Alone in the Dark Sold "Below Expectations"

He'll be back. Don't be bad. It's the Internet. You're busy.
Let's do this for May twenty fourth, 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 from Soft is planning to return
to a beloved franchise, and we get a better understanding of what is wrong
with Square Enix. But first, please join me and welcoming today's co host
of Game Mess Mornings. It's Jesse Batelli. Everybody, Jesse, how are
you doing. I'm doing great. It's Friday. I'm here. I'm ready
to go. We're wearing our fun shirts. We're wearing our fun shirts.
Can't be better than that. We're looking good. Yeah, I'm feeling good.
I like the fun shirt time of year. It's definitely around Memorial Day,
I think is when you start wearing the fun shirts. That's I was
like, we're close enough, we can definitely pull them off. Yeah.
I am also happy for it to be a Friday. Ready to like to
have the long weekend. That's pretty exciting. Gonna go into a cocoon and
hibernate for three days. I believe that's my plan. How about you got
any planes work? Unfortunately I got all this weekend's otherwise. I would love
to hibernate, hibernate, and then you wake up and it's summer. That's
right. Yeah, well yeah, that's exactly how it's gonna happen. I
wish I could hibernate through summer too, now that I'm thinking about it.
That'd be good. Uh yeah, you excited for Summer game Fest. I'm
it's rapidly approaching, and I have a list of things I need to get
done before then, and I'm like, I'm so excited to go out to
La see everybody you know, to do the thing. But I'm like,
I have so much I need to do before we get there, And it
is every moment is just like, oh, it's two weeks, We're almost
there. Do you think the Nasty Boys will be prepared for their couch segment
on Giant Bomb at Night? I think the real Question and his Giant bumb
prepared for the Nasty Boys side. I can guarantee that we are not.
I can I can firmly state that unequivocally, in this moment, there's no
way we will be able to brace ourselves for what that's gonna happen there,
Deandregue says, do you all have Faction shirts? Uh? Yeah, that's
a good idea. We we've been we've been playing some bits, we've been
working on. We've been workshopping. Okay, listen, that's all I need
to know. You guys bring whatever energy you need to bring you to bring.
There was there was a talk of having to move you guys around because
of a movie star coming in, and I said, no, no way,
I'm not doing it. So Nasty voice remain in the segment they've already
had. I'm very excited, appreciate it. All right, you know what,
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 are watching live on twitch Welcome, You can always listen to the show
later on podcast feeds by searching for game Mes Mornings, or find the RSS
on giant bomb dot com. You could 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 Armored corese six,
isn't the end of the beloved mech series is from Ethan Gotchikoktaku. Armored Course
six Fires of Rubacon is incredible, But despite some glowing reviews in high praise
from the very dedicated and very particular fan base, it feels like the Mex
shooter's revival didn't quite make the large splash some had hoped for. Not to
worry, though, Elderrin creator and From Soft president Hitatakai Miyazaki seems to believe
that there are still more Armored Core stories to tell. While the latest fast
paced sci fi shooter in the long running series helped bring some of the world
building and boss designed from Dark Souls and Secro into the mix, Armored Core
six didn't quite break out into the mainstream the way other previously more niche series
like Persona have. Even so, Miyazaki indicated in a recent interview he's still
proud of the game. The Armored Cores series is very important From Software,
Miyazaki told ig in Japan. According to a translation from fandom Wire, Games
radar. That's the way the industry works right there. We have a strong
will to continue it in the future. I believe Armored Core six was a
success. The creator who assisted with the direction and early planning of the games
said not everything was perfect, suggesting the team wants to continue building on its
new direction. This. I find this encouraging. Jesse. I'm someone who
now considers themselves among from software fans. I have still never played not really
the Dark Souls games, but I played Zecoro, elden Ring, Armored Core
six, and I love all three of those games quite a lot. Armored
Core six is one where it's like, oh many you could still since there's
sensibilities when you're playing that game, there's a lot of stuff that I'm like,
this feels like it's from the people that make all those other from soft
games, and yet it's quite different in a lot of important ways. It's
very Armored Core. That's what people tell me. I played the previous Armored
Corpse, so like, yeah, this is what Armored Corps has always been.
Michael, that's great, because Armored corese six rules. I am.
I think. I'm happy to hear that this is a studio that is seeing
how Armored corese six did, which I think it probably did okay all things
considered, and saying we have no we want to do more of that because
we really liked making that game. And they probably do have that freedom with
how well elden Ring did, right, they could do the one for me,
one for you sort of thing, although it seems like every game they
do is for them. What do you think? Yeah, I think one
Armored Corps six is a fantastic game. If you haven't payed Armor Course six.
It has the flexibility of something like an elden Ring where it's like you
you don't have to play like Securo forces you to play a very specific way.
Armored Corod's like some matter parts figure out like what your build is,
you know, sort of like Dark Souls in that regard. But I think
the thing is like Frumsoft can kind of do whatever they want at this point,
like they've earned it. Their name recognition is alone. Is just like
like secu Ro is published by Activision, like big companies want to work with
from Software and Namco, you know whatever. And so I think with Armored
Corps it's like, okay, cool, we got to do the elder Ring
DLC that's going to make a bajillion dollars. And then if we want to
if we want to look at Armored Corps again, armor Core seven or some
other spin off of Armored Corps, like mech people are going to show up.
The Mexicos are out there and they will always come back. And then
you have also have the frum software fans that are going to show up for
this thing, like you can't really lose that that battle. So I feel
like Frumsoft is poised to do whatever they want next post Elder Ring, post
Armored Core six, like they're they're golden Yeah, And I think it's the
kind of thing where the team seems to have a firm grasp on what they're
tackling, and if they do decide to make another Armored Corps, they know
how to like fit that into their schedule going for it. I don't think
that means like it's like, oh, well, you won't have to wait
a little bit extra time to get the next game in the series that maybe
you prefer if you're a fan of Frumsoft. But I think they still it's
not gonna like derail them completely or anything like that. And then I just
like, I'm glad that they're like, hey, yeah, we want to
make a game like Armored Corps again, which is like, like, like
you said, there is great things about the way Seco and Elder Ring and
I'm sure Dark Souls all work that people are like, this is why we
come here. We want this game to sort of put us in a position
where we have to play in a certain way, but being able to express
yourself and then have that ultimate action feeling that Armored Cores six really captures where
I've just, like I've said before about that game, I've rarely felt cooler.
