Game Mess Mornings 07/07/22

You mean a dummy bit. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do
this for June. No, we're on July July seven, twenty twenty two,
for the next hour, So let me help you start through the world
of gaming on Game Mess Mornings Live with me Jeff Grub Today, erotic role
players have formed a human wall in Final Fantasy fourteen and that's my kink now.
But first, please join me and welcome me today's co host to Game
Mess Mornings. It's Jano Choo from Giant Bomb. Everybody, hooray, it's
me. I'm ready to put myself on billboards with the horny anime Final Fantasy
people. Put me on the board. You've always been ready for that,
admitted jan You've always been ready for this. God ever since I saw FF
twelve on some magazine cover, I knew it was my time. I finally
found my people. It's uh, but you were you were right, Like
honestly, I think it was just it was just a matter of time time,
you know, it was there and it was unlocked within you. Yeah,
it was cowboys, bunny ladies, that's all. It took a little
bit of a little billboard somewhere went up and you're like, all right,
time to let my billboard freak flag fly. Oh god, you think it's
cheaper to get like one of those electronic billboards like time on those than a
printed billboard. I you know, I would assume, So I bet,
like like the bidding on, well, maybe it's easier to bid, so
maybe there's more competition, so maybe maybe it's a little bit higher because I
would assume, like for an electronic billboard, you just go to a website
and you're bidding, just like a Google ad Sense sort of thing, right,
and it's probably just super easy to get in there, like putting an
ad on a cable news channel at three am, but which you know,
we should do both these things. We should put a cable news channel for
John Bomb on like a three am, and then we should get TV,
yeah, and then a blue board team exactly, and then a digital billboard
for sure. Honestly, this this that's all I've been thinking abo since that
story yesterday about the bands fourteen bill bar. I'm man, we should be
getting a billboard, all right. Before we get into the mess, let's
explain ourselves and what we do on this show each weekday. I Jeff grab
will help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news, the
ketchup, where we discuss the biggest topics consuming the lives of gamers everywhere,
and maybe even bring some of our own original reporting. For all these topics,
I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who will join to make
me look smart. But you're joined by me today, Oh sorry, grub,
I would have it no other way. If you are watching live on
Twitch, welcome. You can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds
by searching for Game Mess Mornings, or find the RSS on giant bomb dot
com. You can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube.
If you are watching on there, please get that like button. Do
the thing. The juice, the algorithm, Juice al We've always said this,
Juice al. Yeah, doesn't any everyone wanted Juice down, Cheetle,
Delicious, Algae, Rhythm Juice. Come on, make it happen, everybody.
Okay, we have a lot to get into. Actually, the list
of the list of news kept getting longer and longer as we got closer and
close to the show. So let's start the Morning Mess with packs organizer read
pop Man I just realized that I'd copy and paste this from VGC Andy Robinson
or VGC and he used organizer with an S and it makes me infuriated.
Packs Organizer read Pop is officially taking over E three, will reshape what didn't
work is like the quote in the headline there, the veteran events company pledges
to create a new benchmark for video game expos. Read Pop, the events
company behind pas EGX, Star Wars Celebration and New York Comic com, will
officially take over the running of E three in twenty twenty three. The Entertainment
Software Association announced the news on Thursday, following recent confirmation that the flagship show
will return in twenty twenty three for it's first in person event in four years.
Commenting on the news, read Pops set E three twenty twenty three would
welcome back publishers, developers, journalists, content creators, manufacturers, buyers,
and licensers. I'm glad they got the licensers in there. That's what's important
to me, thank god. And they also highlight the digital showcase and will
feature in person consumer components. It claimed it had license listen to feedback from
the gaming community and would honor what always worked about the games industry event while
reshaping what didn't. I got some other quotes here, but I mean generally,
just like take your temperature. Where are you at with the idea of
a paxified E three I don't and I don't mean this to come off as
as gate keeper here, but I don't, right, I don't think the
public should be let in. Yeah, I mean for the whole thing.
Yeah, I think maybe there should be. There could be public days.
I think that would be the right way of doing this. But it's it's
just it's a clash of purposes, right. Uh. There's a certain audience
that was always there at E three two. Get business done to TCB take
care of business, and they are going to encounter Uh that's the problems that
we're already here there with that where it's like getting around take some time,
and there are lines. Even when you are there for business, getting from
one meaning to the other is a pain. Yeah, those those problems are
going to be exacerbated, and we're exasperate exacerbated when you have the public in
there and okay we get to go and you know, see video games in
person. We're not really complaining I'm just saying that it is still it's styles
clashing. And then on the other side, you have people coming in from
the public looking to be entertained, who have paid their own money to shack
up an hotel to travel there and then for entrance, and that's going it's
not going to be cheap. And the entertainment that they were they were getting
was mostly waiting in line to play a game that was made for the press
for ten to fifteen minutes. It's not a great experience. Now they have
figured this out with packs. Packs is a really well put together has been
for forever now. It is, so I could see where where they try
to make that happen. But I think you're right where we should have like
no press days, you know business days, not just press days, but
like business days where people are able to have their meetings and whatever, do
their secret e three and you know, come up with the next big game
idea and execute on it, and then public days. I think that's the
right way to pull this off. Yeah, I definitely think. I definitely
think we need a division of days that are just for press and the industry
because watching folks miserably wait in line to watch a trailer. Yeah, that
one E three was gosh, it just it just seems like a bad look
across the board. But the poke the folks at at packs running packs,
I feel like they can figure it out to perhaps spread it out. The
thing that I'm scared of is that this perhaps creates a longer event where there
are more days for press, yeah, and then even more days for the
public. Not that we as an outlet would need to necessarily stay there during
all of the public days. But I could just see it. It's already
it feels like it is already a week long work thing. I could just
see it stretching out into a two week work thing. It was already spreading
out a little bit, you know. In the twenty nineteen was that the
last year. Yeah, in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen,
things were spreading out more and more like into the week before, and it
was becoming like a two week long thing. If you wanted to get there
two weeks or a week a full week ahead of time, you would have
had stuff to do for work. And again never really complaining about any of
that stuff. It is going to do mostly fun things, and when it
is like this like sprint of doing a lot of work and a very short
amount of time. It is still mostly a privilege that we got to do
these things. It's just I still think it's not ideal for the people who
would be paying to like try to let glom onto that experience. You need
to separate a little bit. Do you think this opens up like the like
if they do live press conferences again, do they have open it up to
the public where you can go in and watch these press conferences and they aren't
just pre taped anymore. I think that there's a world where the in person
experience makes more sense if the public is there, because I think one of
the main reasons, the main reason they stopped doing in person events in person
like announcement media blitzes, is because it was costly. But then another reason
is you would invite a bunch of press and then you'd have half the audience
just kind of sitting there taking notes and not applauding and not being excited,
and so there would be the smattering. So then companies started bringing in the
public, or they would bring in you know, developers, and they would
all be cheering their own games and stuff and they're like, this is this
is weird? Why why are we doing this? Trying to force this.
But if you have an audience that is like there to be partaking in the
excitement, then you have an audience that you can bring in and do in
person in person media blitzes. But I still think that these presentations mostly won't
happen because they are so much easier to just produce ahead of time play.
