Speaker 1: You'll be go me bad. Hey everybody, welcome to game
Speaker 1: As Mornings with Me Jeff Grub, your host from giant
Speaker 1: bomb dot com. Thank you for tuning in. In this episode,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about Randy Pitch for just jumping
Speaker 1: on a rake and how an old game was the
Speaker 1: best selling release last month. It's gonna be a good
Speaker 1: one because we have John Martin on the show. John,
Speaker 1: how are you doing.
Speaker 2: Jeff Grub, I'm doing fantastic. How are you doing this morning?
Speaker 1: Doing great? I'm glad we could get you on the show.
Speaker 1: We met at Pax. It was a good conversation. You
Speaker 1: witnessed me being dealt with by enforcers, as was my
Speaker 1: you know, as was my due of course. But I'm
Speaker 1: why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to everybody?
Speaker 1: Let up, everyone know, like what you're up to, where
Speaker 1: they can find you on the internet and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So hi everyone, I'm John. I've been making videos
Speaker 2: in my spare time for over a decade, basically built
Speaker 2: a career path to work in video games, work in
Speaker 2: video game marketing.
Speaker 3: I've done that for a few years now.
Speaker 2: I'm by myself, but still have that passion for video games,
Speaker 2: and yeah, I'm excited to get it to the news.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna pop in here real soon. But yeah,
Speaker 1: how was your past did you enjoy it? Is that? Like,
Speaker 1: are you out on the East Coast? Was it easy
Speaker 1: to get to and everything for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So I'm in the Boston area, so I've been going
Speaker 2: to EFFECT every year since twenty twelve. Yeah, it was
Speaker 2: a good one. Definitely a different vibe this year. You
Speaker 2: can kind of tell that there were a lot there
Speaker 2: was a lot of vacant space and there weren't as
Speaker 2: many big titles in recent years, which is, you know,
Speaker 2: understandable for the state of everything. But no, I had
Speaker 2: a really good time. It's always fun to meet up
Speaker 2: with people you talk to online. It's always great to
Speaker 2: meet up with, you know, people you look up to,
Speaker 2: like you guys and thank Yeah, it's just a awesome
Speaker 2: opportunity to talk to developers and learn about what's going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you spend any time in the like the
Speaker 1: press room, the media room, because that's like they have
Speaker 1: like a room there where media and journalists can work.
Speaker 1: And I used to spend a lot of time in there,
Speaker 1: and I haven't been in there in years, so it's
Speaker 1: just like, what's it like in there these days? But
Speaker 1: I know, did you go in there at all?
Speaker 2: I unfortunately didn't. I spent most of my time in
Speaker 2: the Packs arcade.
Speaker 1: Now that's no, that's a way better use of your time.
Speaker 1: Definitely do that. You know, I'm at a point with
Speaker 1: Packs where I don't know what I'm expecting from it
Speaker 1: in terms of video games. I think I got there
Speaker 1: and I was like, eh, you know, Nintendo's not showing
Speaker 1: off switch to here. Really, it's there's not much going on.
Speaker 1: That's fine. Packs is going to be able to do
Speaker 1: just like all right without that stuff because so many
Speaker 1: people come there just hang out with friends or do
Speaker 1: the events or play tabletop games. A huge tabletop section
Speaker 1: like always bigger than ever. But then I you know,
Speaker 1: I did see elden Ring Night Rain. They were like
Speaker 1: running demos for that or whatever. Maybe movie was a
Speaker 1: theater thing. I didn't go in there, but I just
Speaker 1: saw their little you know, conclid they had over there.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, yeah, I guess big games can just
Speaker 1: show up at Packs. Now, You're right, in the past,
Speaker 1: there's been many more of those and bigger ones and
Speaker 1: they had booths that were even bigger than this night
Speaker 1: Rain one, which was kind of small all things considered.
Speaker 1: But uh, at this point, I'm a little surprised when
Speaker 1: big games show up at packs because it's just it
Speaker 1: feels like one of these things where a lot of developers,
Speaker 1: especially internationally, are just like, oh, I don't know if
Speaker 1: we can make use of this, or we're kind of
Speaker 1: afraid of spending money traveling around the world showing off
Speaker 1: the games. So yeah, I don't know, packs doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: need those games anymore, right, because it's just this community
Speaker 1: thing at this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think a big push this year was featuring
Speaker 2: more local game developers from the Boston area, which is
Speaker 2: always that's cool to get like meet up with those people,
Speaker 2: see where they're based out of. There's there's a fair
Speaker 2: amount of big studios in the Boston area and there's
Speaker 2: more and more even coming still, so it would be
Speaker 2: cool to see more of like you know, a Harmonics
Speaker 2: or whatever the creator of BioShock is doing. But like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think like with the death of the indie megabooth,
Speaker 2: like there is a kind of stunting growth in terms
Speaker 2: of like discoverability, but there is still plenty of great games,
Speaker 2: plenty of alliance to stand in. Yeah, and there's some
Speaker 2: big games like I played Crimson Desert, which is that
Speaker 2: like a Black Desert MMO kind of game, single player thing,
Speaker 2: which was really cool and that was a whole experience
Speaker 2: but excellent.
Speaker 1: Well, let's explain ourselves and what we do here. We're
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Speaker 1: as far as this show goes, most week days, I
Speaker 1: Jeff Grubb will help piece your gaming life back together.
Speaker 1: That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our
Speaker 1: own original reporting for all these topics, I'll get the
Speaker 1: input of a bona fide expert who will make me
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Speaker 1: feeds by searching for Game mess Mornings or find therss
Speaker 1: feed on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch
Speaker 1: the show later and live on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right,
Speaker 1: we have a lot to get into, so let's start
Speaker 1: the show with Brandy Pitchford moves to justify comments that
Speaker 1: real fans would find a way and that's a quote
Speaker 1: to buy Borderlands for even if it costs eighty dollars.
Speaker 1: This is from Chris Scullion at EGC Gearbox Entertainment CEO.
Speaker 1: Brandy Pitchford has attempted to explain recent comments that quote
Speaker 1: true fans would quote find a way to buy Borderlands
Speaker 1: for if it ends up costing eighty dollars. Earlier this month,
Speaker 1: Pittford was asked by a follower on Twitter not to
Speaker 1: make the game eighty dollars, to which he replied that
Speaker 1: it was not his call. He then added, but if
Speaker 1: you're a real fan, you'll find a way to make
Speaker 1: it happen. My local game had star flight for Sega
Speaker 1: Genesis for eighty dollars in nineteen ninety one, when I
Speaker 1: was just out of high school, working minimum wage at
Speaker 1: an ice cream parlor and Pismo Beach, and I found
Speaker 1: a way to make it happen while walking both ways
Speaker 1: uphill in the snow with guns pointed at me. Apparently,
Speaker 1: Pitchford's comments were relatively unnoticed at the time, but have
Speaker 1: become more widespread this week, with some players criticizing the
Speaker 1: suggestion that players who can't afford the game aren't quote
Speaker 1: true fans. In a new post on Twitter, Pittford is
Speaker 1: linked to a video from a recent Borderlands for Q
Speaker 1: and A saying if you want the truth, here it is,
Speaker 1: and then basically in that video, John he says he
Speaker 1: doesn't know what the price is going to be still
Speaker 1: hasn't been decided, which at this point in time, I
Speaker 1: believe a little bit that they are like trying to
Speaker 1: see what they can get away with, but that to me,
Speaker 1: that means it could be eighty dollars. All this makes
Speaker 1: it sound very possible that it could be eighty dollars.
Speaker 1: I guess let's start before we get into Randy here.
Speaker 1: Do you think Borderlands for it could be worth not
Speaker 1: like that, John, if we do, you think Borderlands four
Speaker 1: can be worth eighty dollars to you?
Speaker 2: To me, it's kind of a hard sell because Borderlands
Speaker 2: has always been a franchise that I associate with that
Speaker 2: multiplayer aspect. Getting an eighty dollars price tag is going
Speaker 2: to be a little bit more prohibitively expensive. Like during
Speaker 2: the pandemic, I had no intention of playing Borderlands three,
Speaker 2: like I'd kind of gotten my fill after the first
Speaker 2: and second, but that was a game that was already
Speaker 2: on the cheap. It was the middle of like twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one. My friends needed something to do, and so
Speaker 2: I just picked up four copies. I can't see that
Speaker 2: situation really happening again this time around.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. What do you think about it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean I think you nailed it where it's like,
Speaker 1: this is the kind of game where it's not really
Speaker 1: just the price of the game, it's also either you know,
Speaker 1: like you said, gifting it to your friends or talking
Speaker 1: your friends into buying it as well. And like we've
Speaker 1: already built up all those arguments to try to convince
Speaker 1: them to to spend sixty dollars on a game and
Speaker 1: now more recently maybe seventy dollars here or there. This
Speaker 1: game comes at eighty dollars. It's like that's not even
Speaker 1: a fight worth having. Like I'm just not going to
Speaker 1: try to convince my friends to spend eighty dollars on
Speaker 1: this game, especially like knowing that I'm probably going to
Speaker 1: get it free through work or something like that. It
Speaker 1: just it just makes me feel bad. So, yeah, there's
Speaker 1: more to it than just quote true fans. And then
Speaker 1: you know Randy's saying that obviously he should have just
Speaker 1: not said anything right, like that was the right move here.
