Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Mess Mornings with Me Jeff Grub,
your host from GiantBomb dot com. Thank you for tuning in.
In this episode, we're gonna be talking about Obsidian. Obsidian
is now in danger of closing as well. It's gonna
be a show because we have Janet Chobba on the show.
Speaker 2: Jan How are you doing, Jeff Grub?
Speaker 3: It turns out learning to steam milk when you're not
quite sure what you're looking for is very difficult. There's
been a lot of discourse about how many holes you
should have on your tip, and I'm talking about steam
ones of course.
Speaker 1: Of course, yes, I man if I had a nickel
for every time I was staring at my steam milk
and being like, are you right? I can't tell, man,
I'd have two nickels, which would still be pretty weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how's that going?
Speaker 3: I'm wasting so much milk, Grub, I'm wasting so much milk.
Speaker 1: Okay, you uh, like this is a new method that
you're trying.
Speaker 2: Is that what it is?
Speaker 1: Or or have you not steamed a lot of milk before.
Speaker 3: My I've I've steamed milk previously on like high powered
like commercial machines where the steam power and the pressure
and temperature are more consistent rather than a home machine.
So wrestling with having to do the timing on a
home machine that is, as of yet unmodified and straight
out of the box.
Speaker 1: Yeah, excellent, Jan, I'm I'm taking off tomorrow.
Speaker 2: So are you. We got a couple of trips coming up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have. Uh, I'm not mentally prepared yet for
me neither. Yeah, the trips tomorrow, it'll be fun, it'll
be good. Here's the thing, traveling with Dan and I
for folks that don't know, I think I've said this before.
Out of everyone in my life grub, and that includes
my personal life, I've traveled with Dan the most.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's Dan man. That's true. Yeah, true travel buddies.
Speaker 3: And it's always been a great time. Even if I
have a little bit of anxiety of.
Speaker 2: Like what are we going to do?
Speaker 3: How is this going to be entertaining? Dan always manages
to pull through.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and yeah I think this one. You guys just
show up, do your thing. It'll it'll work out real well.
I am looking forward to just kind of hearing how
things are going for you guys. Absolutely, But again, hey,
if you're you're listening if you didn't listen to earlier
this week, I'm out. I'm off next week, but don't worry.
There will be Game Mess Mornings. Game Mess Mornings will
be hosted.
Speaker 2: By a Mick Minote. Yeah. I don't know who that is,
but he'll be coming in and doing the show for myself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we probably should get someone with PS five
pro to do that instead. Huh Okay, we'll have to
look into that, but yeah, the show will continue. I'll
be back the week after that after taking some time off.
Appreciate everybody sticking with us, and appreciate everybody who shows
up for the show every day or just checks in
every once in a while. We it's noticed. All right,
let's go ahead and get into this and explain ourselves.
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ad free shows, you get premium exclusives. We are now
doing This is the Run Sewer Shark. First episode of
that just went up. More episodes are on their way.
I've already seen people like suggest ideas that like we
eventually get to. We recorded them in bulk. It's like, oh, yeah,
good idea. But yeah, so tune in for that. There's
gonna be some more fun stuff on the This is
the run Sewer Shark. Mike likes that game. Everyone's worried
about him that I can spoil that for you. That's
not gonna go away. He still likes that game. As
far as this show goes, most weekdays, I Jeff Greb
will help piece your gaming life back together. That includes
breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting.
For all these topics, I'll get the input of a
bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If
you are watching live on Twitch welcome. You can always
listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching
for Games Mornings, or find the rssfeed on giant bomb
dot com. You can also catch the show later with
chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube, all right, we
have a lot to get into, so let's start the
morning mess with Obsidian Entertainment among Xbox studios negotiating to
avoid closure. This is from Salermano at Gamatsu. Although we
have an update, let's just kind of read the scary
part here. The Outer Worlds and grounded developer Obsidian Entertainment
is among the studios negotiating with Xbox to avoid closure,
according to a report from the Game Business of City
and Entertainment joints, studios including Arcane Studios, Compulsion Games, Double
Fine Productions, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs, all of which
have been previously reported as facing potential closure or spinoff.
According to the report, February appointed. February pointedt Xbox CEO
Asha Sharma has brought a startup mentality into the organization,
which is just a gross way of saying she's going
to wreck stuff, asking teams that are used two weeks
of planning and countless meetings to turn things around in
days to hours. The announcement of Xbox series price increases
last week was reportedly thrown together the same day after
Apple announced its own price increases. That's crazy, cha, that's
they really are just fucking winging it. I'm gonna keep
reading this and again, I know there's an update everybody,
but I think there's still some context here. We're going
to talk about certain Xbox studio heads. Also, Phil Sharma
is listening too much to consultants rather than the developers
making the games. Numerous people within Xbox who have spoken
privately to the game business field there's too much listening
to Twitter happening at Xbox, questioning the organization's reinvestment and
hardware amid an ongoing component rices and declining console market,
and doubting the impact of an exclusive Gears of Work
E day on hardware sales.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean yeah.
Speaker 1: I think everyone's wondering that we're chasing a declining market
with franchises that are past their prime, said one studio boss. Okay, yes,
we'll get back, we'll wrap back around the update. Bloomberg
reporter Jason Treyer has said the Game Business report about
Obsidian is incorrect and that the studio is not in
negotiations to avoid shutting down. Plenty of details are still
up in the air surrounding the layoffs. Pictures will be
clear on Monday, but Xbox is keeping Obsidian, according to
people familiar with the situation, Shreyer said in a post
on social media, Yeah you better that's crazy like that.
I mean, I guess you can look at the last
couple of games and be like, oh, maybe those didn't
perform the way that everyone was hoping, but they're much liked,
if not beloved.
Speaker 2: Games.
