Speaker 1: Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 launches on August 25th on PS5, Xbox, Steam,
Speaker 1: and the Epic Games Store. On LV-558, your squads have
Speaker 1: grown to up to four players, so enemies and encounters
Speaker 1: have grown in scale. But don't worry, you and your
Speaker 1: squad can use the elements to stop xenomorphs and synths.
Speaker 1: burn or freeze xenomorphs in their tracks electricity may not
Speaker 1: help but electricity can help with other baddies instead and
Speaker 1: it is even easier to get a team going because
Speaker 1: the game is cross-platform at launch not only can you
Speaker 1: expect an overhauled experience from the original game but you
Speaker 1: and your team can engage with a story with heavy
Speaker 1: stakes but that's not it y'all because you and your
Speaker 1: squad can partake in a new horde mode to take
Speaker 1: on waves and waves of xenomorphs since and who knows
Speaker 1: what else.
Speaker 2: See you on LV 558. Hey, everybody.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Game Mess Mornings with me, Jeff Grubb, your
Speaker 3: host from GiantBomb.com. Thank you for tuning in. In this episode,
Speaker 3: we're going to be talking about physical and digital and
Speaker 3: digital and physical and the biggest game reveal of all time.
Speaker 3: It's going to be a good one because we have
Speaker 3: John Martin on the show. John, how are you doing?
Speaker 4: Doing great, Jeff. I'm very excited to be on the show.
Speaker 4: It's been a crazy time for video games. I feel
Speaker 4: like I'm like 30 steps behind with Gamescom just kind
Speaker 4: of exploding in front of my face. But yeah, no,
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously, you guys covering it makes it a
Speaker 4: lot more digestible. But yeah, how are you doing?
Speaker 2: Doing pretty good. Yeah, it's been one of those busy weeks.
Speaker 3: We recorded a film in 40s last night that we'll
Speaker 3: have up eventually for everybody.
Speaker 2: Hang in there if you're a premium member. We did
Speaker 2: watch Paul Blart.
Speaker 3: Mall cop um so finally i i'm no longer a
Speaker 3: philistine i can appreciate the finer things in life and
Speaker 3: uh now i can compare all of those finer things
Speaker 3: to the finest thing which is kevin james doing his
Speaker 3: thing uh that was fun we had abby sit in
Speaker 3: on that uh but it was like another one of
Speaker 3: these things where it's like all right worked all day
Speaker 3: and now we got a thing in the evening so
Speaker 3: definitely been on my toes all all week but you're
Speaker 3: right it's uh been nice to kind of digest games
Speaker 3: come from over here and also rely on like getting
Speaker 3: like little tidbits and updates from, uh, Dan and will
Speaker 3: who are trying things through plant.
Speaker 2: They've been made a lot of appointments just to play
Speaker 2: some games, get some opinions.
Speaker 3: Uh, reporting very good things about a lot of the
Speaker 3: games they're playing.
Speaker 2: And it's like, Oh yeah, hell yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm playing a lot of games that are about to
Speaker 3: come out and it doesn't sound like things are going
Speaker 3: to slow down. Uh, games just keep getting better despite
Speaker 3: the conversation around games often not being so, uh, But yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm doing pretty good. I'm hanging in there. You playing
Speaker 3: anything right now? Is there anything that's taken up a
Speaker 3: lot of your time?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I made the dumb decision to get into
Speaker 4: Final Fantasy XIV for the first time. That was dumb.
Speaker 4: I don't know why I did that. I have no
Speaker 4: free time anymore. It's all XIV. It's all that grind.
Speaker 4: But no, besides that, just playing a couple of multiplayer games.
Speaker 4: There's a new update to the Ninja Turtles Hades game
Speaker 4: that I play with my friends sometimes.
Speaker 2: So that's been pretty fun.
Speaker 3: Oh, cool.
Speaker 4: Um, and then, yeah, just doing, um, I, I've been
Speaker 4: trying to clear through some like co-op games. So I've
Speaker 4: been playing Pikmin three with my girlfriend. We're kind of
Speaker 4: gearing up for orbitals. So I'm getting, I'm getting excited
Speaker 4: about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It's another one where it's like, I am also, yeah.
Speaker 3: Getting excited about playing orbitals one way or the other.
Speaker 3: That may be when I'm like, come on kiddos play
Speaker 3: that with me so I can actually have someone that will, uh,
Speaker 3: see the, see through the whole thing with me.
Speaker 2: Um, I gotta get the hose out though.
Speaker 3: You said you're getting into final fantasy 14 and the
Speaker 3: chat starts chanting one of us.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to spray them back. Cool off. You
Speaker 2: goddamn heathens. All right.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Settle down.
Speaker 4: This is part of the problem. Once you're a part
Speaker 4: of that, it's just like, they keep grabbing you. Like,
Speaker 4: like if I fell out of like a river and
Speaker 4: then like hands are pulling me under it's, uh, It's intoxicating,
Speaker 4: and I'm just in the boring stuff, apparently.
Speaker 3: Right, the crabs in the pot are just like, they're
Speaker 3: not going to let you go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. All right, well, let's explain ourselves. We're Giant Bomb.
Speaker 3: You can go to giantbomb.com slash join and become a
Speaker 3: premium member and support independent games media. Ensure that we
Speaker 3: can keep doing things our way. We are thankful to
Speaker 3: everyone who has. We often see, like, the names of
Speaker 3: people joining up the roster online. of new members and
Speaker 3: it means the world to us. We see that it's like,
Speaker 3: hell yeah, people want to have more of this and
Speaker 3: we are deeply appreciative. If you want to be a
Speaker 3: part of that giant bomb.com slash join, you're going to
Speaker 3: get ad free versions of the shows. You're going to
Speaker 3: get premium exclusives. We have a premium exclusive stream happening
Speaker 3: tomorrow at 6 PM. Eastern that that's the giant bomb
Speaker 3: video weekend rental club.
Speaker 2: Everybody.
Speaker 3: I am going to a weekend or going to a
Speaker 3: rental video store. that exists out of space time and
Speaker 3: we will be getting games that came out for the
Speaker 3: n64 uh not in this universe but in in other
Speaker 3: universes and we'll be hanging out just kind of getting
Speaker 3: pizza and drinking jolt cola for real jolt cola is
Speaker 3: really on i think uh the other other people on
Speaker 3: the stream i sent them jolt cola they all now
Speaker 3: have that in their possession as well as some other
Speaker 3: goodies and it's just going to be a cool hangout
Speaker 3: way to end the week we were going to do
Speaker 3: a premium only stream for the Grand Theft Auto reaction
Speaker 3: today because we weren't exactly sure what the state of
Speaker 3: that was going to be. I'm like, I'll react to
Speaker 3: some clips here or there. We'll try to tiptoe around.
Speaker 3: Got the green light. From Rockstar themselves.
Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
Speaker 3: You're allowed to talk over this. You can't just replay
Speaker 3: the thing uninterrupted. So today, we'll find some way, as
Speaker 3: the thing is starting 3 p.m. on Netflix, we can
Speaker 3: do the Netflix version.
Speaker 2: It's crazy. I will just kind of sit down.
Speaker 3: We'll turn that thing on, and we'll pause and rewind
Speaker 3: and go back and look at different things and answer
Speaker 3: questions or ask you guys what you guys want to see,
Speaker 3: and we'll do it that way.
Speaker 2: So hang out at 3 p.m. today.
Speaker 3: We'll get that going one way or the other. There's
Speaker 3: a whole bunch of other stuff happening, though. But all
Speaker 3: that's possible because people go to joinbomb.com slash join. As
Speaker 3: far as this show, most weekdays, I, Jeff Grubb, will
Speaker 3: help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking
Speaker 3: news and maybe even some of our own original reporting.
Speaker 3: For all these topics, I'll get the input of a
Speaker 3: bona fide expert. who will make me look smart. If
Speaker 3: you are watching live on Twitch, welcome. You can always
Speaker 3: listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching
Speaker 3: for Game Mess Mornings or find the RSS feed on giantbomb.com.
Speaker 3: You can also catch the show later with chapters and
Speaker 3: timestamps on YouTube. Before we do that, thanks to Video
Speaker 3: Game Town. Go to videogame.town.
Speaker 2: They're supporting all of our live streams this week. A
Speaker 2: big shout out to them.
Speaker 3: That's a new independent video game website that's paying cool
Speaker 3: people to write cool things about video games, including a
Speaker 3: lot of our friends. So, Indie sites helping out indie sites.
Speaker 3: We are always going to be down for that. So
Speaker 3: go to videogame.town right now, everybody.
Speaker 2: Check them out. All right.