Most people are going to watch them on YouTube. You play to that,
and you could still make them like slick with really cool and presentation, and
it doesn't matter whether the audience is excited or not, so you can kind
of just fake that stuff. The thing sorry, go ahead, grib I
was just gonna read a quote. No, you finish up your thought first.
The thing I'm happy about is that I know that the av industry and
the video industry as a whole really suffered because of the pandemic. That because
these big trade shows are able to come back, or something like E three
is on its way back, that those companies can can open back up or
at least start hiring again. Because geez, like, I had a lot
of friends that work these trade shows, and they definitely suffered throughout the pandemic
and some of them had to leave that industry because of it. Yeah,
and I think that, you know, it's not just like you know,
Triple Point and stuff like that, people that events companies that would hire people
for a couple of weeks to come work booths and stuff. You know that
that just went away. And that's probably a lot of like working you know,
attempting to work at actors who are looking for stuff to make some money
in places like LA. I mean that that's you know, big chunk of
change that they're now going to be missing out on. So anything the sort
of boost up that existing industry, there's you know, I'm all four of
that that that's great. And I think that booth babes and booth boys,
it's exactly boo booth humans. I think we did split the difference there.
Just bring us booth humans and I think we'll be okay. They didn't always
still have people work in their booth. They just let them wear your normal
human clothes. So it was like, yeah, I was like, okay,
this is the right way to do this. I think that this is
also sort of the only path forward for the ESA. This was the ESA
was already like a failing institution before the pandemic. They were struggling to put
together an E three show in twenty twenty, even before they had to cancel
because of of COVID, And so we get to this point where it's like,
Okay, now we're past COVID, all those same problems still existed.
We lack the competency to pull off an in person event. How do we
make this happen? Well, you do what every up like, you do
what Lucasfilm does, which start like they don't want to have an events team,
they hire an event company read pop just do the same thing. It
makes a lot of sense. It's gonna be it's gonna mean probably less money
for the essay, but not the less money they get from not having any
three at all. So yeah, it's sort of the only option they had,
even if even if it's like it's hard for me to see, like
how this makes sense, how they put this and put this together. This
is probably the team that could figure those problems out. And it's also like
the one company that the ESA could work with. Yes, uh there This
is from Lance Ferns of Finsterman. Yes, Lance Finsterman who's president of RePOP.
It is a tremendous honor and privilege RePOP to take on the responsibility of
bringing E three back in twenty twenty three. With the support endorsement of the
ESA, We're going to build a world class event to serve the global gaming
industry in new and broader ways than we already do it RePOP through our portfolio
of world leading events and websites. REPOPS Global VP of Gaming Kyle Martins.
Martin's Kish said, for years, we've listened and heard and studied the global
gaming communities feedback. E three twenty twenty three will be recognizably epic, a
return to form that honors what's always worked while reshaping what didn't and setting a
new benchmark for video game expos in twenty twenty three and beyond. In response,
shots fire, Jeff Keeley immediately tweeted, as we announced back in June,
Summer Game Festival return in twenty twenty three is a free digital and in
person event to celebrate the future video games, bringing our entire industry together to
showcase what's next. And in response, I would like to say, Jeff
Grubbs Summer Game mess will return in person at a cheesecake factory near you.
We're gonna have meetups, We're gonna we're gonna bring down the house. So
brace yourself. Brace your asses is what that's our motto, by the way,
brace your asses. And then next door I will be hosting the after
party. We're gonna have a DJ session. We're just gonna share like my
Spotify playlist dj Q three. Yeah, we'll have our own shirts for sure.
Yeah, we're gonna have a battle T shirts. We just we talked
about that in the pre show, so you're looking out for that. I'm
fine with this. We always we do. Keiley was gonna keep doing his
own thing. He does a good job. It's like, I think the
scales will be different, right, You're gonna get companies that have too much
money, probably showing up at the pack C three thing, and then the
companies are like somewhere in between, not sure where they want to be.
You can go to Keiley instead. This works for everybody, right, Yes,
yes, I hope that you know, indie devs that perhaps can't make
it to the big stage of E three are able to be showcased operaly at
Key three or you know, vice versa. The games that could have gotten
lost in the shuffle. I think now have even more of a chance of
landing on either of these shows. Like I hope there's a bidding war for
like Runed Factory six, yes, or for Dwayne the Rock Johnson to come
and hook his latest energy Zoah two ZOA two two OAH is gonna come out
next year, and we're all going to find out first because we were watching
either E three or Summer game fests. So enjoy your enjoy your gaming,
everybody. I'm gonna enjoy so much gaming. Uh. Well, we'll keep
up on this, but we'll see m mos se out really comes together.
But E three is dead. Long live E three. Uh. Take two
sins DMC takedown notice to Luke Ross, creator of GTA five, Red Dead,
Redemption Too and Mafia VR mods. This was a take that notice that
just got sent to him like over this past week, and he kind of
wrote this in a blog post. They are demanding that I remove all their
copyrighted work from my Patreon page. I immediately ask for clarifications since it is
my belief that I'm not hosting any such materials. As you all know,
I do create and distribute original modifications for those games, original pieces of software
of my own creation that allow users to experience those games indifferent and hopefully more
intense and profound ways. However, none of my modifications are built using any
software belonging to take to interactive software, and the modifications are not intended to
replace the games, nor are they a means of exploiting to take to interactive
softwares proprietary ip or assets. And he goes on to say, like,
this is like he's trying to figure out exactly what they mean, and he's
like, if I can't figure out what they mean, I'm going to assume
what they really mean here is we don't care about any of that what you
just said. We just want this all to go away. We don't want
you to make these VR mods anymore, and this is our way of getting
you to stop. That would be a slight abuse of DMCA, but that
wouldn't be the first time that happened. And so I'll say, Jan,
this kind of stuff bums me out. Yeah, it's kind of like the
wrong way of using DMCA, and you kind of wish companies would just embrace
it. And I kind of thought we were at a point where companies were
just like, hey, either shut up and just let it happen, or
fully embrace it. I didn't know the third option was still on the table
for some of these companies try to nuke it out of existence. Where are
you at with this? Yeah, it's unfortunate, especially when you know it's
an independent creator really breathing new life into these specific games. They obviously have
a fondness for it, and it just sucks that when like the big lawyer
boys comes swinging around and they gotta take the independent creator down. It makes
me curious as to if this is completely successful in taking his whole operation down.