Speaker 3: We're talking about Avowed and what was the rounded into.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Pentiment, Yes, well, and though those are just great
games that probably did even better than maybe expectations based
on the size of their team. But yes, oh then
they had the Outer Worlds too. Yeah, the Outer Worlds too,
which I really liked. So yeah, that's like you could
kind of be like, okay, maybe, but if that's what
we're talking about here, to me, that feels like an
altogether Xbox failure of not being able to find ways
to make those games sing a little bit more and
find their audiences and closing out Obsidian, a team that
has delivered five like major games since they got acquired
by Microsoft, as supposed to a lot of these other
studios that had only delivered one or two. You'd be like, Okay,
so this is just like a we're getting rid of everything. Okay,
that's not the case though, sounds like that's not the case, Obsidian.
Speaker 2: It is safe. Let's talk about this other stuff.
Speaker 1: Then, Jan, the idea that people who work at Xbox
and actually make the games are like, hey, we have
input as well. Why does it seem like you are
listening to consultants and you're listening to Twitter and then
you are taking what you're hearing from Twitter and acting
on it a day or less later and coming up
with Xbox policy based on that. These developers at Xbox
must be infuriated to like be in a situation where
they are living the day to day of creating these games,
and they certainly will have input on what they think
is best for Xbox and probably have struggled to have
that input listen to let alone implemented and for them
to watch like look around and see, okay, some idiot
on Twitter said something and within a day Asha Sharma
acted on it, Like we talk about morale at Xbox,
Jan that honestly, that might be the kind of thing
that would damage it more than anything else, just to
feel like, hey, these Asha Sharma had like someone said hey,
we want we like exclusives, and now she's building an
Xbox again, that is trying to sell consoles based on
the exclusive gears of our e Eday and Clockwork revolution
with the hopes of what selling more consoles in a
world where it's going to be harder to sell consoles
than ever before. And now I'm a studio head who
has to try to get my team to make a
game that could potentially end up being exclusive, and then
that's going to dictate how many copies it can sell,
and then that's going to dictate whether or not we
get the acts later on. Morale must be like further
down them like we last time we talked about it, Jan,
it must be in the dumpster even more than that these.
Speaker 3: Days, absolutely, Greb. You know, we've talked about several studio
layoffs and mismanagement on the show and on the BombCast,
not just Xbox. We've you know, expanded that net and
unfortunately that net is big and catches a lot of
different studios and publishers at this point, But to see
the proof in the putting of people actively being loud
and complaining on Twitter and then Asha Sharma implementing that
or adjusting to that, versus actual people that work for her,
people that are actually informed and aren't just rage baiting
online people whose livelihoods depend on these decisions that you
are actively making. It's incredibly upsetting and it just calls
into question further grub Like, I understand that Asha Sharma
has been brought into this Xbox equation to be this
axe and cut and chop away at Xbox, But I
don't understand how you can be this incompetent if this
reporting is true, if she is listening to Copilot and
Twitter more than people that actually work for her. I
understand people have some type of AI psychosis where they
are just listening to chat, GBT, claude, whatever flavor of
AI you are partaking in. But Jesus Christ, gets your
head out of the sand for once and listen and
recognize the actual human weight that is happening around you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there is, uh, definitely, Uh, you know, I've definitely
heard that. It like what people do internally. Get the
sense that she's just going like taking these things that
she's hearing online, going to to Copilot and then coming
back immediately with this and with this confidence of the
startup mentality thing of which is move fast and break things,
this unearned confidence of well, as long as we're kind
of moving forward and trying different ideas. We're gonna end
up finding something that works, because that's because that's just
the startup mentality. And this is a mature business with
a lot of people whose lives depend on it and
who have tried a lot of things before. Many that
this is why it's like laughable, Jan like to look
at this, it's laughably yeah, because like we've seen them
try all of these strategies before and it didn't work.
That's how we got here of games being available everywhere
and not being exclusive and and sort of like stepping
back from the hardware, just flipping the switch back as
not some oh my god, this is disruptive like the
way a startup can be.
Speaker 2: It's sort of a joke a relative to that.
Speaker 3: And I don't even think trying to frame your business
as a startup is something to be appreciated or celebrated
because of the wild swings that you do have to take.
Us here, Grub, like the five owners plus Sean plus
Chuck plus Will, we're not operating like a startup at
all because we know that our livelihoods depend on this
and we are significantly a smaller operation. You aren't. Microsoft
has never been and hasn't been the size of a
startup in decades at this point, So you can't brazenly
take those wild swings like that. And it's insane. I
don't know, It's just wild when you have that many
people you were responsible for to perhaps not recognize any
of that and trying to operate as a startup. I
don't think that's something to be celebrated or something to
brag about. Yeah, especially when you have a legacy business
like Microsoft.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: As far as Obsidian goes, to me, this just speaks
to because I don't think what this was a dream
over at the game business. I don't think he was
like completely wrong. I know that Jason made it kind
of makes it sound that way. I bet like people do,
like some people believed that Obsidian was on the chopping block.
Speaker 2: Why they thought that, I don't know, like a zero idea.
I don't know.
Speaker 1: And I think probably the most recent reporting from Jason
is the most accurate. I'm just saying, let's just like
put that aside. This speaks to the chaos that is happening. Yeah,
And this speaks to like like people do do not
know if their teams are safe for sure, and and
you know, some people maybe do, but it doesn't it
doesn't feel like that is a widely held, you know,
piece of knowledge across the infrastructure of Xbox. And that's
why even Jayson like, we'll know more on Monday when
these when these layoffs actually start going into effect. Now,
you know, again, I don't think Obsidian, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I have zero clue. Jan So I'm a friend.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to avoid getting up on gaming leaks and
rumors for something that I don't know anything about.
Speaker 2: But it's definitely you know, you hear.
Speaker 1: Lots of different things going along the way, and you
know Obsidian's name being dropped for Christopher dream to hear.
Speaker 2: I think that's very plausible.