Speaker 3: So we have a lot to get into. Let's start
Speaker 3: the morning mess with GTA 6 Netflix trailers. Beefy runtime
Speaker 3: revealed and footage is captured on a PS5. This is
Speaker 3: from Eddie McCoo at GameSpot. At long last, Rockstar will
Speaker 3: lift the veil on GTA 6 today, August 27th, via
Speaker 3: an extended look on Netflix.
Speaker 2: But how long will the broadcast be? Now we know
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 3: According to an updated listing for the showcase on the
Speaker 3: Netflix app, the extended look event will run for 26 minutes.
Speaker 3: There was, like, earlier rumors it would be 70 minutes.
Speaker 3: Not that long, but still, 26 minutes is especially beefy.
Speaker 3: I didn't say hello, YouTube. Oh, no, people are going to, hello, YouTube.
Speaker 3: We'll cut that back in. We'll fix that in post.
Speaker 3: According to an updated listing, yeah, the 26 minutes, this
Speaker 3: suggests it's more than a trailer, but instead a proper
Speaker 3: deep dive into the world of GTA 6. That's exciting
Speaker 3: news for fans, as Rockstar has only ever delivered two
Speaker 3: trailers for the game since 2023, and only sparing other
Speaker 3: details along the way. Additionally, Netflix's blog post announced that
Speaker 3: the extended look was updated with confirmation that the content
Speaker 3: in the broadcast was captured entirely from in-game footage on
Speaker 3: PlayStation 5.
Speaker 2: That's no surprise either as the May.
Speaker 3: 2025 GTA 6 trailer was also captured on a PS5
Speaker 3: and not specifically a PS5 Pro. So yeah, we'll be
Speaker 3: able to get a pretty good idea of what this
Speaker 3: thing is really going to run like for most people.
Speaker 3: 26 minutes, it does sound like one of those standard
Speaker 3: rock star. Here is us explaining everything that's in here.
Speaker 3: I would imagine maybe there's some extra production values on top,
Speaker 3: maybe due to Netflix's involvement, but maybe not. This could
Speaker 3: just be one of those extended trailers with a little
Speaker 3: bit of a longer runtime. But yeah, we should get
Speaker 3: a lot of details. And there are some details that
Speaker 3: did come out today, and we'll get to those here
Speaker 3: in a second. But what do you think of all
Speaker 3: this so far?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think this is probably, as someone
Speaker 4: who is kind of tired of talking about gta6 i'm
Speaker 4: excited for it to come out and i think this
Speaker 4: is honestly the best way for me personally how i
Speaker 4: would want to see this like 26 minutes is like
Speaker 4: an extended length trailer or like gameplay exposition of most
Speaker 4: games that i like i feel like you get in
Speaker 4: you get out relatively quickly for the scope and size
Speaker 4: of this game um i think that's really smart you
Speaker 4: don't want to give people too much information because even
Speaker 4: that is already going to be analyzed all hell um Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think this is really smart. I'm very curious to
Speaker 4: see how it's going to perform on the PS5. That's
Speaker 4: probably the most interesting thing to me, because then just
Speaker 4: being able to visualize how to spec this up is
Speaker 4: pretty cool. The only thing I'm curious about is, and granted,
Speaker 4: this is a marketing deal with Sony. That's the reason
Speaker 4: that they're doing it on there. I really do wonder
Speaker 4: how the Series S version is going to do for this.
Speaker 4: I agree. It even fits on the hard drive. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I think this is probably the safest and probably best
Speaker 4: way that I can do it, especially after everything that's
Speaker 4: been going on, everything that's been revealed and stuff. But
Speaker 4: I feel like it's going to be pretty heavily curated
Speaker 4: at this point to try to.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They got to show off the big, you know,
Speaker 2: the big marketing business.
Speaker 3: The big things that they think matter to people um
Speaker 3: yeah i i will you're right i'm most curious about
Speaker 3: xbox series s because that will sort of say uh
Speaker 3: i will use that as a barometer of whether or
Speaker 3: not this game could ever happen or run on a
Speaker 3: switch to yeah which probably not it's probably never going
Speaker 3: to come to switch to but it could if it
Speaker 3: runs in decent way on Xbox series S. And then
Speaker 3: on top of that, Rockstar feels like, eh, that's a
Speaker 3: place where we can make some extra money or, or,
Speaker 3: you know, at the very least, I think, um, it,
Speaker 3: once they get to the point where they're doing GTA online,
Speaker 3: GTA online too, or again, whatever that ends up looking like, um.
Speaker 2: They were like, hey, you know what?
Speaker 3: Actually, people on Switch 2 might spend more money than
Speaker 3: the people on PC, because PC people just like to
Speaker 3: go in there and do their role-playing servers and find
Speaker 3: other ways. Now, of course, they own all that stuff now,
Speaker 3: but I still think PC people will try to create
Speaker 3: their own environment outside of that, where they're not directly
Speaker 3: giving Rockstar money. That won't be true for Switch 2,
Speaker 3: so maybe it'll get supported, but we're a long ways
Speaker 3: off from any of that. Right now, it's hey, biggest
Speaker 3: game reveal of all time, I guess, and I said
Speaker 3: it on Blue Sky right beforehand because it is how
Speaker 3: I'm feeling where this is a game where you can
Speaker 3: have an opinion on it and it just has no
Speaker 3: bearing on anything whatsoever because this game is just going
Speaker 3: to do what it's.
Speaker 2: Going to do.
Speaker 3: It sort of exists unaffected by what anyone might say
Speaker 3: about it. The normal person will just go out and
Speaker 3: get this thing no matter what. And it does at
Speaker 3: a certain point feel almost Sisyphean where we're just, I
Speaker 3: talk about this thing every day on the show. And
Speaker 3: then the ball rolls back down the hill and I
Speaker 3: got to talk about it again the next day. It's newsworthy.
Speaker 3: I'm going to keep bringing it up, but it does.
Speaker 3: It's getting exhausting. I don't necessarily think, oh, now that
Speaker 3: we'll get past this, we'll be able to talk about
Speaker 3: it less. That's probably not going to happen, but maybe
Speaker 3: I can move it lower in the order in the future.
Speaker 3: There are some details about the game that did come
Speaker 3: out today or yesterday, I should say. GTA 6 gets
Speaker 3: a ton of new official details before today's big gameplay reveal.
Speaker 2: This is from Dave Aubrey at VGC.
Speaker 3: Let's see here in a new interview with dazed head
Speaker 3: of development and rock star North coast studio head, Rob
Speaker 3: Nelson revealed dozens of facts about the game, big and small.
Speaker 3: The new details were highlighted by Shinobi on Twitter. Shouts
Speaker 3: out to Shinobi. Player actions now have consequences in the world.
Speaker 3: So walking down the street with a rifle, you can't
Speaker 3: just do that, which, yeah, that sounds very Red Dead Redemption.
Speaker 3: Jason is ex-military and a drug runner. Lucia is a
Speaker 3: fighter fresh out of prison. You can also play as
Speaker 3: a couple or cause chaos independently. So I guess, I mean,
Speaker 3: we've seen a lot of those clips from the leaked
Speaker 3: build where the characters are kind of going off on
Speaker 3: their own. And I imagine that means it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: and then you could swap to the other character. and
Speaker 3: they're doing their own thing, but it's like play as
Speaker 3: a couple. Can you just like have them walking side
Speaker 3: by side and then swap between them in the same scene?
Speaker 2: I guess that's what this is suggesting.
Speaker 3: Although, you know, it could be the sort of thing
Speaker 3: where maybe it's not as robust as that, but I'm
Speaker 3: expecting things to be pretty robust in this game. They
Speaker 3: are kind of positioning it to be like the most
Speaker 3: well fleshed out game of all time for those kinds
Speaker 3: of features. On the way to a job, you switch
Speaker 3: between driving or the other character in the passenger seat,
Speaker 3: scroll on your phone, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Let's see.
Speaker 3: Seamlessly swap between each during a mission. Story is very
Speaker 3: Bonnie and Clyde. Choices can have repercussions and cut much
Speaker 3: deeper than Rockstar's previous titles or honor systems. Rockstar wants
Speaker 3: to enable as much self-expression as possible without losing the
Speaker 3: essence of the characters. Exercising returns, working out visibly builds
Speaker 3: and tones your muscles. Eating fast food will affect your weight.
Speaker 3: So very San Andreas style. spending a long time without sleep,
Speaker 3: running from police or a multi-day bender will have an
Speaker 3: effect on Jason and Lucia. They make it like bags
Speaker 3: under their eyes or other characteristics might creep out filled
Speaker 3: with things to discover. Rockstar spent years on the ground
Speaker 3: in Miami and surrounding areas for research. I'm sure they did.
Speaker 3: Rockstar met with ex-criminals, law enforcement, club promoters, gun dealers.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is the.
