I'll get this deal over
Speaker 3: the finish That's what makes my world go round, please
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Speaking of confusing, I think Splatoon Raiders is currently the
Speaker 1: seventh greatest game of all time according to user reviews.
Speaker 1: On Meta Critics Right, Splatoon Raiders is currently the seventh
Speaker 1: best game of all time according to Metacritic users. Metacritic,
Speaker 1: while the review aggregation site is mainly used for tracking
Speaker 1: review scores from verified critics and gaming publications, it also
Speaker 1: lets registered users give each game their own score out
Speaker 1: of ten. Those scores are also aggregated by Metacritic and
Speaker 1: presented as a separate user score, similar to the way
Speaker 1: Rotten Tomatoes has a Tomato meter for critics scores and
Speaker 1: the popco Meter Popcorn Meter for audience scores. At the
Speaker 1: time of writing, Splatoon Raiders has a Metacritics score of
Speaker 1: eighty one, currently placing it sixty fourth in its list
Speaker 1: of the best reviewed games of the year. Its Metacritic
Speaker 1: user score, however, is currently nine point three, making it
Speaker 1: the seventh highest rated video game on the site of
Speaker 1: all time.
Speaker 3: We should ask Mark, be like, Mark, what's going on
Speaker 3: with Metacritic? What's happening? Have you ever seen anything like
Speaker 3: this before?
Speaker 2: Mat Jackson?
Speaker 1: I think that the only explanation is Splatoon fans are
Speaker 1: out there and they are real, and they're passionate, and
Speaker 1: I mean, the game is good, it's it's good, it's fun.
Speaker 1: I've been enjoying what I've played. What little bit I've
Speaker 1: played so far. I do think I'm I will end
Speaker 1: up maybe agree with Mike more than these user reviews.
Speaker 1: But it seems to be like that doesn't matter. This
Speaker 1: game is a new Splatoon game, and the Splatoon fans
Speaker 1: love that. I don't know, is there any other explanation?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, was the last time we had like a
Speaker 3: real positive brigade?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Right, go to town. You know what, you guys,
Speaker 2: knock yourselves out. This is great. We're not gonna say nuts.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna stand in their way.
Speaker 3: It almost means nothing, So go nuts, right and a
Speaker 3: fellows zero impact on any.
Speaker 1: Affects, nothing else, and at least in a negative way.
Speaker 2: Fantastic. Think you guys are doing great work.
Speaker 3: You're passionate about the thing you love. Positive brigading. Let's
Speaker 3: bring it back. We're on the posey brigading arc.
Speaker 2: Let's see just real quick.
Speaker 1: So that means it's in front of the Legend of Zelda,
Speaker 1: Ocaran of Time, middle Gear, Solid and Warcraft are three,
Speaker 1: the Frozen Throne exp it's right behind Resident Evil Requiem
Speaker 1: Core again. Number all right, let's keep in mind where
Speaker 1: we're at with the Metacritic user reviews. The number five
Speaker 1: highest rated game of all time of Court according to
Speaker 1: Metacritic users is, of course, Corey in.
Speaker 2: The House, the Disney.
Speaker 1: TV show licensed game for DS or whatever it was, So.
Speaker 3: All right, maybe, yeah, maybe you put that user score
Speaker 3: a little little lower down on the page.
Speaker 1: Maybe can you make it smaller? Maybe mess up they
Speaker 1: mess up the currenting on it so no one wants
Speaker 1: to look at it. You get a font swapping, maybe
Speaker 1: make it all comic sense to reflect its importance. All right, Today,
Speaker 1: Miss Fall Hunter is launching a PC at nine pm
Speaker 1: A dispatch gets its Xbox release tomorrow Gears of War
Speaker 1: e Dame multiplayer reveal.
Speaker 2: The Coalition is expected to show a.
Speaker 1: Classic four on four competitive multiplayer and a twelve player
Speaker 1: PvE Horde mode ahead of a beta beginning August sixth.
Speaker 1: All right, that does it for the headlines. I think
Speaker 1: we have a question from earlier this week. Let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and get the refreshed results right here. Let's see
Speaker 1: what would you want from a final Fantasy Vix remake,
Speaker 1: a massive multi game series, or one game that's forty
Speaker 1: five hours with limitations. Obviously most people went with that
Speaker 1: because they're not crazy. Eighty nine percent said they want
Speaker 1: one game that's forty five hours with limitations, and eleven
Speaker 1: percent said massive multi game series.
Speaker 2: So I don't think squaren exteds that talk.
Speaker 1: Themselves into doing that if if they want to approach
Speaker 1: Final Fantasy six. All right, I have a new poll
Speaker 1: question we'll get to. Actually, let's let's do it right now.
Speaker 1: Are you playing Splatoon Raiders. I just want to know
Speaker 1: yes or no. I want to see what this audience
Speaker 1: is doing with that game. I just started that up.
Speaker 1: I am enjoying it, but it does feel like, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's one of those smaller Nintendo fifty dollars summer games
Speaker 1: could get overlooked. It's not getting overlooked by the Splatoon fans.
Speaker 1: And let's see how it's going for Giant On fans.
Speaker 1: We'll get the results of that. Talk about it here
Speaker 1: on Game this morning, on Giant Bomb tomorrow. Speaking of
Speaker 1: Giant Bomb, Uh, it's it's Wednesday.
Speaker 2: I gotta go back to play more Cyberdillo.
Speaker 3: Oh buddy, you gotta you gotta pack there. We're doing
Speaker 3: a fun thing after this. I don't think we can
Speaker 3: talk about it just yet, but yeah, uh yeah, all right,
Speaker 3: Well look I'm right there with you, because I myself
Speaker 3: am playing a terrible game that is in no way
Speaker 3: fun or hilarious. So that's that.
Speaker 2: What do you what are you playing?
Speaker 3: I'm playing cat Woman, man, I would drove god Catwoman.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I see your shirt, I see your Kirby with his
Speaker 3: mouth wide open, and I'm just thinking it's a place
Speaker 3: to put a cop, you know. I'm just thinking it's
Speaker 3: a place to throw a cop.
Speaker 1: Just throw a cop right in there, man. Cat Jurfman
Speaker 1: has been so special everybody. I we'll have more from
Speaker 1: that very soon. You'll be able to start watching that
Speaker 1: with us. Uh, probably next week is what we're aiming for,
Speaker 1: So looking.
Speaker 2: Forward to that. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, it should be a pretty normal week.
Speaker 1: Beyond that, we're gonna have a voice, small dump truck.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have upf I think we're gonna play a
Speaker 1: weird little party game on there.
Speaker 2: It'll be fun. And then we'll have it.
Speaker 1: We are recording a bunch of other stuff in the
Speaker 1: meantime that will pop up on the site for both
Speaker 1: free and premium users here very soon.
Speaker 2: All right, I think with all of that out of
Speaker 2: the way, Yeah, let's do this.
Speaker 1: Jeff, thank you, so much for hanging out with me
Speaker 1: today and talking about video games. Man, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: My pleasure anytime. Thank you for having me sir, Thank
Speaker 3: you all for watching and listening. You are the best
Speaker 3: audience in gaming.
Speaker 1: Until next time, have a good one, take care of
Speaker 1: yourself and goodbye.