Speaker 1: And so kind of going getting through this and seeing
where we actually do end up. I won't be supprised
if we get blindsided one or two more times by
some other stuff where like wait, they were also being considered,
although who those teams could be, we might have to
wait and find out. Yeah, this is going to be
very painful in a time that has been kind of
endless pain for the industry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm sure if you were in this again,
this is pure speculation, but if you are on the
inside of Xbox, in one of those studios that Xbox owns,
just seeing all of the updates, all of the news
rolling out within like the past couple months, maybe even
just from SGF till now, there has to be like
a level of tension and feeling of the walls are
closing in around you that, like you said, Greb, morale
has to be low. There's no way of avoiding it
at this point. That like, given all of the actual
news that has come out and interviews from Asha Sharma
Matt Boody, it doesn't feel safe to work at Xbox.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that's the real story here is, like,
you know, there is an ethical way to go about
getting ready to lay a bunch of people off. In
my opinion, looking from the outside, having a few pieces
of information relate to me, this does not feel like that,
And of course, of course it doesn't. It's Microsoft all
right up next. Ever, every one dislike that Sony. There's
been a lot of backlash to Sony announcing yesterday that
they are getting or they're planning to deprecate the production
of discs for PlayStation consoles, meaning across the board there
will be no new disks made starting from January twenty
twenty eight to for PlayStation going forward. In response to
that from Chris Going at the VGC, the Video Game
History Foundation is called on trade groups like the Entertainment
Software Association to find a solution for preserving digital games
on a long term basis. Sony's double announcement on Wednesday
that it will no longer be making disc versions of
its games from January twenty twenty eight and will be
closing the PS three and Vita stores next year the
digital stores has renewed a debate about video game preservation.
Some argue that a large proportion of today's modern games
may become lost media decades from now, not only due
to the closures of digital stores, but because many games
now rely on connections to online servers, which will eventually
be turned off. In a statement reacting to both decisions,
the Video Game History Foundation says the decision to stop
releasing games on discs who won't actually have a large
immediate impact on professional game preservation because they have it
considered discs the best way to preserve games for some time.
This is unfortunate news for those who still prefer buying
games on physical media, and it's certainly a hit to
consumer rights, the resale market, and game creators whose businesses
rely on physical on the physical market. And that's like
another group of people who were very upset by this,
you know, the limited runs of the world were like, hey,
we had no idea.
Speaker 2: This sucks.
Speaker 1: Yes, but from the perspective of professional preservationists, this doesn't
have as much of an impact as you might expect.
The reality is that the vast majority of video games
produced over the last two decades were not made for
dedicated video game consoles, let alone press to physical media,
and even when they were released on physical media, a
day one digital patch was all but guaranteed, meaning that
even though a disc is preserving data in an accessible way,
it may not represent the game that people actually played.
Museums in archives have been preparing for this few future
for a while, with the expectation that putting discs on
a shelf isn't going to be a long term solution
for preserving new games. The VGHF goes on to call
a trade group like the ESA, or call on the
trade group the ESA, which has been feuding with them
for some time to come up with a preservation solution
that will enable museums and researchers to continue accessing accessing
today's games fifty years from now.
Speaker 2: And that's kind of.
Speaker 1: He's using this moment as like a reminder of, like,
this has been a problem we've known has been coming,
and it was always a problem whether discs went away
or not because of the heavy digital nature of the
way games are distributed now, and that includes updates and DLC.
Speaker 2: And all kinds of server content.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, And he's saying, like, Okay, now we have
another moment, another opportunity to like to make to remind
people of how important this is. Let's put some pressure
on the ESA and this industry to come up with
a solution that enable libraries to do their job. He
goes on to say, like, because otherwise, the only real
sol to this has been and continues to be the
scene that is under the umbrella of piracy. And that's
the kind of the only thing they have at like,
the only tool in the toolbox that is reasonable to
accomplish what a library needs to accomplish, what a museum
needs to accomplish.
Speaker 2: To actually preserve the media that it sort of takes
an oath.
Speaker 1: To protect and it just it seems like we're kind
of on two sides of a chasm, where on one side,
the like Sony's just like, we're getting rid of this
because it's going to save us money and make us
more money and margins will be better and go to.
Speaker 2: Hell, and you guys aren't buying them anyhow.
Speaker 1: And then on the other side there's a lot of
people going, we really still want to find ways to
be able to play these games fifty years from now.
Speaker 2: How can we figure this out?
Speaker 1: And I just don't even know if Sony is aware
of that conversation, let alone cares about it.
Speaker 3: Jan Yeah, it's really unfortunate to hear Grub. Also very
odd timing considering that all of those movies and other
pieces of media getting delisted like five hundred plus and
then to announce this coming out does not give me
the most confidence. And I don't know, I just think about,
like Grub, I started thinking about and getting a little
upsetty spaghetti of the times on the playground sharing game
Boy cartridges or game gear cartridges with friends saying like, oh,
you should check out this game, or just sharing with
a friend and you know that slowly growing into disc
based media and other physical media of like sharing, sharing movies,
sharing tapes, et cetera. And now there's going to be
a future where that is like impossible to do unless
you are then sharing a USB stick full of ROMs
and such. I say, set sale for the seven Seas, everybody.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, my most cherished memory of physical media is
being an accessory to a crime. I've told this story before,
but like being in sick maybe not even the fifth
grade or something like that, and being a dip dipshit
dopey little boy, and the bad kid in class handing
me that the game Boy cartridge of Links Awake, and
he'd be like, hey, you want this, I yes, absolutely
do want a video game for free, all right, and
not thinking one extra second about it, and then kind
of like a week later playing it on my game
Boy in school and the teacher's aid being like, oh
you you like that game? I like that game too,
and I'd be like, yeah, this is great. That kid
over there just gave it to me. She's like, oh yeah,
I had it, and my copy went missing, and even
like not realizing for years, like literally like probably like
fifteen years before I'm like, oh wait, that kid stole
it from her and gave it to me to try
to get me in trouble, and I was just so
dopey that she was just like she obviously didn't want
to like make a deal out of it, and was
just like, I don't worry. I got another copy and
we could talk about it. We kind of talked about
the game for the rest of the year, kind of
became friends, and it was really uh yeah, yeah, it
was sweet and then like ever since been my favorite game.
Speaker 2: So there we go. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that like people are going to have to
sort of band together and put pressure on these companies,
but I just don't know if that's ever even going.
Speaker 2: To be enough that they the sort of try.