Speaker 3: Standard kind of like promotional shit you hear, where like
Speaker 3: we got embedded with the real people to find out
Speaker 3: what it's really like. And I'm always skeptical of that
Speaker 3: having any real effect on the game.
Speaker 2: But a couple more bullet points here.
Speaker 3: They have exceptional NPC variety, or so they claim to,
Speaker 3: from young to old, tall, short, tattooed, pierced, plastic surgery,
Speaker 3: more varied body types and clothes, etc., Although that is,
Speaker 3: those are just different like visual, like, you know, distinguishing characteristics.
Speaker 3: Are they going to behave differently? That is also something
Speaker 3: they're trying to claim will happen, but I want to
Speaker 3: see more of that. Rockstar developed new tools and pipelines
Speaker 3: that enabled them to build the most detailed and varied
Speaker 3: character population we've ever created. Rockstar has more than doubled
Speaker 3: in size since Red Dead Redemption 2. Over 50 real
Speaker 3: street artists were brought in to design murals.
Speaker 2: In the game.
Speaker 3: And the team that deals with vehicle handling is made
Speaker 3: up of literal race car drivers. I will believe that
Speaker 3: will be improved when I see it. All right, John,
Speaker 3: those are the big bullet points.
Speaker 2: What do you think? To me, this is pretty standard
Speaker 2: video game promotional stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, obviously you want to be able to
Speaker 4: just point out the minor minutiae before people either notice
Speaker 4: it or don't notice it. So it's something you can
Speaker 4: call into question. You're like, oh my God, this game's,
Speaker 4: we're literally thinking about everything. I mean, it makes sense.
Speaker 4: It's really cool. I wonder if we are going to
Speaker 4: have And granted, this is kind of a crazy comparison
Speaker 4: because the time difference between San Andreas and Vice City
Speaker 4: was like a year or two versus like GTA 5
Speaker 4: to 6. I honestly wonder if people are going to
Speaker 4: complain about all these realistic or the elements of realism
Speaker 4: impacting their game in a way that like GTA 5
Speaker 4: kind of felt a little bit more arcadey. I know
Speaker 4: growing up, there was a lot of people who are
Speaker 4: either camp Vice City camp. san andreas um i don't
Speaker 4: know if this is going to be controversial or not
Speaker 4: i think every element is here to have people talking
Speaker 4: about the game because that's the way to get people
Speaker 4: to buy the game but um yeah i mean it
Speaker 4: looks cool it's going to be so in-depth it's going
Speaker 4: to be awe-inspiring going to be the template games are
Speaker 4: um you know compared to for years down the line
Speaker 4: um I don't know. Do you think, and obviously neither
Speaker 4: of us are like huge GTA heads, but like, do
Speaker 4: you think you will notice all this stuff? Do you
Speaker 4: think it is going to impact your enjoyment of the
Speaker 4: game or do you think you're going to want more
Speaker 4: of an arcadey sort of experience?
Speaker 3: So here, my prediction is, and this has been borne
Speaker 3: out through several rockstar games now. is that I will
Speaker 3: go in excited about these simulation aspects. These are the
Speaker 3: kinds of things that I find very cool. This morning
Speaker 3: I was watching some video about how quarks work, and
Speaker 3: I was in my head thinking about what would a
Speaker 3: game be like if it actually had quarks coming together
Speaker 3: to create neutrons and protons and electrons, and then you
Speaker 3: could use those to build atoms and stuff like that
Speaker 3: and just keep going up the stack until you have creatures.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I want it, and I want it to
Speaker 3: be physically real. It was just a dumb thing as
Speaker 3: I'm working out. And that's the shit that excites me.
Speaker 3: The thing with Rockstar is, and this is my prediction
Speaker 3: for this game as well, that it will present itself
Speaker 3: as very simulated and it will be very surface level.
Speaker 2: That's almost always how it goes.
Speaker 3: Where they, on the screen, you can look at a
Speaker 3: bunch of stuff and like, it's simulating this, it's simulating that.
Speaker 3: And then I say, okay, now what happens when I
Speaker 3: interact with this thing? Does it have a cascaded effect?
Speaker 3: Does it affect the world in a way That feels
Speaker 3: like my consequences really do have– or my actions have consequences.
Speaker 2: And they're saying that, but they always say that.
Speaker 3: And my guess is it's half-assed because I think you're right.
Speaker 3: They want to serve both masters. And it's worked out
Speaker 3: well for them, so I don't expect them to change it.
Speaker 3: Where it's like, hey, yeah, all the simulated visual elements
Speaker 3: or things that kind of, yeah, eat too much food,
Speaker 3: your character gets fat, sure. But does that, like, change
Speaker 3: that much else about people's reactions? And then does that
Speaker 3: reaction really matter? Or is it just they have a
Speaker 3: different line that they used when they saw you as
Speaker 3: opposed to if you were ripped and buffed?
Speaker 2: Yeah. And that's, you know, that's probably what this game
Speaker 2: is going to be. It's going to be very surface level.
Speaker 3: So I expect I will be disappointed and I will
Speaker 3: be very happy if I'm wrong because that is the
Speaker 3: game I. I'm curious about the one that can feel
Speaker 3: like it's really alive, but we'll see.
Speaker 2: And then, but that's me.
Speaker 3: If I think about the wider audience, yeah, they're going
Speaker 3: to want something a little bit more arcadey, just fun,
Speaker 3: you know, dumb fun, which I also really like. But
Speaker 3: it will deliver that, you know, the six-star wanted level
Speaker 3: that was in one of those leaked videos. A lot
Speaker 3: of people have fun just messing around with that, and
Speaker 3: I bet that stuff will still work very well.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, no, no, no. That was literally it.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, once again, you know, we have a voicemail
Speaker 3: dump truck today, everybody. But as like that's winding down,
Speaker 3: I will have a talk over ready to go.
Speaker 2: I'll be in there.
Speaker 3: And then when these guys, you know, can hop in
Speaker 3: if they want to. They'll hop in and we'll kind
Speaker 3: of watch it. And like I said, the one thing
Speaker 3: is we just can't replay the video in its entirety uninterrupted.
Speaker 3: So what we'll do is I'll put the video on.
Speaker 3: We will watch it and then we'll kind of go
Speaker 3: back and talk about things. And if you guys have
Speaker 3: questions or you want to check out one spot or
Speaker 3: you think, hey, I saw something cool. Let's go look
Speaker 3: at this in like slow mo or something. We'll just
Speaker 3: scrub through the video and see what's in there. You know, again,
Speaker 3: I'm curious about this game. I am excited in wanting
Speaker 3: to play it like I am any normal video game. But,
Speaker 3: you know, it does feel like a monumental thing. So
Speaker 3: we'll kind of we'll treat it that way a little bit.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: Let's keep going here. Fiscal games on Switch to somehow
Speaker 3: keep getting worse. Amazon listings now explicitly identify the Switch
Speaker 3: to retail version as download code only.
Speaker 2: So this isn't even a Switch to game. key card.
Speaker 3: You're essentially just buying the box and getting the code.
Speaker 3: It's not, that's not unheard of, but it's still very frustrating,
Speaker 3: especially when, you know, on Xbox, they're just announcing that
Speaker 3: thing we talked about yesterday where your, your disc versions
Speaker 3: of games can be turned into digital versions and you're
Speaker 3: getting more stuff over there. And it's like, everyone's like, Hey,
Speaker 3: this is really cool.
Speaker 2: Actually.
Speaker 3: And a sort of generous technological creation that feels like, hey,
Speaker 3: I'm getting more out of this thing. Oh yeah, sure,
Speaker 3: we're going all digital, but at least I don't feel
Speaker 3: like I wasted all my time getting those discs. And meanwhile,
Speaker 3: the same company is putting out something that has no
Speaker 3: physical version on the Switch 2. But again, that's just
Speaker 3: not unheard of for Call of Duty specifically. But then meanwhile,
Speaker 3: Danganronpa 2x2 just changed formats, Spike Chunsoft, previously said that
Speaker 3: they would put the full game on the card. That's
Speaker 3: no longer the case. They reversing that decision in every region, uh,
Speaker 3: in the, every region will now get a game key
Speaker 3: card for the switch to, uh, meanwhile, the switch one
Speaker 3: version and PS five versions will still be getting the
Speaker 3: full game on the card slash disc. So that's strange, but, uh,
Speaker 3: I wonder what is the difference going to be between
Speaker 3: the Switch 1 version and the Switch 2 version? Should
Speaker 3: you just buy the Switch 1 version and basically you're
Speaker 3: getting the same game? I guess I don't really know.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it continues to be a case where we
Speaker 3: know where things are moving. And even when companies see
Speaker 3: physical games that have the full game on the card,
Speaker 3: on Switch 2, absolutely sell better. There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 3: The cost involved still sometimes convinced them to say, screw it.
