Game Mess Mornings 10/13/23

You don't be bad. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this
for October thirteenth, twenty twenty three. For the next hour or so,
let me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game Mess Mornings Live
with Me Jeff Grubb. Today, they finally done it. They finally have
acquired Activision, and we don't have to talk about it anymore after today.
We still have to talk about it today, but first please join me and
welcome you today's co host the Game Mess Mornings. It's Alex Aroona. Everybody,
Alex, how are you doing. I'm doing great, feeling feeling good.
I had my coffee, I'm ready to move. I have a small
child, so I was up pretty early already. Yeah, I know exactly
that life, except my kids are off school today. They are Yeah,
they're off school today. So I'm like kind of waking up a little bit
later than normal. But that got me into a bad habit of like I
can do things so later, and I kept putting things off. So I
was just I kind of got the show. I don't even have like my
intro. I just did everybody that was I had to like look at the
date. I'm a computer because I didn't actually update it, and everyone knows.
If I don't have it in front of me, I will just read
whatever the old stuff is. I'm going to say that you have your you
were surprisingly on the fly I have. When I do my run a show,
I'm like, I'm like Ron Burgundy, me too, Yeah, it
was written in there. I just read and then halfway through someone goes,
you know you said that absolutely backwards. I'm like, well, it's written
though. One time I started I started my Gay Mess the Sides podcast and
I did the entire intro for this show because I brought up this rundown instead
and I didn't realize until it was to the very end that it was wrong.
So that's that's how bad I am normally. But this time I was
a little bit more more on my toes. Alex, why do you tell
people about yourself? Where they you know, where you come from, what
kind of work you do? That kind of stuff. I'm outside. I'm
just just a smidge out of Chicago. I podcast for NPR of Illinois,
Nintendo World Report. I do a lot of right over there. We have
our own podcast, Super Gig Radio. Super Good Game Radio is about we
try to beta test games. We try to find you know, early access
games, demo stuff before it comes out, and then we try to like
expand upon it, talk about it, talk to dev's, or just to
just tell the world about these awesome, weird, crazy games that we play.
Yeah, that's one thing I always noticed is like, yeah, you
guys play a lot of games, always kind of up up to speed on
the cool, interesting things that are coming out of nowhere usually, but that's
not a lot. There is a lot of like, Okay, this game,
I see what they're doing. It's not not for me. Oh yeah,
well totally. Yes. That's my biggest thing is like I get it,
I'm moving on. That's I move on from a lot of games really
quickly once I'm like I get it. But Steve, nextest is happening?
You were playing some stuff in there? Anything that stands out that people who
are trying to catch up on it, because I haven't really even had a
chance to look at it, Like, what would you recommend to me right
now? The one that kind of blew us away recently was American Arcadia,
which is a as you guys call limb boners. Yeah, it's a limbo
Yeah, you're essentially the Truman Show. Your character goes to work and then
turns out his life was the kind of a lie, and it's all filmed,
and there's somebody that's like kind of in his ear trying to tell him
how to break out. So you're doing like the limbo thing, going left
to right, doing the platform jumping and the puzzle solving, and then what
makes it a little different is that they break it up by occasionally pulling you
out and being you're the person in his ear, like first person, Oh,
okay, he's stuck behind this thing. I got to figure out how
to get into the server room. And it's you walking around interacting with objects,
solving puzzles in first person to get to the server room, and then
it goes back to him doing the limbo stuff. And you also get like
a little control, like, oh, I need to open that gate before
the guards come, and you have to like open the gate with the from
the person's point of view with like an extra like oh right, bumper,
hit square and that'll open the gate and then your character can run through.
So it does add a little bit like an extra layer on top. Mm
hm. It's just another one of those like fun, Like, yeah,
limbo, there hasn't been a million of those yet, like like that a
couple more of those isn't going to hurt anybody. Yes, that sounds pretty
interesting and anything else I knew you were talking about, Like that's when I
played over the Summer the the the Trials like game where you play it's like
the Wolf for the Fox or the Cat or something like that on a bike.
She has a gun and she can go in slow motion and shoot the
gun. It's it's actually really cool. I wonder if the how you found
this demo, Like it really stood out to me just because you know I
again, that's one I feel like, oh, there hasn't been a Trials
game in a while, and I haven't seen anything Trials like in a while,
so I was like, oh, yeah, I'm ready for more Trials.
But then it throws in like oh, by the way, if you
flip the bike upside down, it can reflect bullets. I'm like, why
would you need to? Oh wait, you're it's robing tribes of anthropomorphic animals
and it's apocalypse and the bullets reflect back and there's a lot of gore.
Yes. Yeah, yeah, it's like surprisingly bloody and I think it's trying
to be affecting because again, you're like you're playing this I think a mother
character and sa pups who've been kidnapped by like a tribe of exactly vikers or
something. It's like what, yeah, it's crazy, but then trials it
up like go sideways and like drive upwards of all right. I think one
of the things I remember from playing it is like you can jump in the
air and fire a shot in slow motion, and then if you do like
a full backflip, that reloads your weapons so then you could fire again.
So it's incentivizing you to do these cool like stunts, these wet stunts so
you could take on take on more enemies and like, oh that that's clever
to kind of you know, it's the Doom Eternal or Doom twenty sixteen ification
of everything of like get in that ass, like don't stand back, don't
be on your heels, like go forward and try to like engage with all
the systems as quickly as possible, bang bang bang, so that you could
be super offensive. And that's the way to play these games. I'm like,
Okay, I appreciate that more games are going in that direction, any
anything else that you think people shouldn't miss. That's the two that are stand
out for me right now. Yeah, I have we have a long list
steam Next Next Fest being the podcast just like plays demos and betas and stuff
that list. Steam Nextfest happens and it's like, Okay, here's a list
of fifteen, we're gonna try to each one of us take five. We're
gonna try to figure this out which ones are the ones worth it and talking
about it, and then you know, it's so but it's funnier because it
happened and we were all excited, like this is for us, this is
our thing, and then it's like, oh, we're gonna do it three
four times a year, and I'm like, crap, that's a lot.
Yes, yeah, I'm kind of like, oh, yeah, they're doing
this again. I feel like the last one just happened. I suppose there
are enough video games that you kind of do need a Steam Nextfest this frequently,
and they seem very like they work, they're effective. A lot of
people are are playing these demos, and it's like at one point, it's
like demos come out and people are like, don't seem to care. People
do seem to care again about demos, and especially once our games that are
a little bit further off, and like, I want to see what's coming
down the pipeline. So that's that's pretty cool. With all these awesome,
big games that have come out this year, people are still making time for
demos for something like like did you say didn't you say today? Like how
many? How many games came out this year or in a year? I
mean, I mean this is a twenty twenty two number, So about six
thousand games per year come out? Yes, that's you know on Steam,
it's about thirty five games a day. That's uh, that's a lot of
video games. So did you go to like, yeah, well the Internet
Video Game Database and you just go to the like new releases every day.
It's like okay, here's like five to ten games. Oh damn, okay.