Speaker 1: He should have just shut the fuck up, Friday.
Speaker 2: I honestly don't know if it's in his DNA at
Speaker 2: this point. I feel like he is just a magic
Speaker 2: act and he's just revealing more and more layers of
Speaker 2: kind of someone out of touch, kind of someone who
Speaker 2: just doesn't really know the state of the industry right now.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's it's definitely a situation and a time
Speaker 2: where it is so up in the air, Like Mario
Speaker 2: cart Eid is so far the only eighty dollars game
Speaker 2: that we know about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, that still is the only one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, And I can't think of a world where
Speaker 2: Borderlands for is a game I'm going to go back
Speaker 2: to in the future. Mario Kart eight eighty dollars is
Speaker 2: a lot. I'm getting it fifty dollars with the switch
Speaker 2: to bundle, right, but it is kind of that forever
Speaker 2: game like Mario Kart eight we you included, like has
Speaker 2: survived for a decade and people are still having a
Speaker 2: great time with that. But like in the long term,
Speaker 2: I can just easily seeing people drop off halfway through
Speaker 2: the campaign and never come back to it. Like I
Speaker 2: don't really see a future and where that's you know, viable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's uh, it really does just feel
Speaker 1: like these two worlds getting further apart, where you know,
Speaker 1: obviously this has come up a bunch of times, but
Speaker 1: Clare obscurit was fifty dollars, it's the best reviewed game
Speaker 1: of the year. I just raised my standing desk. I
Speaker 1: started lifting that up. That's crazy. Get my hand away
Speaker 1: from the button. Yeah, Like, there are games out there
Speaker 1: that do come out at a price that feels budget now,
Speaker 1: and they are so of the best games just period,
Speaker 1: no caveats, They're just some of the best games. And
Speaker 1: these bigger companies are in this situation where they're like, well,
Speaker 1: we've separated ourselves by making games bigger and more expensive,
Speaker 1: and look like that's the way that we get your attention.
Speaker 1: So we're going to justify getting your attention by charging
Speaker 1: you eighty dollars for it. And I just don't think
Speaker 1: they see them realize how they seem to be driving
Speaker 1: at a wall here, Like it's going to reach a
Speaker 1: point where people cannot, like you said, justify it anymore.
Speaker 1: And you know, the big part of that is Randy
Speaker 1: being out of touch, Like his story here is crazy, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you've got starflight for Sega Genesis for eighty dollars. In
Speaker 1: the nineties, we'll work in minimum wage. Well, I mean
Speaker 1: minimum wage back then relative to what it is now
Speaker 1: a little bit different. Also, the cost of living for
Speaker 1: everything else was way lower than it is now. But
Speaker 1: people's rents were not fifty percent of their income, you know,
Speaker 1: things like that, like going too fast food was not
Speaker 1: a thirty five dollars endeavor for like two to three people.
Speaker 1: It was seven bucks or something like that. So the
Speaker 1: idea of an expensive cartridge to produce having to cost
Speaker 1: more so they could justify selling it at all was
Speaker 1: made way more sense. It's just not a fair comparison.
Speaker 1: It's completely out of touch. So he needs to just
Speaker 1: shut the book up and not go out there and
Speaker 1: say this stuff. And again, we don't know if this
Speaker 1: game is going to be eighty dollars, and maybe this
Speaker 1: is the kind of thing that causes them to be like, man,
Speaker 1: let's just back off, let's go seventy whatever, because like
Speaker 1: seventy still feels like them getting away with something. It
Speaker 1: hasn't been that long. So do you think that it's
Speaker 1: going to be contentious like this going forward as these
Speaker 1: other developers and publishers try to sneak up to eighty.
Speaker 1: You know, I think Microsoft might have done it the
Speaker 1: quote unquote right way by just being hey, later this year,
Speaker 1: some shit's gonna be eighty, and then like they rip
Speaker 1: off the band aid and then they could just stand back.
Speaker 1: Let people get mad now, and when those games come
Speaker 1: everyone and most people go, we knew they were going
Speaker 1: to do this. In this situation, it's like it feels
Speaker 1: like kind of the even though it's very similar. I
Speaker 1: hate this thing could be eighty. It just feels a
Speaker 1: lot worse because it's like, well, just tell us if
Speaker 1: it's going to be that price or not, so we
Speaker 1: can just get the conversation out of the way. Is
Speaker 1: it going to be like at a lot of rakes
Speaker 1: for a lot of these companies going forward as they
Speaker 1: try to raise the prices. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I think like the Xbox situation is very interesting
Speaker 2: because they kind of tacked that onto everything across the
Speaker 2: board having a price increase, so it was in a
Speaker 2: way kind of blanketed the muted effect of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, the sooner we get to switch to when
Speaker 2: we start seeing what other eighty dollars games are, and
Speaker 2: when PlayStation probably inevitably raises the price as well, I
Speaker 2: think everything's going to be over looked over with like
Speaker 2: a magnifying glass really analyzing this. People have so many
Speaker 2: options right now to get eighty dollars worth of content
Speaker 2: or even more than that, just by you know, doing
Speaker 2: a Steam sale or even like Epic Game Store. They
Speaker 2: give you so much game for free. Yeah, and not
Speaker 2: even taking into account the free to play live service
Speaker 2: games that you can like play with your friends. You
Speaker 2: can just have a great time for very little uptake.
Speaker 2: And I mean, and that's not even taking into account
Speaker 2: like We don't even know how Borderlines e Borderlines four
Speaker 2: is going to be optimized. It could be an absolute
Speaker 2: dumpster fire, kind of like how Monster in or Wilds was.
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, it's going to be a very very
Speaker 2: tough sell for a lot of these companies if you
Speaker 2: do not have one of those huge franchises that people
Speaker 2: just can't live without.
Speaker 1: I know a big part of this is just at
Speaker 1: these companies, they have insight into how we spend money,
Speaker 1: and they look over at games. They have a lot
Speaker 1: of micro transactions. Two K for sure knows how people
Speaker 1: spend money on like NBA two K, and they're looking
Speaker 1: at like, okay, people are spending twenty five dollars for
Speaker 1: one skin. If they're willing to do that, of course
Speaker 1: they're going to be willing to spend eighty dollars on
Speaker 1: a game. And it's just like, oh, you know, we
Speaker 1: don't connect those things at all, Like, first of all,
Speaker 1: I don't spend twenty five dollars on a skin. That's
Speaker 1: a different kind of person than I am, and probably
Speaker 1: a different kind of person then probably shows up for
Speaker 1: the bulk of Borderland sales. Maybe not entirely, Maybe there
Speaker 1: is quite a bit of overlap there. But even so,
Speaker 1: the people who are overlapping view those prices as two
Speaker 1: completely different things. The anchor for the price of a
Speaker 1: video game is this them spending their entire lives spending fifty,
Speaker 1: then sixty, and now seventy dollars on it, and then
Speaker 1: like getting used to like that one price for a
Speaker 1: very long time. It was fifty for forever, sixty forever,
Speaker 1: and now seventy four a couple of years. The people
Speaker 1: are making that comparison, They're not thinking like, oh, I
Speaker 1: easily spend two hundred and fifty dollars on micro transactions
Speaker 1: in Fortnite in a year, and that's one video game,
Speaker 1: So eighty dollars for another video game, that's nothing. No,
Speaker 1: no one is making that connection. But I bet internally
Speaker 1: they see it that way, and it's like, you guys
Speaker 1: are telling yourselves a story that doesn't really work. Also
Speaker 1: saw in chat my editorializing of what Randy said. He
Speaker 1: just ended at saying he worked minimum wage at an
Speaker 1: ice cream parlor at Pismo Beach and he found a
Speaker 1: way to make it happen. He didn't actually say this
Speaker 1: stuff about walking uphill both ways in the snow and
Speaker 1: getting shot at so I just clarify if that confused anybody.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get onto this next story. April twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five US video game market highlights from Sircana. This
Speaker 1: is from Matt Piscatella over at Circana. April twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Total market projected US consumer spinning across video game hardware,
Speaker 1: content and accessories fell three percent when compared to a
Speaker 1: year ago, to four point one billion dollars overall year
Speaker 1: to date spending in the United States, that's what Circana
Speaker 1: tracks is down eight percent, which is pretty big. That's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I think last year Matt was predicting somewhere
Speaker 1: around that mark for the entire entirety of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: it ended up doing much better than that. It feels
Speaker 1: like some of that like Slack, is being let go
Speaker 1: this year, and at least through May, or excuse me,
Speaker 1: at least through April, we're eight percent behind where we
Speaker 1: were in twenty twenty four, and it doesn't look like
Speaker 1: they're There's a lot of games that could fix that,
Speaker 1: although of course switched to could change that story here
Speaker 1: very quickly. Best selling games of the month include The
Speaker 1: Elder Scrolls four Oblivion Remastered at number one. Forts Horizon five,
Speaker 1: which launched on PlayStation five, went up to number two
Speaker 1: after being forty two the month before MLB The Show
Speaker 1: at three, Minecraft at four, The movie right, that's the movie? Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: and The Assassin's Creed Shadows at five. Indiana Jones in
Speaker 1: the Great Circle, which launched on PS five as well,
Speaker 1: went up to number six, Call of Duty Black Ops
Speaker 1: six at seven, then WWEBA, NBA, and PGA Tour rounding
Speaker 1: out the top ten. I don't see if there's anything
Speaker 1: else interesting on this list worth calling out. No, but
Speaker 1: you know what's missing on the list is clerup Scare
Speaker 1: Expedition thirty three, which is because Kepler does not report
Speaker 1: their their digital sales to to the Circana. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think I'm pretty sure John, the game sold out right,
Speaker 1: the physical version, like people have been trying to get
Speaker 1: the physical version of Clarips and it's been sold out
Speaker 1: like since launch basically, so I bet they didn't print
Speaker 1: a ton of copies of that. They weren't sure if
Speaker 1: the game was really going to pop off the way
Speaker 1: it did, and when it did, it was mostly digital,
Speaker 1: it seems like, especially obviously on PC. So I think
Speaker 1: that's the reason this game is not on the list.
