Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to Games Mornings with Me Jeff Grubb,
your host from GiantBomb dot com.
Speaker 2: I'm back. Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 1: In this episode, we're gonna be talking about raising money
while making Oopsie's and a physical game pops off while
the rest of the industry prepares for the all digital future.
It's gonna be a good one because we have Jason
Fonelli on the show. Jason, it's a Monday to Friday
Jason Finelli connection. That's the way we like to do
it here. Thanks for being back on the show. I
never left the chair.
Speaker 3: I just sat up here for four days and now
I can be free to do something else. But no,
great to see you back. Shout outs to Mike Manatti
who did hold down the Ford. Yes, thank you so
much in your absence while you went and enjoyed some
time with your family as well. You should glad to
see you came back to immediate horrors as it pertains
to the package on your doorstep. Everything you were saying
about your wife's reaction into this costume just makes me
more and more excited to see what's going on there.
Speaker 1: You can't figure it out like I'm like what would
scare her so much? I don't know anywhere we're talking
about Blake Club. Everybody my Blake Club costume arrived. Steff
always kind of gets it out, gets it ready and
sets it aside without me seeing it. And she did
it like as soon as we got home, and she's like,
you can't come in here, Like what is she talking about?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, oh, Blake Club. And yeah, she's, like
I said, distraught.
Speaker 1: It's not just like she's scared, like there's something that
is upsetting.
Speaker 2: Her more than usual. So I don't know.
Speaker 3: No, yeah, I don't know anything about it. I have
not been tipped off. I'm going to find out with
everybody else that I'm very excited to do.
Speaker 1: So it's absurd. I don't know why I deserve any
of this. These idiots got into a battle and it's like,
you know, this war between two countries and they're like,
all right, let's let's put this down and just go
attack this guy.
Speaker 2: For no reason. I don't think it's fair.
Speaker 1: Fuck you, Switzerland, They're coming for you. Yeah, come on, Switzerland,
ever do wrong? All right, let's see here. You know,
what how do we do this show? I think what
we do now is say hey, thanks for watching. Let's
explain ourselves. This is giant Bomb. We're a bunch of
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It gets you ad free versions of our shows, it
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you that satisfaction of knowing that you're putting your money
where your mouth is and we can keep doing this
thing as far as this show goes. Most weekdays, I
Jeff Grubb, will help piece your gaming life back together.
That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our
own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the
input of a bona fide expert who will make me
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Speaker 2: On giant bomb dot com.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: Do you say loutube all week? I hope you did?
He said, at least once? Yeah, okay, good, at least once.
Speaker 1: We have a lot to get into, So let's start
the morning mess with Games Done Quick raises two point
four million dollars. That's a big number, then cancels in
S and K sponsorship after community backlash. I kind of
vaguely saw this as I think I was driving, Jason.
I know you had some thoughts, but kind of let's
let's break it down real quick. Summer Games Done Quick
did conclude after raising two million, four hundred eighty seven
hundred one dollars for Doctors without Borders through a week
of speed running hour. Hours after celebrating that result, GDQ
announced that it was excited to partner with S and
K on a sponsored Metal Slug thirtieth anniversary showcase. The
announcement immediately drew criticism because approximately ninety six percent of
S and K is owned by Electronic Gaming Development Company,
a subsidiary of the Mohammed Bin Salman Foundation, which is
the King of Saudi Arabia. Critics argued that the sponsorship
conflicted with gdq's stated support for LGBTQ plus inclusion and
human rights because of the Saudi government's record on those issues.
Less than three hours after announcing the partnership, GDQ stopped
the sponsored stream, said it would not accept S and
K's money, and promised not to work with the company again.
GDQ and acknowledged that it had failed to properly examine
the sponsorship's owner, and said that it would strengthen its
vetting process going forward.
Speaker 2: Jason I said, knew you had some opinions on this.
Speaker 1: How are you feeling about all this as it was
developing and how do you feel about it now?
Speaker 3: Well, first, I just want to say that raising two
point four million dollars dollars with doctors without borders should
be the headline.
Speaker 2: That's what the bigger thing would be, far than bigger
thing here.
Speaker 3: Yes, it is quite far, quite by far the bigger
thing and what they should be selling brand for. It
was an absolute week of catharsis for the gaming community
to go and sit and watch these runs and forget
about the rest of the industry as it was burning
down around them. The goodwill that this group has built
over the decades plus decade plus of them doing this
is more than a parent. So then the next day
they had a hiccup. It is what a soccer a
football enthusiast would call an own goal. Yeah it is,
and there's no getting around it. But they immediately fixed
it to the point where they, as you said, shut
it down midstream. Right at one point, there was a
video on SNK's official YouTube channel because they were co
streaming this thing, that said we are canceling this because
we cannot accept your money knowing where it's coming from.
On SNK's YouTube that is not nothing that takes a ball,
yes right at That video since been deleted because of
course it has. And then they immediately turned around. They
read the writing on the wall and they fixed it.
That has to be applauded. Any other company with Lestruthers
would have taken the one time partnership been like oop,
see sorry guys, but we got the money now, and
that would have been at These guys shut it down
e fuckingmediately, and that has to be applauded. I know
some folks involved with GDQ behind the scenes. I spoke
to them. They said, and I believe them that they
did not know about SNK's ownership. And some people might
think that that's a little weird, right, They may say,
how could they not know that?
Speaker 2: But let me ask you a question.
Speaker 3: There is this thing that they may not have to
worry about that all of us in this journalism, game
industry following circle have to be and that's Paul being
terminally online.
Speaker 2: They don't have to do that.
Speaker 3: Their focus is on the runners who bring them the games,
their folks us is on the charities that they're going
to be supporting. They are a non profit. They have
a whole separate set of ideals. So if they're if
the people who are making these decisions see SNK Metal Slug,
they're gonna go, holy shit, that's a legacy brand bringing
us a legacy game for a big anniversary. They're going
to jump on that for the opportunity to gain a
little bit of extra money to keep their message going.
They're not going to Google. Hmm huh, I wonder who
owns SNK. Maybe we should figure that out. That they
knew sk minds. I mean, they knew s and k is.
Speaker 1: They're the company made those cool games, you know, for
last year, you're them.
Speaker 3: It's the game. It's the people who made metal slugs.
So it makes perfect sense. They're not thinking about the
things that you or I or other people know because
they're thinking about how can we use this to further.
Speaker 2: Our our charity? Right? Yeah, so yes it is an
own goal.
Speaker 3: Yes it looked bad, but the immediate reversal coupled with
the immediate apology to me, they I've earned enough goodwill,
as I said, to be able to I don't want
to say get away with it, but to have to
shown the contrition that they did that we take them
at their word.