What happens to folks that make Minecraft mods, right, like for different
shaders and stuff. Is that considered something that mo Yang could do, take
a DMCA and shut all those creators down? Who knows? Yeah, it's
I don't right. I mean, I think it's clear that the companies have
the brute force to make these kinds of things happen. If it doesn't,
if it doesn't convince Luke Cross, the creator of these mods, to push
these things off the platform, well then they'll go after where he gets his
money from Patreon. He has a big Patreon, he's got about two thousand
and five hundred people who support him in the creation of this stuff. Again,
all this stuff he's creating our add ons and probably technically, if they
were to go to court and run this thing out, he would probably scrape
by all things being equal in no world is all things equal? Like,
what does that have to do with anything? It has nothing to do with
reality that we live in. The reality is one big corporation has a lot
of lawyers that could do the threatening and it's not worth the time or the
potential penalties if Luke Ross or Patreon failed. Now to that end, Patreon
does seem interested in sort of trying to figure this one out. Patreon luc
Ross says he's reached out to Take two Interactive and said, hey, what's
going on here? Can I get clarification? No response from Take too so
far. Patron says, Hey, we're we're going to reach out on your
behalf and we're gonna try to open up lines of communication between you and Take
two to figure this out. So it's like, it's nice that Patron a
company that wouldn't have to step up. It's just but they could be a
hands off platform. They could totally just play that role, and that's I
think everyone would be like, Yeah, that's fine, that's what you're there
for. They're going to step in and try to handle this kind of putting
themselves out there a little bit in a way that I wouldn't expect them to.
But yeah, it's kind of nice to hear, right at least,
like someone's trying to help this guy out. Yeah, I do you think
I can't help? A couple of people have alluded to this in chat,
But do you think they are perhaps trying to defend Lucas here in attempt to
protect their own bag as well? Yeah? I mean that doesn't hurt,
right, But I mean I think, you know, because it could set
a precedent for a lot of projects that are supported on patron being taken down.
That's that's true. It's probably it's probably long term thinking. It is.
But it's also like the way that they most other companies protect their bag
in a situation like this is if a DMCA gets brought up, they just
do whatever the company asks. I mean, that's what that's YouTube policy.
Say yeah, we're okay, we'll nuke it and we bounce, and that's
their long term strategy'll be like, we don't want to actually get sued by
these companies in a situation where like the DMCA has been brought up and Patreon
could just nuke and mounce. They are saying we're gonna get involved, which
could you know, maybe make them liable, maybe make them a play,
you know, a potential defendant in court in a case like this. So
uh, you know, obviously, though there's still the monetary value of you
know, he's got two thousand and five hundred subs, we'd like to keep,
you know, the eight percent or whatever we take from that. But
on top of that, we don't want other companies getting the same idea.
So maybe playing a little bit of defense here makes some sense or Patreon,
I think that's a totally fair reading of the situation. I'll say that I
really like VR modster games. I think it's cool with you get added.
I also think that if you are a company who is doing your own VR
thing, and that's why you're making this move, you really don't worry about
the mods. So there is an audience that does play with mods, and
it's not the audience that you're going to be reaching by yourself. I mean,
we just like Live Alive. That demo went out, the previews started
going out for it, and people are like, I can't believe no one
ever told me about this game and for years fans of that series, but
like there's a fan translation, there's a fan translation. That doesn't matter because
it like that, it is no substitute for the company putting out an official
release of a game. Now, of course this is an up dative version
all that stuff, but an official release will reach so many more people than
a fan translation, a mod, a VR mod that you could find on
some Patreon somewhere. It's just not the same. So don't oh totally don't
like this should not be like the way that Take two is actually handling this,
but whatever it is. Yeah, I mean accessibility in terms of like
even getting a fan translation to work for a lot of the gaming general audience
is too many hoops to jump through, Like you mean I have to download
this and download a zip and then find the zip in this program. What
yep, mods have gotten like easier, but even like then they are,
it's like so easy that I'm like when I look at open a game,
it's like, hey, just sign in, you know, go hit the
subscribe button on this one one website and sign in. I'm like, that
sounds too easy. It's probably not gonna work, so I don't like.
I just don't buy. I'm like, if it's not right there in the
game, I don't want to do it now. Steam Workshop is so easy,
I kind of can't help it do it. But everything else, I'm
like, mad, ditao, I just started messing around with that. That
actually is very useful though, so pretty cool. Okay, let's see here.
Skate four test details have started to leak out. We knew of this
Skate four test was happening because they announced it. He I said, hey,
we're gonna be taking more testers. It started up. Details are leaking
out. I don't think he Ga minds so much because mostly people are talking
about how cool it is. But the play test was still untextured, as
in recent trailers and the leaks some months ago. This comes from a poster
I think on a reddit. It runs on the Frostbite engine. The map
the map test was called fun City, something I think we actually talked about
on grub snacks a few months ago. So yes, it's called fun City.
It's still called fun City. Seems to be a small test test section
of the fuller map. The test map was a mixture of new areas and
old, untextured areas from the original games community center from Skate one was included,
even with details like the mini map or the mini ramp where we all
learned pumping. So maybe San Vansterdam could be the third redesign of zan fan
Alona, but it could also be a completely new city with some of the
original map pieces which were only included for the play test. There's different control
presets. Classic streamlined Experienced could maybe replace the difficulty settings and be more suitable
for different play styles ranging from ultra realistic to arcade. In same Skate three,
like trick Lines, there were also controls dedicated to PC players, So
that's nice that they're thinking about that. From the from the jump here,
where are you at jam with your excitement for Skate four, Because I'm kind
of getting there hearing more about this game, I'm like, I'm getting there
with this. I am so juiced, especially with I've been actually rewatching that
trailer because it just leaves a pleasant feeling or in my mouth sorry phrasing,
and just being just seeing how it seems like they are perhaps focusing on like
the multiplayer aspect. I can only imagine me and my hoodlum friends having a
great time and then just us, you know, as a staff having a
fun time skating together, especially if there are these different control presets, because
I know a lot of people bounced off of skate because they found it too
difficult with like the stick flicking and everything. So if there is a streamlined
control preset that maybe closer mimics something like a Tony Hawk but still retaining the
skate feel, I think it'd be great across the board. Yeah, I
agree. I think this is the kind of thing where you just kind of
create a fun playground for people to mess around with, and it sounds like
they are going and we're going for it, and then oh oh oh,
Jeff Grubb, Yes, is the Christ there? The original te pose?
Yes, you know what you Yes, absolutely Christ. They are always my
favorite move. By the way, that was like I would wreck up something
rum Glifberg throwing out the Christ there. That was my man, or maybe
it was Guelfberg, but either way, I call him Ruin Gliffberg when I
was a kid. So let's see, there's a career and online career mode.
The testers appeared to be in a like an online career and it seemed
pretty similar to Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, where it's all about skating sharing and
creativity and you earn followers in the game, and that's like the main We've
seen that before in a bunch of these kinds of games now, but like
that's the idea you're going for. Yeah, the ultimate metric of success exactly.
There will be a home skate park. Your home or private skate park
is essentially the training park you build in the tutorial, and from there on
you actually have you actually get to fully build it out and design it for
yourself. That's the kind of thing where I think like, as you're like
earning things, you can customize your own skate park and then say, hey,
come over to my skatepark today and have your friends over. That could
be pretty cool. I think I'd be pretty neat. Also, they've updated
the rag doll physics, so it's much less stiffer than it was in Skate
three. So and I think we saw like glimpses of that in that last
trailer that they showed where they're like, hey, we are just going to
whip these rag dolls around in a really fun and silly way. Because we
know a lot of people come to these games because they see compilation trailers of
all the weird things that can happen, and we want to enable that and
unlock that and empower that and then it Also I think the game also has
like a video editing built in, so like that's what comes to creativity parts,
so like you could do something in the game and then quickly edit a
video and post it social So that's pretty neat as well. I'm getting pretty
excited for Skate four. We're probably still not going to get it for quite
some time. I think the the person in that posted this is like,
it's coming in October, either this October or next October. I'm like,
well, it's definitely not this October, but even next October seems a bit
aggressive. I think we're probably not going to get it until like maybe early
twenty twenty four, which I'm okay with. Take your time, figure this
one out and just make it the like skate platform going forward, where you
can where you get all the basics and then you could just add on to
it later whatever you want, and as long as all the basics are good.
