Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to Game This Morning's 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 huge unannounced PlayStation five game that might finally
Speaker 1: be leaking and Nintendo's unhinged pricing gets a lot of feedback.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a good one because we have Rachel
Speaker 1: Kaser on the show. Rachel, how are you doing?
Speaker 2: Hello, Jeff. You knew what I was going to talk
Speaker 2: about today. You knew it because I sent you like
Speaker 2: a bunch of like all caps messages in the middle
Speaker 2: of the Nintendo Direct.
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing. I figured we could just start
Speaker 1: talking about it right here. I know what's in your heart,
Speaker 1: you know what you have the floor, so.
Speaker 2: You might have heard, like every time I'm on this show,
Speaker 2: even if it's I don't even have to have my
Speaker 2: face on the screen. If I'm just in the chat
Speaker 2: talking about Fire Emblem.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, let's be clear that ur Beyonetta one of
Speaker 1: the other fair But.
Speaker 2: You know I didn't get a new Bayonetta, but I
Speaker 2: did get a new Fire Emblem game. It looks good,
Speaker 2: and you better believe I was like rewinding and you know,
Speaker 2: going over the trailer like inch by inch, like, oh,
Speaker 2: what is this? Is this going to be in the
Speaker 2: same universe as Three Houses? Is this tying together multiple universes?
Speaker 1: Well, okay, so wait you you pay attention to that stuff.
Speaker 1: You're talking to a man who does not. That's not
Speaker 1: to say I'm not interested, Like I'm always curious when
Speaker 1: I'm not playing the game. When I'm playing the game,
Speaker 1: like get me to the tactics, but later I'll be
Speaker 1: thinking about it. Like there's some interesting characters in there,
Speaker 1: and they have like relationships and whatever. But the dragon
Speaker 1: lady that was in your head at Three Houses, she
Speaker 1: was in this trailer. They kind of like tease that
Speaker 1: at the end. What do you think that means? Like
Speaker 1: what is that saying to you?
Speaker 2: Well, it's the same voice actress, So that could be
Speaker 2: that could be a misdirect there. They don't actually say
Speaker 2: it's the same character. I mean, she has very similar.
Speaker 1: But it does look different, yeah, but not like so different.
Speaker 1: It couldn't be the same person.
Speaker 2: It could be the same person. So it could either
Speaker 2: be a prequel because she wasn't always a child. The
Speaker 2: small sothis her name, is the character's name, the person
Speaker 2: who is in your head in three Houses. She wasn't
Speaker 2: always a child.
Speaker 1: She has button disease. She goes back and forth.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, she I mean that'll happen when you're an
Speaker 2: immortal sometimes you're in a kid. It's it's the It's
Speaker 2: reminded me of that fairy tale where the fairy queen
Speaker 2: gets shrunk down and stuck at a flowery So of
Speaker 2: course I'm digging into my European folklore here. But yeah,
Speaker 2: so it's possible it could be a prequel as well.
Speaker 2: But there but there's a big arena at the opening
Speaker 2: of the trailer, and that is a setting that looks
Speaker 2: a lot like one in Awakening. So like the Reddit
Speaker 2: threads are a fire on our slash fire and Lamar
Speaker 2: just absolutely going nuts over the weekend.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, then let me ask when did you originally
Speaker 1: get into fire Emblom. Was it with Awakening? Did you
Speaker 1: kind of jump aboard with when everyone else? Because that's
Speaker 1: when I like finally really played that series. So rank
Speaker 1: the ones you've played like since then, like what are
Speaker 1: your what's your favorite, what's your least favorite? And then
Speaker 1: we'll go on with the show.
Speaker 2: My favorite is Awakening. My second favorite is three Houses.
Speaker 2: My third favorite is what's the one.
Speaker 1: The most engage?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I do like engage and uh well I well,
Speaker 2: I would say the Actually I would say no. The
Speaker 2: third one is actually fire emblum sacred stones. I like
Speaker 2: sacred stones. Uh. Fourth is fire emblom, blazing sword, fifth
Speaker 2: is fire emblem, shadow Dragon. Sixth is fire emblem. That
Speaker 2: is fire and woman engage. Actually so once I because
Speaker 2: there's a lot of fire and momen games, I'm having
Speaker 2: to go back in my register a little bit and
Speaker 2: like knock them down. Honestly. My least favorite is probably Fates,
Speaker 2: which sucks because I didn't really like Fates for a
Speaker 2: while and the cha yeah it walked so that three
Speaker 2: Houses could run. But at the same time, like, oh,
Speaker 2: I really didn't like the way the world, like the
Speaker 2: fact that they didn't even have a name for the
Speaker 2: continent in Fates, like every other game in the series.
Speaker 1: Has made proper nouns.
Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, this one took place in Fodland. This one
Speaker 2: took place in Arkanea. And you know, it's a big
Speaker 2: motif in the series. You know, the the the overarching
Speaker 2: world that all of these little squabbles are taking place
Speaker 2: within and they didn't have that in Fates. It felt
Speaker 2: kind of like they didn't really commit to the bit.
Speaker 1: Yep, I'm excited about this one. This one looks really
Speaker 1: like they are I don't know. It looks to me
Speaker 1: like they're stepping it up, like they're really going to
Speaker 1: go for it. They're going to take advantage of this
Speaker 1: thing coming out on the switch to I'm a big
Speaker 1: fan of Fire one, so we'll see what this game's
Speaker 1: able to deliver.
Speaker 2: There is a there's a lady with a gun in
Speaker 2: the trailer too. I don't know if you saw that.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I heard someone mention that, I like, I
Speaker 1: guess I didn't, like go back to look what kind
Speaker 1: of gun.
Speaker 2: It looks like it's a pistol. It's a small sidear right.
Speaker 2: I mean, it moves a little too fast for me
Speaker 2: to be able to tell the make and model, but
Speaker 2: it's you know, it's enough to fit in one hand,
Speaker 2: and she's fighting somebody with a for reasons I'm not
Speaker 2: quite clear on. But I saw that. I'm like, Oh,
Speaker 2: where's that going to fit in the weapon triangle?
Speaker 1: Right exactly? How are they going to like I can
Speaker 1: imagine a character just focused around the gun. That Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm excited. I'm looking forward to it. I thought that
Speaker 1: was a good way to end that direct. We should
Speaker 1: get on with the show. So let's explain ourselves and
Speaker 1: what we do here. This is Giant Bomb. We're a
Speaker 1: small team of independent video game dufases who rely on
Speaker 1: your support to make cool stuff. We're out there doing
Speaker 1: the independent games media thing, and we can only really
Speaker 1: make that happen with you all behind us. You have
Speaker 1: shown up and we are so thankful to everyone who has.
Speaker 1: If you want to join and help us out even more,
Speaker 1: you can go to giant bomb dot com slash join.
Speaker 1: Become a premium member, get the ad free versions of
Speaker 1: the shows, get extra goodies. We've done a couple of
Speaker 1: the bonus voicemails now for voicemail dump Truck. It's been
Speaker 1: a lot of fun and you should all become a
Speaker 1: part of it. Giant bomb dot com slash join. As
Speaker 1: far as this show goes most weekdays, I Jeff Greb
Speaker 1: will help peace your gaming life together. That includes breaking
Speaker 1: news and maybe even some of our own original reporting.
Speaker 1: For all these topics, I'll get the input of a
Speaker 1: bona fide expert who will make me look smart. You
Speaker 1: are watching live on Twitch Welcome. You can always listen
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Speaker 1: game Mes Mornings, or find the RSS feed on GiantBomb
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also catch the show later with
Speaker 1: chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube, Sorry, little macho man,
Speaker 1: Randy Savage to get us started this morning? All right,
Speaker 1: let's get on on with it right here, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: Marvel's Venom reportedly still in active development, Wolverine targeting twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six launch. This is from Alex Hopley at Game Reactor,
Speaker 1: Insomniac's next game might be joining the megaslate of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six releases, as a recent report points to Marvel's
Speaker 1: Wolverine still targeting next year for its launch. Also, the
Speaker 1: same report tells us that Marvel's Venom game is still
Speaker 1: in active development. The potential details of its protagonists also revealed.