Speaker 2: This is not a big bad.
Speaker 3: Corporation saying that we're sorry we laid off thirty two
hundred people. That's not what this is. This is a
group of people running a charity who made a mistake
and immediately fixed it. And that brings me to my
second point. If you were one of those people, if
you're in this chat right now and you were one
of those people who said nothing they've ever done is
good because of this, they're dead to me, fuck you
kind of simple, fuck you man. That So I don't
mean to keep interrupting you. It just really keeps me
up because the like, they're humans doing human things, making
a human mistake.
Speaker 2: It happened, they fixed it.
Speaker 3: It's over for you to then say that hundreds of
there are tens of millions of dollars that they've raised
for prevent cancer and doctors without borders doesn't mean a
damn thing because of one sponsored stream. I hope your
loyalties to your friends are not as flimsy as they
are to this. I bet your fun at parties too.
Fuck off, That's all I gotta say.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, we like it's it's also like the
easiest thing in the world, right to just be like, oh,
I did not raise millions of dollars, but I will
sit in judgment of the people doing that.
Speaker 2: Look, we know how this goes.
Speaker 1: You build two point four million bridges, you take one,
you know, a thing from MBS, and you are a
friend of MBS. You're not a bridge builder, right Like, Yeah,
Like that's that's how it always goes.
Speaker 2: It's so easy for that to wipe this stuff away.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I do think like we could be a
little bit more mature about it and just sit back
and think about it a little bit more and and
be like, ah, I got nothing, nothing's gonna wipe away
all the good this this, this team is done at
least nothing.
Speaker 2: Of this level.
Speaker 1: And they corrected it fast enough. I just feel like
we can be adults about it.
Speaker 3: And then even if they did google like who owns it?
It's owned, They're gonna see it's owned by Electric Electronic
Gaming Development Company, because that's how the bid Salmon marachine
has white not white well you know what I mean,
like sanitize the name.
Speaker 1: Of their company, trying to do yes, yes.
Speaker 3: Yes, Electronic Gaming Development Company. It's a generic name, so
if they have to go the next level to find
that out. It just it breaks my heart that after
a week of such goodwill and good vibes and good things,
the trans writes the Wind and the crowd, the amazing
heartfelt message from Spike Vegeta, after that Gaza Mini doct
that Doctors without Borderstone, that anybody is going to the
one thing that things that people are going to think
about first about summer games done quick, at least for
a little while. Is this controversy right after And it
fucking sucks. I feel really bad for them.
Speaker 1: And now it's and I again I get well how
this happens. People are like living their lives feeling under
assault in every way from every corner, and and they
just want to feel like everyone's you know, the people
they believe in are on their side, and so any
small betrayal feels like a complete betrayal. And and so
it's tough. But I do think that we kind of
get into this we I don't know, we get into
the situation where we see people slip up, and it's like,
let's this is someone that will listen to me. This
is someone where where I can I know I can
hurt them. So let's make it clear, don't betray me,
because this really does hurt. And people should be able
to criticize who they want and and people should be
able to say, like if they're disappointed in something. But
it's also it also feels like we know that these
massive corporations won't listen, and we know that things are
going to keep getting worse and worse, and we know
that economic inequality is as bad as bad as it's
been in our lifetimes, and it looks like it's only
going to get worse than the next little bit. And
that's feeling all of these problems and all these not
just anxieties but true, true problems that people are having
around the world. And when we feel like someone will listen,
I get it's like, Okay, I'm gonna go make a
difference here. It often in backfires, I think it often
it doesn't like accomplish what we're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2: It sort of just keeps us apart.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I just want to be clear when in
the moment when it was happening, people were expressing their disappointment,
that's not my problem. They you had every justification to
be disappointed.
Speaker 2: I was disappointed. I thought it's corst But the.
Speaker 3: Way that they turned it around I think shows the
quality of not only the organization but the people running it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think so that's all. That's it.
Speaker 1: Uh Yeah, two point four million dollars raise and they're
gonna they're gonna keep it going.
Speaker 2: This is a it's just such a great I mean.
Speaker 1: I've been to I went to awesome Games Done Quick,
the last one, uh in Pittsburgh, and it's just such
an amazing thing. It's really it does come down to
the people, the runners and the work that those teams
over at GDQ do to make sure that those people
can be on display and do their thing.
Speaker 2: And feel comfortable and safe.
Speaker 1: Is incredible and should still be the headline, like above
everything else and above sometimes the money raised. It's like
this is a strong positive outlet for a lot of
cool people who do not have awesome outlets for them
to show their their capabilities and their passions and a
lot of other aspects of life. And the atmosphere is
unrivaled at a gd.
Speaker 3: They do, and they do a lot more than just that.
They do Games Done Queer, they do the the the
black led streams. The name is eluding me at the moment.
They showed the mole at the end of the summer
Games Done Quick. It's not just a d g Q,
A GDQ and s GDQ. They do hot fixes throughout
the year, which is why I think how they were
pitching this one. If I can flash black in a
flash there it is thank you. Yeah, they're worth supporting
because of what they do. And you know, were none
of us perfect. They had they had a hiccup, they
fixed it.
Speaker 2: It's what we.
Speaker 3: Should see in organizations like this. I really I get
nothing else to say. Sorry, I kind of took over
the show what's next?
Speaker 1: Please, man, I'm still on island time, Jason. You can
do what you need to do to help me get
back in the flow of things. All right, let's get
to the next one. UK retail group condemns PlayStation decision
to stop making discs. Man that this is not going
away for Sony.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 1: This is from Chris Scollen at FGC, the UK trade
organization for Physical and Digital Entertainment Sales, has criticized Sony's
decision to stop making disc versions of PlayStation games. So
it announced earlier this month that it will stop producing
physical discs for all PlayStation five games during or starting
in January twenty twenty eight, and that only games released
in twenty twenty seven or earlier will be able to
reprint physical discs now. The Entertainment Retailers Association, which defines
its role as championing the retailers and digital services who
connect music, video and game creators with UK fans, has
condemned the decision, as reported by the Game Business, saying
it harms players and retailers. PlayStation's announcement that major games
will no longer be available on disc is a triumph
of corporate convenience.
Speaker 2: Over consumer choice.
Speaker 1: CEO Kim Bailey said in a statement, every year, millions
of gamers will still choose to buy physical copies because
they value true ownership. A disc can be shared with family,
traded in, collected, preserved, and crucially still played years from now.
A download license often offers none of those freedoms. According
to the er, whose partners include Game, which is a
retailer in the UK, HMV ASDA, Morrison's consumer data shows
that a quarter of those under twenty five used discs,
and a total disc based games market was valued at
over three hundred million pounds last year, demonstrating that that
there remains a substantial and committed audience for box games.