Speaker 1: They are already so just like unconnected, yeah, disconnected from
us in terms of like what like where we're headed
and where they're headed. And they still want our money,
but they believe that they can get most of that
still by just going along the path and releasing the
big new games. And if they don't release some games
that we kind of want, whatever, that that's fine. They're
just talking about the ones that are going to sell
ten to twenty million copies. That's where all their focus is,
and this feels like so far down on their like
on their vision board or whatever, that there's no way
that this is going to be something that they pay
attention to. So then the other alternative is we kind
of need like legislation, and we've seen where that's going.
The one the forst stop killing games, which is not
necessarily the same thing, but is related to this idea
of preservation that like hit a roadblock in the California Senate.
So we kind of like we do need to be lobbying.
We need to find groups that can actually do that,
and that's not the ESA. Obviously, they stand in opposition
to this stuff. So whether or not we have the
wherewithal to sort of create political will, I don't. That's
tough to see happening as well, Jam, because we're all
just trying to keep our heads above water. Like it's
easy to come on this show and for an hour, Jam,
we can be like, God, damn it, this sucks and
we should be doing something. But when it gets done,
I'm like, I'm tired. I got other stuff I gotta
do to like to imagine a world where someone like
me would be responsible for making this happen, I would
get overwhelmed. So it's like we kind of need to
just keep turning to each other and in the meantime
keep sailing the high seats. Like you said, Jan Like,
I think that's right, like because we could do the
work on that side of things, and then at the
very least the motivation is clear. We get to keep
playing cool games. That's nice too. Obviously that's a big
part of it. But it is necessary and I won't
even call it evil. It's just necessary to ensure that
these games actually will be taken care of long term.
It's the only solution we found that's worked so far.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Greb, when that's when you and Lexi talked about
that story yesterday about it getting shut down in the
California Senate, it just blows my mind because everything, all
of these moves that PlayStation is doing seems incredibly anti
consumer and it just decisions made in some Ivory tower
not taking into account actual market conditions and how spending
is changing. And ultimately I feel like this is going
to hurt Sony and PlayStation and they won't recognize or
realize that their own business decisions are part of the
problem especially, and we've talked we bring this up every
single time, Greb when we talk about prices going up
on consoles, games being more expensive, that people getting priced
out of this hobby because they have to factor in
other real life things like gas in their tank to
get to work or food on their families at the
end of the day, even if it's just a singular person.
And like, everyone is feeling that crunch. Everyone is feeling
that pressure because no one's wages are going up and
everything else is getting incredibly more expensive. And when you
get to this thing that is a hobby and supposed
to be a relaxation thing, a fun thing, and the
price is be going up and they're taking away a
means to get games cheaper. Chat has pointed this out
several times. Because we will be in a digital only
interface and it's PlayStation running it, they don't run sales
as often as a place like Valve does, where you
can get.
Speaker 1: Just like and just like less competition, yeah, necessarily means
there's less reasons to do that.
Speaker 2: A few were reasons to do.
Speaker 3: That, And I know that this people have mixed feelings
on like the used game market and everything and how
this will ultimately affect that. But for a lot of
people like that was an easier way to play more
games because we.
Speaker 1: Know someone personally, right, Kayla is like still actively doing that, right,
Keyla's you know Dan's sister. She's like, that's how I
like engage with this business or this market. And it's like, yeah,
that's there are probably quite a few people left like.
Speaker 3: Her, and she's she's definitely not alone in that, because
it's ultimately our our society was. Streaming has pivoted away
from rental stores where you could get a game out
of Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, et cetera, a red box, even
where it is now unfeasible to rent a game. Sure,
you can go to your local library, folks in the US,
you can go to your library. They will have a
selection of games. But if everything moves to digital, the
library don't got nothing for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like you're not gonna be able to
borrow games from the library for your PS six and
Xbox Helix.
Speaker 2: Most likely, that seems to be the case.
Speaker 1: PlayStation ditching physical games unlikely to influence Nintendo's plans, however,
says analysts. Let's see here, Uh this from Chris Scullion
at VGC PlayStation's decision to stop releasing disc based games
won't have an impact on Nintendo's plans for this generation.
Market research firm Sircana has told VGC, let's see here,
I did skip the Xbox story.
Speaker 2: We'll get back to that here in a second.
Speaker 1: Sony announced on Wednesday that physical disc games will be
discontinued for replaystation consoles from January twenty twenty eight, and
that after the state.
Speaker 2: New games from all publishers will be digital only.
Speaker 1: But sharing his thoughts on the announcement with VGC, Circana
Senior director and video game industry advisor Matt Piscatela said
he thought the decision to move entirely away from physical
media would happen eventually, and that if Xbox follows suit
with Project Helix, it will likely mean switch to will
be the only system in this generation to have physical games,
And like, yeah, that seems like they're gonna have to
switch to for a long time now. And I don't
think they are going to suddenly mid generation cut those off.
I think it's gonna they'll keep doing that and just
kind of by default. Now, that's if you like physical
games that's the one shop in town still open. I
don't like people who have you know that this doesn't
do much for a lot of people who are like
I was building up a PlayStation collection. I want to
keep doing that. But you know, if you want to
keep having physical options, this is it.
Speaker 2: This is it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you were talking earlier grub about how PlayStation doesn't
factor in the consumer or the audience into some of
these decisions. I'm thankful that Nintendo doesn't factor anyone into
any of their decisions.
Speaker 2: Yes, now, they don't care.
Speaker 3: They are definitely marching to the beat of their own drum,
and I am so thankful for them by doing that.
And then, you know, maybe they'll give up physical media
a decade from now, because then they'll realize the moves
that everyone else was doing right.
Speaker 1: Examtly, like we could do that to are right. Yeah,
Like I don't heard about AI. Yeah, that'd be amazing
that come in with AI fifteen years from now. Their
next system probably goes digital only as well, but I
don't know, that's a ways off, so there's at least
some reprieve here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that is a ways off. And also
I feel like out of the big three, and we're
talking about PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo here. I feel like
Nintendo has been the most litigious.