Yeah, it's it's relentless and uh and it's it's ridiculous with how good
this year has been. Yes, this year has been so fantastic. And
then even like, oh, okay, this game is a top tier Triple
A game and it's a nine point five fantastic and it's like, oh,
here's a tiny indie this is a ten weird but like, how do they
stack up? It's even hard to even say that, right right, Like
Cocun just coming out of nowhere and it's being like, oh this, everyone
seems to love this game. It's okay. I guess I'll have to check
that out as well. Summer Games Best. I was surprised that no one
mentioned one. It was really fun. Yeah, yeah, Jim was the
one that told me about it at Summer Game Fest. Cocoon, so I
had my eye on it. Not too surprising that it did well, but
it's doing very well. All right, We're gonna get into all this in
a second. First, I just want to address something on voicemail dumb Truck
yesterday. I made a bet with Jeff Backlar about the New Jersey Devils versus
the Detroit Red Wings. I said if the Red Wings lost, I would
wear my New Jersey Devil's shirt that I had to buy last year when the
Red Wings lost to the Devils. I am wearing it. I don't Backlar.
I think it's traveling to some stupid wedding today or something. So if
anyone wants to take a screenshot of this and just tweet this at I would
appreciate that because I'm not gonna wear it again. So there it is on
the record, It's in the show. Everyone could see it. I'm sick
of it. I'm sick of it. It was actually a pretty good game,
but I'm still sick of it. All right, you know, we'll
go through out there that One of the commonalities I've seen is that one of
my favorite bands this band here, and it's actually mentioned by Jeff Backlar as
one of his favorite bands. Of course, of course you're in cahoots.
I knew it. All right. Let's let's explain what we do here 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 look smart. If you were watching live on twitch welcome,
You could always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for Game
mess Mornings, or find the RSS on giabomb dot com. You can also
catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All
right, so we have a lot to get into, so let's start the
morning mess with Microsoft officially acquires Activision Blizzard nearly two years after originally making the
deal. This comes from Eddie McCoo at GameSpot. Microsoft has officially closed its
deal to buy Activision Blizzard for sixty nine billion dollars nice, making Microsoft's biggest
acquisition of all time in one of the largest in the history of the business
world across all sectors. The deal faced a good amount of regulatory pressure as
Microsoft faced scrutiny from government groups around the world. Key legal battles took place
in the United States and the UK. Microsoft announced the deal in February twenty
twenty two. The announcement of the deal closing came just hours after the UK's
CMA itself signed off, and this was the final regulatory hurdle that Microsoft needed
to clear to close the deal. A key concern from the CMA centered on
cloud gaming, and to help close the deal, Microsoft's sold cloud gaming rights
to Ubisoft. All the games that are coming from Activision Blizzard in the next
fifteen years and those games that exist now, we have those streaming rights in
perpetuity, Ubisoft said, and its own announcement pertaining to the closure of the
deal today, Microsoft is paying Activision Blizzard ninety five dollars per share for the
buyout. Microsoft's previous biggest acquisition was LinkedIn, which was twenty six point two
billion dollars, and that was in twenty sixteen. Those are all the you
know, the who, what's where, whys and wins of it all.
It's closed. Now it's over. We're moving past it. Do you feel
any different, alex Arona, You know, I well, I feel a
little bit of relief that I don't have to like hear about it anymore.
Yes, it's I think we all been. It's been a long time coming.
We all kind of knew it was. It was like, did you
feel like it was really dicey there? I didn't think so, Like,
I know, I know that there was there's opposition. I think when the
CMA UH was like standing in the way and the f the FTC sued for
the preliminary injunction those two times, it was like, I don't know what's
going to happen. Because in the past with deals even of you know,
there's not many deals of this scale, but deals similar though similar to this
or anywhere near this scale. They haven't really faced this kind of uh.
These kind of hurdles before. So it's like, oh, this is unprecedented
in terms of the regulator regulators trying to do something to stop a deal like
this. So if it's unprecedent, it means we have no way to look
back and be like, this is what happens in the scenario like this,
And that was like, okay, so anything can happen. Really, even
through all that, it's like, it seems likely that it's going to go
through. They're definitely so to this show where we're stuff like the CMA blocking
it happened, and I was like, who knows, you know, maybe
it's like thirty percent chance it goes through now, but it's like that's still
like relatively good, you know, relatively likely that it would happen. Here
we are. It kind of ended up going exactly how most people thought,
I think, and and it just took a little bit longer. As far
as you know what happens next, I think it is it's gonna take some
time for them to integrate, but I do expect, like, hey,
this is gonna look pretty similar to what happened with Bethesda before, where Microsoft's
gonna probably start putting these games on Game pass and just get hit the ground
running as quickly as it can. And hey, now it owns the company
that's about to launch Call of Duty. That's they have to consider that a
big win. It's like immediately this deal is going to start paying off for
them. So uh as a short term the problem I have is that,
if you think about it, the Microsoft has not managed their partners that well.
It seems like like this they're kind of they're kind of hands off.
They're hands they do whatever you want, and then the games are like,
oh yeah, by the way, this game is like still eight years out,
and it's like wait, what right where Microsoft shoul maybe be a little
bit hands on because I mean, you have now a treasure trove of games
that you could like Tony Hawk three and four, right you know, you
know was a Spiro Spiro's activision, Right, yep, that's right. You
have a lot of like things you could just start, oh okay, start
getting the teams and start focusing on some of these ips that you mind,
you don't need to like again, call of Duty is a big win,
but that is a pretty a pretty established situation that you could have right inside.
It's the one that you can be hands off on right, because of
the stove. Studios are going to do what they're doing. It's its own
machine. So throwing in a spiral, throwing at Tony Hawk, throwing some
other of these ips in there, you can get that. You can get
a good cash flow going. But you need to start. Then, you
need to start. You know. Obviously we don't want to push developers,
but I mean you should do have to focus them a little bit because I
feel like some of the times they end up getting a little onnfocused and then
you end up all over the place. Yeah, I think it's like,
I think you're right. There are some of these franchises and develop groups that
are like, they make sense to just keep operating as the machine they always
were. And as far as Microsoft and investors and Satia Nadella are concerned concerned,
I think they're like, oh, hey, wow, King makes a
lot of money. Call Duty makes a lot of money that is already going
to be paying. It's gonna be paying more than the interest we would have
gotten for putting that money in the bank had we just taken sixty nine billion
dollars and put it in some investment or whatever. So it's like this already
makes sense financially for us, But as far as like we're concerned people from
like who play games and want to see something positive come out of this,
I think you're right that the hope would be that Microsoft could take a little
bit of a hard rain on this situation and be like, Okay, you
have a lot of IP and a lot of studios that previously you were all
thrown at call of duty, You're throwing more and more at call of duty.
Can we find some way to make things more efficient or to expand some
of these studios back out in other directions to make make more games so that
people could feel better about activision than they had before. And I think to
do that, you're right, they would have to be more hands on,
more willing to get in there and and actually provide some guidance to these studios.