It's the kind of game that I think can live for a very long
time. You know, contractually, if Tony Hawk is at all tied to
Activision Blizzard, like, I think that that contract comes and goes like he
definitely like at this point, with no game in the works, he would
be free to go wherever he wants. I think that there's probably a part
of him and his like business, you know, manager would know that their
bread is really buttered with Activision doing another on the Hawk game and maybe holding
off and waiting to see if you can make another one of those happen.
That's gonna be the big payday. It's gonna be a big seller all this
other stuff. So you just wait and see it. Make sure you don't
spoil any potential possibility for that to happen by you know, going to EA.
Now that said, we'll get to a point where it's clear that no
Tony Hawk's pro skater game will ever happen again. Tony Hawk could easily just,
I think, go to EA and make it happen. So, yeah,
that'd be cool. I think it'd be awesome to see him in a
skate game. Okay, last week EA did a bad tweet about how,
oh, they're at ten but they only like single player games or something like
that, and never got mad at them and docked on them all day and
they never forgot, but people didn't forget within EA. This comes from Zack
Swizen at Kotaku. EA's bad tweet last week has led to roundtable meetings with
angry staff. Last Thursday, the official EA Twitter account tweeted a bad joke
about single player games that led to an internet wide roasting and eventually an apology
from the Battlefield publisher, and apparently EA is still still dealing with angry employees
who felt that the tweet was an insult to them, their staff, and
the games they are making. A new report from USA Today shed some light
on how the terrible tweet came, about, what the reaction to it was
internally at EA, and what the plans were pitched to handle the situation and
the ongoing aftermath of it all. The whole mess is both equally confusing and
funny. According to the report, an hour after the tweet went live last
week, it landed in EA's internal slant chat room, where employees and social
media staff began sharing all the roast and angry responses, some from current EA
execs that were popping up all over. As negative reactions spiraled out of control
and the discord discourse began, folks at EA began formulating a plan to turn
the tweet into a positive It just wasn't a good one. That's a zach
there with that with the editorial. The initial plan was to get all the
other EA social media accounts to start dunking on the tweet, while hopefully drawing
more attention to various single player games the publishers in the works. But some
point but some staff pointed out that that this oastin EA strategy would just reinforce
the narrative online that EA's own studios and team hate the company, And so
after many social media managers back backed out of the plan, it fell apart.
Uh, there's there's more to this, but I'm hey, I'm pretty
glad they didn't do that plan that would have been moved. That would have
just exacerbated the nightmare for them, right, just be like having response coming
out being like this fucking sucks. I don't know, Okay, you get
calquestus like lightsabering e threes, Yes, exactly, just a logo, Yes,
exactly, get John Ricatello a picture John Mtell and cutting in half and
like John Cattell, has it worked here for years? I don't care.
We're cutting them the lightsaber. Yeah, not a great and I get where
they're going for there. Hey, we can point out that we have single
player games by having our dewelopers. But it's like the real narrative out there
is like this corporate EA ruins all these studios, So you probably don't want
to turn into that too much. Oh well, ketto, she's got her,
she's got her bunny toy or everybody say hello to Bunny. There you
go, there you go, Okay, Bunny, there you go. Yes,
hello, say hello to Bunny. Very good. All right, let's
see what else. The most agreed on idea was to take responsibility for it
and apologize. One source told USA a novel idea. Yeah. However this
apology, Yeah, this apology ended up being an equally embarrassing tweet. Same
people who play single player games were actually elevens instead of tens. You get
that one jan There's there're elevens out of ten. But while the Internet moved
on to its next target, higher upset EA are continuing to deal with the
fallout from the tweet. USA Today reports that the FIFA publisher is hosting roundtable
discussions and team meetings with executives who felt the joke was an insult to the
games they're working on and the staff making them. I'm ninety nine percent sure
the person who posted the tweet and their manager don't even know about single player
game comments from from a decade ago from EA. One source told USA Today
the comment made them they were referenced was the infamous twenty ten quote from the
then EA Games president Frank Jabo saying that single player games were finished. Further,
the source says that the staff running the Twitter account are all new,
and that most of them aren't really games industry people and likely had no idea
about EA's long bad history with single player games. Kind of like Reddit slash
r slash. Well, there's your problem right there, like right, like,
that's that seems to maybe. I mean, listen, I'm not saying
that only gamers can do these jobs. Get a real gamer in there,
but it helps. It helps in situations like this, at least having someone
on the team to be like, you know, put up the red flag
when you're about to do something like this, right, and you know,
not saying that you have to be a diehard gamer to work away any portion
of the games industry. But the problem also of the games industry is is
that no one ever forgets anything. Yes, yeah, whether it is like
a small misstep or an egregious statement, and like saying that single player games
are dead, folks will continue to remember it and it will stick in people's
minds for forever. Absolutely. And the kinds of things we do forget are
like things we get anxious about before a game comes out. We don't forget
the weird things as an executive set like Jim Ryan bring brings this up now
say he's never gonna live down saying like who wants to play old games?
He's like, that's not exactly what I meant, but it doesn't matter.
It's all anyone talks about now, so like like they know this. And
that's why when you're in a situation like when you're bringing up a concept,
you gotta you have to have someone on the team that knows, like what
is E's history with this concept and absplearly that didn't happen here, Like Phil
Spencer is so tired that he can't buy normal shirts anymore. People misconstruing it
exactly. Yes, he's no more graphic teas for that man that's can't put
anything up on his shelf. It's all, it's all nightmare. Anime is
heading then Xbox they got Anime Xbox now, and then that's why I throw
my Xbox out. All right, let's see here, Halo veteran Paul Bertone
or maybe BERTONI is now at three fourth three as studio Technical Design Director.
This comes from Joe Staton, who is the boss over there at three four
three In terms of overseeing Halo, I'm happy to confirm Halo veteran Paul Bertone
has joined the team as studio Technical Design Director. Paul and I met in
nineteen ninety nine back in Bungee's Chicago days, and then ship Halo one through
three ODST and reached together. I'm thrilled to have Paul helped lead the future
of Halo infinite. And then he posted a picture of him and Paul at
Joe's fiftieth birthday party and are all dressed up in nice ties and stuff.
