BioWare Betting Everything on Mass Effect 5

<v Speaker 1>Don't bad. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this
<v Speaker 1>for January thirtieth, twenty twenty five. For the next hour
<v Speaker 1>or so, let me help you sort through the world
<v Speaker 1>of gaming on Game mess Mornings Live with Me Jeff
<v Speaker 1>grub Today, by where does get hit with layoffs as
<v Speaker 1>the company slims down to focus solely on mass effect
<v Speaker 1>and Mario Los or Mario loses its legal battle with
<v Speaker 1>super Mario. I guess that works. But first please join
<v Speaker 1>me and welcome you today's co host the Game As Mornings.
<v Speaker 1>It's Jen ohhoa everybody, jan how's it going.
<v Speaker 2>It's going fantastic. Jeff grub Man. I don't know how
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna live up to last Thursday. Matt Piscatella tour
<v Speaker 2>the House.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, he's a he's a good boy. We're gonna have
<v Speaker 1>him on here more frequently, get him on here when
<v Speaker 1>we can. But he really does crush it. Absolutely.
<v Speaker 2>I felt so much smarter after listening to that episode.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, it was like, oh yeah, so all those questions
<v Speaker 1>that were always asking, like is it like this, is
<v Speaker 1>it like that? He just he just knows. He just
<v Speaker 1>knows the answers. It's very very helpful. So yeah, it rules.
<v Speaker 1>He is a great guest and we'll have him back.
<v Speaker 1>But I'm glad to have my Janet Showa back. Jen
<v Speaker 1>I did. I kind of shifted gears in my life
<v Speaker 1>where I wrote a note to one of my children's
<v Speaker 1>teachers and I signed it as mister Grub. And that's
<v Speaker 1>not I've not done that before in my life. I've
<v Speaker 1>not pulled the mister Grub card. You know. I was
<v Speaker 1>trying to be like, you know, not authoritative, but trying
<v Speaker 1>to like put him like, hey, I'm serious about this,
<v Speaker 1>and so just putting you know, Jeff on there. Jeff
<v Speaker 1>is a joke of a name, right, It's like it's
<v Speaker 1>a punchline, like what are you a fucking Jeff? Like
<v Speaker 1>that's what that is. So I was like, mister Grub, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>mister G's like, if the kids start having like their
<v Speaker 1>friends over more frequently, I'll have them call me mister
<v Speaker 1>g But yeah, mister Grub when I'm trying to be serious.
<v Speaker 1>So that's the new phase of my life.
<v Speaker 2>Oh I love this, mister Grubb. Do you live in
<v Speaker 2>a neighborhood where when weather permits, kids can just ride
<v Speaker 2>their bikes down the street?
<v Speaker 1>And everything. Yeah, for the most part, it's not. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>you know, it's a one street kind of neighborhood sort
<v Speaker 1>of deal. You know, there is some traffic, but we
<v Speaker 1>have sidewalks and stuff, so yes, they can ride their
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<v Speaker 1>the electric scooters down the street all the time. I
<v Speaker 1>cannot wait.
<v Speaker 2>Your mate, Perhaps you're doing some yard work and some
<v Speaker 2>friends of the Gimmicks are strolling down the street it's
<v Speaker 2>a nice spring afternoon, and they all go hey, mister grub,
<v Speaker 2>and then you just politely look and nod.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm like, I look up for my garden. Yeah. Absolutely,
<v Speaker 1>I can't wait to have that for you. I'm pretty excited. Absolutely. Yeah. Also,
<v Speaker 1>I've definitely been like kind of in a bad mood
<v Speaker 1>all the time right now, Like I am I get it.
<v Speaker 1>I am testy, is what I'm realizing, And it's like
<v Speaker 1>affecting everything. I'm just I'm being short with everybody. I
<v Speaker 1>am in the mood to fight everybody, and boy, it's like, man,
<v Speaker 1>I wish I could just control myself a little bit better.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, got went outside, took a long walk this morning,
<v Speaker 1>did some meditating, and that's helping but boy, was like
<v Speaker 1>very frustrating to be like, oh why can I not control?
<v Speaker 1>And you know everyone's feeling this way, Like if everyone's
<v Speaker 1>like if you're online or you talk with your friends
<v Speaker 1>or your family and you're like, you know what, this
<v Speaker 1>person might be an a hole, give them just a
<v Speaker 1>little bit of slack, a little bit of grace because
<v Speaker 1>I think everyone right now is just feeling off and
<v Speaker 1>not happy.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, oh yeah, I mean I feel a little
<v Speaker 2>short with everybody when I hang out with.
<v Speaker 1>Y'all, of course, Oh yeah, you know that's the thing. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>when we're hanging out with with the usually we're like
<v Speaker 1>putting together a thing that could be on fire in
<v Speaker 1>any second, and it's like, oh man, I'm just riding
<v Speaker 1>that stress. Uh that's that that that stress stallion until
<v Speaker 1>we get all this done. But yeah, put that on
<v Speaker 1>top of just the I'm feeling about everything, and it's
<v Speaker 1>a bad feeling. So trying to be mindful, trying to
<v Speaker 1>be better, but it's taking it. It's a process, is
<v Speaker 1>what it is.
<v Speaker 2>So please someone make a photoshop a spoof of Beyonce's
<v Speaker 2>last cover, the cover of her last album with all
<v Speaker 2>of the GB crew riding that white horse, but stress
<v Speaker 2>is just written on that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, a horse made out of the letters str, E, S, S. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's that's pretty good. All right, let's explain what we
<v Speaker 1>do here most weekday's I, Jeff Grub will help piece
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<v Speaker 1>You can also catch the show later with chapters and
<v Speaker 1>timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we have a
<v Speaker 1>lot to get into, so let's start the Morning Mess
<v Speaker 1>with byoware betting it all on mass Effect five after
<v Speaker 1>even more layoffs. This is from Ethan Gotch at Kotaku.
<v Speaker 1>What's left of Byware, the renowned RPG powerhouse behind beloved
<v Speaker 1>franchises like Dark Dragon, Age, Star Wars, Nights of the
<v Speaker 1>Old Republic, and the original boulders Gate Games. It's a
<v Speaker 1>hard question to answer in twenty twenty five, after multiple
<v Speaker 1>rounds of layoffs, and restructurings. As the studio pivots between
<v Speaker 1>the character driven stories fans love and the live service
<v Speaker 1>gaming model investors want. The only thing that seems certain
<v Speaker 1>is that the studio's entire fate feels like it's riding
<v Speaker 1>on Mass Effect five, a game that's still a long
<v Speaker 1>ways off Byware. General manager Gary McKay tried to explain
<v Speaker 1>the current state of the studio in a new blog
<v Speaker 1>post that was full of vague ambitions but light on
<v Speaker 1>actual specifics. We know that the studio has completely moved
<v Speaker 1>on from last year's Dragon Age the Vailguard, and it's
<v Speaker 1>focused entirely on making the next Mass Effect game. The
<v Speaker 1>studio says it's being developed by a core team under
<v Speaker 1>the guidance of series veterans at Gamble, Preston WADAMANUK, Derek Watts,
<v Speaker 1>Parish Lay and others. From there, things get a bit
<v Speaker 1>more hazy. Here's an excerpt excerpt from McKay's brief blog post.
<v Speaker 1>And keeping with our fierce commitment to innovating during the
<v Speaker 1>development and delivery of Mass Effect, we have challenged ourselves
<v Speaker 1>to think deeply about delivering the best experience to our fans.
<v Speaker 1>We are taking this opportunity between full development cycles to
<v Speaker 1>reimagine how we work at BioWare. Given this stage of development,
<v Speaker 1>we don't require support from the full studio. We have
<v Speaker 1>incredible talent here at BioWare, and so we have worked
<v Speaker 1>diligently over the past few months to match many of
<v Speaker 1>our colleagues with other teams at EA that had open
<v Speaker 1>roles that were a strong fit. So, yeah, this is
<v Speaker 1>a situation where they were, hey, we're going to move
<v Speaker 1>on a lot of people to other places with ne EA,
<v Speaker 1>but there's a lot of people also who are just
<v Speaker 1>straight up laid off. These were layoffs first and foremost,
<v Speaker 1>and it was because they are you know, they were
<v Speaker 1>a studio that was technically making two games and now
<v Speaker 1>they're making one game. They're all focused on mass effect.
<v Speaker 1>They're not like, okay now to not like slowly spool
<v Speaker 1>up over time as we get ready for the next
<v Speaker 1>Dragon Age. That doesn't really seem in the cards. It is,
<v Speaker 1>let's get everybody focused on Mass Effect five, because then
<v Speaker 1>we're gonna see what happens with Mass Effect five and
<v Speaker 1>if that actually pops off or not, and that delivers
<v Speaker 1>in the way that we want it to deliver. Byewear
<v Speaker 1>obviously in a like on the you know, the razor's
<v Speaker 1>edge for quite some time, Jan, how are you feeling
<v Speaker 1>about all this?