Speaker 1: The fiscal versions would have been tracked, digital versions wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been And it seems like the vast majority of
Speaker 1: people bought that game digitally because that's the only way
Speaker 1: they could find it. So that's why it's not on
Speaker 1: the list. Don't everyone freak out. I'm sure that game
Speaker 1: probably it probably would have been number two on this list.
Speaker 1: Is that What would that be your best guess? Because
Speaker 1: even you know, beating Forts rice and five, it seems
Speaker 1: like it had that many players.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was just a record breaking amount
Speaker 2: of sales just in those first couple of weeks alone.
Speaker 2: It's a fantastic game. I honestly think word of mouth,
Speaker 2: and as we get closer and closer to award season,
Speaker 2: people keep hearing this name potentially like another switch to edition.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming that'll happen. I think they made comments that
Speaker 2: kind of like heavily suggests that it's coming to but yeah, like,
Speaker 2: I mean, more and more people are getting the chance
Speaker 2: to play.
Speaker 3: It's at game pass.
Speaker 2: I know two weekends ago, I had a friend who
Speaker 2: was trying to find it diehard physical collector. I'm not
Speaker 2: super heavy on physical on Xbox theisation, but it Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, it was just impossible to.
Speaker 3: Find that game.
Speaker 2: So I think in the coming weeks, in the coming months,
Speaker 2: just the groundswell from that game is going to prop
Speaker 2: it up. And regardless of how it does, I think
Speaker 2: it definitely exceeded the expectations of you know, their first game,
Speaker 2: Like they did a fantastic job and show.
Speaker 1: If I'm them, if I'm Kepler the publisher, and if
Speaker 1: I'm sand Falls at the name of the studio, if
Speaker 1: I'm them, like, yeah, do a new run of the
Speaker 1: fiscal games for sure, get get to work immediately on
Speaker 1: a big collector's edition, Like just do what Balderskate three did,
Speaker 1: which didn't really have a fiscal version upfront, but like
Speaker 1: a year later they put all the updates into one
Speaker 1: package and then they put put it into an awesome
Speaker 1: physical collector's edition. I think that would be that would
Speaker 1: be pretty cool. I think people would jump all over
Speaker 1: that because they have fallen in love with this game.
Speaker 1: I've been singing Claire Upscure, Baby, Claire Upscure, Claire Upscure,
Speaker 1: like just to myself NonStop for the last week, and
Speaker 1: I haven't played it in a week, so it's infectious.
Speaker 1: Let's see here. The Matt always does a good rundown
Speaker 1: of the things to know for many of the big
Speaker 1: games on the list. Let's go through that. The Elder
Speaker 1: Scrolls four Oblivion Remastered was the best selling game of
Speaker 1: the month, instantly becoming the third best selling game of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five year to date. It was the best
Speaker 1: selling title across each of PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms
Speaker 1: that year to date so far, Monster Hunter Wild's still
Speaker 1: number one, Assassin's Creed Shadows still number two. Shadows apparently
Speaker 1: just did what it needed to do in terms of
Speaker 1: that game, not what it needed to do to save
Speaker 1: you be soft, but it did very well. The Elder
Speaker 1: Scrolls four Oblivion Remastered sold more units in April twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five than the Elder Scrolls four Oblivion achieved across
Speaker 1: its first fifteen months in market combined following its March
Speaker 1: two thousand and six debut, and generated more full game
Speaker 1: dollar sales than the originals first fourteen months combined. That's
Speaker 1: kind of nuts. That's like, I guess that just shows
Speaker 1: like sird gaming's just blown up right games so much
Speaker 1: bigger than it was in two thousand and six. That's
Speaker 1: one of the biggest explanations for this, Is that, correct,
Speaker 1: do you think?
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 2: I think it's like this awesome point where people have
Speaker 2: been playing Elder Scrolls like for quite a lot while
Speaker 2: people have held up Oblivion as the pinnacle of the series.
Speaker 2: I think it's bad in more Wind, but I mean
Speaker 2: as soon as Skyrim came out, as soon as ESO
Speaker 2: came out, and you know, kind of like reworked itself
Speaker 2: into becoming a success. I think that franchise has only
Speaker 2: had like mythic tales about what Oblivion could be. And
Speaker 2: I think that remastered really did capture a lot of
Speaker 2: the imagination that was there. Maybe like there's a little
Speaker 2: bit of there's a little bit of like your brain
Speaker 2: is thinking, this is what the game was all those
Speaker 2: years ago, and we're at a great point for that.
Speaker 2: I think three sixty WEI and PS three nossalgia is
Speaker 2: kind of just starting.
Speaker 1: It's gonna hit hard, yeah, I like the game Cube
Speaker 1: was the big winner of the nostalgia for the previous
Speaker 1: generation before that, or for the two generations before that obviously.
Speaker 1: I think PS two just kind of defaulted in the
Speaker 1: generation there, but for that PS three Xbox three sixty
Speaker 1: and we I do think that like a lot of
Speaker 1: love is going to be thrown on the Xbox three
Speaker 1: sixty there. It seems like that's gonna have a real
Speaker 1: strong chance of kind of having the shine when people
Speaker 1: are looking back and feeling warm fuzzies about that era,
Speaker 1: it's like a lot of it's gonna be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: playing on the three sixty was cool, and no one
Speaker 1: will remember the Red Ring and things like that. Forts
Speaker 1: Arise at five was the second best selling game of
Speaker 1: April following its debut on PlayStation five. Indiana Jones. We
Speaker 1: talked about that four of the top five and five
Speaker 1: of the top selling best selling games of the month
Speaker 1: on PlayStation platforms were published by Microsoft. I did notice this.
Speaker 1: I actually put the image here. So that's Elder Scrolls
Speaker 1: four at number one, Forts Arison five at number two,
Speaker 1: Indiana Jones, and The Great Circle at number four, Call
Speaker 1: of Duty Black Ops six at number five, and Minecraft
Speaker 1: at number seven, and then yeah, and then the rest
Speaker 1: of the games are like take two Ubisoft EA and
Speaker 1: then Sony has MLB The Show at number three. So uh,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know what this says anymore, John?
Speaker 1: To me, it just says obviously the thing we know
Speaker 1: console war over the future of publishing on all platforms
Speaker 1: feels like the obvious thing for not just Microsoft, but
Speaker 1: for everybody. And like Sony putting their games on Xbox,
Speaker 1: maybe that doesn't make us much sense. The audience is smaller,
Speaker 1: but you know, if the audience was bigger, it feels
Speaker 1: like it would be obvious to put it on there.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I were just so far past all
Speaker 1: of the old ways of thinking about things that clearly
Speaker 1: this is the future. I don't know what else it says.
