Ubisoft Shuts Down Halifax Studio

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Best Mornings with Me Jeff
<v Speaker 1>Grab your host from giant bomb dot com. It's gonna
<v Speaker 1>be a good one. Thank you for tuning in. In this episode,
<v Speaker 1>we're gonna be talking about everyone's still playing the same
<v Speaker 1>games that they were playing last year, and how many
<v Speaker 1>characters are going to be in the next big Nintendo release.
<v Speaker 1>It's gonna be a good one. Like I said, because
<v Speaker 1>we have Jason Bonelli on the show. Jason, how are
<v Speaker 1>you doing? I am fantastic. The year is gotten off
<v Speaker 1>to a fest start here in house Finelle and the
<v Speaker 1>surrounding families. My cousin had a baby on Monday night.
<v Speaker 1>WHOA want to shout them out for multiple reasons. Obviously,
<v Speaker 1>bringing their second child into the world's a great thing.
<v Speaker 1>But also my cousin has this uncanny ability to not
<v Speaker 1>have to wait very long in the hospital, Like, got
<v Speaker 1>there at six thirty pm, the child was out at
<v Speaker 1>seven to twenty.
<v Speaker 2>That's incredible her. Yeah, and her first.
<v Speaker 3>Child was even faster than that son.
<v Speaker 1>They were on the they were on the Games Done
<v Speaker 1>Quick stream birth Yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Birth done quick. But no, the mom and mom and
<v Speaker 3>child are great. They should be coming home today. Actually,
<v Speaker 3>I think so. That's that's pretty cool. Uh. Bought a
<v Speaker 3>new car last night. Yeah, we were. We replaced the
<v Speaker 3>minivan with a tell your ride twenty twenty five kill you.
<v Speaker 3>We're a Kia family. Yeah, can you tell your right?
<v Speaker 3>It's like, that's that's one of the ones to get.
<v Speaker 2>I always we loved my eye on that. We we
<v Speaker 2>love it.
<v Speaker 3>So far, we've only droven it, driven to call, drive
<v Speaker 3>to the gym this morning, wife drove it to work,
<v Speaker 3>we drove it home obviously, But so far, so good,
<v Speaker 3>feels good, drives good.
<v Speaker 2>Uh.
<v Speaker 3>And then my theater show season started on Sunday with auditions.
<v Speaker 3>Callbacks are tonight. The callback list went out Sunday night
<v Speaker 3>and the name on the callback list does say Finelle,
<v Speaker 3>but the name on the callback list says Olivia. Oh wow,
<v Speaker 3>she tried out for the first time, and tonight she's
<v Speaker 3>got a callback and I am very excited to take her.
<v Speaker 3>I did not get a call back, but I didn't
<v Speaker 3>expect one. My theater group tends to mix it up
<v Speaker 3>when it comes to Leeds R. Scarecrow was huge, So
<v Speaker 3>if I get a little bit pard, of course, I'm
<v Speaker 3>fine with that. Plus Charlotte the younger is joining for
<v Speaker 3>the first time, so I'll have to corral her as well.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, fast start of the year, how about you.
<v Speaker 1>Uh yeah, a fast start was a fast, hectic into
<v Speaker 1>the year, I keep saying on the show. Uh so
<v Speaker 1>we did start taking it easy around New Year's time.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's picking back up now though. You know STEP's
<v Speaker 1>going to be traveling here soon and that's gonna be
<v Speaker 1>a lot because it's she's going to international. So it's like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>we've got to make sure all the things are button
<v Speaker 1>down here, make sure I'm ready for everything on my own.
<v Speaker 1>But you know, that's it's always great when you get
<v Speaker 1>to do cool stuff like that. And then God, I
<v Speaker 1>think I need to buy my I think I'm going
<v Speaker 1>to GDC. I think I'm going to GDC, jan I
<v Speaker 1>might I might need a place to stay. I'm going
<v Speaker 1>to GDC. Uh So I need to like figure out that,
<v Speaker 1>you know, hotels and flights and all that stuff here
<v Speaker 1>pretty much.
<v Speaker 2>So you think you're going to GDC. Aren't you scheduled
<v Speaker 2>to speak? Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>I think I'm scheduled to speak, which is why I
<v Speaker 1>think I probably should be there.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm doing a panel.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, we'll talk about independent games media. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>gott get that. I'll figure it out.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, real quick. Just as the question was in chat,
<v Speaker 3>the show is not cats, it is the Little Mermaid.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so well darn well no, a little less interested,
<v Speaker 1>but fair enough.
<v Speaker 2>No rum tug tugger I can overhit skimbal shanks out there.
<v Speaker 2>All right.
<v Speaker 1>Before we get into things, let's explain ourselves.
<v Speaker 2>We're Giant Bomb.
<v Speaker 1>Go to giant bomb dot com, slash join, become a
<v Speaker 1>premium member. That's how you support independent games media in
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty six. There's no one out there that's gonna
<v Speaker 1>come save us. It's us taking care of each other,
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<v Speaker 1>You're gonna start getting a bunch of more goodies because
<v Speaker 1>it's twenty twenty six and we got a lot of
<v Speaker 1>stuff we have to deliver, and quite a few of
<v Speaker 1>those things will be premium only, at least for at
<v Speaker 1>least many of those at least for a time. I'd
<v Speaker 1>started doing grub Snacks again, new version of grub Snacks
<v Speaker 1>that's gonna be really starting in earnest next week. But
<v Speaker 1>there's a thread on the premium only forum right now
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<v Speaker 2>Could drop questions. So you want me to discuss on there.
<v Speaker 1>Become a part of it and hang out with us
<v Speaker 1>and really enjoy all the good stuff going forward. All right,
<v Speaker 1>as far as this show goes, most weekdays, I Jeff Grubb,
<v Speaker 1>will help piece your gaming life back together. That includes
<v Speaker 1>breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting.
<v Speaker 1>For all these topics, I'll get the input of a
<v Speaker 1>bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If
<v Speaker 1>you are watching live on Twitch Welcome, You can always
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<v Speaker 1>later with chapters in timestamps on YouTube Hello YouTube All right,
<v Speaker 1>we have a lot to get into, so let's start
<v Speaker 1>the morning mess with PlayStation's most played games of twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty five are identical to twenty twenty four's list.
<v Speaker 2>This is from Jordan Midler at VGC.
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation's list of most played games in the US in
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty five is the same as the twenty twenty
<v Speaker 1>four list, with Fortnite taking this top spot once again.
<v Speaker 1>The ranking, which comes from Circana's player engagement tracker Viaircana
<v Speaker 1>Circana Circana Price Ircana Senior director Matt Piscatella, shows that
<v Speaker 1>in both twenty twenty five and twenty twenty four and
<v Speaker 1>the United States, the most popular games remained identical.
<v Speaker 2>Fortnite was the top of the charts, with Call of Duty.
<v Speaker 1>This seems to count all Call of Duty titles due
<v Speaker 1>to the fact that it's like Call of Duty HQ
<v Speaker 1>that was number two. The thirteen year old Grand Theft
<v Speaker 1>Auto took the next spot, with Roadblocks in Minecraft next
<v Speaker 1>there at four and five, respectively. Over on Xbox, the
<v Speaker 1>same titles made up the top five, but in slightly
<v Speaker 1>different order, with Minecraft and Roadblocks swapping places. Jason I
<v Speaker 1>remember back in like twenty sixteen twenty seventeen, I was
<v Speaker 1>working at games Beat and I'd cover a slightly broader
<v Speaker 1>set of games, a lot of mobile stuff. Was something
<v Speaker 1>like kind of I had my eye on and I
<v Speaker 1>remember like kind of being like, I don't know why
<v Speaker 1>we're doing this. It's the same games are number numbers
<v Speaker 1>one through ten now as they were in twenty twelve.
<v Speaker 1>This is a stagnant industry. Nothing cool is happening over
<v Speaker 1>on mobile gaming because it's the same games making all
<v Speaker 1>the money as always. Thank god, It's not that way
<v Speaker 1>everywhere else. It's that way everywhere everywhere else. Nor yep,
<v Speaker 1>I know, I've the Monkey Paul curled in my hands.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know why I didn't put it down before
<v Speaker 2>I said anything.
<v Speaker 1>It's look, these games are making a lot of money.
<v Speaker 1>This is where people want to spend their time. They
<v Speaker 1>want a hobby that is like, you know, that's like bowling.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna go bowling. I'm gonna go play Fortnite. It's
<v Speaker 1>a place to go hang out with your friends. It's familiar.
<v Speaker 1>The effort you put into it is something that like
<v Speaker 1>you can get more out of it over time because
<v Speaker 1>you have all these skins and all these fun things
<v Speaker 1>you've collected and you don't have to start from scratch
<v Speaker 1>each time.
<v Speaker 2>People like that sort of thing. I get it, but
<v Speaker 2>I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>This doesn't feel like a good sign overall for where
<v Speaker 1>this industry is headed.
<v Speaker 3>Right, I agree one hundred percent. Now, yeah, there is
<v Speaker 3>an argument to be made that you look at the
<v Speaker 3>games that came out last year and what when you
<v Speaker 3>look at that list, what could have really challenged Like
<v Speaker 3>think about the best games of last year. Hollow Night
<v Speaker 3>was not going to unseat any of these. Claire Obscure,
<v Speaker 3>even with its ground swell of support and all those
<v Speaker 3>people surprised that it was so good and the awards
<v Speaker 3>were never going to unseat these. The only way you're
<v Speaker 3>gonna unseat this is to become a massively huge live
<v Speaker 3>service sort of game, and Arc Raiders might have been
<v Speaker 3>the only one that would actually challenge that. Otherwise, I
<v Speaker 3>am not surprised by this at all.
<v Speaker 1>It shows it goes to show like Battlefield six is
<v Speaker 1>not in there, and that was a huge release, so
<v Speaker 1>it's like, oh, it even takes like some of these
<v Speaker 1>games years to build up the amount of like a
<v Speaker 1>player base to get into this top five like that
<v Speaker 1>that is how how massive, how big these black Hole
<v Speaker 1>games really are, which is something Matt calls them all
<v Speaker 1>the time.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and I don't think that the disappointing performance of
<v Speaker 3>Black Ops seven happened early enough in the year for
<v Speaker 3>this list to be affected.