<v Speaker 2>It can't feel good for anyone internally at Bywear right now,
<v Speaker 2>especially when you see the language that, yeah, we're betting
<v Speaker 2>it all on Mass Effect five and then when you
<v Speaker 2>look at any type of calendar or projections or like
<v Speaker 2>any asaana board, I'm assumed they may use a sauna
<v Speaker 2>that they are so far off that maybe this project
<v Speaker 2>doesn't even see its completion and they're betting everything onto this.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not gonna lie.
<v Speaker 2>Grab When I first saw the headline, I was confused
<v Speaker 2>as to why it was Mass Effect five percent. Forgot
<v Speaker 2>about Andromeda.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you're not alone. It's definitely how it goes.
<v Speaker 2>It's the problem is this is also a very different
<v Speaker 2>Byoware than when the original Mass Effect trilogy came out.
<v Speaker 2>I'm sure some of that talent has still remained at
<v Speaker 2>the studio, but it cannot It doesn't feel good on
<v Speaker 2>either side as a fan of Mass Effect and internally
<v Speaker 2>at Biowear feeling that, as you said, being on the
<v Speaker 2>razor's edge and feeling more and more pressure all around
<v Speaker 2>you for this game to succeed, it cannot be a strong,
<v Speaker 2>healthy feeling at the studio to have it on a
<v Speaker 2>day to day basis.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think it's got to be, like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>you're coming off of Dragon Age the Veil Guard, a
<v Speaker 1>game that they essentially rescued at biowear from the clutches
<v Speaker 1>of the live service push, and you know, during the process,
<v Speaker 1>I know that they were feeling very good about it
<v Speaker 1>because they did manage to turn it into a game
<v Speaker 1>that is pretty respectable compared to what it was going
<v Speaker 1>to be. And then you know, the gap between what
<v Speaker 1>it was going to be and what it turned out
<v Speaker 1>to be, while large, there's still a large remaining gap
<v Speaker 1>between what it turned out to be and what fans
<v Speaker 1>really really want, which is, you know, the sky is
<v Speaker 1>sort of the expectations these days for these games. You know,
<v Speaker 1>people are just coming off of boulders Gate threes, so
<v Speaker 1>people expect a lot. So it's it's hard to deliver
<v Speaker 1>these games in line with what people want them to be.
<v Speaker 1>So and so you know, and that's like the existing audience, right,
<v Speaker 1>that's the existing audience of a fan, not potential fans,
<v Speaker 1>but people who are already looking forward to these games,
<v Speaker 1>and you're selling it to a not a fraction, but
<v Speaker 1>we I mean, I guess technically is a fraction, but
<v Speaker 1>not to one percent of those fans. And then it's
<v Speaker 1>you're you're going to struggle to find new fans because
<v Speaker 1>you know, it's an older franchise and people are busy
<v Speaker 1>playing other games. Mass Effect might have a slightly better chance.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, Mass Effect is even maybe a little bit
<v Speaker 1>more mainstream than Dragon Age, so maybe it has a
<v Speaker 1>little bit more tailwind to ride on here, but it's
<v Speaker 1>obviously going to face a lot of the same problems.
<v Speaker 1>And I think that, you know, starting out, this really
<v Speaker 1>the the sprint of development to get this game finished.
<v Speaker 1>It's been in development for a long time, but they
<v Speaker 1>definitely have put it to the side while they were
<v Speaker 1>finishing up dragon Age. Starting up the sprint to get
<v Speaker 1>it finished with a we're rethinking the way BioWare works,
<v Speaker 1>it's got to be disheartening at that studio. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>My hope, Grub is that the audience out there that
<v Speaker 2>is more interested in space fantasy has been laying dormant
<v Speaker 2>because there haven't been too many games really really appeal
<v Speaker 2>to them. I mean, we have the outer Wilds Outer
<v Speaker 2>Wild's two coming out, but that doesn't scratch the same
<v Speaker 2>itch as a mass Effect game would.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it kind of like tries to like play in
<v Speaker 1>that space a little bit. Outer Roles one, did You're right,
<v Speaker 1>it's not it's not mass Effect.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, it is in mass Effect, and I'm kind
<v Speaker 2>of hankering for more Mass Effect grub. I'm not one
<v Speaker 2>hundred percent sure how how strong the brand named of
<v Speaker 2>mass Effect is with like the general gaming populace, but
<v Speaker 2>like maybe seeing like a space squad shooter single player
<v Speaker 2>epic could could do well. I hope that they lean
<v Speaker 2>into the strengths of mass Effect, partially being the relationships
<v Speaker 2>that you build with your crew. I hope that continues
<v Speaker 2>to be a focus, because if they try and I
<v Speaker 2>don't know, grub stuff, some games as the service stuff,
<v Speaker 2>some multiplayer stuff that doesn't quite need to be there,
<v Speaker 2>it's just gonna it's just gonna tank.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, just give me, just give me nothing but rexes. Yeah, oops,
<v Speaker 1>all rexes for sure. Yeah. People are pointing out and
<v Speaker 1>this is right. The legendary edition did do very well.
<v Speaker 1>That collection of Mass Effect remasters really did pop off.
<v Speaker 1>You know, whether that is a large you know, a
<v Speaker 1>cohort of Mass Effect fans showing up for it. That
<v Speaker 1>seemed to be mostly the case, but it turns out,
<v Speaker 1>you know, the Mass Effect was in a lot of
<v Speaker 1>ways the zenith of video game culture, like being able
<v Speaker 1>to like kind of wrap itself into pop culture where
<v Speaker 1>it's like, hey, this is our generations Star Wars actually
<v Speaker 1>in some ways where we're you know, we feel like
<v Speaker 1>that can happen entirely within video games. And you know,
<v Speaker 1>that was didn't really reach its full potential, but it
<v Speaker 1>definitely was playing and it was playing in that space,
<v Speaker 1>and so I think that we probably won't be able
<v Speaker 1>to recapture that feeling in that magic with a Mass
<v Speaker 1>Effect five kind of lumbering towards the finish line here,
<v Speaker 1>but it's still it still carries some of that cachet.
<v Speaker 1>So I think there's a chance this could be a
<v Speaker 1>very popular game. But whether it is the blockbuster release, like,
<v Speaker 1>I don't I don't even know. How do you manifest
<v Speaker 1>how do you manufacture one of these blockbuster releases these
<v Speaker 1>days to make people feel like they have to play
<v Speaker 1>it and have to care. I don't know. It really
<v Speaker 1>seems like we are a long way away from that world.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, my maybe the solace grub is that because this
<v Speaker 2>game is still so far away, maybe gaming tastes at that. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>will kind of circle back to really hankering for what
<v Speaker 2>Mass Effect five may be able to deliver to folks
<v Speaker 2>at home. That being said, I have been having to
<v Speaker 2>go down to the San Francisco office quite a bit
<v Speaker 2>this in last week, and I did see one and
<v Speaker 2>seven hoodie grub.
<v Speaker 1>So the people are out there. Yeah, I'm yes, exactly
<v Speaker 1>there is. It feels like it has the popularity of
<v Speaker 1>like the most popular fantasy novel series or something like that.
<v Speaker 1>Like right, like maybe actually a level above like the
<v Speaker 1>Wheel of Time or like a song by some fire
<v Speaker 1>before the shows came out, So it's like on a
<v Speaker 1>tier above that where it's like, yeah, people love this merch,
<v Speaker 1>they love these characters, and I think really just the
<v Speaker 1>question comes down to, like what kind of game are
<v Speaker 1>they going to put out for the fans here? Are
<v Speaker 1>they going to be able to deliver the thing that is,
<v Speaker 1>you know, the action based game that Mass Effect three
<v Speaker 1>was that maybe puts some of the character relationships and
<v Speaker 1>the decisions in the back seat just a tiny bit,
<v Speaker 1>or are they going to be able to find a
<v Speaker 1>balanced line, and really, how do they live in a
<v Speaker 1>post Balder's Gate three world? And you know, I don't
<v Speaker 1>think they make it exactly like Balder's Gate three, but
<v Speaker 1>you find the things that were in Mass Effect that
<v Speaker 1>worked really well that may that have like a similar
<v Speaker 1>sort of feeling where it's like, hey, I am making choices,
<v Speaker 1>and I am and I'm exploring things in my way
<v Speaker 1>to the point where it's like I am choosing a
<v Speaker 1>path through all this this labyrinthine maze of other choices
<v Speaker 1>and I'm ignoring a lot of stuff because that's not
<v Speaker 1>my story. And it's like, I think that that is
<v Speaker 1>where mass Effect is at its strongest, and they could
<v Speaker 1>easily make that game. I just as long as they
<v Speaker 1>avoid that the traps that all these major games have
<v Speaker 1>fallen recently, which maybe this is matter of necessity, but
<v Speaker 1>they just sort of rub off all the rough edges
<v Speaker 1>and just leave this very polished, clean looking, sterile thing.