It just makes me feel so dope playing that game, and yeah,
makes my brain feel on fire in all the good ways, kind of similar
to what I was feeling, like Mullet Madjack when I was playing that yesterday.
So yeah, it's like keep you know, I want them to be
able to play around in that space as much as they play around in any
of these other spaces. So I find it very encouraging. Do you think
there's the world in which you know this from software Studio tries to expand,
It's like footprints so it can take on more projects at once, or do
you think they would be afraid to do that. Well know, correct me
if I'm wrong. But I do think that they are somewhat of a multi
I believe. I believe they are a two team studio. I'm at least
a two team studio. I don't know if they're bigger than that. I
mean absolutely, I guess it's just a question if they want to like how
much like once you have too many things going on at one time, right,
it becomes a lot a lot of plays to spin. And it seems
like they're really they're in their stride right now of like we can you know,
ship one game and be pretty close to shipping a second game a year
or two later and kind of just keep leap frogging one another to the point
where it's like they've put out like you know, they put out Bloodborne,
and then they put out Dark Souls three, and then they like did a
PSVR game. They were like, oh, here's Deresine, and then they
turn around and then they're like, oh, here's sec Row, here's the
DLC for Dark Souls three here or whatever. Like they're always cooking something so
they could expand. But I think they're in a really good spot right now,
And I don't know if they want to shake anything up like that.
That would be my feeling on it, where it's like, I think they're
happy with where they're at right now. Obviously they could always hire on more
people to help with the current teams, but I feel like trying to take
on like one more team, making one more game feels like it could be
quite a lot and could risk upsetting the balance that has led them led them
to this point so far. Yeah, like I said, encouraged by this,
Hey, armor Core seven does not need to come out two years from
now. It could take some time. It could take its time. Obviously
Armored Corps had a long break there. But I do hope this is like
part of the ongoing rotation from soft going forward. Uh oh yeah. Sure
of cookie and cream though, That's what I'm winning for. I want that.
That's what they the children are yearning for. It is what we're hearing
out there for. Shoot, what do you think their next game is that
they put out after a Shadow of the ur Tree. It's like there's a
strong chance it really is just elden Ring two right, that seems I feel
like I feel like elden Ring two is like too big of an opportunity for
them to just not capitalize on, right, But I also feel like they're
a studio that genuinely just does whatever they want, so would not be surprised
if it's just something entirely new, sure, because they can. They can
make a game and they could say, like people could look at it and
be like, oh, it's open world, it's like elden Ring and it's
from the creators of Elderring. It doesn't have to be elden Ring in name,
but it could be very elden Ring inspired and still sell a bajillion copies.
But I think elden Ring two is like too big to pass up.
Yeah, I think elder Ring two will be happening, whether or not they
get something out before that or not. You're right, they absolutely could.
That would be very from soft of them. All Right, let's move along
here. What is wrong with square Enix is the headline I put down here
based on a thread on Twitter from Jenvid CEO Jacob Nevaq, who previously worked
at Square Innox. I'm go I'm gonna read the thread here a little bit
because there's some interesting explanations here and that we can discuss kind of what it
means and how kind of what a bummer it is in some ways, but
what it says about the video game industry overall. Again, this is from
Jacob Nevak on Twitter. As a reminder, I reported to two CEOs on
Square Enix for the better part of a decade and ran a subsidiary. I
also correctly predicted last year that SQUERREENNX was going to break exclusivity going forward,
I'll note I have no confidential information that I'm basing my arguments on in this
thread. To start, we need to look at decisions made on the titles
under development within the lens of twenty fifteen through twenty twenty two, not the
lens of twenty twenty three. For example, Final Fantasy sixteen would have started
pre production prior to the release of Final Fantasy fifteen, which was released in
twenty sixteen. This is a pre Fortnight era. Budgets are for Final Fantasy
seven remake, and to Rebirth would have been around this period as well.
This is important to note, and we will get back to it. There's
a misunderstanding that has been repeated for nearly a decade and a half that squaring
ax sets arbitrarily high sales requirements, then gets upset when it's arbitrarily high sales
requirements fail to be met. This was not true when I was there,
and it's unlikely to be true today. Sales expectations generally come from a need
to cover the cost of development plus return on investment. If a game costs
one hundred million dollars to make it takes five years, then you have to
beat as an example, what the business could have been returning. We could
have returned by say, investing one hundred million dollars into the stock market over
that period. For the five years prior to February twenty twenty four, the
stock market averaged a rate return of fourteen point five percent annually. Investing that
one hundred million in the stock market would net you a return of two hundred
and one million dollars. So this is our return on the investment baseline.
Jacob goes on to say things like, Okay, now, it's not just
what you could do with that money. You have to also factor in marketing
costs and not getting the full seventy dollars from a game, You're probably get
an average around forty forty five dollars, and so you get things like where
the game could sell several million copies out of the gate and still be far
away from breaking even, let alone making a significant profit. And this is
the problem that Squarenix keeps like saying that it's happened to them, where they
these games cost a lot and we are putting them out there and they are
not doing what we need them to do to make this whole thing make sense.
Now, I think it's fair Jesse at this point to be like,
you know, why are you looking at making games through this lens? And
and that is the kind of one Yeah, yeah, of course, but
these are the giant corporations. This is the only lens they have. It
feels like what do you think, Yeah, I mean, I think I
at a certain point where like what is difference Like fiduciary duty, It's like
you have to make sure that you are you are being the most efficient you
are being, you are making the company the most possible money. You have
to explore those avenues. But like we talk about this all the time that
like triple A budgets are ballooning, like like who expensive in half? Now?
Yeah, and the Fortnite thing is incredibly important because it's like just this
morning, right, I didn't know what to play. I was like,
you know, I could, I could buy something new. It's like,
oh, but a new Fortnite season just dropped. It's free, Like it
doesn't cost me anything to hop into it. I'm just gonna go play that.
And so now you're competing with a lot of things, and these companies
are it's more and more money to make these games, especially especially with Remake,
where it was like that development got redone like two or three years in
because it was like cyber Connect two was involved and they brought it internally.