<v Speaker 2>Granted, the fact that.
<v Speaker 3>Call of Duty is corralling all of their franchises into
<v Speaker 3>one is sort of cheating. Yeah right, but no, I'm not.
<v Speaker 3>I this makes perfect sense to me. Fortnite continues to
<v Speaker 3>be an absolute juggernaut, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
<v Speaker 3>They just announced that we're going down the South Park
<v Speaker 3>in two days.
<v Speaker 2>Whatever. That looks like.
<v Speaker 3>It's I hate the fact. I mean, there's a certain
<v Speaker 3>R word that's looking at me and I don't want
<v Speaker 3>to say it because I have a reputation of getting
<v Speaker 3>very upset when I see it. The fact that it's
<v Speaker 3>anywhere on this list just pisses me off. Well, that
<v Speaker 3>word pisses me off too, But one.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that one's not staring in the face right now. No,
<v Speaker 2>it's not. No, it is not.
<v Speaker 3>And yeah, I know it, despite my you know, anger
<v Speaker 3>from inside out reactions to it every time I see it,
<v Speaker 3>it is popular.
<v Speaker 2>I can't deny that uh. I mean it's a thing.
<v Speaker 1>Like my girls have started coming home asking about it now,
<v Speaker 1>so it's like they weren't not doing that before.
<v Speaker 3>Might have been doing that for a little while. And
<v Speaker 3>I'm just like, no, sorry, just complete straight up.
<v Speaker 2>I should just let you should come over and have
<v Speaker 2>a talk with them. Yeah, last night it was like,
<v Speaker 2>can we can we at least do Rainbow Friends. I'm
<v Speaker 2>like no, for two reasons. One it's on the Roebucks platform.
<v Speaker 3>And two do you even got Do you guys even
<v Speaker 3>know it's a horror game you'll have nightmare.
<v Speaker 2>And yeah it is. Yeah they don't, Yeah, they don't know.
<v Speaker 3>We had that conversation while I was put teching her
<v Speaker 3>in at night, so I'm glad you didn't sleep. That's
<v Speaker 3>probably bad timing. But no, no, but but this back
<v Speaker 3>to this list aside, I'm not I'm not shocked at all. Again,
<v Speaker 3>I went back and looked at what the most popular
<v Speaker 3>games that came out last year, and with the exception
<v Speaker 3>of Battlefield and arc Greaders that we mentioned, nothing even
<v Speaker 3>had a shot. Now, if Grand Theft Auto six comes
<v Speaker 3>out next year, technically they may be the same games,
<v Speaker 3>but I think they'll just say six instead of five right,
<v Speaker 3>and it'll be right.
<v Speaker 1>It probably depends on how they package GT online, GTA
<v Speaker 1>online two whatever.
<v Speaker 2>That looks like.
<v Speaker 1>We still have not heard a single thing about right
<v Speaker 1>follow up to online, if it's a big update, if
<v Speaker 1>it's a separate thing. Honestly, it's probably one of the
<v Speaker 1>reasons they've taken so long is figuring out what that
<v Speaker 1>is going to even be. I'm sure they know by now,
<v Speaker 1>but it's like, still, they gotta make that work. So
<v Speaker 1>it's like, yeah, that's a separate client or whatever. It'll
<v Speaker 1>be a separate entry either way, though it's right same,
<v Speaker 1>it's the same thing. Yeah. So I think this explains
<v Speaker 1>like a lot of like when we see these big
<v Speaker 1>companies behaving in a way that's hard for us to understand.
<v Speaker 1>Or it's like, hey, don't they like money, Why don't
<v Speaker 1>they just make X? And it's like, well, they are
<v Speaker 1>saving a lot of money by just taking X and
<v Speaker 1>putting it into Fortnite, Or they are very curious about
<v Speaker 1>building their own big live service thing where they can
<v Speaker 1>just update stuff inside it there and that could be
<v Speaker 1>the focus. And it's like, obviously we are at a
<v Speaker 1>point where that's over too, because if same five games
<v Speaker 1>we've just talked about these new ones that kind of
<v Speaker 1>seem to shake the world. I mean, you know, go
<v Speaker 1>back to Hell Divers too, that was a massive.
<v Speaker 2>Massive game.
<v Speaker 1>It's not on this list anymore, right, Yeah, So, I
<v Speaker 1>mean we're talking about games that, even when they do
<v Speaker 1>seem like they're going to be the next big thing,
<v Speaker 1>the next Fortnite, the next whatever, they don't.
<v Speaker 2>Those don't even have the legs.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like, where are these companies at with trying
<v Speaker 1>to like navigate this this space that where they see
<v Speaker 1>all this money coming in it's going into a certain
<v Speaker 1>kind of game.
<v Speaker 2>They want one of those games.
<v Speaker 1>But everyone that's tried has, even when they've succeeded it
<v Speaker 1>making a successful game, has not succeeded at cracking this
<v Speaker 1>top five.
<v Speaker 2>So where do they go?
<v Speaker 3>And you mentioned Hell Divers sue that came out in
<v Speaker 3>twenty twenty four and it wasn't on this list because
<v Speaker 3>the list is identical to last year, and that game
<v Speaker 3>came out in February and it was massive and it
<v Speaker 3>did not crack this top five. If you are a developer,
<v Speaker 3>especially a smaller one, and unless you have an absolutely
<v Speaker 3>cracking idea for a live service team that nobody's ever
<v Speaker 3>done before. Whether it's you know, QUTC or hardcore or
<v Speaker 3>whatever it is, do not. It's it's the game's over
<v Speaker 3>the ship of sale. You're better off building your idea
<v Speaker 3>in Fortnite.
<v Speaker 1>The best time to start making a like kind of
<v Speaker 1>smaller live service game that can grow into something big
<v Speaker 1>over time was twelve years ago and it was called Warframe.
<v Speaker 1>And it's like, you're not Warframe, Like you're not gonna
<v Speaker 1>be the next Warframe. They've learned so many hard lessons
<v Speaker 1>over the years and like refined that game into something
<v Speaker 1>specific for an audience that is a bit like more
<v Speaker 1>than big enough for them. They grow almost every time
<v Speaker 1>they put out new content, they reach higher numbers, and
<v Speaker 1>it's like, oh, that that's what can work. But you
<v Speaker 1>had to start a long time ago and sort of
<v Speaker 1>build that foundation, and no one else is going to
<v Speaker 1>be able to like give themselves a twelve year runway.
<v Speaker 3>And it's not even guaranteed that Warframe is going to
<v Speaker 3>make the next Warframe. With Soul Frame, they're trying. Yea,
<v Speaker 3>if you've dabbled in that at all, and it's pretty cool,
<v Speaker 3>but Warframe is gonna cat are they going to be
<v Speaker 3>able to do two. That would be amazing, but it
<v Speaker 3>remains to be seen. Even the companies that know what
<v Speaker 3>they're doing don't aren't guaranteed to have the kind of
<v Speaker 3>hits that would crack this list, and that to me
<v Speaker 3>is fascinating.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>This all this says to me is while it looks
<v Speaker 3>like the industry is stagnant, like you said at the
<v Speaker 3>beginning here, nothing that came out this year was going
<v Speaker 3>to challenge them. It's not quite as dire as it seems,
<v Speaker 3>but it should be a red flag to anyone who's
<v Speaker 3>trying to challenge these that maybe you should shift your focus.
<v Speaker 2>All right, let's keep going here.
<v Speaker 1>Fallout four doubles concurrent players on Steam following Fallout season
<v Speaker 1>two premiere. This is from Sophie McAvoy at Games Industry
<v Speaker 1>dop is, and it went from like twenty thousand to
<v Speaker 1>forty thousand since the show return on December sixteenth to
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty five. Same thing happened with season one, and
<v Speaker 1>it was like the same game getting the benefit mostly
<v Speaker 1>Fallout four, primarily Fallout seventy six got a lot of
<v Speaker 1>love as well. You know, I think when we were
<v Speaker 1>coming out of that season. The conversation Jason was, what
<v Speaker 1>are they going to have new to sort of kind
<v Speaker 1>of take advantage of this going forward? Still nothing new,
<v Speaker 1>and they're still able to kind of take advantage of it.
<v Speaker 1>Where people show up for these games, they own it
<v Speaker 1>already or they go out and buy it because they're
<v Speaker 1>excited about the show. Is it necessary to have something new?
<v Speaker 1>People seem to be happy to go back to a
<v Speaker 1>game from god Win, a Fallout four come Out twenty fifteen,
<v Speaker 1>twenty fifteen, is that it?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Yeah, that's a ten year old game.
<v Speaker 1>Now it's eleven year old game going on eleven years old,
<v Speaker 1>So it doesn't seem to have heard it all that much.
<v Speaker 1>The synergy matters, but it seems like they're capturing it.
<v Speaker 1>Whether they have put in the effort to make something
<v Speaker 1>new or not. What do you think happens here?
<v Speaker 3>I think eventually it would be silly to say they're
<v Speaker 3>never going to make a new fall Out ever again.
<v Speaker 3>Eventually we're going to get one. But where we all
<v Speaker 3>thought they might be planning for Fallout season one or
<v Speaker 3>season two, maybe they're planning for three or four. Like
<v Speaker 3>somewhere down the pike and seventy six continues to update
<v Speaker 3>despite its rocky start. It's right there with a very
<v Speaker 3>dedicated legion of players, a massive fan base that still
<v Speaker 3>go in there every single time, still relevant enough to
<v Speaker 3>be activated at things like Summer Games Fest. You remember
<v Speaker 3>they had that like fishing in the Pool for whatever
<v Speaker 3>that was Fallout seventy six. I do think eventually we'll
<v Speaker 3>get that remake that we've been waiting for remastered, similarly
<v Speaker 3>to how Oblivion got the remaster treatment this year last year,
<v Speaker 3>you'll probably get something like a Fallout three remastered. Fallout
<v Speaker 3>four clearly doesn't need it despite being ten eleven years old.