Speaker 1: This report comes from MP First, which has spoken to
Speaker 1: a verified source about Marvel's Wolverine still being on track
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty six. We've not seen anything official for
Speaker 1: the game in years, but speculation points to it appearing
Speaker 1: at an upcoming PlayStation state of Play event. In regards
Speaker 1: to Venom, the game is reportedly still an active development
Speaker 1: and hasn't gone the way of the Spider Verse game
Speaker 1: Insomniac has been cooking up currently. It's suspected the game
Speaker 1: is in pre production, as Wolverine remains the priority. Speaking
Speaker 1: to other sources, MP First couldn't verify. Apparently, the game's
Speaker 1: protagonists could be Eddie Brock with a look much closer
Speaker 1: to his comic representation. Kletis Cassidy would return as Carnage too,
Speaker 1: with a more monstrous anti Venom also appearing in the game.
Speaker 1: All right, so a couple of things in the story
Speaker 1: Marvel's Wolverine still in twenty twenty six, we could start there.
Speaker 1: This sounds right to me. When I ask about it,
Speaker 1: I definitely hear like it's phrased me in such a
Speaker 1: way where it's like, yeah, they are they intend to
Speaker 1: get that game out in twenty twenty six, and I
Speaker 1: think they want to. And if they are ready to
Speaker 1: commit to that, I could see them bringing a trailer,
Speaker 1: a something to this next state of play that probably
Speaker 1: will happen before the end of the month, and say yeah,
Speaker 1: this is out next year, but they have a couple
Speaker 1: other games like they want to get out first for sure.
Speaker 1: That's like the God of War spin off. There's a
Speaker 1: couple other things, but that would be their big game
Speaker 1: for next year. And Sony at the very least does
Speaker 1: seem like they want to have bit one big first
Speaker 1: party game a year at least, maybe maybe two, and
Speaker 1: then some other ones that are like just slightly below
Speaker 1: that tier. But like Your Ghost to Yota, your Astrobot,
Speaker 1: and now this year where next year I should say,
Speaker 1: would be Marvel's Wolverine. Does that sound right to you?
Speaker 1: It's been quite some time since we first heard about
Speaker 1: this game, it feels like we're getting close to it
Speaker 1: being due.
Speaker 2: Well, we got Silk Song. What other white whales do
Speaker 2: we have to Yes, good point. Which ones are still
Speaker 2: out there that we have heard from in a while?
Speaker 1: Yep? Exactly?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that sounds that sounds about right, because
Speaker 2: we haven't. I'm trying to think if I've heard of
Speaker 2: any major PlayStation five titles, like specifically PlayStation five titles
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty six. And yeah, there's definitely a very big,
Speaker 2: insomniac sized hole in the calendar so, and maybe I'm
Speaker 2: being a little cynical here, but for when it's coming out,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think, like, ooh, what's a good quarter
Speaker 2: in the year where they don't have something else holding
Speaker 2: down the releases. Yep, So I'm gonna guess probably not
Speaker 2: Q one or Q two because of a certain juggernaut
Speaker 2: that we all know about. They don't want. I don't
Speaker 2: think even Insomniac wants to compete with that.
Speaker 1: Right again, definitely the Marvel Universe from Insomniac seems like
Speaker 1: I could stand up against a lot. Probably not GTA.
Speaker 1: You're right they will. That's why. Yeah, we'll probably get
Speaker 1: a twenty twenty six window if they say anything, and
Speaker 1: then they'll decide later how to position things once they
Speaker 1: really know when GTA six is coming out, Because I
Speaker 1: think everyone's sort of still skeptical about that release date
Speaker 1: that they have right now, which is May twenty sixth.
Speaker 1: I want to say, I think they're still skeptical of that,
Speaker 1: so we'll see. Oh yeah for sure. So you know,
Speaker 1: if that does hit on the on the twenty sixth
Speaker 1: of May, then I expect Wolverine to release in the fall.
Speaker 2: But yeah, see, my my first thought is probably just
Speaker 2: like Ghost of Yota. If they want to make sure
Speaker 2: there's not a steep drop off in that quarter, they're
Speaker 2: probably gonna go with with Wolverine in that like a
Speaker 2: corresponding October maybe September released.
Speaker 1: Then there is the other game from Insomniac. Let's see here.
Speaker 1: It's sorry, just hit my standing desk and it almost
Speaker 1: knocked my camera over there. That would have been fun.
Speaker 1: The other game from Insomniac, make me see sick, Jeff,
Speaker 1: uh huh, Marvel's Venom. Marvel's Venom is that this would
Speaker 1: be a spin off of the Spider Man games. You
Speaker 1: got to play his venom in Spider Man two. It
Speaker 1: always seemed like, well, clearly, this will just be the
Speaker 1: next sort of expand alone game, similar to what happened
Speaker 1: with Miles Morales. They now to do this within them.
Speaker 1: They are taking their time to the point where it's
Speaker 1: like it might be even bigger than that, although Miles
Speaker 1: Morales was already a big enough game for sure, but
Speaker 1: this was one that was rumored for a long time,
Speaker 1: definitely seemed obvious. And then there was those Insomniac leaks
Speaker 1: where it was in there was like that was going
Speaker 1: to be the next game, actually before Wolverine even, and
Speaker 1: then when it became clear that that wasn't happening, I
Speaker 1: think there was a lot of guessing that this game
Speaker 1: might be canceled, done on the shelf. They're not doing
Speaker 1: anything with it really anymore. They've already done that with
Speaker 1: a couple other Spider Man projects. They have the X
Speaker 1: Men games that they're making years from now, apparently that
Speaker 1: they got to get to work on. So really, is
Speaker 1: this game happening? And it sounds like maybe, yeah, it
Speaker 1: is still happening, And I think that makes sense because
Speaker 1: they again, they've already done a lot of the work
Speaker 1: to get a character like that moving and working, and
Speaker 1: that's probably half the battle of making a fun game.
Speaker 1: Now have to like make all the content. I'm sure
Speaker 1: that's a lot of work, but you have something good.
Speaker 1: So when do you think we see this Venom game?
Speaker 1: If it's in pre production still.
Speaker 2: The funny thing is when at the top of the
Speaker 2: show you said something about a new PS five game,
Speaker 2: I will be honest, my first thought if it's not
Speaker 2: a twenty twenty six release, is are we looking at
Speaker 2: a PS six game? Maybe?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's not. I mean so anything after twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six is definitely a possibility for a new PlayStation console. Now,
Speaker 1: they probably draw this this generation a little bit longer,
Speaker 1: so but yeah, you're right, this game comes comes out
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm still annoyed that they're still releasing so many
Speaker 2: games on the PS four and the Xbox One, Like,
Speaker 2: did we ever transition fully into this generation transition?
Speaker 1: Don't know what generations are now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't feel strongly about it at all, But
Speaker 2: not to bring the mood down, but do you think
Speaker 2: maybe they stalled because we lost Tony Todd?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a possible, but I mean I think
Speaker 1: that the delay seemed to be happening before that, before
Speaker 1: Tony Todd passed away.
Speaker 2: So but I mean, not that they can't find anyone
Speaker 2: else as vent to be the choice of Venom, But
Speaker 2: I thought that was a I thought that was like
Speaker 2: kind of the big hook is that we have this
Speaker 2: really creepy, scary voice for UH to play Venom alongside well,
Speaker 2: alongside Peter Parker, but you know, alongside of potential Eddie
Speaker 2: brock yep.
Speaker 1: I yeah, I think that it's probably something we're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they'll have to go ahead and cast someone new. But
Speaker 1: I don't think that would delay the development at all.
Speaker 1: I think that was more just about them reorganizing their
Speaker 1: priorities and like and realizing, hey, we got to like
Speaker 1: make some X Men games, Like we have multiple X
Speaker 1: Men games and the pipeline, and you know these are
Speaker 1: we're talking about twenty thirty now and beyond, but they
Speaker 1: probably are like we want we don't want to like
Speaker 1: you know, Dilly Dowdell and take our time too much.
