Xbox Doubles Down On Preservation and AI

He'll be go'll be bab It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this
for April eighth, twenty twenty four. For the next hour or so,
let me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game Mess Mornings Live
with me Jeff Grub Today, a total solar eclipse only happens every once in
a while, but Game Mess Mornings is once in a lifetime every single day
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. But first, please join me and
welcome to today's co host, the Game Mess Mornings. It's Emma Fife.
Everybody, Emma, how are you doing. I'm so glad to be part
of this historic event because nobody has ever talked about video games on a Monday
morning exactly. They remember this. We will do it again in every forty
years or so. Special. Yeah, I'm excited about the eclipse. We
were just talking about it. I live dead centered and the path of Totalities
have told people the weather reports have been kind of grim for the last little
bit, but they've been grim everywhere. Apparently Texas is having a big storm.
I looked out and it's like the kind of partly cloudy where I see
the sun very often, so at the very least, I think we're going
to get the effect of, like, you know, what it looks like
around the world when when we're you know, in your environment, when the
sun is blocked out by the moon. Ye boy, I hope I'm able
to like just observe it like it's you know, rolling the dice. The
sun is pretty powerful, and with your eclipse glasses, they are the only
thing you can see is the Sun. So while your view of the Sun
might be a little bit diminished by the clouds, I'm sure that you'll still
be able to see it as longest it's these hazy kind of clouds right now,
Yeah, exactly, I had those like complete overcast the last couple of
days. Uh well, not every single day, but a couple of the
last couple of days it's been like that, And I'm like, man,
I don't think we'd see shit if it was like this, But as it
is right now, I am hopeful. But it's, you know, one
of those things you can't control. Well, I suppose you could try to
drive somewhere else, right, but sure that's just as much just as risky
because it's like it could be bad there and then you could have stayed home
and found out that whether it was fine at home or something like that.
So we did this side over the weekend. We are just going to PLoP
down here and roll the dice. This is what we really need storm from
the X Men for just to control the weather so that people in the path
of totality can see the total eclipse. In Los Angeles, we're going to
get a partial eclipse. But of course it is so clear, and it
was raining recently, so the skis are extra clear. Right. Last did
think a lot about the Olympics that happened in China, where there was like
reports of them like shooting cannons up at clouds to like disperse them. I'm
like, let's just do that. Let's just do that. Perfect. It
seemed to work. I think. I don't know. I didn't pay attention
to the results, but I like the idea of shooting clouds like that alone.
That's got me, So let's go for it, all right. I
do have something important to ask you, Emma. Okay, there is a
scene actually, okay, unless you actually get this up, give me a
second while I so you can read so you could hear the scene. I'm
gonna burn up on Twitter here dot com slash show. Are you familiar with
the American film Jurassic Park. I am very familiar with the American classic directed
by STEVENS. Phielberg. All right, awesome, let me make sure I
can. You're gonna hear this. I think you should hear this, but
let me just double show. Do you hear that? Yep? Okay,
great. Let me just make sure the chat here's that? All right?
So this is a scene where they're where they're talking. There you go,
that's the setup. Listen to this conversation. Okay, the power of this
place. But I made a mistake too. I didn't have enough respect for
that power and it's out now. When she says I did not have enough
respect for that power and it's out now, is she talking about the metaphorical
power of dinosaurs and humanity's grasp over nature and now it has been unleashed,
or is she talking about the electricity at the park called Jurassic Park. You
know, it's very funny because I was thinking about the exact context of that
scene being that uh huh, it is the right. The electricity has literally
gone out and has been out from like a very long time at this point.
But yes, yes, I think, I honestly think she think about
the electricity. Yes, okay, well, but so why does she talk
Why does she start talking about like I did not respect that power of this
place. I made a mistake too, I didn't know it's okay, so
now she didn't. Okay, she took for granted that that power was going
to be enough to contain the dinosaurs. Okay, So wait, okay,
metaphorically, she's absolutely including everything that humanity does. She is to harness nature.
Yes, but what she says, the power it's out now? That
referring to the power out outage, the literal powder power oue, that's the
dinosaurs being out. Yes, yeah, the power outage. I'm still on
board with her. Yeah, hell so you agree with ben Hansen, who
does go on to make that argument. I Emma, I just can't see
it. I understand how people arrive at this, I guess, but for
me, it's like, no, they're clearly talking about the metaphorical power of
the dinosaurs, and sure all this other stuff is included in that. But
the power is out now does not refer to the power outage. In my
opinion, it does refer to the power outage of my opinion. And again,
this is this is it is that basically the whole thing is a metaphor.
But it's like when but literally that's what it is. Is the power
outage is the metaphorical representation of dinosaurs. And again, and it does encompass
something even bigger, as you say, which is like she took for granted
how powerful human electricity is, which is human which is harnessed by human beings.
Obviously it is something that exists, but we as humans have to generate
it. And it's like no, no, no, no, no.
The power of the dinosaurs is greater than the power of humanity, which is
why we never coexisted. And now this feeble power of man that she believed
could contain the dinosaurs and make this safe because she wanted to be able to
interact with dinosaurs, because her lifelong dream she's a palaeontologist. But the power
of man hath failed. I will for the people that are hearing this and
are so angry that later today they're going to blot out the sun. I
am. I'll just read what Austin Walker said here. I feel like the
you know, the best summation of my position. He says out like free
out, like out of its cage. The power parentheses, the sublime might
of dinosaurs, and the incredible hubuistic science which which brought them out of time
is no longer contained. In fact, that containment was always an illusion,
which is how that line actually starts. So if you go back further,
she's like, it was an illusion all that stuff. Yeah, that's this
is my position. Really though I blame Ben Hanson. I blame as always
I blame Ben Hanson for bringing this all up. He is going to tear
gaming media apart, and this is what we deserve. Uh so, Yeah,
but like I said, I'll blow it out the sum later today and
out of anger. Thank you so much, Jeba. I appreciate that.