Speaker 2: About piracy, so they definitely are.
Speaker 3: I feel like they may be more hesitant or slower
to move to all digital because of what that could
potentially open up for them.
Speaker 1: So they're also like the ones that are often the
biggest target of piracy as well, like the Pirate The
Pirates scene focuses on like, can we crack the switch?
Speaker 2: Can we crack the switch too?
Speaker 1: Can we get these emulators up and running, because that's
where the most demand is, that's where the most nostalgia is.
Oftentimes that's like the people doing this work, or people
are like I want to play Nintendo games.
Speaker 2: So Nintendo's been the.
Speaker 1: Focus there, so they'll always have a little bit more
pressure on that side of things than anyone else, although
of course it's a problem for all three of them.
Speaker 2: Let's switch back to this real quick.
Speaker 1: Xboxes reportedly planning a way for players to convert their
discs into digital copies. So if you're wondering, like, okay,
it doesn't sound like the PlayStation six is going to
have a disc draft, maybe Xbox can do the funniest thing.
I saw a bunch of people making that joke yesterday
jan like of like, hey do you want to borrow
a game on your Xbox and doing the Adam Boys
video that PlayStation did years ago. But now Xbox is
doing it. Does it sound like that's going to be
the case. Xbox is reportedly working on a way to
let players turn their disc copies of Xbox Series X
and Xbox One games into digital versions, as reported by
the Verge of the Future, which is reportedly code named
Disc two Digital with the numeral two in there is
being tested by internal Xbox testers at the moment. When
players insert a compatible disc and install, play and install
and play game as normal, they will then be granted
a digital entitlement for the game as if it had
been purchased on the Xbox Store instead. This means players
can then remove the disc and can continue to play
the game as if had been a digital purchase, with
all the existing benefits that entails. As such, the digital
version of the game is available for streaming, Xbox Cloud gaming,
all the other stuff whatever. Yes, streaming right where you
can really own your games. The report says the features
intended to work with Xbox Series X and Xbox One discs,
not Xbox three sixty or original Xbox games. To me,
that says you know what that means. That's like they
had a way of this working going back to the
launch of the Xbox One when they were considering ideas
like this. So there was some method of determining the
uniqueness of a disc built into the Xbox One and
the way they manufacture discs back then. And it's been latent,
just lying and wait until this moment. And now it's like, oh,
we have successfully moved the overton window the expectation of
the consumer. Most of them are buying digital. We led
the horse to water. Now it's time to spring the trap.
And the trap was built in the whole time. Excuse me,
that's crazy. I'm just realizing that, Sorry, everybody. The other
side of this, of course, Jan, is that it does
sound like Xbox is planning to go digital only for
the next Xbox, or at least the system will not
have a disk drive built in, which is effectively the
same thing.
Speaker 2: This idea of selling.
Speaker 1: A disk drive separately will at that point become an
extra hundred and fifty dollars purchase.
Speaker 2: They'll charge a premium for it, and it will.
Speaker 1: Just be for the biggest collectors if they even do
it at all, and people are just not going to
go out there and like make that like I'll just
play Fortnite on here without the disk drive. So yeah,
they planned this, they plotted it, They wanted to do
it originally, and then they had to like pretend that
they were fixed and they weren't going to try to
do something like this, and now.
Speaker 2: Here we are.
Speaker 1: They eventually get what they want, because that's how things go. Eventually,
the people with the money get what they want.
Speaker 3: Jan It's crazy work, greb. Do they mention anything about
what happens to the disc after you do that process
of convert converting it to a digital copy or getting
yourself a digital copy? Does that like burn the disc?
Head all? Does that? Right? It's dead?
Speaker 2: Is it? Like?
Speaker 3: Is it?
Speaker 1: Is it like they all secretly divis discs and they
like can self destruct or whatever. I don't think it
says exactly like to me, it sounds like it becomes useless.
In order to prevent widespread sharing of each game, the
digital entitlement will also be tied to each disc. This
means if players give their disc to a friend, trade
in or try to play it with a different Xbox profile.
The digital entitlement will swap over from account to account.
Discs will reportedly continue to work after they've been installed,
and players will only lose the entitlement to keep playing
if the disc is given to a friend or sold
to someone else.
Speaker 2: So okay, maybe it's not useless that they you could
still sell it to me.
Speaker 1: So it's like, wait, can I take the disc out
and it'll still work? Or am I just getting extra
features on top of this? Am I just getting Now
I can use it in the cloud as long as
it's in.
Speaker 2: My is it still checking the entitlement on the disc?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: And it sounds like maybe it's not, yeah, because you're
granted a digital entitlement, but I just don't know if
that means. I guess it's not the authentication. Clearly this
is talking about getting bonus features, so like we can
assume that is the you know, given, but whether or
not you can like take the discout and then put
it away or throw it away and just like now
I just have it. I'm not going to let anyone
else have it.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: It seems like this is not very well thought out yet,
and they've not announced this publicly. To be fair, this
is all reporting on kind of what's being tested right now.
Speaker 3: This is like a specific use case. But I could
see perhaps a couple right popping in a disc at
one part of their house and then doing this digital
download conversion thing and then putting that disc away, and
then their partner, significant other or child perhaps grabs the
disc puts it in their xbox. I don't know how
many houses have two xboxes nowadays, But then that original
copy goes kaputz. I think this is going to create
very interesting and frustrating situations.
Speaker 2: Grip.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's a good point of like, oh, they
found a way to like and let us share digital licenses,
like you know, we can if they have the disc,
you can give it to someone else. Now now they
can have the digital license. What if we could do
that with our digital licenses? What if I could resell
my digital library? Sounds like they have a solution for that,
but they won't actually let us do that.
Speaker 2: All.
Speaker 3: What would you say your Steam library would be valued.
Speaker 1: At a lot? I mean, because it's like you know,
it's yeah, a lot. I mean even like even if
you just include the games I purchased. Yeah, say, first
a lot of games. I think there is like a
tool that does this, and it was you know, it's
not five figures, Jan, I'll say that like, yeah, but
it's it's maybe mid four figures.