Speaker 1: So let's go ahead and be more focused and really
Speaker 1: just try to get these games out and not overwhelm ourselves.
Speaker 2: Yeah, be understandable, and I'll be honest, Jeff. I felt
Speaker 2: kind of like Venom got like under in Spider Man two,
Speaker 2: Like all of the fights with Venom were in in
Speaker 2: like interior settings, even like venomized other characters, Like everything
Speaker 2: was like in these like small arenas, like where was
Speaker 2: the like the like the Sandman battle at the beginning,
Speaker 2: where you fight him across the entirety of New York City,
Speaker 2: Like why couldn't we do that with Venom? So I
Speaker 2: guess I would really look forward to a hypothetical Venom
Speaker 2: game where we got to rampage across New York. I mean,
Speaker 2: even when you played as Venom in that game, it
Speaker 2: didn't feel like you were playing as like you weren't
Speaker 2: like this force of nature rampaging across the city. You
Speaker 2: were just mostly mostly reckoned one office building.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that's why it always felt like a demo,
Speaker 1: a prototype for the game, because it just it felt
Speaker 1: like just kind of stuffed in there in a way
Speaker 1: that wasn't supernatural. Supernatural wasn't natural feeling. So, but hey,
Speaker 1: they're going to find a way to deliver on that, apparently,
Speaker 1: I guess as their next game after Wolverine. Uh, I
Speaker 1: guess how are you feeling about Let's talk about the
Speaker 1: Sony first party output overall, how are you feeling about it? Like,
Speaker 1: you know, Insomniac definitely had been carrying the torch there
Speaker 1: for a while there deliver delivering a lot of these games,
Speaker 1: even they are taking a little bit longer. Now are
Speaker 1: you happy with this? And then happy with Insomniac continuing
Speaker 1: to work on Marvel variations for the next you know,
Speaker 1: Tennis years.
Speaker 2: I I would love to see them try I would
Speaker 2: love to see them have the breathing room to try
Speaker 2: something out. But I kind of understand in this in
Speaker 2: the way things are right now, I understand if the
Speaker 2: best scenario, I as much as I would love to
Speaker 2: see variety, I would love more for everyone at Insomniac
Speaker 2: and Sucker Punch and Bungee in every other Sony studio,
Speaker 2: I would love more for them to have jobs in
Speaker 2: the next ten years. Yeah, so I think planning. I
Speaker 2: think for Insomniac specifically having doing Marvel games, that's that's
Speaker 2: more of a guarantee. There's no guarantee in the industry.
Speaker 2: I think Star Wars Outlaws prove that, but there but
Speaker 2: I think that's a much safer bet then say, you know,
Speaker 2: here's a totally new ip. Insomniac, make it and show
Speaker 2: us what you can do. I hate it. I hate
Speaker 2: that that's not really an option. That doesn't really feel
Speaker 2: like an option for them right now. But hey, Insomniac
Speaker 2: make a Wolverine game. That's that there's a reason we
Speaker 2: can't find joy in that too.
Speaker 1: Yep. Uh, you know, I think we get to this, uh,
Speaker 1: this state of play, we get a good look at
Speaker 1: Wolverine and then and then speculation can begin more on
Speaker 1: on what the X Men game is going to look
Speaker 1: like and what Venom's going to be. And in the meantime,
Speaker 1: it's like, Yeah, I don't think we're going to get
Speaker 1: a Ratchet and Clank again anytime soon, But I don't.
Speaker 1: I also don't think they're I don't think they're like
Speaker 1: done with it. I just think it's like a longer
Speaker 1: ways off than it might otherwise be if they didn't
Speaker 1: have these bigger games to work on.
Speaker 2: Was the last one ended on a on a cliffhanger,
Speaker 2: didn't it?
Speaker 1: Probably they usually do, I think so, yeah, or at
Speaker 1: least a tease for something next, I think is what
Speaker 1: I remember. That's a good game, man. The best games
Speaker 1: on PlayStation five Astrobot and Ratchet and Clay Rift apart,
Speaker 1: I did live apart. It's a good three D platforming
Speaker 1: console and they should own it over there at Sony.
Speaker 1: They should be proud of that, all right. Borderlands four
Speaker 1: peaks just under three hundred thousand concurrent players. This is
Speaker 1: from Jack Valentine at Dual Shockers Gearbox Software's latest entry
Speaker 1: in the Borderlands franchise. Borderlands four is, by all accounts,
Speaker 1: a return to form, and our review we said Borderlands
Speaker 1: four is undoubtedly my favorite Borderlands game to date. It
Speaker 1: is a culmination of everything that the franchise has learned
Speaker 1: thus far and then some. It's been a wonderful step
Speaker 1: forward for the franchise after the disappointment that was Borderlands three.
Speaker 1: We're not the only ones that feel this way either. Currently,
Speaker 1: the game has a mighty rating on Open Critic of
Speaker 1: ninety seven percent or with ninety seven percent of critics
Speaker 1: recommending the game with an average score of eighty five.
Speaker 1: At first glance, that doesn't seem too impressive compared to
Speaker 1: its predecessors, which has an average score of eighty one.
Speaker 1: There's a catch there, It's only recommended by seventy eight
Speaker 1: percent of critics in that case. Also, there's a huge
Speaker 1: difference between eighty one and eighty five on Open Critic.
Speaker 1: Either way, the game launched and was kind of like
Speaker 1: shot right up the Steam charts, even though it does
Speaker 1: have a lot of issues on PC. It got up
Speaker 1: to nearly three hundred thousand concurrent players on Steam, which
Speaker 1: is a big number. That's a very big number. It's
Speaker 1: not as big as Hollow Night Silk Song. People might
Speaker 1: remember the five hundred thousand the other day. That's an anomaly.
Speaker 1: Three hundred thousand for a big, new massive game is
Speaker 1: still very huge, and the game I'm sure is doing
Speaker 1: probably even better on consoles where it's not having any
Speaker 1: problems or having fewer problems. I guess I should say
Speaker 1: I have not played that version. Yeah, Waderlands Force seems
Speaker 1: like it's hitting its marks at the very least right.
Speaker 1: It's maybe doing things by the numbers, but it's the
Speaker 1: right numbers.
Speaker 2: I did see somebody, I can't remember who it was,
Speaker 2: but I saw somebody say that all of these games
Speaker 2: are getting delayed because of silks Song. There were no
Speaker 2: games getting delayed because of Borderlands four, And I don't know.
Speaker 2: I feel like Gearboxes, it's very confident that Borderlands four
Speaker 2: can compete with Silk Song. I don't think they think
Speaker 2: their audiences overlap at all between the two of them.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean the people, the Borderlands fans were
Speaker 2: gonna show out no matter what I think. And I
Speaker 2: think they also know that performance issues, I mean, performance
Speaker 2: issues suck and are not something that we should let
Speaker 2: go at all, but they can be they can be
Speaker 2: fixed and if you really like the content of the game.
Speaker 2: And I do agree Borderlands three, I don't think it landed.
Speaker 2: The joke didn't. The joke wasn't funny, So I think
Speaker 2: if they but but you know, the people who love that,
Speaker 2: who love gearboxes out, but they're going to show out
Speaker 2: no matter what.
Speaker 1: Yep. And it's like, you know, there is a wider audience.
Speaker 1: There's like, yeah, there's the Borderlands audience that has shown up,
Speaker 1: and then there's a wider audience of people who's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: my friend's playing that and I want to play that
Speaker 1: with and I had a good time doing that, and
Speaker 1: it sounds like this game is a good fit for
Speaker 1: those people. In terms of what I played of it,
Speaker 1: it was very much like delivering on the design ethos
Speaker 1: of let's give people some fun shooting to do some
Speaker 1: fun light easy objectives, some quick ways to get there
Speaker 1: and make that feel fun as well, and then get
Speaker 1: out of their way so they can talk to their
Speaker 1: friends while they're playing. And it's like, yeah, that's Borderlands
Speaker 1: four exactly.
Speaker 2: Oh, don't come on, Jeff, don't don't you think that
Speaker 2: everybody is coming in because they watched that fabulous Borderlands movie.