<v Speaker 1>And I think it's got to be a little bit
<v Speaker 1>messier than that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we talked about this very briefly, I believe last week,
<v Speaker 2>how there was kind of a drought when it comes
<v Speaker 2>to Star Trek games. Yeah, so I'm it feels like
<v Speaker 2>an untapped market. I mean Star Wars Outlaws eventually did well,
<v Speaker 2>but that those gamers out there that are hankering for
<v Speaker 2>space exploration don't often have their needs met. That being said,
<v Speaker 2>if you are looking for space exploration, No Man's Sky
<v Speaker 2>dropped the millionth update for free out there, so that
<v Speaker 2>is an option, But No Man's Sky doesn't scratch that
<v Speaker 2>mass effect itch. Yeah, I never actually checked out Andromeda
<v Speaker 2>just because of like the poor reviews, and now I
<v Speaker 2>can't believe I'm saying this, but mass effect.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, drama, Yeah, yeah, I mean it's right there, he kinda.
<v Speaker 1>If the name works that easily were bylaw, by the
<v Speaker 1>bylaws of Giant bumb we have to play it.
<v Speaker 2>So and I have no idea the state of the
<v Speaker 2>game now how much it may have been improved since
<v Speaker 2>it's released. It's been quite a long time.
<v Speaker 1>Grow yeah, I mean it definitely they fixed up some
<v Speaker 1>of it, like it's it's not the trash fire it
<v Speaker 1>was at launch. I just my frustrations were I gotten
<v Speaker 1>the make out or whatever the whatever it was called
<v Speaker 1>the big space truck and I was supposed to drive
<v Speaker 1>up to the top of a space mountain and I
<v Speaker 1>couldn't find the path up, so it's just going in
<v Speaker 1>circles around this mountain as this waypoint was just like
<v Speaker 1>in I was orbiting this waypoint and I got so
<v Speaker 1>frustrated I never touched the game again. It was like,
<v Speaker 1>this is just stupid.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, do you think Grub that there may be elements
<v Speaker 2>of previous buyer or games that they could potentially rework
<v Speaker 2>to fit into a mass effect five. I know that
<v Speaker 2>we joke around a lot about Anthem, but there are
<v Speaker 2>parts of Anthem that were interesting.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean I think that. Yeah, I think you
<v Speaker 1>have one of the classes that maybe is an aerial class. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>for sure. I think. You know, the action of Massive
<v Speaker 1>Factory really was very good. And then that that, you know,
<v Speaker 1>the flying around and Anthem, some of the action there
<v Speaker 1>was also very good. I think. I just I think
<v Speaker 1>it just turns out if you are in action games
<v Speaker 1>these these days, that's only going to carry you so far,
<v Speaker 1>because even like you know, from soft games, a lot
<v Speaker 1>of it comes down to the adventure element of you know,
<v Speaker 1>exploring the world or learning the lore and figuring out
<v Speaker 1>or the action is so refined that people like will
<v Speaker 1>remember these boss fights forever. That's never going to be
<v Speaker 1>the games that buywears making. They're very good action games,
<v Speaker 1>but they're not like up there in the top top
<v Speaker 1>top tier of action games, So you kind of just
<v Speaker 1>can't build a whole game around shooting stuff for forty hours.
<v Speaker 1>If you're one of these games, you're gonna have to
<v Speaker 1>get in there and find the real heart that people
<v Speaker 1>are searching for, and that's going to have to be
<v Speaker 1>something different. All right, let's move along here. People are
<v Speaker 1>selling non transferable Switch to Experience tickets on eBay. This
<v Speaker 1>is from Georgiang at GameSpot. Nintendo is holding the Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>Switch to Experience beginning in April, where people can get
<v Speaker 1>hands on time with the upcoming system. Fans were required
<v Speaker 1>to register for tickets and participants were randomly selected. Now
<v Speaker 1>that the tickets went out earlier this week, some winners
<v Speaker 1>have been putting them up for sale on eBay. The
<v Speaker 1>issue is that these tickets are non transferable, meaning that
<v Speaker 1>whoever buys it from the reseller won't be able to
<v Speaker 1>get into the event. On Nintendo's FAQ page, one of
<v Speaker 1>the questions was whether the ticket can be given to
<v Speaker 1>someone else in the so clearly states to no. Event
<v Speaker 1>tickets are non transferable and one time use. Only one
<v Speaker 1>supposed ticket for the event in Milan was put up
<v Speaker 1>for sale, but the listing is no longer there. There's
<v Speaker 1>another listing for a Dallas ticket that is starting at
<v Speaker 1>a bit of forty dollars, but it has since also
<v Speaker 1>been taken down. Some are going for as high as
<v Speaker 1>three hundred dollars, such as a listing for the event
<v Speaker 1>in New York. I guess we're not really sure, like
<v Speaker 1>how they are going to give us like the QR
<v Speaker 1>codes for excuse me, for these events. It's possible that
<v Speaker 1>it's like a static QR code in an email and
<v Speaker 1>then I bet you probably will be able to get in.
<v Speaker 1>But if it's you know, fully tied to your Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>Switch Online account, where like you have to log into
<v Speaker 1>your Nintendo Switch Online account on your phone and it's
<v Speaker 1>one of those rotating QR codes like that is you're
<v Speaker 1>not going to be able to transfer that. That is
<v Speaker 1>just not going to work. You're not gonna be able
<v Speaker 1>to figure that out unless you give someone else your
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo Switch Online account, which I guess you could do,
<v Speaker 1>but is that really worth it to you? For fifty dollars,
<v Speaker 1>probably not, So this is a weird situation. But and
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo is telling people, hey, if you didn't get in,
<v Speaker 1>put you put your name on the wait list because
<v Speaker 1>all these people that aren't gonna be able to get
<v Speaker 1>in and can't sell their tickets, well, don't worry. We'll
<v Speaker 1>open up some spaces later and maybe you'll still be
<v Speaker 1>able to come and check it out. So it's weird.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, any anyone that does this go get bent. This
<v Speaker 2>is already a problem with concert tickets of people buying
<v Speaker 2>tickets outside of their region to try and scalp after
<v Speaker 2>the fact. This is supposed to be a free event
<v Speaker 2>for people. Don't don't be a don't be a dork.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's just a kind of a boneheaded move. Of course.
<v Speaker 1>Of course, this is like where things are at with
<v Speaker 1>like the switch to overall right now where we've the
<v Speaker 1>thing's been announced and now it's all about like pricing
<v Speaker 1>in pre orders and getting a chance to touch the device.
<v Speaker 1>You know, the people have been selling the pre orders
<v Speaker 1>they are getting from some like European retailers that have
<v Speaker 1>put it up and they're selling it for a thousand dollars.
<v Speaker 1>And I think there's been at least a couple of
<v Speaker 1>those thousand dollars listings that have sold on eBay. Like,
<v Speaker 1>if you actually go check the history there, it doesn't
<v Speaker 1>just say closed, it says sold, So like a transaction
<v Speaker 1>of one thousand dollars actually happened. It is. It's weird
<v Speaker 1>out there. That's what always happens. It's going to continue
<v Speaker 1>to be very odd until people know exactly how this
<v Speaker 1>is going to go down with when it comes to selling,
<v Speaker 1>the selling and buying the console, and that has clearly
<v Speaker 1>even transferred over to the switch to experience. Yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>would have loved to go on to one of these
<v Speaker 1>jan But also I'm at a point where it's like, God,
<v Speaker 1>if this thing comes out in May, we're gonna we're
<v Speaker 1>gonna be there in January. Is already over? Like that is? Yeah? Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I mean for as for as many decades as it
<v Speaker 1>happened in January, it's already over.
<v Speaker 2>At the same time, Yeah, for as many unprecedented times
<v Speaker 2>as we've already got through in January alone, in.
<v Speaker 1>January alone, and it's only Thursday today.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Jesus, the whole lifetime can happen from now until
<v Speaker 2>tomorrow's episode of Game NICKI and I tried entering for
<v Speaker 2>different time slots in the LA event and both of
<v Speaker 2>us got rejected. But it's no skin off my nose.
<v Speaker 2>We will eventually see it. I'm assuming there will hopefully
<v Speaker 2>be a press event.
<v Speaker 1>There's almost going to be a press event in SF
<v Speaker 1>and that yes that you guys will you go you
<v Speaker 1>all will go to So yeah, and you.
<v Speaker 2>Know, uh, Packs East is in May of this year,
<v Speaker 2>and plan that window is for the Switch to releasing.
<v Speaker 2>I'm assuming there will be some Nintendo presence at Packs East.
<v Speaker 1>I know that usually have a pro.
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo had that little whole section at Packs West, but
<v Speaker 2>maybe that.