Speaker 2: It's quite a bit.
Speaker 1: Okay, Jay, did we ever take a break when we
have the digital hiccup? All right, let's let's just do
that now.
Speaker 2: All right, we're gonna go. We're gonna go to break
real quick. Everybody.
Speaker 1: If you want to skip this, you go to giant
bomb dot com, slash join and become a premium member
at free versions of the shows there. We'll be right back.
It's game this morning's welcome back. That's Channa chill. I'm
Jeff Grebb. We're just trying to stay happy, stay chipper
over here. The world tries to beat us down. But
I'll grab Jan's hand and we'll film all the wise
off this bitch, everybody, So just you hang in there.
Speaker 3: I didn't choose this grin.
Speaker 2: I don't give a damn.
Speaker 1: All right, PlayStation ditching physical games unlikely influenced Nintendo. We
did that one, so let's do this next one. All right,
it's the good news. Segment unannounced Metroid Ravenous rated in Brazil.
This is from sal Ramano at Gamatsu. The July twenty
twenty sixth edition of Brazil's basically official gazette of the Union,
where they say hey, here's the games that are being
rated published today, seems to have leaked the existence of
the unannounced Metroid Ravenous by Nintendo under the I'm not
going to read all this, but basically it's the rating board.
They have found some details. The title in Brazil is
Metroid Revenue Ravenous. The original title is also Metroid Ravenous.
The game's production here is twenty twenty six. Producer creator
is Nintendo of America, distributor is Nintendo of America. And
then there's some other stuff where there's content descriptors for
violence in a Metroid game. You know, this is the
basic stuff here. We don't know much else, but I'll
say Metroid Ravenous sounds like the kind of thing that is.
It sounds like a Nintendo title for a couple of reasons.
Jan it's a multiple in Tandra Ravenus, as in she
is insatiably hungry, which is something that you might have
to deal with if you suddenly turned into the thing
that she turns into at the end of Metroid Dread.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then if.
Speaker 1: You are a rabbitus you also have to use the
word raven and Raven Beek is a character in Metroid
as well.
Speaker 2: It was very cool.
Speaker 1: There could be like some implications of that boss fight
that happened in that game Bird you know, yes, birds
could be reading a bit too much into it. Yeah, right,
then there's the bird people and stuff like that. It's
a Nintendo title. I think that this game is real.
I think this is real and I am who really
really looking forward to it. Metroid Dread is a real
good one. Jane, did you did you ever play Dread?
Speaker 2: I can't read? Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, okay.
Speaker 3: Play Dread Love Dread. I think Dread was my real
first foray into like two D Metroid because didn't really
uh hang and stick with the previous titles, Not because
I didn't think they were good, just flavors were different
at the time. The perry in that game, Holy moly.
Also Samus. I don't know if I ever knew this
befo for Sam as sick as fuck.
Speaker 1: Turns out she's sick as fuck dude, especially in that
game that the characterization.
Speaker 3: Oh that first boss fight after like the scorpion looking
alien and then she just like slides under. Oh she
has a cool slide in that game. Yep, and just
boops the dude.
Speaker 1: Holy mo I am I'm looking forward to this and
that production year twenty twenty six. I am going to
read into that and just that that means that that
is a game that is coming out soon. You know,
they have like frequently sort of just drop these Metroid
games on us out of No, we're not necessarily always
shadow dropped, although they did shadow.
Speaker 2: Drop Metroid Prime Remaster.
Speaker 1: So I guess, like, man, do we get to like
a September direct and they announced this game and then
it's out before the end of the year. Jan Again,
I'm trying to get my hopes up, So just tell me,
tell me what I want to hear.
Speaker 3: When they say that publisher and developer is Nintendo of
a America. Yeah, would that just mean like a studio
that like Nintendo owns, that isn't based out of Japan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is all just so it's it's producer, slash creator,
Nintendo of America, distributor, Nintendo of America. That is just
them filling out the paperwork with Nintendo of Americas are
the ones taking care of this, and Nintendo of America
covers that the Americas. And then and this is certainly
a game that is almost I would say there's a
strong chance it's just made by the team that did Dread,
which is I.
Speaker 2: Can't remember the name right off the top of my head.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's probably the Mercury Steam. Yeah, yeah, thank
you Mercury Steam. That's very likely.
Speaker 3: What's happening, you know, for folks that missed it. Grub
Sean Dan and her dear friend Abby Russell did a
little handheld hangout stream yesterday talking about different devices. I
think I might I got an analog pocket laying around.
Maybe I gotta just like bust open one of those
og Metroid games.
Speaker 2: And play Zero Mission.
Speaker 1: If you haven't played Zero Mission, god, that is a
fantastic game. And then after that, if you play Fusion,
it's like Fusions is a change of pace in how
it like doles out its content a little bit and
it's very refreshing, especially after Zero Mission. So play some
zero mission, all right, play zero mission? Hell yeah, everyone's
telling you to do so in chat as well, and
you got to give into peer pressure, Bud. Annie Musha
Way of the Sword release date has moved forward. More
good news in a crowded September. This is from Jordan Midler.
Capcom has announced that Annie Musha Way of the Sword
will now launch three weeks earlier than previously announced, amidst
a crowded September schedule. The game was previously planned to
release September twenty fifth, will now release on PlayStation five,
Xbox Series X and SPC, and Nintendo Switch To on
September fourth.
Speaker 2: So this seems to be the move.
Speaker 1: Jan I was kind of like people are going to
try to like go in that slot between Call of
Duty and Grand Theft Autus six in early November, and
not a lot of doing that yet, but many seem
to be saying, like, let's try to spread out from
that crowd at the end of September a little bit.
Speaker 2: And this makes me much more.
Speaker 1: Likely to play this game, I think, Jenks, there were
some other ones where I'm like, yeah, I know, I'm
interested in Anni Musha. It's Capcom, they got their shit together.
There's just a couple other games like I'll play those first.
And then this easily could have been lost in the shuffle.