Like the roadmap for game development is so tricky and so difficult, and there
are all these challenges you don't expect that the costs are just too high.
You have to make that money back, and when it doesn't meet sales expectations,
it's like, yeah, those expectations may or may not be in check,
but it's it's more money than I will ever see in my entire life.
Like it it's insane, and it's it's not impossible to make your money
back sometimes on some of these games. Yeah, it's uh. And it's
the kind of thing where I think yeah, we could stand here and go
these companies need to really change some things. If this is the situation that
they're in where they got to make, you know, sell three million copies
in a month immediately to have any chance of making any money, that like,
how did you make the decisions to lead yourself to this point? But
it's like we know the factors. It is. They are competing in a
marketplace that has way more games because the development it has really blasted off,
and now there are you know, ten thousand games a year or whatever launching
on Steam and you have to compete with all that. And then on the
other side, you have to compete with other major corporations who are putting out
games that either look as good as yours or have all the same magic that
yours has. And so it's like we got to like spend even more money
to keep ahead of the Jones's excuse me, and that is putting them in
situations where they kind of like a final fantasy has to be this much money
in some ways. Now that seems like it's about to change. Seems like
it has to change because they aren't seeing the growth that they were expecting.
And Navaka points out that. It's like, yeah, like in twenty fifteen,
when they green lighted these projects and when they green lighted these budgets,
there was an expectation that the audience would grow alongside the time spent making these
games, and instead many of the audience went into these live service games.
It's that same old story. That's like the gamers are there, they're just
playing something else and it's very hard to get their attention away from that.
So it's like, okay, so then what is happening here, Like what
happens next? And it's like, yeah, for a big company like like
scureing INIX, the threat here is they take their ball and go home.
Like they just say, we are afraid to make games like that anymore,
so we won't make games like that anymore. We're talking about them not really
making final fantasy games the way they made them before, and it's like that
is that's scary in a problem. It's like, as much as like they're
not necessarily always my kind of game, I feel like they should be there.
It's like it feels like a staple of the industry and the amount of
love and time and passion spent on that franchise from the audience feels like it
should be enough to make something make sense for this company, and yet there's
this huge disconnect and the companies can't navigate that space. Now. I think
part of that, obviously still is a failure of leadership over at Squerre Innix.
Right, get more creative? Is that not the answer? I mean
the last couple of Final Fantasy games. I'm talking specifically fifteen sixteen than the
trilogy. Fourteen's exception to all this, Oh well, don't wor I got
my fourteen Okay, those games are the Okay, how do we make the
biggest budget like like sixteen example? Right, It's like that game looks expensive.
That's the whole idea behind the game. Yes, that is the most
expensive thing you've ever seen. You can get more creative with it. I
mean, like, this is the same company that published developed Octopath Traveler,
right, like a gorgeous looking HG two D game, like you can harken
back to like retro for Final Fantasy. You can go so many different directions.
Final Fantasy fourteen an mmo that makes a They just announced they made like
they have thirty million players, which, like you know, obviously those aren't
all active subscribers, but like that makes a lot of money. Final Fantasy
fourteen is incredibly popular. They make their money back on that game. They're
still releasing expansions for that game a decade later. Like, there are ways
to do Final Fantasy without it just being this has to be the most expensive,
biggest budget. Final Fantasy seven Rebirth is like the everything game. It's
like, we have anything you would ever want from a modern video game in
it, and that CAUs a lot of money to make. And there's got
to be more focused, tight knit, smaller experiences that people want to experience
within the world of that. And you can do spinoff games like Crystal Chronicles
or Tactics or any of these games that like will sell copies because Final Fantasy
fans will show up for it and will not cost you hundreds of millions of
dollars to make, yep, exactly. And it's like I think right now,
these companies look at a situation where they have so much money to spend
and they are like, oh, hey, we are afraid because we've been
burned a couple of times on our biggest games, so maybe we won't do
that anymore. And I think, what will happen is they will probably have
a few years where it's like, let's go in the direction of what's been
working, so it's reinvest in Final Fantasy fourteen, and in the meantime,
the industry actually probably will bounce back in a lot of ways. Spending will
bounce back, players will like their interests will bloom again, and then they'll
be like, Okay, we're ready for something different. We have been spending
the last but you know, by this point it'll be like ten years in
Fortnite and we're actually kind of done. Now we're looking for something different in
the video game space. What do you have for me? And the companies
that are able to get creative and provide something in that moment will probably see
a huge windfall because if there's one thing that's true about gamers, so we
get a little bit fickle over time, and we are always looking for the
next thing. Now that feels like that, it's like we're in the moment
strangely where that's not happening, but I don't think that will last forever.
So Square Knicks can get creative and have something ready to go that isn't necessarily
going to rely on being like the biggest blockbuster in the world, but can
kind of have a persona like a arc where it's like, hey, yeah,
like this one we're going with. This is a Final Fantasy game,
and it's going to be bigger than the last Final Fantasy Game, and it's
going to build on the good momentum that the last one had. And if
you can be in that situation, it's like, well, every new game
can be bigger than the last one, and now you're back onto a chart
of growth. At the same time, you're also delivering I think what most
fans of the series want. So I'm not like, this isn't Doom and
Gloom entirely, it's just in this moment, this is what is scaring Square
Nicks away from doing what it's been doing. Now they're going to go multiplatform.
That probably solves some of the problem, right, I don't know,
what do you think. I think they are quickly learning that PS five or
PlayStation exclusivity is actually actively hurting them in terms of copies sold. Yeah,
because I'm sure Sony shows up with like a big bucket of cash and it's
like, we want this exclusivity and they're like, great, we got in
advance on development, we could do whatever we want, and then it comes
around to like actually sell the game. And it's like, obviously PS five
when remake came out, PS four install base was like the highest it ever
was. PS five not there, not small, but not nearly as big
as the PS four, And so with rebirth, it was like there are
just less people to that own this console to buy you. And sixteen is
coming to PC. They have, I don't think they've given a date on
it yet. I think that Final Fantasy sixty will sell a good amount of
copies on PC and then that will help, you know, give it the
legs it needs to hit whatever its goal was. I think they said like
eighteen months roughly to hit that goal. And so I think they just need
to put their stuff on as many platforms as possible because I think the PS
five exclusivity or the PlayStation exclusivity is actively hurting them at this point. Yeah,
last thing on this is like, this is how every single one of
these companies thinks though. They're like, if we have a certain amount of
money to put into a game, that game needs to do better than if
we were to put that money into a savings account or into the stock market.