Speaker 1: Do you have any thoughts on this, John?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and you released a really good overview
Speaker 2: of Xbox's strategy. Microsoft strategy. That banking building up over
Speaker 2: the years, especially since we had those big Betheza and
Speaker 2: Activision Blizzard acquisitions, it's paying off. They're definitely more focused
Speaker 2: on the service aspect and just providing games wherever they can,
Speaker 2: you know, get their hands and get those discs in
Speaker 2: the door.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: For PlayStation it's kind of interesting because interesting. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't know if like having a Hell Divers would have
Speaker 2: really affected their you know, the the takeover of Hell
Speaker 2: Divers Too, Like, I think that game was the perfect
Speaker 2: success that a lot of PlayStation fans wanted it to be. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I don't know if bringing that to Xbox would
Speaker 2: have made a lot of sense. I don't know how
Speaker 2: much it costs to poured a game to a completely
Speaker 2: different platform, something that is like completely different than just
Speaker 2: pourting it to Steam where there's a lot of resources
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 1: I think Hell Divers Too could still end up on Xbox.
Speaker 1: That's the one that feels like it has just because
Speaker 1: and I think they would justify it as have someone
Speaker 1: else publish it like they've had happened with some of
Speaker 1: their other games, some of the smaller like PSPM Vida
Speaker 1: games that have been like made their way over to
Speaker 1: the Switch recently, those have been published externally even though
Speaker 1: they're still placed games, And it seems like a big
Speaker 1: part of that is that's just the cheap, cheapest way
Speaker 1: of doing it. But I could see the same thing
Speaker 1: helping with happening with Hell Divers, especially since that studio
Speaker 1: is announced, Like we're doing things on our own going forward.
Speaker 1: We're not going to go back and do the Sony
Speaker 1: thing again. And I think Sony could be like, well, let's,
Speaker 1: you know, let you kind of like start that off
Speaker 1: with Hell Divers, and that could also be their first
Speaker 1: step of like putting something on Xbox. I think it
Speaker 1: would be a really good fit. Maybe maybe doesn't make
Speaker 1: as much sense because Hell Divers two does feel like
Speaker 1: it was coming to a natural sort of fading away
Speaker 1: a conclusion, although I didn't include it in the in
Speaker 1: the headlines here, John, but apparently people are rushing back
Speaker 1: to that game because of the most recent update. Apparently
Speaker 1: it's hitting very hard. So who knows. Yeah, I'm happy
Speaker 1: to hear that, all right, So let's see here other
Speaker 1: things from Matt Piscatella. Call of Duty HQ led all
Speaker 1: titles in totally total US monthly active users across both
Speaker 1: PlayStation and Xbox, and then two titles saw strong and
Speaker 1: gains on PlayStation following their addition to PlayStation. Plus. That's
Speaker 1: RoboCop Rogue City, which jumped from one hundred and eleventh
Speaker 1: and PlayStation total monthly active users in March all the
Speaker 1: way up to eighth. And now that might oh man,
Speaker 1: only eighth, No, no, no, Getting into that top ten
Speaker 1: of most players on one of these consoles is really hard.
Speaker 1: I think Oblivion, which sold really well in the PlayStation,
Speaker 1: did not get into the top ten of most players
Speaker 1: on PlayStation. It did get get there on Xbox, but
Speaker 1: you know, game Pass helped that out. So it's like,
Speaker 1: with the help of game Pass it got up to
Speaker 1: like number five or four or something like that. Cracking
Speaker 1: the top ten is very difficult because some of these
Speaker 1: perennial games just have so many players all throughout the month.
Speaker 1: That so RoboCop breaking in there, that's a really cool thing.
Speaker 1: Let's see what else happened there. Texas Chainsaw Massacre jumped
Speaker 1: to number ten in April from three hundred and seventy five.
Speaker 1: So apparently getting into that PlayStation plus situation is a
Speaker 1: big boon to getting players to your game. So I'm
Speaker 1: glad that's working over there. Let's wrap up this story
Speaker 1: with the hardware numbers. Hardware spending fell by eight percent
Speaker 1: we could to a year ago. Notable that that's one
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty six million dollars, which is the lowest
Speaker 1: total spending on hardware in the United States since July
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty, which would have been right before the
Speaker 1: next gen consoles at that time. The current gen consoles
Speaker 1: now and right as the shock of COVID was really
Speaker 1: hitting where people were not spending money. You know, we
Speaker 1: eventually got to that point, John, right where people were
Speaker 1: like video games, that's the answer, we're all stuck inside,
Speaker 1: let's all play video games. That was not July twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: It took some time for that to really sink in
Speaker 1: that this was going to be really long term and
Speaker 1: we should find some entertainment. So, I mean, that's just
Speaker 1: PlayStation five and Xbox probably not exciting people in all
Speaker 1: too many ways, at least not new people to come
Speaker 1: in by the console, and then everyone else waiting for
Speaker 1: switch to right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I think PS five and Xbox series they're
Speaker 2: kind of in a I guess Xbox less so, but
Speaker 2: that's kind of Microsoft platform as a whole, just like
Speaker 2: putting their games everywhere.
Speaker 3: We're in this.
Speaker 2: Tough position where I feel like the PlayStation five exclusive
Speaker 2: games have kind of dried up, so there really isn't
Speaker 2: like a magnet game to bring people there, like obviously,
Speaker 2: I mean during the height of the pandemic, there wasn't
Speaker 2: like any of those launch titles. They weren't out yet.
Speaker 2: But yeah, we don't have like that many games in
Speaker 2: this year besides ghosts Ushima and if Soros, like the
Speaker 2: next House Smart game does come out this or next year.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean the demand for consoles is definitely down.
Speaker 2: Switch To is probably going to be a humongous exception,
Speaker 2: but yeah, in terms of games, it is kind of
Speaker 2: looking a little dry because I think people are still
Speaker 2: getting out of the mindset of like, oh, we can
Speaker 2: launch this year. GTA six is here and we don't
Speaker 2: need to lay our games.
Speaker 3: I guess when do.
Speaker 1: You think about that? Yeah, I think the like the
Speaker 1: talk around what these companies have publicly has been so
Speaker 1: muted because of Grand Theft Auto. I think that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: And now that that's in twenty twenty six, does that
Speaker 1: change or is it too late? Was like have the
Speaker 1: trains already left the station on, Like, well, we should
Speaker 1: just launch in twenty twenty six. I would assume not,
Speaker 1: because a lot of people had to know that this
Speaker 1: was possible. In fact, I'm guessing a lot of these
Speaker 1: companies had a pretty good insight on a delay being possible,
Speaker 1: just because they're you know, corporate espionage, which is really
Speaker 1: just having friends of friends who work at Rockstar talk
Speaker 1: to each other and be like, just tell me what's
Speaker 1: going on, so we know what to do with our game,
Speaker 1: right networking, that's what it's called. So I imagine that
Speaker 1: we're probably going to get here into the Summer Game
Speaker 1: Fest season. And while I don't think there's going to
Speaker 1: be a lot of like really hot bangers on that
Speaker 1: show floor, just because that will be hard to like
Speaker 1: get up and running in a matter of weeks, now
Speaker 1: that you know what's happening with Grand Theft Auto, the
Speaker 1: announcements could actually find a way into that show and
Speaker 1: you know, the surrounding orbit of Summer Game Fest to
Speaker 1: fill out the rest of this year, and then you know,
Speaker 1: does that change the story on people buying consoles? I
Speaker 1: don't know, because those prices are going up, you know
Speaker 1: in PlayStation. They already went up on the Xbox, They're
Speaker 1: going up on the PlayStation. I think people that's going
Speaker 1: to scare off any who might have been like, oh,
Speaker 1: finally some of these other games are getting Out's cool. Well,
Speaker 1: now it's more expensive. And I was waiting to, like
Speaker 1: for a bunch of games that were going to be
Speaker 1: cheap to justify it because I'm price sensitive. This just
Speaker 1: boxes me out again. Yeah, maybe grand theft out of six,
Speaker 1: like it's the thing that breaks through that dam. But
Speaker 1: for now, I don't know. Huh. All right, let's take
Speaker 1: a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: plenty of more headlines. If you want the ad free version,
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Speaker 1: Once again, that's giant bomb dot com slash Join. Become
Speaker 1: a member. Now, welcome back to Game Mess Mornings. I'm
Speaker 1: Jeff Grubb, that's John Martin. We're talking about video games,
Speaker 1: including Sinuous Saga, Helblay two coming to PS five this summer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the story of Oh an Xbox game, don't
Speaker 1: go into PlayStation That's not a story anymore. But do
Speaker 1: you think that, Yeah, it's just obvious at this point.