And I think this is where we kind of like
how the story.
Speaker 2: Keeps evolving, Jason, Where.
Speaker 1: Like, early on this was happening, and I think a
lot of people remembered a couple of numbers in their
head of like, isn't it like ninety percent digital versus
ten percent physical? And it's like we broke those numbers
down a little bit more. Everyone started looking a little
bit closer, and it's like, yeah, that's like all games,
including games that are digital only, and sometimes that includes
DLC and some other stuff.
Speaker 2: When you really look at a split.
Speaker 1: For any game that has a has a physical and
a digital option, and the physical option it was widely
available at launch, it's much closer to fifty percent and
and and there's a variation in between where it's like
sometimes it's it's eighty twenty and the eighties the digital,
and sometimes it's sixty forty and the sixty is the physical,
And it's like, okay, wait, so wait what then why
is this happening? And it really comes down to the problem.
I mean, it comes that back to that same quote
Jason that we mentioned on almost every episode of the
CFO of PlayStation a few months back, saying that the
pathway forward for now is to make more money from
the audience that already exists on for PlayStation, monetizing them
more and more, and that means getting a higher profit
margin from them. And and that does mean let's cut
out the disc, let's cut out the red tailor, let's
go all PlayStation network, all PlayStation store. And if we
do that, we're gonna see somewhere between three to ten
percent increase in profit margin. I'd say, oh, okay, so
we're doing all of this so you could squeak out
a few extra percentage points of growth. And the answer
just flat out is yes. So gaming's gonna get worse
so that they can find some area to make.
Speaker 2: A little bit more money.
Speaker 1: And I like, I think I said this on a
show with Sean before I left that it's like, man,
why does it feel like we have no say in
the way our lives go? Why does it feel like
we like we all want something, even those of us
that are digital.
Speaker 2: I I'm all digital.
Speaker 1: I want the physical to remain because it creates price
competition in a way that you just won't have if
it does go away. Uh, that's what I want. It's
what the majority of people seem to want. And yet
the majority of people wanting something has nothing to do
with the reality that we're gonna get and it feels
like what can we do? And on PlayStation side of things,
they're planning JA is to wait this out. That's the reporting.
They're like, we're just gonna let the storm pass. We're
not gonna like say anything else, We're just gonna kind
of stick to this and let it pass.
Speaker 2: And that is a hubrist we've seen before, and it's
a hubos.
Speaker 1: We've seen backfire repeatedly in this industry specifically. How do
you think this is playing out? What do you think
happens next?
Speaker 3: I think I think ultimately if I had to predict,
and maybe this is glass half full, but I do
not think we get to twenty twenty eight without the
reversing course. And I don't know if it's going to
take litigation for or federal not necessarily American federal, but
federal action somewhere else in the world where it becomes
unfeasible for them to do discs in some places and
not do it in others. It's either all or nothing,
and they have to do it there. You know what
I'm saying, because as they mentioned here and as mentioned here,
it's collectibility, it's sharing with her family, its ownership. But well,
that's the and some people choose to buy physical copies.
Some people have to buy physical copies because the infrastructure
is just not there. They could want to download, like
imagine someone on PlayStation downloading Call of Duty in a
place where internet is like not what it is in
an urban area, like in the middle of the farmland, right,
it could take them three days because those games are
one hundred and twenty friggin gigs. I'm being facetious. That's
a bit of an exaggeration, but it this is a
real thing. You are basically cutting out a portion of
your audience for what three to ten percentage points of profit,
like you said, on data that you have apparently fudged.
As you said earlier, it's not quite as clear cut
as you're making it out to be. So they're going
to keep taking these hits. Eventually, those hits are going
to start coming from an official place, from some official places,
if the world ever, you know, it's going to take
a lot, and this is the last half full. Like
I said, I am probably very much in the minority
in this opinion, but I strongly believe that this is
not actually going to happen because I think people have
a very short attention span now right, it's very clear
that the controversy of the moment happens and then it
goes away. This is not going away. Yeah, it has
not gone away. I don't think it has any chance
of going away.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's it's it's the exact sort
of equivalent of the moment that Microsoft revealed the Xbox
One and it's some and in some ways it could
be a lot worse. The problem is the issue that
here's where it's like I'm like, I'm with you up
to a point and then I diverge. Here, We're just
gonna skip to this next story. We'll come back to
God War here in a moment. Xbox could reveal just
to Digital this week. This is from Darren Bonfius at GameSpot.
The future is looking increasingly increasingly digital for next gen
video game consoles, but one method that might ease the transition,
excuse me, is a disc to digital service that allows
user to bring to bring their libraries with them. We
talked about this before I left the side of this
concept of you get a digital sort of certification, authentication
that you can use once you after you put the
disk in your system, and now you kind of own
it digitally until that disk appears in someone else's system.
That's the rumored way it's going to work. Obviously, this
is born out of the original sort of Xbox one
launch where they had a way of marking discs so
they knew which one was which, and they were going
to take entitlements away from you. They were going to
prevent you from selling the disc. So all that stuff
is still lying in wait in the background, and I'm
waiting to see the other shoe drop of, Like the
disc to digital sounds really promising. Is it really going
to be the best version it can be? But whatever,
I want to talk about this in conjunction with SO
Back in twenty thirteen, it was right where where Xbox
reveals the Xbox One and PlayStation four comes out or
place PlayStation comes out and says the PlayStation four is
the exact opposite. We have disc sharing and you can
sell your games and all this stuff. They were there
to counter punch. The question for me is Xbox, for
all of its issues and all of its problems, they
do seem to want these wins, and that's what fueled
them to make some games exclusive again. They listen to
some idiots online who want the console wars to keep going.
Despite the fact that both these companies Biggs investors are
the same black Rock and Vanguard and stuff like that.
It's like, man, you guys do not realize what you're
fighting over. It's just the same company. But whatever is
Xbox when they announce this going to say anything about
the future of physical I don't know.
Speaker 2: That they are.
Speaker 1: If they do, though, if they come out and say, look,
we're gonna give you just the digital and yeah, blah
blah blah. But we also promised to never stop making discs,
which again I don't know if they're going to do that.
I don't think they're going to do that, but if
they did, it would fall in line with this desire
to get these wins. And if they do so, I
think that is the counter punch that causes Sony to
be like, oh okay, this is not going to go away,
because it's going to be something our you know, kind
of one remaining competitor will keep coming back to and
hitting us on, especially as we are about to launch
a new system and when people are faced with the
decision to make to buy a PS six or a Helix.
This does feel like it can move the needle just
enough for enough people that they have to address it.