Like that isn't some weird scenario. This isn't like square habit, Like
this is how they all basically do that math. It's like, we have
money, we want this money to grow into more money, and the reliable
way to do that is the stock market. So we're going to get that
fifteen percent annual return, or we can make a game that and we're going
to need that to do a certain profit margin to make the whole thing makes
sense. And this is true across the board. So when you go forward
and you try to understand how why these companies make the decisions that they're making,
that should inform it. And like when they have that like huge money,
like sixty nine billion dollars and they spend it on Activision King and all
that stuff and Blizzard, it's like, okay, well that is that company
going to make us more money in return than that money would have made if
we just put it in the stock market. And it's like yes, so
obviously to them it's worth it. That's why in a second they signed that
deal. And it doesn't matter how much money it is. It's like that
money is now working for them in a much more efficient way. All right,
Let's get to the next story. Keep the show going. Alone in
the Dark sold below expectations. Embracer Group says this is from Chriscian at VGC.
The reboot of Alone in the Dark sold worse than expecting, Embracer Group
said as part of its earnings report for its financial year ending in March twenty
twenty four. Embracer noted that while some of its release is sold in line
with expectations, Piece's interactive survival horror reboot didn't. It also noted that Outcasts
a New Beginning, a sequel to the nineteen ninety nine action game Outcast,
performed similarly poorly. That's a shame. That was a weird thing that they
did. I'm glad they did that. This Okay, Alone in the Dark
did seem like it came and went right. Yes, I actually did not
know that game came out. I think that's gonna be true with a lot
of people. Yeah, it's I think this speaks also to like how gaming
is a little bit different than some other mediums. I think if you put
out a schlocky, mediocre horror project as a movie and that audience goes okay,
Yeah, ticket prices aren't cheap, but it's a couple hours with my
friends. It's something to do, and I like horror games, so I'm
going to go check this out, and even if it's not great, we'll
probably still have a good time. I bet a lot of that stuff all
applies to something like Alone in the Dark. We probably would have a good
time playing this game, or I would, or maybe I'd have fun,
you know, playing it with my friends on Discord while they watch or something.
But it's like a sixty dollars thing. It's this whole other proposition of
like, this game is much more expensive than you think of when you go
to the movies, even though you can easily end up spending that much money
going to the movies. But I think people in their in their mind are
like, I'm not going to take a risk on that. Instead, I'm
going to go back and replay Resident Evil, something that I know I love,
and keep reinvesting my time into that. These kinds of games maybe don't
make as much sense anymore in this world unless they're going to be very good.
Right. You can't just kind of pop out a mediocre a survival horror
game and hope you're going to survive, right, it either has to be
some of the best in the genre or it has to be some of the
worst in the genre, to the point where it is exciting to watch people
play how bad this thing is, and no one is actively like making I
shouldn't say no one, most people are not actively making games that are that
bad, and Alone of the Dark kind of fits in this middle. It
sounds like where it's like, you know, sometimes there's nothing worse than a
game that's just okay. It's like, ah, there's things to like,
not to like, it's not exciting one way or the other, and so
unfortunately it kind of just falls to the wayside really easily, especially like when
there are so many good games coming out all the time, it's like you
have to be yeah, like the crop, and it's it sucks because it's
like you want to see these initiatives from these companies and developers, like you
want to see these cool games coming out that are like, oh, Alone
in the Dark, like oh my childhood blah blah blah. Then it comes
out it's kind of just like yeah, okay, all right, yep,
it just sucks to see It's easy. It's like the thing is it's so
easy to ignore these things because you're right, there's so many options. People's
time and money is limited, so everyone's just going to naturally veer towards the
safe bets, and that is recognizable franchises that have that deliver a certain level
of quality. That is games you already own, especially live service games and
kind of whatever your friends are into. These are like, you know,
those safe bets that you know you're probably gonna get some value out of alone
in the dark kind of coming along and not having a ton of marketing behind
it, having mediocre reviews, it's very easy to just put that out of
mind and move back to all those things that you know are reliable, that
you know. This is also the like Embracer's strategy, or it was at
one point, was to make a lot of games like this, and I
think it also speaks to why Embracer was falling apart. Clearly it fell apart
because just terrible management. That's number one. Really no idea what they were
doing over there. But the plan all along was we're going to make a
ton of games like this, and you know, they're all going to add
up to make make stuff makes sense. And there was a couple of games
from them recently Dead Island too, a handful of other games that did pretty
well in the last year, and it's like, but then you're going to
have games like this as well that's sort of offset that and kind of undo
everything that those games did well in terms of like building up Embracer's portfolio.
So maybe the Embraser project never made sense either, right, Yeah, you
know, teach all of these things remnant to great game. Yes, they
kind of exist to like let's look at all these like b licenses, right,
and like let's let's produce them and and you know, make them and
people people will show up. People always have a nostalgia for like this era
of three sixty sort of games that like either never really hit the highs that
they could have or whatever. And it's just like in today, I don't
think those projects make a lot of sense. I think we you know,
with Squarrey next, we're talking about how they are actively looking at like,
oh, we spend too much money making these games. We're not seeing our
return. And then when it's like, oh, you got to get creative.
And then there are companies like this that are like doing something different,
but it's also not working, and I feel like they fall into the same
pitfalls of like, why are we doing it this way? Why are we
looking at it through this lens. We also need to kind of adjust how
we operate, and so it's kind of like two sides of the same coin.
It's yeah, it is companies need to reevaluate like what they're doing and
what is not working about these projects. Yeah, it's like I don't necessarily
know what I do if I'm in charge of any one of these gaming publishers
right now, I think I think I don't give up on investing across the
board. I think some of these companies are doing that. But I think
in this moment, it's like, let's let's go back to the drawing board
on a lot of things. Let's take some chances here and there, but
let's do some stuff that is extremely creative that can maybe have a chance of
hitting in a couple of years. But let's not necessarily make the two hundred
million dollar bets. And then if it's embracer, let's not make two hundred
million dollar bets. Yeah, oh boy, okay, that one. Uh
huh. All right, let's let's take a quick break when we get back.