<v Speaker 1>They're basically maybe that made more sense. But you know,
<v Speaker 1>you're right, Switch to coming out and they do often
<v Speaker 1>do things that Packs and Packs East, so yeah, they
<v Speaker 1>could easily be there. You're right, good point. Uh, all right,
<v Speaker 1>let's just keep it moving here. Hilariously blatant Mario Ker's
<v Speaker 1>Ripoff is now on Xbox. This is from Blair Marnell
<v Speaker 1>at game Spot. The video game industry has plenty of
<v Speaker 1>titles that look like they were gently lifted from some
<v Speaker 1>other game that came before them, but few were as
<v Speaker 1>quite as blatant about it. As Mario Strow Striker's Soccer League,
<v Speaker 1>a recent arrival on Xbox Marketplace. It could be charitably
<v Speaker 1>called an homage to Mario Striker's Battle League, but it's
<v Speaker 1>unlikely that Nintendo will let that go without a response
<v Speaker 1>via Nintendo Life Light Games within extra s So Late
<v Speaker 1>Games is the publisher of Mario Strow Striker's Soccer League,
<v Speaker 1>which was released January tenth on Xbox Marketplace. The description
<v Speaker 1>of the game adds some unexpected humor toive listing because
<v Speaker 1>someone seemingly forgot to put the actual name of the
<v Speaker 1>game in the opening paragraph and never bothered to fix
<v Speaker 1>the mistake. Here's how it reads. Dive into the thrilling
<v Speaker 1>world of arcade style soccer with parenthetical your game name here,
<v Speaker 1>experience the excitement of four by four matches where every
<v Speaker 1>player counts, every player counts. Finally a game where every
<v Speaker 1>player count and with this political climate, I'm glad to
<v Speaker 1>finally be included. I'll tell you where I'm at. I
<v Speaker 1>want to play this game so bad. I actually was like,
<v Speaker 1>so the the cover art is just like knockoff mark,
<v Speaker 1>Like it's so obviously Mario, but he's just like a
<v Speaker 1>little bit skinnier and taller, and I think he might
<v Speaker 1>be wearing a beanie instead of a Mario hat. But yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 1>but he it's like so clearly just the cover of
<v Speaker 1>Mario Strikers. But I looked at it. I can't find
<v Speaker 1>gameplay of this thing anywhere. I'm like, I'm gonna as
<v Speaker 1>sou as we're done here, I'm gonna go download this
<v Speaker 1>on the Xbox and try it out for myself to
<v Speaker 1>see what it looks like. I don't know how much
<v Speaker 1>the game itself is like exactly Mario Strikers.
<v Speaker 2>This game is currently three ninety nine folks at home
<v Speaker 2>on the Xbox Store.
<v Speaker 1>I am all for this, Yes, me too. I love
<v Speaker 1>this bullshit. This is okay, boy, it looks it's like
<v Speaker 1>what if someone at the gameplay itself and this is
<v Speaker 1>from the Xbox Store. Thank you Marino for putting this
<v Speaker 1>in chat. It looks like if someone ripped off in
<v Speaker 1>terms of gameplay, ripped off a backyard soccer from like
<v Speaker 1>two thousand. Yeah yeah, so oh boy, that is very
<v Speaker 1>very good.
<v Speaker 2>The okay, it is one thing to have your cover
<v Speaker 2>athlete be a tall, stretched out Mario.
<v Speaker 3>He looks like if Waalauigi got his life together. That's
<v Speaker 3>a terrifying concept. Listen, folks, we can all do it.
<v Speaker 3>It's a new Year's resolution, not a new month. But
<v Speaker 3>to call it mariostro strikers, What are we doing?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's probably gonna get you in a little bit
<v Speaker 1>of trouble, but maybe not because Nintendo loses legal battle
<v Speaker 1>with an unexpected Super Mario. This is from Blair Marnell,
<v Speaker 1>a game spot. When it comes to court battles, very
<v Speaker 1>few individuals would want to be on the opposite side
<v Speaker 1>of Nintendo. The video game company famously defeated Universal Pitchers
<v Speaker 1>in a Donkey Kong related case four decades ago, and
<v Speaker 1>it's rarely lost a high profile case. But now there's
<v Speaker 1>at least one man who can claim a legal victory
<v Speaker 1>over Nintendo, Don Mario, well, sort of. As reported by Eurogamer,
<v Speaker 1>Don Mario is the owner of Super Mario, a local
<v Speaker 1>supermarket in San Ramon, Costa Rica. Nintendo seemingly left the
<v Speaker 1>Super Mario shop alone for years and only opposed the
<v Speaker 1>store's name when Don Mario had to renew the trademark
<v Speaker 1>with cost Costa Rica's trademark authority, the National Register. Apparently,
<v Speaker 1>according to the National Register. Apparently, one of the reasons
<v Speaker 1>why Don Mario and his son Charlito emerged victorious is
<v Speaker 1>that the supermarkets are among the few Super Mario trademarks
<v Speaker 1>that Nintendo never bothered to register. Thank you enormously to
<v Speaker 1>my legal advisor and accountant Jose Edgardo Jmenez Blanco, who
<v Speaker 1>took care of this registration and the subsequent fight for
<v Speaker 1>the right to a trademark, wrote Charlito Mario on Facebook.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, super Mario is you can have ad a
<v Speaker 1>market named Supermarket Mario in Costa Rica. I guess now
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo going after them. I get what, like people are
<v Speaker 1>gonna be like Nintendo, you don't just leave these people alone.
<v Speaker 1>Trademark is the weird one where it's not like copyright.
<v Speaker 1>Copyright is very well enshrined and protected and you don't
<v Speaker 1>really have to do anything. As long as you if
<v Speaker 1>you wrote the thing, it has immediate copyright protection, whether
<v Speaker 1>you register it or not. It just like, as long
<v Speaker 1>as you can prove you wrote the thing on a
<v Speaker 1>certain date and someone writes something that's exactly like that,
<v Speaker 1>after that you can sue them and you're probably gonna
<v Speaker 1>win because copyright protection very strong trademark protection. You have
<v Speaker 1>to like you use it, or you have to use
<v Speaker 1>it or you will lose it. Is basically the rule
<v Speaker 1>of thumb there where you have to actually enforce it
<v Speaker 1>or the trademark obviously goun be like, oh, you don't
<v Speaker 1>seem to care about this. You don't think there's actually
<v Speaker 1>gonna be market confused, and so clearly we're gonna let
<v Speaker 1>We're gonna create a wider space for more people to
<v Speaker 1>come and take over this. So Nintendo's lawyers are always
<v Speaker 1>going to be a more aggressive about trademark, and everybody's
<v Speaker 1>the lawyers are aggressive about trademark. That said, uh, you
<v Speaker 1>know they've been It's been the name of their store
<v Speaker 1>for a very long time. It is always weird when
<v Speaker 1>they actually come down hard and it's like hopefully Nintendo's like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>we lost, We'll just move on right right. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I I can't imagine grub that the Super Mario market
<v Speaker 2>is causing any type of confusion or drawing any people
<v Speaker 2>to think like oh, well they've gotta sell the switch
<v Speaker 2>to here, or that the Super Mario market is affecting
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo as.
<v Speaker 1>A whole at all. Yeah, definitely not. Also, may I.
<v Speaker 2>May I suggest instead of mister Grub, you start going
<v Speaker 2>as Don Grub.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I like that. Yeah, Hello, I'm Don Grub. Cool.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, coming down different, has a different nash to it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, kiss the ring there you go, everybody. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>people tell tell that to the patent trolls. Yeah, patents
<v Speaker 1>are different, and patent trolls are The patent trolls are
<v Speaker 1>very similar to copyright trolls, where some you know, retired
<v Speaker 1>lawyer will acquire a bunch of patents and or acquire
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of copyrights for like songs, and then they
<v Speaker 1>will make money just by threatening to sue people and
<v Speaker 1>then forcing them to settle. That happens all the time.
<v Speaker 1>Trademark again, a little bit different, A little bit, a
<v Speaker 1>little bit different, all right, Yeah, go ahead jam anything else.
<v Speaker 1>I just like there. There are so many rip off.
<v Speaker 2>Logos, food stall, food truck names everywhere. Grub we as
<v Speaker 2>as Giant Bomb could go after several though people have
<v Speaker 2>sent in, but it's like not worth it, Yeah, because
<v Speaker 2>there's not affecting us.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, no one really thinks that that's associated with us.