But what do you think the chances are that Xbox
is actually going to do that, because I think it's
pretty low.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, when you frame it that way, I
would agree with you that if it would take something
like an Xbox CounterPunch to do that, But I don't know, man,
that desire to be as happy and PR winnings as
as strong as it is at Xbox, they might just
think about doing something like that, or at least framing
disc to digital in a way that makes it seem
like physical is not going away, you know, it's just
however they spin this digit disc to digital system, however
it works. I could see them doing that only because
they need the PR victory after the layoffs that already happened,
the layoffs are still coming and all the other nonsense.
I think their desire to be uh liked may cause
them to do something like this, you know what I mean.
I maybe twenty five percent one in four chance. I'm
not saying it's ninety nine percent definitely gonna happen. But
I do see a future where that need supersedes anything else,
and they see an opportunity to CounterPunch and they pivot
and they take it.
Speaker 2: That is feasible to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And people point out, yeah, Helix is mostly done.
Can't really change the plans. Now, I will remind you
Xbox one was announced like it was there, and they
had all these plans in place, and then they had
to go in there and change everything back so they
could have the discs work the way that they used to,
and it was it came in very hot and they
had to like adjust on the fly last minute as
they are landing the plane. And so they've done this
before to to try to like fix an air that
they made.
Speaker 2: I think that this would be.
Speaker 1: This would be the situation where if they made a
last minute decision to change it to CounterPunch and have
a chance at making the Xbox brand mean something again,
and this is their last chance to do that. I like,
if I were in charge, that I would do this.
This is like not only is it like okay, like
we will get a bunch of big pr wins, which
again we seem to have like a surprising amount of
care and getting those a surprising desire to get those.
But if Xbox is to be eventually spun off or
sold as like some other brand other than like the
Call of Duties and the minecrafts that get left behind,
one thing that will make it like more valuable to
a potential investor or whatever or whoever's going to buy
it is if there is an audience still buying games
there and uh, if you promise to never stop selling
physical games Now, there's obviously a lot of problems with that.
Optical drives are going to be harder and harder to get,
they are going to be more expensive. We aren't making
a ton of those. But Microsoft can solve that. They
can put they're putting all their money in building data centers.
Take just some of that money and say we're going
to buy one of the companies that's producing optical drives,
and we'll keep doing that forever, Like we will never
stop making discs or switch for the next system. You
can be like, okay, we'll sell an external disk drive.
We'll do our best to keep making those, but we'll
switch to to game cards the way that Nintendo.
Speaker 2: Has game key cards.
Speaker 1: Game key cards right cards were already to settle for
game key cards. It's based on this. So it's like, yeah,
they need to find something.
Speaker 2: Now. Again, I don't think they will.
Speaker 1: I'm on the I'm with you where it's like one
in four chance, one in five chants. I am on
the other side of fifty percent, and so I don't
think that they will.
Speaker 2: But they should.
Speaker 1: They absolutely should, and it would it would make a
big difference here.
Speaker 3: From a cold corporate perspective. They could sell two consoles,
one with a disc and one without.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean yes, and it's uh, you know, and
the disc trip doesn't have to be built in. They
could sell it separately. But again, just guarante say the words.
We guarantee we will always have a physical option and
your discs will always work and and well, and we'll
keep selling discs of our games, and we'll offer away
for third parties to keep selling discs for their games,
and we'll never stop until it becomes literally physically impossible.
And even then we'll try to solve. We find some solution,
and if they do that, they've like the story shifts
very quickly. Now it's Microsoft. They're a bunch of buffoons.
They really are that. You know, all the stories of
the leadership over there. I've heard for years that it's
like you try to work in that system inside of
Microsoft and Xbox and you look around and it's just
middle managers everywhere you look, who have no vision, no
idea of what to do. And you know, they've laid
off a lot of people who make games. Did those
people go anywhere? I hope they went before the people
who actually make the games and too, But you know,
we'll see. Well again, I'm very skeptical that that'll go
down this way. All right, let's wrap up the physical
game talk with this one real quick. God of War
Studio confirms the Law Fay will have a disc version.
This is from Andy Robinson at VGC. God of War
developer Sony Santa Monica has confirmed that its next entry
will be available on disc, following this month's controversial announcement
that PlayStation will end physical media production.
Speaker 2: The news, which came in the form of a.
Speaker 1: Twitter post simply stating that God of War Law fe
will be available on disc, has also seemingly revealed that
the release window for the game will be before January
twenty twenty eight. Right, because no game that comes out
after January twenty twenty eight can have a disc. There's
not going to be exceptions. According to Sony, it's flat
out across the board, no more discs after that point,
and unless you came out before that point, they can't
reissue the discs.
Speaker 2: They won't reprint them.
Speaker 1: That will only be for games that came out before
January twenty twenty eight. So okay, yeah, we kind of
had an idea this game was going to try to
come out in twenty twenty seven. But I think I'm
more interested in the fact that here's a studio saying no, yeah,
we're gonna be on disc.
Speaker 2: Don't worry.
Speaker 1: Like they still know it's a selling point, they know
it's a positive check mark for their game. And it's
a Sony studio going out there saying this. It feels like, man,
people inside that house must be yelling at them, being.
Speaker 2: Like, you can't, like this is so stupid.
Speaker 1: Just let it naturally decline like it was going to anyhow,
and keep offering options for people, because we know that
when we say this, there will be a group of
people that'll be very excited.
Speaker 2: And that group is not insubstantial. Right. No, two things.
Speaker 3: One, I hope Lafay doesn't get delayed into January twenty
twenty eight because that would be awkward or later. And secondly,
this presents an opportunity, all right, God of War fans,
PlayStation fans, hear me, see me, look at me? Buy
this game physically. Yeah, even if they offer you a
three to five day digital early access whatever, you buy
this game physically, and it's the only way you buy it.
You want to make a you want to make a
statement they are gift wrapping you the ability to make
that statement right here with this major franchise the next
game in the major franchise disc only if you want
to show them that this is a big mistake. Now, granted,
it'll probably come out in November, so they'll have two
months to It'll only be two months worth of data
and that won't be enough, and they'll still do it anyway,
But fuck that, do it because they are like I said,
they're gift wrapping you this with GTA. I would say GTA,
but there are too many people who are not involved
in hardcore video gaming, like where that is a very
much a casual game.
Speaker 1: You're going to buy Keen of Box, remember, so it's
like that won't have the same.
Speaker 3: Effect, right exactly, buy this disc and show them that
this is how you want your games. And that's really
the only advice I can give you here. I am
excited for this game. I have been since I saw it.
I'm excited for this panel to learn more about it,
and I will be buying it as a disc.
