Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to Games Mornings with Me. Jeff Grub,
your host from GiantBomb dot com. Thank you for tuning in.
In this episode, we're going to be talking about the
latest Nintendo directnews and Nintendo censoring video games question Mark.
It's gonna be a good one because we have Rachel
Kaser on the show. Rachel, how are you doing?
Speaker 2: I am thirty five, Jeff.
Speaker 1: Happy birthday Rachel Kaser.
Speaker 3: Everybody, we got her.
Speaker 1: We're having birthday GMMs recently with Jason Fonelli on his birthday,
now Rachel on her birthday.
Speaker 3: Any big plans?
Speaker 1: I know you're busy with work, but like, what do
you got?
Speaker 3: What do we got going on?
Speaker 2: We're actually going to go to a live show this weekend,
which is the Twenty Sided Tavern, which is the live Dungeons.
Speaker 3: And Dragons Experiences that's.
Speaker 2: Going to be in town tonight this weekend, so we're
gonna go. Uh So, my husband got us some tickets,
so we're gonna go see that on Saturday, but tonight. Honestly,
like the biggest, the best birthday present would just be
having a nice quiet night in.
Speaker 3: Of course, yes, I feel that fantastic.
Speaker 1: Uh thirty five, like writ in the Heart of Millennial
are like, how are you feeling about turning thirty five?
Speaker 2: Is?
Speaker 1: This is like, Okay, I've accomplished what I wanted to buy.
Now you seem like someone who had goals in life.
I think you've hit them, right.
Speaker 2: Oh it's that's that's so sweet that you think that
about me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you seem like someone who's well, well put together.
So I just assumed.
Speaker 2: I mean, I haven't published a book yet. That was
the only thing that I That's the only thing I haven't.
Speaker 1: That's gonna happen any minute now, right, come on, you
can we make this happen.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, I've got I've got I've got a book.
I just have not published it yet, so I'm working
on it. But yeah, well then again, I've written like
God only knows how many articles for games, Beat, Slash
other publications, so that counts as a book.
Speaker 1: Right, it counts as least a lot of published work
for Yeah, it's it was strange to look back when
I got done kind of at games, being like, oh,
I wrote several thousand stories. Yeah it's it adds up
really quick over the years.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I feel really accomplished. Until I look at
Dean's output and then I'm like, oh wow.
Speaker 3: Comparing yourself to a machine. That's not fair.
Speaker 1: That's yeah, that's just a cyborg over there, Dean. Well,
wish Dean a happy birthday. When whenever that does happen,
like fifty years from now, the man is ageless. He
just keeps going on going and going.
Speaker 2: Keeps going forever. That's the plan.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into it. Let's explain ourselves. We're
Giant Bomb. Go to giant bomb dot COM's let's join,
become a premium member. The reason you would want to
do that is to ensure that we can keep doing
all the fun stuff that we like to do over
here as independent games media. We are not backed by
any corporations. We are backed by you where you were
a listener, supported and all that, and you all have
made that possible so far, and we want to keep
it going all throughout twenty twenty six and into the future.
So thank you body who has joined, And if you can't,
if it's not financially feasible, tell a friend about us.
Right now, we got some good stuff happening, like the
latest latest season of Blake Club, which is you just
can't miss it. You got to go watch that if
you haven't seen it, everybody anyway, it's oh, it's some
special stuff. It's gonna be it's supposed to be a
blightning round. It's looking like it's gonna be like three
or four episodes of Mike playing this.
Speaker 3: Terrible three d Oh game. But alas, at least he
looks really cool. Everybody.
Speaker 1: Uh so, yeah, go check that out. That's that's out now. No,
if you become a premium member, you also get some
special goodies like a grub Snacks Premium, which I do
every week now. As far as this show goes most weekdays,
I Jeff Grubb, will help piece your gaming life back together.
That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our
own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the
input of a bona fide expert who will make me
look smart. If you are watching live on twitch, welcome.
You can always listen to the show later on podcast
feeds by searching for Game Best Mornings, or find the
RSS on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch
the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube.
All right, we have a lot to get into so
let's start the morning mess with Karen.
Speaker 3: Reviews.
Speaker 1: Reviews for the video game Karen. It has an eighty
seven on Open Critic. This is that sort of moody
climbing game. We've had a few climbing games now, this
is the most recent one. It got a nine out
of ten from Moyses to Veris at GameSpot. Moyses writes,
maybe it was just the entrancing physicality of Karen's central
climbing and survival mechanics. But at some point whatever wall
existed between myself and the game came down and I
was there with Ava and she was with me. I
think this is one of the things I was surprised,
like people seem to be pretty moved by the game.
Ninety one out of one hundred from Sean Prescott at
pc Gamer, who says a brilliant climbing adventure that siphons
the rage out of navigation puzzles like desk stranding and
baby steps, resulting in something prickly but warmly approachable. And
then a seven out of ten on the lower end
of the scale from Stephen Tailby at Push Square. Karen
is a great climbing simulator, one that presents you with
an entire mountain and complete freedom to traverse it as
you please. Some light survival mechanics apply just enough pressure
to push you forward, and the purposely slow pace encourages
careful climbing and proper planning. Ava's expedition is simultaneously meditative
and fraught with danger, with death just one slip away
at all times. While we have some small reservations about
the story and the frame rate struggles to measure up
to Mount Cami, those looking for a challenging, satisfying journey
will find Karen a unique adventure to conquest.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what sounds like a game I'm going
to like.
Speaker 1: I I've had access to it, I've not touched it yet,
I've been I regret not doing that. Now I'm gonna
hop in and it seems like one that will be
right up my alley. How about you, Rachel? Is this
one sounding enticing that, like, at least one you might
want to check out? Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. I it reminds me a little bit
the way they describe it of Jusant. I mean, Jusant
was linear unlike this, so it's a little bit different.
But I really I remember, really liking Jusant, So I
I think I remember, yeah, I remember seeing previews for this,
and I think, but I think for some reason, I
thought it was already out.
Speaker 3: What do you mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I guess I was a little surprised to
see it in the news all of a sudden.
Speaker 1: But it was definitely in. It was in a couple
of theme next fests, and sometimes what will have is
people will talk about in our next fest, and in
my mind it'll click into oh, that game came out,
and then yeah, when this happens, I'm always a little
bit uh surprised. We have another story like that where
it's like that game wasn't out in one point zero,
but nope, finally it is. Yeah, I'll be checking this out,
you know, I wonder, I guess Push Square. I assume
they probably played it on PlayStation. That's a little disappointing here.