Uh. I think they're gonna be willing to provide money. Money's probably
not gonna be a problem that that, you know, and that's a big
part of it. But beyond that, it's gonna they're still going to need
that that uh a leadership or that vision, and I don't necessarily I'm not
sure that that vision exists what do you think, see, I don't necessarily
Yeah, I think that again, they need to have some at least some
coalesceons get together, start making plans at least point in directions of where we
need to go. You know. Again, you give, you give people
a little too much, like okay, just do whatever you want, and
then you end up with some crazy stuff, which is like both good and
bad. It's just I think that, you know, again, if we
want, if they want to start making money, they should start like,
you know, focusing down on some of these like ips that they have they
just recently acquired. Yeah, I mean I think, I mean, we
see that for a lot of studios. It does work that that hands off
stuff. I think that's how we got High five. Shouldn't mean hyphero Rush
was already starting before Microsoft acquired them, apparently, but it's like that happened
because there was a skunk works team inside of Tango Game Works. It's like,
Hey, we have this idea, we're messing around with something, We're
going to prototype it. Hey, we think this is really fun. We're
gonna start building it. And then Microsoft kind of came in around that time.
I was like, hey, yeah, here's some support. Here's some
funding to make sure that you can actually get to see that through. And
we fully support this because we're hands off and you're the creatives and if you
want to do something, we believe in you. Obviously that has some positives.
I think that that is something that that probably is working at a lot
of these studios, maybe Obsidian being the ideal one over on the pathes the
side of things of Hey, they seem to have a ton of ideas and
they are pretty effective at coming up with those ideas and then executing them and
getting them getting them out the door. As far as like any of these
other teams, it's you know, or these dormant ip like they're not going
to just naturally happen if you say, hey, everyone work on what you
want to work on, or we're going to be pretty hands off or we
trust you. I think you have to take some initiative there, and if
like if Phil Spencer really wants you know, hex and and heretic back,
he's going to have to like go in there and say, hey, who
wants to actually work on this? Can we make someone make room for this?
And that that will take that guidance that we're talking about and I don't
know how how much capacity Microsoft Gaming has to do that because they have a
ton of studios already, and it's not like it's it's not it's not like
it seems like, oh, they have the time to micromanage these teams already,
and now there's a ton more teams and so that's going to be possible.
And I again, I don't know what goes into this stuff day to
day. I don't know if micro management exactly. Yeah, uh, And
I bet a lot of these developers are pretty happy to have the hands off
sort of approach for Microsoft. But again we're talking about maybe what we want
out of this, and in that case, I mostly agree with you,
or I'm like, I'd like to see some just a guiding hand. You
don't have to go in there and make every decision for these teams. The
people working on the games usually know what's best for the games, but just
to you know, guide in hand towards some of these things that we'd like
to see back, specifically Tony Hawk's pro Skater three plus four as far as
like, Okay, so throughout this whole process, the big you know,
criticism, and I think rightly so at least in terms of like, let's
talk about it and talk it out. Was this worry about consolidation and and
this is going to mean like, hey, a couple of companies own all
of the video game industry. I'm you know, I'm We've talked about this
so much that I'm at a point where I'm like, I just don't feel
that. I don't feel like that's what's happened here. But I don't know.
Maybe maybe you disagree. I think a lot of people do disagree,
and I'm willing to hear it. What do you think? I think it's
I mean, the bigger, the bigger companies are always going to be trading
back and forth. This company owns this company, this company gets bought up
by this company. I mean, how often has it been that a company
gets bought out then split off? Right? Didn't that happen with Destiny and
Bungee? Right? Bungee got bought and then split off into their own separate
team. Yeah, Yes, Soft bought Bungie. Then Bunchie bought themselves away
from Microsoft and then they were independent, and they worked with Activision for a
long time, and then they stopped with a vision and yes, and then
now that the Bunch is now owned by Sony, not PlayStation, they're owned
by Sony. Yes, that right, that these things are. You're right,
they ping pong back and forth a lot. And I think that I
think that people who people who want to do something super creative and unique will
split off and do their own separate thing. We talked about Cocoon, right,
Cocoon was you know some of those guys from the Limbo team, and
it's like, oh, okay, you split off, started a new studio
and you started something separate. Now, so it's like, okay. There
always will be these branches of people splitting off and wanting to do something a
little bit different than what they're being pigeonholed as, especially when they get bought
up by the big machine, you know, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony.
But I think that there's a room obviously for people does branch off and leave
and and and there'll be ebbs and flows of it all. We're not we're
not at a point that there is like a giant consolidation yet. Yeah.
Yeah, I think it's easy to look at what's happened in movies and music
and be like, that's happening in gaming and I it is trying to happen
in gaming, like the same urges of capitalism that caused uh, you know,
handful of companies to just pick winners and losers in music, or to
control all of movies and Disney owning so much of what is successful at the
box office. Uh, that's that those same compulsions are driving a lot of
the stuff that's happening in gaming. But gaming has had the sort of these
key moments of the democratization of tools happening at the same time as the democratization
of platforms where and that's you know, Steam being the key one there of
you could put a game, anyone could put a game on Steam, and
and not just that, Steam has done a good job of enabling just about
any game to have a chance to succeed, to the point where many of
the big games that have popped up out of the that came out of nowhere
to be major successes in industry, defining to cesses they came originally at least
the idea did out of Steam. I mean obviously one of the recent ones
being the Battle Royale, where it's like, hey, that's happening in the
mod scene in games on Steam and now someone's like, we're gonna do a
standalone one of these players on player knowns Battlegrounds and it's gonna have two million
concurrent players, and that's from some the studio out in Korea, and it's
just going to pop up out of nowhere. And it's like that can happen
in gaming, and it doesn't really happen in movies and music and a lot
of other mediums where it's like, oh, the biggest thing in the world
can come from someone from completely out of nowhere without the backing of some major
corporation that's already been established in that field. That is like one of the
key things that makes gaming different and why whatever's happening with Activision is sort of
immaterial to the overall dynamism of gaming. And then when you do look at
Activision itself, like you were saying, I think that the people who are
a part of this deal, who are going from working in Activision to now
being under Microsoft Gaming, many of them have like the stocks stock, the
whole stock in Activision that is now going to be worth a lot. It's
gonna be bought by Microsoft. That stuff's gonna invest over time, and they're
gonna be able to leave and either take that money and start something or be
like, hey, I worked on call of duty for a really long time,
what's the investment environment like, and probably be able to get some investment
and start their own studio and start this process over again, where like,
hey, we're gonna start a studio because I know that there are companies like
a Microsoft out there or ten Cent or whoever else that might one day might
buy my studio, and that's gonna make the investment I put into it now
worth it because there's this obvious exit. And so it's this, this is
the way the system is supposed to work. I don't know if it's a
great system overall. I feel like it's probably not the best system, but
it's the one we have, and if it's this is the one we're gonna
have, this is the way it's gonna work. So I think that's a
thing. Though people won't start a business to sell a business, right,
yes, start a business, sell a business, start a business, seller
business. It's it's very similar. The major thing for us is that will
we continue to get good, good games out of it, good experiences out
of it, And that's what's important and obviously, like you said, the
mod scene, there's no way that can like really be taken kind of away
from us. The one thing I will say is that, like the music
industry, what is it? Then they who bought? Didn't somebody buy it?