Speaker 2: On day one.
Speaker 1: Like you mentioned, there's a panel happening at San Diego
Comic Con. Yes, yeah, yeah, I thought I thought I
said that. Sorry, I think said that I was. I
was putting words in your mouth. But yeah, so if
you take the opportunity here, same with Wolverine, great point
Merrick seven sixty, that's an even sooner opportunity. Wolverine on disc.
That's how you buy it. Show them this, turn those
metrics in the other direction and maybe we'll see something.
Speaker 2: But I don't know.
Speaker 3: Good for them, And I agree with you that the
internal studios of Sony are probably looking at the C
suite like, what the fuck are you guys doing? Are
you insane? I there's so much of the left hand
not knowing what the right hand is doing or needs
this fucking industry. It is insane to me. And unfortunately,
the left hand is the one holding all the money
and making all decisions, and the right hand is the
one left holding the bag.
Speaker 1: Yep, it's a yeah, it's it's it's very frustrating. And
then you, uh, we just know that like when we
go in there and we try to vote with our wallets,
we're gonna see uh them be like yeah, but we
care more about our profit margins. We think that's more important,
and we also think we can still make you guys
do what we want and uh again, like that is
just backfired every time, and I think he has to
keep back firing to the point where, you know, they
might not notice if we if we buy that physical
I hope they do, but they will notice if people
are like less excited about the PS six, they're worried
about that, they're worried about launching the PS six. They
have no cards left other than exclusives, and that's why
the PC ports have stopped. That's the one card that
they're ready to play is some exclusives. And I think
people need to carry that disappointment forward into that system
and be like, hey, if I can't buy these exclusives physically,
I am inherently less interested in them.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's gonna be a long term project for
people to sort of force this point.
Speaker 2: But we'll see.
Speaker 1: All right, We're going to take a break. When we
come back, plenty more headlines to get into. In fact,
there is one more about a physical game, but this
one's a positive story, so we'll get to that after
this break. If you want to skip out on these messages,
you can do so. Go to GiantBomb dot com, Slash join.
If you become a Premium member, there's ad free versions
of the shows you can get there.
Speaker 2: We will be right back.
Speaker 1: All right, we are back ats Game Mess Mornings. That's
Jason Finelli. I'm Jeff Grub. Let's continue on here with
Rhythm Heaven Groove opens at nearly four hundred thousand retail
copies sold in Japan.
Speaker 2: This is from.
Speaker 1: Salamano, Salamano, excuse me at Kamatsu. Fintsu has published its
estimated physical game software data for Japan for the week
of June twenty ninth, twenty twenty six to July fifth,
twenty twenty six. Rhythm Heaven Groove for Switch was the
highest selling new release of the week, opening at They
actually missfrended this. I know that they copied this wrong,
and I meant to fix that. I have the answer
over here.
Speaker 2: It's yes.
Speaker 1: It was like three hundred and ninety six thousand copies
and that's just physical and that's just Japan, and that's
basically I mean. And it's been sometimes since then, so
they're probably well over a half million copies sold just physically.
Speaker 2: How do you ignore that, Jason? How do you like?
How do you like?
Speaker 1: If you're a company, how do you not go like,
we need to get some of that action instead of
go man, instead of going, let's get rid of Physical
because it's it's just.
Speaker 2: Not worth it now.
Speaker 1: I guess Sony has not had as free like they
don't have Rhythm Heaven Grooves that are selling half a
million copies basically in the first couple of weeks physically
in Japan.
Speaker 2: But they do still sell like.
Speaker 1: They are the one company that often does have a
game that charts in Japan on the FIMTSU list. So
they're forgoing that and forsaking that expecting that they cannot
win that back. And it's like, aren't you launching a
handheld next generation? Isn't that going to be something that
reinvigorates the Japanese audience. Don't you want to give those
players something even more excited to be about. And the
answer seems to be no. But clearly Physical is still
doing very well in many circumstances.
Speaker 3: Right yeah, And you're saying that they don't have a
rhythm Heaven Groove. That sounds like a them problem, right,
They have a fast library of games, they could have
a rhythm Heaven Groove. I bet there's a there's a
game out there where you do the rhythm thing to
classic PlayStation songs, either remixed or what have you, and
you can have a little Astrobot and his pals be
the one Astrobot groove or Astrobot rhythm.
Speaker 2: There. There you go.
Speaker 3: You they have free idea, like they they could be
doing this, They could have the b It's like somebody,
it's like I've said a couple of times a post
I read somewhere a long time ago. You can't just
have all home runs, right yeah, because then you're gonna
you're gonna score one point at a time.
Speaker 2: It's all solo homers.
Speaker 3: You gotta put some people on base to really maximize
those big hits. And this is how you do it
with little stuff like this and TOMADATCI Life, which my
family is still playing. My younger, as I said on
Friday with with with Mike, probably one hundred and fifty
hours in that game in a month and a half.
She cannot put it down. Uh, I can't put it down.
If I'm being honest. It's you have to have the
little things to have the big things. As someone just
pointed out, hit they had Patapon. The Patapon is now
coming out self published or the third party is doing
one and two right, it's not them anymore.
Speaker 1: Sony like I think, still has the rights to it,
but they like just let a third party handle it
for whatever reason.
Speaker 3: Who could say do that and just making the PlayStation exclusive.
If you're not gonna do it yourself, pay the publish
to make it a publishing deal. Let some other smaller
studio take a crack at it. Maybe they'll find something
new and innovative and it'll become a huge franchise for you.
Speaker 2: You're just sitting there with your thumbs up, your ass.
Speaker 3: You can be doing this and then but then they'll say, well,
these are budget titles and that's why they're selling. It's
not the eighty dollars premium and the eighty dollars premium
discs don't sell because people can't, you know, they don't
want to spend They will pay them digitally or set
or whatever whatever the friggin excuse will be. They're just
gonna keep moving them goalposts until they get what they
want and then it's gonna blow up on their face.
What can you do?
Speaker 2: Yep?
Speaker 1: It's and you mentioned Tomadacci Life. I think I had
the full chart over here. I think that is that again,
this is Japan only and this is physical only. It's
at one point five million copies sold. Yeah, go on,
just in Japan. That's uh, star Fox is uh the
Starbucks maybe a counter example, that's like, that's been out
a couple of weeks now. Uh, it's only at like
fifty thousand copies sold physically, but that was game. That
game was selling out in a lot of retailers at
least here, maybe the same thing was happening. Maybe they
didn't print a lot of copies of that. Pacopia at
a million copies sold and that's switched to only, right,
So it's like people still buying physical games on Switch
when they are are switched to only, not like Tombadaci Life,
which has a huge built built in install base of
Switch one gamers.