There's plenty more to talk about X Defiance doing pretty well multi versus director
criticized data minders. We'll talk about all of that right after this. All
right, right back into it. Let's start here with X Defiant. X
Vine's launch reportedly hit one million players in under three hours. This is from
Cameron Coke at game Spot. X Defiant is off to the races, having
reportedly already reached over three million unique players within the first but with the first
billion coming two and a half hours after launch. The above statistics are according
to Insider Gaming, which reports some of the launch numbers surrounding Ubisoft's free to
play answer to Call of Duty. According to Insider Gaming, the game is
well on its way when it comes to surpassing Ubisoft's internal goals in terms of
numbers of players. This is one where it's like I really struggle to understand
what it's going to do, like who the audience is, but it feels
like there's one out there, and it's just like this is me not having
blinders on to a certain extent. It feels like it could do pretty well,
and that's maybe it already is. What do you think? Have you
like looked into X Defiant at all. I played two matches last night because
I learned that it had come out, and I was like, okay this
week. Yeah, it's like I've been hearing about it. It's like,
Oh, it's going to be the Call of Duty killer blah blah blah.
We've heard this before, flashing Pang games come and go. And I was
like, Oh, there's like enough here, there's like enough meat on the
bone for this to be something. And of course they're pulling like all of
the UBI Soft like the Top Universe, Yes, Ghost Recon Squad and Dead
Sec from Watchdogs too, and the Cleaners from the Division, which I don't
hate. No, I think it's like a fun way to bring in factions
from other games. You'd be Soft loves to do this. They had that
mobile game a while ago. I don't remember what it was called All Stars
or something thing. Uh, And so I think that like it doing as
well it is as it is right now is very beneficial for the game.
Get that in front of as many people as possible, have as many streamers
streaming it as possible. The question is like does it have legs? Like
are they going to like it has a battle pass in there. I didn't
see much else in terms of like, okay, is it just call quote
unquote Call Duty multiplayers. It's just like, okay, we're gonna be run
like team deathmatch and escort and stuff. I think they right, let they
like, hey, here's a couple of things. Just get used to this
game, and we got a long road map ahead of ways to drop new
content in different ways to play. You know, three million is especially impressive.
I think when you remember that this isn't on Steam, this is only
through Ubisoft connect on PC. Now obviously it's also on the consoles, so
that's gonna make I think it likely makes up the biggest chunk for this game.
But it seems like it's doing well enough on PC and you can't get
it through Steam, so it's like, you know, getting some giving some
juice to Ubisoft Connects, so people actually boot that thing up. And I
say that because it's exactly what I did. I'm like, all right,
I'll update this thing and sign in again, Jesus. But so yeah,
I was. I went through the effort to play this game, and it's
like, you know, free, free to play Call of Duty that is
you know, kind of like maybe a little bit more like the older Call
of Duty. Is there's something about that. It's like, I'll check it
out. I guess I'm at least curious to see why people seem to like
it so much. And it's like, well, not everyone does, but
there's an audience out there that's certainly it does seem to like it. The
legs question, I think you're right, that is the biggest question that I
think we've seen a couple come along, a couple of these kinds of games
come along, pop off, and then fall. I think the Apex Ledgends
that was the one where it's like that one blew up and was able to
maintain something a business for a very long time. We're like, in your
opinion, based on two matches, based on the vibes out there, we're
on that spectrum. Do you really think it's landing right now? I think
it's biggest problem right now is going to be it is. I don't mean
this is a negative way. It is simple. It is you shoot,
you crouch, you move. You have two You have an ability and a
grenade, and that's kind of all you got. I wonder if that's enough
for like higher skill players because they have ranked modes and stuff. But like,
I wonder if people will get bored of this game because there might not
be as much versatility as something like an Apex Legends or something else. So
I think they will have to really be on the ball with updates and with
adding new stuff and new factions and everything. I think if this game goes
three months and there's no significant updates to the game, it might fall off.
And that's just a harsh reality of free to play multiplayer games coming into
the space when there's a bajillion of them to look at right now, I
would expect, like my assumption here is that they're ready to go with a
really quick roadmap to update the game and keep it fresh. Yeah, and
hey, who knows. I think this is the kind of thing where you
and I this is the last time we think about this game. There's a
chance that that's the case, and then we find out two years from now
it's like Massive in China, or it's making a ton of money in South
America, things like that. That can happen with games like this now.
So but in Ubisoft, a global company knows how to take advantage of that.
So that could happen with this game as well. For my part,
it's fine. I think it's fine. It doesn't it didn't blow me away,
And I guess I did see the appeal of people who are like,
hey, this does remind me of Xbox three sixty Call of Duty games.
It's like, yeah, I see what you mean. And if that is
something you're craving, here is a free to play version of that, and
that a lot of people are going to find that appealing. Yeah. And
I think you can criticize Ubisoftfrock a lot of things across the bold clearly.
Yeah, but one thing they are very good at is supporting games long term.
Like you look at something like Rainbow six Siege and that game's you know,
launch was not good and now it's huge, and like they've really changed
that game around, and so they team they tend to stick around with games
kind of long, So like they could give x Defiant the room to like
really flourish, especially if it's going to maintain a pretty healthy player base.
Yeah, and they had to figure out Siege, right. Siege didn't have
the best launch, so they've been through that process. It seems like that
enabled them to create something that was going to have a stronger start than Siege
Day with X Defiant, and it's like, okay, well we're starting from
a higher point. Can you take it to where Siege is? And if
they can, that is another massive, consistent revenue stream that they can rely
on, which is what they're going for here. That's that's what they want.
I am being reminded that Hyperscape was a thing though, and so it
could go the There is the Hyperscape example. Yes, Hyperscape for people don't
remember, was there Battle Royale shooter like Battle Royale hyper Space like like a
virtual world shooter. It didn't last very long at all, but they,
for Honor did last pretty long another game where they supported for quite some time.
I think it's like, I think it gets maintenance updates. I don't
know if it gets new content now, but it lasted for a long time.