Speaker 3: We're not going to try to do that. We're going
Speaker 3: to save the money and just do a game key card.
Speaker 3: And it's like, you know, I get excited sometimes where
Speaker 3: I'm like, Hey, I think maybe these companies can be
Speaker 3: convinced to do the right thing and put the game
Speaker 3: on the card. Uh, it doesn't feel like that is
Speaker 3: a wholesale change across the industry. We're still going to
Speaker 3: get a lot of, uh, most of the time they're
Speaker 3: just going to go with game key cards, right?
Speaker 4: Yeah. And I think that's kind of makes sense for
Speaker 4: the case. Um, switch to games, I think cost more
Speaker 4: to develop than a switch one version is, which is
Speaker 4: why we're seeing that disparity there. Um, And yeah, like
Speaker 4: I personally, as someone who really likes the convenience of digital,
Speaker 4: but also really likes the long-term impact of having a cartridge,
Speaker 4: having that data on there, it's kind of a lose-lose situation.
Speaker 4: Like as an example, like last year, my friend got me,
Speaker 4: he really loves the Trails series, and he got me
Speaker 4: the Switch 1 version of Trails in the Sky First Chapter.
Speaker 4: Because that was on cart and then you could buy
Speaker 4: an upgrade key. I think even like Final Fantasy Tactics
Speaker 4: was the exact same thing. But you have to like
Speaker 4: buy the upgrade to get there. So it's like adding
Speaker 4: a level of tedium that for me is like what's
Speaker 4: kind of the point at that point? Like I don't
Speaker 4: even know how many layers of things are going to
Speaker 4: be unavailable should servers go online. And yeah, like don't
Speaker 4: get me wrong, like switch boxes have had codes for
Speaker 4: the longest time. I've bought in a couple just because
Speaker 4: it's stupid. Like I just like the box art for
Speaker 4: the nickel loading cart racing game. Cause those games are
Speaker 4: dumb and I like playing dumb games a lot, but like, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know.
Speaker 4: Nintendo very much feels like half in half out. One
Speaker 4: of the bigger things is that like, if you look
Speaker 4: at the e-shop and you have a physical game, it's
Speaker 4: not going to show you've purchased that game. Cause to them,
Speaker 4: you really haven't purchased that game. It's like you were,
Speaker 4: you have the right to play that game with your
Speaker 4: physical copy rather than you own this copy. So that's,
Speaker 4: I don't think that's going to change. I think it
Speaker 4: might just get worse over time, even though Nintendo is
Speaker 4: in this good situation where a lot of people do
Speaker 4: see like, Hey, all these games are releasing physically. They
Speaker 4: are getting, um, oblivion remastered and it's selling out. They
Speaker 4: are getting all these like physical games that are selling
Speaker 4: out because they want that like stability and structure. And
Speaker 4: it's like this thing that has existed for as long
Speaker 4: as Nintendo has been, you know, making cartridges, um, or
Speaker 4: even discs.
Speaker 2: It's, um, It's very weird.
Speaker 4: It's very weird to see Xbox doing something a little
Speaker 4: bit better than, uh, Nintendo right now, but it's not
Speaker 4: out of the realm of, you know, possibility.
Speaker 2: Or the norm.
Speaker 3: Can I, can I ask you, uh, I keep feeling like, man,
Speaker 3: they're doing all this effort to do this to digital, uh,
Speaker 3: which I think is called like proton or positron.
Speaker 2: It's called positron.
Speaker 3: That's, that's the, uh, the, the initiative that enables you
Speaker 3: on Xbox to put a disc in your Xbox series X,
Speaker 3: and then get the digital entitlement. Again, we talked about
Speaker 3: that yesterday, uh, To me, it's like, OK, at least
Speaker 3: for a little bit, I would expect them to offer,
Speaker 3: you know, for the next couple of years, offer a
Speaker 3: way to put a disk into any console, including the Helix,
Speaker 3: which I don't think the Helix will have a disk
Speaker 3: drive built in. But I still think they will probably
Speaker 3: just say, look, yeah, we will at least make it
Speaker 3: so you can we'll have a USB drive that you
Speaker 3: could buy separately and maybe it won't be abundant. We
Speaker 3: won't we won't have a lot of them, but you
Speaker 3: could plug one in. And for at least a couple
Speaker 3: of years, we're going to enable you to take those
Speaker 3: discs and make.
Speaker 2: Sure that they work.
Speaker 3: So there will there will be some disc support on
Speaker 3: Xbox for some time.
Speaker 2: That's the way I see it in my head.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of other people are seeing this
Speaker 3: to be like, oh, this is so they can just
Speaker 3: completely cut off discs for Helix. And I guess I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I guess that's also possible. I guess this is a
Speaker 3: situation where I'm being a bit more optimistic. Where do
Speaker 3: you fall on that? Do you think maybe I should
Speaker 3: be a little bit more pessimistic?
Speaker 4: In the case of Xbox, it's interesting, right? Because it's
Speaker 4: all just pushing the Windows like Microsoft ecosystem. So it's
Speaker 4: like at launch, I think just as a reaction to
Speaker 4: the backlash Sony has gotten, I think Ashesharma would be like, hey,
Speaker 4: let's have some option for people to keep playing their
Speaker 4: Xbox games going forward. They already sort of are building
Speaker 4: that into their backwards compatibility because now that is a
Speaker 4: thing on PC. Granted, it hasn't been happening as fast
Speaker 4: as just like digitizing your game, which has kind of
Speaker 4: just been a pipe dream. But Yeah, I think at
Speaker 4: least for launch, it's going to be a situation that's like,
Speaker 4: we will see some method of getting your games playable
Speaker 4: on there. But it's definitely not the long term goal.
Speaker 4: The long term goal is absolutely to move everyone to digital.
Speaker 4: And this is just a nice glass of water to
Speaker 4: like swallow the pill a little harder than like Sony
Speaker 4: shoving it down your throat like they have been doing.
Speaker 2: Do you? It's weird.
Speaker 4: Like, at what point do you think everything is just
Speaker 4: going to be digital. Like at this point, like Nintendo
Speaker 4: is kind of holding stuff back and there's independent companies
Speaker 4: like limited run and all that's good stuff.
Speaker 2: I am a bit, but they are at the whims
Speaker 2: of the platform holders, right?
Speaker 3: They have to, when they print a PlayStation disc, they
Speaker 3: have to go through Sony to do that.
Speaker 2: And Sony's cutting them off.
Speaker 3: So as they can, they can have all the desire
Speaker 3: and motivation to do that, that they want. If they,
Speaker 3: if they are being cut off by the licensor, it's
Speaker 3: just not, it's not going to be possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, I would have said by the end of
Speaker 3: next generation, now it feels like much quicker than that.
Speaker 2: Obviously, it's all offset because, you know, you're right.
Speaker 3: All these companies are maybe at different footholds when it
Speaker 3: comes to their position, you know, vis-a-vis physical and digital. But, yeah,
Speaker 3: Switch 2 will have a physical option of some sort
Speaker 3: throughout its entire lifespan. So that's several more years, like
Speaker 3: a lot, like half a decade at least, probably more
Speaker 3: than that. Um, and then PlayStation six is, yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: they're just going to stop making discs all across the board.
Speaker 2: So it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: And then Xbox is maybe somewhere in the middle, but
Speaker 3: no one buys physical games on Xbox already.
Speaker 2: Like that was the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Like they wanted to, uh, kind of force digital back
Speaker 3: at the, you know, beginning of the.
Speaker 2: Xbox one, people weren't ready.
Speaker 3: And then slowly over time with game pass and a
Speaker 3: bunch of other stuff, you know, getting Xbox play anywhere.
Speaker 3: They led the horse to water. instead of just, you know, uh,
Speaker 3: like forcing the horse into the water. And now the
Speaker 3: whole Xbox horse is there. Everyone, no one buys the
Speaker 3: physical games there. And, uh, so it kind of almost
Speaker 3: doesn't make sense. They could have had this big, you know,
Speaker 3: slap in the face moment, the moment of Sony, but like, Hey,
Speaker 3: we are going to keep supporting discs, but at least
Speaker 3: business wise, it makes very little sense for them to
Speaker 3: do that because they aren't selling a lot of discs.
Speaker 3: You get a lot of, um, third party announcements. You know, again,
Speaker 3: there was one recently I talked about it, but, um,
Speaker 3: where they announced that they were going to have a
Speaker 3: physical version for PlayStation five.
Speaker 2: And it's also coming to the Xbox and PC.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Persona. That's right. Exactly.
Speaker 3: And it's like, but that will just be digital only
Speaker 3: on Xbox and saying, yeah, that because people wouldn't buy
Speaker 3: the physical version.