So just personally speaking selfishly, this is great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent grub Also, I might have been
too young at the time, but I don't think I
was fully aware of the breath and popularity of Onie
Musha when it was originally coming out. That original series
of games. I don't know how popular it was. I
know they got to like four or five titles and
then they had a Smash Brothers ripoff that I really enjoyed.
Oh yeah, but I don't know how popular it was.
So to give this more room to breathe and less
populated playing field for other games and people having to
decide where to go and what to play, I think
ultimately is going to benefit one Musha also hopefully going
to continue a banger of a year for Capcom.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean kind of like an all timer year,
especially like like if you've taken Degree at Difficulty Jan, like,
if you add that into the mix. It's like these
days it's harder than ever to make a giant game,
and for them to put out three giant games, one
of which a new IP, one of which a more
than worthy successor to a beloved franchise and sort of
like everyone says, oh, this is the future, this is
they got it and then bringing back on a musha
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: Like that? Is?
Speaker 1: That is impressive stuff. Yeah, looking forward to this. I
need to play this demo. Everyone in chat is like
talking it up, Sam. They had a lot of fun
with it, and I've not touched it. Is it on
switch to everybody? I would like to check out the
switch to version at least as a demo. That could
be cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Star Fox opens number one in Japan.
Speaker 2: Jen.
Speaker 1: This is not like we talked about with the UK one,
where it's say it double the sales of the last one.
Speaker 2: These are a little bit more modest.
Speaker 1: Fibitts Wu's latest Japanese retail chart has star Fox opening
at number one with around forty two thousand copies sold physically,
so no digital at whatsoever here, although you can probably
assume it's more than double that.
Speaker 2: Let's see here.
Speaker 1: Switched to hardware sold another twenty five thousand units, blah
blah blah. PLA PS five families sold around ten thousand,
and the Xbox series hardware sold three hundred and sixty one.
Mario Kart World is still near three million physical copies
in Japan, and Pokemon Pacopeia has crossed one million physical copies,
So by comparison, you could see like star Fox isn't
playing with the big boys in Japan in that way,
but that is just that's one market, just physical, and
it does seem like star Fox has like maybe picked
up elsewhere outside of Japan, and I think Nintendo's like
okay with this as long as it does, like as
long as it seems like it's on the upswing, and
I think this is still better than star Fox has
done recently, even in Japan, and then it does seem
to be fine in its audiences in you know, in
the West, like in America in Europe. So yeah, I
like this is not like, oh it's a closed book
where Okay, no, star Fox is one hundred percent back.
But I don't I'm not taking this to mean, oh
it's on shaky ground either, jan I think this is
still a good result for this game.
Speaker 3: What do you think, Yeah, one hundred percent grab. I
feel like, you know, folks and shadow pointing this out.
I don't think I've seen a like particularly negative harsh
review on the game now and this is also extending
to people that don't have the same level of nostalgia
for Star Fox sixty four. I've seen people in reviews
just being overwhelmingly positive and on the game, So I
hope this is a good sign for things to come
in the Star Fucks universe.
Speaker 1: Absolutely real quick, I was looking at like late August
now that since this is moving to September, or since
Animush is moving to September, what is around there? Okay,
Star Wars Zero Company, there's still a couple games coming
out in like the weeks around that.
Speaker 2: But it's not as bad.
Speaker 1: It's not as bad Halloween that Halloween games coming out.
Speaker 2: A couple of days later.
Speaker 3: There was a September game that we talked, we were
talking about that I realized was coming out in September,
and then I started getting a little bit of the
sweats grub of having a.
Speaker 1: Turn through that We're in that moment right now where
it's like, Okay, we could catch up on some games
if we wanted to, and instead of it's like, let's
send you into the middle of nowhere and we'll keep
ourselves busy. Yeah, we'll just do that instead.
Speaker 3: Oh, Fire Emblem was the game Fire Emblem was the game?
Speaker 1: Oh yes, oh man? Yeah, okay, yes, God, I forgot that.
I forgot about that. I was definitely what I want
to play quick story grub.
Speaker 3: I was at the park celebrating Pride with a bunch
of friends, and I got commandeered into a situation with
a bunch of half naked strangers if I knew anything
about Fire Emblem, because they had heard that I work
in games, and you know, when that situation comes up,
I think you make the game and that you know
everything around.
Speaker 2: So I how do I be level three? What game
are you talking about? Yeah?
Speaker 3: So I just had to talk to a bunch of
half naked men saying like, I don't make Fire Emblem.
I don't know anything. It's coming out in September.
Speaker 1: As Bondos and wife. Who's so everyone can relax? Everyone relax,
yeah man, firemblom Fortunes. We have September seventeenth. Marvel's Wolverine
is September fifteenth, Right is that what that is?
Speaker 2: God? Man?
Speaker 3: Okay, everyone on stap August pick a game and that's
all you're doing. You don't get to play anything else.
Speaker 2: Yep, exactly.
Speaker 1: That might that might be the move all right, let's okay, Yeah,
that's the headlines. We talked about the headlines. Let's start
wrapping the show up. We did have a pull question
from yesterday, Jen, I'm gonna refresh get the most up
to date results, and let's see here. Okay, do you
still buy video games on physical discs?
Speaker 2: Yes? Or no?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go no, although you know I meant to
mention this earlier, Jan, I don't buy physical This is
still a travesty because this is less competition on digital
game prices, so we're going to all be locked in
and we all.
Speaker 2: Lose because of this.
Speaker 1: Fifty eight percent said yes, forty two percent said no.
I think we know where our audience that geez, guys, man,
this is Yeah, this is an actual calamity for the
way people have been playing video games in a scene
like ours, and I just I feel for everybody.
Speaker 3: And yeah, that's like five thousand votes almost split down
the middle there, grub. Yeah, I feel our audience is paid.
I'm in a similar situation situation to you. Part of
the reason I don't engage with physical games is purely
a space issue. But yeah, this does create a monopoly
where someone like Sony can charge whatever they want for
however long they want.
Speaker 2: I mean, look at thettendo. Yeah right, exactly right.