It wasn't It wasn't a SoundCloud, was it? It was band camp?
Epic bought band Camp? Yes, And that's what I mean though?
Was that that one? We just like that one is where okay, independent
people could just put out whatever they want and then someone, the big corporatedity
bought that. We're like, no, that's not a lot of people are
upset about that. Yes, that's like someone buying the ability to mod.
What was it? What is the mod? The major mod Nexus mods?
Is that owned by somebody? I think it's owned by the people that started
Nexus Mods. You're right. I just feel like someone's going to come through
and buy that eventually or something. We got to protect Nexus Mods. I
okay. So, like we're talking about, Hey, we hope we get
more games. Do you think that it's more likely that we get more interesting
games from an activision that was independent or an activision that's owned by Microsoft.
Microsoft? Absolutely, I mean I can't say for sure, but I can't
say I'm that'k what you feel. Yes, we haven't gotten that many right
when they were independent, right, I mean they we're getting fewer and fewer,
right, we get fewer and viewer for a while. And the things
that they do take chances on is stuff like Overwatch two and yeah, okay,
they listen, they did a great job on Diablo four. But it's
like these are the ones, like, of course you should be making a
Diablo four. Where are the risk taking games? And it's like those have
as far as you know. When I glance over at Activision, it feels
like all that is evaporated. The risk taking games just aren't coming out of
it. And I'm not saying that suddenly it's a light switch, it's going
to get flipped and Microsoft's going to be taking a million risk chancing games.
But I think that's slightly more likely it would happen under Microsoft. I agree
with you. I don't know if that's like a justification for it or anything
like that, but I do feel like the possibility of us getting more games
is a little bit better under Activision. The other thing I feel better about,
and this is let's continue with the next story here. Activision Blizzard Bobby
Kdek will remain a CEO just until the end of twenty twenty three. This
is from Tom Ivan at VGC. Activision Blizzards long serving boss Bobby Kottick will
remain as CEO just until the end of twenty twenty three following Microsoft's acquisition of
the Call of Duty publisher. Codek will report to Microsoft's head of Gaming as
they do this transitionary period. He says, I have long said that I
am I am fully committed to helping with the transition. Phil has asked me
to stay on a CEO of ABKA, reporting him, and we've agreed that
I will do that through the end of twenty twenty three. So we are
talking a matter of weeks, like this is weeks from now he's going to
be gone. And yeah, and to be clear, he is going to
get a lot of money. He is going to get half a billion dollars
or somewhere close to that of just from this deal alone, on top of
all the money he's made from bonuses and from his pay and from stock options
previously. So it's golden handcuffs, one hundred, golden parachute, whatever,
it is, of course it is. But he is responsible for many of
the toxic environments that will existed under Activision and Blizzard, or he should take
responsibility for at the very least. And now he will be gone, along
with many of the people from the board who put him in position and supported
him, and the kind of people that he was hiring that did create these
toxic environments. They're also leaving. This is a good thing, a better
thing for Activision, I think than what the alternative of letting them continue going
to like, Hey, we're worried about consolidation. I'm like, yeah,
maybe, but I'm more worried about Bobby Kottock being in charge of Activision.
So him being gone it feels like all moral victory, right, Yeah,
we need we need to get him out of there. He's been a I
mean, he's been a problem. Yes, there's been problems there and he
is very much part of it. Or at least again someone that is is
under your charge. You are in charge, and it is all of this
bad A lot of bad stuff has been happening. You need to start answering
for it and getting him out as soon as possible. Obviously, at the
end of the year is like a transition period, right, you have to
like hand over the keys, Where is this? Where is that? How
is everything? Kind of run? And then then you know, okay,
bye bye, yep, yep, exactly. Yes. And I think that
Microsoft's not some perfect place to work, but by all accounts, it is
a slightly better place to work. And if we're worried about the people actually
making these games, that's something, And I don't think it's any reason necessarily
go take a victory lap, although I am. I kind of want to,
because I really wanted Bobby Kottak gone. Nobody liked that guy. Everybody
who's ever worked with him has had nothing but bad things to say about him.
Doesn't really care about the games, doesn't really care about the products they
produce, just cares about the money, and that's his job whatever. But
I don't don't give a fuck about his job. I care about people being
feeling good about making good games, and that seems again slightly more possible under
Microsoft. We're talking about fractions here, five percent better here, If something
like your life gets ten percent better there or something like that, that's still
measurable and something and I think worthy of pointing out do you think there's a
chance that Bobby Kottack comes back into gaming at any point in the future,
because I'm like, I could see it, but I don't know, what
do you think unless he does something of his own independent, I feel like,
yeah, I think his reputation's pretty rough right now. I give it
ten fifteen years and maybe like people start to forget about all the bad things
he did and someone lets him do some you know, some sort of you
know direction. But I feel like at I think that he won't run.
He won't be like the head of a major company anymore, not a major
one. Him, him and John Rucutel are going to start a podcast.
That's that's going to be the future. That's the future. I want that
guy. That sounds a good nightmare. But then I think we do it
a super team and go out there and start their new studio or whatever,
new studio, new publisher. People will run to sign up. Maybe yeah,
I mean maybe, I don't know. I think if had he gotten
out a couple of years ago, like when he could have jumped on the
buzzwords of web three and NFTs and now AI like, maybe he could have
done something there. But like, hey, I'm starting the new Web three
AI NFT studio, and people probably would have been like, here's a bunch
of money, but most of that stuff has passed AI Alary, So like
you put him under a company that doesn't know a whole lot about gaming.
Oh, Amazon wants to do an NFT game. Oh Yeahcota, Yeah,
man, I kind of could see Amazon like, let's bring in Bobby coottact
to oversee our game. He did a pretty good job. And it's like,
oh, you don't pay attention to gaming news, huh exactly, And
they definitely don't. Amazon definitely does not. All right, I don't I
think that probably does it for this topic. And I mean that in a
like probably does it for good. And now we could just enter this new
world where Activision is Microsoft again. I don't think that world looks all that
different from the world we have now. I hope the ways it does look
different it means we do get like a crash Bandicoot five or whatever. That
would be nice. Like, well, you think it's pretty absurd at a
certain point, right, like these government agencies coming down to bear and sixty
nine billion dollars and all of this effort and armies of lawyers on Microsoft side
and on Activision side, and it's like, I think it would be nice
if we got a new Crash Bandagoo game, Badaco game, the bandicoot that
wears jorts. That's what matters to me, Alex. Around wallets, chains,
chain laws, That's that's the thing that actually is going to move hop
on the hot new trend of brawlers and make an Activision brawler. You have
enough character? No, I'm not, because there's too those are all failing
right now. Anyway, did you someone made like a faux brawler screen a
shot of like here's what the roster would look like, And I'm still like,
man, this looks like trash compared to Smash Brothers Like Mantino's got is
like really special sauce over there where It's like, oh yeah, all these
characters in there, and that makes sense. And then you look at well
even with Microsoft, but does an activision all these stuff put together, It's
like, eh, then I'll pass. I'm good. There was like the
there was the Nickelodeon one, and then there was the Wanner Brothers one.