<v Speaker 3>People are still playing it, so you can bring in
<v Speaker 3>Fallout three remastered came round around the same time on
<v Speaker 3>the same consoles as Oblivion. You can see the parallels there.
<v Speaker 3>I would have thought it was out, it would have
<v Speaker 3>been out already, as you mentioned, but maybe they're waiting for,
<v Speaker 3>like I said, like a season three or the end
<v Speaker 3>of this season they'll do that shadow drop. When is
<v Speaker 3>that Developer Partner preview thing, Developer direct It.
<v Speaker 2>Is in a week and a half, right, yeah, soon, yes, soon?
<v Speaker 3>Who's to say they don't And where does that line
<v Speaker 3>up with the end of the Fallout season. If there's
<v Speaker 3>synergy there, maybe we get it there, you know what
<v Speaker 3>I'm saying. So there's still some possibility that they could
<v Speaker 3>line up with this season, or they wait for another
<v Speaker 3>year or whatever the next season is. They announce the
<v Speaker 3>remake and the third season at the same time. I
<v Speaker 3>imagine they are not as ignorant to the synergy as
<v Speaker 3>it seems.
<v Speaker 2>No, definitely not.
<v Speaker 3>Their plan is definitely more out of the box than
<v Speaker 3>what we would normally expect. Does that make sense?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think that it's like, you know, you are
<v Speaker 1>playing the cards you have in your hand, if you're
<v Speaker 1>one of these companies, and everyone looks around and says,
<v Speaker 1>oh my god, we need more from Fallout because it's
<v Speaker 1>never been hotter, it's never been more culturally relevant, like
<v Speaker 1>we have to do something here, And then the people
<v Speaker 1>on the other side of that conversation go, look, we
<v Speaker 1>get it. We're making these games, and we get it.
<v Speaker 1>We also wish we could like just drop something new, sure,
<v Speaker 1>but that's not the reality of anything involving game development,
<v Speaker 1>especially in this moment. We've already already committed to some
<v Speaker 1>other stuff over here to so what can we do?
<v Speaker 1>And I think everyone looks around and say, okay, let's
<v Speaker 1>take care of Fallout for let's make sure that that's
<v Speaker 1>as in as good as shape as possible. They've updated
<v Speaker 1>fall Out seventy six a ton of times. That's still
<v Speaker 1>an active game, and they sort of just have to
<v Speaker 1>rely on that, and it's it's working and people like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, I don't hear a lot of people who
<v Speaker 1>are doing this complaining about Fallout four. Most of them
<v Speaker 1>seem pretty happy with it, So yeah, you know, and
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't hurt that if you get super into it,
<v Speaker 1>you can find thousands of mods to turn that game
<v Speaker 1>into all kinds of different stuff, and that can feel
<v Speaker 1>fresh in a lot of ways as well, although I'm
<v Speaker 1>skeptical that a lot of people come from.
<v Speaker 2>The TV show are doing exactly.
<v Speaker 1>That regardless, right, it's there, So yeah, I think you
<v Speaker 1>play the cards that you have in your hand. That's
<v Speaker 1>that's all you can do, and that's what this looks like,
<v Speaker 1>and then you try to stack the deck going forward
<v Speaker 1>to be like, let's see if we can try to
<v Speaker 1>move fall Out up so that when season three or
<v Speaker 1>four is here, because we expect this show to at
<v Speaker 1>least go that long, maybe we can have something by then.
<v Speaker 2>All though, even that it feels like a long shot
<v Speaker 2>at this point.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and if there's one company that should at least
<v Speaker 3>be cognizant of the perils of releasing a game too
<v Speaker 3>fast and loaded with glitches, that would be Bethesda, right,
<v Speaker 3>So it it It does make sense that they would
<v Speaker 3>be more careful with any potential timing releases because licensed games,
<v Speaker 3>as far back as when we were kids, were always
<v Speaker 3>had that stigma about them that they were terrible because
<v Speaker 3>they the development times had to match up with the
<v Speaker 3>release of whatever they were licensed with. So it's different.
<v Speaker 3>But as you said, nobody's complaining. Everyone seems to like
<v Speaker 3>all the Fallout content that they're getting. They even added
<v Speaker 3>the gohoule in seventy six. I believe recently there's synergy there.
<v Speaker 3>If it's working, why change it, right, I mean, they
<v Speaker 3>obviously probably have some sort of long term plan, but
<v Speaker 3>for now it seems to be they're doing what they're
<v Speaker 3>doing all right.
<v Speaker 1>Next story, Ubisoft shuttering freshly unionized Halifax studios. Seventy one
<v Speaker 1>jobs have been affected. This is from John Hicks at
<v Speaker 1>Games Industry dot Biz. Ubisoft has announced the closure of
<v Speaker 1>Ubisoft Halifax. The Canadian studio, which was working on mobile
<v Speaker 1>titles for Rainbow six and Assassin's Creed, affecting seventy one
<v Speaker 1>staff members. Staff at the studio announced only this week
<v Speaker 1>that they had formed Ubisoft's first labor union in North America,
<v Speaker 1>completing a process that had started in June twenty twenty five.
<v Speaker 1>Ubisoft said the closure was due to an ongoing streamlining
<v Speaker 1>and cost reduction process following significant layoffs across.
<v Speaker 2>Its studio in the last two years.
<v Speaker 1>Over the past twenty four months, Ubisoft has undertaken company
<v Speaker 1>wide actions to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and reduced costs,
<v Speaker 1>the company said in a statement. As part of this,
<v Speaker 1>Ubisoft has made the difficult decision to close its Halifax studio.
<v Speaker 1>Seventy one positions will be affected. We are committed to
<v Speaker 1>supporting all impacted team members during this transition with resources
<v Speaker 1>including comprehensives set, comprehensive severance packages, and additional career assistance.
<v Speaker 1>A spokesperson's stress the Game Industry that the closure was
<v Speaker 1>the result of ongoing cost cutting that started shortly after
<v Speaker 1>the pandemic. I'm trying to see here if Games Industry
<v Speaker 1>ever got to comment from the nascent union.
<v Speaker 2>I don't see that.
<v Speaker 1>Try to get comments from the unions when you can. Guys,
<v Speaker 1>I didn't have a chance to reach out myself. Wish
<v Speaker 1>I could have.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, yeah, it's I it does.
<v Speaker 1>It is so close that it's hard not to like
<v Speaker 1>just draw like, hey, this happened, Therefore that happened. Corporations
<v Speaker 1>don't usually work that fast unless they're vindictive, which you'bi
<v Speaker 1>stuff could be. I suppose they could be, so I
<v Speaker 1>don't want to put it past them. But it's like,
<v Speaker 1>my experience with corporations is what why chalk up anything
<v Speaker 1>to malevolence that you can't just chalk up to in competence.
<v Speaker 2>This looks terrible.
<v Speaker 1>You would do this if you're incompetent instead of just
<v Speaker 1>maybe finding a way to soften it and actually or
<v Speaker 1>to do it to or to speed it up so
<v Speaker 1>it happens before, Like if you know a union's happening,
<v Speaker 1>do it before that happens. If you're this company and
<v Speaker 1>you're especially evil, I think this is just like you
<v Speaker 1>be soft was not there? These are games that they
<v Speaker 1>were not like talking about in any way. These Mobile
<v Speaker 1>Rainbow six spent offs. Uh, they seem like they are
<v Speaker 1>focused on just their bigger stuff and hue stuff we
<v Speaker 1>knew was already a mess and already incompetent and already
<v Speaker 1>evil in a lot of like very dull ways. But yeah, regardless,
<v Speaker 1>it's an absolute shame that a bunch of people worked
<v Speaker 1>really hard on a bunch of stuff, and they banded
<v Speaker 1>together to go to use their strength within a corporation
<v Speaker 1>to have a voice, and.
<v Speaker 2>You be soft. It's just like, well, we don't need
<v Speaker 2>you anymore.
<v Speaker 1>God, my feelings towards you be softer, as low as
<v Speaker 1>they've ever been, and they've been pretty low in the past.
<v Speaker 3>Jason, Yeah, I'm not not really buying this whole. I mean, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>because because the union may have started in June, but
<v Speaker 3>if you think the rumblings of trying to organize just
<v Speaker 3>started in June, I have a bridge to sell you.
<v Speaker 3>I'm assuming that I'm guessing that you be soft. You know,
<v Speaker 3>they went to Halifax, they climbed a tower that they
<v Speaker 3>looked out over the horizon. The fog cleared, and they went, oh,
<v Speaker 3>we have a studio here about that, let's maybe start
<v Speaker 3>the process. And then when the union thing happened, the
<v Speaker 3>process accelerated. That would be my yeah thought, like they
<v Speaker 3>were probably him and Holland because their mobile stuff. As
<v Speaker 3>you said, Rainbow six Mobile. I didn't even realize it
<v Speaker 3>launched last year. I first heard about that in like
<v Speaker 3>twenty twenty nine. Yeah, twenty twenty two. So I I
<v Speaker 3>don't buy that the union had nothing to do with it.
<v Speaker 2>Was it the only reason?
<v Speaker 1>No?
<v Speaker 2>Probably not.
<v Speaker 3>Was the process accelerated because of the unionization rumors or
<v Speaker 3>rumblings that I think I would buy more.
<v Speaker 2>It certainly didn't help right.
<v Speaker 1>It would not have helped their standing inside of Ubisoft,
<v Speaker 1>because Ubisoft does not seem like they have the capacity
<v Speaker 1>to have these conversations when they're just freaking about freaking
<v Speaker 1>out about making their company financially feasible.
<v Speaker 2>Sure uh mu.
<v Speaker 3>Cal McGee in the Twitch chat has a quote from IGN.
<v Speaker 3>IGN reached out to U Soft workers of Canada, Halifax
<v Speaker 3>and CWA for comment and receive the following. We are
<v Speaker 3>devastated that this is happening, especially so soon after we unionized.
<v Speaker 3>We're looking into all avenues to fight for the rights
<v Speaker 3>of our members. Hats off to you, mukel.
<v Speaker 1>No, thanks Mukau for grabbing that. I appreciate that. Shout
<v Speaker 1>out to IGN for reaching out to the.