Speaker 1: Well, of course, all the.
Speaker 2: New fans coming in because they saw that movie and
Speaker 2: just wanted to see the game where it came from the.
Speaker 1: Kate Blanchett effect. Of course, yes, I uh yeah, listen,
Speaker 1: I watched that movie in theaters. It was physically painful.
Speaker 1: I recommend it. People should do the same.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah. I think that Borderlands four is going to
Speaker 1: be one of those games that like we look back to, like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, that was really huge. A lot of people
Speaker 1: played that game, and in the meantime, hopefully they can
Speaker 1: update it on PC because it was it was running terribly.
Speaker 1: It was running like dog do do?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Now they are paying attention to some feedback over there
Speaker 1: at Gearbox. Borderlands four might be getting FOV sliders on
Speaker 1: console after a flood of complaints from gamers. This is
Speaker 1: from Ethan Gotch at Kotaku. Why doesn't Borderlands four have
Speaker 1: an FOV slider on console? Well, this was like originally,
Speaker 1: like people were like definitely complaining about this, being like, hey,
Speaker 1: I am getting a little motion stick. Actually I'd like
Speaker 1: to be able to control my FOV. A lot of
Speaker 1: games do have this on console these days, not always
Speaker 1: Traditionally that's been a PC setting for sure, because you're
Speaker 1: sitting so close to the screen, people want to adjust that. Well,
Speaker 1: they did say that they're like, hey, we're promising to
Speaker 1: like look into this. Vault Hunters. It announced on Twitter
Speaker 1: we have heard your feedback on FOV sliders on console.
Speaker 1: The team is currently exploring how to bring these sliders
Speaker 1: to both Xbox Series X and S and PlayStation five versions.
Speaker 1: We will continue to read your feedback and prioritize game
Speaker 1: updates with your experience in mind. Banks all. So that's
Speaker 1: that's a good thing that they're like a little bit
Speaker 1: of positive feedback immediately and they're or like negative feedback
Speaker 1: and they're going to respond to that. Like why haven't
Speaker 1: they said anything about the PC performance though? Is my thing?
Speaker 1: It's like FOV slider great PC performance is definitely a
Speaker 1: bigger deal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: I feel like, do you get the sense of like
Speaker 1: that like the PC performance and like just unreal engine
Speaker 1: like causing problems is something that these developers don't have
Speaker 1: a good grasp on, so they're not sure what to say.
Speaker 2: I think that's part of it. I mean, I think
Speaker 2: adding an FOV slider to I mean developers correct me
Speaker 2: if I'm wrong. That's a smaller fix, I would say
Speaker 2: overall than having to do whatever, having to like patch
Speaker 2: up the leaking ship. That is the PC version. Like
Speaker 2: I know, I said, like a few minutes ago, like, oh,
Speaker 2: PC things can be fixed. It's going to be a
Speaker 2: while before they're fixed. And I don't blame anybody for
Speaker 2: saying for jumping off the ship at this point, but
Speaker 2: yeah I did. By the way, I do always adjust
Speaker 2: my field of view sliders because I will get major
Speaker 2: ly c sick if I don't have the correct field
Speaker 2: of view, Like if it's too close, if it's too far,
Speaker 2: I'm out. I get a migraine.
Speaker 1: Now, of course, you know the like, why aren't they
Speaker 1: say thing about PC performance? Well, that's you know that
Speaker 1: the team hasn't say anything. Brandy Pitchford has over here.
Speaker 1: This is a quote from PC games in Gearboxy or
Speaker 1: Randy Pitcherd has responded on Twitter by offering potential fixes
Speaker 1: for the first person shooter games launch weekend to try
Speaker 1: and help players out. Consistently across multiple posts, he states
Speaker 1: that some older rigs simply won't be able to run
Speaker 1: the game. Here's the quote. Buckle up. Borderlands four is
Speaker 1: a premium game game made for premium gamers. Just as
Speaker 1: Borderlands four cannot run on a PlayStation four it cannot
Speaker 1: be expected to run on two old PC hardware. He
Speaker 1: had some more to say there, though, but that's where
Speaker 1: he starts.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't live too far away from Randy.
Speaker 1: You just go smack them upside the head for us,
Speaker 1: just like, shut up, Randy, what are you doing right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I will drive up to Gearbox HQ. I will
Speaker 2: knock on the door, and I will go in there
Speaker 2: and I will slap him across the face with a
Speaker 2: glove for being quite so wretched to gamers. What he's
Speaker 2: being condescending more than a little bit here, Randy Pitchford.
Speaker 1: Yes, he's being randy about it. If you're trying to
Speaker 1: drive a monster truck with a leaf blower's motor, you're
Speaker 1: going to be disappointed.
Speaker 2: I think people see that one, yep.
Speaker 1: I think people are just going to be like, look,
Speaker 1: my GPU was a higher end or like a middle
Speaker 1: of the road, but higher end middle of the road,
Speaker 1: seven hundred dollars like three or four years ago. What
Speaker 1: are you talking about? It should still run just fine
Speaker 1: on there now. All of this is crazy, though, Like
Speaker 1: his position here is crazy. I have a fifty eighty
Speaker 1: one of the top of the line GPUs and the
Speaker 1: game was running terribly. We had to go to Ultra
Speaker 1: performance on DLSS to get near sixty frames per second,
Speaker 1: or at least Actually I went into performance and that
Speaker 1: was still like forty five to fifty frames per second.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming ultra performance gets above sixty, but that's you
Speaker 1: are sacrificing a lot of image quality with ultra performance
Speaker 1: in DLSS. And it's this is the thing that people hate, Rachel.
Speaker 1: Is this idea that developers instead of treating DLSS as
Speaker 1: a cherry on top to get extra frames for your
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty five Hurtz refresh monitor, instead of
Speaker 1: treating it like something like that. Instead it is a
Speaker 1: way just to get the sixty frames per second in
Speaker 1: the first place. And it's like, oh, gamers do not
Speaker 1: like this, as like the DLSS is our optimization instead
Speaker 1: of optimization plus DLSS.
Speaker 2: What's the gearbucks for? Correct me if I'm wrong. It's
Speaker 2: seventy dollars.
Speaker 1: Right the game? Yeah, No, I think it's seventy. I
Speaker 1: think that's seventy.
Speaker 2: Every seventy dollars for something that seventy dollars is a
Speaker 2: lot to ask for something that's only going to run
Speaker 2: on well, that well, assuming Randy Pitchford's thesis is correct,
Speaker 2: which I don't, but if we assume it is something
Speaker 2: that will only run on premium rigs, and so, like,
Speaker 2: how much disposable income does Randy Pitchford think we have
Speaker 2: in this economy? Like first like that, and then first
Speaker 2: of all, let's that's like the money issue side of things.
Speaker 2: But on the other hand, that's not how optimization works
Speaker 2: at all. It's like it doesn't matter how you know, yes,
Speaker 2: you could have a really powerful rig, but that doesn't
Speaker 2: necessarily mean the game is going to run well even
Speaker 2: on a really powerful rig.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And like, I think the optimization is clearly the
Speaker 1: culprit here because this check continues to point out it's
Speaker 1: on Xbox Series S, which has a less powerful GPU,
Speaker 1: and there are a lot of PCs out there with
Speaker 1: equivalent GPUs to the Xbox Series S that are really
Speaker 1: struggling with this game. It is a PC performance optimization issue,
Speaker 1: and Gearbox should just do something about it. I get that,
Speaker 1: it's like you could prioritize the console that is probably
Speaker 1: still the bulk of the sales for a game like this,
Speaker 1: but come on.
Speaker 2: I don't think we should take Randy Pitchford's like words
Speaker 2: as like that's how everybody gearbox feels about PC gaming, Like.