So yeah, the good good buds getting back together making games. Again,
Basically, if you're wondering the question, probably everyone's thinking it's like, what
is a studio technical design director? So I'd kind of looked into this and
some people on reset era helped out here. Basically, it's the head of
the technical guidelines, tools documentation, developing the overall vision of the technical features
and the engine requirements, and it's kind of a bridge between game design and
technical expertise. And then someone who says they are a technical director says it's
the equivalent of a tech art director and asks as a buffer between the design
and engineering departments and acs as an advocate for the design teams needs when it
comes to creating tools and engines and the support therefore they're in. So I
think this is almost kind of one of the things that Bungee, I'm sorry,
three four three and Halo really need is someone that can say, hey,
the team is it needs all these things, the tools need to be
working in this way to facilitate all that, Because I think based on the
output, like the pace of the output from that team, they must be
having some issues with their tools and their and their engine because there's just not
enough content coming out for that game. And maybe there's other issues, but
it definitely seems like at least one issue is probably that the engine is not
facilitating and empowering the creators at that company to put out all the stuff they
need to get out to get people excited about that game again. You know,
good move, What do you think? Yeah? Totally. Sometimes someone
that is familiar with the product can come back in in a certain position and
give it a good kick in the pants, right, exactly, a good
kick in the pants, A good kicking. I mean sometimes a bad kick
in the pants can't hurt. I mean it could hurt, But then maybe
that's the idea Fall Guys is crushing as a free to play game. This
is just a tweet I wanted to highlight real quick. The game's Twitter count
posted that it has reached fifty million players in the two weeks since it launched
on Xbox and Switch and since, more importantly, it went free to play.
Wow. I was expecting big things for this game when it went free
to play. I wasn't expecting to be like this successful. It is having
its second surge. Clearly it is a huge success, right, great for
them, Absolutely great for them. You know, going free to play can
go either way where it is like a flash in the pan. But I
hope this means can and you'd a sustained player base, right and tickle bits
and chest us but for out long And it's like you know that that's true
of everything at a certain point, like every every game needs to figure out
how to sustain itself over time. What helps you is if you get fifty
million players, like having fifty million players keeping ten percent of your audience,
it's five million players, Like that is a much better starting point. So
it's like, yes, going forward, maintaining excitement about something is the challenge
for everything. Hopefully they could figure that out, but it helps when you
have such a good start. Final Fantasy fourteen players are blocking access to notorious
role playing server with a character Brigade comes from Grace Benefl at game Spot,
So let's just get into it. Following the long awaited release a patch six
point eighteen, which enables data center travel and allows players to visit other worlds,
a growing number of players have been visiting other servers to check out their
unique player culture. As reported by games Radar, players wishing to visit the
Bao Mung Yeah, I'm just Bao Mung are out of luck, for as
soon as you arrived, you will find a large amount of Bao Mung players
blocking the way to the wider world. Balmung is well known in the Final
Fantasy fourteen community for erotic role playing. This new feature, this new travel
feature made Baumung something of a tourist destination, but clear the community members are
not interested in hosting. I'm just getting this idea of like a suburban couple
going out to Baumong to like, Hey, we're gonna go to what's the
what's the resort in Jamaica, The Vandals. It's it's it's the Sandals equivalent,
but it's like like like it's basically the the erotica couldn the Sandals.
I can't remember the name, but it's like, Yeah, got there,
and we're gonna just like, oh, we're gonna get nasty for a week
and then we're gonna go back to our lives. And that's what is happening
in Final Fantasy fourteen right now. So yeah, like you're gonna go see
a chokabo show or something. I don't know. The server has recently been
the source of community controversy, as some players in the Baumong servers made real
life bill boards advertising an endgame party. So clearly there's like a split in
the server, right. Some people are like, everybody come to the party,
and some people are like, we are going to create a human wall
to protect our penises and our butts because we want them off limits to everybody
else. This is all about ours. If you weren't Balmung originally, we
don't want you here. These billboards featured copyrighted material, as well as obvious
signs that terms of service breaking mods tool modding tools were used for the characters
on display. Once community members pointed this out, the billboards were taking down
the player planned in game event they were advertising. However, is still on
the way. So yes, it sounds like Balmung has literal gatekeepers? Is
someone put in chat points out right? There's someone a bunch of people literally
gatekeeping access to the rest of the erotic role playing server? Jan, how
devastated are you by this? I'm hoping I rarely use it, by hope
I can become clout strife and use the Internet to enter the Horny server because
I just need to know now, Yeah, I need to see it for
myself, and I think that these sticks in the mud trying to stop other
people from having fun. Need to recognize the more the merrier. Uh yeah,
I guess what are they afraid of? Like what I guess? I
legit, legit, don't understand. Is it just that they are like this
is ours and we don't want people who aren't here from the start to partake.
Or is there something else that they're like they're worried about. Oh,
if we too much attention gets brought to us, maybe we will, you
know, this stuff will get taken away from us. I don't know,
but probably he controls out, is what Marino says. It's probably a simplest
answer, right, I was gonna say that they're they're probably so used to
eat each other's horniness that any type of feigned horniness will, you know,
not not be received? Well, right, yes, if you're going in
there like I'm gonna pretend to be horny because that's funny to me, I
bet that would be pretty frustrating, and like, hey, you're actually hurting
my vibes that I've so carefully cultivated here, and you know what fair I
get that, And like, you know, this is a it's a it's
a community run in a space that is owned by a corporation, like trying
to mod that, like be like, hey, we like we we feel
ownership of this space even though we don't actually have ownership of it. That's
like a difficult thing to pull off, and trying to be like, how
do we moderate a space like that so we keep our our original intended vibes?
That could be pretty difficult to pull off. And this seems like an
extreme scenario where it's like we're gonna block people from entering here, but maybe
they feel like they don't have any other choice. So I hope that they
get to protect their horny, and am I respect it as Uh? Yes?
Which point you guys? Everyone? I want them all know that I
respect your horny. Uh yes, I do too. Giant baumb respects your
horny. Final Fantasy fourteen Baumang Server, Now you know. Twenty twenty two
video game market declines expected to continue. This is by Matt Piscatella at the
MPD Group. US consumer spending on video game hardware, content and accessory is
now projected to reach fifty five point five billion dollars in twenty twenty twenty two,
a decline of eight point seven percent when compared to twenty twenty one.
Some of the drivers of the decline include the return of experiential spending, higher
prices in everyday spending categories such as food and fuel, the uncertain supply of
video game consoles in hardware, video game console hardware and certain accessories such as
gamepads, and a lighter release slate of games, among other problems, the
surgeon video game players and engagement. The market experience during twenty and twenty twenty
one has leveled off, and we are now seeing more entertainment opportunities emerge that
compete for consumer attention and of course, dollars in hardware. The video game
console market has yet to reflect normalized demand given ongoing supply constraints, particularly on
new generation systems such as the PlayStation five the Xbox series X. This is
not likely to change throughout twenty twenty two and will lead to continued uncertainty for
the market. So, I mean, we knew this was going to happen
eventually, right twenty twenty and twenty twenty one anomalies due to the people at
an entertainment budget that while you know, some people were definitely dealing with with
job crises and all these other issues of things moving around. There are still
a lot of people who like, we're working from home, weren't able to
go out anywhere, had an entertainment budget, and we're like, the one
thing that makes sense now is video games, and a lot of people give
that realization and it led to huge sales across the board. We knew that
was going to come back down to earth at some point. It feels like
we're in this weird thing where it's like the rising PlayStation five, an Xbox
Series X and S sales are battling against that, and it's like, with
the supply constraints, it's going to cause a bit of a dip this year.