Speaker 2: God Animal Cross.
Speaker 1: Guess how many physical copies of Animal Crossing New Horizons
has sold over the years in Japan alone, Jason physical
physical only in Japan in Japan alone.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm gonna say twelve million. That's sense.
Speaker 1: It's pretty it's eight point five million, which is still huge.
That game was like I think globally that game, and
this includes physical and digital is at like something like
forty five million copies sold.
Speaker 2: That's why I went twelve. I figured it was probably
like a quarter with digital.
Speaker 1: It's it's certainly beyond that, Like it's certainly but yeah,
eight point five million physical copies of Animal Crossing New
Horizons sold in Japan for years. All right, that does
it for that. Let's let's keep going here. Pow World
one point zero explodes to more than eight hundred and
fifty five thousand concurrent Steam players. A game has reached
one point zero. It seems to have changed quite a
bit since I played it in the early part of
early access, like most people did. I think that's back
in January twenty twenty four, where it reached an all
time peak of two point one million players. So it's
not at that at those levels, but eight hundred and
fifty five thousand concurrent players for anything across, that's like
one of the top most played games on Steam, like
top five at any one moment. So very impressed of stuff.
Pocket Paris Communication lead called the response staggering. The one
point zero update includes seventy two additional pals, a level
cap increase to eighty five, a reworked story and world,
revised combat, additional base building systems, and a substantial new region.
Any desire to go back to a Powell World, I
probably won't, Jason, although god, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'd never say never.
Speaker 3: In order to go back to it, I would have
had to have gone to it in the first place.
This one, this one passed you by a little bit,
but I have to say, eight hundred and fifty five
thousand people two and a half years after your original launch,
finally going one point zero is the kind of successful
story for an original ip that we should be celebrating,
even if you especially if you add the extra layer
of all of the legal bullshit they were put through
with Nintendo. This is cool, right, good for them. I
hope it continues. I hope they continue to have a
substantial player base that takes them to like the gold
standard for me. Right, for a game like this, people
would say Fortnite, that's like the that's completely different because
that hit the cultural zechgeist. That one huge. The gold
standard for me in a situation like this is war Frame.
Right have Warframe launched with the PlayStation three in twenty
thirteen and has just been there for thirteen years. Just
had ten o'con over the weekend. People still love this game.
They're about they're now about to create this whole new
section of planets, this through star chart called Tao, which
will add so much more to this game. And they
just continue to grow and add things and work with
their community and build a strong community. That's the blueprint
for a game like this. And if Power World can
get there to the point where we're still talking about
it thirteen years from now, good for them. This is
an encouraging start and good for them.
Speaker 2: Yep. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Let's go to coe Techmo CEO says it grew from
twenty five hundred staff to over three thousand in two years,
and it is aiming for five thousand staff. This is
from Chris Scullion at VGC, the president and CEO of
Cooe Techmo, has detailed the company's plans for continued growth.
In a new interview with Famitsu, Hasashi Koyanuma was asked
about his previously declared aim to become the world's number
one digital entertainment company.
Speaker 2: Koi.
Speaker 1: Numa explained that the aim was to have the highest
operating profit in the games industry, with the first plan
being to reach the top ten by twenty thirty five,
which can only be achieved when customers buy a lot
of games. When asked how Coe Techno planned to release
games frequently enough to achieve this, Koynuma replied that the
company's workforce had grown grown over the past two years,
and the plan was to grow it even further. In
twenty twenty four, Coe Techmo told shareholders that it had
around twenty five hundred staff and wanted to double this
in the future. According to Koynuma, the number has now
passed three thousand and they still want to grow to
five thousand. We are currently expanding our workforce to increase
the number of development lines, he explained. This is via
machine translation. Last year, our group wide headcount grew to
just over twenty to twenty eight hundred and fifty people,
and this year, with one hundred and ninety three new
graduates joining us in Japan alone, our total headcount has
reached approximately three thousand. And then he does go on
to say like, yeah, looking ahead, we hope to continue
steadily toward a workforce of five thousand. They're doubling the
size of their of their team making games because they
want to. They want to make a lot of operating profit, Jason,
and their solution there they're plan to do so as
a video game company is to make more video games.
Speaker 2: Could never work. What a concept. It just gets insane
making games.
Speaker 1: Clearly, this just shows that they lack a Western education
that would tell them that that is a stupid idea.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, how dare they decide to give their fans
what they want and that's more content to play through?
Now maybe because of the current climate we are in.
It makes me nervous to see these numbers because I
am afraid that this bubble could burst for them like
it has for so many others. But but it sounds
like they have a slow and steady growth approach and
they have more than enough brands, as is in one
of the paragraphs here Dynasty Warriors, Ninja Guide and Dead
or Alive Itelia Nobonaga's ambition. They have a bit of
a portfolio, right they have, and then they could you know,
maybe one off IPI's here and there, and.
Speaker 1: They were working Nintendo on a ton of stuff and
they probably.
Speaker 3: Don't working with them more. Sounds like the way you
should do it. Yeah, right, it sounds like it should work,
and I am confident in that it remains to be
seen to see. Komi Techmo games aren't exactly my cup
of tea, but they clearly have a loyal fan base
enough to support this growth.
Speaker 2: So good. I hope it works out for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's like they could be saying the thing
that everyone else is sandwhich is we're going to be
using AI to do more, and they're not. They're saying,
we need more people to make more games, which is
all we're asking for.
Speaker 2: I think on this.
Speaker 1: Show constantly it's like, man, we know what really is
going to get more games made, even if again, all
the biggest promises of AI are true, Like everyone's going
to have access to that, so that has nothing to
do with you standing apart from the rest of the industry.
You're going to be able to do that, and they
are at least acknowledging that. And again, we don't think
AI's biggest promises are actually going to come true at all.
Speaker 2: A smart not smart A small anecdote.
Speaker 3: I have been going down the shore and going to
the pool in the summertime with my family and you
can tell who's using AI for their ads, right, Like
if it pops up on a billboard, or if they
got a flyer somewhere and they.
Speaker 2: All look the same.
Speaker 3: If I put three of these flyers next to each
other a passing cursory clan, I don't know who's advertising
what the real estate one is next to the one
for the hot dog is next to the one for
the dairy.
Speaker 1: Queen, but all all blends in Jason, how can that
possibly be true? AI's gonna unlock creativity from everyone, right,
and then everyone's gonna be able to have their own
personality that AI will represent. It's not just gonna regurg
to it the same thing for every person in regardless.
Speaker 2: Of the prompt. That's idea. It's impossible.
Speaker 3: How how can anyone say that other than people with
eyes who live in society, And it's.