Speaker 1: Oh oh sure, yes, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: Oh dear, you don't have you don't have a powerful rig,
Speaker 2: how dare you. I don't think that's how everybody a
Speaker 2: gearbox feels about it. I think Randy's just being Randy.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. Hopefully though, uh he could
Speaker 1: stop speaking for them. I think that'd be great too. Yeah. Uh,
Speaker 1: all right, let's keep moving here. Actually, know what, let's
Speaker 1: take a break. We're gonna take a break. We're gonna
Speaker 1: We're gonna go to our ad. We'll come right back
Speaker 1: with plenty more headlines after this. If you want to
Speaker 1: skip out on this, you go to giant bomb dot
Speaker 1: com slash join, become a premium member, get the atre
Speaker 1: version of the show. We'll be right back coming.
Speaker 2: To you live from Giant Bomb. It's the Character Issues Podcast.
Speaker 3: The Character Issues Podcast is a podcast where we are
Speaker 3: making the definitive scientific list of the greatest video game
Speaker 3: characters of all time. Every episode, I am joined by
Speaker 3: host Leah Haydos me Hi Hello, Hi, Hello, Hello, and
Speaker 3: Rich Davison Hello from across the Pond. As we discuss
Speaker 3: rank and basically give you the definitive guide of who
Speaker 3: are the greatest video game characters of all time. We
Speaker 3: currently have over seventy episodes out and I know what
Speaker 3: you're thinking. I don't want to go back and listen
Speaker 3: to all of those episodes. So here's a few facts
Speaker 3: to catch you up on any in joke lore so
Speaker 3: you can jump in right now.
Speaker 1: We have an unhealthy relationship with the character Voldo from
Speaker 1: Seulcualaba Rich.
Speaker 2: Really hates the Scandinavian.
Speaker 3: The most important spot is the number sixty nine spot.
Speaker 2: Every twenty three episodes we have a rerank of Palooza.
Speaker 3: The second number one important spot is again not the
Speaker 3: top spot, it's the bottom spot, which is perennially going
Speaker 3: to be Chad Lee.
Speaker 1: From Found fusand and seven Remake and Reverse.
Speaker 2: I'm so funny, Like, seriously, guys, you don't even know.
Speaker 3: So if after hearing all of those wonderful facts about
Speaker 3: our podcast, you're still interested, you can go to any
Speaker 3: of your podcast services and search for the Character Issues podcasts.
Speaker 1: And it will be there.
Speaker 3: You can also follow us on Blue Sky at the
Speaker 3: Character Issues podcast or send us an email at Character
Speaker 3: Issues podcasts at gmail dot com. Thank you everybody for listening,
Speaker 3: and thank you Giant Bomb for allowing us to advertise
Speaker 3: on your wonderful podcast about video games. We look forward
Speaker 3: to talking to all.
Speaker 1: Of you soon. All Right, we're back. Uh, let's get
Speaker 1: into Game mess Mornings over here with me Jeff Grubb
Speaker 1: and Rachel Kaser and an another new headline. Leaked Battlefield
Speaker 1: six skin has some players wanting to send EA a message.
Speaker 1: This is from Blair mart Now at GameSpot. Battlefield six
Speaker 1: has largely largely been well received during its beta test,
Speaker 1: but some players have been very adamant that the game
Speaker 1: should avoid the fortnightification that the Cole of Duty franchise
Speaker 1: has embraced. Battlefield Studios head Vince Sampella has previously said
Speaker 1: that Battlefield six will stay true to Battlefield. However, a
Speaker 1: leaked Battlefield skin a six skin has some players eager
Speaker 1: to send EA a message that they won't welcome similar
Speaker 1: outfits in the game. The lime green on black look
Speaker 1: isn't nearly as cartoonish as the Beavis and butt Head
Speaker 1: or American Dad skins. It is like a military operator,
Speaker 1: but one that is like gussied up for sure?
Speaker 2: Is I guess the most looking at it here. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's yeah, yeah, it is basically just like tactical gear
Speaker 2: that looks like it's just been like spray painted.
Speaker 1: A little right, right, someone did a little customization work
Speaker 1: or whatever. Well, uh, fans aren't happy with that even
Speaker 1: And this is I'm not too surprised about this. There
Speaker 1: was a question on the Battlefield subreddit around the time
Speaker 1: of one of the Alphas or the betas, and they
Speaker 1: were like, hey, like what level of weird skin would
Speaker 1: you be okay with? And it like went up to
Speaker 1: like thirteen or fourteen on this like chart on the spectrum,
Speaker 1: and that was like cartoon characters on at number fourteen,
Speaker 1: and number like five was a playing closed CIA officer
Speaker 1: or something like that, and then like one, two and
Speaker 1: three were all like mostly military people. But maybe they
Speaker 1: started to get a little bit like, oh, here's an
Speaker 1: extra chochkey on something, and everyone was like, one, I
Speaker 1: don't want anything beyond the standard military looking dude you
Speaker 1: can possibly imagine, And there was a huge way of
Speaker 1: support from that from that community. Now that doesn't that
Speaker 1: doesn't seem feasible, that doesn't seem likely that that's the
Speaker 1: way they're going to go. So EA and Dice are
Speaker 1: gonna have to walk this line of trying to put
Speaker 1: these things out there and keep this fan base happy,
Speaker 1: but also seems like these are the people that would
Speaker 1: never buy a skin, so like like you can't really
Speaker 1: worry about them too much. You sort of have to
Speaker 1: be like, no, we got this whole other side of
Speaker 1: the audience that does care about this. I think what
Speaker 1: people are settling on from the Battlefield community is can
Speaker 1: we have a toggle to turn off seeing other people's skins?
Speaker 1: And do you think that's something EA and Dice would
Speaker 1: consider or or is that like, oh, that defeats the
Speaker 1: purpose of people spending twenty dollars on one of these things.
Speaker 2: I think that kind of defeats the purpose to because
Speaker 2: you you, this is a first person game. If you
Speaker 2: buy a skin, you're buying it so that other people
Speaker 2: can see you. Yes, I mean, I don't know. I
Speaker 2: would caution anyone against getting too upset over the skin.
Speaker 2: I mean, it could very well be just like a
Speaker 2: leftover thing that somebody found it. It may not actually
Speaker 2: ever turn up in the game. But on the other hand,
Speaker 2: I also understand if Battlefield being more grounded, being a
Speaker 2: bit more a bit less call of duty. That's kind
Speaker 2: of its whole thing. And I don't I think if
Speaker 2: EA tries to go that route, they might try for
Speaker 2: like what's the what's the metaphor of the frog and
Speaker 2: the boiling water?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, they'll.
Speaker 2: Start with the like really grounded, cool military.
Speaker 1: Skins and yeah, good point.
Speaker 2: Maybe like a year down the line, they'll be like,
Speaker 2: by the way, here's a uh you know, here's the
Speaker 2: like slightly fleshier skin.
Speaker 1: Here's a here's a free one that is a little
Speaker 1: bit more outlandish for Christmas. And it's like, okay, like
Speaker 1: this like this' it's things, but it's free. Maybe some
Speaker 1: people start using it. You're right, I think that it's
Speaker 1: exactly the frog in the water slow being boiled, where
Speaker 1: they can turn this up like one little step at
Speaker 1: a time, and if there's too much pushback, they sort
Speaker 1: of just take a break. They they're like they have
Speaker 1: some other like very standard military fatigues waiting in the wings,
Speaker 1: like here here's some more of that, and then when
Speaker 1: it dies down, you try again. I don't think they're
Speaker 1: gonna ever get to SpongeBob and Beavis and butt heead No,
Speaker 1: I love.
Speaker 2: That so, but on the other hand, I think fans
Speaker 2: should be careful about saying, oh, don't become Fortnite. I
Speaker 2: don't know about that. I don't know if you want
Speaker 2: to tell the company that, because Fortnite's really profitable and
Speaker 2: they and that's where the new audience is Fortnite roeblocks,
Speaker 2: and those are the people that they really want playing Battlefield,
Speaker 2: So be careful about telling them to not do the
Speaker 2: thing that's going to make them money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like.
Speaker 2: That's gonna work out as well as you think it's
Speaker 2: going to.
Speaker 1: I agree, And I think that they have made it
Speaker 1: clear that they have huge, huge goals for this Battlefield game.