<v Speaker 1>What they think is, h oh, someone ripped off that logo. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>so yeah, you're right then, who cares? All right, let's
<v Speaker 1>take a quick break. When we come back. Xbox revenue
<v Speaker 1>came in. How many people have played Indiana Jones and
<v Speaker 1>Marvel Snapp got a new publisher. We'll talk about all
<v Speaker 1>of that right after this. All right, welcome back to
<v Speaker 1>gamebomb dot ru everybody. Let's get right into it. Xbox
<v Speaker 1>revenue fell seven percent in Q two, as hardware sales
<v Speaker 1>dropped to twenty nine percent. This is from Tom Ivan
<v Speaker 1>at BGC. Microsoft has reported a seven percent revenue declined
<v Speaker 1>for its gaming division during its second fiscal quarter. The
<v Speaker 1>division generated six point six billion dollars in revenue during
<v Speaker 1>the three months ended December thirty first, twenty twenty four,
<v Speaker 1>which was down five hundred and thirty million dollars a
<v Speaker 1>year over year. The decline was attributed to a twenty
<v Speaker 1>nine percent drop in Xbox hardware revenue, driven by a
<v Speaker 1>low lower volume of consoles sold during the quarter. Xbox
<v Speaker 1>content and services revenue increased two percent year of a year,
<v Speaker 1>fueled by growth of game Pass. Microsoft completed its acquisition
<v Speaker 1>of Activision Blizzard in October twenty twenty three, in the
<v Speaker 1>process taking ownership of franchises including Call of Duty, World
<v Speaker 1>of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch. That was followed by a
<v Speaker 1>significant rise in sales for its gaming division blah blah blah,
<v Speaker 1>and so yeah, mostly this is just in line with
<v Speaker 1>what we've been here for, like Matt Piscatella and from
<v Speaker 1>other regional sales figures that gaming content is you know,
<v Speaker 1>flat or close to flat, or just up slightly, maybe
<v Speaker 1>up a little bit more than they were expecting, but
<v Speaker 1>not enough to keep up with the rising cost of development.
<v Speaker 1>And then meanwhile, hardware is just has just created, especially
<v Speaker 1>for Xbox, although you know, I think PlayStation five sales
<v Speaker 1>are also down double digits percentage wise, down twenty nine
<v Speaker 1>percent though that's really a hefty number, and it really
<v Speaker 1>does kind of continue to shed a light on how
<v Speaker 1>Xbox is viewing hardware going forward, right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean, every news story talking about the future
<v Speaker 2>of Xbox when it comes to software has primarily been
<v Speaker 2>focused on software. That last developer direct from gosh was
<v Speaker 2>that last week grub or two weeks ago?
<v Speaker 1>Now, oh yeah it was, so, I think it was
<v Speaker 1>last week.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, no focus, no mention of any new hardware. They
<v Speaker 2>didn't even tease like an upcoming reskinned Xbox or anything.
<v Speaker 2>So I think it has been writing on the wall
<v Speaker 2>that Xbox as a whole is focusing less and less
<v Speaker 2>on hardware and pushing more for that software. Even during
<v Speaker 2>the Game Awards, some of those Xbox ads were that's
<v Speaker 2>an Xbox, that's an Xbox, that's an Xbox. Really not devaluing,
<v Speaker 2>but like de emphasizing the need for hardware. So it's
<v Speaker 2>not surprising. It is wild, though, to see it create
<v Speaker 2>that much by twenty nine percent and grub do you
<v Speaker 2>think we're just gonna start seeing cheaper Xboxes or some type.
<v Speaker 1>Of like half step console, well in your future No,
<v Speaker 1>I don't think we get a half step console. If anything.
<v Speaker 1>I think we get the new generation of Xbox in
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty six, the end of next year. I think
<v Speaker 1>they like they just kick off, They kick off the
<v Speaker 1>start of that thing sooner rather than later, so they
<v Speaker 1>could sort of refresh the feeling about it now, Like
<v Speaker 1>how do they present that, How do they get people
<v Speaker 1>to care? I don't know how much they care. I
<v Speaker 1>think they want to keep making Xbox hardware, but I
<v Speaker 1>don't think they are interested in winning people who aren't
<v Speaker 1>already interested. I think it'll be an option, and it'll
<v Speaker 1>be one option among many.
<v Speaker 2>If the PS five Pro or the base PS five
<v Speaker 2>and the PS five Pro are not selling like hotcakes,
<v Speaker 2>it just does not seem like a wise step to
<v Speaker 2>just start the new new generation of consoles this early,
<v Speaker 2>especially when we're finally seeing people and support for PS
<v Speaker 2>four games so we can finally start this new generation
<v Speaker 2>that we've been in for the past four or five years.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's it's an awkward transition or just an awkward
<v Speaker 1>proposition because as you point out, people just don't feel
<v Speaker 1>great about the investment they made in this generation. But
<v Speaker 1>I think that speaks to a lot of people are
<v Speaker 1>moving on from a console first mentality. Not everybody I
<v Speaker 1>know people will immediately come buy like, no, you say
<v Speaker 1>that all the time, but that's not how I feel,
<v Speaker 1>and I get that, and that's why they are going
<v Speaker 1>to continue making xboxes. They are, they will, and hopefully
<v Speaker 1>they continue making consoles in a way where it's like,
<v Speaker 1>let's think about positionings. Let's not be like, rely on
<v Speaker 1>the games to sell these things. And so if we
<v Speaker 1>can't rely on the games to sell these things because
<v Speaker 1>they're not exclusive, how do we get people to want
<v Speaker 1>to buy an Xbox, and I hope there's a team
<v Speaker 1>dedicated there to solving that and thinking about like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>let's make it a joy to use, Let's make it
<v Speaker 1>very easy to do everything. Let's make it super fast.
<v Speaker 1>Let's make it so it's like, once you plug this
<v Speaker 1>into your TV, maybe you do want to use it
<v Speaker 1>for Netflix and everything, because while that stuff's baked into
<v Speaker 1>your TV, actually it's even easier and faster and more responsive.
<v Speaker 1>Here to the point where it's actually hard to ignore.
<v Speaker 1>If they can like deliver on a lot of these
<v Speaker 1>just basic fundamental usability aspects of a console, these things
<v Speaker 1>could still justify themselves going forward. It's just not going
<v Speaker 1>to be the story where, hey, this is the only
<v Speaker 1>place to play Halo and that's why you have to
<v Speaker 1>have this box grub.
<v Speaker 2>Do you see a potential future for Xbox perhaps even
<v Speaker 2>PlayStation to just straight up rip off Nintendo's MO where
<v Speaker 2>maybe it is not the full console, but maybe it
<v Speaker 2>is like the lesser of the two consoles that Easin's
<v Speaker 2>Powerful doesn't have a disk drive but is a dockable
<v Speaker 2>slash portable system.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean I think that they are. You know,
<v Speaker 1>as Phil Spencer's talked about this recently. Again, he's done
<v Speaker 1>a lot of interviews. I think he's, like he said
<v Speaker 1>in one place, where they want to focus on making
<v Speaker 1>the next thing very innovative. What does that mean exactly?
<v Speaker 1>But I mean, I think they're gonna have to get
<v Speaker 1>creative with the form factor, and if that means creating
<v Speaker 1>something that is has some conveniences while cutting some other
<v Speaker 1>stuff that, I'm sure that's something that they are considering.
<v Speaker 1>But I don't know. I don't know. I don't know
<v Speaker 1>if you want to just have one box that is
<v Speaker 1>super capable and once people have it, they don't have
<v Speaker 1>any questions. It's just gonna do all the things, or
<v Speaker 1>if you want to have an option or a variety
<v Speaker 1>of options where it's like this thing can do this,
<v Speaker 1>but it doesn't do that as well. I don't know
<v Speaker 1>what the right answer there is. I just know I
<v Speaker 1>know at this point that I am not super interested
<v Speaker 1>in rushing out to get new consoles in general, honestly,
<v Speaker 1>Like you know, I didn't get the PS five Pro
<v Speaker 1>and that's you know, a little bit strange for me
<v Speaker 1>and I But the reality is I don't use my
<v Speaker 1>PS five or my xbox very much at all. I
<v Speaker 1>just find those to be rather cumbersome these days, and
<v Speaker 1>I just enjoy using the PC more. And then if
<v Speaker 1>I'm not using the PC, I'm using a handheld, whether
<v Speaker 1>that's the switch, the steam deck, the roger whatever.
<v Speaker 2>Phil, you may be listening, hear me out here, Phil,
<v Speaker 2>Big Philly Time, speaking about Big Philly Time. Intend to
<v Speaker 2>already failed me with this, Phil. Here's your opportunity to
<v Speaker 2>have your own game and watch. Phil, I don't need
<v Speaker 2>to say anymore. I don't want I don't want to
<v Speaker 2>people to steal your thunder. But perhaps this new Xbox has.
<v Speaker 1>A watch with it. Maybe that watch has electric diodes
<v Speaker 1>on the back that can shock you. Yeah, and you
<v Speaker 1>gotta do jumping Jackson to undo it. Oh Man dances
<v Speaker 1>he'll never wear that thing again, but he also won't
<v Speaker 1>send it to me. I want to try this thing,
<v Speaker 1>but he says he wants to keep it as a threat.
<v Speaker 1>And I'm like, well, you said you're never going to
<v Speaker 1>use it again, So now I got to get back
<v Speaker 1>of our league school expense my own I don't know
<v Speaker 1>that being said.