<v Speaker 2>It's about the that's about the uh A statement I
<v Speaker 2>would expect. Yeah, what else can I say? Yeah? Yeah?
<v Speaker 3>What else can they say? So it sucks. It's yet
<v Speaker 3>another one of these stories. I feel like once a
<v Speaker 3>month we're talking about something like this this point, maybe
<v Speaker 3>even at a faster rate. Remember when it was survive
<v Speaker 3>until twenty five. Now we're in twenty six. What's what
<v Speaker 3>are we are? We?
<v Speaker 2>Uh? Well, yeah, praying exactly seven seven? What's the new rhyme?
<v Speaker 2>Right right right where?
<v Speaker 1>We're still just surviving clearly, because it's like, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>what this to me is.
<v Speaker 2>These companies are still in cutting mode.
<v Speaker 1>They are not believing that they can find a way
<v Speaker 1>forward with a lot of the resources that they've already
<v Speaker 1>built up and a lot of the people that they've
<v Speaker 1>already hired. They're like, we're not going to like make
<v Speaker 1>games to solve our problems. We don't believe that. And so,
<v Speaker 1>you know, especially if you come at them with a
<v Speaker 1>union at that point, they're like, well, we already don't
<v Speaker 1>want to make games to make more money, and and
<v Speaker 1>you like having this conversation with you about building a
<v Speaker 1>contract together, it's only a distraction for us and We're
<v Speaker 1>a corporation and any distraction is a distraction from distraction
<v Speaker 1>from potential profits.
<v Speaker 2>So it's like UBI stopped.
<v Speaker 1>Already in a bad way and they're they're not going
<v Speaker 1>to see game like making new games as the answer.
<v Speaker 2>And so yeah, I'm not surprised that we've ended up.
<v Speaker 1>Here, and I just I just don't believe that the
<v Speaker 1>current leadership at this company and the way that they've built,
<v Speaker 1>the sort of spin off with the three big brands
<v Speaker 1>that went over and as working with there not is
<v Speaker 1>that ten cent that they are working with?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah it's ten cents right, Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>Uh Like that doesn't feel like it's going to result
<v Speaker 1>in anything other than getting the same far Cry and
<v Speaker 1>uh and Rainbow six games.
<v Speaker 2>That we've been getting before.
<v Speaker 1>And so look these small, smaller studios off to the side,
<v Speaker 1>or like a red Linx or something that made the
<v Speaker 1>Trials games. What is their future at ub Soft? I
<v Speaker 1>think I think they're right now. The best thing you
<v Speaker 1>can probably say is UBI soft is.
<v Speaker 2>Disinterested, and it's probably a lot worse than that.
<v Speaker 3>Well, the report continues, red Links had lorn job losses
<v Speaker 3>last year as the message Yep, So yeah, I mean
<v Speaker 3>they're they're I think they're just slowly whittling down the
<v Speaker 3>entire company until it's maybe one or two studios per
<v Speaker 3>those big tent pole franchises and that's all.
<v Speaker 2>Ubi Soft is going to be a franchise machine.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And like we do know, Ubisoft's financials are like atrocious,
<v Speaker 1>Like in terms of revenue per employee. There was a
<v Speaker 1>kind of a chart last year. I think maybe it
<v Speaker 1>was maybe is a year and a half ago, but
<v Speaker 1>it's like, you know, uh, one of these bigger companies
<v Speaker 1>they're making two hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand
<v Speaker 1>dollars per employee. Nintendo's way up there, They're making a
<v Speaker 1>ton per employee. Ubi stuft was under one hundred k
<v Speaker 1>per employee and it was way lower than anyone else
<v Speaker 1>since because they just have so they have it's a huge,
<v Speaker 1>massive operation.
<v Speaker 2>They have people all over the world.
<v Speaker 1>We always see like the fifteen studios that work in
<v Speaker 1>all these games, and all those studios have a ton
<v Speaker 1>of people. And it was a big impressive operation at
<v Speaker 1>one point and was working really well for them. And
<v Speaker 1>then as things stagnated and people got you know, missed
<v Speaker 1>out and didn't care about a couple of Assassin's Creeds.
<v Speaker 1>Suddenly the money they're making per game dropped and they
<v Speaker 1>put them in a really bad position. So they have
<v Speaker 1>to do something. They have to change something. It's just,
<v Speaker 1>of course, that something does not ever involve getting rid
<v Speaker 1>of the Gimo family who put them in this position
<v Speaker 1>in the first place. Instead, it's all these other people
<v Speaker 1>who always pay like always. Oh my god, All right,
<v Speaker 1>let's take a break.
<v Speaker 2>We'll come back.
<v Speaker 1>We'll talk about Mario Tennis fever, which is like Ima
<v Speaker 1>sneaking that's coming up on us real fast.
<v Speaker 2>Here.
<v Speaker 1>There's some details about that and plenty more. We'll get
<v Speaker 1>to it after these breadth the messages. If you want
<v Speaker 1>to skip out on these, we have ad free versions
<v Speaker 1>of the video and audio show. You can get that
<v Speaker 1>by going to GiantBomb dot com slash join.
<v Speaker 2>We will be right back.
<v Speaker 4>Hi, dog, it's time to start the show. Are you
<v Speaker 4>ready to go?
<v Speaker 2>Uh? Yeah, dude, I'm ready.
<v Speaker 4>No, grum, you look like you are in a den
<v Speaker 4>of iniquity right now.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what that means, and I don't know
<v Speaker 2>what you want. It's not like I have a home studio.
<v Speaker 2>Jan Yes, you do.
<v Speaker 4>The computers that main Gear built for us have Nvidia
<v Speaker 4>g Force RTX Chippoo's in them and with the Nvidia
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<v Speaker 4>like noise removal.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, I.
<v Speaker 1>Guess I have a fan on. Well, it's hot, I'm
<v Speaker 1>not gonna turn that off. Let me just hit this
<v Speaker 1>right here? Is that any better?
<v Speaker 2>Jan?
<v Speaker 4>Much better? We can clean up your shot with auto
<v Speaker 4>frame and video noise removal and grub. You can even
<v Speaker 4>make it look like you were paying attention using the
<v Speaker 4>eye contact tool.
<v Speaker 2>So I could still watch my stories.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yes you can. Nvidia Broadcasts is a universal plugin
<v Speaker 4>that works with most live streaming, voice chat, and video
<v Speaker 4>conferencing apps. It's supported on any n Video g Force
<v Speaker 4>ArtX GPU, And since I'm using the Nvidia Studio drivers,
<v Speaker 4>I'll get stable, optimized performance in Adobe Photoshop, DA Vinci
<v Speaker 4>Resolve in all the other apps that I need to
<v Speaker 4>use to fix our mistakes in post.
<v Speaker 2>You know what.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you to ban gear and in Nvidia for supplying
<v Speaker 1>are in video studio PCs, in video broadcast your AI
<v Speaker 1>powered home studio, and in video studio. The software advantage
<v Speaker 1>for all creators. Jan I'm not even looking at the camera.
<v Speaker 4>At all right now, Grub stop stop looking at me.
<v Speaker 2>I haven't looked at you forever. We are back.
<v Speaker 1>It's Game Mess Mornings. I'm Jeff Grubb. That's Jason Finelli.
<v Speaker 2>We talked.
<v Speaker 1>We were talking about the same names earlier. I'm sure
<v Speaker 1>I said it before. My brother's name is Jason, and
<v Speaker 1>soone in a chat's like my brother or my sister
<v Speaker 1>married a guy with the same name as me.
<v Speaker 2>I did that.
<v Speaker 1>My have a sister named Stephanie. So it kept all confusing.
<v Speaker 1>There's only so many names. That's the big problem.
<v Speaker 3>Listen, working these families out, you know sometimes like me,
<v Speaker 3>you you're not born with an older brother, but that
<v Speaker 3>at seventeen one just pops out of nowhere. Ye, So yeah,
<v Speaker 3>you know every day it happens. And I yeah, it's
<v Speaker 3>it's families are weird. That's all there is to it.
<v Speaker 3>Families and names are weird. We should all go the
<v Speaker 3>same name. And I do.
<v Speaker 1>You have like any like when I was a kid,
<v Speaker 1>there was like five Lisa's in my class, and apparently
<v Speaker 1>no one's been named Lisa in thirty years or something
<v Speaker 1>like that.
<v Speaker 3>Oh what was it? There was a name? So yeah,
<v Speaker 3>there was. In my grade school. There were two Matthews,
<v Speaker 3>two desires There was another name that was really really
<v Speaker 3>really really ubiquitous, and now I can't remember what it
<v Speaker 3>was because it's now gone. But yeah, but Matthew and
<v Speaker 3>Desiree are the two Desiree. In particular, the fact there
<v Speaker 3>was two of them, it was very weird but nice people,
<v Speaker 3>don't get me wrong, but it just hadn't heard that
<v Speaker 3>name before then, and I think I've heard it maybe
<v Speaker 3>once since Matthew has always been ubiquitous.
<v Speaker 2>That's never going anywhere.
<v Speaker 1>But because I mean any like Bible book name right,
<v Speaker 1>is probably not going to go anywhere for the most part,
<v Speaker 1>at least the ones that have been common, those.
<v Speaker 2>Like matt and all those will continue to become.
<v Speaker 3>But someone that brings up in chat, the names that
<v Speaker 3>will never be called anymore. I think Karen may be dead. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>Karen name.
<v Speaker 1>Like the reason though, like Lisa just like was just like, no,
<v Speaker 1>we're not naming kids Lisa anymore.
<v Speaker 2>That's not a Lisa.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and that's a weird sentence for me to say,
<v Speaker 3>because Karen is my mother, so I shouldn't say Karen
<v Speaker 3>maybe dead.
<v Speaker 1>Ever, I mean, my mom is Bev Beverly, and then
<v Speaker 1>my grandma's name is Grace, and that's like, I think
<v Speaker 1>Grace is probably could have, could have a comeback, But
<v Speaker 1>Beverly's probably going to be on the sideline for a bit,
<v Speaker 1>and that'll come back one day.