Speaker 1: Do you think help A two can find an audience
Speaker 1: on PlayStation five though? Because it I don't know. It
Speaker 1: just seems like it did it missed with its original launch?
Speaker 2: Did it did the first not sell well? Or was
Speaker 2: it the critical hit?
Speaker 1: I think I think that's right. Maybe it's not. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's not one hundred percent correct. And I'm sure a
Speaker 1: lot of people just try it in game pass, uh,
Speaker 1: And I definitely got the sense that people, if they
Speaker 1: did play it, they moved on it from from on
Speaker 1: from it pretty quickly. I guess that's what I was
Speaker 1: getting at, is that it feels like the response to
Speaker 1: that was subtle at best, even though there's some people
Speaker 1: who are raving about the visuals. Do you think it
Speaker 1: can find a different audience on PlayStation five, like you
Speaker 1: know a lot of these other games from Microsoft have.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think it's a very interesting situation where it will
Speaker 2: appeal to more of the hardcore gaming audience, like people
Speaker 2: who really are valuing this game based on just the
Speaker 2: artistic value of it. I think it tackles a lot
Speaker 2: of very interesting themes in terms in terms of mass appeal,
Speaker 2: I don't know if this is the kind of a
Speaker 2: ninja theory game that a lot of people would be
Speaker 2: looking for. I think of like Devil May Cry, d
Speaker 2: MC Double May Cry, and I think of U, you know, uh,
Speaker 2: what's the game, uh, Journey to the the Journey to
Speaker 2: the West one on three sixty Enslaves or what was that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Enslave Journey to the West is that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, someone can correct us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, it's very interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it'll find some audience. I don't think
Speaker 2: it's gonna make a huge impact at all. Those games
Speaker 2: are going to hit like the right audience. People who
Speaker 2: I've been waiting for hell Blake because that was I mean,
Speaker 2: that was the last game that that they made, but
Speaker 2: also the last one that was still multiplatform. So there's
Speaker 2: probably a couple of people who have been holding on
Speaker 2: wanted to get those play station exclusive features. But besides that,
Speaker 2: I don't know how big of an impact it'll be.
Speaker 2: I'm excited for the success.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and I think the very least giving more
Speaker 1: people a chance to play it is always going to
Speaker 1: be a good thing, and I, you know, my history
Speaker 1: with the help Blay two was I tried it. It
Speaker 1: just was super not for me. And then I, you know,
Speaker 1: everyone I talked to kind of felt the same way.
Speaker 1: So that could just be my orbit, but it definitely
Speaker 1: felt like a game that missed in terms of people
Speaker 1: like maybe getting excited about it because it's like, alwa,
Speaker 1: is this going to expand on the hell Blade idea?
Speaker 1: And then it didn't do that, and in some ways
Speaker 1: it felt more confined. But that was just my own
Speaker 1: personal critical response. All right, So let's get over here.
Speaker 1: Doom the Dark Age just hit three million players right away,
Speaker 1: and the majority of them are on game Pass. Apparently
Speaker 1: this is from Eddie McCoo at game Spot, but THAT'SA
Speaker 1: has announced that Doom the Dark Ages has become the
Speaker 1: Developer in Software's biggest launch in the company's thirty four
Speaker 1: year history dating back to nineteen ninety one. The game
Speaker 1: reached three million players and did so seven times faster
Speaker 1: than the Doom than Doom Maternal did. That's that did
Speaker 1: not share any sales numbers, however, nor do we know
Speaker 1: how much was spent on development, marketing, and other expenses
Speaker 1: also worth pointing out Do Maternal was not on game Pass,
Speaker 1: so that's going to be obviously, it's going to struggle
Speaker 1: to get to three million players in the same way
Speaker 1: that Doom the Dark Ages did. But a lot of
Speaker 1: people playing this game this this felt like a game
Speaker 1: that was a poster ChIL for game Pass. A lot
Speaker 1: of these games are like, it's on game Pass and
Speaker 1: then it still sells very well because people are like, well,
Speaker 1: I'll just I just want to play it where I
Speaker 1: want to play it, or I want to own it,
Speaker 1: and Doom the Dark Ages just felt like one where
Speaker 1: they were like, out and loud, just get this on
Speaker 1: game Pass, and it feels like that's what's happened here.
Speaker 1: Do you think there's any underlying like maybe this game
Speaker 1: actually isn't doing as well because it's just people trying
Speaker 1: it on game Pass and they're not buying it, or
Speaker 1: is this just the way things are now?
Speaker 3: I think it's a mix of both.
Speaker 2: I mean, Doom obviously is like a very historic franchise,
Speaker 2: but when I mean the first way we learned about
Speaker 2: this game's existence was just from the Activision Blizzard or no, sorry,
Speaker 2: the Bethesda. No, it was the Activision Blizzard lawsuit and
Speaker 2: they said something like Doom Year zero coming out soon.
Speaker 2: So there's been like a lot of for a lot
Speaker 2: of like big Doom fans like myself, Like there is
Speaker 2: such a heavy association with that game, pass like knowing, Oh,
Speaker 2: I'll have this great game. It's gonna come out, It's
Speaker 2: going to rock expectations. It's definitely interesting. It's a very
Speaker 2: interesting follow up to Eternal. But I and I think
Speaker 2: Eternal might have turned people off in a couple different ways.
Speaker 2: Came out at the like even at the like very
Speaker 2: beginning of the pandemic. I guess, so it didn't have
Speaker 2: that bump like we were talking about prior. But I
Speaker 2: honestly think that, yeah, it's definitely having an impact. I
Speaker 2: think Microsoft knows that, but I think also they know
Speaker 2: that it's a game that kind of speaks for itself.
Speaker 2: It's been around so long that it's kind of doomed
Speaker 2: not to fail. Well for the pun, I didn't mean that.
Speaker 1: Sorry, Yeah, it can help itself, but be not doomed,
Speaker 1: which is ironic for the game. People at Chat pointing
Speaker 1: out it was like number one on the sales chart
Speaker 1: on Steam, which is ranked by dollar sales, so like
Speaker 1: that's clearly a good sign. I think there were other
Speaker 1: people who are freaking out because the concurrent player numbers,
Speaker 1: which is a shady metric to begin with. I find
Speaker 1: it useful in some instances, but you know, for a
Speaker 1: single player game, it's not what it's not what matters
Speaker 1: for sure. But hey, like some single player games games
Speaker 1: come out, they get instantly to one hundred thousand, and
Speaker 1: that's not what Doom did. So I don't read into
Speaker 1: that how you will. I think what's happening here is
Speaker 1: this game is doing just fine, and I think I
Speaker 1: think the game it's weighted towards game pass in a
Speaker 1: really heavy way. That is not a problem for the game,
Speaker 1: not a problem for Microsoft. It is part of the plan,
Speaker 1: and and rankly, I think it's probably going to sell
Speaker 1: some game pass subscriptions, which is for as much as
Speaker 1: that's not their entire focus as it once was, it's
Speaker 1: still important to them. They still want to be growing
Speaker 1: all of their revenue streams. So yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 1: Have you spend any time with Doom the Dark Ages,
Speaker 1: because I've been meaning to play it. I did a
Speaker 1: quick look with Dan and watched him play. It looks
Speaker 1: really good. I want to play more.
Speaker 2: I definitely want to play more. That is probably the
Speaker 2: most experience I got watching your quick look to it.
Speaker 2: There's just been too many games coming out right now.
Speaker 2: I've been playing through both blueprints, I've been playing through
Speaker 2: Expedition thirty three. I want to start Oblivion. I want
Speaker 2: to start so many games, and yet I keep coming
Speaker 2: back to like a Final Fantasy X. Expedition thirty three
Speaker 2: kind of just put me in the mood for a
Speaker 2: good jarrapy gee. But it's definitely a game I want
Speaker 2: to sink my teeth into when I have the time.
Speaker 3: It's there.
Speaker 2: I know people really like it. So have you gotten
Speaker 2: to the point where like the narrative really comes into
Speaker 2: play for Doom? I've heard I've heard some mixed things about.