That might have some performance issues, but that's one that
could always get updated, and I will probably probably just
play on piece see. Although I like to play these
games on a Steam deck. I wonder what it runs
like on there. That'll that'll go a long way toward
making it more easy for me to approach the game.
If I could fit it into my life if it
works on a steam deck, but I have.
Speaker 3: To try it out myself. But yeah, eighty seven make
life easier.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, yes, exactly if I could just like lay
down prone on the ground and just maybe kind of
Reacher my Steam deck. If it's within arms, Rachel, I'll
play a video game, exactly. Eighty seven is really hard
to accomplish, Like that's you know, that's one of the
higher scores of the year so far. I mean, I
know we're just getting into February here in a couple
of days. It's only one month then, but yeah, early standout.
Do you think games like this are like can reach
a wider audience, Rachel, where like, oh, it's reviewing really well,
maybe I should try this out.
Speaker 2: I think it depends on the price point that you
offer the game app because I think no matter a
game can you know, have the most perfect reviews of
all time, But unless it's of an established franchise, it's
probably not going to sell for eighty dollars. But I
think if you offer it for something like forty dollars,
kind of like you know, doing a Hell Divers two
kind of situation, then I think people would be willing
to give it a try.
Speaker 1: Yes, And Karen does not have a price on Steam yet.
Speaker 3: If fifty one and Chat knows the price, holler at.
Speaker 1: Us and we will update the story here as we
do the show.
Speaker 2: I thought you said, Karen, and I was like, I know,
I have to.
Speaker 1: Like, really, Karen like this, otherwise it will come out
as Karen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to go do like try to lean
into like Gaelic, into whatever Gaelic accents you could have.
Speaker 3: So we little Karen, Yeah, exactly, just kind of here.
Speaker 1: You go, uh huh I Okay, Lexy's gonna check.
Speaker 3: But Dan Fiasco says it's thirty dollars. Ok. We got
multiple people saying thirty dollars.
Speaker 1: Now, well that's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thirty dollars. Yeah, that's absolutely I think a lot
of people will try that for I mean, obviously, you
know you I still have to have a level of
disposable income to try it. Of course, I think if
they were offering it for seventy dollars, that would be
a no situation for me.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And the Karen game very different. It's a very
different video.
Speaker 2: I would imagine.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, she would never climb anything.
Speaker 2: By the way, real quick, I saw somebody mention the chat.
I'm really sorry. I forgot that I was supposed to
be on yesterday.
Speaker 3: Oh no, it's fine.
Speaker 1: I like I asked you like early last week, and
a lot of time it passed. It's like, I clearly
did not update you again, say hey, are you still on?
I was just assuming. But I'm glad we can make
it happen today, especially because it's your birthday.
Speaker 2: Okay, now everybody has to be nice to me exactly.
Speaker 3: The birthday bash continues.
Speaker 1: Xbox gaming revenue declines as console sales continue to slump.
Speaker 3: Here, I got you this for your birthday. This start.
Speaker 2: Happy birthday to me.
Speaker 3: This is from Haley Williams at game Spot.
Speaker 1: Microsoft has posted its earnings results for the latest quarter,
and while it's been a strong period for the company
as a whole, the Xbox it's like its revenue is
up like seventeen percent or something like, yeah, seventeen percent.
Year on year, gaming revenue is down nine percent, with
console sales making up a large part of that decline.
Microsoft's Q two fiscal year twenty six results generally look
great for the tech behemoth, with the company boasting a
staggering eighty one point three billion dollars dollars in revenue,
largely driven by its cloud and business divisions. But Xbox
isn't looking so healthy right now. Microsoft's gaming division revenue
decline nine percent as a whole, with a five percent
decrease in revenue from content and servant services, which includes
game Pass. Microsoft explains that the decline can be mostly
attributed to strong first party content the year prior, and
predicts that Q three will sell see a similar decline
in the single digits for the same reason. Xbox gaming
hardware revenue has declined for the last three financial years
and isn't set to break that trend anytime soon, with
a thirty two percent decline year on year. Microsoft expects
this trend to continue in twenty twenty six as well.
They do say despite the downward trends, Microsoft expects game
Pass to continue to grow through the next quarter, though
the company hasn't given any public update on subscriber numbers
since it reached the milestone of thirty four million subscribers
in early twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: It's the same old.
Speaker 1: Story over there right where I do buy this idea
that the revenue from games and services is down year
over here because there were more exciting games last year.
As they get some of these, like they put out Fable,
you put out Forts the Horizon six. That's going to
move the needle on that side of things, the hardware
aspect of it, though, Rachel, it just keeps plummeting.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: The bottom is falling out and we don't know where
the bottom is anymore, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Randomly getting a phone called no, thank you, No,
I'm in the middle of something.
Speaker 1: No, Answerman tellme it's don't How dare they call you
on your birthday?
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not sure why this person is calling me,
but anyway, Yeah, uh well I did uh well, Like
full disclosure. I did an interview with Matt Pescatella, which is,
uh which I should be publishing this week, where we
talked about we love Matt, Yeah, and we were where
we were talking about the Sircana the number, the details
behind the numbers on the Sircana report, and yeah, there
was one thing that we talked about was that sales
are up slightly, is that the total revenue sales revenue
was up, but that's because it's not because people were
buying more things. It's because people were paying more for it.
Speaker 3: This is for the overall video game market. For the
Sircana report.
Speaker 2: Okay, for the Arcona report, the last Sircona report. Yeah,
and you know, because the year overall was like flat
with a one percent increase. And I'm I was reminded
of that when I was reading the Xbox report, because
they are. When when Matt says like people are leaning
into the subscription side of things, I can't help but
think he means Xbox gamers. Uh, primarily because we are,
and you know, to be fair with the console if
I'm being very fair to Xbox, and I have to
give them a lot of leeway on this one. But
the console market, the bottom falling out of the console
part of things, that's kind of happening for everybody. Everything
except the switch to is kind of I mean, it's
been ages since any new consoles came out. It's been
ages since anyone had a reason to drop eight hundred
dollars on a new piece of tech except for the
switch to. I mean, so I'm not really surprised by that.
Speaker 3: I mean, let's speak directly to that.
Speaker 1: I mean, Matt had a blue Sky post this morning
a ski here, where he says, here's a wild but
not surprising stat. Fifty three percent of US video game
hardware buyers in Q four of twenty twenty five, so
over the holidays, had a household income of more than
one hundred thousand dollars. That is a record high UH
and up from forty percent. So forty percent of US
video game hardware buyers in Q one of twenty twenty two,
couple of years ago were in households of one hundred
thousand dollars or more. The average price of video game
hardware in the US was three hundred and seventy three
dollars in Q one of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3: It is now jumped.