Speaker 1: Like and those are just like flyers, right, that's like
really easy stuff to do yourself in photoshop.
Speaker 2: And that's not my point here.
Speaker 1: My point is like, that is something that you should
be able to, like say in a prompt like I
want mine to be like this and go like that,
And yet everyone's looks exactly the same, and we're expecting
it to be able to have a bunch of creativity
to make the next video game that's gonna stand out.
Speaker 2: What a joke? What a joke? What a joke? What
a joke? It makes no sense to me, and it's
just it.
Speaker 3: It makes my heart sink every time I see a
different company using a flyer like this. Now, one one
more quick thing before we moved to the next story.
The name of the CEO, his Ashi Koe Numa, floors
me because this man was the first person I ever
interviewed on video E three, my first ever E three
sixteen years ago, Chat Twitch Chat.
Speaker 2: I just threw it in chat. You could see me
with my full head of hair on my blurry camera.
Speaker 3: Talking about fist to the North Star Ken's rage with
this man. That is insane. I hadn't heard that name
but sixteen years years old in that video.
Speaker 1: That's okay, it's amazing, all right, that's god. I do
love that.
Speaker 2: Like man, why do I know that name?
Speaker 1: It's oh yeah, I talked to them more than a
decade ago.
Speaker 2: Incredible stuff, all right.
Speaker 1: Last couple of stories here, Black Ops one and two
port players counts dominating Black Ops seven. It's claimed, so
the number of people playing Black Ops one and two
is crushing Black Ops seven. This is from Andrew Heighten
at Insider Game in the recently released to black Ops
one and two ports are allegedly beating black Ops seven
in terms of overall player count, despite the ports being
the og games with next to no improvements, still being pricey,
and only unlimited platforms. I recently covered the interesting reasons
why Black Ops one and two port players thought the
live player count ticker had been removed from both games.
Charlie Intel has claimed that the ports aren't doing well,
which would support this further.
Speaker 2: But you knew it was coming.
Speaker 1: I think this comes from Charlie Intel who this comes
from an unnamed source. The Call of Duty Black Ops
and Black Ops two ports on PlayStation, which just kind
of shadow dropped out of nowhere, have more players online
than Black Ops seven does combined on all platforms. So
just on PlayStation, black Ops one and two has more
players than Black Ops seven does on all platforms. That is,
you know, is is this exactly a problem now? I
think this is working out exactly how the activision wants
it to, where it's like a Black Ops seven does
not feel like a real long term winner. This is
not one that people are going to be looking back
on like super fondly ten years from now. Let's so
let's sort of give them something to do while they
wait for which I believe. The next one is Modern
Warfare again, which just feels like man again. This will
be the seventh one, and the first one named four,
but the seventh modern Warfare.
Speaker 2: I thank god. That number might not even be right.
Speaker 3: So technically, technically you're right, but it's Call of Duty
four was Modern Warfare, and now this is Cold Duty
Modern Warfare four.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's what it is. Incredible, all right, let's see here.
Speaker 1: So I'm not necessarily running back to these games. I've
had my time with Call of Duty, really really liked
it back in the day, not playing it much these days,
but I did. I did perk up when I heard this,
and I just I'm probably not gonna go turn on
my PlayStation to play Call of Duty on there. That's
that's the one thing. So I have been like updated
across the board. I might have checked it out on
PC or something. Of course, I could just go play
this on PC whenever I want, so I'm not sure
in that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, And the reporting last week is at the ports
are not great that they're just kind of missing a
lot of stuff and you got to pay for DLC
or something like that. People weren't very happy with them,
but they're still playing them, and yes, especially seems like
a something to fill in the lost sales of Black
Ops seven to make the Call of Duty franchise still
as seen as valuable as it is. You know what
I mean, It's like an emergency project sort of deal.
Speaker 1: I got Black Ops one crashes a ton so samo nice.
Speaker 2: Okay, there you go.
Speaker 1: All right, let's update you guys on what's happening today
and what's happening tomorrow and maybe even a little bit
of later this week. So today, Monday, July thirteenth, ascend
to zero launches and joints game pass. On day one,
Beholder Conductor arrives on Xbox. I did look up a
little bit of details on that. Let's see here. Beholder
Conductor is what kind of game is that? Who is
that a shooter yet?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Totalitarian Train Conductor sim where you inspect passengers, spy on them,
and decide who to report to the state man. That
sounds like please, I think so train papers please? Which
is that sounds fun? So that's that arrives on Xbox Online.
Services for Madden NFL twenty three are scheduled to shut
down today, so if you want to go back to
Madden NFL twenty three one last time, get in there.
And then the Tetris ninety nine Starfox Maximus Cup concludes
today as well, so if you want to get those,
they always have cosmetic stuff as part of that.
Speaker 2: Today's your last chance to do so. Tomorrow.
Speaker 1: PBA Pro Bowling twenty twenty six joins game Pass. Hell
Clock launches on PlayStation five and Xbox Series X and
Hellclock is a Brazilian history inspired action rogue light that
mixes frantic Diablo style combat and build crafting with tightly
timed dungeon runs. That sounds cool as well, and it's
got an incredible name, hell Clock. Dyetopia launches across PlayStation five,
Xbox Series X, and S Switch to Switch in PC.
Dytopia is a cozy narrative puzzle adventure about maintaining an
AI managed utopia on deciding whether engineer whether engineered happiness
is really freedom and then Ubisoft Barcelona's scheduled Tuesday strike
continues today, so you definitely give them some shouts they
are frustrated for being laid off after putting out a
game that Ubisoft immediately was trumpeting as a massive success,
so incredibly frustrating as well.
Speaker 2: And then later this week, let's mention this real quick.
Speaker 1: Sony's expected to reveal July's PlayStation Plus extra and premium editions.
Speaker 2: Syops.
Speaker 1: The Mindgate conspiracy is already confirmed for the July twenty
first catalog update. Although I know I saw a lot
of people canceling their PlayStation Plus after the physical stuff,
so you imagine why they do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe people aren't gonna care. All right, that does
it for the stories.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and start getting into the wrap up
of the show. No pull question, because I believe Mike
did do the Bomb twelve to wrap up last week.
So if you want to check out the new Bomb twelve,
you can see that a jibbomb dot com and there's
a vote here button.
Speaker 2: What happened he reaped the Bomb twelve.
Speaker 3: At the first thing he said, Sean had to say, no,
you have the wrong one. There's an updated one.
Speaker 2: And then we got on this whole.
Speaker 3: Rant about and Jeff, I have to bring this up
to you too. The names of your files. Did you
hear this?
Speaker 2: Oh I'm sure.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I was wondering how he was. Uh, that's
not really how the bomb twelve works.