Yeah, multiverses now that's coming back still, Alex, don't worry any day
now, any day now, man, riend of mine, they took his
money and he couldn't play because it was only us and he listened that early
access you know, hey, beta, what happens to beta stays in beta,
including your money? That works. That was that's a wild one where
it's think. It's like when the early access and then said, okay,
we'll be back. I mean they released the game, like we they released
that game and then they're like, no, sucre, no, we were
in beta. I don't know, you guys talk about fuck you. We
were in beta and then they just took it away. That's why back in
what was it like a year or something. So yeah, they said I
think early next year. I have no idea. I mean I bet they
but they will do it because otherwise they're probably gonna get a class action lawsuit.
But yeah, well, the other part is who's going to remember,
like, oh wait, I forgot that this game existed. It's like,
no, the you had what do they say, you want to get one
shot to release a game and they technically did. Yep. If that game
comes back, they better do super right by the people who actually paid money
for it, because otherwise they're going to be in some deep doo doo,
some deep dog shit over there. All right, we're gonna take a quick
break. When we get back. A lot lot more news Best Buy apparently
dropping physical media things like that. We'll talk about all that right after this.
My co hosts sessing for a new Skylanders game. Oh yeah, well
we're back. So what Skylander's game? Is? He asking for all the
toys? That's That's what I could see Microsoft hopping into, because I think
the family game market is one that they would really get a lot of mileage
out of on game pass. And I just don't know how a game pass
meshes up with a Toys to Life game, right, because I suppose you
get people the game and you let them play around with a lot of it
as part of game pass, and like, hey, if you want to
like have even extra stuff, go buy the toys. I could see them
maybe doing that, but I don't know if it's like a do you think
a toiless Skylanders could work? Well? I mean again, News have an
account, right, You make an account, right, and then it shows
up in the game. I think you could do that. That's pretty easy.
At the same time, like Skylanders does have I think they probably have
an established lore at this point. Spiro is in Skylanders. Yeah, I
mean it's like it's a spin off of Spyro the Skylanders games, Like,
yeah, that's I didn't realize it was actually a full spin off off.
Oh yeah, that's how it's I think it's basically how they first pitched it
originally, and then that changed really quickly. But yes, it was like
a Spiro spinoff. Uh. I think that the family game stuff, you
know, Crash will be there, Spiro will be there, but Skylanders seems
like the right one that hey, you could get kids into this again.
But I don't know. We'll see, all right. I mean people still
like those was it the ones we ripped the cord and it's at the top.
I'm gonna say, Baku gone, but it's that's not a blade by
Blades. There it is back again, So I think they again the toys
the toys to life situation is real. You could do it. Bay Blades
should be the way that we solve all the world's problems. So like robots,
remember robot jocks, uh, where it's like the oh, instead of
wars, we're gonna have these two rope We should just do that with bay
blades and Trump just getting ready exactly, me and Mike Manatti. Instead of
fighting on on our podcast, We'll just do bay blades, all right.
There's a rumor that best Buy is apparently dropping physical media in twenty twenty four.
This is from my Nintendo News. A rumor is currently circulating online that
the popular North American retailer best Buy will no longer stock physical media such as
games, Blu ray discs, DVDs, and CDs starting in twenty twenty four.
Physical sales that the retailer could stop from the first quarter of next year,
which would be a major blow for gamers and collectors. If the move
for the best Buy proves to be true, then other stores could follow suit.
As we all know, digital is now the prominent form of game sales.
Yeah, mostly presumably due to the convenience of that. Best Buy has
yet to announce the move, so it is currently marked as a rumor for
now. I think, you know, yeah, sure, this is a
rumor, but we see this happening. If everyone's been in a best Buy
over the last several years, and if you there, you know, ten
fifteen years ago, compared to today, it has naturally shrunk and it's going
to continue to shrink, right, what is a best Buy without physical goods?
Like, that's kind of the point. I mean, it's where you
go to buy your washing machine. I think. I think that's kind of
it. Yeah, that's weird. Most people just like, oh, I'm
gonna go buy my TV at Costco and it's like, Okay, that's weird.
I haven't been. I recently went to one for like the first time
in a decade. I went to like a Costco and I was like,
holy crap, this is just Yeah, you could just buy a giant gaming
piece in a gaming chair and then also watermelons. Weird. Yes, yeah,
I mean best buys more, there are more Best Buys in more places
than Costco at Costco. Yeah, Costco is like going to be the one
big store every so often, and then best Buy store. I get you
could have one of those per town or something like that. So it's like
I suppose when people think about I'm gonna go buy refrigerator, I think best
Buy actually does come to mind first for me, Okay, and that's probably
what they're thinking, like, hey, guess we're gonna have to like really
turn into that hard situation. Yeah, but it's like, Okay, what's
the alternative here? For movies and music, I don't see much of an
alternative. I don't see them like being like, hey, we could be
this boutique place and make things happen. But I think with games, games,
game, the people who buy physical games, first of all, they
are spending more per game than anyone's ever spending on music or movie. So
it's someone who is like willing to come in and spend a little extra and
that there's there's something there, and it's like, well, you know,
maybe if you could stock more of these collectors editions or really rare physical games
and stuff like that and make them feel like events, there's probably something they
could do. But for Best Buy, that's like they are a broad retailer.
They to being the specific we're going to provide a bespoke physical gaming experience
for you is out of their you know, wheelhouse. It's not really their
their their core competency. So I think them being like, the answer here
is actually just slowly back away from stuff rather than try to figure out a
way to make it work, and that's probably going to fizzle out. That's
probably right. That said, I do think of all the physical media at
a best Buy. You know, music's already gone. I'm pretty sure,
oh yeah, yeah, right, the movie I'll probably will go away.
But I think gaming video games will still be there, probably for the next
couple of years at the very least, at least through the end of this
generation, because people are still buying a lot of physical games, not as
much as they used to, they still buy a lot of physical games,
and I don't think best Buy I can't necessarily just give that up because they're
like, well, this is a bad time, We're going to move on.
But I am. I'm someone who's moved on from physical mostly, and
this still bums me out a big time, big time because a lot of
the I don't know a lot of like the work that happens in terms of
archiving this stuff and taking care of games and making sure that they are are
preserved. A lot of it's happening for people who love physical games keep them
and then do back them up online for for you know, shitheads like me.
So it's like, I, Hey, I've moved on, and I
know I'm part of the problem, but I never wanted physical games to go
away like that. That's I do not want that. So this this saddens
me, but it does feel inevitable. How do you feel about it?
I think it is inevitable. I'm one of those people that are fighting it
a little bit. I do buy a lot of games physical despite you know,
if I get a code or something like that, but I'm still like,
I'm also one of those people that also resells them, which isn't like
good either, but like the ones that I keep are the one you know,
I do have like a little bit of a collection of just like okay,
this series is the series I really like, you know, like A
Star Ocean or a Final Fantasy. I'm like, I'm gonna get these games.