That was a lot of fun. No problem. All right, let's explain
what we do here most weekdays. I, Jeff Greb, will help piece
your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even some of
your own original your own, my own original reporting for all these topics up
get the input of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart.
If you were watching live on Twitch, well welcome. You can always listen
to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for Game Mess Mornings or find
therss 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 Xbox forms new
Game Preservation and Platforms teams and moves AI division under Hardware. This is from
James Bachelor at Games Industry dot Biz. Microsoft has seen more changes behind the
scene, including the creation of two new teams dedicated to Experiences and platform as
well as game preservation. Windows Central reported that Xbox Emerging Technologies, a relatively
new team believed to be primarily focused on AI, has now been moved into
the Xbox Hardware division, which is led by Rowana Sonas, in order to
accelerate innovation in that space. The Emerging Tech team has previously led was previously
led by corporate Vice President Kareem Choudry, whose exit the company will talk about
that in a second. There are two new teams within Xbox, one being
an organization known as Xbox Experiences and Platforms, which is said to be focused
on improving the overall user experience on both Xbox consoles and Windows. This is
led by Ashley McKissick and Kevin Gamble. Meanwhile, an internal email from Xbox
president Sarah Bond, also reported by Windows Central, revealed the platform holder has
created a new team that is focused on ensuring titles are playable on future Xbox
devices. We have formed a new team dedicated to game preservation, important to
all of us at Xbox and the industry itself, Bond wrote. We are
building on our strong history of delivering backwards compatibility to our players, and we
remain committed to bringing forward the amazing library of Xbox games for future generations of
players to enjoy. That's where I kind of want to focus for this story,
Emma, is on the backward compatibility. This is something that they had
a big focus on for years and years, where it looked like they had
these games that ran on Xbox and Xbox three sixty, and hey, we
want to make sure that stuff's playable on Xbox One and then eventually Xbox Series
XNN. They sort of tampered down that effort as they got to a point
where they're like, hey, pretty much every game that we could of feasibly
or legally adapt for the new console, we've already done that, and there's
not much point in keeping them around. Now this team's coming back, and
at this point it feels like likely it's not about continuing that work. It
is about making sure games that now are out today and including the ones they've
made backward compatibility from Xbox and Xbox three sixty but then Xbox one and now
Xbox Series X and S games making sure they work on devices going forward.
And I'm I think that's notable because the assumption I think a lot of people
would make is that the future Xboxes will be very similar in architecture to the
current Xboxes. Basically PCs with a shroud on it that make it look makes
it look like a console, so a lot it's a PC you plug into
your TV exactly. So why would you need a backward compatibility team to make
sure those games keep working, unless maybe they are going to change change the
architecture, something that that has been rumored, something that they were like looking
at in the FTC filings that got r right, So hey, we might
switch over to ARM based processes or something like that, And in that case
they would need a backward compatibility team because they do want to make sure all
these games are working, you think, I'm like, on the right you
might sniffer down the right lane here or what. Yeah, I think so,
because, as you say, I mean, as soon as you're dealing
with a PC those files, you get a new PC and you can just
play them on your new PC. It's not there's no issue of backwards compatibility,
and certainly that is the way that Xbox has operated hitherto effectively. But
yeah, it's it is interesting that they have a backwards compatibility team. I
mean what struck me about it was was again this idea of game preservation,
which is something that I think has only very recently actually come into focus as
we've become really aware of the fact that like video game history has not actually
been very well preserved. I mean, you look at any old gaming magazine
and there are just so many titles that you have never ever heard of.
You probably did hear about them, but they win in one ear it out
the other, and they just don't exist in your brain or anywhere to play
anymore. And so I do think that you know, they're with the advent
of backwards compatibility is when we started to actually see that game preservation come into
play, and certainly companies have gone back and been like, we should do
a re release of this game because actually it was good. But yeah,
I mean, but again, as you say, with Xbox, this hasn't
really been any kind of concern, And there is again, of course,
the issue of who actually owns the rights to this game, and you know
we do we have the ability to even go about preserving this and putting this
in the in a situation where it is a backwards compatible game. But again
that's that that to me, is where you want to focus on. Okay,
well, if this game ever existed on our platform, then it should
be playable on any version of this platform going forward. I remember like the
first time backwards compatibility I ever experienced it, it was like the PlayStation two
I could play my PlayStation one games on. It was like, whoa,
this is absolutely wild because that hadn't really been done with consoles before, not
really, not in any significant way. So yeah, it's just but yeah,
I mean, but as you say, it's like, not hasn't been
an issue for Xbox. So what is going on in terms of the next
generation of Xbox that this is something that needs to be focused on. Yeah,
it's the kind of thing where you know, you have a team working
on backward compatibility at Xbox up until this point, because you know, you
have to have a team that can build the technologies right, but it also
takes a team to handle what you were suggesting, the byzantine laws of making
sure that all the copyright is accounted for, making sure that you have permission
to put it on something that technically would be a new platform, and so
you have to get a new licensing agreement all this stuff, you know,
just get the green light from these companies. That means tracking down people that
maybe you know, for games from develop ploppers that are that are defunct or
whatever, tracking down those current rights holder. That is a it's a labor
intensive process. And they have said, you know, not recently as they
were winding down the backward compatibility team. Originally they said, hey, we
have basically done every single game that we could possibly do the team. Every
game that's left is it's just too complicated or literally impossible based on like not
knowing who is the rights holder or any number of other things, or the
game contains the likeness of someone who is you know, would never give us
permission. There's a limited right exactly so it's just too much work. So
again, like, I think they are in a position now where they're probably
looking at the current library and like, hey, there is an understanding now
that these games should carry forward. If we get started on that work now
with the goal of maybe moving to new architecture, that would cause every single
game to break unless we were to have a compatibility layer or some little emulator
that would run on that device to be like to behave like an Xbox Series
X or an Xbox so a one. In that case, you know,
maybe we can get these developers in these publishers to understand that these games should
just keep going for it now, to make that process way easier in the
future and kind of actually make it seamless so they never stop working. It's