<v Speaker 3>Prob Greece is a very popular middle name. I've heard
<v Speaker 3>that as a middle name many, many, many, many times.
<v Speaker 3>But first name, there's one, There is one. A friend
<v Speaker 3>of my daughter's in dance class is a Grace. So yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I could see that happening too.
<v Speaker 2>All right, let's see here, we'll keep going.
<v Speaker 1>Let's talk about that Mario Tennis Fever, which you and
<v Speaker 1>me both were like, oh, yeah, that exists.
<v Speaker 2>It's coming out.
<v Speaker 1>It's going to feature thirty eight playable characters, according to Nintendo.
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo revealed that the next big release for Thenintendo Switch To.
<v Speaker 1>This is the next big release for the Switch to.
<v Speaker 1>Mario Tennis Fever will have the most playable characters in
<v Speaker 1>this series history. The game will feature thirty eight playable characters,
<v Speaker 1>which naturally includes Princess Peach and Princess Daisy. Pre Orders
<v Speaker 1>are now live for Mario Tennis Fever, which launches the
<v Speaker 1>twelfth of February. Talk about five ish weeks less than that,
<v Speaker 1>so yeah, it's gonna be our no time.
<v Speaker 2>And it is switched to exclusive thirty eight characters.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, it sounds like one of the things they're
<v Speaker 1>doing here could be like a Mario Kart World situation
<v Speaker 1>where let's just throw in a bunch of these other
<v Speaker 1>Mario like enemy characters.
<v Speaker 2>I would be fine with that.
<v Speaker 1>This is Hey, this is the series that previously gave
<v Speaker 1>us Wa Luigi.
<v Speaker 2>And things like that.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like, yeah, because they Mario needed a doubles
<v Speaker 1>partner and they went that way, So yeah, they could
<v Speaker 1>maybe have even some like new characters, some new evil
<v Speaker 1>versions of characters. I would love to see that. I
<v Speaker 1>I'm ready for this game. I hope, Jason. My hope
<v Speaker 1>for the Mario Sports games this generation is Nintendo kind
<v Speaker 1>of gets out of their own way and stops doing
<v Speaker 1>the trickling out of content that they did last time
<v Speaker 1>around for every single Mario Sports game, where it's like
<v Speaker 1>clearly they were finished, and they just chopped it up
<v Speaker 1>and just delivered a lot of stuff in the weeks
<v Speaker 1>and months after it came out for no good reason
<v Speaker 1>other than to make it feel like it's still relevant.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, you don't do that for any of your
<v Speaker 1>other games, and you never drop the price and they
<v Speaker 1>continue to sell. Really well, what's the difference here, why
<v Speaker 1>are these sports games different?
<v Speaker 2>Whatever?
<v Speaker 1>And then just recognize that while you treat all these
<v Speaker 1>as party games and that's fine, a lot of people
<v Speaker 1>want to play these games online with their friends or
<v Speaker 1>in online tournaments. Make the online multiplayer side of these
<v Speaker 1>games just as robust as they were on the three DS.
<v Speaker 1>You don't even have to go beyond that. Just make
<v Speaker 1>it so there's like like the Mario Golf three DS
<v Speaker 1>tournament system was perfect. Do something like that for all
<v Speaker 1>these games and.
<v Speaker 2>That'll be it. That's all you gotta do.
<v Speaker 1>And then, because the gameplay, even on the Switch games
<v Speaker 1>was immaculate, they always felt really really good. In fact,
<v Speaker 1>they're probably the best they've ever been. So just do
<v Speaker 1>that here, get the online going, have all the fun
<v Speaker 1>party stuff as well, and I'll be happy. I'm not expecting,
<v Speaker 1>you know, the Camelot RPG single player stuff anymore from
<v Speaker 1>these games ever again, So I'm hopeful that they can
<v Speaker 1>kind of like they maybe learned a lesson and we'll
<v Speaker 1>respond to that. If I'll tell you what, If this
<v Speaker 1>comes out and it feels exactly like all those switch ones,
<v Speaker 1>I'll be deeply disappointed.
<v Speaker 3>So will I because I agree with you one hundred percent.
<v Speaker 3>The three DS sports era was probably one of the
<v Speaker 3>best since you know, the we with the motion controls
<v Speaker 3>and everything like that. But even before then, I contend
<v Speaker 3>the GameCube I think is the best era for yeah,
<v Speaker 3>a lot of sports games probably, So yeah, I am
<v Speaker 3>with you on this. I am hoping, hoping, hoping that
<v Speaker 3>we get some fun and unique characters out of these
<v Speaker 3>thirty eight. Specifically, I love the idea of them going
<v Speaker 3>all in with more evil ones. Give me woes, Alena,
<v Speaker 3>give me I'm saying, she's just real sad.
<v Speaker 2>That's fun.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, well you could do woa you could do.
<v Speaker 1>I'm trying to think if there's wee people in chat
<v Speaker 1>saying wat to witch wat wode Okay.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god, wo But like the on the opposite route,
<v Speaker 3>give me like peaceful bowser.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, like a bowser who was just stoned out of
<v Speaker 2>his mind, so he's like.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, like he's stressed, like the dude, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Or like you in the back of a g d
<v Speaker 3>Q stream exactly. But yeah, I mean, I mean, is
<v Speaker 3>this where Bowsett becomes a thing? Are they finally going
<v Speaker 3>to do that? Remember that hole that opened up?
<v Speaker 2>Remember it? When do I ever not think about it? Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>They get M's instead and they go from bad to good.
<v Speaker 1>So it'd be Mauser. That's good, although we have Oh,
<v Speaker 1>they should put Mouser in this game. Oh my god,
<v Speaker 1>that's what the That's what they should be doing, is
<v Speaker 1>mining all like the Super Mario Brothers two enemy characters
<v Speaker 1>that they didn't they did, like Wart should be in there.
<v Speaker 2>Wart should be going even further.
<v Speaker 3>Give me to Tanga, but he's in the ship from
<v Speaker 3>Super Mario Land. He doesn't walk, He floats like modoch
<v Speaker 3>Give that's what I want. I want weird whimsy shit
<v Speaker 3>in my Mario sports games and New Baseball Where the
<v Speaker 3>hell is baseball?
<v Speaker 1>But anyway, Yeah, that's that's the most surprising one that
<v Speaker 1>they didn't do, especially because baseball's never it's always been
<v Speaker 1>really popular in Japan, never been as popular as it
<v Speaker 1>is now. It's it's like the sport in Japan right now,
<v Speaker 1>and it feels obsurd that Nintendo, who loves still making
<v Speaker 1>games for Japan, hasn't taken advantage of that. I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>ask how many characters were in Mario Tennis for Switch,
<v Speaker 1>because I don't remember what that one was called.
<v Speaker 2>Aces there you go, it had thirty playable characters.
<v Speaker 1>Uh so we're getting at least eight more out of
<v Speaker 1>the gate here, and that had characters like uh, Pauline,
<v Speaker 1>comech chain shop Boom Boom and fire piranha plant. Uh so, okay,
<v Speaker 1>so eight more characters does feel like they could go
<v Speaker 1>even deeper here, but it's maybe not like it's gonna
<v Speaker 1>be a Smash Brother's roster where it's like, oh my god, I.
<v Speaker 2>Can't believe this character is in there. But still Donkey
<v Speaker 2>Kong is in this game, right.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, they'll they'll have.
<v Speaker 3>The playing I'll never lose a tennis game in my life,
<v Speaker 3>or like, what would evil Wallen? Is that the name
<v Speaker 3>evil Pauline?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, wall Uh huh.
<v Speaker 3>She looks like she looks like that one principal teacher
<v Speaker 3>from Matilda. She's just real, like.
<v Speaker 2>Jink says Wonky Kong that could be walky walk excuse me,
<v Speaker 2>wonky walk there.
<v Speaker 3>Divorced Cougar says, poppy Kong and tennis cloth and go
<v Speaker 3>get a shower broth bass man Balzette. We said, I
<v Speaker 3>love these ideas, keep them coming. Uh let's let's get
<v Speaker 3>let's get some other franchises in there too, other you know,
<v Speaker 3>Link and Animal Crossing and uh Splatoon. They all can
<v Speaker 3>drive go karts, why can't they? They play tennis that
<v Speaker 3>that they're they're so ripe thea. Then again, I guess
<v Speaker 3>you don't want everything to become Smash Brothers, right, That's
<v Speaker 3>there's like.
<v Speaker 2>They don't want to.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they kind of want like the you know what
<v Speaker 1>was the Mario Kart world was not Smash cart right,
<v Speaker 1>So that's true. There's always chances like that's the direction
<v Speaker 1>to go over time. But I think when they're making
<v Speaker 1>these Mario sports games, there's something about just keeping in
<v Speaker 1>the Mario universe for the most part that they seem
<v Speaker 1>most interested in doing.
<v Speaker 2>Well now here.
<v Speaker 1>Pretty soon it's a couple of weeks we probably start
<v Speaker 1>getting previews for this game.
<v Speaker 2>So, uh, where's the.
<v Speaker 3>Weird overview trailer that drops at nine o'clock on a
<v Speaker 3>Tuesday night.
<v Speaker 2>Where's that? Ye, it's probably imminent, It's probably.
<v Speaker 1>All right, uh, which is Hulu app will be discontinued
<v Speaker 1>next month. This is from Liam Doolin at Nintendo Life.
<v Speaker 1>It's let's see February fifth, That's right, February fifth, twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty six.
<v Speaker 2>Support will officially end.
<v Speaker 1>It's I think part of this is like, isn't Hulu
<v Speaker 1>kind of getting phased into other stuff here? But also
<v Speaker 1>like it's not like they're replacing it with a Disney
<v Speaker 1>Plus app or something like that. These movie and TV
<v Speaker 1>streaming services just don't really exist on switch to at all.
<v Speaker 2>Right, is there even a YouTube app on there? And
<v Speaker 2>they never really were It's very popular, yeah, switch Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>But they were never really popular on Switch one overall,
<v Speaker 1>mostly because a lot of times they didn't exist, Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>wasn't interested in it. And it's like that's a little
<v Speaker 1>funny because like, when you think back to the early
<v Speaker 1>days of streaming Netflix, the like one of, if not
<v Speaker 1>the most popular platform to do that on was the
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo Wii. You get your risk, you put it in
<v Speaker 1>your system, and you would stream Netflix on the Wii.