Speaker 2: What did he say? What did he say? He said? Though?
Speaker 3: So like Monday is called Monday Mornings, Monday Morning mess
run of show, Wednesday is called Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I type on Wednesday at my Google search bar
and it comes up for me every time.
Speaker 2: That's how I'm doing it too. There's nothing wrong with
this system. The system system, I agree for years. I agree.
Speaker 3: I'm used to it now. But Mike had some concerns
and Sean Jan was not there it with Sean, so
Sean had to hear them too. Thursday is Thursday, GMM,
and then Friday is Friday.
Speaker 2: GMM. Run of show? What is the common what's the
common thing? There?
Speaker 4: The day of the week? You just look for the
you type in the day of the week and it
pops up. It's actually a great system. It's the rest
of the words are superfluous. It doesn't matter we have.
Speaker 1: We don't have anything else that's like day of the
week coded, so those are the only ones that matter.
Speaker 2: Also, also those those Google docs we don't have ownership
to those anymore.
Speaker 1: That's that's the funny part. It's like maybe maybe that's
still fandom mine. I can just copy and like make
our own.
Speaker 2: I haven't done that.
Speaker 1: Yet because it has not been a problem.
Speaker 2: What's somewhat filled in for you? Did it become a problem?
Speaker 1: I definitely like got the text on Friday morning?
Speaker 2: How do I get the bomb twelve?
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'll just do it for you. Just hang
on here, here are the games?
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: Duck is saying there is a poll question there was
did you do a poll question for Friday? Okay, all right,
let's let's see here. I'm going to bring it up
right now. Go to Giant from there and I will refresh.
Speaker 2: Duck has now said it three times. I think someone Oh,
here you go?
Speaker 1: Yep, all right, where are most of your digital games? Comment?
I'm on Epic. If you're Tim Sweeney, Mike forgot to
post a poll. So it's your boy, Chuck Tawski here
with the poll for Jeff Grubb to enjoy on Monday.
So we don't normally do want on Monday, Chuck, But
thank you?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: So your options were Nintendo, PlayStation, Steam or Xbox. I
guess most of mine are on Steam, although I have
quite a bit on all of them.
Speaker 2: All right, yes, sixty.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'd love to see the follow up poll of this.
How many of your digital games have you acted? Where
do you play most of your digital games? And how
many of you actually played?
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly sixty percent say they are on Steam, so
the vast majority actually then twenty percent on PlayStation, ten
percent on Xbox, and nine percent on Nintendo.
Speaker 2: How do you think? What do you think it breaks
down that way?
Speaker 1: Because for me, it's like when I see that on
Nintendo nine percent, that's people probably just still like buying
physical games for their switch and switch to.
Speaker 3: Well, there's Japan numbers through that, right, Are these these
letting credence to it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean this, this this tracks.
Speaker 3: I think I hate to see that PlayStations above Xbox
that let's let's get that number down. We're trying to
get them to keep discs. People stop stop giving them
reasons not to. Uh, but Steam being the overwhelming favorite.
I mean, they've been doing digital games.
Speaker 2: Longer than anybody, so of course, yep makes a lot
of sense.
Speaker 1: All right, new pole question here in a second before
we do that, Jason Finella, tell people where they can
find you on the internet, what you have going on,
all that good stuff.
Speaker 3: Jasonfidelli dot com on Blue Sky, Big Man, Finelle, everywhere else.
Big week for you, boy. I'm going to Europe for
the first time. Oh on on, I'm going to Amsterdam.
Speaker 2: Yeah four time.
Speaker 3: Yes, Magic Con Amsterdam, big week for Magic gathering if
you play that. Tomorrow at one pm Eastern time, they're
doing their first look at November's Star Trek set, So
if you're a Trekie and you don't like magic, come
see what they're doing there. And then the weekend in
Amsterdam they have panels on their.
Speaker 2: Next upcoming sets.
Speaker 3: They have a panel on their Secret Layer, their bespoke stuff,
so there'll probably be some crazy stuff to see there
if you play the game, and I will be covering it, interviews,
all that good stuff. Very very excited to write these things,
and that's the biggest thing obviously for me. Other than that,
I'm just doing the normal news and reviews and stuff
like that. Big review season. Hi, I review games. Hello,
talk to me. Let's review games together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there is plenty of games to be reviewed, so
people are gonna perhaps spread the load in this industry
coming up here pretty soon, everybody.
Speaker 2: Man, that's the phrase you use. Spread the load, all right.
Speaker 1: I don't want to have to like two step verification
on my phone to like see the calendar. All right,
there we go. I fixed that new poll question. Are
you playing Black Ops one and two right now?
Speaker 2: Yes? Or no?
Speaker 1: I know this audience is mostly gonna be no, but
I want to see if there's any yesses in there.
We'll talk about it on Wednesday show here on Giant Bomb.
Speaking of Giant Bomb, I have no idea what's going
on because I just got back. So I'm gonna go
into a meeting and let you guys know. But I
guess I do know that tomorrow we'll have the BombCast,
and then on Wednesday it will be a White Club
and it will be my turn for the first time.
I did see someone comment on Reddit that of the
three Black Club members, I am number four for playtime
this year because Jacob Keller is played more than me.
Speaker 3: It is your recording, Jeff. I have not been tipped
off sometimes I am. Sometimes I know I don't know
this time, and oh no, I am so afraid and
excited for you.
Speaker 2: It's not even funny.
Speaker 1: That is that stat is such a Of the four
members of the NFC North, the Detroit Lions are number
five because twenty years ago Tampa Bay used to be
in there, so it's like it still has many stats
above them. And I'm happy to be the Detroit Lions
of Blake Club. Absolutely, everybody, we'll see. We're gonna find
out why Stephanie's so distraught. Everyone, We're gonna We're gonna
find out why she's so upset. She seems a little
mad at me. So I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm like you, you don't over it exactly.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna find out what's going on.
Speaker 3: Let's hope it's like Suave and Debonair and it's not anger,
it's passions.
Speaker 2: Hope. Let's say for my sake, we'll find out. Tune in,
h don't miss it, I guess, or miss it. I
don't know.
Speaker 1: It's your life, but I'm gonna be suffering either way.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I've been tipped off? Have you really? Yes?
What is it? Do the fucking saying a word? All right? Well,
we'll be back with more Giant Bob and everything.
Speaker 1: Jason Finley, thank you so much for hanging out with
me today and talking about video games.
Speaker 2: Man, I really appreciate.
Speaker 1: It, enjoy no, thank you everybody for watching and listening.
Speaker 2: You're the best audience in gaming.
Speaker 1: Until next time, have a good one, take care of
yourself and god damn it.