Speaker 1: They've talked about one hundred million players or whatever. And
Speaker 1: if you're talking about an audience that big, you are
Speaker 1: talking about an audience big enough to sell skins too,
Speaker 1: and they will be accommodating of all kinds of different skins.
Speaker 1: So they've already talked about moving and growing beyond the
Speaker 1: core Battlefield audience that would be that would typically show
Speaker 1: up for this game. So but at the same time,
Speaker 1: you know, you want that positive word of mouth, and
Speaker 1: so I think they do it very slowly. So it's
Speaker 1: a very slow frog boil and in the meantime, they'll
Speaker 1: try to see what they can get away with with
Speaker 1: the stuff like this that is mostly inoffensive but slightly outlandish,
Speaker 1: and then they'll see what the feedbacks like. So this
Speaker 1: sort of community effort to be like, hey, let EA
Speaker 1: know that you don't want anything worse than this. That
Speaker 1: is one option right now to say you're like, you know,
Speaker 1: voice your opinion, criticize the company. You're allowed to. They're
Speaker 1: allowed to try. They're allowed to try to sell you stuff,
Speaker 1: and you're allowed to be like, hey, this sucks and
Speaker 1: we'll see what EA ends up doing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's totally valid, but I'm just saying, like,
Speaker 2: don't use words like oh, don't become Fortnite yes when
Speaker 2: it That is tricky because the company will be like, well,
Speaker 2: why can't we have Fortnite money?
Speaker 1: Huh. They definitely want Fortnite money. They something investors understand,
Speaker 1: all right. Nintendo's latest Amibo figures push the boundaries of
Speaker 1: size and price. This is from Andy Robinson at VGC.
Speaker 1: Nintendo's next wave of Ambo toys will be the company's
Speaker 1: largest and most expensive figures to date. Announced on Friday,
Speaker 1: Metroid Prime four Beyond Kirby air Riders, the Super Mario
Speaker 1: Galaxy are each getting their own unique amoebo releases. Most
Speaker 1: notable are the Kirby figures, which, at fifty dollars each,
Speaker 1: are the most expensive amoebo to date. Typically, Ambo figures
Speaker 1: cost between twenty to thirty dollars in the US, and
Speaker 1: at launch a decade ago, they were closer to fifteen. However,
Speaker 1: the Kirby amibo are unique in that they include both
Speaker 1: a rider figure and a machine to which they can
Speaker 1: be attached, which with the drivers being interchangeable, This functionality
Speaker 1: will also carry over the game when different combinations are scanned.
Speaker 1: Players can scan their amibo to create an in game
Speaker 1: rider and air Ride machine CABO and train it as
Speaker 1: a figure player, which will gain figure player levels with use. Okay, yeah, cool,
Speaker 1: they are all that feels like working backward from How
Speaker 1: can we raise the prices of these things here? Let's
Speaker 1: add a couple of funk like functions to this thing.
Speaker 1: Let's make it big so we can justify the fifty
Speaker 1: dollars price tag, because hey, tariffs are making these things
Speaker 1: expensive to ship to the United States. There I get
Speaker 1: the sense, Rachel that like a lot of these prices
Speaker 1: are closer in line with like what what people in
Speaker 1: like places like Canada and Australia see. And as usual,
Speaker 1: there has been a lot of backlash here because the
Speaker 1: United States is especially whiny when it comes to price increases.
Speaker 1: I've said this before. It's why these companies kind of
Speaker 1: give us a little bit more of kids glove treatment
Speaker 1: with our price increases and everywhere else it has to
Speaker 1: bear the burden of like, well, even if you do complain,
Speaker 1: we're not going to hear you. Canada, get out of here,
Speaker 1: and so but it's it's coming for us now, and
Speaker 1: it it's like, oh, people, there there is this backlash.
Speaker 1: People are mad at Nintendo about its current price. And
Speaker 1: we have another story here in a second we'll get to.
Speaker 1: But I don't know, what do you think when you
Speaker 1: see a fifty dollar Amibo games used to be fifty dollars?
Speaker 2: I know, and my first thought is like I can't.
Speaker 2: I really feel like ambo has sort of outgrown like
Speaker 2: the purpose they originally had, Like it was originally something
Speaker 2: that you used a Mibo you get like a cute
Speaker 2: little like I have some of mine back here, and
Speaker 2: you'd get something cute in the game and now it's
Speaker 2: a I am almost surprised that ambo have stuck around
Speaker 2: as long as they have, so somebody is buying them.
Speaker 2: Nintendo wouldn't make a big play like this if somebody
Speaker 2: weren't buying them, And I wonder if it isn't. Maybe
Speaker 2: the intended audience is not the US buyers. Maybe that's
Speaker 2: why they're so confident in offering this price, like, well,
Speaker 2: we know people, you know, the the sales in the
Speaker 2: US are going to go down. Maybe because the Japanese
Speaker 2: audience is going to buy them instead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, definitely. And it's you know, Kirby's a character
Speaker 1: that they know has a lot of juice with merchandise,
Speaker 1: so that I think they are. They're also confident they
Speaker 1: can get away with a lot.
Speaker 2: Here, my voice got really loud for a second.
Speaker 1: They're sorry, Oh that's all good. You know, let's stick
Speaker 1: with this this theme here and get to this next story.
Speaker 1: Nintendo's Switch Mario Galaxy Collection collection will retail for seventy dollars.
Speaker 1: This is from Andy Robinson at VGC. Nintendo's just announced
Speaker 1: Super Mario Galaxy Switch collection will retail for seventy dollars.
Speaker 1: It has been confirmed that means the two games collection
Speaker 1: will cost ten dollars more than Nintendo's last anniversary collection,
Speaker 1: Super Mario three D all Stars, which included three titles
Speaker 1: and was only on sale for a year for those
Speaker 1: who already owned three D all Stars, which includes the
Speaker 1: first Mario Galaxy game. Nintendo's confirmed that it will sell
Speaker 1: Galaxy and Galaxy To individually for forty dollars each. Now,
Speaker 1: at the same time, it does seem like they're doing
Speaker 1: a bit more I hesitate to say quite a bit more,
Speaker 1: but definitely a noticeable amount more for this version of
Speaker 1: the port, where they're increasing resolution and adding some other
Speaker 1: quality of life quality of life things, and it just
Speaker 1: overall looks like a better package. Now, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's a forty dollars better package where
Speaker 1: it's like, oh my god, this is this game is
Speaker 1: very old and you are making some improvements. But forty
Speaker 1: dollars for it and seventy dollars for both, that price
Speaker 1: is high. They are also over at Nintendo seeing a
Speaker 1: backlash to this as well. And yeah, I mean these
Speaker 1: prices are astronomical. They are much higher than I would
Speaker 1: have guessed for these games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can usually count on Nintendo. Nintendo never lowers
Speaker 2: their prices, but oftentimes they're not necessarily as as high
Speaker 2: as other places.
Speaker 1: To begin, they they hadn't been right until this generation
Speaker 1: with the Switch to where it's like it seems like
Speaker 1: at every opportunity they are going to the maximum. They
Speaker 1: are like, let's push the envelope of what we can
Speaker 1: get away with in terms of price. You know, they're
Speaker 1: the first one with an eighty dollars game, really Mario
Speaker 1: Kart World, and the Switch to was you know, it's
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars with that game included, and that was
Speaker 1: a little bit more. I think some people were at
Speaker 1: least hoping for. I think the thing here is this
Speaker 1: game these this game will sell at this price. People
Speaker 1: will show up to buy this game at this price.
Speaker 1: So what is Nintendo to do other than release it
Speaker 1: at that price because that's what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 1: And until Nintendo begins to see a detrimental effect on
Speaker 1: its top line sales, I don't think it. I don't
Speaker 1: think it changes this course. For as much as people
Speaker 1: might be complaining right now, yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean got to keep in mind that even Nintendo
Speaker 2: is not immune to the market effect. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: sometimes you know, like to say, like, oh, Nintendo will
Speaker 2: put out any Trek and people will buy it in droves.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I remember the WEU So that was something
Speaker 2: that people didn't turn out to buy in droves because
Speaker 2: it was a console that really didn't have a purpose
Speaker 2: in the generation at which it was released. So, by
Speaker 2: the way, side note, I love how I'm getting so
Speaker 2: many Kirby and Metro to mebo's. They can't make a
Speaker 2: band at a three ambo. I need to complete my collection.