like no, yeah, of course, they're just like moving on to the
next thing. I think they're in a position now where they can convince developers
and publishers that that's the right course of action, And at the same time,
they probably are eyeing every option for what their new hardware can look like,
maybe not necessarily the very next generation, but down the line. They
keep talking about these handheld PCs at a certain point, at a certain point,
ARM or X eighty six is going to win that battle, and ARM
is the very efficient thing that is in like the new Macs and stuff that
you know. I actually just got a MacBook Air, my first Mac,
and it's like, man, the battery life on this thing is incredible and
I'm not never saying any performance issues with this M one ship, and I'm
that's the first generation of stuff that they put out. So it's like that,
you know, that's what ARM can do. And then X eighty six
is like the rizons are getting very very efficient for an X eighty six chip,
and they're still relatively powerful, but then you look at you compare them
side by side, it's like that's a long way away from what ARM can
do in terms of efficiency, and the ARMS power is actually kind of catching
up to X eighty six in a lot of ways. I think Microsoft's in
a position where they're like looking at both and they're like trying to make sure
that they can choose whichever route when the time comes. And I think in
the end, the way things are trending right now, it looks like ARM
is probably going to win that battle, so they and they continue to struggle
to get like Windows running on arm in a really strong way. So it's
like with gaming, maybe they can like just like rip that band aid off
and go for it. The only way, the only way they'd be able
to do that, right is if they have the backward capality ready to go,
because people want their digital library to continue, right Oh yeah, to
carry over obviously, And and it is it's really interesting, you know,
having this discussion, it sounds like right now, most likely what this backwards
compatibility team is is primarily a legal team, you know, like at this
point, it's it's legal proceedings with publishers being like, hey, we basically
want you to sign over unlimited rights to this so that if we were to
switch over our operating system, basically we can effectively do that to these titles
so people's digital libraries will carry over. I mean it is a smart move
on Xbox's part because that puts them in a position wherein they are able to
adapt as you know this as this goes forward. And then the other story
out of this is a Kareem Chowdry, who is a long time executive at
Xbox who had recently kind of started up this AI division. He's left and
the AI division is moving under the hardware team. I want to ask,
what do you think the future is of AI and a console maker like Xbox,
specifically Microsoft. Microsoft seems like the a company that is not gonna not
investigate AI. Of course they're not going to not investigate AI. I mean,
what does that look like to you? Look, this is the thing
about AI is is I've seen a lot of people having this discussion that AI
is being used for the wrong things, like I want AI to do my
laundry and clean my house, and I want to be left alone to do
the creative stuff. However, in game development, there is there's a lot
of laundry to be done. Yes, there's a lot of laundry to be
done. Yeah, it's it's to me that's an effective use of AI.
It can be, you know, I think when it comes to video games,
my position can continues to be until not proven otherwise, but like it's
a little bit more evidence to suggest it could be completely bad. My position
continues to be that video games are such a competitive place that using something that
is a shortcut likely will just lead to people being like, Okay, this
freezes up to do all those other things we never had time to do before.
So now that this is stuff we can focus the human efforts on,
separate our game from the competition, I'm hopeful that that is how it plays
out. But I'm appreciative of all of the arguments that of how it could
cost people to lose jobs, because we've seen that that is something that companies
are ready and rare and to do in so many scenarios. So of course
that could be the final situation here. But they're going to use AI in
these games. They are going to do it. They are likely already doing
it in many ways. It's just you, I don't know. At this
point. I feel like humans still like it still requires a human to do
the inputs to operate the AI, and so one would hope again that effectively
you would be using these AIS as assistant to human workers. So again,
as you say, they can focus the human effort on the stuff that really
really matters, and you just hope that the AI isn't going to eliminate some
of those back end positions that would be doing those sort of laundry jobs,
so to speak. And it might be Yeah, I mean I thought the
same one as that ever happened. I mean that prepare that is the story
of technology throughout the history of mankind. Oh yeah, we've we've had technology
improved efficiencies that would take away jobs and then there are more jobs were always
created afterward. There's usually I mean, that's the uh, the Luddites,
That's the whole thing is the Luddites were destroying not the prienty forescival like the
things that the cotton stuff, the cotton gin or whatever, like We're going
to destroy this thing, and it's like, well, it actually ended up
creating more jobs in the end. That that has happened over it, that
does not mean it will always happen forever. I think is the kind of
disruptive, disruptive technology that if it goes as far as people imagine it will
go, which you know, our imagination sometimes get away with us when imagine
what something like this can do. It's not as effective as some people think
it is, but if it is, maybe it could be totally disruptive like
that. But gay mean, we've seen technologies that create things that make things
more efficient. The example I use is like Epic Games has a button now
in unreal that like you press that and like it can kind of just make
a city for you, an open world city like they show that off in
on Real Engine five a few like a couple of years ago. Now,
and that is something that required tons of artists a lot of time to create
in the past. And now like there's a button that does that. So
like all those people are gonna lose their job, right at, no way
in hell those people would start making stuff inside of buildings, so they can
now make those world feel even more alive in a lot of other ways because
you can't know. So now every game has an open old city that now
you have to stand out in that environment. So right, Yeah, it's
exactly as you say, if you can just push a button, then if
you're just using the AI generated city, you're not going to stand out in
a very very comp a field. So as you say, it's like basically
the AI and this to me again possible. You know, good use of
AI is it's it's providing a template, it's providing a canvas and then you
go in and you can change stuff rather than starting from zero. Yeah,
I mean, and I don't again, we'll see it could it could be
bad, It could be I honestly don't know. I don't know, but
I do know that we will find out because they're gonna use it. They
are gonna use AI so and that's what this was leading to. I don't
think cream Chowder leaving Microsoft suggests that they're not going full steam had they move
that team under hardware. They're just gonna build it straight into everything, and
it's going to be in every game in some way. All right. Moving
along here, Yoship says it's time for another Final Fantasy Tactics game from this
is from a mind Nintendo News. Final Fantasy Tactics fans will be pleased to
hear that Final Fantasy director Neoki Yoshita is up for creating a new game in
the classics series if the opportunity presents itself. The news was shared in an
interview with The Gamer, in which Yoship said that he's a huge fan of
the series and thinks the time is right for the franchise to be revisited.