Let me, do you know anyone in your life jan that like embraced
gaming a little bit more during the pandemic, and do you like expect them
to like maybe like still engage with it more than they did before the pandemic,
but maybe not quite as much as they were during twenty twenty and twenty
twenty one. Oh a hundred percent. I saw so many people coming out
of the woodwork that wanted up buying a switch during the pandemic because of animal
crossing, a lot of folks wanted buying PS fives because of like the hype
surrounded around it, and then I've seen a lot of those people just taper
off and go back to their normal activities. On top of that, you
know, the gas prices, food prices are rising around us, and I
feel a big contributor to folks buying switches the oculus. Oculus was a huge
holiday seller. I think was because of that hot stimmy action. You know,
like some folks that were able to work from home took that stimmy and
ran away with it and was able to perhaps get a switch, get like
a pre built PC or a gaming laptop and try out be getting into games
for a while. And now that we're not completely healed and gotten over the
pandemic, but a lot of folks are returning to their normal activities of going
out, going to concerts, going to shows, or like movies, movies.
I can tell you Grub as someone that has been going to the movies
as Yeah, as soon as they've reopened. There are so many more people
in theaters now than there were in the past couple of years. Right,
So you've been you've been like able to track that trend. So okay,
so they are getting I mean it seems that way just based on what's happening
with like Top Gun and speaking almost like four or five movies made like twenty
million dollars or something like that. So clearly people are going back. I've
started going back, So yeah, that that I think. I think you're
right, and I think again, there's like various battling pressures on the market
right now. Someone chet says it's weird rising gas prices make me want to
stay home and play games, and of course that's happening as well. I
think that this is what map Piscatella is really getting at here, that it's
an uncertain market like that is how he basically finish that finishes his thought there
where we don't really know what the demand is for consoles because they are limited
in supply. So yeah, the switch keeps selling really well, and then
the PlayStation five and Xbox Series X keeps selling out essentially. And so if
they were if they were a full supply and you could find one anywhere,
would the demand be would demand would demand still be that high or would it
calm down because people feel more comfortable with saying they can get one at any
time or would they just sell that much more because there's that many more on
the market. We have no idea. It's really hard to nail it,
to pin that stuff down and that and that's just like one thing on top
of like all these various pressures that people are feeling from all other sides.
Where they go to the store, and are they noticing the rising prices of
their milk and their eggs and stuff like that most people are, And does
that then affect how they decide to spin And then when they make those decisions,
is it saying, Okay, I'm not going to go out and do
an expensive meal out of the house, and I'm not going to go on
that vacation, or we're not going to do that that drive across the country
because of gas prices, So what should we do? And said, well,
maybe we can afford a new video game. It's but who knows if
that's how people are going to decide. The people have made that decision for
the last couple of years. Are they still satisfied with that? It seems
like probably not everyone. Everyone's probably looking for another way out. Maybe we
will go back to the movies. The movies are still open. That's another
good way to have an entertaining night. It's about the same amount of money.
So I think people are just getting a few more options. And because
they've mostly been sticking with video games for the past couple of years, a
good percentage of the audience is like exploring these other options now, and that's
just natural. But I do think many of the games made during the pandemic
will mean we'll have made like gamers for Life or whatever, which you know,
that's also our model gamers for life. But like, these people are
are gonna come back to their consoles at some point like, hey, oh
yeah, I bought that thing during the pandemic. A new game is out
I care about. Yeah, let's get it, let's play it. So
I think this is there are permanent gains, but there's gonna be some fluctuation
coming out of the pandemic where like that that slack gets back into the market
totally. Uh. Some predictions for twenty twenty two at the half a year's
halfway mark. This is also from Matt at MPD. Switch will lead twenty
twenty two console hardware and units sold with dollar leadership, a too close to
call race between Switch, PlayStation five and Xbox Series X and S. I
like it's it's almost strange to see the Xbox in that race. Now.
Obviously that is partially because, like you know, the supply constraint, but
also I think the Xbox Series X and S was a pretty good strategy of
having the S console out there, sort of no matter what, it's selling
a lot, they're able to get a lot out there, and people are
still excited about the Xbox. So that's that's pretty impressive that it's even in
that race. Xbox Series will be the only console hardware platform to show dollar
sales growth compared to twenty twenty one. That's also on the back of Microsoft
clearly able to get more Xbox Series x's out there than a lot of people
were expecting. Hardware shortages will continue into twenty twenty three, particularly on PlayStation
five and Xbox Series X, while potentially impacting other sex segments such as VR,
something I hadn't really considered, like, oh yeah, that the supply
constraint of components could hit like a new VR headset coming out. Maybe Facebook
would have to push that off or whatever. Elder Ring will finish S twenty
twenty two's best selling premium game in the US market, marketing only the third
time since two thousand and nine that a Call of Duty franchise release does not
lead the market. H do you know what the other two are? Jan
Oh, this is like box Office game for it is uh for video games
this year, but this year was Elden Rings. So then in the past
there was two other times and since two thousand and nine that a Call of
Duty franchise was not number one. I will tell you they were both rock
Star games. Oh geez, rock Star Games. Well, I guess it's
is it Red Dead and or is is it is both GTA five? I
mean, honestly, it would be surprised a GTF. I'm pretty sure it's
GTA five and Red Dead Redemption two? Okay, those are the two.
Uh, let's see, let's let's move ahead. Crisis Core Final Fantasy seven
won't feature new story elements, but that doesn't mean it's a basic remaster.
That's by Cat Bailey over at ign Square. Innex is overhauling the graphics,
the interface, and somewhat controversially, the voice gasts. Various improvements have been
made to nearly all other scenes and battles, to a point where it could
be said that the work we are doing is akin to creating a remake.
That's according to producer Mariako Sato, However, as the core elements such as
the story are grounded in the original work, we call it a remaster.
Speaking of the igne and a brand new interview, Sato discussed Square Enix's intentions
for the remaster, outlining the differences between the various platforms and whether or not
it will ultimately connect with Rebirth. Veteran producer Yoshinori Katasi was also on hand
to shed some light on how the project managed to be greenlit in the first
place. According to Katasi, Crisis Core was not conceived in response to Final
Fantasy seven Remakes infamous reveal. Rather, Katasi says, Final Fantasy seven Remakes
successful development led Square enixs to realize that other stories from the universe could be
updated as well. There isn't really an exact date that I can point to
at a moment point too at the moment, but I do recall that it
was towards the end of the Final Fantasy seven Remake development that we realized that
with the quality we were able to bring to Final Fantasy seven Remake we might
be able to create something for the stories that are actually surrounding Final Fantasy seven
as well, and it is an actual possibility that we can develop Crisis Core.
So that's that's the timing at which we decided that, yes, this
remake can actually happen. Hang on, Sorry, I got yelled at by
the kids. Okay, finally let's see here in the news and then we'll
move on to the catchup. Nintendo announced the Mighty Bowser Lego building set.
Did you see this thing? No, drop this in here too. Let
me scroll down here. This thing looks pretty cool. This looks absolutely gorgeous.