Speaker 1: It has now jumped to four hundred and forty six
dollars in Q four of twenty twenty five. He goes
on to say, over that same period, the percentage of
video game hardware buyers that had household incomes of less
than fifty thousand fell from thirty one percent in Q
one twenty twenty two all the way down to nineteen
percent in Q four twenty twenty five, and then households
that were fifty to seventy five k went from seventeen
percent to fourteen percent, so that also declined. It's these
it's the K shaped economy that if you hear this,
if you you know, if you ever listened to any
economic shows or any news about where they cover the markets,
you might have heard this idea of the K shaped economy.
People where and we'll explain to the audience. I know,
you know, Rachel, that it's you know, the richer getting
richer and the poorer getting poorer, and the economy looks
very strange because the rich are getting richer and are
still spending a lot of money and that's propping everything
else up. But it's like, okay, now, it's everything is
more fragile because they don't have a broad audience. They
have a narrow, rich audience that might be even more
fickle that they have to keep happy. It's not a
business these companies often want to be in. They want
to be in the one where everyone is spending money,
and they can't figure out how to get people with
less money to buy their things because they also can't
lower their prices anymore.
Speaker 3: It does feel like.
Speaker 1: Video games as a business, like they haven't slowed down,
but they also haven't noticed like the brick wall they're
driving at right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think that's definitely with the hardware market
for sure, which is why I kind of buy into
the idea that Xbox is maybe leaning into the idea
of a handheld because a handheld sounds cheaper to manufacture
maybe and definitely definitely more appealing to the market if
they can pull it off. And I wouldn't be surprised
if that ends up taking up the Lion's share of
their marketing in the next console cycle over the ur
rrestrial console like that one back there. Oh, you can't
see what the framing, but I'm putting in my Xbox
series xpect there yep.
Speaker 1: And it's uh and it could be really frustrating because
I guess yes, ione to chat so yeah, paid, if
we could pay better, better wages, that would solve a
lot of these problems. And it's like, yeah, but the
people in charge, even the people that like, are not insane. Uh,
Like you know, the head of the Drome Powell, the
head of the US FED.
Speaker 3: Like he is a pretty sane guy.
Speaker 1: And I give him credit for softly landing the economy
coming out of the pandemic. And then he was kind
of like shook. He had to deal with Trump coming
in there and messing up stuff with the tariffs and
things like that. But he did a pretty good job
during like you know, he was a good wartime conciliary.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah.
Speaker 1: And but his like one of his fundamental beliefs right
now is wages are too high because that's causing uh,
that is causing inflation. And that's well, that's our money,
Like that's us. You're talking about me. I would like
to have that money. It's the alternative here. But it's like, yeah,
the whole system right now is like working to deflate
our wages so that we can get the economy right,
get the end of the economy right.
Speaker 3: And so like there is no relief in sight.
Speaker 1: It feels like even if the same people go back
in charge, we're not going to suddenly get like a
huge pay increase because of the way the system.
Speaker 3: Is set up.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, what do these companies that are making hardware,
like I think, you know, Xbox, this clue is a
canary in the coal mine, or is it? Let me ask,
is it the canary in the coal mine? Is this
something that it's saying, okay, yeah, go ahead, please.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that's that's the simple answer is like you're
asking me, is it is it the canary in the
coal mine, I'm like, oh, yes, if it is an
indication of the larger problem that is plaguing the entire industry, yes, absolutely,
I think so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think it's uh, you know, the Nintendo
and Sony birds might be more hardy, like they are
probably not going to fall to the same sort of
toxins in the air that might they're just hurting the
Xbox hardware, but they will feel it, and I think
they clearly are feeling it. Although yeah, IGN had a
pretty good report about hey, did the switch to really
have a bad holiday? And all the ns are like, no,
not really, it had a completely reasonable holiday. So it's like, okay,
you know, does that mean we're in the reality where
there was a possibility it could have had a great.
Speaker 3: Holiday and it just had an okay holiday. We don't
really know. It's going to take time to kind of
suss that out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's well. And just for on the
topic of Xbox for like one last remark, I think it.
I think in when they first started releasing Xbox games
on PlayStation, a lot of people, and I'm going to
include myself here, were a little skeptical because we weren't
of the way they were starting the rollout seemed really like,
you know, here are games that already did really well
on Xbox, let's see if we can squeeze a few
more drops of Blood from the Stone on PlayStation. But
now I think now that they got some success on that,
now we're gonna, I think we're gonna look back on
then say that might have been one of the smartest
business decisions they ever made. Because they are by their
own I think if we trust their numbers, and I
think in this case, we can trust them to like
at least come within come within a mile of the truth.
They are doing fairly well on PlayStation Xbox games, are,
you know, picking up some of the some of the
extra slock. If they weren't releasing Xbox games on PlayStation,
I think this report would look a lot more grimy.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the money they've been making
is from Forts Horizon five on PlayStation specifically, like that
one thing, and that made a huge dent and keeping
them looking somewhat solvent here as a business.
Speaker 3: Solvent's too strong.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they're solvent, but like we're talking about like
profit margins and stuff like that, revenues being down. I
bet honestly them producing fewer Xboxes is is saving them
some money, and that they're not too sweating too much
not selling those consoles because as you're right, they're selling
on PlayStation. Okay, let's keep going here. Let's talk about
this other big story that people have been kind of
yelling about since yesterday. Dispatch is censored on Nintendo's Switch
and Switched to and this might be the reason why.
So this is from Chris Scullion at VGC, who tries
to like get at if there's a deeper reason why.
Speaker 3: This is happening. Let's read through it here.
Speaker 1: Superhero narrative adventure Dispatch has been censored on Switch and
Switch to, and players are trying to figure out who
is ultimately responsible. That episodic narrative adventure game by ed
Hot ad Hoc Studio, set up by.
Speaker 3: Veteran developers from Telltale Games. You'd Be Soft in Night School.
Speaker 1: Studio released last year and was critically acclaimed for its
art style, branching storyline.
Speaker 3: And sense of humor. The game was released.
Speaker 1: On Switch and Switch to on Wednesday, but players have
been reacting negatively to negatively to the news that some
of the adult content in other versions of the game
cannot be accessed on Nintendo's console. Dispatch features occasional scenes
of nudity where breasts and penises are visible. There is
a setting in all versions to enable a visual censorship options,
which covers them with black bars, as well as other
things like middle finger gestures. I think it might bleep
some of the swearing as well, but on switch and
Switch to, this option is on by default and there
is no way to turn it off. Some argue that
one scene in particular is affected by the censorship, in
which female superhero Blonde Blazer asks her colleague Robert robertson
what he thinks of the dress she's wearing for an event.