<v Speaker 1>And I'm sure Nintendo was well aware of this and
<v Speaker 1>was like seeing the data, and all other companies were
<v Speaker 1>seeing the data at the time, like Xbox three sixty,
<v Speaker 1>where they're like, man, a lot of people are watching
<v Speaker 1>TV and movies and streaming stuff on the Xbox, we
<v Speaker 1>should make the Xbox one the all in one TV.
<v Speaker 2>Platform or whatever.
<v Speaker 1>And it's like Nintendo's like, well, we don't make money
<v Speaker 1>from it, so we're gonna go do the stuff we
<v Speaker 1>make money from, which is making games, and we're not
<v Speaker 1>even gonna really care about this stuff going forward, even
<v Speaker 1>though we kind of came associated with one of our platforms,
<v Speaker 1>and that's it feels like the difference where in a
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo's like, we don't care to position this as an
<v Speaker 1>entertainment device. This is our Nintendo gaming device, is what
<v Speaker 1>we've made here. And yeah, one other thing, the Hulu app.
<v Speaker 1>I'm pretty sure it's correct that a lot of people
<v Speaker 1>who used to work at Factor five made this Hulu
<v Speaker 1>app for the Nintendo Switch and they like use their
<v Speaker 1>their tech Nintendo technical knowledge to get it running in
<v Speaker 1>pretty well.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, it's kind of an interesting thing there.
<v Speaker 1>I Like, people just have smart TVs at this point,
<v Speaker 1>so there's no I don't see much of a point
<v Speaker 1>for these apps to exist on something like a switch.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe the Xbox PlayStation. Those have run these apps pretty well,
<v Speaker 1>but switch would be superfluous.
<v Speaker 2>Right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Nintendo knows they have a console that it's targeted
<v Speaker 3>towards kids and families, and they also know that kids
<v Speaker 3>and families have iPads, smartphones, and Amazon Fire tablets, So
<v Speaker 3>they don't care about streaming. They don't care. They care
<v Speaker 3>about the games and the online stuff. That's where they
<v Speaker 3>That's honestly where it should be, right. Their focus should
<v Speaker 3>be on what they know best, in my opinion, So
<v Speaker 3>if they're not, if I don't have to worry about
<v Speaker 3>my kids using their switch for the YouTube app, I'm
<v Speaker 3>fine with that, because I don't know, that's a whole
<v Speaker 3>other can of worms. What upsets me more about this
<v Speaker 3>is actually not related to the Switch. It's the Hulu
<v Speaker 3>app is going away apparently completely right, and it's just
<v Speaker 3>gonna all be Disney Plus, and there has been no
<v Speaker 3>mention yet about how that will affect people who subscribe
<v Speaker 3>to Hulu Live to get their live TV. Like me, Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>what am I supposed to do? Am I doing Disney
<v Speaker 3>Plus Live? That's fine with me, I've watched the mon.
<v Speaker 2>Can I know? Can I know? Please?
<v Speaker 3>Like my wife watches Hulu in the background while she
<v Speaker 3>works all the time. She puts on you know, whatever
<v Speaker 3>TV station she wants to watch. What is she going
<v Speaker 3>to be able to do that? Like, it's very very rare.
<v Speaker 3>Do do we have to do two b now just
<v Speaker 3>so we can watch TV for free? Like, what's what's
<v Speaker 3>the deal?
<v Speaker 2>Can you? Can you tell us that? Please?
<v Speaker 3>But from a switch getting back to a non selfish
<v Speaker 3>switch perspective, yeah, I don't think they care, and I
<v Speaker 3>don't think they really have to, because it does the
<v Speaker 3>switch to is not made exponentially better for the streaming apps.
<v Speaker 3>It would be incrementally better, and I guess they don't
<v Speaker 3>think it's worth enough money to even try.
<v Speaker 2>Yep uh. Someone said, well why and head all day?
<v Speaker 2>Someone else where way earlier.
<v Speaker 3>I miss, I meant to say this to you, it says,
<v Speaker 3>they said, bev Grub sounds like she takes no mess,
<v Speaker 3>no mess mornings with Beam.
<v Speaker 2>That's correct, that's about right there. It is all right,
<v Speaker 2>let's keep going here.
<v Speaker 1>Dragon Quest seven Reimagined demo is now available on the
<v Speaker 1>e Shop. This is from my Nintendo News Square Nix
<v Speaker 1>has announced that the dragon Quest seven Reimagined demo is
<v Speaker 1>now available on the Switch and Switch to. You can
<v Speaker 1>download the demo from the e shop, and your save
<v Speaker 1>data transfers over to the full game, which launches in February.
<v Speaker 1>Always a welcome thing. Always gets to be more excited
<v Speaker 1>about these demos. I continue to think for dragon Quest
<v Speaker 1>seven Reimagined looks incredible. I even the guy with a big,
<v Speaker 1>dumb like chiseled face who looks big and dumb, I
<v Speaker 1>love it, Like he looks like Matt Damon from Team America,
<v Speaker 1>and I want to play as that character real bad.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go try this demo out.
<v Speaker 1>I think there's like I'm already starting to pile up stuff.
<v Speaker 1>I want to play that meo game. I'm hearing good
<v Speaker 1>things about that, Like I've not touched it yet, but
<v Speaker 1>that comes out on game Pass on like the twentieth
<v Speaker 1>or whatever and comes out for everybody on the twentieth.
<v Speaker 1>I've been talking about big hops.
<v Speaker 2>I want to play those games.
<v Speaker 1>And then there's that massive like Star Wars full conversion
<v Speaker 1>mod for Starfield, like apparently it's really easy to install
<v Speaker 1>like all the two hundred mods for that thing.
<v Speaker 2>Now you kind of just put press a button and
<v Speaker 2>it does it for you.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, I should do that, but it's like, you
<v Speaker 1>know what, I should make time for Dragon Quest seven reimagine,
<v Speaker 1>just because it's like, I've had fun with Dragon Quest
<v Speaker 1>in the past, even as someone who's not a huge
<v Speaker 1>RPG guy, and this one looks like it's right up
<v Speaker 1>my alley.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, I'm gonna give it a shot. How about you.
<v Speaker 3>I am going to endorse that decision because at New
<v Speaker 3>York Comic Con this year, I went hands on with
<v Speaker 3>Dragon Quest seven Reimagined, and yeah, it's got the juice.
<v Speaker 2>I think.
<v Speaker 3>I think that that the changes that they're making from
<v Speaker 3>the original, if you've played the original and you're wondering,
<v Speaker 3>what are they going to do about these things the
<v Speaker 3>way that they've streamlined it for a modern audience, but
<v Speaker 3>it's still stupid hard, Like that demo that the boss
<v Speaker 3>fight in that demo was very difficult and I loved it.
<v Speaker 3>So I think I think this is going to be
<v Speaker 3>one that is going to catch a lot of people
<v Speaker 3>off guard just because they hear Reimagined and they think, oh,
<v Speaker 3>it's just a no, no, no. This is going to be
<v Speaker 3>the kind of remake that I don't know if it's
<v Speaker 3>going to be like remakes one oh one, but it's
<v Speaker 3>definitely going to be one that people are going to
<v Speaker 3>be very excited about. I think like they said that, Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>someone in Chatcha said it took an eighty two one
<v Speaker 3>hundred hours to complete the original one, but they were
<v Speaker 3>talking about this one like maybe fifty sixty.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they're they're editing it down a lot, like that's it.
<v Speaker 1>That's like one of the reasons to do this game
<v Speaker 1>this way. It's like, oh, yeah, make will probably make
<v Speaker 1>this game a lot better by doing that.
<v Speaker 2>There was also a.
<v Speaker 3>Really cool change to the to the job system, and
<v Speaker 3>I have to remind myself what exactly it's called, but
<v Speaker 3>basically you can have two at once and like they
<v Speaker 3>sort of compliment each other.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah yeah, but.
<v Speaker 3>You can have like two classes at once and you
<v Speaker 3>can like dabble in each of them at the same time.
<v Speaker 3>You might not get the same buff as you would
<v Speaker 3>if you were just one. It's very very cool. I
<v Speaker 3>I think I really think people are gonna enjoy this lot.
<v Speaker 3>This should be one on your fantasy critic radars people. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>ifs are happening. I don't know how many leagues you're in.
<v Speaker 3>I'm into and always looking for more.
<v Speaker 2>I will be into I think here. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>See, so I find it fascinating, I really do. But this,
<v Speaker 3>this one should definitely be in your in your consideration
<v Speaker 3>for first couple of rounds.
<v Speaker 2>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm looking forward to trying it and I'll just
<v Speaker 1>you know, as soon as we're done here, Jason, I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna go download it so I have it there on
<v Speaker 1>my switch and I might even like boot it up.
<v Speaker 2>So like whenever I do that thing where it's like.
<v Speaker 1>I want to play a game, I'm gonna go play
<v Speaker 1>this game on my switch and then I turn my
<v Speaker 1>switch and the last game I was playing that I
<v Speaker 1>forgot because I'm stupid, Uh, pops up like oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and then I just keep playing it. I'm gonna do
<v Speaker 1>that to my elf with this game, and that'll make
<v Speaker 1>me play it more like you are likely to play it.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. I don't know about you. I don't know,
<v Speaker 2>but this demo sounds like it's a grub snack.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, I can make it one of the focuses
<v Speaker 1>of a grub snack. Yeah, we'll see grub snacks happening
<v Speaker 1>next Monday. Everybody look out for that. That's for premium members. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>Final Fantasy Tactics the Eviliest Chronicle sells a million copies
<v Speaker 1>in just a few months. They posted this on the
<v Speaker 1>Japanese social media account for Final Fantasy Tactics with the
<v Speaker 1>big poster.
<v Speaker 2>It says one million copies sold.