I'm gonna have them. I'm not really going to resell these them so
to keep them for whenever. But like recently I went to try to buy
them like a a TV series because I'm like, I don't really want to
subscribe to this other like I don't want to get another subscription. I'm gonna
find this old TV series Blu Ray and it's like where do you get those
anymore? Because even like Target only hosts like whatever is like new and then
they get rid of it, and it's like well, okay, then how
do I get something old now? And it's really like, well, Amazon,
I guess it's like really like the move, and I have I living
in this city. There's not a Walmart for a while, like at least
thirty minutes from a Walmart, so I don't I was like, I don't
know where I buy like old television shows that I'm looking more specifically, and
best Buy comes to mind. Yes, but it's like, well now this
very much could be out the door. Yeah, if I was trying to
buy an old TV show, Like there's an old CW kind of cheesy show
that I that I liked, Ever would it was done by the guy that
would go on to do like Arrow and all those DC superhero shows on on
CW or whatever, And I'm like, ah, yeah, I would I
start They only ever put the first season on DVD, So I'm like,
okay, uh, piracy gotta just kinda have to go pirate it, like
that's what you know. And at certain point, it's like that the certain
point that stops feeling like piracy and it becomes like the the Internet is a
library. At a certain point where it's like I am just basically borrowing this
from from you know, the ether, because I want access to it and
you are providing no way to do that. And that is like, that's
coming hard for movies right now, where like the old MOVI, these old
TV shows, like you said, those are the ones that feel like they
are going to be lost media more and more frequently here very soon, and
there is no obvious solution other than archive dot org doing God's work. And
I and that's I do. I do worry about that with gaming as well.
You know, the Switch has sixteen thousand games and eventually Nintendo is going
to turn off those servers, and not all of them. A lot of
those are digital only, and that's its own problem. But the problem I
will also that problem also will be solved by backing these things up in places
like archives and and you know, in torrents and things like that. And
I know these big companies hate hearing that, and I'm like, fucking do
something about it, but they don't. They don't have any solutions, so
I think we have to keep finding our own, which is frustrating, but
I again, what's the alternative here? So I'm not the guy that spent
one hundred dollars on a Vita memory card because that's how much they were,
and then like when they I found out the store was like, oh,
you can't get your Vita gas anymore. Well, I better pay one hundred
and ten bucks for this Vita sixty four gig card and then load up all
the games that I have and that I really want to play again and just
have it there forever so I never have to access to servers again. That
wasn't me. And the same thing with the three DS. The completion is
video where he bought all of the the was it the three DS and WEU
games or whatever, And I'm like, imagine doing that for the switch,
those sixteen thousand games like that would be a several years long project probably to
do all that. So I hope it does leake to like a like the
existential question like I've always thought about, like we're going to be the last
generation with nostalgia just because old stuff is everywhere now and always accessible and it
never used to be, so we always like, oh remember this, and
with kids now it's like, hey, remember that song I listened to like
twenty minutes ago because I have access to it always yep. Yeah, And
you know, and there's the convenience factor is compelling that that's why this stuff
moves the way it does. But obviously it's a trade off. Obviously we
are losing something in this process. And I saw best by going under the
almost sooner because we had we had one of the few, like Fries Electronics,
which is big in California. Yeah, we had one and it shut
down entirely, and I was that was bummed because that was like computer components,
you know, like, oh, I'm gonna buy a graphics card and
the power supply and now I don't that's all again Amazon and you know other
other websites, and I'm like, well, that's I would rather go to
one place and pick it up. And there's not a whole lot of those
left. Yeah, we must protect protect microcenters everybody. Micro Centers is my
store. Although the one, the one here in Cleveland's on the other side
of Cleveland, so I actually haven't been out to there yet. But the
one in Columbus I would go to all the time, all the time,
even the one in Denver. All right, let's keep moving here. Xbox
Series S Starter Bundle includes three months of game Pass Ultimate for three hundred dollars.
This is Addi McCoo at gang Spot. Ahead of the holiday season,
Microsoft has announced a new Xbox hardware bundle. The Xbox Series S Starter Bundle,
as it's called, is aimed at people new to the Xbox ecosystem.
The three hundred dollars bundle comes with a five hundred twelve gigabyte Xbox Series S
and three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The new bundle launches October thirty
first through the Microsoft Store and retailers and retailers across the globe. I'm surprised
it's taken them this long to include something like three months of game Pass With
the Xbox Series S. That always felt like a no brainer, right.
You put that in there, give people a not just a taste, but
like make them reliant on Game Pass to the point where it's like, well,
wake goes level, yeah, and it's hard to live without now.
And you know, even three months feels like maybe you could do like six
months or something like that, but you know, whatever, three months that
that's fine. Like this is Microsoft also positioning some new package of Xbox against
these slim ps fives. Do you think this is compelling to people who are
not in the Xbox ecosystem. At the moment, I'm currently not in the
Xbox ecosystem, and I saw this in me like I could probably get me
one of those. Okay, yeah, well all right idea. So I
mean, and it's like, you know, again, it's a matter of
degrees right where it's like, you know, maybe you're five to ten percent
more likely to pick it up, but that's a lot of people over time.
I don't know. Is this something where if a big game drops next
SERI, is this the one you would go get? We're like, oh,
hey, I can get that on Xbox and play it on Xbox Series
S and have it on game Pass so I don't have to spend anything extra
and three hundred dollars, I'm all in on the system and I get the
game. So is this the one you would get? Absolutely? I think
that again, I have I have been a physical person in most of my
gaming, and I think that the Xbox Series S would be the one where
I'm like, okay, well, at least this is all game pass.
I'm not going to buy any getty games like physically for this device. And
then it's like, okay, well, the Xbox ecosystem is now digital only,
so they've kind of also they've just moved me now into a digital only
future. But yeah, at the same time, I mean game passes,
game pass right, you got all the hot like both all of the like
some big titles and then also throwing like the tiny indies that are just like
breakout hits, and it's okay, this is this is a good deal and
I would this get me there this it also it feels very specifically aimed at
people who are maybe way more casual than you are, because it's, uh,
this is the five hundred and twelve gigabyte model. There is a one
terabyte Xbox Series S that's three hundred and fifty dollars, but that they are
not including that in this There is no bundle for that with three months of
game pass. So it's like, man, it's it doesn't it come with
a month of game passes. It might, you know, Honestly, I
would say I would guess two weeks, but I don't know. I don't
know for sure. I do miss the like the deals you used to be
able to get for like, oh, this is like thirty bucks for like
you know, a lot, like six six months of it, And I
used to five those I mean the one the one dollar deal for for game
Post one that was popular for a while. Yeah, I I do.
I wonder if this like moves the needle that much for Microsoft, but I
will say that this is moving in direct the right direction. I think bundling
Game Pass with the hardware is probably the right thing to do for Microsoft to
get people excited about the hardware, something that has been sort of up and
down for them, especially this year where they haven't had a lot of games
until Starfield, the Xbox hardware sales were kind of like they were going down
compared to the year before. So I think reminding people that hey, this
is just an all in easy package might effectively help them reach out to people
who were like on the on the sideline when it came to Xbox itself.