<v Speaker 2>When I saw Lucy last week Grub as she was
<v Speaker 2>going through her belongings at the office, she did find
<v Speaker 2>an unopened game scent, and then I was terrified.
<v Speaker 1>Oh no, oh no, all those should be destroyed. Please.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's well, you know, actually there was a
<v Speaker 1>little bit more here from Sati Nadella, and Nadella ran
<v Speaker 1>through the Xbox divisions quarterly highlights. We're focused on improving
<v Speaker 1>the profitability of the business in order to position it
<v Speaker 1>for long term growth driven by higher margin content and
<v Speaker 1>platform services, and we are delivering on this plan. Nadella claimed,
<v Speaker 1>Black Ops six enjoyed a record breaking launch Quarterer as
<v Speaker 1>At topped software sales on both Xbox and PlayStation. He
<v Speaker 1>also said Indiana Jones in the Great Circle did well,
<v Speaker 1>We'll get to that story next here. The profitability over
<v Speaker 1>everything else kind of seems to be, like, maybe that
<v Speaker 1>should be their focus. They've spent a lot of money,
<v Speaker 1>They've invested a lot an Xbox and in games, and
<v Speaker 1>trying to like boost up console sales above all else
<v Speaker 1>is probably just not wise in this moment, and instead
<v Speaker 1>of being like, well, what do we have and how
<v Speaker 1>can we make the most money with what we have,
<v Speaker 1>that seems to be what they're going for, and that
<v Speaker 1>would probably mean less and less of a focus on
<v Speaker 1>hardware so it's just like, this is the way it's
<v Speaker 1>going to be, and it's going to kind of keep
<v Speaker 1>heading this direction. And for people hoping that one day,
<v Speaker 1>you know, a company like Microsoft returns to the Xbox
<v Speaker 1>three sixty days doesn't seem to be in the cards.
<v Speaker 1>And really it just feels like the entire market has
<v Speaker 1>moved past that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Nikki has a good point. I feel like they
<v Speaker 2>could make more money if they made more cheaper games.
<v Speaker 2>I a wholeheartedly agree, but not Microsoft is not anywhere
<v Speaker 2>near that direction, which is unfortunate.
<v Speaker 1>I would love grub.
<v Speaker 2>I know that everyone was very skeptical when hit Man
<v Speaker 2>released and they said they would be doing episodic stuff.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think I wouldn't mind that with a new
<v Speaker 2>hate low.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I wonder if there's just it's like ways to
<v Speaker 1>I mean, ways to build these games where it's just
<v Speaker 1>so much more like affordable where yea, and maybe Halo's
<v Speaker 1>just one of these franchises where it's like, no, that's
<v Speaker 1>got to be competing at the high end in every
<v Speaker 1>way and that and that's not just like the quality
<v Speaker 1>of the content, but the quantity of the content. That's
<v Speaker 1>that was a big thing that held back infinite. So
<v Speaker 1>I just wonder if they'd be able to make that work.
<v Speaker 1>But clearly they could probably apply Nintendo's way of thinking
<v Speaker 1>to new things. But it's the problem is like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>Microsoft goes and tries to make their own Mario Party,
<v Speaker 1>and it's going to sell a million copies, right, It's
<v Speaker 1>not going to sell the twenty five million copies that
<v Speaker 1>they've sold across like the last two Mario parties. And
<v Speaker 1>really between the three Mario parties on Switch, they're at
<v Speaker 1>something insane like almost thirty five forty million copies or
<v Speaker 1>something like that. So and you know, compared like prey
<v Speaker 1>of the amount of those three Mario parties, they probably
<v Speaker 1>spent a fraction of the money making those as Microsoft's
<v Speaker 1>spent on any of it. It's big games across the board,
<v Speaker 1>and when Microsoft does have a smaller games, they're like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>it's forty dollars and they're little niche things to the side.
<v Speaker 1>And I love that to the point where it's like
<v Speaker 1>I'm in that niche usually, but they are not positioning them.
<v Speaker 1>And the way Nintendo does is like now you're gonna
<v Speaker 1>still go to pay up sixty dollars and we're gonna
<v Speaker 1>sell a lot of these. It's just a very different mindset. Listen,
<v Speaker 1>we joke around about this a lot.
<v Speaker 2>Our audience jokes around about this a lot. I, honest
<v Speaker 2>to god, think a new one versus one hundred would
<v Speaker 2>do very well.
<v Speaker 1>Grubb, I would. I would welcome it for sure. Uh. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>let's see here, let's keep going. Over four million people
<v Speaker 1>have played Indiana Jones in the Great Circle. Game did
<v Speaker 1>surprisingly well. That's you know, across game pass and the
<v Speaker 1>copies sold. This from Jonas Mackett Game Reactor. During the
<v Speaker 1>evening US time, Microsoft published its latest quarterly report, and
<v Speaker 1>I think Nadella confirmed this that it's sold four million copies,
<v Speaker 1>but it might have been in the documentation as well.
<v Speaker 1>I think that's great for that's great for the Fantastic Circle,
<v Speaker 1>as we say around here. I don't know if it's like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, the best sales results or you know, engagement results.
<v Speaker 1>You can look to something like a big exclusive on
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation or a big exclusive on switch that is of
<v Speaker 1>this caliber, and those can race to like eight million
<v Speaker 1>copies sold pretty quickly, so, you know. But it's exclusive
<v Speaker 1>right now to Xbox and Steam, and between those two
<v Speaker 1>platforms it seems like it did pretty well, and it's
<v Speaker 1>still come into PlayStation, so there's a chance for it
<v Speaker 1>to still pop off quite a bit more. But also
<v Speaker 1>this just feels like maybe a slow and steady result
<v Speaker 1>for this game, a slow and steady start where we're
<v Speaker 1>going to look back at some time be like, oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>think game just kept doing well because I had good
<v Speaker 1>word of mouth and sold for a very long time.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think that's a possibility here.
<v Speaker 2>I also think that the core PlayStation audience this type
<v Speaker 2>of game is right up their alley. They are looking
<v Speaker 2>for a single player triple A experience, and this is
<v Speaker 2>going to have a whole new injection of life as
<v Speaker 2>soon as it comes out on PS five.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. I think they'll be not worried about it at all,
<v Speaker 1>and they'll start at the marketing campaign again at that
<v Speaker 1>time as well.
<v Speaker 2>Right, yeah, yeah, this this game will have a Game
<v Speaker 2>of the Year edition come fall of this year.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, I mean honestly maybe. I mean, God, if
<v Speaker 1>they rush that thing out and have it to go
<v Speaker 1>alongside the PlayStation five release so it's on Xbox and
<v Speaker 1>Steam as well at that same time, could easily get
<v Speaker 1>a bump. Yeah. So yeah, we'll see more people should
<v Speaker 1>be playing it. There are like thirty million subscribers on
<v Speaker 1>game Pass. If you have game Pass, go play this game.
<v Speaker 1>It's pretty good. I have yet to check it out. Greb,
<v Speaker 1>it's a good time. All right, let's move along here.
<v Speaker 1>Marvel Snaps says it has a new publisher publisher to
<v Speaker 1>ensure TikTok shutdown never happens again. This comes from our boy,
<v Speaker 1>Chris Scullion over at VGC. The developer of Marvel Snaps
<v Speaker 1>says it's enlisted the help of a new publisher to
<v Speaker 1>make sure it's TikTok related shutdown doesn't repeat. Earlier this month,
<v Speaker 1>in the days leading up to Donald Trump's inauguration as
<v Speaker 1>US President, the Supreme Court decided to uphold a decision
<v Speaker 1>to ban TikTok nine oh decision it was weird. As
<v Speaker 1>a result, TikTok was taken offline in the US for
<v Speaker 1>a weekend, along with other apps owned bytes developer byte Dance,
<v Speaker 1>including Marvel Snap, which was published by Byte Dance is
<v Speaker 1>a game publishing label New Verse. After both TikTok and
<v Speaker 1>Marvel Snap were reinstated Second Dinner, the developer explained the
<v Speaker 1>outage and said that it was surprised and that it
<v Speaker 1>didn't know that that was planned, and it found to
<v Speaker 1>find a new partner. In a statement post on Twitter
<v Speaker 1>excuse me Today, the studio says this work is now underway,
<v Speaker 1>with publisher Skystone Games helping the process. A Marvel Snap
<v Speaker 1>game that makes a lot of money, probably was pretty
<v Speaker 1>easy to find a new publisher and probably one that
<v Speaker 1>would give it pretty good terms. So this is good news.
<v Speaker 1>Good The game should be protected from this stuff in
<v Speaker 1>the future, or maybe new bands will come along and
<v Speaker 1>it'll get shut down anyhow, who knows.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, grub, especially if the developers didn't know that this
<v Speaker 2>was going to happen. Yeah, yeah, we're all totally gonna
<v Speaker 2>be fine.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. That's It's just just a shocking thing, like to
<v Speaker 1>be in that situation where you're like, oh, yeah, well,
<v Speaker 1>I mean sure that's happened in the event by Dance,
<v Speaker 1>but this is a TikTok bang because of whatever's happening there.