For I'll use the air. You can see grub as this on screen.
Now there's a Lego kit. It looks like it is about two thousand
over two thousand pieces, close to three thousand. Oh, this looks so
good. Yeah, I think I'm gonna get it. It's October first.
It's two thousand, eight hundred pieces, like you said, and it's I
think they said it was like what, let me look up the price.
Let's just click this button here, everybody's se where it's gonna ta. I
think it's two hundred and eighty dollars or something. It's not loading, probably
because people are all trying to pre order it. Let's see, except all,
Oh, I haven't seen this peach before either. That's fantastic, this
Lego Peach. They don't do the minifigs, they do the characters. Oh
man, like kids are gonna go nuts for that. I think it was
like, yeah, two hundred and eighty dollars or whatever. But I think
this set looks really impressive. This bowser looks very detailed, like way more
detail than I would expect a Lego bowser to look. Yeah, I okay,
it looks like this doesn't have any type of functionality with their Mario Lego
set stuff. No, I don't think so. I think there is like
a bowser in one of those things, but it's like the smaller kind and
it has the little, you know, the near field code on the back
or whatever. So when Mario jumps on and he like knows he's jumping on
bowser and stuff like that. This is like a separate thing just for just
for builders. But it looks really cool. How long until we get a
Lego Mario game? Yeah, I was thinking that that would be very cool.
I also think a Lego Mario like TV special because the best things on
Disney Plus are those Lego Star Wars specials, the Holiday one and the Halloween
one, and they're doing the summer. They're doing a summer vacation one here
pretty and like a couple of weeks, and like, I'm so excited for
that. I'm like, they're so funny, they're so like like whimsical and
breezy. My kids like them. I have a good time with them.
So I'm like, man, that would be cool if they did a Lego
Mario like TV show sort of thing. They're probably not going to do that,
though, with Illumination doing the other thing, that'll probably take some time
before all of those companies would feel comfortable like working around each other or whatever.
All right, Jane, let's get to the catch up. Just a
couple of updates for everybody. The Matrix Awakens demo will be delisted on July
ninth, so if you haven't checked that out, you should do that.
Go download it now, just get it on your system. It's actually a
really really impressive demo. It's worth checking out. I think it's on PlayStation
five and Xbox Series X and S. I don't think they ever put it
out on PC, which is like, I would really like to see it
on PC. I but I don't think they ever did. See the latest
PS five update is out. It gives you options for Auto Low Latency Mode
also ALM. It's basically so when you switch to a gaming input on your
TV, switches you to gaming mode. Now, you could set it so
either it does that or it doesn't do that, so you can like activate
it later for some reason if you want to, like, if you watch
a lot of movies on your PlayStation five, maybe you don't want gaming mode
on or something. So although most TV's have been pretty smart about when to
turn that on and off. The Nintendo we Shop and Update Channel are back
online. So in March these things went offline and you could no longer download
games from the Wei Shop. Now. You weren't able to buy games from
the Wei Shop for years now, but in March they went offline, so
you couldn't even like if you bought something in the past, you couldn't download
the games. Now they're back online several months later. Nintendo and never said
anything about this. It just went offline in March. It was in maintenance
mode that entire time, and now it's back online. It seems like someone
just like, oh, went into that closet and reset that server. It's
kind of how it feels like, but I don't know my computer. Yeah,
oh dang, dang it. Oh, I unplug the Ethernet cable.
PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium is getting its first additional content content update by the
end of this month. Jan. What are you looking forward to, like
sort of keep you engaged with that or could it keep you engaged? I
don't know. I don't even know if I'm subscribed to the proper tier because
I'm not checked it out at all. I know that one of my best
friend is very interested in it. He has been playing Red Faction two so
and his main concern that he would like is just more PS one PS two
games. So that's where I'm at. That's what I want, just that
I think like if we get I say, closer to ten than five,
but like around five to ten additions that like from the classic library, I'm
like at a point where hey, you got a pretty good library of modern
PS four games on PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium, then I'm I'm mostly impressed
by that, and so you're doing a good job but I still want that
classic library to get some some love and care and PlayStation one, PlayStation two,
and PSP games. I think if you could add somewhere in total across
all those platforms five to ten games per month, I think got'll be a
good number. I'll be checking in on that and I'll be very excited.
So hopefully that's what we're gonna get. There's a possibility it might be closer
like four to seven, because that's kind of what they did with PlayStation now,
So we'll see. Xbox has confirmed plans to attend games Com UH this
year by Tom Ivan m VGC. Following our recent Xbox and Bethesta Games showcase,
we're excited to confirm the Xbox will be back on the show floor at
Gamescom twenty twenty two in Cologne, Germany. The company said this in a
message since to the press today. Fans in Europe and around the world can
expect updates and some announced games come into Xbox in the next twelve months,
and a chance to hang out as a community again in person. So this
is notable because PlayStation Nintendo, Activision, Blizzard, and Take two all have
made announcements that they won't be there, Jane, you you went to Key
three. Yeah, you like went to a thing in person. I think
I asked to like Lucy a little bit about this, But what was your
take kind of coming away from an in person event again and how you're feeling
about that. I think there was a lot of good energy there that you
know, that direct feedback, whether it was actual genuine criticism or just like
happy to see people playing your game or reacting to your game, I felt
like was a tremendous boost to the morale of especially some of the indie devs.
So I can only imagine that getting that people want that again. But
for because sorry losing my train of thought here, but yeah, overall generally
positive. I wouldn't mind being able to go to another show floor, like
perhaps a games Calm and check out more stuff and just see the general positivity
because I feel like the game's industry as a whole has kind of been like,
I don't know if people like stuff anymore? Do you do you like
things? Yeah? Sick? Cool? Cool? Cool? All right?
People are so hesitant and like I'm afraid of put like dipping the toe even
in the water with these kinds of things, And there's probably a lot of
reasons for that, but I'm glad to see at least one of these companies
like, hey, we are going to go for it's been working out well
so far, and we recognize the risks of doing things in person. I
think as long as they aren't forcing people on their teams to go who don't
want to go get to a thing in person yet, I think that's as
long as you're doing that, you're going to be fine. And as long
as everyone fully understands they have that option to opt out of travel if they
want to, and I hope that's the case. Blizz Con will return in
twenty twenty three. Blizzards Boss has claimed by Chris Scollion as VGC. The
annual gaming convention designed to celebrate Blizzards game hasn't had a live in person event
since twenty nineteen, and Blizzard head Mikey Barra was told has told the Los
Angeles Times that plans are underway to bring it back. He said, we
previously announced we're taking their pause on Blizzcoon while we are reimagine, reimagine it
for the future, but do want to return to a live event that enables
us to celebrate the community. We recently hired a new leader of blizz Cohn,
April McKee, who is hard at work on that plan. We are
committed to bringing back bliz Khon in twenty twenty three. So another example of
that, I'm like, like these publishers specific events, blizz Khn, I'm
not too surprised that that one's going to continue to live even under Xbox I
mansions continue to live. Quake kN will probably continue as well. And like
the stuff like mind Con, I'm glad these things still have their place in
the industry. Like just to let that fail, like let their free flags
fly for sure. Yeah, let those purves go, don't let don't be
like fourteen ball mung purves and and barricade the doors. Let's let them in.