A small part of Blonde Blazer's nipples poking out from
the dress, which leads to humorous dialogue in which the
player has to decide whether to mention it or pretend
they don't see it.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, I guess that does affect.
Speaker 1: Things a little bit, But what can you do it
that has to be censored? So people are wondering, okay,
ad hoc or did they do this did Nintendo force
them on there? And I'll say that Chris has a
theory that seems to be like, oh, this is probably
just a path of least resistance move. There is the
Saroh problem Japanese. The japan rating board Sero ce ro
O has strict censorship around nudity and games as well
as dismembermber dismemberment, so it could be the criteria to release,
which is something in ad hoc mentioned they work with
worked with an Nintendo on So the criteria criteria to
release on Nintendo platforms referred to by ad hoc is
in the case of Nintendo objecting to nudity, but Saroh,
and since it's it's the same game on all E
Shop regions, the censorship may have to apply across the board.
Speaker 3: So that's the key aspect to this. Rachel is at.
Speaker 1: Least according to Chris's theory here that there are other
games on Nintendo switch and switch to or switch to
because it's cyberpunk that do have that has nudity and
it shows penises and breasts and all kinds of stuff
and they're swearing and they're still does all over the place,
and It's like that game is at least equivalent to
what's happening into Dispatch. So why is Nintendo treating Cyberpunk
different yeah, differently than it treats Dispatch. Why Cyberpunk get
a free pass and Dispatch doesn't. The difference seems to
be that the creators of cyber Punk had enough resources
to build different E shop listings for the different regions,
so they submitted the game multiple times, and they have
one for Japan that has the censorship, and then they
have one for the rest of the world that has
the options for censorship.
Speaker 3: And ad Hoc.
Speaker 1: Studios is a smaller studio, so they have one E
shop listing that has to apply across the world, and
that means it has to go the least common denominator
denominator which seems to be Sero in Japan, saying no
nudity whatsoever. I I'm of the opinion here, Rachel, that's like,
that's probably true, and then also Nintendo should be helping
developers with more resources to make it easier to not
have to deal with this and not have to go
the least common denominator. So I'm happy to continue pointing
the finger at Nintendo personally, Rachel, what do you think, Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2: There if any company could afford to say, like, hey,
you know what will help you, you know, get this,
you know, get multiple regional versions off the ground, I
would think that Nintendo would have the resources to do that,
especially for indie studios in particular. But it wouldn't surprise me,
if you know, just because they have the capital doesn't
necessarily mean they offer the resources.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's like, you know, it probably is this
Byzant team thing you got to go through anyhow to
submit a game, and they probably only have enough people
to go to do that at once or one at
a time. And maybe they get around to fixing this
in time if the game continues to do well. But
they have I'm sure they're working on fifteen other things
that is pointing them in different directions, and they're just
like this, you know, it's the switch. Better get it
on there with the censorship than not have it on
there at all. Although a lot of people are getting
the game and they are asking for refunds and getting
refunds because it's like, oh, I thought the game was
going to be a feature like complete here, and in
my opinion, because of the censorship. It's missing something. I
hope that this kind of jostles Nintendo loose a little
bit and they begin to offer more resources to people
who are submitting games they're shot across the world, or at.
Speaker 2: The very least the option to turn the censorship off.
I mean it being on by default. I mean not ideal,
but maybe a little bit understandable. But if it's if
other platforms have the option to toggle that on and off,
I should think that at the very least that should
be something that Nintendo offers. Yeah, well the Nintendo Switch
version offers.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's like, if that's the only difference, it's like, maybe
make it just so that people these development studios can
just be like, yeah, okay, it's basically the same game,
so can we submit it once and we'll have this
one feature whitelisted everywhere else where we can toggle the
censorship on and off, and then it will be blacklisted
for the Japanese version and you can't do that. It's like, Okay,
that would be some solution here.
Speaker 3: Either way. I think Nintendo needs to fix this.
Speaker 1: It feels unacceptable on a game or on a system
where I can get HINTI Golf, which doesn't have nudity,
but you can get anti golf.
Speaker 3: I can't get what it's about though, exactly for sure.
All right, let's take a break.
Speaker 1: When we come back, plenty of more to get into,
including that latest Nintendo Direct and more. If you want
to skip out on these ad messages, there's a way
to do that.
Speaker 3: GiantBomb dot com slash Join.
Speaker 1: Become a premium member gets you add free versions of
the audio and video shows that you could find on
the website. We will be right back.
Speaker 3: We are back.
Speaker 1: It's Game mess Mornings. Rachel Kazer, Jeff Grubb. Let's continue
on with this next story here. Tomadacci Life Living the
Dream confirms same sex relationships and announces release date. This
is from Devin mccluir at Polygon. Tomadaci Life Living the
Dream took center stage at a dedicated Nintendo Direct this week,
which offered an extended look at the upcoming social simulation game,
including a release date. The long awaited sequel will arrive
April sixteenth, over a decade after the original, and that's
the original that we got in the West. Living the
Dream will be available for both the original Nintendo Switch
and Switch to, though there's currently no upgraded addition for
the newer console, so it's just backward compatible, at least
as far as they're talking about it so far. Tomodachi
Life originally arrived on three DS and twenty thirteen, allowing
players to design and observe mes inhabiting in an island community.
Both their looks and personality could be customized, with the
latter shaping their interactions with other inhabitants, while players do
need to help maintain the mes me population's happiness. What
made the game unique was the amount of autonomy displayed
by the created characters. It's a sandbox. You send them off,
you create the characters, you give them personality, and then
they go out there and they interact with one another
and they take on their own lives lives and you
could sort of meddle in that and kind of have
a little bit of a say, but they're really doing
their own thing.
Speaker 3: It's a fantastic game.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about this one April seventeen, did you
get a chance to watch this direct Rachel's Tombodotchu Life
something you're interested in a little.
Speaker 2: Bit and watch the whole thing, Because I mean, I'll
be honest, I got a little bit bored.
Speaker 3: I understand with it.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to see if they if they announced
a release date, in which they did. But yeah, it's cute.