<v Speaker 1>It's about the content from that app, so we shouldn't
<v Speaker 1>be fine, and just to find out when the game
<v Speaker 1>just doesn't work anymore. Honestly, I think I think they
<v Speaker 1>pointed this out on the next Lander podcast. I think
<v Speaker 1>that's where it was. That probably was a breach of
<v Speaker 1>contract to not inform the people running the game what
<v Speaker 1>was going to happen with their game as a result
<v Speaker 1>of something happened between you and the US government. That
<v Speaker 1>probably did breach the contract and free them up to
<v Speaker 1>find another partner. So I'm glad that they took advantage
<v Speaker 1>of that to take and take this opportunity to extract
<v Speaker 1>themselves from that situation. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Also, for I haven't played Marvel Snap in a very
<v Speaker 2>long time. That's something I have been able to put down.
<v Speaker 2>I still know people that are caught in the loop.
<v Speaker 2>Being down for however many.
<v Speaker 1>Days would incredibly mess with their revenue grub. Oh yes, absolutely.
<v Speaker 1>And it's the kind of thing where it's like, what,
<v Speaker 1>someone's not able to play for a couple of days
<v Speaker 1>and they just like maybe go find a new game,
<v Speaker 1>and it's like, oh man, that person that was in
<v Speaker 1>our ecosystem has left, and it's like, well, you know
<v Speaker 1>that stinks for you, but clearly that's going to hurt
<v Speaker 1>the studio. Okay, last story here. Capcom Spotlight plus Monster
<v Speaker 1>Hunter Wilds showcase set for September fourth. This is from
<v Speaker 1>sal Ramano a Kamatsu. Capcom will host a Capcom Spotlight
<v Speaker 1>broadcast followed directly by a Monster Hunter Wilds showcase on
<v Speaker 1>February fourth at two pm Pacific time five pm Eastern.
<v Speaker 1>This will show show up on YouTube in English and Japanese.
<v Speaker 1>The thirty five minute broadcast will feature back to back
<v Speaker 1>info about all that's coming from Capcom, including Monster Hunter Wilds,
<v Speaker 1>Annie Musho, Way of the Sword, Capcom Fighting Collection two
<v Speaker 1>and Marvel Versus Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics fall by
<v Speaker 1>further information on Monster Hunter Wilds with producer Ryosu Sushimoto,
<v Speaker 1>including the latest trailer and details about the second open
<v Speaker 1>beta test. So yeah, Capcom, you know it often has
<v Speaker 1>done it's its own thing here. I'm hoping maybe we
<v Speaker 1>get some surprises. Do you think there's a chance we
<v Speaker 1>get a little tidbit about Resident Evil at this showcase?
<v Speaker 1>Or is it too early still? I think it still
<v Speaker 1>might be too well, I don't know. I'm with you.
<v Speaker 1>I go back and forth. Yeah, I go back and forth.
<v Speaker 2>Grow because I feel like Monster Hunter Wild's is going
<v Speaker 2>to be their big show piece for this order, yes,
<v Speaker 2>and this is what they want to focus on, and
<v Speaker 2>I can't imagine they would want to perhaps steal Monster
<v Speaker 2>Hunter's thunder with a one more thing or even like
<v Speaker 2>a teaser for the new Resident Evil.
<v Speaker 1>You know, maybe maybe it's the teaser for a Resident
<v Speaker 1>Evil showcase later this year. Maybe they like say, hey,
<v Speaker 1>look out for that coming later this year.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but with where Capcom is currently at, I feel
<v Speaker 2>like you don't need to drop any teases because like,
<v Speaker 2>like there's such in a strong position as is that
<v Speaker 2>they can ride the wave from Monster Hunter Wilds perhaps
<v Speaker 2>to the spring or summer, and then that's when they
<v Speaker 2>can drop like, Yo, we're going to talk about Resident
<v Speaker 2>Evil now.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, you're right. People show up no matter like when
<v Speaker 1>they do it. They can command that audience, So you're
<v Speaker 1>definitely right. I think, you know, Resident Evil nine probably
<v Speaker 1>does get announced this year. I would. I think there's
<v Speaker 1>like a small chance it gets announced this like in
<v Speaker 1>the first half of this year and comes out holidays
<v Speaker 1>the holiday this year. But that's very aggressive. I recognize that,
<v Speaker 1>But you know, I think we're on a timeline where
<v Speaker 1>that is like within the spectrum of possibility, and then
<v Speaker 1>maybe more likely very early next year actually is when
<v Speaker 1>it comes out a March release February release for Resident
<v Speaker 1>Evil has worked very well before. Maybe they want to
<v Speaker 1>replicate that again. So either way, though, it means we're
<v Speaker 1>gonna be hearing about that game soon, probably just probably
<v Speaker 1>not here and then yeah, must Hunter Wilds. We'll get
<v Speaker 1>a good look at that before that game's coming out.
<v Speaker 1>Oh I'm so ready, Grub, I am so ready. I
<v Speaker 1>want to I colonize the hell out of this game.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, We're gonna gentrify, but the good kind the
<v Speaker 2>time where we win.
<v Speaker 1>I am.
<v Speaker 2>I know that Assassin's Creed shadows that core audience is
<v Speaker 2>a very different audience than those that core Monster Hunter audience. Yep,
<v Speaker 2>But I feel like with how popular Worlds was, wild
<v Speaker 2>is just gonna make it so much easier for everyone
<v Speaker 2>to jump in and start hunting with folks that man,
<v Speaker 2>Grub Thatt, Monster Hunter hype is going to last a
<v Speaker 2>very long time. So I kinda I'm worried for every
<v Speaker 2>game releasing in its wake.
<v Speaker 1>It is clearly like those two games might like represent
<v Speaker 1>both sides of the argument that we've been kind of
<v Speaker 1>like talking about the last few weeks on John Bomb,
<v Speaker 1>where it's like Assassin's Creed shadows a franchise that has
<v Speaker 1>been honed down to a fun like a very fine
<v Speaker 1>refinement over the last two decades, versus Monster Hunter, which is,
<v Speaker 1>you know, known for its complexity and its depth and
<v Speaker 1>letting people get lost to the point where every single
<v Speaker 1>one of the game releases, a Monster Hunter has dedicated,
<v Speaker 1>multiple dedicated content creators that just explain to you what
<v Speaker 1>every weapon does and every class and how to approach
<v Speaker 1>every enemy because all of it is so bespoke and specific,
<v Speaker 1>and people love that shit these days. They have always
<v Speaker 1>loved it. Again, that is I think the core of
<v Speaker 1>what Pokemon's success has been is they do that for
<v Speaker 1>kids and make kids feel empowered that they have this
<v Speaker 1>understanding of a world that they're the rest of the
<v Speaker 1>world doesn't get, their parents don't understand. And so it's
<v Speaker 1>like Monster Hunter is going to have this wave that
<v Speaker 1>builds and builds as people make it more and more
<v Speaker 1>part of their personality, and Assassin's Creed just won't doesn't
<v Speaker 1>have that. Like the way it replicates that is like
<v Speaker 1>get people to care about the lore, and boy, people
<v Speaker 1>don't care a shit about the law anymore because it's
<v Speaker 1>obvious Ubisoft didn't care about it. So yeah, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I think Assassine Screw Shadows could be a very good game.
<v Speaker 1>But if I had, if I was, like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>and if there was a betting market about which one
<v Speaker 1>of these things is gonna build a bigger audience over
<v Speaker 1>the following weeks after it comes out, Oh, it's an
<v Speaker 1>easy bet on Monster Hunter Wilds. Yeah. Also, folks that.
<v Speaker 2>Checked out and maybe Munster Hunter World was their first
<v Speaker 2>entry into the series. Those potentially could have been very
<v Speaker 2>younger gamers grub that are now older, and they may
<v Speaker 2>have just stayed as like a kind of like one
<v Speaker 2>to two maybe three games a year type of delio
<v Speaker 2>for them, right, and they have been hankering and hungry
<v Speaker 2>for more of that world, and Wilds is going to
<v Speaker 2>deliver that tenfold for them.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. Absolutely, And again I think Shadows is probably gonna
<v Speaker 1>do just fine. Uh yeah, it's probably gonna be just fine.