Yes, let let us in. Let's be horny for blizz khn with
consent, Yes, with consent absolutely. Kazuki Takahachi, Okay, let's try
this transition a little bit better, everybody, some bad news. Kazuki Takahashi,
the Creative Yuguo, has died at sixty. Takahashi started work as a
manga artist in nineteen eighty two, but did not find widespread success until nineteen
ninety six, when he created the immensely popular Yugio manga series for Japan's long
running weekly shown in Jump magazine. Uh this is, Uh this is.
It sounds like it was a pretty tragic event. He was found wearing his
snorkeling gear thirty meters off the coast of Nago in Okinawa Prefecture, so it
sounds like it was an accident. They were still investigating. But that's pretty
sad stuff taken before his time, even age sixty, But it sounds like
he was out there being active and just had an accident. Ugo is something
I was I never got into, but boys, something I see everywhere,
and that's like Konami's biggest game ever they have. It's it's it's still gigantic,
and so you know, Takashi here, his legacy will live on.
So rip to Kazuki Yashi, thanks for including this grub. I didn't scroll
further far enough down to see this, but uh, Yugio is another property
from my childhood that is somehow dominated and continue to be a part of my
life into my adulthood. So this, this is really unfortunate, and it's
pretty much because of this gentleman that I became friends with Matt Shipman, and
then Matt Shipman became a part of this website because of his Matt Shipman being
a voice on Yugio, and yeah, like these these trading cards. For
as much as I talk about my adventures in Pokemon, I think I actually
enjoy the game of Yugio more so. Rest in peace, sir, and
thank you for your contributions to the world. I will be framing my blue
Eyes White Dragon in your honor. Yeauts, absolutely, let's see her.
Let's let's get to the question that we talked about yesterday. What would you
rather have a switch pro this year or a Switch Too in twenty twenty four?
And sort of the underlying the caveat there is, if you get a
switch Pro this year, it's probably gonna be a little bit longer than twenty
twenty four. But before we get a switch to, right, people are
like, I don't want to wait, I want to switch too. Is
where you're at, Jan So a seventy seven percent said they want to switch
to in twenty twenty four rather than a switch Pro this year. Yeah,
I don't see it coming out this year and making sense unless this is another
thing that they've been sitting on. I know, last time I was on
the Gay Morning Mess we were talking about Nintendo stockpiling raw materials and stuff.
So I just see that it just makes more sense to make new hardware in
twenty twenty four, and hopefully by then they can they can kind of see
what the landscape looks like with whatever half steps that Microsoft or PlayStation plan on
doing. If they do plan on making like a half step point PlayStation point,
PlayStation five point five or whatever like that, and that's like that's still
up in there. It's still hard to gauge, and I have like it's
I go back and forth. I'm predicting that. And but like at the
beginning of this generation for the Switch, I would have guaranteed we would have
would have gotten a Switch Pro because they've done that for every handheld system since
the game Boy. Gameboy got the Gameboy Color, Yes, got the ds
I, the three DS, got the New three DS, and we got
the Game Boy. Gameboy Events got the Well Gameboy Events maybe didn't have it,
So maybe there's there's some precedents there, Like Gameboy Events just got the
SP and that's not a role full upgrade or anything. Like that, but
we got a brighter screen. There you go not quickly got Backlet we got
back let. Yes, I think that this is something the kind of thing
where I think Nintendo is probably there's probably a lot of momentum internally at Nintendo
to make this thing happen, and for whatever reason, any number of other
pressures that like put on them for like, hey, maybe we don't need
to do it right now. The thing is selling just fine as it is.
Maybe we need to figure out what how we present this to consumers and
how we go to the next switch after that, and what does that look
like. Do we want to extend the life of the switch a couple of
years and like a lot of that stuff is like, oh, they've signaled
publicly that we are in the middle of the switch life cycle just this last
year. So with that and maybe maybe that's something they were thinking, like,
Okay, we do put out the switch pro later and we try to
get this switch life to go a full ten years, and so maybe it
is like twenty twenty five before we start hearing about an actual switch too.
I generally agree with everyone here. Everyone wants to switch to in twenty twenty
four. I don't know if Nintendo agrees. I think it's very very likely
now that we actually still get a switch pro based on the rumors coming out
of there and the rumblings, and it's I know that's weird, but I
think that's probably gonna happen. I hope that's wrong, but I think that's
probably gonna happen. I guess we'll see. Let's let's do the question for
tomorrow. Let's just go ahead and write it here. Would you go to
an E three that is more like a packs I'm hit the pull button and
the options are going to be yes and no. You know. Now,
thinking about how read pop runs their conventions or their events, I I could
see those public days being filled with panels, yeah, you know, like
deaf focus panels, or like Jeff Keiey did a few panels at an E
three that one time and he had like, Eli, that's actually my worst,
my least favorite's my worst, but like least favorite E three moment is
uh Jeff Keilly talking to Elon Musk and like they're taking questions of some girl.
It's like can I take a selfie with you? And Elon Musk did
the biggest like I roll like I don't want to touch you nerds. I
think like face I've ever seen, and like it was like everyone was kind
of like, well well and he's like, Ron, I'll take up selfie
with you, and he did like a Tim Robbins waist and I'm like,
what is happening? I hate it here so much and I had to leave
and then I went to go see a band I like that was actually playing
as part of Jeff Keeley's thing, so he made up for it. But
as long as the panels aren't like that, I'll be fine. As songs
they're more like packs panels, I'll be good. Maybe we could, maybe
we could do an E three panel. What do you say, jan oh
boy? You know, if we can't do packs this year, we're we're
most likely gonna do E three, So maybe I have more time to train
for some nugs. Yes, exact, Uh, let's see and then we
uh, okay, you know what. We'll talk about this tomorrow. Jam.
We got a lot still going on a giant bomb for the rest of
the week, including some stuff today. What's happening while I get our schedule
up here? There was an arcade to get in quick. Look that went
up this morning, Dan and I. There's a special moment where Dan and
I get very close to each other. Yes, there is the voicemail dumb
truck scheduled for later today, but also later today in about two hours,
we have the Neon White Open, more of an invitational, but you know
NW Oh it's funny life right, yeah, for life, and that is
exciting. We got I mean, I don't know time. Oh, it's
in our oops. Yeah, it's an hour Jesus, Okay, I have
to prepare several things then, yes, and then wrap this up. Yes,
we got DNF duel coming up. I think Tam and Jason got to
rerecord that tomorrow due to some technical glitches, and then UPF tomorrow. Yep,
keep it out for that, all that stuff, everybody. I'm looking
forward to it. I'm gonna be on that knee and White Open, so
come watch, Come watch me compete. It's gonna be a good time.
I plan on defeating Jan and allcomers. So prepare yourselves. All right,
everybody, We're gonna wrap up. Thank you all so much for watching until
next time. You're the best audience in gaming. Makes it easy to make
the best show in gaming. Have a good one take care of yourself,
and too sweet.