Speaker 2: So of course they're not going to do that. So yeah,
Speaker 2: it's very soon.
Speaker 3: It's very soon with the exception of, you know, switch
Speaker 3: to obviously we'll just continue doing things the way they
Speaker 3: want to do it. And Nintendo sells a lot of physical,
Speaker 3: like it's not like they're limping or something when they
Speaker 3: put out a game, It sells a ton of physical
Speaker 3: copies around the world.
Speaker 2: And especially in Japan.
Speaker 3: And as long as that's the case, they're just not
Speaker 3: going to stop doing it because that's an audience that
Speaker 3: they're very happy to keep happy.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: Let's go ahead and take a break. When we come back,
Speaker 3: plenty of headlines to get into. We are going to
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Speaker 3: We're back for Game Mess Mornings. I'm Jeff Grubb. That's
Speaker 3: John Martin. Let's continue on here with Konami. Konami wants
Speaker 3: annual Silent Hill games and is working on, quote, many
Speaker 3: unannounced projects. This is from Dave Aubrey at VGC. Shout
Speaker 3: out to Dave for all the stories today. Konami wants
Speaker 3: to make Silent Hill an annual franchise. That's according to
Speaker 3: franchise producer Matoi Okamoto at Gamescom 2026. Our aim is
Speaker 3: to hopefully have an annual release of new games, Okamoto
Speaker 3: said to GamesRadar +. The Japanese and Scottish settings of
Speaker 3: Silent Hill F and the upcoming Silent Hill Townfall are
Speaker 3: no accident either. And the series has been moving away
Speaker 3: from its original setting on purpose. If we stay laser
Speaker 3: focused on the same American setting, that would exhaust narrative
Speaker 3: possibilities and also potentially cause fatigue for the player base.
Speaker 2: And that's Akimoto continuing to explain the situation.
Speaker 3: So in order to make Silent Hill an annual franchise,
Speaker 3: multiple games will need to be developed simultaneously. And that's
Speaker 3: something Konami already has underway. There are still many projects
Speaker 3: that are still under the works and very unannounced titles,
Speaker 3: he continued. So, obviously, we can't go into specifics, but
Speaker 3: there are still many projects that we are currently exploring
Speaker 3: and working on as we speak. We would like to
Speaker 3: let players know that we have more experiences coming up
Speaker 3: and many types of games that we believe will be
Speaker 3: able to provide positive kinds of surprises for players waiting
Speaker 3: for this for the series.
Speaker 2: People seem to be impressed by Townfall.
Speaker 3: Jordan Midler at VGC did say, after I left the
Speaker 3: hands-off demo of Silent Hill Townfall, It was hard to
Speaker 3: think about much else. The elephant in the room is
Speaker 3: that as a Scottish person, it's novel to see my
Speaker 3: country represented, but not only that represented so authentically.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So that game's out September 24th. That's a silent Hill
Speaker 3: this year. It seems like they are, they have a
Speaker 3: silent Hill one remake with Bloober in the works. So
Speaker 3: we can count that as a future project. I mean, it's,
Speaker 3: it's working right. I mean, I, I think people are
Speaker 3: saying a lot of fans when I'm kind of like
Speaker 3: check the vibe on people. They're saying, hey, if the
Speaker 3: Silent Hill Townfall is good, if it's somewhere in the
Speaker 3: realm of the last two games of Silent Hill F
Speaker 3: and Silent Hill 2 Remake, this will be undoubtedly the
Speaker 3: best period of Silent Hill games ever.
Speaker 2: The best time to be a Silent Hill fan ever.
Speaker 3: And it's kind of hard to be like, okay, well,
Speaker 3: they've earned this sort of place that they found themselves in.
Speaker 3: Let's just have faith that they can keep it going
Speaker 3: because they've shown they can. What else is there to
Speaker 3: say about this, John?
Speaker 4: Not much, but I think in a comparison to Capcom,
Speaker 4: what Konami has really been doing well is finding partners
Speaker 4: who understand their franchises, understand what makes those pillars and
Speaker 4: IPs great. Bloober Team was such a good get for
Speaker 4: them because it set them up for these wins with
Speaker 4: Silent Hill up and hopefully Townfall. It's looking really, really good.
Speaker 4: But yeah, this is the kind of thing where it's
Speaker 4: like Konami... is we're kind of in the comeback Konami era.
Speaker 4: So it kind of is making sense that they need
Speaker 4: to rely on these others represent. Yeah. Oh my God.
Speaker 4: I'm so excited. I'm so excited for Castlevania. This is
Speaker 4: a completely aside. That's going to be great.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: But yeah, like they're, they're playing to their strengths of like,
Speaker 4: we've lent our IPS to other people. We forged relationships
Speaker 4: and that's how we're going to be doing this as
Speaker 4: opposed to cranking our internal studios, which they kind of
Speaker 4: need to build up again, because like it's, it had
Speaker 4: been like over a decade since, really any games had
Speaker 4: been made that weren't Pachinko like adjacent, I guess, but yeah.
Speaker 3: Like they had, uh, some free to play stuff that
Speaker 3: made them, made them a lot of money for years there.
Speaker 3: They had, uh, e-football that was actually successful making money
Speaker 3: at least. Um, and before that, you know, pro evolution soccer, uh, Um,
Speaker 3: and that's kind of like, Oh, so when you would
Speaker 3: look at it, but no, Konami is doing just fine.
Speaker 3: I would bring up, man, I remember when Konami used
Speaker 3: to make video games and a bunch of pedantic assholes,
Speaker 3: cause it's video games.
Speaker 2: That's what we all are.
Speaker 3: We'd be like, Oh no, they're, they make so much money.
Speaker 3: They make more money than all these other video game companies.
Speaker 3: And I would try to be like, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean? And now we're here.
Speaker 2: This is what I meant. This is great. This is awesome.
Speaker 3: And the fact that they like just clocked that silent
Speaker 3: Hill was the key to this, that if they got
Speaker 3: silent Hill, right, it would sort of just unlock. not
Speaker 3: a good vibes and a steady revenue stream of man,
Speaker 3: the silent Hill fans and kind of gamers as a
Speaker 3: large monolith will eat up.
Speaker 2: All the horror content you can provide.
Speaker 3: If you want to just put out one of these
Speaker 3: a year from different developers and from different studios, and
Speaker 3: as long as they are of a certain quality level,
Speaker 3: they will just every single one of these, they're not
Speaker 3: going to get tired of it.
Speaker 2: And now you've also considered.
Speaker 3: That possibility from the beginning here, It wasn't like, let's
Speaker 3: do five games back in Silent Hill, like always, and
Speaker 3: then maybe eventually we'll take a risk and try something else.
Speaker 2: No, they knew immediately, hey, this is what we want
Speaker 2: to do. We want to have a lot of these games.
Speaker 2: What would be a.
Speaker 3: Sort of blockade to making sure that people don't get
Speaker 3: exhausted or that they might get exhausted by this? And
Speaker 3: it's like, yeah, having the same setting over and over
Speaker 3: again probably is something that you should break pretty early on.
Speaker 2: They did. They succeeded. They succeeded. And I think most
Speaker 2: fans are welcoming this.
Speaker 3: Even the most skeptical and cynical Silent Hill fans seem
Speaker 3: to be like, hey, we're OK with this because we've
Speaker 3: seen they've been through the bleakest shit with this series.
Speaker 3: And so they know what that looks like. And this
Speaker 3: is maybe if they don't love every single one. I
Speaker 3: don't think most of them are like, well, this feels
Speaker 3: like what Silent Hill is going to be like forever.
Speaker 3: So I can expect if I don't like this one,
Speaker 3: if I don't enjoy this one, the next one could
Speaker 3: be my shit. And that has got to be a
Speaker 3: good feeling for people who have spent a lot of
Speaker 3: time loving these games. I hope that they're able to
Speaker 3: do the same thing for Castlevania and a bunch of others. Man,
Speaker 3: if they get this next Castlevania right and then try
Speaker 3: a 3D Castlevania and sort of bounce back and forth
Speaker 3: between Metroidvanias and 3D ones, I would be very excited.
Speaker 2: That'd be very, very great. Uh, all right.
Speaker 3: There was 18 minutes of fable gameplay out of games.