You got to have an answer for the PlayStation slim, right, Yes,
this is what it is as well. Yes, I think so. And
they don't seem to They don't intend to do a pro model and they don't
seem to have and they also kind of said they're like, hey, no,
the Xbox series s is already kind of our slim. So I think
them finding new ways to package this stuff up, obviously adding more storage to
the Xbox Series S and putting that as a black model. That was also
part of this I mean, to be fair, it's prettier. Yes,
I in the PlayStation. I like both. I like both a lot.
I do you like the weird pop collar? I do, yes. I
do think it's ugly, but in an interesting way that I really that I
find appealing. It's that that scene from America Hustle where Jennifer Lawrence is talking
about the nail polish and how it's it smells rotten but you can't stop smelling
it. That's how I feel about the PS five. But again, you
know, I get why people don't like it, because obviously it's rotten.
Uh. All right, I'm gonna skip this. Well, you know,
we'll talk about this real quick. Teck and eight was delayed to avoid Street
Frider six and Mortal Kombat one. Uh do you think that that makes sense?
I think that probably makes sense. I don't know how much. I
don't. I don't know how likely it was ever that that game was going
to come out this year. I bet it was something along along the lines
of, hey, we could maybe get that game out this year. But
look at what's coming out, street Fighter six and Mortal Combat one. You
know what, let's just actually release it like next year, like we kind
of always were, uh it was. It's probably the right call though,
right, those are the big the big boys in the fighting game scene.
You might as well, even if you're teching, you might as well just
wait a little bit longer and come out next year. Right. The space
is crowded right now. Yeah, it's a real heavy space, and it's
what you know, people are taking side. Of course, I'm more of
a Street Fighter person. I'm more of a Mortal Kombat person. It's very
rare. You hear that. Well, I'm the tech in person. I
mean, of course there are people who prefer it over all the other ones.
But when you have the two main sides coming out, you know,
give it a break, come back, come back, and it'll be better
for your sales. Yeah. Radasan reveals that Taking A was initially set to
launching summer twenty twenty three, but that they decided to delay the game two
years ago after learning that this would mean going up against another fighting game.
He doesn't want to say the title of probably street Fighter six and More Combat
one, and Ushaun and Chad, who's a FGC freak, mentioned the heradus
talked about, Hey, let's spread these out so that there's always something for
the fighting game community to get excited about, because that helps out all fighting
games. And I think that's that's proven correct so far. And I think
the momentum that's been created by Street Fighter six and Mortal Kombat one this year
could easily carry forward to a TECH and eight, and I would like to
see that happen. The fighting game community has really been invigorated. Yes,
absolutely, let's keep that wave of rolling right, Let's throw in a soul
caliber sometime. We're good to go. Uh all right. EA's soccer series
expands into a new genre. This is from Eddie mccoitt game spot. EA's
hugely popular football slash soccer series, EA Sports FC, formerly known as FIFA,
is expanding into a new genre. EA has announced EA Sports FC Tactical,
the franchise's first turn based strategy game for mobile. Basically, you're gonna
so you're gonna collect your players and move them around a field in a turn
based way. And it's I think it's just gonna be normal soccer, but
turn based and Alex, I think I would really like this if they made
it like super silly, like if like you could have if you could like
put up barriers or whatever, like big inflatables like a paintball field or whatever,
and you're like sneaking around and doing stealth soccer. I think that would
be cool if it's just regular soccer fields and regular soccer players. I'm not
like too excited about this, but I don't know how about you. I'm
trying to look up right now. What was the Blood Bowl? You ever
heard of? Blood Bowl? Yeah? Yeah, Blood Bowl. That was
like the tactical like almost turn based football game. And I think that that
you could do a very similar thing where yeah soccer and Blood Bowl was.
It was like the next iteration of like you know the where like you know
your monsters and you can like bribe the refs and kill you know, kill
the other players and stuff like that. I think that this could very well
do. This could do something again a little more silly, right, you
know, do get you know, get experience level up. Put give me
a skill tree for my player. Yes exactly exactly. I uh, make
it x calm soccer, but even even sillier I think is what I want.
And you know, maybe the maybe the possibility is there, but they're
gonna have licensed, licensed teams and licensed players from a premier league in Bundesliga
and stuff like that. So the the soccer freaks out there will be well
served again on some specialty moves. Right, give me fill a special meter
exactly. Yes, there you go. I want several different meters to fill
up. That's real gaming to me. Okay, let me bring in this
real quick. There we go. The next story is Call of Duty Mobile
adds a cat that turns into a gun. It's finally happened, Alex.
We finally have reached peak video games. Call Duty Mobile. You can play
as a anthropomorphic cat who has a cat that runs alongside you, and then
when it's time to fire, the cat transforms into a sniper rifle and people
who are watching the video are seeing this. Can we talk about the fortnitification
of Call of Duty? I mean it was inevitable, right because the way
that these games are going to succeed, like as live service games, especially
Called Duty Mobile, a free to play game, is you gotta sell shit
to people, and people want to buy wacky stuff. They want to show.
I mean, I guess, yeah, I haven't paid attention to Call
of Duty in a while, but I have a friend that plays religiously.
Last game it was like the anime attack on Titan, Like Titans are in
there, Godzilla's in there, and then all of a sudden, she gets
killed by Snoop Dogg. It's like, wait, what is happening now?
It's next Lander shooting laser ib with Nicki Minaj. It's like, wait,
why is all of this they put in this? Have you heard of Helsing,
the anime from the eighties, It's just doesn't doesn't matter because it's hot
and it's the new anime character in Call of Duty? Yeah? What?
Yes, this is the one that Christian was yelling at me about. Yes,
yes, I've heard about Helsing. Uh And I say that like five
other people watched Helsing and apparently one of them works on Call of Duty?
Weird. Do you the design of that heusing character in Call of Duty?
How do you feel about it? Is it? Is it good? Or
is it up to your standards? It looks it looks pretty solid the anime.
Yes, okay, it's just strange about why anybody would Helsing in twenty
twenty three now and now a cat that turns into a gun is pretty is
a pretty solid move. Yeah. I mean I think that this is the
thing that makes it difficult for a lot of these live service games to make
sense over time. Is Hey, you could make a really cool thing like
a Last of Us factions that probably plays fantastic. It probably is a really
style game that people are really going to enjoy playing, But are you going
to have an intrinsic incentive built into the game to show off your fun your
fun cosmetics, and then will the fun cosmetics fit in and do the developers
want to like reach out and do the work to license stuff? And it
said, well that that starts to not make a lot of sense for a
Last of Us game, especially one that's supposedly was going to move the story
along. So it's like, okay, yeah, that's that's probably not going
to work as well. Call of Duty is like, we have to make
this work because that we are competing with Fortnite, and that's the option I
guess. I played Fortnite, you know, recently, was like surprised to
see how many other people use sort of the Fortnite original skins, not stuff
that were licensed, Like we go and play and we're like, hey,
wouldn't it be funny if we were all John Cena And it's like, yeah,
that's a lot of fun. But like the kids, I think,
are like, oh, I'm going to be this original Fortnite character instead,
And I'm like, Okay, I guess. I guess you're spending enough time
in here that this is the ip that you care about. But most these
games would struggle to do that, like you could only sell so many army
Men soldier skins and a Call of Duty. I think I was gonna say
is that most most people who were really big in it for the military aspect
of left long ago. I think that they've moved on to a lot more.