Whether or not it actually does depends on the team's busy schedule, but it's
good to hear that it's one one title on their wish list. We have
a lot of our staff who worked on previous games like Final Fantasy Tactics or
Final Fantasy twelve, so you're going to have a lot of that Tactics feel.
A lot of the same people are on the team. He adds that
he's very happy to hear another Tactics game suggested because the team are fans of
the game themselves. We love Tactics as well. It's probably about time we
do a new one. Final Fantasy Tactics first. I'm still one of the
few games on the Nvidia League lists that has not been confirmed or come out.
Yes, almost certainly going to and goodness, yes, Final Fantasy Tactics,
y'all is so good. I am hard pressed to determine what my favorite
Final Fantasy game is because of Final Fantasy Tactics so so good. The story
Game of Thrones wishes okay, like Final Fantasy Tactics is it? And and
you know, Final Fantasy twelve is set in the same world of the Beliefs,
and uh yeah, And I mean, look, give me another Final
Fantasy Tactics. Just give me og Final Fantasy Tactics. The the remaster War
of the Lions which came out for PSP, which was outstanding, and I
believe it was on the PSP to as well. Uh just real quick.
It's almost certainly been longer since from that to now than it was from Final
Fantasy Tactics to War of the Lions, Like it's probably twice ye yeah,
yeah, oh yeah, twice as long, dude. And also it's like,
obviously we've seen with the things that Yoship and you know now Kiyoshi team
has worked on that they do that like Classic Fantasy, Final Fantasy extremely well.
And you know you are like, again, it's super interesting to me
this whole oh you know, Final Fantasy sixteen. It's so dark and serious.
It is the most serious Final Fantasy there's ever been. And I'm like,
y'all clearly never played Final Fantasy Tactics. That was the OG. And
I would love to see Yeship's team take this on and have him be at
the head of this creatively. Like I'm all the way in. I can't
wait, just love it. So what do you think the plan is?
Do you think the plan is maybe remaster Final Fantasy Tactics one more time for
modern systems, yeah, and then go into a new offshoot at some point.
I think absolutely, I think that's definitely the move. You know,
the thing about Final Fantasy Tactics is that, like, it's still so playable,
because I will say that I feel like one genre that has not gone
through a huge upgrade. Yes, they have added like battle animations that look
fancy and stuff, but by and large, the turn based tiles, the
tiles tactical RPG, it hasn't really changed that much. But no, so
Final Fantasy Tactics still super playable, and I would be curious to see what
this team would do in terms of creating a modern turn based tactics tile games
real quick Turbo Shawn says that it was ten years from the original to War
of the Lions, and it's been seventeen years since War of the Lions,
so you were right almost twice. That's deeply upsetting. Yeah, and then
okay, so some people also are saying no judges, which that's from Final
Fantasy Tactics advanced, I believe, and I like the judges. I want
them to come back, all right, Maybe not the whole game or anything,
but like, yeah, like a couple of like maybe a stretcher.
The judges show up. They're great. They for you to engage with some
of the other mechanics and stuff. I don't know. I like, how
did you feel about the Judges and Tactics Advance. Did you ever play that
one? I never played Tactics Advance. No. As I say, it's
like, I loved the original Final Fantasy Tactics and then I started playing Oh
not so so long after Valkyrie Profile came out with a Tactics game that I
really really enjoyed, called like coming into the Plume, I want to say,
And then I played a little like Diskaya and then you know, just
got into fire Emblem. That's how it goes. Yeah, so it goes.
I mean, listen, I think we probably we probably hear about a
Final Fantasy Tactics remaster or remake or something pretty soon, and then I hope
they do announce a new one. Final Fantasy nine is the other one that
they're also remaking, so probably not quite as ambitious to some of these other
games, but they have a lot of Final Fantasy stuff happening. As long
as they get to get back to Tactics, I'll be happy. I'm a
big fan of Tactics, especially Tactics Advance, but I've enjoyed what I played
Tactics in the past as well. Yeah, all right, let's take a
quick break when we get back. The Sonic movie producers are just on one.
We'll talk about that. We'll be right back, all right, Let's
get back into it, and that means Sonic movies to be Avengers level events,
says franchise producer from Ali Reynolds at Nintendo Life. Twenty twenty four is
going to be a big year for Sonic. Not only is Sonic Cross Shadow
Generations landing on the Switch in autumn, but fans will also be treated to
the Sonic The Hedgehog three movie on the twentieth of December and a dedicated Knuckles
series later this month on twenty sixth of April on that's on Paramount Plus.
So of course this is a year of Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic three,
and Knuckles is actually happening this year. Regarding the latter, franchise producer Toby
Asher recently spoke to Pace magazine to describe how the Knuckles series came about and
how the studio is leveraging these smaller projects to enable the Sonic movies to be
of Avengers level events. He's got a quote here, let's just stop.
I mean, I get what they're going for, Emma. Yes, you
know frankly, if they're like able to like make the budgets always make sense.