Speaker 3: Com the sort of big thing here is they really
Speaker 3: did hone in on, uh, the NPCs and how, uh,
Speaker 3: scripted and authored they all are. There's 400 individualized NPCs
Speaker 3: that are all voiced and interactable. They might have, they
Speaker 3: have their own homes, their own personalities, their own hobbies,
Speaker 3: their own traits, their own schedules. Um, you see this
Speaker 3: a little bit in the trailer, at least for one
Speaker 3: of them. And, uh, I think that's going to be
Speaker 3: the make or break for this game because they also
Speaker 3: showed combat and it looked very stock standard. It looked
Speaker 3: very off-the-shelf combat system. Obviously, there's going to be magic
Speaker 3: and stuff like that, but just swinging the sword, it
Speaker 3: didn't look inspired or anything like that. So it's going
Speaker 3: to come down to interacting with that world and what
Speaker 3: that feels like.
Speaker 2: And it does seem like that's where they put most
Speaker 2: of their effort.
Speaker 3: And based on this 18 minutes, what I watched of it,
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, there's something here. Obviously, I want
Speaker 3: to mess around with myself and see what that's like.
Speaker 3: Did you get a chance to watch any of this
Speaker 3: or see this for yourself?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I've watched it like 35 minutes ago at like,
Speaker 4: or like 40 minutes ago at like three times speed. Um,
Speaker 4: I think Sim heads are going to really, really like this.
Speaker 4: Like I, I legitimately think it looks really, really good.
Speaker 4: I feel like the faces have been getting better and better. Um, I,
Speaker 4: as someone who has dabbled in all three fable games
Speaker 4: and kind of bounced off, this looks really, really cool.
Speaker 4: And I'm excited to see people who enjoy this, enjoy this. Um,
Speaker 4: but yeah, I mean, this is kind of doing what
Speaker 4: you would kind of want from this sort of game
Speaker 4: of making this tight knit community of like people and,
Speaker 4: and getting invested in there. Um, again, not super for me, uh,
Speaker 4: but I, I think what is there is going to
Speaker 4: be great SIM serviceable combat. Um, yeah, it, I think
Speaker 4: Xbox does have something good on their hands, which also, yeah,
Speaker 4: go ahead. Well, I was, I was also going to
Speaker 4: bring up the, the, the boycott cause they're, you.
Speaker 2: Know, no, please.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: They're under, yeah, they're invested in a, in a genocide.
Speaker 2: So that's, that's great. That's right. That's awesome.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yep.
Speaker 3: It's kind of thing where it's like, yeah, I think
Speaker 3: about it every time, you know, but it's, I always
Speaker 3: follow these games. It's like, man, that's from that studio
Speaker 3: I like. And then it's always, oh yeah, it's Microsoft. And,
Speaker 3: but it's worth bringing up every time. This is a
Speaker 3: company that at a high level, Xbox is under BDS boycott.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Game looks nice. It does.
Speaker 3: I think especially the environments, it seems very detailed and does,
Speaker 3: it is kind of one of the, you know, the
Speaker 3: things I always like want from games instead of a vast,
Speaker 3: massive open world with tons of stuff, maybe just scale
Speaker 3: down a little bit and, and fill that with all
Speaker 3: kinds of cool things to interact with. and then really
Speaker 3: have a group of NPCs that are fully fleshed out.
Speaker 2: And 400's a huge number still.
Speaker 3: If you play this game for 100 hours, you probably
Speaker 3: still only interact with a fraction of those in any
Speaker 3: meaningful way. So that's going to feel like a world
Speaker 3: that has so much going on that it could feel
Speaker 3: alive if they're able to nail these things.
Speaker 2: But we'll see. I'm always rooting for Playground. I am.
Speaker 2: I like that studio.
Speaker 3: The fact that they are trying this new genre, this
Speaker 3: is one of those things where it's like you just
Speaker 3: want this to work out for them, because if it does,
Speaker 3: then they can.
Speaker 2: It feels like they can really do anything.
Speaker 3: And if it doesn't, then they got to go back
Speaker 3: and make 10 more Forza Horizons. Not that I would
Speaker 3: complain about that necessarily, but obviously they wanted to make
Speaker 3: this for a reason.
Speaker 2: And hopefully it works out for them. Can't help but
Speaker 2: root for that studio.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: All right. Panic.
Speaker 3: The studio, the company, the ones that made the crank handheld,
Speaker 3: the Playdate, they're actually refunding people the tariffs that people
Speaker 3: paid on their Playdates. This is from Nicole Carpenter and
Speaker 3: Diego Arguello at Game Developer. Crank-driven handheld Playdate maker Panic
Speaker 3: emailed customers this week to spread some good news. The
Speaker 3: company received tariff refunds from the United States government and
Speaker 3: is passing that along to customers. People who purchased a
Speaker 3: Playdate from Panic during the period in which the tariffs
Speaker 3: were charged received We'll get the refunds.
Speaker 2: There was a specific window of time this.
Speaker 3: Year where we did charge tariffs to customers. Panic co-founder
Speaker 3: Cable Sasser explained in an email to game developer confirming
Speaker 3: the news. We tried absorbing the cost for a while,
Speaker 3: but that was financially difficult for a small company like ours.
Speaker 3: We made the tariff a very obvious and clearly labeled
Speaker 3: line item on checkout for any customer affected. Panic also
Speaker 3: set up a website to explain the 19% tariff surcharge.
Speaker 3: 19% is what it got up to. That's fucking stupid.
Speaker 3: The United States Supreme Court ruled that United States President
Speaker 3: Donald Trump's tariffs were not a legal use, surprise, of
Speaker 3: the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Companies impacted by the
Speaker 3: tariffs had to apply for their share of the refund.
Speaker 3: Some companies, like Nintendo, are keeping the refund money. Most
Speaker 3: of these companies are, and they are massive. Now, it
Speaker 3: is worth pointing out the difference for a lot of
Speaker 3: these things is Nintendo just raised their prices.
Speaker 2: That's what they did.
Speaker 3: The companies that did charge a separate surcharge, a tariff fee,
Speaker 3: and made it a separate line item, they're the ones
Speaker 3: most susceptible to lawsuits or people saying, hey, give me
Speaker 3: that money back because it's very clearly marked and separated
Speaker 3: out from the cost of the product. That was sort
Speaker 3: of the legal theory from the beginning where the companies
Speaker 3: that just raised prices and they could say, we're allowed
Speaker 3: to set our prices and there's multiple reasons we raised
Speaker 3: the price, not just tariffs. So we can't just like
Speaker 3: unravel that. Now, we all know mostly bullshit, although there
Speaker 3: are a lot of reasons to raise prices. We know
Speaker 3: that at that time, tariffs were the main reason. But
Speaker 3: just legally, a lot of these companies were going to
Speaker 3: be protected because you are allowed to set the price
Speaker 3: for your own products. That's a freedom that is not
Speaker 3: going to be something that the United States of America
Speaker 3: is going to go after a lot of companies for
Speaker 3: in our capitalist system. Either way, though, no one was
Speaker 3: compelling panic to do this. They just did it. Very cool, right?
Speaker 4: It's insanely cool. And it's, it's, they're one of the
Speaker 4: only like video game manufacturers, I guess you call that,
Speaker 4: that are like doing these pro consumer moves. Um, it really,
Speaker 4: really just impassions like a smaller fan base like that
Speaker 4: makes people want to invest more in the community. And I, we,
Speaker 4: we very rarely see situations like this and, uh, just
Speaker 4: makes me, makes me happier, uh, knowing that these guys
Speaker 4: are around. Very cool device to like always, always new
Speaker 4: games are coming out that I'm like, oh, that looks
Speaker 4: really cool. I should get that.
Speaker 2: They're also just a really good publisher. Panic. They do.
Speaker 2: They do. Happier or happier here. Was that what it was?
Speaker 2: Let's see here. Panic Games. Oh, they just you know
Speaker 2: what they just did. Maybe game of the year. Big walk.
Speaker 2: They published.
Speaker 4: Oh, my God.
Speaker 2: OK, wow. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: And they did a despilote and blip. Oh, plus. That's right.
Speaker 3: That.
Speaker 2: Yes. Thank goodness you're here. What it is. man, I
Speaker 2: like all this shit. All those games are awesome. Time flies.
Speaker 2: That was a good one. Uh, man. Okay.
Speaker 3: So yeah, they just, uh, they got a good eye
Speaker 3: for games as a publisher. And then I do, I
Speaker 3: really enjoy the play date. So just excellent, excellent company. Uh,
Speaker 3: Metal Gear Solid 4. It's Metal Gear Solid 4's liberation day, everybody.
Speaker 3: It has escaped the disgusting confines of the cell processor.
Speaker 3: The PlayStation 3 shall no longer hold back Metal Gear
Speaker 3: Solid 4.
Speaker 2: Let's go. You can play it everywhere today.
Speaker 3: Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 2 releases today, which
Speaker 3: means Metal Gear Solid 4 is finally, officially playable on
Speaker 3: something besides a PS3. Metal Gear Solid 4 has effectively
Speaker 3: been trapped on Sony's 2006 hardware since its 2008 release.