<v Speaker 1>But the way the wind is blowing wild is it's
<v Speaker 1>it's him. Yeah. Yeah, I am so upset I didn't
<v Speaker 1>get it in fantasy. Yeah yeah for real. Alright, let's
<v Speaker 1>see here, I am gonna get us to the poll question,
<v Speaker 1>but first let me get to get us to the
<v Speaker 1>poll question there. So I can bring it up for
<v Speaker 1>everybody there it is, frame it up proper. There we go,
<v Speaker 1>all right, have you played a local multiplayer game with
<v Speaker 1>another person on the PS five or Xbox Series X
<v Speaker 1>Slash S And forty nine percent of people have said yes,
<v Speaker 1>they have. Fifty one percent said now basically fifty to
<v Speaker 1>fifty right down the middle. I have done this with
<v Speaker 1>my kids, definitely. I mean, you know, honestly, might have
<v Speaker 1>done it with some human beings here or there over
<v Speaker 1>the last five six years, might be forgetting, but I've
<v Speaker 1>done it relatively frequently with the kids. So like when
<v Speaker 1>I I brought this up because they're adding local split
<v Speaker 1>screen back into Boulderskate three on Xbox Series S, and
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, well, you know, this is a very common feature,
<v Speaker 1>you know, I bet you know. If it's like one
<v Speaker 1>in even fifteen or one in ten, I guess that's
<v Speaker 1>quite a few people who end up doing that actually,
<v Speaker 1>So having this feature is an option, fantastic, really cool,
<v Speaker 1>and it turns out a lot of people do enjoy
<v Speaker 1>playing games this way.
<v Speaker 2>Still, I can't say that I've done it in this
<v Speaker 2>current console generation, but generations previous one hundred percent. So
<v Speaker 2>to see this a live and well for folks that
<v Speaker 2>want that option by all means.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean god for in sixty four, For me,
<v Speaker 1>the reason I have such a fondness for a big
<v Speaker 1>part of that was that was the local multiplayer system
<v Speaker 1>and I would have friends over constantly to my parents' house.
<v Speaker 1>We were just playing games NonStop through high school, through
<v Speaker 1>junior high and high school, and it's like, God, that
<v Speaker 1>was a great way to experience that console. And like
<v Speaker 1>you could just tell the people that weren't playing it
<v Speaker 1>that way do not have any fondness for that system
<v Speaker 1>at all. And I'm like, I get it, I understand
<v Speaker 1>new Pool question. We get to it here in a second.
<v Speaker 1>Before we do that, Jan anything to say.
<v Speaker 2>Oh I played so much Halo three split screen for sure, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>rub so much three?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and here's a are five. Yeah. There were like
<v Speaker 1>certain games where it's like, oh, yeah, this is really
<v Speaker 1>a really fun thing to do, where I would pop
<v Speaker 1>back in and do that after that, but it was
<v Speaker 1>never quite the same after in sixty four, where it
<v Speaker 1>was like this is clearly just what you do. Even
<v Speaker 1>the GameCube like had a lot of that, but really
<v Speaker 1>part of that, it's just in sixty four didn't have
<v Speaker 1>a lot of other options because its library was relatively limited. Okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>like I said, new Pool question a second. First, let's
<v Speaker 1>figure out what we're doing on Giant Bomb jan It's Thursday.
<v Speaker 1>That means voicemail, dump truck.
<v Speaker 2>Right, that means voicemail, dump truck, grub, on top of
<v Speaker 2>some other internal jazz we got to go take care of.
<v Speaker 2>But tomorrow we will be having Game Mess Mornings our
<v Speaker 2>episode of BCR. We will finally be crowning the winner
<v Speaker 2>of Best Music of twenty twenty four Best Video Game Music. Hey,
<v Speaker 2>maybe we'll also crown Best Music of twenty twenty four
<v Speaker 2>as well. But also we will be doing ORCS must Friday. Perhaps, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that's a good one. That's a good one, and yeah, grub.
<v Speaker 2>The week is already flown by.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, it's really really, really just absolutely zapped away, just
<v Speaker 1>like the entire month. Ass Again, I recognize that it
<v Speaker 1>can feel very long when you think about all the
<v Speaker 1>things that happened, but it is happening at such a
<v Speaker 1>rapid pace that it's actually difficult to keep track of it.
<v Speaker 1>I saw something like a headline last night. I'm like, wait,
<v Speaker 1>did this really happen? And I'm like, oh wait, I
<v Speaker 1>don't know if I can believe my eyes anymore. And
<v Speaker 1>I was like, should I go search for this? I
<v Speaker 1>don't know if I trust the search results anymore? Oh
<v Speaker 1>my god? What is true? And that gave me a
<v Speaker 1>little bit of an existential existential death spin last night
<v Speaker 1>that I didn't feel super great about jan So.
<v Speaker 2>It's rough out there, but yeah, yeah, it's rough out there.
<v Speaker 2>But for folks that it's especially rough out there, we
<v Speaker 2>will continue to try to make this a safe and
<v Speaker 2>welcoming corner of the Internet.
<v Speaker 1>We'll do our part home.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, unless you need to be punched in the
<v Speaker 2>face for reasons, we love you and y'all are home here.
<v Speaker 1>That's right, real quick. Yes, the Video Game History Foundation
<v Speaker 1>did launch their digital library today. I've used this thing
<v Speaker 1>in the past. I used a beta version of it,
<v Speaker 1>and it is very well done. But the thing they
<v Speaker 1>launched today is like they're huge backup where they scanned
<v Speaker 1>all of these video game magazines because they would have
<v Speaker 1>people send the video game magazines and they were just
<v Speaker 1>put page by page into a really high quality scanner.
<v Speaker 1>And they have for example, like trying to Game Me
<v Speaker 1>Monthly Fall nineteen eighty six through fall twenty fifteen, like
<v Speaker 1>every issue game, Pro Game, Fan, Game Informer, Multimedia World,
<v Speaker 1>Next Next Gen Magazine, the Official Sega Dreamcast magazine. There
<v Speaker 1>are thirty three magazines in this library, and then you
<v Speaker 1>know publications and then huge vests the libraries of those.
<v Speaker 1>I love this stuff. They did a very good job.
<v Speaker 1>The site has been going up and down a little
<v Speaker 1>bit since they've launched because there's a lot of interest.
<v Speaker 1>But this is going to do awesome things for research
<v Speaker 1>for video game history because there's gonna like every time
<v Speaker 1>I go back and read an old magazine. I mean
<v Speaker 1>I subscribe to their thing where I donate like twenty
<v Speaker 1>five bucks a month and each month they send me
<v Speaker 1>an old video game magazine and time every time I
<v Speaker 1>go through one of these things, I'm learning something or
<v Speaker 1>I'm discovering a game, and a lot of times it's
<v Speaker 1>bad games that people have completely forgot about them, like
<v Speaker 1>that putting that in the Blake Club like memory bank.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna write this down because no one's heard of
<v Speaker 1>this thing, and it's important that we go back and
<v Speaker 1>look at this. So, yeah, a lot of important history here.
<v Speaker 1>So check out Video Game History Foundation and there's a
<v Speaker 1>big donate button on their site. Hit there. Help them out.
<v Speaker 1>They're doing good work. There grab some breaking news in
<v Speaker 1>the chat. Please.
<v Speaker 2>Summer Game Fest has announced is twenty twenty five event
<v Speaker 2>dates and plans. The showcase will happen Friday, June six,
<v Speaker 2>then play days will run from June seventh to June ninth.
<v Speaker 1>See all for GB at night, everybody look out for it. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>we'll be there. We'll have a good time. We'll have
<v Speaker 1>some coverage from Summer Games. So okay, cool, that's great.
<v Speaker 1>That's good to know because my wife was just asking
<v Speaker 1>me about dates because she's got a bunch of travel
<v Speaker 1>happening in June. So I'll be able to figure that
<v Speaker 1>out now and be able to make sure I'm going
<v Speaker 1>to be there. Y yeah, yeah, the gimmicks can come.
<v Speaker 1>I'll get the mother in law to come help out,
<v Speaker 1>and then stuff can go to her work while the
<v Speaker 1>gimmicks run around and bother Jeff Keely, Oh, that's actually
<v Speaker 1>a really good idea. That's adorable. God, good stuff. New
<v Speaker 1>Pole question. Did I say this? Have you played Indiana
<v Speaker 1>Jones and The Great Circle? Yes and no. That's your
<v Speaker 1>poll question for today. You can go to YouTube dot
<v Speaker 1>com slash at giant Bomb the community tab vote there
<v Speaker 1>get the results on tomorrow's show on Game This morning's
<v Speaker 1>here on Giant Bomb speaking a Giant Bomb. We will
<v Speaker 1>see you later for voicemail, dump truck, pop off something
<v Speaker 1>before then, but like Chance said, we have some other
<v Speaker 1>stuff we got to take care of, so we'll do
<v Speaker 1>our best in the meantime. Jan thank you so much
<v Speaker 1>for hanging out with me today and talking about video games. Man,
<v Speaker 1>I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 2>It's the only way to start a Thursday, Happy Lunar
<v Speaker 2>New Year to those.
<v Speaker 1>That celebrate yep, happy happy Ellen. Why everybody, take care
<v Speaker 1>of yourself happy, You're the snake. Thank you all for listening,
<v Speaker 1>Thank you all for watching. You are the best audience
<v Speaker 1>in gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take
<v Speaker 1>care of yourself and goodbye,