<v Speaker 1>That's got to be pretty good for a Final Fantasy
<v Speaker 1>Tactics game. I wonder if it's like the fastest selling
<v Speaker 1>Final Fantasy Tactics game ever. Almost certainly is, because there's
<v Speaker 1>a lot more people playing games now than there were
<v Speaker 1>even back in the day, for like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance,
<v Speaker 1>let alone the PlayStation days where it's like if you're
<v Speaker 1>a success if you sell five hundred thousand copies. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I think gotta be good news for fans in this series.
<v Speaker 1>I'm excited about what this could say to Square Emix,
<v Speaker 1>and I hope what it says is make a new
<v Speaker 1>one exactly in this style, like exactly the same in
<v Speaker 1>terms of presentation and the voice acting all that stuff.
<v Speaker 1>You could just take this with a new story and
<v Speaker 1>some new tactics ideas, some new fun jobs, and go
<v Speaker 1>I hope that's what happens next.
<v Speaker 2>What do you think?
<v Speaker 3>I think I agree with that one hundred percent. But
<v Speaker 3>I also think that if you are one of the
<v Speaker 3>people who like Tactics Advance, there should be bells going
<v Speaker 3>off in your head that if this one can sell
<v Speaker 3>a million with its remaking a couple of months, there's
<v Speaker 3>no reason why the advanced games couldn't get the same treatment.
<v Speaker 3>It might take a little more work, but or even
<v Speaker 3>the DS one A two was on DS correct, Yeah, right,
<v Speaker 3>I think it's because it's Sea. They didn't want to
<v Speaker 3>call it advanced too, because it wasn't on a Game
<v Speaker 3>Boy Advance. I think that's Rightically, A two and a three,
<v Speaker 3>I think somebody just try to me a three. But
<v Speaker 3>either way, those those advanced games I think are now prime.
<v Speaker 2>To understanding they want a three to three.
<v Speaker 3>Sorry sorry, sorry, I uh. I think that would be
<v Speaker 3>the next course of action over a new one. Give
<v Speaker 3>the advanced people what they want, and then maybe you
<v Speaker 3>combine them into a new game where somehow their stories intersect,
<v Speaker 3>if that's even possible.
<v Speaker 1>I think for me, the ideal scenario here is they
<v Speaker 1>put all the work into remaking this one. Just put
<v Speaker 1>out a collection of A and A and A two
<v Speaker 1>advance in A two and put that in like into
<v Speaker 1>a bundle with maybe some small upgrades, and get to
<v Speaker 1>work on the next new one, because those advanced games
<v Speaker 1>still hold up pretty well, and advanced game collections Game
<v Speaker 1>Boy Advanced collections have been great, the the cast Mania
<v Speaker 1>one's been great, all the Mega Man stuff that was
<v Speaker 1>on Advance, Oh yeah, great section.
<v Speaker 2>Election, and then let's let's get on to the next
<v Speaker 2>new one.
<v Speaker 1>As someone who preferred Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, I don't
<v Speaker 1>need a lot done to those games, and I think
<v Speaker 1>they people could go back and play those now and
<v Speaker 1>mostly get the same experience I did. Maybe it could
<v Speaker 1>start even faster, although that game does start faster than Tactics.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if they want to go and give
<v Speaker 1>those games the same treatment that this one got.
<v Speaker 2>I would welcome that.
<v Speaker 1>That would be awesome, But mostly I think they should
<v Speaker 1>be taking this as a sign as make a new one.
<v Speaker 1>Make this as like a sort of an equal but
<v Speaker 1>different path over here to whatever they're doing with the
<v Speaker 1>core Final Fantasy games, and you could sort of just
<v Speaker 1>like treat this one as something that they can afford
<v Speaker 1>to make more frequently, and I have to have the
<v Speaker 1>massive budgets and still get Final Fantasy out there and
<v Speaker 1>keep it relevant and keep the sickouse happy.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I can't disagree with any of that at all.
<v Speaker 3>Clearly sounds like there's a taste for it, even if
<v Speaker 3>it's just voice acted tactics. That seems to be a
<v Speaker 3>big Everyone seems to love voice acting in this game.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, good for them. I'm glad to see that.
<v Speaker 3>And yeah, hopefully this means that they realize that the
<v Speaker 3>tactics part of Final Fantasy Is has its own level
<v Speaker 3>of viability. Maybe not quite to the level of the
<v Speaker 3>main core franchise, but people have a hunger for this
<v Speaker 3>that is worth exploring for sure.
<v Speaker 1>All Right, last story I have written down here sort
<v Speaker 1>of tangentially related to video games. New report says Dave
<v Speaker 1>Filoni is about to run.
<v Speaker 2>All of Star Wars.
<v Speaker 1>This is from Paul Tassi at Forbes that there's rumors
<v Speaker 1>going around that Kathleen Kennedy plans to step down soon
<v Speaker 1>and Dave Feloni and so I think someone else will
<v Speaker 1>kind of step into her roles, but Dave Filoni would
<v Speaker 1>be the ones calling the shots.
<v Speaker 2>For the most part, I worry.
<v Speaker 1>About this just as someone who has kind of soured
<v Speaker 1>on Felony recently.
<v Speaker 2>I think that Ahsoka show was bad.
<v Speaker 1>It was real bad, and I'm not excited about Mandalorian
<v Speaker 1>and Grogu. I think the Mandalorian show kind of went
<v Speaker 1>sour pretty fast as well. Showed that I thought had
<v Speaker 1>a good sort of kung fu ness to it early on,
<v Speaker 1>where it's like this wandering guy going from town to
<v Speaker 1>town getting in stuff. Early on, I'm like that, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's fine, this is acceptable, and it kind of just
<v Speaker 1>turned into something else by the end, and it had
<v Speaker 1>to like serve this larger Mando universe that does not
<v Speaker 1>have the juice.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. I think that's where I'm at with it.
<v Speaker 1>Like I think Foloni stuff right now, at least the
<v Speaker 1>live action stuff doesn't have the juice.
<v Speaker 2>Some Yeah, I'm a little.
<v Speaker 1>Concerned, But I guess my question to you, Jason would
<v Speaker 1>be like, what do you think could this could be
<v Speaker 1>for the future of Star Wars video games, because it
<v Speaker 1>does seem like that's getting to a good place where
<v Speaker 1>we're getting that Star Wars Racer, we are getting a
<v Speaker 1>new Knights of the Old Republic game faith of the
<v Speaker 1>Old Republic. Seems like the people over there that are
<v Speaker 1>responsible for the video games have a good idea of
<v Speaker 1>what they can be doing and are doing it. I
<v Speaker 1>would have faith that actually Feloni would be all for that,
<v Speaker 1>and so maybe I should have some optimism when he's
<v Speaker 1>in charge, at least for the video games.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, he cut his teeth in the animated Clone Wars
<v Speaker 3>and Rebels show, so he knows the the benefits of
<v Speaker 3>side projects that aren't normally in the Star Wars sphere.
<v Speaker 3>Like back when those those shows came out, there weren't
<v Speaker 3>animated Star Wars shows. They didn't exist. So yeah, I
<v Speaker 3>would like to think that he has an open mind
<v Speaker 3>for anything regarding Star Wars in this video game space.
<v Speaker 3>He had to have seen that Jedi Fallen Order and
<v Speaker 3>Jedi Survivor were very, very good games. Outlaws, despite its
<v Speaker 3>slow start, now seems to be in a place where
<v Speaker 3>people were really enjoying it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I think I understand your apprehension when it comes to
<v Speaker 3>the live action stuff, but I do think that he's
<v Speaker 3>a decent choice for the entire entirety of Star Wars now,
<v Speaker 3>whether whether who knows, maybe we go watch Mandalorian and
<v Speaker 3>Grogu and he goes this completely different direction. It goes
<v Speaker 3>back to his roots, and everybody is like, yes, felony forever.
<v Speaker 1>But I mean, what I hope happens there is he
<v Speaker 1>kind of like caps off that Mando universe, but it
<v Speaker 1>feels like they're kind of just started instead.
<v Speaker 2>So I don't know. But but maybe not.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe maybe because he's going to be in this role
<v Speaker 1>that Kathleen Kennedy Kennedy was in, maybe he'll have to
<v Speaker 1>sort of step back and sort of let other people
<v Speaker 1>kind of take on the roles and he can focus
<v Speaker 1>on the stuff that he is most passionate about, which
<v Speaker 1>you know, when he was doing those animated shows, they
<v Speaker 1>were good. Rebels is very good, and so he can
<v Speaker 1>do stuff that is obviously worthy of this franchest that
<v Speaker 1>I love a lot, And I know a lot of
<v Speaker 1>people don't care about it anymore, and that's that's fine,
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, I still worry a little bit. I think
<v Speaker 1>that I will accept this because what other choice do
<v Speaker 1>I have. And I'll be interested to see can he
<v Speaker 1>make these like live action movies work and if they can't,
<v Speaker 1>can he pivot?
<v Speaker 2>We'll see.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, now he will have my full endorsement forever. If
<v Speaker 3>he green lights a Master's of terras Kasi reboot, there.
<v Speaker 1>Should be a master Taskazi like multimedia event. There should
<v Speaker 1>be a game, there should be a there should be books.
<v Speaker 1>There should be a movie.
<v Speaker 2>Our show. Maybe that's a good show with like a
<v Speaker 2>great tournament arc. That would be awesome.
<v Speaker 3>I'm the only idiot who one hundred percent unlocked everything
<v Speaker 3>in that game from a Blockbuster rental.
<v Speaker 1>What do you mean that for when you already have
<v Speaker 1>fock and horror when you boot the game.
<v Speaker 3>Up the greatest sound effects of all times? Uh No,
<v Speaker 3>I I think that game has potential.
<v Speaker 2>It just was, you know, dull shit at the time,
<v Speaker 2>one of.
<v Speaker 1>Them one as bad as it is its reputation, it's bad,
<v Speaker 1>but it's not as bad.
<v Speaker 2>As people make it out to be. The worst fighting
<v Speaker 2>no way.
<v Speaker 3>No, it's definitely not that uh not when tattoo assassins exists.