Speaker 3: The collection is also reviewing reasonably well, and a lot
Speaker 3: of people who I consider to be Metal Gear Solid
Speaker 3: fans insanos, uh, you know, are your Tam Hussein's out there. Uh,
Speaker 3: he was saying, yeah, this thing is, he's very happy
Speaker 3: with this and he's playing it and it was, it
Speaker 3: was great to see. So there's a switch to version
Speaker 3: and that reportedly also targets 60 frames per second.
Speaker 2: So you can kind of play this thing anywhere now.
Speaker 2: It's kind of amazing, huh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's cool. And then that's 99% of the entire series.
Speaker 4: I feel like five just needs to come to switch,
Speaker 4: but like, yeah, no, everyone can play everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: It's really, really cool. Um, makes me excited for the future.
Speaker 2: Of Metal Gear. A little weird. A little weird to say.
Speaker 3: I still don't know how to say it. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: definitely am because it's, again, we're talking about Konami, right?
Speaker 3: And I get that the, again, the insanos, Dan Reichertz,
Speaker 3: will be like, don't ever do it without Kojima. I
Speaker 3: just don't have that same feeling where it's like, I
Speaker 3: don't know if I feel like someone who truly loved
Speaker 3: those games was put in charge and tried to do
Speaker 3: it in that style and had a certain, like, as
Speaker 3: long as they got a blessing from Kojima, I, I
Speaker 3: would be fine with it. Uh, but I know that
Speaker 3: is absolutely sacrilegious to so many people. So it's one
Speaker 3: of those things that just is no way guaranteed to happen. Uh,
Speaker 3: but I think if they, you know, they go back
Speaker 3: and forth between remaking these games and then trying something
Speaker 3: new and maybe it would have to be quite different
Speaker 3: just to like separate itself from what Kojima would make.
Speaker 2: But I don't know.
Speaker 3: We'll, we'll see if that's even possible. There's a good chance.
Speaker 3: It just never happens. Cause it's a third rail of
Speaker 3: a sort. True.
Speaker 4: But, I mean, with four out now, like all you
Speaker 4: need is four in Revengeance. And then that's kind of
Speaker 4: a is a clean slate of source to make new
Speaker 4: stories in the future without having to, you know, have
Speaker 4: to deal with all the intricacies of like working with
Speaker 4: a Kojima level plot. So I really have no idea.
Speaker 4: It'll it's weird. I get I get a little nervous
Speaker 4: about it, but I'm excited to see what the future
Speaker 4: holds regardless.
Speaker 3: I like crafty NYC's Chad remake that sun game just
Speaker 3: to fuck with them.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Remake. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Hell yeah. Listen, if they put out some.
Speaker 3: Peripheral that attached to the switch to that was a
Speaker 3: sun dial or whatever, a sun of solar meter. i
Speaker 3: would yeah i think i think it has one built
Speaker 3: in right because it uses light in the car yeah
Speaker 3: well i mean yeah but like i think the switch
Speaker 3: 2 has a sun or a light uh detector because
Speaker 3: that's how it does the auto brightness level so could
Speaker 3: a game tap into that on an api level and
Speaker 3: they could just make a bock tie maybe i don't
Speaker 3: know i don't know but maybe it can't tell the
Speaker 3: difference maybe it probably can tell if it has to
Speaker 3: be over a certain brightness level it's like clearly someone
Speaker 3: is outside who the fuck knows All right. Kingdom Hearts
Speaker 3: 4 information will have to wait after a bit of
Speaker 3: a gap. This is also from Dave Aubrey at VGC.
Speaker 3: The next Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer will be released after
Speaker 3: a bit of a gap. That's according to Kingdom Hearts
Speaker 3: 4 game director Tetsuya Nomura and Tai Yasue. The duo
Speaker 3: spoke with Famitsu about Yeah, about Kingdom Hearts 4, but
Speaker 3: the next trailer might be some time away. The release
Speaker 3: is still scheduled for late next year, and the development
Speaker 3: team is in the final stages, so we'll be focusing
Speaker 3: on that for a while, Nomura told Famitsu. We're currently
Speaker 3: considering when to release the next information, so there will
Speaker 3: likely be a bit of a gap. This sounds like
Speaker 3: the normal thing, John, of creating assets, creating trailers, whether
Speaker 3: that's the studio itself doing it or handing it off
Speaker 3: to a third party to create a CGI trailer. regardless
Speaker 3: of any of that, it takes a lot of time
Speaker 3: and a lot of resources away from the people making
Speaker 3: the game. And so that's why we get those things
Speaker 3: less frequently these days. And they're like, Hey, we did one.
Speaker 3: We're good for a while. We're going to go back
Speaker 3: to work on the game. And that's, that's always the
Speaker 3: right choice these days. It seems like we, you know,
Speaker 3: come back to us when the thing is much closer
Speaker 3: and you can do the, the, the run up in
Speaker 3: the final two to three months. And then we can
Speaker 3: start talking about the game again. Once you've mostly finished
Speaker 3: that work, right?
Speaker 4: Yeah. I, and that does make the most sense. Um,
Speaker 4: I as someone who really likes Kingdom Hearts, I think
Speaker 4: this makes a lot of sense because sometimes less is
Speaker 4: more in those trailers. You kind of get to piece
Speaker 4: it out a little bit more, get people a little
Speaker 4: bit more excited as opposed to just like showing you're
Speaker 4: like revealing your hand like right or right away, especially
Speaker 4: for something that takes as long to develop as Kingdom Hearts.
Speaker 4: Like I'm assuming this is going to be like December
Speaker 4: or November of next year. And there's going to be
Speaker 4: so many state of play, so many game awards and
Speaker 4: summer games fest to show this off. Square seems more
Speaker 4: now than ever, just willing to show stuff off everywhere,
Speaker 4: especially as it's coming to everything. But yeah, it's also
Speaker 4: a weird thing because Tetsuya Nomura loves to hide his
Speaker 4: like meta textual stuff in all these trailers and it
Speaker 4: gives him more time to like mess with your heads
Speaker 4: and all this crazy Illuminati nonsense. It's a, I don't know.
Speaker 4: It's very weird to, but like, it's very weird to
Speaker 4: read this man. He is one of a kind in
Speaker 4: the industry.
Speaker 3: Uh, they did say that there, uh, let's see before
Speaker 3: signing off, he teases plans for the series is 25th
Speaker 3: anniversary without promising a new trailer. Also, there will be
Speaker 3: something planned for next year's 25th anniversary. So please look
Speaker 3: forward to the, to the announcement. Uh, let's see here
Speaker 3: as anniversary exhibition is confirmed to be taking place in
Speaker 3: Roppongi starting February 5th, 2027. So this may be more,
Speaker 3: when more Kingdom Hearts 4 information is revealed, speculates Dave.
Speaker 3: And then they mentioned Kingdom Hearts 4 English voiceover recording
Speaker 3: is 60 to 70% complete, 6-7.
Speaker 2: So Kingdom Hearts 4 is still set for a late
Speaker 2: 2027 release. Yeah.
Speaker 3: They also, you know, just as a reminder, that date,
Speaker 3: that release date, they were very firm about that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Morris said no chance that slips. So, uh, all of
Speaker 3: these things are going to have to be very pretty solid. Um,
Speaker 3: although talk is cheap, they could still easily delay the thing.
Speaker 2: Uh, we'll see. Right. Yeah.
Speaker 4: It's interesting. Cause I feel like now more than ever,
Speaker 4: Disney is like so into kingdom hearts. Like they were
Speaker 4: saying it's an, a billion dollar property. They're making an
Speaker 4: anime show. So that even could be what they're showing
Speaker 4: off later this year. Cause we have no idea what
Speaker 4: that's going to cover.
Speaker 2: Um, yeah.
Speaker 4: Like, it's very, it's very cool to like actually have
Speaker 4: a hard date for, it took like 13 years in
Speaker 4: between two and three. So the fact that it's going
Speaker 4: to be like, uh, 2019, 20, 27, eight years around
Speaker 4: eight years is kind of crazy. I'm, I'm very excited
Speaker 4: for this. It looks so gorgeous. I'm, I'm here. I'm,
Speaker 4: I'm so deep in the Duffy of kingdom arts. It's
Speaker 4: kind of bad. Like it's, I I'm very, very, very
Speaker 4: excited for this game.
Speaker 3: I did definitely get the urge to, um, to play
Speaker 3: Kingdom Hearts 2. You know, I didn't enjoy playing Kingdom
Speaker 3: Hearts 1, but I like everything else about it. I
Speaker 3: like the Disney and the Final Fantasy and all that
Speaker 3: stuff mashing together. And I do not, I'm not one
Speaker 3: of these people like, the story's confusing.