I know people who still played Battlefield and talk about how amazing it is
and still going strong and how they really made it good again. And it's
like, really, okay, I did not I was not aware that that
was still a thing, Like I thought it had kind of died on the
vine. But people are still playing it like religiously, so Call of Duty
has no other option I have. I have also two very young nephews,
and I asked him that they're playing Fortnite, like for like two hours.
I'm like, Oh, which character are you gonna play? And they're like,
I'm the Banana and I'm like, not not Ripley who you know exactly?
Not not Mike Lowry from Bad Boys. I don't know who that is,
Okay, but I do. I do want to get the crew together
and have all of this be Nicki Minaj and Call of Duty. I do
desperately want to do that again. You got you got to unlock the next
Land, the the hot Lander or something from the Boys where you could shoot
lasers out of your eyes. Yes, all right, let's do a Sonic
Superstars review. Roundup game is coming out soon. Still, the reviews are
coming in as well on Metacritic as the time. At the time of when
I put this together, it was at seventy four. IGN gave it a
seven out of ten, said, while the campaign is still enjoyable, Superstars
multiplayer component are far worse options than anything in past Sonic games. Wow,
Like digging Emeralds out of the rough, Sonic Superstars new ideas end up feeling
like a mix of both interesting and ill advised, making it an amusing Sonic
game, but not exactly a super one good luck, have fun at Sports
Illustrated gave it a nine out of ten, said Sonic Superstars is the modern
two D Sonic game. I never thought we'd get it updates the visual style
in a way that feels true to the classics, while bringing in top tier
level design that allows the core platform mechanics to shine. And a week when
both Sonic and Mario are launching new games, it's a good time to be
a two D platforming fan. And then BGC gave it a four out of
five. Ultimately, Sonic Superstars is a game design to appeal to a very
civic type of Sonic fan also known as perverts. I might have added that
part myself. I'm a Sonic pervert. I'd love to hear it the type
of player who maintains that the sixteen bit era was the best. It will
happily boot up Sonic two for a quick world to this day three decades later.
If you treat Sonic Mania as something of a remix project, then Sonic
Superstars feel as the closest we've come to a completely new Mega Drive Slash Genesis
Arasonic game since Sonic and Knuckles. It's short and not all of its optional
gimmicks are great, but where it matters the look, the sound, the
physics, it absolutely nails that early nineties feeling. And oh how great it
is to finally have that feeling again. Alex. I know that you don't
have a copy of this game, but but you and I both played this
Summer Game Fest. You are Sonic fan. What'd you think of when you
played it? I thought it is definitely a throwback to the sixteen bit era
does feel a lot like that I do. But they also threw in a
lot of optional extra mechanics, which can be fun to play in. But
at the same time, it also slowed Sonic down, and that's where I
was like, Okay, I think I like I like them, but I
also just really want to go fast, and I feel like this is stopping
me. But at but at the time, you know, again the Summer
Game Fest, they even said they're like, we still have a whole bunch
of patching to do and a lot of like other stuff to update, so
we're still there. We're working on it. But yeah, I thought I
thought it was interesting. I've still, you know, really like Sonic.
What was it again, the remix pro Sonic Mania. Yes, yeah,
Sonic Mania is still the gold standard for me. Yeah, I want more.
I was making eyes at the camera because whenever I talk about son I'm
like, yeah, anytime you hit a wall and it stops you, it's
not fun anymore. Because Sonic's fun when you're going fast and the game like
it always tries to throw things in your way, like, wouldn't be fun
if you stopped and did this instead? It's like, fuck, no,
that's this. This is terrible. I think Superstars does something very similar where
it gives you abilities. Now, okay, I could I could swim up
a waterfall turn into a fish. It's like, sure, yeah, the
fish thing, that's right. Yeah, I completely forgot about that could be
fun. I I'm willing to give this chance game of chance, mostly because
I have to because I said I would play it before New Super Mario or
No New Super Mario Brothers wonder uh so uh yeah, I'm gonna play through
this game here pretty soon and I'll see what I think, and I will
I'll be good at Sonic. So everyone could just shut up about that and
we'll see. We'll see what happens. Yep, meet me too. Seventy
four on o for Sonic though. That seems pretty good for Sonic game.
Uh okay, let's uh, let's do the poll from last episode who would
give the biggest flower? Who would you give the biggest flower bouquet? Too?
And now because I want your answer, would you give the biggest flower
bouquet A Princess Peach, Elephant Peach, Bowzett or wa Luigi. Oh no,
that's that's outing me a lot, right, so Bowzett Huh yeah,
let's go. It's my answer to it's Bozett or elephant Peach. No.
Nine percent said elephant Peach, eighteen percent said Princess Peach. Thirty one percent
said and said bow zat our fellow pervs, stay away from that subreddit absolutely
well, I mean listen unless you got unless you have needs. Well,
I would a new pole that I'm gonna put up here in a second,
and by me, I mean Jan But first, Alex, why don't tell
people where they can find you? What hit what you have going on?
All that good stuff? You can find me at super gg radio on Twitter
we uh supergg radio dot com for reviews, we review games, our podcast
all podcast services uh we are every week we play two to three betas demos,
early access games and talk about them with you guys to let you know,
hey, this is what's hot right now, this is what what is
coming out, what you should look out for. Also, you have Lexi
on the show quite often and I write for them. I do, I
do it. Here's the top you know, five to ten betas we've played
from the first half of the year, back half of the year, just
because it's like there are so many start menu right, yep, that's on
start menu. Yeah, and just overall, just like you know the podcast
super gg radio dot com and and all all podcast services. Excellent. All
right, the new poll question, do you shop for games at Best Buy?
Yes? No, I suppose jamybe we should add a there is no
best Buy by me. If you haven't done, if you already put it
up, don't wry about it. We'll get to this question though on Monday
on Giant Bomb. Speaking of Giant Bomb, later today, we'll be playing
Fasmophobia for unprofessional Fridays. Tune in for that. I'm gonna be in VR.
Yeah too late, that's all. That's fine, Janet. I'm gonna
be in the VR. Everyone else is gonna be playing on their personal computers,
so I expect to be very frightened. Alex, it's gonna be that
sounds horrifying, sounds terrifying. I'm not looking forward to it. Uh So
that'll happen later today, and then of course next week we'll be back with
a bunch of new stuff and all those goodies. Until then, though,
Alex, thank you so much for spinning today talk with me about video games,
man, I really appreciate it anytime. Thank you all for watching.
You're the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one,
take care of yourself, and goodbye gig.