It does feel like they're kind of pulling this off a little bit where
it's like, yeah, okay, you're gonna build knuckles up more in the
show. You could probably introduce some like more tertiary characters in the show and
then bring them all together in a couple of these movies. Yeah, I
see what they're going for. Is that right for Sonic? I suppose it's.
It seems like it's working. How do you feel about it? I
also feel like it's working. I would just like to relay to you my
movie theater going experience. Please to see the very first of these Sonic films.
I have to say the second one a lot better than the first one.
The first one was basically it was like any of them. It was
like Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was like any of those ones where it's
like, you know, human being plus animated creatures. It is not better
than any of those movies, but people thought it was because they love Sonic,
Okay, Ben Schwart, it was a little bit. It was a
little bit better than Hop, a little bit better than Hop, which which
also has James Marsen, and I adored James mars and I love that He's
like, yeah, I just want to like make movies and enjoy my family
and I don't want to win any awards. And then Jury Duty comes out
and it's unbelievable. But anyway, I digress. So you would have thought
I went to an afternoon This was my mistake as I went to like a
three in the afternoon screening of sogn of the Hedgehog on CityWalk. This is
in early twenty twenty. It was as if I were at a rowdy screening
of cats, except for instead of a bunch of drunk adults, it was
a bunch of children, sugared up children whose parents just decided for that hour
and a half they did not have to parent their children. There's no laws
running in the aisles. They were screaming at the screen. There was like
callin or spots. I was like, what is happening? So I'm saying
something about Sonic is working. Sonic it's Avengers for children, And I don't
know if that was really necessarily their target audience, but but again it's very
smart because grown ups are going to show up to see this because they're got
going. Oh, I love sound Padgehog and Jim Carrey's having a great time
in those movies. Shout out to him. But yeah, I mean,
they're definitely on one. But I see their point. And also like the
more we talk about, the more I'm like, no, maybe they're right
because the TV shows, Okay, the thing what that happened with Marvel,
which I was a big fan of, when when the movies were happening getting
to the end game stuff, and then you know, a lot of the
TV shows started coming out and I tried to keep up, but I was
I just that was out of a sense of like, hey, I've spent
all this time investing my emotions into the story and these characters, and I
got a big payoff in the end. That was great. I really thought
that the emotional payoff that happened with all those movies was fantastic. So I,
you know, and I've already sunk all this costs in there into there,
so I should carry that momentum forward with these shows. And they just
didn't do it for me, and it felt like homework and it got out
of hand, I think, And part of that is I'm a busy adult
I got things going on, I have to pick and choose how I spend
my leisure time. The children based audience for Sonic the Hedgehog maybe makes this
make some more sense because they can come to watch a TV show time,
they got time, they'll eat up all that slop. It doesn't it don't
matter to them. And so the fact that then they can kids love that
too, like having like a story payoff where it's like I watched the show,
so now I get that reference that means way more to a kid than
it ever even meant to me. So maybe it makes a lot of sense.
I actually think this is genius because, as you say, I can
even remember being a kid and being so excited when I understood a reference means.
And kids, their brains are sponges. They just absorb everything. They're
going to remember everything. They're putting all of these details into these Marvel shows
and doing these callbacks. But I'm worrying about did I pay my electric bill?
Children they don't have that, yep, exactly. So it's like that
I think that then being able to take all this time to invest in the
Sonic Universe is probably actually going to pay off. Now, I mean if
there's fifteen Sonic shows. Maybe that has diminishing returns, Almost certainly it would.
But if they can, you know, bounce them back and forth between
one or two shows and then another movie every couple of years, you know
the fact that they've already wrapped up Sonic three, that's that's a machine.
They are just they are just throttling through those churning them out, churning them
out, and it doesn't seem like it's slowing down. So ecuick but basic
Ali Alexi in the basically LEXI cool in the chat. I'm in agreement with
you. I was literally just about to say that Big Cat movie and I
want it to be like my neighbor Totro. But it's just fun. I
think like this to give it gives them space to, like even if it
was a series of shorts, like silent shorts about Big the Cat going fishing
and just like having some fun like misadventures like that, would like you can
put that on Paramount plus or whatever, put that on TikTok. I don't
know, there's a lot of space for them to get creative. Yeah,
I don't know where the kids are, all right, Star Wars, Outlaws,
Store excuse me. Star Wars Outlaws story trailer debuts tomorrow. This is
going to be tomorrow, Tuesday, April ninth, at nine am Pacific time,
six pm Central European time. I am excited about this because I'm looking
forward to this game, and I keep like forgetting it's coming out this year.
I know, you know, we got through Dragon's Dogma two and then
we were looking at the schedule and it's like, oh, you know,
not not a lot, not a lot left announced for this year, and
then I was forgetting about Outlaws. I do think that that Dragon Age game
is going to come out later this year. There's a handful of other things,
but this is like, honestly, for me, this is this could
be a really big one. I thought this game looked very, very well
made. When we saw the debut at Summer Game Fest last year. It
came quite place it and since then it's been like one of those ones where
I'm like, I'm going to put that in the back of my mind because
I bet it's so far off, and now it's like, oh no,
wait, no, it's this year, and I am what's happening here is
I'm going to watch this story trailer and I'm going to decide whether or not
I believe it's really coming out this year at that point, and then if
if it looks good, it looks promising, then I'm this is going to
be like, Hey, I'm fully anticipating this, especially as someone who's a
you know, big Star Wars fan. So how are you looking forward to
Outlaws? Is this something that you've that you've had on your radar? And
how do you feel about this trailer? So here is the thing about me
and Star Wars. I love all the Star Wars shit that's not about Jedi,
and that's what Star Wars Outlaws is. So I'm i am actually very
very excited for this. The way to make me not excited for this is
if there's any mention of Luke Skywalker. Okay, Star Wars, why do
you try to make your galaxy so small all the time. There are infinite,
infinite possibilities and I would like to see this just live in its own
space in the galaxy far far away. I am excited about this. I
love the little pet creature, the gal who is our heroine. I'm totally
into that. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm actually very very excited for this game.