Speaker 1: They don't have the technology to do that yet.
Speaker 2: It's it's too honestly, bringing adding a third one to
Speaker 2: this would just cause a singularity and then we would
Speaker 2: all die.
Speaker 1: Uh huh, I yeah, I do get this. Like there,
Speaker 1: I did see some switch twos on the shelf the
Speaker 1: other day or yesterday that I was at Meyer and
Speaker 1: switch toes were there, and that is the most anecdotal evidence.
Speaker 1: But I you know, there's some like stirring of hey,
Speaker 1: is the switch are the switch to sales slowing down
Speaker 1: a little bit there on the tail end? Now, that
Speaker 1: wasn't in any of the numbers. When we talked to
Speaker 1: Matt Piscatel on the show two weeks ago, was it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: about two weeks ago he's he pointed out that the
Speaker 1: Switch twos sales are ahead of the PS four, which
Speaker 1: so it's the fastest ever so far, and it's way
Speaker 1: ahead of the Switch one seventy five excuse me, seventy
Speaker 1: five percent ahead of where the which one was at.
Speaker 1: So according to the numbers, at least so far that
Speaker 1: those early adopters really showed up. But there is this
Speaker 1: second test that we keep talking about with Matt, where
Speaker 1: the holiday is going to come here and that will
Speaker 1: be slightly more casual audience members that will be families,
Speaker 1: And will they balk at these prices? I gotta say, Rachel,
Speaker 1: my guess is, for the most part, no, I don't
Speaker 1: think they're going to balk at it. I think they are.
Speaker 1: I think they're going to show me like, yeah, man, shit,
Speaker 1: this is just what things cost. Now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's kind of I think that's going
Speaker 2: to be how it is. But I do I do
Speaker 2: think that Nintendo, if this is really something that people
Speaker 2: can't afford and are not going to, you know, work
Speaker 2: into their increasingly strict budgets, then Nintendo will feel the
Speaker 2: effects of that. I know. I mean, we might joke
Speaker 2: about it, but Nintendo isn't invulnerable. If it turns out
Speaker 2: that seventy dollars is more than people are willing to
Speaker 2: pay for a Super Mario Galaxy collection, then you know
Speaker 2: they will see that will be reflected in their sales.
Speaker 2: And if it isn't, then you know, what are we
Speaker 2: really complaining about here? Like I don't like to say like, oh,
Speaker 2: the market is always right, it isn't. But at the
Speaker 2: same time, if if you know, like five million people
Speaker 2: show up, but launch day five million, Yeah, if five
Speaker 2: million people show up at launch day for to play
Speaker 2: Super Mario Galaxy two on the switch to, then I
Speaker 2: mean that's then that's just what people are willing to pay.
Speaker 1: Yep. And yet I do think we do see that
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of a you know, problem in
Speaker 1: the armor with Nintendo in terms of, uh, the game
Speaker 1: key cards, cause I do think that those have mostly failed.
Speaker 1: I think that and you know, at more anecdotal evidence.
Speaker 1: I was at Meyer yesterday. I saw those two switch
Speaker 1: tos on the shelf. I looked up at the game selection.
Speaker 1: Now a game selection for the switch at Meyer, which
Speaker 1: is like a local Midwest kind of like a Walmart.
Speaker 1: They're the election of games for the switch to there
Speaker 1: was pretty robust. There was a lot of games and
Speaker 1: some Switch one games as well, and that's that's compared
Speaker 1: to the Xbox and the PlayStation five, which each had
Speaker 1: like three to five games, and it was like Call
Speaker 1: of Duty, n CAA Football, and Doom and like one
Speaker 1: or two other things that are like for that very
Speaker 1: very broad audience. Nintendo I had it like way more.
Speaker 1: But I only saw one game key card on the
Speaker 1: shelf at Meyer and it was for Street Fighter six,
Speaker 1: and I think I think that was a game key card.
Speaker 1: The rest were switched two games that were first party
Speaker 1: Nintendo games that weren't game key cards, and then a
Speaker 1: lot of Switch one games that had a lot of
Speaker 1: third party stuff, but obviously none of those were game
Speaker 1: key cards. So I think like there is the places
Speaker 1: areas where Nintendo is not getting away with everything that's
Speaker 1: trying to get away with and they are going to
Speaker 1: have to adjust. It just doesn't feel like for the
Speaker 1: most part overall, pricing has been that hurdle. We'll see
Speaker 1: if that changes this holiday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I will say like for me, the big
Speaker 2: moment of like, oh really, Nintendo was the Virtual Boy
Speaker 2: shaped switchtock for one hundred dollars, which is only going
Speaker 2: to be able to play fourteen games total. Like, to me,
Speaker 2: that's that's the big thing of Nintendo being like, really,
Speaker 2: this is that, that's what you choose to do with
Speaker 2: the money, Nintendo. This is what at one hundred dollars
Speaker 2: for the pleasure of playing games that I believe people
Speaker 2: said gave them headaches when they were originally launched. It's
Speaker 2: I didn't play an original Virtual Boy, but no one day. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: that that was the moment where I was like, I mean, honestly,
Speaker 2: it wasn't the Amibo. It was the Virtual Boy where
Speaker 2: I was like, really, Nintendo.
Speaker 1: Yep uh. The Virtual Boy is is just so instant
Speaker 1: that one feels like them almost trolling everybody. It does
Speaker 1: like we are Nintendo.
Speaker 2: But the fact they brought Koizumi sad out to market
Speaker 2: that the man who could sell the man who could
Speaker 2: sell sand in the desert.
Speaker 1: Yeah huh, it's uh. I was just like, okay, I hear,
Speaker 1: I'll pay whatever, And of course they're like, yeah you will.
Speaker 1: You're gonna pay whatever for this. That's one hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: Please that things still not on sale in the United States, right,
Speaker 1: everybody tell me when it isn't, so I need to
Speaker 1: I need to prove that I am the true sucker
Speaker 1: and the biggest mark here. Square Enix confirms entire Final
Speaker 1: Fantasy seven trilogy will come to Switch to. This is,
Speaker 1: you know, not too surprising, but this just wanted to
Speaker 1: like get this out there that They did confirm that
Speaker 1: in addition to Final Fantasy seven remake, Integrate coming to
Speaker 1: switch to on January twenty second, I guess it's also
Speaker 1: coming to Xbox that day. Excuse me. They've said that, Hey,
Speaker 1: the Remax trilogy going forward will also always be on
Speaker 1: switch to an Xbox Series, x N S and Xbox
Speaker 1: on PC as well as the other platforms where already
Speaker 1: was So that means probably Rebirth not too long from now,
Speaker 1: and then the third game again we talked about that.
Speaker 1: I talked about this last time, Your Reunion whatever it's
Speaker 1: going to be called, that will probably launch on all
Speaker 1: of these platforms at the same time, would be my guess. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it does feel like we are fully in the Square Enix. Hey,
Speaker 1: our game has just come out everywhere. We're done with
Speaker 1: the PlayStation exclusivity thing, and that's probably a good thing
Speaker 1: for them, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably with as much retrenching as they've had to
Speaker 2: do in the last like three years or so. Then yeah,
Speaker 2: I think costing themselves to the PlayStation. I think they've
Speaker 2: finally seen that that, or at least most recently, they
Speaker 2: have not seen a huge return on that. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean a device that's in that many people's hands. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they want to get Final Fantasy on that because they
Speaker 2: need Final Fantasy, Devin Remake, Reunion, rebirth, recreation, whatever number
Speaker 2: three is going to be called. They need that in
Speaker 2: as many hands as possible.
Speaker 1: And then just a quick update before we get out
Speaker 1: of the headlines. Pilatro's biggest update yet is taking longer
Speaker 1: than expected. Basically, developer Local Thunk said that he's working slowly,
Speaker 1: but he also kind of wants to take his time
Speaker 1: because otherwise he would have to crunch to get out
Speaker 1: this year. So he's made the decision just delay till
Speaker 1: next year. And this is one of those ones where
Speaker 1: it's like, hey, the fans like, yeah, please take it easy.