Speaker 2: So fuck it, man. What a bad game. Whatever, lots
Speaker 2: of stories are confusing or I don't care about that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and bad, yes.
Speaker 3: A lot of stories are bad and that just actually
Speaker 3: doesn't matter to me most of the time.
Speaker 2: And it does that. It's nothing to do with my
Speaker 2: dislike for Kingdom Hearts 1.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, I should see through this series and play,
Speaker 3: not gonna play all of them, but I'll play the
Speaker 3: main lines of maybe one or two others.
Speaker 2: It's time.
Speaker 4: Two legitimately has some of my favorite combat in any
Speaker 4: action RPG I've like ever played. It's, it's so good.
Speaker 4: But it requires a time investment, and there's only a
Speaker 4: lot of people have a certain threshold they're willing to
Speaker 4: put up with.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is happening before the end of 2026. That's
Speaker 2: for sure. Yeah, no way. That's valid. Yeah.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Let's see. I think that does it for all the
Speaker 2: big headlines.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about this week, and that's mostly what is
Speaker 3: happening today. As we've done this show, Xbox had its
Speaker 3: second Gamescom broadcast. I think that was a big focus
Speaker 3: on Call of Duty.
Speaker 2: There was some other stuff there as well.
Speaker 3: Not sure if any new headlines have come out since then.
Speaker 2: But, you know, if they did... We'll talk about them
Speaker 2: on tomorrow's show.
Speaker 3: Uh, 3.00 PM today, as a reminder, GTA six and
Speaker 3: extended look debuts on Netflix. We will have some sort
Speaker 3: of talk over happening right then. It's not going to
Speaker 3: be a straight talk over. We're going to kind of
Speaker 3: scrub through the video, you know, break it down. Uh,
Speaker 3: cause that's what's required to actually do that. But we
Speaker 3: did get the green light from rockstar to do that.
Speaker 3: So 3.00 PM we'll make it happen. And then 9.00
Speaker 3: PM Eastern, that will be on the rockstar YouTube channels
Speaker 3: and stuff. So, uh, If you don't want to get
Speaker 3: Netflix or you want to, or you do want to
Speaker 3: watch it uninterrupted, uh, which we won't be able to do. Uh,
Speaker 3: you could do that later at 9 PM. If you
Speaker 3: aren't going to sign up for Netflix, uh, and then tomorrow, no,
Speaker 3: nothing really happened in the games industry. So we will
Speaker 3: make something happen. Once again, the giant bomb video weekend
Speaker 3: rental club.
Speaker 2: Uh, we've got some cool artwork.
Speaker 3: We'll debut from Jerem, uh, that really just absolutely slams.
Speaker 2: Uh, And we'll kind of show off some of that stuff.
Speaker 3: And then we'll hang out and have a fun game
Speaker 3: rental night with our friends, just like we used to
Speaker 3: for the N64.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: Let's see a poll question from yesterday. Let's get caught
Speaker 3: up on that. I'm going to refresh and get the
Speaker 3: most recent results. Are you going to watch the GTA
Speaker 3: 6 and extended look on Netflix this week?
Speaker 2: 4,000 votes. Yes or no. We are options. I obviously am.
Speaker 2: So are 31%. 60, 69% said no. Nice. Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Mean, I think that's where it is at with this audience.
Speaker 3: I think people are done hearing about this game. I
Speaker 3: don't think that means they won't play it. This is
Speaker 3: not the same thing as people being like, I'm not
Speaker 3: even going to touch that game. Although for many people,
Speaker 3: it probably is, John. But I think mostly this is
Speaker 3: Wake me up when I can actually play this game.
Speaker 3: It's been so long. It's kind of, I've gotten into
Speaker 3: so many other games. This doesn't really matter to me
Speaker 3: until I can actually play it as a video game.
Speaker 2: Cause that's what I like doing, playing the video games.
Speaker 2: We've been stuck in this.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about the video game coming out one day
Speaker 3: for so long with this horse shit that I think
Speaker 3: a lot of people are just done with it.
Speaker 2: That's definitely what I read here, at least for this audience, John.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean, I'm a hundred percent behind them. I'm
Speaker 4: excited to finally get to try the game rather than
Speaker 4: actually just worry about it and it being headlines and
Speaker 4: absorbing literally every other aspect of the conversation around video
Speaker 4: games for so long.
Speaker 2: Um, yep.
Speaker 4: Going to be cool. We'll be able to focus on
Speaker 4: a lot of more diverse and cool games.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: A new poll question. We'll get to it here in
Speaker 3: a second. Before we do that though, John, tell people
Speaker 3: where they can find you on the internet, what you
Speaker 3: have going on, all that good stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Um, you can find me on blue sky. That's primarily
Speaker 4: where I'm at right now. John Martin dot blue sky
Speaker 4: dot social. Um, Yeah, kind of. It's been crazy over here.
Speaker 4: I've been like away every weekend, so I haven't been
Speaker 4: able to stream or anything really for a minute. But yeah,
Speaker 4: you can follow me there. I post about everything. Love
Speaker 4: talking about video games. Yeah, I'm just always excited to
Speaker 4: be a part of this community. Everyone is absolutely fantastic. Oh,
Speaker 4: if so, I'm trying to get and I know I
Speaker 4: know you were trying to spray people with Final Fantasy 14.
Speaker 4: I do need some help. I, I have a friend
Speaker 4: who's also on the free trial. I need someone to
Speaker 4: help us party up. It's really important that we get
Speaker 4: him into there. So it's not time lost. Um, yeah, I, yeah,
Speaker 4: I don't know. You could spray me too, to be honest.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Absolutely. Going to get, get the rubber bullets
Speaker 2: out and just put you guys all back in your
Speaker 2: place for sure. Um, no, you, you do what you
Speaker 2: got to do. You get that.
Speaker 3: Listen, if you put a, a bat signal out like
Speaker 3: that for final fantasy 14 in this community, it's going
Speaker 3: to get answered.
Speaker 2: So, uh, I need some sickos.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. That's going to happen now. All right. New
Speaker 2: poll question. Have you ever played Metal Gear Solid 4?
Speaker 2: Yes or no?
Speaker 3: We'll get the results of that question on tomorrow's Game
Speaker 3: Mess Morning. Speaking of Game Mess Mornings on Giant Bomb.
Speaker 3: Later today on Giant Bomb, it's the voicemail dump truck.
Speaker 3: We will then talk over this Grand Theft Auto, an
Speaker 3: extended book. At least I'll be doing that. And then
Speaker 3: we'll see who hops in there with me. And then, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's going to be on to tomorrow where we're going
Speaker 3: to have another Game Mess Mornings.
Speaker 2: We are going to have UPF.
Speaker 3: And then there is that Giant Bomb video, Weekend Rental Club,
Speaker 3: 6 p.m.
Speaker 2: Eastern.
Speaker 3: Come hang out with us, everybody. That's premium only, that
Speaker 3: specific stream. So go sign up for, for giant bomb, uh,
Speaker 3: premium giant bomb.com slash join. We might have a couple
Speaker 3: of codes left for, uh, if you do sign up
Speaker 3: to get blood dungeon, probably not that many left actually
Speaker 3: at this point.
Speaker 2: So I better be careful with that, but there might
Speaker 2: be a couple.
Speaker 3: If you sign up now, you'll both get, you'll get
Speaker 3: that and you'll be able to watch a giant bomb
Speaker 3: video weekend rental club. So make that happen, everybody. And
Speaker 3: thanks again, everybody who signed up and just kind of
Speaker 3: hangs out and watches with us. And also thank you
Speaker 3: to John for hanging out with us and talk about
Speaker 3: video games, man.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4: It's always a pleasure, Jeff.
Speaker 2: Anytime. thank you everybody for watching and listening.
Speaker 3: Go, yeah, go check out the star Wars zero company
Speaker 3: quick look, which just went up for us today. Uh, yeah,
Speaker 3: I think if you want to hear the sort of
Speaker 3: dissenting opinion, like Chuck doesn't hate it or something like that,
Speaker 3: but he will give you a.
Speaker 2: Lot of perspective.
Speaker 3: Like, Hey, I'm coming at this from a different angle.
Speaker 3: This is the quick look for you. Go watch it.
Speaker 4: Everyone.
Speaker 3: Cause I think it's going to be very illuminating. It's
Speaker 3: not just a love fest. Like a lot of the
Speaker 3: other reviews have been, and I think that could be
Speaker 3: very helpful, even if you're probably going to end up
Speaker 3: loving it.
Speaker 2: Like I have. All right.
Speaker 3: Uh, Catch you next time, everybody. You're the best audience
Speaker 3: in gaming. Until then, have a good one. Take care
Speaker 3: of yourself and goodbye.
Speaker 4: Bye-bye, YouTube.