And don't get me wrong, I liked the Jedi games, like Sure,
Jedi survivor whatever the well in order there he goes like whatever, the
first one was. Yeah, those games are fun and I do like them,
and I think that they are a nice amount of video game. But
yes, I am very excited about Star Wars Outlaws. Yeah, I'm one
percent with you about like I don't need Jedi and everything. I get that
Jedi are like a hugely appealing thing to a ton of people and to me
in a lot of ways. But really, the biggest thing that always attracted
me to Star Wars from the first time watching a new Hope was it felt
like a real lived in the world where people were scraping by and there was
an economy. I think about like Luke selling his speeder all the time,
where it's right exactly, we got to scrape together enough money to get a
ride to this planet. And I have this old thing and I'm selling it,
and the new one came out, so the fucking Reselle value on mine
dropped to the ground. This sucks. And it's like you It's like you
could feel him struggling with like just the all these forces that aren't the force
acting on his on his life. And I uh so that's why I like
when Andor comes around and it's like, yeah, let's let's talk about someone
just trying to get by, just trying to live it, and like and
then how all that's the feed into the themes of and here's why even that
person who doesn't have the force and doesn't it doesn't consider themselves politicals just trying
to get by, Here's why all that ends up with them also fighting against
the empire. Like that is such perfect storytelling. That's what I want,
And it almost feels like it could be very much that thing. And yeah,
you know, just an outlaw literally an outlaw, a smuggler trying to
do that, like stuff like trying to get by doing crimes, petty crimes
to make a buck here and there. That's also really going to me.
So yes, I'm in. Yeah, I really do think that Star Wars
Outlaws has a ton of potential. So looking forward to seeing that story trailer,
baby, and it's you know, it's this is massive, right,
this is the Division team, use your snowdrop engine. Just such a competent
team. I thought that Avatar game was pretty decent in the end of all
things considered, and it feels like this one's going to be even better,
so we'll see. And her hair looks very nineteen seventies as well. That's
just which is correct. Star Wars. Absolutely there's somebody in the Empire strikes
back when they're all evacuating Cloud City, running out with an ice cream maker.
Okay, like that is Star Wars. Yep, she's got the Terrence
Howard hair doing out there. Good for her. Super Mario Maker community clears
Trimming the Herbs am I almost said herbs. Trimming the Herbs just days before
WEU online shutdown. This is from Liam Dulan at Nintendo Life. Remember how
a special task force dubbed Team zero Present managed to clear every level in Super
Mario Maker before in Nintendo's WEU online shutdown, Well, there was only one
illegitimate upload titled Trimming the Herbs I'm just gonna say it, which the community
was determined to overcome. Now, just days remaining, this level has officially
been cleared, as highlighted on the game's subreded. The community persisted and this
level was conquered. It was completed by sanny X ninety one SMM two and
you could see the flawlessly executed twenty five second run in a video. The
stage had previously been beaten but by a tool assisted speed run, so they
used the tool to basically play the game for them to get through this level.
And now finally a real human has done it, and the WEU online
services are shutting down today. Under the wire they were able to do that,
so this is an incredible feat of human skill and persistence. And they
also very said that Nintendo WU online services are shutting down. I did get
in there and download a bunch of Dan's levels on Super Mario Makers, so
now I have those locally. Nice. If there's any other Super Mario Maker
levels I should get I got some spaces left. Let me know, people,
I'll get in there and make that happen. This this is a bummer.
There are efforts by the community to revive some Nintendo online services for the
three DS and the WEU not going to name them because I found out that
Nintendo listens to shows and that's how they find Yeah, that's how they find
these people and shut them down. I hope that these efforts are so robust
that they can enable something like the original Super Mario Maker to live if I
if we got like a hampering over a giant bomb to be like, hey,
let's go back to the original Super Mario Maker and make levels for each
other. If I hope, I hope this effort makes that possible. Yeah,
we'll see. Yeah. Yeah, as you say this again goes back
to the idea of games preservation being something that's only been taken into account fairly
recently. And this is another layer of this is a game that was about
user generated content, yes, yeah, and that falls in a big gray
area when it comes to like who owns that? Yep, absolutely all right,
I'm gonna hit this story that I skipped up here. Eugi Naka returns
to Twitter by accusing Dragon Quest producer of lying to court. This is from
Andy Robertson at Pucci SI. Last year, Naka was sentenced to thirty months
in prison, suspended for four years, and given two fines totaling one hundred
and seventy three million yin, which is about one point two million dollars after
he pled guilty to buying shares based on inside information during his time working at
publishers Square Enix. Naka hadn't posted on his Twitter account since November of twenty
twenty two, which was shortly before he was formally indicted, but on Sunday
he returned to comment on news that the Top Excuse Me, Dragon Quest producer
Miaki will reportedly be reassigned at Square Enix. Yaki is credited as executive producer
for Naka's Square Enix title Ballin wonder World. Shout us to Ballen wonder World
as Always, and a Twitter post Naka ledge that Miyaki lied in court documents.
Man, my throat is just dying today. You're fun. Yeah,
I'm just falling apart a little bit, Emma, just a little bit.
It's the it's the mysterious plants that are descending to the planet in the midst
of the solar eclips. So if you see them laying on the side of
the road, just just let them lay there. Don't don't feed them.
They're crawling up my leg right now. And a Twitter post naco A ledge
that Miaki lied in court documents, presumably part of his insider trading trial.