<v Speaker 3>But I I you know, it's it's there's there's potential here,
<v Speaker 3>And I think a name like Filoni gives you more
<v Speaker 3>optimism than pessimism, healthy healthy uh amount of apprehension as
<v Speaker 3>you mentioned, that's right in the middle there. But I
<v Speaker 3>think there's more to like here than there is to
<v Speaker 3>be dreading. Granted, everything in Disney right now has a
<v Speaker 3>asterisk next to it, right, but this one is just
<v Speaker 3>he has me good lately. Let's let's see what goes
<v Speaker 3>from there. So I'm fine with it. I guess just fine.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's see here, let's get to the poll
<v Speaker 1>question from Monday. I am bringing up the results right
<v Speaker 1>now over on YouTube dot com slash at gia bomb
<v Speaker 1>under the posts there we have it here. It is
<v Speaker 1>have you played Avatar Frontiers at Pandora? Eighty three percent
<v Speaker 1>said no, seventeen percent said yes, maybe a larger number
<v Speaker 1>than I was even expecting. I felt like that game
<v Speaker 1>came and went. But it is one of those Ubisoft
<v Speaker 1>games that does just sort of get a million discounts
<v Speaker 1>all the time, and they did a decent job of
<v Speaker 1>positioning this game with new DLC. That is related to
<v Speaker 1>the new movie the day the movie came out, which
<v Speaker 1>is not something we've seen very frequently, like any sort
<v Speaker 1>of big sort of cash in or a suddenly taken
<v Speaker 1>advantage of a new movie coming out the day it
<v Speaker 1>comes out. Even going back to the days when we
<v Speaker 1>were getting a ton of like movie tying games, Jason,
<v Speaker 1>it would be like the game's going to come out
<v Speaker 1>a couple months later or something like that. So you know,
<v Speaker 1>kudos to that team for getting that ready. Seems to
<v Speaker 1>have helped. I like that game, and I always want
<v Speaker 1>to go back to it, but it feels like one
<v Speaker 1>of those ones where it's like I got a million
<v Speaker 1>other new things to play.
<v Speaker 2>When am I ever going to make time for that.
<v Speaker 1>Any any time spent with Avatar Frontiers of Pandora.
<v Speaker 3>No, but what you just said is exactly how I
<v Speaker 3>feel about it. I want to try it. I want
<v Speaker 3>to see Ubisoft's take on it, because the only far
<v Speaker 3>Cry I believe it or not, that has really stuck
<v Speaker 3>with me since three was Primal. Okay, I feel like
<v Speaker 3>this one has more of the Primal vibe than normal
<v Speaker 3>far Cry does. So yes, I very much want to
<v Speaker 3>check this out and see what they did with it.
<v Speaker 3>I'm also interested to see how the movie tie in
<v Speaker 3>DLC that just came out kind of links up. I
<v Speaker 3>think that's that's an interesting, uh interesting idea there, But
<v Speaker 3>very much. I was very much one of the eighty
<v Speaker 3>three percent, but not by not for lack of want
<v Speaker 3>more for lack of time.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, hopefully I could change out at some.
<v Speaker 1>Point, right I would you know, I would love uh
<v Speaker 1>for this sort of thing to happen in the future,
<v Speaker 1>like if there was a Starfighter tie in for Star
<v Speaker 1>Wars Outlaws at some point. Obviously I don't think that
<v Speaker 1>could like line up timeline wise perfectly, but like they
<v Speaker 1>could touch on the same subjects. So if there's like
<v Speaker 1>some mcguffin in there there, it could show up in
<v Speaker 1>the game and they could have some just a small
<v Speaker 1>DLC that that does that. I would enjoy something like that.
<v Speaker 1>I hope that this experiment kind of worked out well
<v Speaker 1>enough that we could they could consider more of that
<v Speaker 1>going forward. Oh my god, they're doing contra operation galuga on?
<v Speaker 1>Is it the bad game block on Awesome Games?
<v Speaker 2>Done quick? I don't have to check that out.
<v Speaker 3>Well, they there was a whole bid war to get
<v Speaker 3>it to be hard mode and it won, so now
<v Speaker 3>they're suffering through it all.
<v Speaker 2>Incredible.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's see, we have a new poll question
<v Speaker 1>that we'll get to here in a second.
<v Speaker 2>Do we come up with one on the fly?
<v Speaker 1>And before we do that, though, Jason Fonelly, why don't
<v Speaker 1>you tell people where they can hunt you on the
<v Speaker 1>Internet where you have going on and all that good stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Jason Fidelli dot com on Blue Sky, my most active
<v Speaker 3>social media platform, big Man, Finelle, everywhere else that's Instagram
<v Speaker 3>x for like another minute, that'll be a'll be deleting
<v Speaker 3>that soon, and a couple and anywhere else you can
<v Speaker 3>think to find me writing on game Spot most of
<v Speaker 3>the time. This week the year started with a hands
<v Speaker 3>on of Code Vein two. I played that while I
<v Speaker 3>was out in La for the Game Award. That one
<v Speaker 3>is interesting. I don't do souls likes, as has been
<v Speaker 3>documented here before, but this one I think has a
<v Speaker 3>very interesting story to it. It's a it's completely separate
<v Speaker 3>from CODEVID one. You don't have to play that one.
<v Speaker 3>This one, there's like a going back in time, partnering
<v Speaker 3>with someone to fix something that happen, and then going
<v Speaker 3>back to the present to open this like containment cocoon
<v Speaker 3>they called it. And the boss that you're fighting is
<v Speaker 3>this like monstrous warped version of the companion you had
<v Speaker 3>in the past, And at first they don't realize it's you,
<v Speaker 3>but then they do and they're like the one that
<v Speaker 3>we played in this demo was like you need you
<v Speaker 3>need to finish me before I could change completely, Like
<v Speaker 3>there's a little bit that humanity left in there, and
<v Speaker 3>I thought that was an interesting sort of story beat.
<v Speaker 3>Now am I going to be willing to slog through
<v Speaker 3>hours of souls like frustration to see all of that?
<v Speaker 2>I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know how much time I'm going to have,
<v Speaker 3>But I did enjoy what I played in that demo.
<v Speaker 3>And no, I don't normally like to like put a
<v Speaker 3>lot of emphasis on the event. The press events themselves,
<v Speaker 3>they are fun, but normally it's just like we're there
<v Speaker 3>to play the game, but in the job. Yeah, the
<v Speaker 3>venue that they chose for this apparently in Los Angeles,
<v Speaker 3>they're the oldest cathedral in LA has been verted into
<v Speaker 3>an event space for like weddings and stuff. So like,
<v Speaker 3>I'm playing this game and to my left is like
<v Speaker 3>a Catholic altar. We played it in a church. It
<v Speaker 3>was one so more Again, it's.
<v Speaker 1>Always cool, and like I always respect that you're right,
<v Speaker 1>Like the event itself is not does it shouldn't matter
<v Speaker 1>to most people who are reading or enjoying our content,
<v Speaker 1>But I always want to shout out the people that
<v Speaker 1>make those things possible.
<v Speaker 2>They put a lot of effort in, and.
<v Speaker 3>It really is that the PR teams in general, the
<v Speaker 3>amount of ship that they go through, like even just
<v Speaker 3>hearing the little tangential stories here and there, the stuff
<v Speaker 3>that they have to deal with on a daily basis,
<v Speaker 3>and coming from multiple clients all the time, they are
<v Speaker 3>they are troopers, man, They're sayings absolutely all right.
<v Speaker 1>New poll question, are you getting Mario Tennis fever?
<v Speaker 2>Yes or no?
<v Speaker 1>We'll get the results of that poll on tomorrow show
<v Speaker 1>here on Giant Bomb.
<v Speaker 2>Speaking of Giant Bomb, it's Wednesday.
<v Speaker 1>I will hop into the Knuckles outfit, but I will
<v Speaker 1>not be playing Sonic.
<v Speaker 2>Blasts for the game year or whatever it is.
<v Speaker 4>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>I will be watching Mike continue to suffer through and
<v Speaker 1>really I will be suffering as well. Leisure Suit Larry
<v Speaker 1>Box Office Bust, which has at least two episodes left, probably.
<v Speaker 2>More, probably more All timer? Would you say in all time?
<v Speaker 1>I mean might keep saying it's like it's amazing that
<v Speaker 1>we just now found the worst game of all time.
<v Speaker 1>And it's like every we happens frequently we're like, oh no,
<v Speaker 1>this is the worst one. Now it's leisure Suit Larry,
<v Speaker 1>this is it is un it's irredeemable in every way.
<v Speaker 2>It is. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Pain, it is just pain to watch. It's pain for
<v Speaker 1>like to play apparently. Uh, and nothing funny about it,
<v Speaker 1>I guess, other than Patrick Warburton yelling blog it, which
<v Speaker 1>has entered my vernacular forever.
<v Speaker 3>So I will say though, I love that you have
<v Speaker 3>to watch this in a knuckle suit.
<v Speaker 2>That just makes it. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's the magic of the blight in the bank,
<v Speaker 1>and when Dan Riker gets it, it's especially magical.
<v Speaker 2>So there we go. All right.
<v Speaker 1>Other things are happening on the site, of course, and
<v Speaker 1>tomorrow we're gonna have a voicemail dump truck. We're gonna
<v Speaker 1>be hanging out on Friday playing some games. We'll probably
<v Speaker 1>play some games elsewhere. I feel like one of these
<v Speaker 1>days I'm gonna do an early morning stream. But we'll
<v Speaker 1>see what that what that looks like. I'm still playing
<v Speaker 1>a ton of secretory. I'm trying to get my score
<v Speaker 1>back from Jacob Geller. I probably won't play that on
<v Speaker 1>the side. I should just keep that private in my
<v Speaker 1>own shame, all right, I think that's gonna do it.
<v Speaker 1>Jason Fanillick, thank you for hanging out with me today
<v Speaker 1>and talk about video games.
<v Speaker 2>Man, I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 3>Always a pleasure. Hope everybody enjoyed it, looking forward to
<v Speaker 3>the next time.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you all for watching and listening. You are the
<v Speaker 1>best audience in gaming. Have a good one, take care
<v Speaker 1>of yourself and goodbye.