Speaker 1: We don't care. We want you to just take care
Speaker 1: of yourself. Thank you so much for this amazing game.
Speaker 1: And this is Blantro Rachel feels like a game that
Speaker 1: is going to be with us forever. It is, Oh,
Speaker 1: I hope so Sudoku and crosswords now it's just going
Speaker 1: to be there forever for everybody. So yeah, pace yourself
Speaker 1: local thunk. I think that's probably the right move here, right, Oh.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. And I see this all the time with fans.
Speaker 2: Whenever somebody announces a delay. I almost think sometimes we're
Speaker 2: too nice, which isn't something I usually say about gamers,
Speaker 2: but like, huh, whenever somebody announces that, the first like
Speaker 2: twenty or so replies are from other gamers being like,
Speaker 2: take your time, get it out to you, get get
Speaker 2: it out to us when you can, King, Queen, monarch, whoever,
Speaker 2: and just please just take your time. We'd rather it
Speaker 2: be late than be bad or you know that well.
Speaker 2: And also usually this is something like I'd rather you
Speaker 2: take your time than crunch, which that's a good sentiment,
Speaker 2: but sometimes I'm like, you know, you don't have to
Speaker 2: say that to the big corporations. Very likely they're delaying
Speaker 2: it so that the game releases in a more favorable
Speaker 2: financial quarter, not necessarily because they care that the game
Speaker 2: needs to be perfect for you, but in Balatro's case,
Speaker 2: I absolutely believe that's what local Thunk wants is for
Speaker 2: the new update to be perfect and everything the fans want,
Speaker 2: and also he wants to he they want to have
Speaker 2: a life and have a good work life balance and
Speaker 2: good mental health. So I think he is a good
Speaker 2: person to use that sentiment on.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah for sure kind of in there and like
Speaker 1: Local Thunk apparently like really develop the game by just
Speaker 1: making a bunch of if then statements. That has got
Speaker 1: to be so crazy to like get in there and
Speaker 1: make changes to all of that. Yeah, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: take your time, don't kill yourself trying to figure that
Speaker 1: game out. All right. That does over the headlines, we
Speaker 1: do not have a pull question. We have the Bomb
Speaker 1: twelve from last Friday that we did. People should be
Speaker 1: able to find the link to the form for the
Speaker 1: new Bomb twelve this week on giant bomb dot com.
Speaker 1: I posted the blog post about the last Bomb twelve
Speaker 1: in there at the bottom is that link to the
Speaker 1: new form. Go ahead and fill it out if you
Speaker 1: know what your game is for this week already. If
Speaker 1: you want to wait till Thursday, I'll close it sometimes
Speaker 1: sometime on Thursday evening, so until then you have a
Speaker 1: chance to go in there and make your voice heard.
Speaker 1: We have a new pole question. We'll get to that
Speaker 1: in a second. Before we do, though, Rachel Kaser, why
Speaker 1: don't you tell people where they can find you on
Speaker 1: the internet, what you have going on and all of
Speaker 1: that good stuff.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm on PTO, so I would normally I would say, well,
Speaker 2: I'm going to say this anyway. You can find my
Speaker 2: written work at gamesbet dot com, and you know you
Speaker 2: should go check us out. We are also like Giant
Speaker 2: Bomb and independent games media publication, and we have a
Speaker 2: subscription service if anyone is interested in that. But to
Speaker 2: read the stories, you won't. It's free. Ninety nine percent
Speaker 2: of the stories on games beat it are free. I
Speaker 2: know there's been some confusion about that, but you don't
Speaker 2: have to pay to read the vast majority. If you
Speaker 2: don't need to sign up to read your own articles, audience,
Speaker 2: do just enter your email. You don't need to pay.
Speaker 1: I did figure this out, and now I'm reading my articles,
Speaker 1: thank you very much.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so uh so, I won't necessarily have anything
Speaker 2: new there this week, but I will. I am regularly
Speaker 2: updating my TikTok where I talk about uh game game
Speaker 2: releases and uh, well that's the on the games Beat TikTok.
Speaker 2: I have so many tiktoks it's confusing. I talk about
Speaker 2: gaming news daily and on my third channel, I also
Speaker 2: talk about the Golden Girls and dungeons and dragons and
Speaker 2: weird stuff like that. I even posted a clip from
Speaker 2: the show on on my third TikTok account where basically
Speaker 2: you are sitting there watching me talk about golden girls
Speaker 2: with this look on your face, like, Jen, why did
Speaker 2: you bring this up?
Speaker 1: She's gonna keep talking for the rest of the show.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have it any other way. Uh, what is
Speaker 1: the what's the what's the name of that TikTok? Where
Speaker 1: can people find it?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, sorry? There the TikTok is. Well, we have
Speaker 2: the games Beat TikTok, which is just at games Beat,
Speaker 2: and we have my TikTok which is at Grace of Athena,
Speaker 2: and then we have my other TikTok which is at
Speaker 2: Rachel g Kser. So basically, if you just search the
Speaker 2: name Rachel Kaser on TikTok, you'll find my TikTok account
Speaker 2: and my secondary one probably and if you search games
Speaker 2: Beat you'll find games Beat on TikTok. And I'm also
Speaker 2: updating all of my other social media accounts regularly, and
Speaker 2: I'm getting back into my tumbler, so i should be
Speaker 2: having out some new Perry Mason posts soon.
Speaker 1: I have a I have a similar TikTok to your
Speaker 1: Golden Girls one. It's all about mash Star Alan Alda.
Speaker 1: It's called all the News That's fit the print.
Speaker 2: That's a I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to
Speaker 2: follow this.
Speaker 1: Because that's joke. Yeah, that's a that's a stolen joke.
Speaker 1: There you go, everybody, all right. Uh, we have a
Speaker 1: new poll question, what game do you want most from
Speaker 1: Insomniac after Wolverine, Venom, New Spider Man, X Men, or
Speaker 1: a new Ratchet and Clink. Those are your options. You
Speaker 1: can vote, we'll get the results. We'll talk about it
Speaker 1: on Games Mornings here on Wednesday. On Giant Bomb. Speaking
Speaker 1: of Giant Bomb, we're gonna do some some like getting
Speaker 1: in the goods the website today and our streaming set up.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do a test. Let's see here what time
Speaker 1: we're doing that jam. We're doing that at two pm.
Speaker 1: We're doing some chunk testing. So hang out with us.
Speaker 1: I know hate you're like, oh, what happened to Riven?
Speaker 1: Well we beat Riven? Why aren't you watching? What's your problem? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll beat Proud. Thank you. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: It's good to just like kind of shout ideas at
Speaker 1: Mike and then force him to do it. Riven was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. We're gonna get back to missed,
Speaker 1: but I think the plan is after this week, take
Speaker 1: some time for Spooky season to play some spooky games
Speaker 1: in that slot. I think a seventh guest will be
Speaker 1: what we do next, and then, yeah, I know I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to I'm want to try the VR one
Speaker 1: apparently that's pretty decent tonight eight pm Mega Man Monday
Speaker 1: evening gaming at Mike's at night. That'll yeah, eight pm
Speaker 1: Eastern show up for that. I don't know what he's playing,
Speaker 1: but we'll figure it out and then BombCast tomorrow. Tune
Speaker 1: in for that. We'll see y'all for that show with
Speaker 1: the regular crew and the me time. I think that's
Speaker 1: gonna do it for us. Rachel, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for hanging out with me today and talking about video games.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thank you. For inviting me. I always love coming on everybody.
Speaker 2: A giant bomb is always so nice pleasant.
Speaker 1: Well they're nice to me, Yeah, that's that's that's right.
Speaker 1: Uh no, thank you Rachel, Thank you everybody for listening
Speaker 1: and watching. You are the best audience in gaming. Until
Speaker 1: next time, have a good one, take care of yourself
Speaker 1: and goodbye.