All right, Moving along here. Multi Versus director criticizes data miners for
being spoil sports. This is from Darren BoNT Use at GameSpot. Multiverse director
to Tony Hunk. John Hun I'm going to say, has criticized data miners
for spoiling upcoming content in the game, including the reveal of future fighters and
stages. Data miners have regularly trawled through lines of game code to uncover information
on unreleased content, and Hoyn says that these leaks have the developer and fans
of Multiverse feeling deflated when they're robbed of a surprise reveal. I agree.
I don't think people should ever talk about something before the developers talk about it.
My opinion, that's just of course this is it's unavoidable, and I
don't think it actually ruins all that much. I think it just kind of
shifts around where the excitement comes from. And if your audience is big enough,
most of them actually probably aren't paying attention to this stuff some of obviously
some of them are, and that stuff seeps into the community in a bunch
of ways. But then it's like, me, is that thing real?
Are they really gonna announce that? And when they announce that, sure,
maybe it's not the massive pop up like that came out of nowhere, But
I think people getting their their like hopes confirmed is a different kind of pop
that work that is just as valuable. I don't think this really ruins much.
What do you think. No, I've never been in the camp of
like, oh, I learned about something before the official reveal, like oh
no I didn't get you know, marketed to the right way or whatever however
you want to view it. But I think there's also like you can have
phone with data miners, like you can put stuff in there time and like
make an arg or like do a whole thing where it's like, oh we
found a what does this mean? And like because data mining is inevitable,
if you put your game on PC, it is going to be data mined.
Like that is just how this works. You can try every which way
to try and stop it, but it will happen. So use that to
your advantage. Don't just like be mad about it and be like, oh
no, they found the thing we put in the file and then they dug
it up. It's like this has been happening for years. This is like
not a new problem. Yeah, and so have fun with it. New
medic sys Mnet too did that. They made stuff impossible to find without data
mining, and here was like a whole arg that lead led to a new
archetype for the game. Like it was super cool, Like they had fun
with it and it paid off and the community had got really involved in it
and everyone just was like, oh man, that was a really awesome thing
for that game to do, right. I think what we're talking about here
is understand the ways that your community wants to acquire information about your game and
use it, like build it into the ways that you that your company operates
and announces things. Don't assume that you have full control of the message.
If this is if data minding is going to happen with your game, make
it a part of the process. Make sure that everyone involved in the market
marketing team understands it and let them come up with new ideas about how to
use it, because they probably will if that they if they are aware of
this just being like scolding people for doing something that they're doing out of passion
because they really like something. It's that's a losing game. That's not worth
it. You're it's just not worth the squeeze there. You should be thrilled
that you have fans that want to know more about what will take you.
Yeah, yes, absolutely, all right, let's keep this going. New
Fortnite season adds Fallouts, T sixty, Power Armor and Wit and Wasteland or
Magneto. This is from Tom Ivan at VGC. Epic Games has revealed that
Fortnite Battle Reale Chapter five Season three Wrecked is coming. Players can now start
downloading the latest Fortnite patch on all platforms ahead of the post apocalyptic Themes season's
launched later today. The Mad Max inspired season includes a greater focus on vehicular
combat as players explore a new Wasteland biome in nitro fueled maudible cars. Players
will will be able to unlock Fallout's T sixty power armor by leveling up to
Rex battle Pass, while bottles of Nucacola will restore some health of course over
time, and some shield as well. A Wastelander Magneto skin will be unlockable
through battle Pass quests in July two. And that's like the the OC the
new like one of their new characters there. I don't know something about this,
this combination of ips and how they're remixing all this stuff looking very nice
to me. I'm like, oh, I might go. It's time to
go check in on Fortnite again, Like every couple of months I'm there,
and this is one of those times we might check in on it. How
about you? I played a match of it this morning. Oh really?
Yeah? Hell yeah? Is this stuff in there or is it like yeah,
yeah, so Magneto is So for those who play for NIT, you
have like the battle Pass and then you have like the additional character like last
last season it was a Cora from you know, from Avatar, and so
those unlock like later in the season, they have their own separate quest line.
You can unlock Magneto in the Wastelander Magneto, but like the X Men
Magneto because it's like Wastelander Magneto makes it sound like some different thing. So
my understanding is that it is Magneto like you know X Men Magneto, and
then like the alternate skin will be the Wastelander magnetic They do two skins for
it. I could be wrong on that though, I'm not up to date
on my X Men sure that being said, Fallout like that the armor I
thought would be like on the map or it would be in the store.
It's just part of the battle pass. You just play the battle pass,
you get like multiple versions of the T sixty power armor and Fallout And I
was like, oh, okay, that's something they could have easily sold for
twenty thirty dollars in the store and plenty of people would buy. I'm sure
there'll be a variant on the store, but all the Mad Max stuff,
like it's very Mad Max inspired in the battle pass, Like you have an
emote where you're you know, you're breathing fire. You have one where you're
like riffing a guitar and like like on a car. Like it it's some
cool stuff. It's it's fun. And the map itself changed so you have
a whole desert biome now and it's very very very car focused. Like you
get a car, you drive over these boxes that it hurts to your car
and boosts and all this other stuff. There's big rings of fire. There's
just a big battle dome in the map that you just drive around in and
like there's people cheering and it's pretty cool. Okay, I'm really get on
it. That sounds very cool. I yeah, I think that there's a
I get why people are like, we're very excited to go back to the
default original season one map for Fortnite. But for me at this point,
Mike, yeah, no, Like I get the Fortnite heads love that stuff.
I think I like the wild stuff, the very different stuff, even
more personally as someone who is much more casual with Fortnite, and so this
stuff isn't like okay, yeah, the water bending stuff seemed to neat.
I will go I'll check out this now because I shift things up and making
it more about vehicular combat. All right, cool, that sounds fresh and
interesting. I'm gonna check that out. Yeah. Also, I think I'm
just in I still am in a fallout mood. I know people are like,
oh, you know, they stop talk Everyone stopped talk about it because
they binged it. I'm like, I'm still thinking about it. And I'll
that T sixty armor looks cool in a Fortnite actually, so they've got some
cool variants of it. There's some cool different versions of it. Yep.