Speaker 1: That that is part of what Nintendo's done is like
made their products still feel special and it's just con
sent on that shelf for sixty dollars seventy dollars for
years and years and years. And I think Sony's trying
to manufacture that by controlling the digital space where it
has been easier to keep prices higher. Someone someone like
showed like was it dishonored to you were something like
that was sixty dollars still digitally and you could get
it for like fifteen dollars on a number of second
hand stores mostly. But again that's competition. That's what they
were competing with. All right, let's see here. H Okay,
that does it for the poll question. No new pole question,
because it is going to be time for the bomb twelve.
It's Thursday, I know, but there's no show tomorrow. We're
taking the day off. We'll get to that here in
a second. On Giant bombs. Speaking to Giant Bomb Jan
it is voicemail dump truck today, right, that's what else
we're doing.
Speaker 3: I believe. So I have to go collect those after this,
but we were doing another special thing after this that
is recorded.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, but there's plenty of cool stuff like
that videos going up. You should watch the Travelog still man,
that was fun.
Speaker 3: Yes, shots, that's a grub. I what I was editing
that Travelog grub. I realized I shot one thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's like it worked like I was having fun.
Like I could tell you, we're busy, so it's like
like while we were there, I'm like, I have my
can in my pocket. I'm just gonna record what I can.
And I'm glad it worked out. I'm glad because it's
like I always get home and I'm like, man, I
hope we could kind of get the travelog done, and
then you get it done and it's still fantastic. It's like,
oh yeah, look at all these fun times we had.
So yeah, people should go check that stuff out. Also,
I get while we're talking about travelogs, go watch min
Max camping and mostly any of you guys to do
this so that we can accurately judge these men for
their crimes against nature.
Speaker 2: Not Leo.
Speaker 3: Leo Vader is the sweetest doors.
Speaker 1: Leo is the watcher. They're observing on our behalf, our ambassador.
Leo's sweet and doesn't deserve to be lumped in with them.
Speaker 3: You're correct, Yeah, go ahead, definitely go check out the
first episode of the new season of This Is The Run.
Sewer Shark Mikey is piloting That next episode is coming
out Saturday, and we're hoping to release them on a
Tuesday Saturday cadence. Yes, moving forward, we do have a
couple in the bank, and yeah, we talked about the
Saturday is the Run. Saturday is the Run, so look
forward to that. Dan and I went to North Carolina
to go visit an audience member's house that should be
coming out tomorrow. All the fingers crossed. The export goes
good with that because Premiere is great grub.
Speaker 1: Premiere, man, that's all you see about Premiere today is
like p pro is gonna kill me people.
Speaker 2: It's getting like worse every week.
Speaker 3: Yes, and then gosh. We also did Escape the Back
Rooms with Lucy James that should be going up this
weekend as well. Fun fun times Grub. The thing that
I've noticed whenever we have a prox chat game is
you always go running the other way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, look I do. I'm trying to be better, but
I'm not gonna can't change. I'm it is a thing
that maybe I've talked about my therapist with a desperate
need for autonomy, and who knows what that's about. It's
hard to figure out. All right, let's see here, Hey,
let's wrap up the week. It's time for the Bomb twelve. Everybody,
these are the twelve games that really matter to people
who are really playing video games. And we got ourselves
to chart here, starting with number twelve, Lego Batman Legacy
of the Dark Night making its way back onto the
Bomb twelve.
Speaker 3: Hell yeah.
Speaker 1: Number eleven Rip Cruising Blast that got delisted because of
Lamborghini's just stupid, just so stupid. Put the game back up.
Cruising Blast is an excellent game. You could still get
it physically for like twenty dollars everybody, So like, it's
still buy physical games before the cops come take them
away from you. Go get Cruising Blast. Number ten Rhythm
Heaven Groove. The game just went live yesterday. Usually this
is how it goes. The game comes out, it's a
few votes because people pick it up right away and
then view on the website. Oh yes, and there's a
review on the web website. I wrote that up. Everybody,
we'd like to find time to still do a quick
look if we can, but running out of time over here,
so we'll see what we can put together. I will
also try to get a Bomb twelve ready for Mike
while I'm gone, so we could see if Rhythm Heaven
Groove could still make number one. Next week we'll see
number nine Fox Quest two, it's back focks Quest two, okay,
f u c k Apostrophe s Quest two.
Speaker 2: Ah, okay.
Speaker 1: I think we someone needs to play this game, chan.
I don't know what it is, but it's on Steam
and one of us needs to play it.
Speaker 2: Number nine or excuse me. Number eight Yoshi and the
Mysterious Book.
Speaker 1: Number seven, Double O seven, First Light, number six, Final
Fantasy seven, Rebirth, number five, Pragmata, number four, Destiny two.
Number three is Marathon, Number two is Mina the Hollower,
and number one is star Fox. And there's the Bomb
twelve for the week. Everybody, Like I said, I'll try
to put together a new Bomb twelve for next week. Well,
I'm gone and we'll let might handle that.
Speaker 2: So yeah.
Speaker 1: Go to John bomb dot com scroll down check out
the bomb twelve, gaze upon its glory, and then on
the left there is a vote here buttoned. Click the
vote here button when you're ready to submit your game
to be collated for next week's Bomb twelve. We'll get
all those put together and then we'll come back and
talk about the twelve games.
Speaker 2: That really matter to people who are really playing videos.
Speaker 1: All right, Janichoa, thank you so much for hanging out
with me today and talking about video games.
Speaker 2: Man, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Go enjoy your vacation, grub well earned. Thanks man, I
appreciate it.
Speaker 2: I will.
Speaker 1: I will miss you boys, though I'll look forward to
get back do some more stuff with you. But in
the meantime, I'm gonna relax. Thank you everybody.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's always one of those things where like, ah, you know,
I like doing the show and I'll miss everybody, but
you all make me feel like, oh I did earn
a little bit of a break. So thank you for
being that way. I really do appreciate it. All Right,
we're gonna get out of here. You're the best audience
in gaming.
Speaker 2: I meet it.
Speaker 1: Until next time, have a good one, take care of yourself,
and goodbye.
Speaker 3: Ah