I didn't play the original Tomadaci Life, so I'm I'm
fifty to fifty on whether or not I'm actually going
to play this. But it did look quite delightful, I
will say that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's definitely like a like a weirder version
of the SIMS, like a very different kind of game
to Animal Crossing in a lot of ways. It's really
all about like you take your friends, you create them
as mees, and then you take all your favorite celebrities
and characters and you throw them in the game and
then you kind of you jumble everything up and you
see what happens. And the game has lots of fun
little vignettes and asides and programmatic things like newscasts and
concert performances that just happen, and it just feels like,
oh my god, I can't believe that Sting from the
WCW is putting on a show a play with my cat,
and that's you know, it can feel low so random sometimes,
but it's more it's more like just plain house and
kind of having your little town and then and then
weird stuff happens. So I'm excited, but I'm a big
fan of the last game.
Speaker 2: You want to know what's funny? This is kind of
giving me vibes of the original of what the original
version of the metaverse was described as a sid I
know I'm dropping the word d M word here, but
like in the original snow Crash, this is kind of
how the metaverse was described. It's sort of like everybody
everybody has like these sort of like twee like customized
avatars in the world and they can just go on
and you know, live live fun and productive lives in
a dream world and basically a dream world while the
real world is going to hell in a handbasket.
Speaker 3: Yep. Weird.
Speaker 1: Well, at least that last part is not happening. It's
all just good stuff out here in Tomadaccia. Life is
just an aside from reality, a brief glimpse at something.
Speaker 2: Lightly an addendum to an amazing reality.
Speaker 1: Exactly, just a period on a very pleasant sentence. Yeah,
once again, April seventeenth. I wish I'd have to wait
quite that long. It feels like it would be nice
if this game came out in like early spring, like
early March, and then we started getting some of the big,
heavy hitter Nintendo games at the like starting around April.
Speaker 3: But all right, I'll wait.
Speaker 1: I'll wait until April for this and then we'll see.
They have not talked about Rhythm Heaven Fever, another game
they announced at the same time when they that they
were originally talking about Tomadaci Life. That's another Switch one
game that will still show up at some point, probably
it seems like now at this point much later this year,
which is fine.
Speaker 2: I'd completely forgotten about that game. Honestly.
Speaker 1: My other question to you, Rachel, will be Okay, So
this happened. This was a focus. They were focused on
this Switch one game. Here, a game that's coming out
in a couple of months. There are some rumors out
there that we could get a big standard Nintendo Direct
sometime in February. What do you think they need to
bring to that to kind of continue the momentum of
the switch to or to you know, sort of like
reassure people who are spending a lot of money to
buy that hardware.
Speaker 2: Fire emblem, could we could they bring fire emblem, They.
Speaker 3: Could bring more fire emblem. I know that would work.
Speaker 2: For you, It would, it would. I do think they
probably need a new flagship title because now that Metroid
Prime four is out, why is everyone sending me a message?
Oh birthday? That's why I was.
Speaker 1: Like, what is with everybody bombing alone?
Speaker 2: Oh they're saying happy birthday to me?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think going to another They're definitely gonna have to
bring out another flagship title because it's just a little
They haven't really announced any major major additions from one
of their like staple franchises, especially, and now the Metroid
Pride four is, Metroid Prime four is out, they aren't.
There's nothing. It feels like there's nothing for me to
really look forward to from Nintendo.
Speaker 3: I think that's probably how a lot of people feel.
Speaker 1: I think there's this vague idea of like, well, I
got the system knowing Mario and Zelda are going to happen.
But you know, it does still feel like even though
God were more than two years, are we three years
since Tiers of the Kingdom came out? God?
Speaker 3: Is it really that long?
Speaker 1: I saw somewhere here's the crazy thing I saw someone
posts and I don't know if this is true. There's
people in chat that I'm sure can check this. Someone
said that the release date of Tiers of the Kingdom
from that point to today is more days than has
ever happened between the release of a Zelda game and
the announcement of the next Zelda game. So yes, somehow
like like it's been longer since Tiers of the Kingdom
than it's ever been for one Zelda game to come
out and then the next one to get announced. That's
weird to me because it feels like Tears of the
Kingdom just came out.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I mean people.
Speaker 1: Weren't counting e because of Wisdom because they're talking about
the next big mainline three D Zelda, like there's been yeah,
other ones. I agree, everyone that goes of Wisdom should
count if I were doing that math.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it is. I bring it up.
Speaker 1: I go to Zelda because this year is the fortieth
anniversary of the Legend of Zelda.
Speaker 2: And they got the movie coming out, so you would
think they'd want to capitalize on that by announcing here's
more fun new Shenanigans. But part of me kind of
wonders that maybe they're feeling like they can't. Really I
would be curious to see how they follow up Tiers
of the Kingdom Bright of the Wild, because those were
those were wins. Those were both incredible games, I think,
so I'm curious to see where they go from there.
Though it really feels like they threw everything in the
kitchen sink at us with Tiers of the Kingdom especially,
so I'm curious. I am too if Zelda is the
franchise that they use. I mean they could still they
could go with Mario. Who knows.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they and as you said, they have that
movie coming out.
Speaker 2: They have another Mario movie coming out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's happening very soon.
Speaker 1: So like, you know, do they have another Mario game
ready to go with the three D Mario game from
the team that did Donkey Kong Bonanza? Seems unlikely, but
who knows. Maybe they do because they knew the movie
was coming and they they rushed to get ready and
they had Donkey Kong Bananza in development for a very
long time, which we do know is true.
Speaker 3: That's possible.
Speaker 1: But they also have zeld a fortieth anniversary and they
could like do something like this could be finally the
year where they announced like the remake of Okarina of
time or something like that, And it feels like that
would be the kind of thing where they're not ready
for the next main line three D Zelda game. Sure,
but here's one that can kind of fill in the
gap real nicely that a lot of people would be
excited for and a lot of people would show up for.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that would be. That'd probably be an
easy win for their for them, if they, if they,
if they want to go for an easy win, which
I mean, who doesn't love a good ten pole release.
Speaker 1: Oh that's another interesting one from Grant. No Nintendo console
has made it past its second year without a new Mario,
So that's I It would be weird till I get
two full years of the switch To without its It's
Marquis Mario game. But we'll see. Uh okay, let's keep
going here. Fans hate switch To game key cards, but
a new survey suggests they're buying them anyway. This is
sameithan Gotchat Kotaku. Excuse me. Game key cards were one
of the more deflating aspects of the switch To's launch here.
While digital downloads are now ubiquitous, some of Nintendo's most
devoted and loudest fans still prefer physical games for the
purposes of collecting or preservation, or just because they look nice.
A cartridge that doesn't actually have the game on it
isn't just isn't the same. Yet, despite all the uproar
or over the issue, a new survey suggests people are
buying the game key cards anyway. Deco Deals are Friends
over at Deco Deals, an aggregator of sales and discounts
for physical games, shared some new data about its users
that show game key cards are selling just fine. Of
the one thousand and seventy Deco Deals users who have
added one or more third party physical releases to their collection,
seven hundred and thirty five of them own one or
more game key cards title.