Absolutely, uh okay, let's keep going here. Switch surpasses DS to become
the best selling system ever in Japan. This is from Nintendo Everything. Switch
has overtaken DS to become the best selling game system ever in Japan. That's
according to the latest data from Famitsu. Earlier today, the outlet reported that
Switch sold another forty thousand units. The console's overall total now sets at thirty
thirty two million, nine hundred and three thousand, seven hundred one units.
To compare the DS sold thirty million, eight hundred and sixty four million one
hundred or eight hundred and sixty four thousand excuse me, one hundred and twenty
nine units total in Japan. Switch secure the record during its three hundred and
seventy seventh week on the market, so which is also close to taking the
world wide wide record. As of March thirty first, the device's overall sales
stand at one hundred and forty one point three to two million, The DS
worldwide is at one hundred and fifty four point zero two million, and the
PS two is around one hundred and sixty ish. They won't tell us exactly
what it's at, although previously they said one fifty five. Yeah. Hey,
the Switch is recent resurgence. It's weird to say it that way,
but it's resurgence in Japan, where it's like it was selling well, selling
well, and then in the last year or so it has sold like better
than it has in quite some time. I think this is part of the
reason why we continue to wait for a Switch follow up, because Nintendo's like,
man, our home territory is crushing this and we're making a lot of
money still and yeah, and so it crossed the finish line to become the
best selling hardware in Japan. Do you think it gets to that global number
one hundred and sixty million? Ish? I mean, at the rate it's
going could I couldn't tell you how long it would take at this point because
I feel like every single human being I know at this point owns a Switch,
and I know these these numbers don't reflect that, Like obviously there's way
more people than Switch owners, but it just keeps selling, and honestly,
like they haven't put any I don't want to say they haven't put anything out,
but like there hasn't been a huge Switch game in a little bit,
in a little bit, and so to see this like just skyrocket and skyrocketing
and keep going, it's like people are still hungry for that entire catalog because
the Switch at this point has a fantastic catalog of games, right, Like,
you can't you can't go wrong with getting a Switch because you can pretty
much play most things you want to play. And so I think, you
know, you give this thing another year or two, Yeah, why not?
It could get it could If it doesn't make it, it'll get pretty
damn close. Yep. Yeah, And it's uh, I think the thing
that really matters. I mean, I care about this because I'm a nerd
and it's it's a stupid thing, but it's like, oh yeah, it'd
be neat if the Switch was was able to get up there with those consoles.
That's awesome. The thing that really matters to these companies that's the software
sales number. And for that it has been an unqualified masterful success for Nintendo,
their first system that has had more than a billion pieces of software sold.
They're at that mark already and they are expecting to sell another one hundred
and sixty million pieces of software for the Switch in this next fiscal year,
and so yeah, that's where the real money is made, and that is
okay, regardless of whether it gets to one sixty million unit sold or not.
Having one hundred and sixty million pieces of software sold this year is the
thing that they were going for, and they've done that. Selling a piece
of hardware where people want to buy a lot of games. That's the way
they make this whole business go around, and they've succeeded at that, all
right. Director George Miller's Perfect Mad Max game would be made by Kojuma This
is from Willow Row at Kotaku. Mad Max franchise creator George Miller already knows
what he wants from another video game set in his iconic universe. Ahead of
furiosa of Mad Max Saga's release on May twenty fourth, the director revealed that
his dream would be to have none other than Middle Gear Solid and Death Stranding
master mind Hideo Kojima make take the metaphorical wheel. During the red carpet for
Free for Yosa, Miller spoke to Gaming Bible and real that he would support
another game in the series if Kojima would take it on the choice of Kochoma
makes a lot of sense, giving the mutual respect the two creators have.
You you see like the Instagram post of George Miller seeing Kochuma at the premiere
for the movie and being like, oh, my best friend in the world.
Yeah, it's okay. That's why he's saying this. I think this
is throwing that twenty fifteen game under the bus a little bit. He basically
does say, ye, that game wasn't what we wanted to be. It
wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. Is his exact quote.
It's like, ah, you know what, that's what a lot of the
reviews said. It's kind of that. There were some mediocre reviews. But
I played that game a little bit yesterday and I see some promise, and
I know a lot of people really love it. But I also get being
like, I have a homeboy and he makes games, so he would make
it even better. Of course, that's what you say, right, Yeah,
that's that's just you guessing up your friend. Yeah exactly. Yeah,
this this Hideo guy, he could do it easy, Like, yeah,
of course, I mean look at the look at the catalog of Soul and
he's got it captured in his offices. If you could do that, you
could do anything. You see Death stranded to that game had a car,
Yeah, you could do Mad Mags. Yeah, sure, Mad Max where
you have to deliver packages that are precariously stacked up in your trunk. I
like that. That sounds like a good game to me. You just put
Death strending in the desert. It's basically Mad Max at that point, Like,
if you've already done it, yes, exactly, yeah, hey it
sounds good to me. Probably wouldn't. Nothing like this is actually gonna come
of anything, right, This is just talk no, this, this,
this is. This has one of two routes, right, It's it's just
talk nothing matters, or it gets so like like memed into existence that like
they tease it and then it's like, oh is it happening? Isn't not?
And they just like keep this fun bit going forever, but think ever
happens. Yeah, it's again. I think this is the kind of unteasing
that is probably meaningless that the Kojima universe is good at. Like I think
they then always being like, eh, maybe we'll do something like that.
Yeah, that's great. I'm totally down with that. It's also great marketing
for the new movie that is coming out right now, right, Like they
got everyone talk about mad Max. Maybe they sell a couple extra copies of
the old Mad Max game. They get people to go see Furios. So
like it all, it all, it all makes real quick news. Story
just broke a little bit. It's a confirmation of something we talked about on
this show. Bill bil Kuhn, who is a known leaker over there at
deal Labs, has a story out about confirming that they've heard about that Astrobat
game that I've mentioned. You know, let's read the story here. This
from Bill bill kuon over at deal Labs. It seems that chances of a
PlayStation event happening in May twenty twenty four are only increasing after our exclusive information
shared yesterday about the imminent announcement of the long awaited game Concord. Another PlayStation
exclusive is a likely It's likely to appear during the same period. The first
rumors were made by Blah blah blah, Jeff Blah blah blah blah. Nick
Baker confirmed the twenty eighth, which, hey, that's the date I'm also
hearing repeatedly now is the twenty eighth, which is still in May you down,
bad dirty bastards out there get a life? Twenty eighth still may,
but yes, several rumors have pointed to that event happening, and now deal
Labs are saying that they think a game called Astrobot, just straight up called
Astrobot may get announced at the show. That is one of the games I'm
expecting PlayStation to launch this year, So if that's the case, it probably
does have to show up here. That sound good to you. I'm an
astro fan, so I'm ready for Astrobot, like I'm gonna be realized.