Speaker 1: That, not really no. Yeah, Like I said, I like
Speaker 1: have booted it up once and haven't really played much
Speaker 1: of it at all. So yeah, that I think Dan
Speaker 1: got pretty deep into it. And Dan is pretty you know,
Speaker 1: allergic to that stuff, and he didn't have many terrible
Speaker 1: things to say about that. So I guess that gives
Speaker 1: me some hope for me personally, because for at least
Speaker 1: in terms of story, I line up with Dan pretty
Speaker 1: close on that stuff. But I don't know what have
Speaker 1: you heard, Like people just like it's too much story,
Speaker 1: too many cutscenes or something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've I've definitely heard things along the line that
Speaker 2: it is kind of a little intrusive. And those were
Speaker 2: some of the elements from Eternal that I did have
Speaker 2: a little bit of a problem. It did was kind
Speaker 2: of a pace killer. I thought twenty sixteen did a
Speaker 2: great job of it reintroducing us, kind of establishing this
Speaker 2: this lore. But I mean, I don't really come to
Speaker 2: Doom for the huge lore. I do want to know
Speaker 2: more about what these dark ages and like how far
Speaker 2: in the past, Like what is this going to impact
Speaker 2: the gameplay? But yeah, it's it is kind of just
Speaker 2: like a hindrance from the moment's moment gameplay.
Speaker 3: I kind of come to Doom for.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I definitely think they struck the exact right balance
Speaker 1: and the right tone with Doom twenty sixteen. That's the
Speaker 1: kind of narrative I want. Here's someone talking to you
Speaker 1: an elevator and Doom guy punches the screen. That's perfect.
Speaker 1: That give me more of that. I don't think they
Speaker 1: did that. The Eternal definitely had a very different tone,
Speaker 1: and it sounds like this does as well, people in
Speaker 1: chatter saying it takes itself too seriously, which is not
Speaker 1: what I want from Doom. I wanted to know it's
Speaker 1: a metal album cover and play everything that way. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move on here. Anticipated game on Steam, Roadcraft is
Speaker 1: out now and off to a good start. This is
Speaker 1: one of my pet games. I'm a huge Roadcraft fan,
Speaker 1: already been playing it, but huge fan of this series
Speaker 1: that it spawned from mud Runners and snow Runners. This
Speaker 1: is from Blair Marnell at GameSpot Crafting games like Minecraft aside,
Speaker 1: the vast majority of video games seem to embrace destruction
Speaker 1: over creation. Saber Interactive's new title Roadcraft takes a different approach.
Speaker 1: This game puts players in control of sites that have
Speaker 1: already been devastated by natural disasters and lets them choose
Speaker 1: how they want to rebuild the area around them. Roadcraft
Speaker 1: is now out on Steam and currently at number thirty
Speaker 1: five on the platform was most played games, which just
Speaker 1: with just under thirty four thousand concurrent players. That's a
Speaker 1: very good start for a game considering the Triple A
Speaker 1: titles it's competing with. Yeah, this these games have an
Speaker 1: audience that like just show up for these games and
Speaker 1: they get long term support, you know, ten major updates,
Speaker 1: and people pay close attention to all of them because
Speaker 1: it's like this is the game they're playing. Roadcraft really
Speaker 1: seems like it has the potential to be you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to play long term. I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be good long term, but at least in
Speaker 1: this moment, the first impression is very very good. It's
Speaker 1: they've really kind of nailed it in terms of making
Speaker 1: the loop make sense of just make a road, destroy
Speaker 1: some stuff that's in the way, go get the materials
Speaker 1: to make a different road, build a bridge. It's and
Speaker 1: then use all these different cool vehicles to accomplish that,
Speaker 1: these vehicles and these big machines. It's very satisfying. So
Speaker 1: I'm happy to see that this game is doing well.
Speaker 1: It's also the kind of game that does end up
Speaker 1: in game Pass eventually, which is when a lot of
Speaker 1: people finally try it, and I'm always happy for that.
Speaker 1: Then it's like easy to recommend because, like John, I
Speaker 1: have no idea if you would like this game, and
Speaker 1: I probably wouldn't even recommend it. But it's like I'll
Speaker 1: talk about it, and if you get excited by what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I'm like, well, then you should play it.
Speaker 1: And if not, it's like, well, one day when it's
Speaker 1: free to you, you should try it, because I bet
Speaker 1: it could click still. But That's where I'm at with this.
Speaker 1: Are these kinds of games ever appealing to you?
Speaker 2: I always like messing around with it. Seems like it
Speaker 2: is kind of like a sandbox game. Definitely seems like
Speaker 2: being able to create a play area and the only
Speaker 2: limit is kind of your imagination. I'm definitely not the
Speaker 2: kind of person who would usually check this out, but
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of credit there, like having
Speaker 2: game pass there to be able to try it. It
Speaker 2: is a really good thing, and I think, honestly, like
Speaker 2: this is kind of just like a microcosm of the
Speaker 2: bigger story that like Saber Interactive has really found multiple
Speaker 2: different niches that they're in, Like they're producing all of
Speaker 2: these games that are hitting really hard for a lot
Speaker 2: of people. So it's just kind of admirable in a
Speaker 2: situation where a lot of games are just getting canned
Speaker 2: for not really understanding what their audience wants, and Saber
Speaker 2: kind of gives it to them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they it was the same that they did Space
Speaker 1: Marine two. Yeah, yeah, hammering games, right, And so they're
Speaker 1: just like all over the place, like all these different genres,
Speaker 1: and yet I don't think they're like none of their
Speaker 1: games are like flat out bad, and many of them
Speaker 1: are like good to like very good. And I include
Speaker 1: Space Marine two in there, and uh, mud Runners and
Speaker 1: snow Runners and all that stuff. Snow Runners was my
Speaker 1: game of the year that year. I really liked that game.
Speaker 1: So I remember, Yeah, so Saber has like found, You're right, found.
Speaker 1: It's it's not even a niche because it's in like
Speaker 1: several different niches, but it's definitely found a way to
Speaker 1: get games across the finish line. And they have a
Speaker 1: ton of projects. They're making that Jurrassic part game that
Speaker 1: Jeff Beckler thinks looks terrible, but the rest of us
Speaker 1: things looks pretty good. So I'm like, oh, man, they
Speaker 1: could pull off this stuff. I wonder what they're going
Speaker 1: to be able to do with that. So I'm at
Speaker 1: a point where anytime I hear Saber taking on a project,
Speaker 1: I get pretty excited. And you know, by all accounts,
Speaker 1: they are still working on that night so the Older
Speaker 1: Republic remake. For as much as Sony is not involved
Speaker 1: with that anymore, which is what I originally reported, they're
Speaker 1: still taking it on. And I'm like, I'm kind of
Speaker 1: like more excited by that. It's like, Man, this team
Speaker 1: just going after this ar tackling this massive thing. What
Speaker 1: could it possibly look like? I don't know. I guess
Speaker 1: maybe we'll find out eventually. I think there's a chance
Speaker 1: we see that game here pretty soon, I hope.
Speaker 3: So really I'm in a Star Wars mood right now.
Speaker 2: It's kind of just like, yeah, there was definitely a decline,
Speaker 2: but recently in recent years, I mean mostly driven by
Speaker 2: and Or. I've been watching this ILM documentary that they
Speaker 2: put on Disney.
Speaker 3: Really good, really cool.
Speaker 2: I think there's the second season now, so I'm excited
Speaker 2: to get into that.
Speaker 1: But that's when it talks about the early CGI. It's awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fantastic seeing the Creature Lab. It is just fantastic.
Speaker 2: Is Golden Age movie making is great?
Speaker 1: Yep, in a Star Wars mood as well, because and
Speaker 1: Or and like, I'm like, I'm going to go back
Speaker 1: to Outlaws for that DLC, And what I predicted is
Speaker 1: kind of happening. People are really coming around on Outlaws now.
Speaker 1: A big part of that is no one's trying to
Speaker 1: force themselves to play it anymore, so it's self selecting
Speaker 1: a little bit. The people who are most likely to
Speaker 1: enjoy Star Wars Outlaws are the ones playing it at
Speaker 1: this point. That's why the conversation has changed a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I think I still think that there's a an
Speaker 1: enthusiasm around that game that is well deserved because it's
Speaker 1: a better game than it got credit for. All Right,
Speaker 1: the last couple of stories here new prestige physical game
Speaker 1: label editions, and I think that's Capital Editions, that's what
Speaker 1: they're calling It promises to reinvent what it means to
Speaker 1: collect games. This is from Chris Scullion at VGC. A
Speaker 1: new collector's label focused on physical editions of games is
Speaker 1: launched today. The label, which is simply called Additions, is
Speaker 1: the work of Lost in cult and promises to reinvent
Speaker 1: what it means to collect games. Lost in CLT does
Speaker 1: like merchandise. I think they've done a lot of vinyl
Speaker 1: records for video games, soundtracks and things like that. Now
Speaker 1: they're getting into this physical collector's edition space, and the
Speaker 1: packaging looks phenomenal. It looks really good, John, I got
Speaker 1: the picture here. It has you know, it's not exactly
Speaker 1: Criterion Collection, but it feels like a video game Criterion
Speaker 1: Collection a little bit, with these slip cases that have
Speaker 1: a big, beautiful picture on it, and then you kind
Speaker 1: of take out the insert and it's like a kind
Speaker 1: of this thick booklet that has a bold color on
Speaker 1: it with the name on the spine, and it's probably numbered,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It just looks fantastic. And that's for
Speaker 1: three games so far. And these things are going to
Speaker 1: be very limited, so people think these things look good,
Speaker 1: maybe you should move on them here very soon. Immortality
Speaker 1: for the PS five which is limited to fifteen hundred copies,
Speaker 1: the Excavation of Hobbs Barrow for Switch, which is limited
Speaker 1: to three thousand copies, And thank goodness you're here for
Speaker 1: PS five and Switch. PS five versions fifteen hundred copies.