Speaker 3: The site wrote in a new blog post this week.
Speaker 1: They have a list of the let's see the top
ten most popular switch to games in people's libraries. Punk
and these are the third party games. Cyberpunk twenty seventy
seven Ultimate Edition is number one. That is game key
card right, Oh no, wait, no, that's they They put
that all on the card.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, I think so?
Speaker 1: Okay, so yes, so then the game key cards are
the bold ones here, that's right, Bravely Default, Flying Fairy
HD Remaster, Star Wars Outlaws Gold Edition, Yakuza Zero Director's Cut, Final,
Fantasy seven Remake, Integrate, Street Fighter six Years one and
two Fighters Edition, and Persona three Reload. All those are
game key cards, and they're sitting among like Haiti's two
and Run Factory games that are on the card themselves,
and it's like, yeah, people are buying these because in
a lot of cases, people are used to purchasing thing
things one way, and even though this isn't what they want,
they've been given no other option other than don't buy
the game at all. And I think a lot of
people probably have taken that. But also a lot of
people are like, I do want to play the game,
and if this is all you're going to give me,
I guess that's what I'm getting. Uh do you think
that that is that this is sort of settled into place?
And Nintendo has sort of won the argument by just
kind of like being stubborn and not offering other solutions
for developers.
Speaker 2: I mean it's not it's not the greatest answer in
the world, but yeah, I mean, if you want to
if you want to play the new Bravey to Foot well,
the remaster of Bravely Default. Then that's that's kind of
your only that that's kind of the only like path
that is available to you, right.
Speaker 1: It's I mean, you know the other option. Yeah, you
can buy it by digitally.
Speaker 3: Which some people are saying that I'll just do that instead. Uh, yeah,
of course.
Speaker 1: But it's like if you want the physical, you know,
retail version of the game, uh, they're not giving you
a lot of options. And you know, and the reality
is for some of these games they would be too
big even for a sixty four gigabyte card.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Fair Uh, Star Wars out Laws and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And sometimes you know, just Ballpark example, I have
a you know, if I have like a Target gift
card that I got for my birthday and I want
to use it to buy myself a game, and I
you know, because for a lot of people, that's kind
of how they buy games, because you know, sometimes it
could be you know, difficult to say. Sometimes people don't
want to buy things digitally. That's also something we got
to respect. But if I go into Target and say, hey,
I want the Bravelet Default game, They're going to give
me a game key card. There's nothing I could do.
Speaker 1: About it, exactly. Yes. And this is now we're after
the holiday season where people would were gift giving and
stuff like that, and they're just going to go get
the game that's on the shelf. And at Walmart they
do a fun thing where at least at my Walmart,
and they do this in the PlayStation games as well.
So I don't think this is some like a scheme
by Nintendo and Walmart to hide the fact. But they
have a little cardboard border. So there's the shelf and
this little cardboard standy thing that sits right in front
of the game cards or the game the game like cases.
So you see the top half of the game card case.
You don't see the bottom half where it says this
is a game key card until you ask them to
get it out and you have to add once you have.
Once you have it out and in your hand, I
bet it's a little bit harder to put it back
on the shelf at that point and be like, oh,
it's a game key card.
Speaker 3: I don't want that.
Speaker 1: Uh So I noticed that. I'm like, I see what
I think, I see what you guys are doing here.
Speaker 2: So m yeah, so let's make this as appealing as
we can to get it off the shelf.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 1: And it's they just look like all the other games
in that situation. It's it's indistinguishable. I have a picture
of it. I should post that, all right. Uh, let's see,
we'll have the pull question later today. We'll ask about
game key cards again.
Speaker 3: Everyone.
Speaker 1: We'll do another pull about that and see how everyone's feeling.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: The Disney Afternoon Collection is confirmed coming to Switch To
and Switch on February twenty six This is from sal
Ramono at Dematsu. Atari will release the Disney Afternoon Collection
for Switch To and Switch on February twenty sixth. The
publisher announced the collection will include two additional games, goof
Troop and Bonkers, which Atari confirmed to Gumatsu will be
exclusive to the Nintendo release. Pre Orders for both the
physical and digital editions are available now via Atari dot Com,
Nintendo E Shop, and other major retailers. That's stupid, It's
why would we be have to be exclusive. People bought
this thing already, give it to everything.
Speaker 2: I just just roll it out as an extra DLC
for the ors A free update for Disney Afternoon Collection.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, I don't are people that many people really
gonna double dip on this thing because the extra two games.
I don't think so.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't have the Disney Noon Collection, and
I'll get it and I'll be happy to play goof Troop.
I haven't played goof Troops since I was a kid,
but if I already owned it, No, that's.
Speaker 3: One of the games.
Speaker 1: Mike wants to me and him to play co Op
on a giant bomb and we will eventually make that happen. Everybody,
I've never I've never touched goof Troop. You played it
as a cable kind of game? Is it?
Speaker 3: Do you remember?
Speaker 2: Uh? I remember, I remember a top down game.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's all.
Speaker 2: That's all I remember.
Speaker 3: But I remember toe jam and earl Like I'm betting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes that's kind of I think. I think
that's what I remember. God, now you know what, I'm
going to look it up on YouTube and I'm going
to be like, I don't remember any of them.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's but I remember.
Speaker 2: Playing it with my parents when I was when I
was a little girl.
Speaker 1: I am yeah, over thirty years ago.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I am reminded that I am old.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely like I got any s when I
was for my fifth birthday, so I always have the Okay,
so let's do the math. I've been playing games for
It'll be forty years here in three years, so thirty
seven years, that's too many, all right, Disney after and Collection,
if you already own it, you're not going to get bonker?
What what's bonkers?
Speaker 3: I don't I'm bonkers.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't think I've ever played Bonkers before.
Let me look this up.
Speaker 1: Mike talked about it. I'm like, oh, it's that, and
then I forgot again. Bonkers Disney another special video game. Yeah,
Disney Afternoon is what I'm gonna search for. It's okay,
it's this, It's this fucking cat.
Speaker 3: It's this cat.
Speaker 2: Looks like was he? And Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Speaker 1: Because that he was inspired by the film Who Framed
Roger Rabbit?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: Bonkers is an American animated television series and a spinoff
short series called He's Bonkers, which mainly aired in raw tunage,
and was inspired by the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Speaker 2: Okay? Okay, So that's that's why I'm getting Who Framed
Roger Rabbit? Vibes?
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 1: Yes, Uh, Okay, I I was not watching a ton
of Disney Disney Afternoon Collection. I watched some of the shows.