The first I'm hearing about this. I'm so on board. Yes, I
oh man, a new Astrobot game. Oh, give it to me right
now. I'm ready for it. If it is what I wanted to be,
which is like, we had astro b like the tech demo thing for
a while, and it's been the best tech demo thing you've ever played in
your life. What if we just took that. Obviously, the Astros Rescue
Mission full VR game, obviously that's what it is, but still it was
to show off very good, yes, and it was to show off what
that hardware could do. It was like it was an extension of what they
did with the games that would come with the PSVR. Make a full Astrobot
game for the PlayStation five. Yeah, that that sounds fantastic. I really
really want that. I Again, of course, there's always a chance that
this is something that comes with the PS five Pro. I think the chances
of that are minimal, but it's there's still a chance. Why wouldn't they
just make a full on astro game, especially after it was so beloved when
they did that Astros Playroom game with the PS five launch, so had easily
Yes, I am very excited about this. And maybe you know, and
it's coming to a point where it's like across the board, I think I'm
excited about all the showcases, gamings in a bad place, a lot of
people losing their jobs because studios are closing, Like it's it's rough out there,
and we're not going to forget about that. But that doesn't mean I
don't I want, like, okay, well, the games that are still
coming, I've completely written them off. I'm not at that point. I
want these things to be good and exciting so that we can sort of bounce
back in a strong way next year. And it's got it kind of has
to start here. You know. We keep talking about the industry needs switch
to the industry needs Grand Theft Auto six. What if we got to the
point where it didn't need those massive tent poles to hold up everything else.
What if there were some games announced in the next month that could do it
all themselves. That would be really cool. And I'm hopeful that we can
get to that point. Not that I think Astrobot's going to be something that
sells twenty five million copies, but I don't give a shit. I just
want to play it. That's that's all. My feeling is about that game.
Yeah, I'm ready for it, me too. Yeah, So twenty
eight for that likely not guaranteed, everybody, I'll just keep saying I've only
heard may for sure. And then this twenty eight day is being repeated in
a lot of places. And then you know very quickly after that it is
June and we are doing Summer game Fest stuff and everyone's got announcements then as
well, including Nintendo in Xbox. So it's very close. I should start
packing. It's that close. I'll pack five minutes before my foe. I'm
the same. That's what I'll That's when I'll actually do it. But I
should start now. All right. That does it for the news. Got
a pull question. We're gonna get to here in a second. Well,
I get that set up, Jesse. Why don't you tell people where they
can find you what you have going on? All that good stuff? Cool?
All right? So you can find me on Twitter at Jesse Vittelli.
You can find me on TikTok. Now that's a thing that I do occasionally.
I like your tiktoks. Thank you. Just my name on TikTok.
You'll just find me, Jesse. I tell you'll find me there. As
for things I've got coming up, some stuff I can't talk about yet.
Sorry to be that person, but just can't. And then I'll be at
Summer Game Fest, uh, doing some previews. The Nasty Boys are going
to roll through for the the other stuff, and so keep keep your eyes
peeled. Summer Game Fest kind of be all over the place. It'll be
a good time. And that's honestly all I really got going on right now.
I'm just trying to get through like the first two weeks of June,
and then like then I can take a breath and figure out what's next.
Yep. But until then, I'm just kind of bouncing around looking forward to
it. And then I think what what we should do is we'll come back
from Summer Game Fest and you get back on the show. We'll do like
a wrap up on that show kind of things that you saw, talk about
some games, stuff like that. Does that sound good? Sounds great?
Hell? Yeah? I cannot wait? All right, pull question, let's
bring that up right here. Would you want to use Steam on an Xbox?
Let me refreshed x This is not the full results here. There we
go, there we are all right? Would you want to use Steam on
an Xbox. Sixty six percent said yes, thirty four percent said no.
Yeah, I kind of I struggle to understand why you wouldn't at least want
it as an option, like you like, oh, don't don't allow it
to happen. But that's These are people just saying, well, if it's
there, I'm not going to use it. No, how about you,
Jesse? Would you if Steam was an option on an Xbox and you had
an Xbox in front of you and you could get a game on there,
would you use it? So are we sorry not to like get you into
this, like the Steam client like Steam client, Yeah, like to be
able to buy a game through Steam and play it on your next Xbox.
Yes, that is Yeah, why not? That's something that they're apparently thinking
about. Yes, that sounds great honestly, like, especially if it connects
to my already existing Steam library, Like I don't want to do any weird
things, Like yeah, absolutely, that sounds fantastic, right, and like
obviously there's a chance to like maybe not every single game works, but likely
they all would for the most part. So yes, I'm right there with
you, all right. New poll question, do you think going back to
multi platform will be enough for Final Fantasy. We can get the results of
that and discuss it on Wednesday of next week. We're not it's not next
week. We're leieving, right, it's the week after That's right, Okay,
So Wednesday of next week will be back. Monday is Memorial Day.
We are off. We will be back for the BombCast on Tuesday, though,
look out for that. And between now and then here on Giant Bomb,
we will have BombCast Revengeance. Today, we're gonna do a upf today.
We're going to get back into Elder Ring multiplayer. Of course, you
should go to ticketmaster dot com search Giant Bomb and get your tickets for the
Bellweather Our Live show in Los Angeles. It's gonna be a really good time.
You're not gonna want to miss it. Jason try will be there,
line of Pierce. It's gonna be a good time. We're just gonna hang
out and talk about dumb stuff and then have some friends up on the stage.
It's gonna be a good time, all right. Jesse, thank you
so much for spending today talking with me about video games. Man, I
really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. It's always a blast.
To be on the show absolutely and thank you all for listening. You're the
best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take
care of yourself and goodbye.