Speaker 1: Switch version is three thousand copies. So yeah, again, I
Speaker 1: just think this looks fantastic. How how are you, like
Speaker 1: you said, you don't collect a lot of physical for
Speaker 1: PS five and Xbox? Do you collect for Switch? And
Speaker 1: are you someone who like goes the limited run games
Speaker 1: route or one of these small shops that put out
Speaker 1: these very stellar collections.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So when it comes to Switch, I just love a
Speaker 2: good cartridge. So a lot of my games on the
Speaker 2: original Switch have been physical for the most part. I
Speaker 2: really love collecting old games. I really love collecting like
Speaker 2: the Xbox PS two generation, Super Nintendo, all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 2: This does kind of appeal to me. It's kind of
Speaker 2: scary how much of it appeals to me, especially for
Speaker 2: something like Thank Goodness You're Here and Immortality, both fantastic games.
Speaker 2: I wish Immortality had a Switch kind of version. Maybe
Speaker 2: they're waiting for Switch to There's some tricks there that
Speaker 2: maybe the Switch can't handle. But I think this is
Speaker 2: a net good. I do like limited run games. I
Speaker 2: know in recent like past couple of weeks, there has
Speaker 2: been some kerfuffles. I know where there was one about
Speaker 2: the the latest Chante GBA release, and there's been some
Speaker 2: some goings on that I think there is. They're in
Speaker 2: a prime position addition to, you know, kind of make
Speaker 2: their mark, create this this soup uber like bougie collectors
Speaker 2: like that. Those pictures are gorgeous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really feels like, you know, I like the
Speaker 1: way video games look on a shelf, even though even
Speaker 1: if I'm not a collector myself, but I've heard the
Speaker 1: argument before and tend to agree with it that it's
Speaker 1: like video game shelves don't look as interesting or esthetically
Speaker 1: pleasing as like a bookshelf with a bunch of books
Speaker 1: that have all different shapes and colors and sizes, and
Speaker 1: and you could kind of organize it or whatever, kind
Speaker 1: of do a little visual flare to it to get
Speaker 1: the most out of that. And it's like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: get what you're saying there, and I do miss that
Speaker 1: if when I look at a video game shelf, this
Speaker 1: feels like it could introduce that idea, at least in
Speaker 1: terms of the variability of color and the materials and
Speaker 1: things like that. And then or if you turn it
Speaker 1: the other way where maybe the picture is facing out
Speaker 1: a little bit, it's like, well then it really is
Speaker 1: going to shine. It look very cool. So for me,
Speaker 1: video games are experiences. There are things that I play.
Speaker 1: That's why I collect digitally, you know, and not even
Speaker 1: collect I just I get the games digitally because they're
Speaker 1: just experiences to me for the most part, and then
Speaker 1: the physical object is something else, and I've sort of
Speaker 1: decided not to care about that when I see something
Speaker 1: like this, like, man, maybe I should that would be
Speaker 1: a fun thing to have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the switch to generation is going to be kind
Speaker 2: of a little upsetting with the game view card nonsense,
Speaker 2: certain games having physicals. So I'm glad there are still
Speaker 2: people who are as passionate and who like creating this
Speaker 2: moment in time, this history that you know, people can collect,
Speaker 2: cherish and pass on.
Speaker 3: I think that's a really cool call.
Speaker 1: Yep, me too, And I'm glad there's like more companies
Speaker 1: getting into the space. It's definitely more than just limited
Speaker 1: run games. Already. There's a you know, I think it's
Speaker 1: Serenity Forge out in Colorado. We've talked to them before.
Speaker 1: They have a similar business, and there's other shops as well.
Speaker 1: But it's like that lost in CLT has this cachet,
Speaker 1: I think, and they clearly know what they're doing. They
Speaker 1: again in the packaging looks nice at least in pictures.
Speaker 1: We'll see how it is when it gets delivered. But
Speaker 1: it's nice to have some competition because it feels like
Speaker 1: this is going to be what's necessary for those people
Speaker 1: who want physical to continue, You're gonna need a lot
Speaker 1: of these smaller shops, all working in conjunction, just sort
Speaker 1: of pick up like if limited or games let something
Speaker 1: slip through the cracks like on one of these other
Speaker 1: places can pick that up and still make a physical version,
Speaker 1: and the people who really care can show up and
Speaker 1: get those destraining two. Depth says PS four to PS
Speaker 1: five upgrade is not exciting, just more efficient. This from
Speaker 1: Haley Williams at GameSpot. Really the headline is that story
Speaker 1: just saying that, like he's the chief technical officer and
Speaker 1: it's Aki Osakamoto over at Kojamin Productions, and the developer said,
Speaker 1: the difference between the PS four and the PS five
Speaker 1: isn't so great, but at least makes development more efficient.
Speaker 1: Do you think this is like a common sentiment among developers,
Speaker 1: And that's one of the reasons why this generation feels
Speaker 1: in many ways like it hasn't even really started or
Speaker 1: has been a long continuation of the PS four generation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very interesting because I feel like, yeah, like
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen onward, I feel like we kind of hit
Speaker 2: a point where everything is kind of just already super gorgeous,
Speaker 2: Like if you looked at Uncharted four today, it's still
Speaker 2: a gorgeous looking game that people slaved away on. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I think to an extent it has been that weird
Speaker 2: situation of it, paralleling kind of how like PC gaming
Speaker 2: has gone. There are multiple different skws, like no one
Speaker 2: can kind of figure out the baseline model to build
Speaker 2: a game around. I think these conversations happen all the time,
Speaker 2: whether it is to put games on PS four, PS five,
Speaker 2: or both. I know Capcom has put a lot of
Speaker 2: their games just on PS four. I think that's for
Speaker 2: an engine reason, but because it is acessible to everyone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and second out of basically just he goes on
Speaker 1: to clarify a little bit, and he just says, the
Speaker 1: most obvious improvement from a technological point of view is
Speaker 1: the reduction in loading times. But to be honest, the
Speaker 1: difference between the two hardware systems isn't so great. It's
Speaker 1: more a case that on PS five there are more
Speaker 1: efficient ways of arriving to similar goals. So it's like,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the feeling I think we mostly
Speaker 1: have had that these games from PS four to PS
Speaker 1: five are very similar to some like at some point
Speaker 1: for some of these games so similar similar that they
Speaker 1: just put out a PS four version and that's the
Speaker 1: PS five version as well. They're just like, well, we'll
Speaker 1: just put out PS four version, you'll just buy it
Speaker 1: on PS five. But it feel does feel like for
Speaker 1: the majority of games released, they are not trying a
Speaker 1: bunch of new ideas and new things and new even
Speaker 1: new visual tricks. The most part, it is same games
Speaker 1: as we've been getting for the last like ten years
Speaker 1: or so.
Speaker 3: So yeah, all.
Speaker 1: Right, let's see your last story. Game Passes adding Metaphor, Refundasio,
Speaker 1: the Division two and more next week. This is from
Speaker 1: Andy Robinson at VGC. It's actually a pretty good club.