Apparently I missed out on Bonkers. When did this run
Let's see here nineteen ninety three? Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't think it was.
Speaker 2: I was a little too young for Bonkers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would have been ten, but I just I
don't think we had Disney Channel alright. Fast Mophobia will
finally haunt players with its one point oh launch this year.
This is from Cameron Coke at game Spot. Fast Mophobia
is set to have its scariest year yet, with the
game's one point zero update slated for to arrive in
twenty twenty six. Alongside new maps and more. It's yeah,
they're gonna have overhall character models and animations, a switch
to release, and more spoctacular surprises. As revealed in developer
Kinetic Games twenty twenty six Pastmophobia roadmap, the one point
zero update will feature the developer has previously described as
Horror two point zero, a collection of major changes to
the core ghost hunting part of the game that's now
included as part of the one point zero update. Okay, yeah,
this is one where I'm like, hey, how how is
this not one point? Oh? Already it feels so ubiquitous.
It's just been everywhere for so long. It feels like
the arc on on fast Maphobia has already happened. That's
a and now it's gonna maybe get another chance. Uh
when you see something like this, I don't know if
you've played any fast mophobia. When a game like this
goes goes okay, so you have played it though with
it going into one point? Oh, does that maybe spike
your interest? You're like, oh, I should go back and
see what they've done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe maybe see if it's at all a little
bit Maybe. I haven't played it since like super super
early days, and I'm sure I know it's changed a
lot since then, so I guess would be I think
one point seems like it would probably be a good
point for me to get back on the wagon and
see what happened. What does this look at all like
the fast Mophobia I remember?
Speaker 3: Yep? I I uh, yeah, this seems.
Speaker 2: Like a good a good point because especially since if
they're going to roll out several updates, then a lot
of people besides me will also be encountering new things.
So it's not just gonna be me going up against
all of the players who have been playing it since
day one, who have never stopped playing it, who are
experts at it, and who are you know who are
maybe a little cynical about it. Now.
Speaker 1: Uh, I'm trying to see win. Did Fasmo Phobia go
into early access two thousand?
Speaker 3: The year two thousand?
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's twenty twenty. Excuse twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: Excuse me, Jesus Christ, Oh twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh wow, twenty years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, twenty six years. Everybody, no, twenty twenty geez, yeah, okay,
and then it kind of hit consoles that This is
why I'm confused, because it was on PS five and
Xbox Series X and S, and while those do have
like unfinished game programs, they're less popular, especially especially on PlayStation.
So I guess it's not been one in one point
zero on PS five and Xbox since it launched on
consoles in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's weird to think that this game is
still in early access. It kind of it's kind of
making me, kind of makes me a little annoyed, honestly,
it's yeah, you've been raking in the molah from this game.
Not that I expect it's like a huge money maker
or anything necessarily, but still like you've been profiting off
this game for a while, still under the illusion. It's
under the you know, auspices of it not being finished.
So I mean why.
Speaker 1: I think like, I think there should be like a
rule like the second you make one million dollars, maybe
could be like ten million dollars, but the second you
make a certain amount of money, you got to drop the.
Speaker 3: Beta and early access tag. It's like you're earlier or not.
Speaker 1: You're an ongoing business making money from a product that
people should be able to review as a thing they
can play right now, because it is a thing they
could play right now. Yea, And it's you know, obviously
people can can review it, and they do, but there
is there's always this weirdness of like, what's an unfinished game.
It's not unfinished money. The dollar bill was finished when
I handed that over. What do you want me to
do about this?
Speaker 2: I just looked it up and Pasmophobia has sold twenty
five million copies.
Speaker 3: It's a massive success.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, so I wasn't sure how many millions. But yeah,
it's like it's but it's still finished.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Fortnite was in beta for years and years and years,
like they called it a beta, not early access, and
it was just like hmm yeah, I again, like, yeah,
Balderskate was in early access for years. Just chat this
is a boomer take. I can see that. But or
like Balderskate three didn't finish its content right until balder
Skate three was.
Speaker 2: When it was in early access, it was visibly and
noticeably unfinished. Like I played played Boulderskate three when it
was early access, Like you would hit times where that
you would literally get to a point where the game
would throw up a big screen that said content not finished,
or a big black screen or something, and then it
would just be the narrator talking over it to describe
the scene you were supposed to be looking at. So yeah,
it's I get I get that take, But at the
same time, I'm also feeling like, but Balder's Gate three
did not sell twenty five million copies while it was
ostensibly in early access. It became successful after it left
early access when it launched.
Speaker 3: If I had much more success when when it launched
for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a I'm a huge fan of early access.
I love early access. I like playing early access games.
I know there's a lot of people who like the
idea and just like, well, I'm I want to play
a finished game. I don't feel that way. I don't
give a shit one way or the other.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, this is not me trying to like RAG
on early access games at all. It just feels like
I'm like, wait a minute, after all this time, twenty
five million sales and twenty five million units sold, and
the game still isn't finished.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just weird. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's like and it's not even like they need
to finish the game. It's just like, man, what's I
guess what happened six years?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's just weird. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's not me trying to like rag on
early access games. It's just me going like, wait a minute,
it still wasn't finished exactly.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's see what Adams in chat says, The
Nintendo pre orders for Don't Camadacci Life have already sold out.
What does that mean? They've already sold out like physical copies?
What do you that's that would be strange. That's probably
got to be the first print. Maybe I'm misreading here,
all right, so let's see last last headline here. Kg
in Afunes Concept shuts down. This is from my Nintendo News.
The company which was founded by kg in Afune, entitled Concept,
has now officially closed for business. The company was officially
dissolved by a share shareholder's resolution on the thirteenth of
January and a Fune's. Concept previously collaborated with Level five
to establish Level five Concept, but that was shut down
with kg and when in a Funate left the company.
In twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: Four, Concept made Mighty Number nine.
Speaker 1: With some other developer developers, rather an auspicious start to
that studio. This is hey, we talked about way that
wasn't out already, wasn't one point zero. I'm surprised Concept
was still in business up to this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been so long since Mighty number nine, but
that was that was definitely one of those games that
did not make the splash that everyone kind of was
hoping it would.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's it is almost going to be
considered for a Blake club game, I think. So, it's
like it's I mean, it was at very least extremely
disappointing to anyone who was sort of waiting for it,
and all those people who backed it on Kickstarter.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it was always pretty unfortunate.
Speaker 1: I wonder I bet that, you know, I say, oh,
that they were still in business. I bet it was
just sort of like a holding a business for like, oh,
there's money still coming in from the five people a
year who are buying Mighty number nine on Steam. That
money needs to go somewhere, and first it goes to
concept that business, and now that, yeah, just go away.