This is a quote I guess finally. I was hoping he would be gone
soon because he is the kind of person who would submit a note with a
lie with evidence to a court of law. I've never met him, but
the new Square Inix president might be a good person. I think that's that
is Yuji Naka saying that Miaki, a director on the board who had joined
Square Inix in nineteen ninety two and had long overseen the RPG franchise, will
now leave the Japanese company's mobile games, according to Bloomberg's sources. After his
arrest in November twenty twenty two, it was claimed that Naka, who was
working on Ball and Wonder World for Square Inix at the time, was made
aware that Japanese developer arming or amying excuse me, was working on a new
Dragon Quest mobile game called Dragon Quest Tact before it was officially announced. Nako
was arrested for a second time in December twenty twenty two, relating to allegations
that he had carried out a similar insider trading scheme after learning confidential information that
Square was planning to make Final Fantasy seven the first Soldier with mobile developer a
team entertainment. So, yeah, uh U is out there trying to claim
that he's been framed this iss Yeah, I'm sure you have Ka like,
my thing about Yuji Naka is like you you invented the online console game.
You really did. You were unbelievably influential on my childhood playing Fantasy Star Online
on the Dreamcast. I got a keyboard. I got the Dreamcast keyboard so
I could chat, so I could chat with all my friends who were English
speakers, and then I would just communicate with the pre set phrases with all
the Japanese players that I was playing with, and basically invented the the sort
of predecessor to what like the Monster Hunter games would Buddy, No, you
were okay, you were not framed, but I mean maybe maybe so.
But I just if this is if this is a criminal offense that you have
been charged with more than once. Yeah, I don't think you're being framed,
yep. I think you might have just done a little insider training training
is all. And yeah, I mean it's the kind of thing where it's
just a blatant thing, like finding out about something investing in it before the
public knows. Yeah, everyone kind of knows at this point. Don't do
that. Just don't do that. Do that. Yeah, you didn't get
a hot stock tip. You learned something from the company you worked at and
didn't tell anybody. Yeah, correct, Uji Naka is like he didn't actually
go to prison. That thirty months prison sentence was suspended, so it's like
that it's like hanging over him if he were to like violate the law again.
So it's like, man, just you gotta be quiet. You just
got to go shut your mouth up for the next couple of years, get
past all this, and then you won't have to deal with the repercussions if
you were to like, you know, poke the bear and then someone's like,
well, here's another time you did insider trading or something like that.
So yeah, yeah, you're not making a good case for yourself here.
Let's just put it that way, right. Does Eujinnaka ever come back and
make another video game? I don't know. Man, As you say,
if he lays low for a while, just get yourself out of the public
spotlight. It's very possible that ultimately this is a blip on the radar and
he is able to make a comeback. At the end of the day.
It's it's insider trading. Capitalism's a hell of a drug, and you know,
I hate to be like, this isn't the worst crime. No one
got hurt. I don't think. I guess. I'm sure someone could show
me how people get hurt from insider training but trading. But yeah, uh
yeah, people are bringing up other famous near do wells in video gaming.
So he can go team with Tommy Tall, Rico and Dennis Dyak, bring
the bring the all star team together. Let's make it happen that. Actually,
I would be legit excited if they all those guys got together. We're
like, we're gonna make a game. It would be a shit show,
awful. The egos Tommy tell A, Rico would be incredible. I would
like I would listen to a podcast of him and Dennis Diak because they would
just slowly fall apart over a matter of weeks. Man, make that happen.
Yeah, all right, Finally here, the first episode of Amazon's Fallout
show will be viewable on Twitch. This is from Tom Ivan at VGC on
the same day as the whole season is made available on Amazon's Prime Video subscription
service. Fans will be able to watch the first episode on Twitch via a
number of streamers, including Shroud, Brooke ab and The Only Ryan. The
show you Know, starring a bunch of cool people like Walter Goggins is coming
here very soon from Jonathan Nolan and some others, people that worked on HBO's
West World. Yeah, the show I think is going to have all of
its episodes hit Amazon Prime once. Yes, so this is like a little
teaser if you don't have Prime, or maybe get to convince people to open
up Prime. How do you feel about them showing it alongside because presumably this
is going to be the streamers sitting on the screen watching the show alongside and
able to actually show the it on screen side. I mean, I don't
I don't know if you've played very much with the Twitch watch party feature with
the Amazon Prime ex fan of watch parties, which they're getting rid of and
very soon. Well, yeah, we did when Rings of Power dropped a
few years ago, and that did the week to week model on the Phantom
Twitch channel. Bailey and I did watch parties every single week for it was
and it was really so much fun. So yeah, I mean this and
look obviously like if you have an Amazon Prime account problem solved, you know
the watch party feature still exists right now. When are they retiring that?
I think it's in the next couple of months. Yeah, but it's not
it's either la or in Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I mean maybe unless
maybe they are retiring it right before the fallout show, which probably sucks for
which would suck for smaller creators who that's like a really great way to engage
with your community. I guess sure that maybe they're doing this to convince people
to subscribe to Amazon Prime if they don't have it. Who out there doesn't
have an answer? Yeah, right, Honestly, that makes me think that
this is about like, hey, people have Amazon Prime, but they don't
actually open Prime Video all that often. So what can we do? How
can we leverage it to get people to like use this thing that they already
have? And sure, I think that's this is about that. I think,
use this thing that they already have and then pay the upgrade to not
have commercials. Like yeah, I think there's part of them is like,
you know, we see a certain number of people who will never cancel Prime
once they start watching Prime Video or something like that, and so I like,
maybe they I'm God. The way that these companies behave I think it's
very hard to decipher exactly how they what their key performance and indicators are.