Speaker 1: I mean, game Pass is expensive, but they do they
Speaker 1: have been. It's better than it's ever been in terms
Speaker 1: of the offering. I don't know if it's better than
Speaker 1: it's ever been in terms of the deal and feeling
Speaker 1: like you're getting a lot for your money. But there's
Speaker 1: a lot of games on there getting added and have
Speaker 1: there have been since the beginning of this year. So
Speaker 1: Metaphor Refontasia will join game Pass Ultimate PC, game Pass
Speaker 1: and game Pass Standard for Cloud, PC and console. God,
Speaker 1: that's I'm not gonna say that every time. That's coming
Speaker 1: May twenty ninth, so next week, that's pretty good. Tails
Speaker 1: of Kenzera Zoo is joining tomorrow. Stalker two in Sinuous
Speaker 1: Saga helple A two will join game Pass Standard, which
Speaker 1: is like, remember they changed that, so not every game
Speaker 1: launches in there right away, they get added later. Tom
Speaker 1: Clancy's The Division two will come to game Pass Ultimate
Speaker 1: PC game Pass blah blah blah on May twenty seven,
Speaker 1: and Monster Trained two, which I think is a new
Speaker 1: release right, that's yeah, the next big Day one release. Yes,
Speaker 1: Monster Trained two will hit game Pass on on May
Speaker 1: twenty ninth, along with spray paint simulators, so not too bad.
Speaker 1: I did just get charged for game Pass Ultimate again
Speaker 1: and I'm like I should I should cancel that, and
Speaker 1: then I see things like this, My god, this is
Speaker 1: pretty decent, although probably won't play most of those games
Speaker 1: on my Xbox. John, where are you at with game
Speaker 1: Pass these days?
Speaker 2: So yeah, so I do have game Pass. I just
Speaker 2: built my first gaming PCA for a long time. This
Speaker 2: also the first generation. I actually just bought a Series
Speaker 2: X for the first time. I got it into the
Speaker 2: pandemic at a lot of people who were on game
Speaker 2: Pass who were playing, and I think there was some
Speaker 2: kind of like you kind of rent the Xbox for
Speaker 2: a while and then eventually you pay it off over time.
Speaker 2: Game Pass is a really good deal to say that,
Speaker 2: and continuing our conversation earlier, like games like Roadcraft are
Speaker 2: finding a new audience. I think Metaphor is going to
Speaker 2: be one that like finds a brand new audience, Like
Speaker 2: people who have heard really good things are looking forward
Speaker 2: to whatever Atlas is putting out next. I think it
Speaker 2: did a lot for Persona three and then yeah, like
Speaker 2: kind of unsung hits like I really loved Tales of
Speaker 2: Canzara is out. I think that is a really good
Speaker 2: game and people should like take a look at that.
Speaker 2: Not to mention like we were coming off of one
Speaker 2: of the most stacked aprils I can remember, especially for
Speaker 2: game Pass, and I mean to your credit, I also
Speaker 2: just got charged game Pass and it's going to go
Speaker 2: for another month and then we're gonna see what Xbox
Speaker 2: actually has in store at their showcase. So good point,
Speaker 2: they're hitting a really good cadence right now. I think
Speaker 2: it's a good deal, maybe not as good of the
Speaker 2: best deal in gaming that I think a lot of
Speaker 2: people were touting at the time. As we have, it's
Speaker 2: been getting a lot more complicated with all those tiers.
Speaker 2: I still forget the names. There's like core their stant
Speaker 2: I don't know, man.
Speaker 1: And if you don't want to get with the tiers,
Speaker 1: so you get the most most expensive one. It's twenty
Speaker 1: dollars a month, which that's a big round number. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's rough. I misspoke. Monster Trained two is out today.
Speaker 1: People in chatter like playing it right now, so yeah,
Speaker 1: I was looking at the May twenty nine date was
Speaker 1: for spray paint simulator. Monster Trained two out now I've
Speaker 1: not played Monster Train or what's the other one that
Speaker 1: everyone likes, Slay the Spire. I think that's a similar game.
Speaker 1: I'm not putting any of these. I'm wondering if I
Speaker 1: should just jump in with Monster Train two or go
Speaker 1: back to Slay the Spire. Feel free to let me
Speaker 1: know in chat. All right, that does it for the headlines.
Speaker 1: We have a poll question we need to get to.
Speaker 1: Let me pull that up right now as Jan gets
Speaker 1: it up for you all as well. You can go
Speaker 1: to YouTube dot com slash at giant Bomb, hit the
Speaker 1: community tab there find the poll questions. To vote yourself.
Speaker 1: Let's see here from earlier this week on Monday, do
Speaker 1: you think a game can be worth eighty dollars? Yes
Speaker 1: or no. We're gonna have a similar question today about borderlines. Specifically,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I have to vote to see the results here,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, well, I didn't know. I haven't I
Speaker 1: haven't spent eighty dollars on a game yet I did
Speaker 1: the thing you did. I got Mario Kart World for
Speaker 1: fifty dollars. So I'm gonna say no until I am
Speaker 1: forced to say yes. And I'm in the minority here,
Speaker 1: thirty percent say no, seventy percent say yes. They think
Speaker 1: a game can be worth eighty dollars. Okay, yeah, hey,
Speaker 1: that's why it's eighty dollars everybody, If you seventy percent
Speaker 1: can be worth that, I think the problem it's just people.
Speaker 1: I think it would just be a truthful right, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can imagine a game being worth eighty dollars now.
Speaker 1: To be fair, I think in the past, John I
Speaker 1: did say that if Tears of the Kingdom was coming
Speaker 1: out and they wanted to charge me one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty dollars, I would have easily just done that without thinking,
Speaker 1: so clearly I also agree. But there we go. We
Speaker 1: got a new poll question here in a second. I
Speaker 1: will get to that in a moment. Before we do that, though,
Speaker 1: John Martin wyt'ing to tell people where they can find
Speaker 1: you on the internet, what you have going on and
Speaker 1: all of that good stuff.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Yes, so you can find me at John Martin at
Speaker 2: policeguy dot com or whatever the excess thing I have.
Speaker 2: I'm about to be traveling. I'm also moving right now,
Speaker 2: so it's been kind of crazy. I do stream on Twitch.
Speaker 2: I do rate video essays. I'm looking forward to putting
Speaker 2: that out. I'm definitely going to be streaming the week
Speaker 2: of the switch to so you can check me out
Speaker 2: at high Score on YouTube, and you can also find
Speaker 2: me as high Scorer or jay man Xerius sixty.
Speaker 3: Five in the Giant Bomb chat.
Speaker 2: I'd love to talk to people, and I am excited
Speaker 2: for Rascal later today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Rascal coming up. Let's do this poll question and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about what else we have happening. So new
Speaker 1: pole question, will you get Borderlands four at launch? If
Speaker 1: it's eighty dollars? So many of you say a game
Speaker 1: can be worth eighty dollars. Is Borderlands four going to
Speaker 1: be worth eighty dollars? Do you? We don't know if
Speaker 1: that's the price. That's why I said if, but yes
Speaker 1: or no, your options. We'll get the results and talk
Speaker 1: about that on Game mess Mornings here on Giant Bomb tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Giant Bomb, as John said, Rascal Blight Club returns,
Speaker 1: Mike is gonna keep looking so cool everybody, You're just
Speaker 1: not gonna want to miss it. He also, this game's
Speaker 1: getting to him. This game is like, this game's really
Speaker 1: he was telling me last night. He's like, man, it's
Speaker 1: like a burden hanging over me that I got to
Speaker 1: go back and play that game. So I still think
Speaker 1: he's going to probably like finish that game and just
Speaker 1: a couple more episodes because he's still good at these games,
Speaker 1: even though hating it, but at least at the very
Speaker 1: least he's going to be miserable. So and then and
Speaker 1: then after that it's Dan's turn. So I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: on cloud nine over here. This is the best. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's see what else do we have happening A quick
Speaker 1: or no, there should be a premiere happening on YouTube
Speaker 1: for the latest demo Derby. We recorded that yesterday o
Speaker 1: PM issue number fifty five. Look out for that. There's
Speaker 1: some really good bangers on that disc, so check that out.
Speaker 1: We had a really good time recording that and then
Speaker 1: voicemail Dump Truck. Tomorrow we'll have some more quick looks happening.
Speaker 1: We'll have upf on Friday. We're gonna be Mosquitos apparently.
Speaker 1: It's a Mosquito meets Evolve or mister Mosquito meets Evolve
Speaker 1: apparently is how this game works. So looking forward to
Speaker 1: playing that. Plenty more happening on Giant Bomb. If you
Speaker 1: want to support us, go to giant bomb dot com
Speaker 1: slash join. In the meantime, we'll be back with game
Speaker 1: this morning's tomorrow. John Martin, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: hanging out with me today and talking about video games. Man.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for happening. Man, this is the
Speaker 2: greatest Giant Bomb is the greatest community on Earth, and
Speaker 2: Rice happened to be a part of it.
Speaker 1: Thanks. I was real glad we could meet each other
Speaker 1: at PAX. I'm glad we could make this happen. We'll
Speaker 1: make it happen again in the meantime, thank you everybody
Speaker 1: for watching and listening. As John said, you're the best
Speaker 1: audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one,
Speaker 1: take care of yourself and goodbye.