That money will go somewhere else.
Speaker 2: Now. I just looked it up and they were acquired
by Level five in twenty seventeen and then so basically
Level five is dissolving it as an independent office and
like folding it into its Osaka questions.
Speaker 3: So he left that business in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: So yep, yeah, I was looking it up just to
see if what games it made is money Number nine.
I didn't know they were the developers behind Fantasy Life.
Speaker 3: I were they behind or or did they just help
on it?
Speaker 2: Well, it says the developer was the Level five Osaka office,
which I think is what is now Level is what
come scept became Oh my goodness, I know commcept.
Speaker 1: It is hard to get out of my mouth for sure. Yeah, okay, Hey,
Fantasy Life I is great, people, I played it. I
like that quite a bit.
Speaker 3: So uh interesting. I bet they had a bunch of
studios working on that though.
Speaker 2: I don't know where is Kune now. I haven't heard
from him in a while.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm retired. I would assume I don't know.
Speaker 3: I have not. You're right, I've not heard from him
one way or the other in a very long time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a name I have not. It's like my
full obi wan voice. That's the name I have not
heard in a long time.
Speaker 3: Exactly.
Speaker 1: All right, let's see here. That does it for the
head lines. Let's get to the pull question from yesterday.
I have the results over here. Let me refresh, though,
to get the freshest results. All right, from yesterday? Have
you ever played a rent and stimpy game?
Speaker 3: Yes or no?
Speaker 1: It's twenty seven percent yes, seventy three percent said no.
This really tells me. Yeah, no, that's normal. I'm like
surprised that one in four of the respondents. More than
three thousand people voted more than one in four have
played one that I think that says a lot about
the giant palm audience. That's now we know our demographics
a little bit better, I think.
Speaker 2: So that's yeah, that's gonna be Yeah, Jen and Stimpy,
Oh God, that sounds yes. I put my vote in
for Jen and Stimpy.
Speaker 1: We can we can make that happen, make champlay all
the Ren and Stimpy games. For some reason, Jan thinks
Ren and Snippy is gross, and he's not wrong. No,
but yeah, I those games are all bad in that collection.
The seven games in that collection they not good. I
didn't like them then, and yet I still am nostalgic
enough that I might end up getting this thing. All right,
We will have a new pool question here in a second.
Before we get to that, though, Rachel Kaser, why don't
you tell people where they can find you on the
internet what you have going on, where they can wish
you happy birthday all that good stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can find me on the social media platforms
under my name Rachel Kaser, And I'm also on TikTok,
where I've been getting back into doing the daily video
game news. I fell off of it for a while
last year because I kind of had a like an
unintentional hiatus, but it ended up being a hiatus anyway.
But yeah, so I am back on TikTok making videos
and I'm also you can find my written work at
gamesbeed dot com, which is where I have a new
newsletter coming out later this week. And I've started my
new series, which is boss Mode, which is a what
I mean, I started it a few months ago, but
I don't know if I really talked to you about it, Jeff,
but I think so, where I do long form interviews
with female leaders in the games industry cool and not spotlighting,
not just women who are CEOs or C suite, but
women who are leaders in other parts of the games industry,
like I interviewed Olivia Ledell, who is a system's architect
at Amazon and very much and very much an ambassador
for and a leader of women in the industry excellence.
Speaker 1: And people can find all that on gamespeed dot com
right find it.
Speaker 2: Find it all on gamespeed dot com. And this month
in January, by the way, games Beeed is ninety you
could access ninety nine percent of the content just with
an email sign up. You don't have to pay for anything.
But Boss Mode was previously part of our GB Max
paid subscription. It was previously Payworld, but this month for
my birthday, games Beat is offering all boss loads available
to read. You don't even have to send it an email,
but they are now all free to read right now.
So if you just google my name and boss mode,
you'll find all of the interviews.
Speaker 1: Oh that's fantastic. Okay, well I was gonna read them anyhow,
but now I'll definitely get on there. All right, let's
see new poll question, how do you feel about game
key cards?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 1: Options are don't care, I still won't buy one, or
I still don't like it, but I have bought one
or more. So we'll get the results of that poll
question here on Games Mornings tomorrow on Giant Bomb speaking
a Giant Bomb. Later today we have voicemail dump truck.
We should have some a quick look of Escape from
ever after happening here. Before the end of the week,
maybe we will have our upf Tomorrow. I will be
out because I'm gonna be on my way to Minneapolis
to go to men Max. We're going to be raising money.
The donation link is live. I think it has all
the details are now, so if people are wondering, Hey,
what are we donating to It's all right there on
the link. I think we might have a post about
it on Giant Bomb. I know Dan was working on
something so you could find the details there. But if
you want to just know now six pm Eastern tomorrow,
we will begin streaming and we'll be hanging out all evening.
So join us and help us raise some money for
a good cost.
Speaker 2: It's going to be there, well not in person, but
I will be there in spirit.
Speaker 3: You just show up, Just just drive over, just drive
through all the suner.
Speaker 2: Drive from Texas to Minneapolis. And by the way, Jeff,
you know how I'm always saying, like, you know, I'm
from I'm from Texas. I don't have to deal with cold.
Speaker 3: What happened?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I nearly crashed my car three times in
the last three days because in the in the least
political way possible. Fuck ice.
Speaker 1: Perfect, I am I seeing that all happen. It's like
it looks like it actually got pretty rough out there,
and a lot of times it's easy, like oh, we're
from the Midwest, they can't handle handle snow. Once it
just becomes straight ice, it's like, oh yeah, no, that's
bad no matter what, no matter where you are, that's
rough to get around.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and also speaking of that, I think I've
told you before, my husband works at an animal shelter
and we had some puppies who had some two month
old puppies, so we actually had to like do an
emergency foster with them. So they're staying at our apartment
for the time being until it gets a little bit warmer.
So I've got three babies in my apartment right now.
I'll send you.
Speaker 3: Pictures, yes please, we would love that.
Speaker 2: And I named them Leliana, Josephine, and Cullen, so points
whoever in chat knows where I got those names from.
Speaker 3: Even I know.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you so much Rachel for hanging out
with me today and talking about video games. I really
appreciate it absolutely.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me on for my birthday.
Speaker 1: Yes, once again, Happy birthday to Rachel. Yesterday, No, there
was no problem at all. I'm glad we could make
it happen today, and once again, yes, happy birthday. Thank
you all for watching and listening. You are the best
audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one,
take care of yourself and goodbye.