I think it's easy to assume like, yeah, they want those conversions to
the higher tier, and I'm sure they do want that. I think there's
part of them that's like, hey, we are at Prime Video and we
have a relationship with Twitch, and we we need to have certain numbers to
prove to our bosses, whether that you know, our viewership numbers, to
show engagement, to show that we're pulling our weight when it comes just to
the Prime subscription, and like, so let's go leverage what we could do
with Twitch to make that stuff happen. It could be that simple. I
don't know. Yeah, yeah, and I did want to say that in
chat, pac Mand has said that watch parties are actually already gone as a
few days ago. Wow, that's stings. That sucks. It was super
broken for a long time, that especially whenever I tried to load it up
on the Twitch android app, which sucks. Yeah, bad app totally,
It's a terrible app anyway. But yeah, and that's you know what,
that's maybe the real st like, okay, yeah, fall, Twitch just
feels like it's slowly dying in a lot of ways. I'm not like clearly
as huge viewership numbers we are, but we understand the cost of a stream.
And so when I look at like all of these other features that were
like built up they were gonna you know, the Twitch stream together or whatever
was the multi team streaming stuff, It's like, well, then, you
know, all these things that were making it cooler or more convenient, or
more efficient or work in a more slicker way, all that stuff got tried,
they abandoned it, and now it's sort of just either a vestige that
hangs around it doesn't really work anymore, or it is something like watch parties,
which was like that a vestige that was broken in a lot of ways,
and now they just completely ripped it out. They're not trying new exciting
things. It feels like they are in the maintenance period of let's just make
as much money as we can, yes, wow, while spending as little
money as possible and just let it coast. And it's an oh boy,
we're already there. With Twitch. That's maybe a bad sign. I don't
yeah. I mean, Twitch is such an interesting example because you know,
in my experience with Twitch, there there is a lot of you know,
there's a big awareness that Twitch's audience is going to age out of Twitch because
you know, a lot of the really really big streamers that are getting these
huge numbers in terms of viewership, a lot of their viewers are young and
don't have disposable income. It's like we were talking about earlier. I don't
have time to watch somebody play Fortnite on Twitch for four hours. You know
who does children? So it feels like over the years, they've made so
many attempts to create premium content and that audience just isn't on Twitch, Like
I just don't know. Yeah, And it feels like, you know,
someone's like, oh, there's new twelve year olds every day, but I
don't know. The next generation of twelve year olds feels like they're getting on
YouTube shorts and Twitch or TikTok excuse me, and then when they want to
watch live content creators, we'll guess what those platforms are doing that now.
Yeah, and Twitch is still going to be getting its fair share of all
that audience, of course. But the point is always with all these conversations,
where's the growth come from? Because that's what these companies all care about.
And I think we're looking at Twitch and they tried a bunch of things
to grow and I think it feels like they have admitted to themselves that hey,
they've done all those things, none of them really worked. So here
we are just throw in more ads and take a bigger cut of the of
the you know, your biggest, your biggest creators revenue. And then you
know, if the Android app is broken, so what can they watch ads
still on there? Well? Yeah the ads load? Okay, good,
that's all that matters. So yeah, you know that this is where this
is where everything's headed. Uh and Bloyd sucks though it really Yeah? Alright,
Uh, let's get to the poll question from last week. I asked,
are you getting excited for the Summer Game Mess? Said yes, I'm
already excited dead uh and forty one percent say I'll get excited when Sony,
Microsoftintendo confirmed shows. Uh yeah, let's uh. I am excited for myself,
but I'm kind of with everybody. Once we hear all the confirmations,
that's when we'll really get into stuff. Yeah. Yeah, But as it
stands right now, I am like thinking about getting ready for our Summer Game
Mess. We're gonna be doing GV at night, and I thought we should
we should brand it as Summer Game Mess. That's my brand Jeff Grubs same
summer game mess. When when Jeff Keeley was doing a summer game fest,
that's what I did. I was like, I'll just do Jeff grubs summer
game mess instead. So summer game mess everywhere. I love it. That's
good brand. All right, that's an old poll. By the way,
Sean forgot to put up Friday's pole, even though I never asked him to
do that. He just takes these things upon himself. What was the Friday
pol We could do both? Then, all right, well, here's today's
poll. Are you excited about Star Wars Outlaws? Yes? Or no?
And then let me see what if I can remember Friday's pool. I think
I wrote it down here. Let's see here. Oh yeah, it was
this from a couple weeks ago. What do you prefer higher resolutions or higher
frame rates? Yes? So okay, we'll just do the one we'll do.
Are you excited about Star Wars Outlaws? All right? West frame rates
and the resolution? All right, let's do both. Cool? Never mind,
I changed my mind immediately. We'll talk about the answer to both of
those on Wednesday. Feel free to go to YouTube dot com slash at Giant
Bomb hit the community tab you could vote on the polls there. The results
will come in on Wednesday show. We'll discuss them on Tuesday. However,
we have the Giant BombCast happening, all that good stuff, Emma, Why
don't you tell people where they can find you as well? Yes, so
today around ten Amacific time, you can find me out in the streets looking
directly at the sun. Otherwise you can find me at Emma Fife all over
the internet wherever m fife'es are sold. Even though I don't particularly participate in
the social media anymore. Like I said, I'm in the discord server,
so if you got anything you want to talk to me about, hit me
up there. I like to keep myself in in safe, nice little communities
rather than throwing myself to the whims of the internet anymore. Correct move these
days? Absolutely all right? Anything else happening on Giant bomb Yeah? Yeah,
the BombCast will happened tomorrow. I just found out that Jan will be
traveling still, so we'll try to piece one together for you everybody tomorrow.
But there will be a BombCast. We're going to go figure out what the
rest of this week looks like at a meeting here to do exactly that,
but you can expect Blake Club to likely return. Upf will happen, Voice,
Smelt, Dump Truck, all those good shows, and then maybe we'll
sneak in some other special things for you as well. There's some definitely some
things that we've been throwing around for a while that we want to get to
once Dan's like back from traveling. I want to do another demo, derby
things like that, but all that stuff in its time. In the meantime,
Emma, thank you so much for spending today talking with me about video
games. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me as always,
and thank you all for watching and listening. You're the best audience in gaming.
Until next time, have a good one, take care of yourself,
and goodbye.