Brie Larson and Benny Safdie Cast in New Mario Movie

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, welcome to Games Mornings presented by Deku Deals
<v Speaker 1>with Me Jeff Grub, your host from giant bomb dot com.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for tuning in. In this episode, we're going
<v Speaker 1>to be talking about the latest Nintendo Direct and the
<v Speaker 1>return of one of the weirdest games Dan ever made
<v Speaker 1>me play a lot of fun stuff and that's what
<v Speaker 1>It's gonna be a good one because we have a
<v Speaker 1>listener conte on the show. Alyssa, how are you doing.
<v Speaker 2>I'm so good. Thank you for having me. It's been
<v Speaker 2>too long.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, thanks for being here. It's excellent to have you on.
<v Speaker 1>It actually worked out well. You had a story I
<v Speaker 1>was just reading yesterday and now here you are, so look. Relevancy, relevancy.
<v Speaker 1>We'll talk about that and even more. But how have
<v Speaker 1>you been?
<v Speaker 3>You know, it's actually a full year freelance for the
<v Speaker 3>first time in my life, and that's been fun.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Close to fifty fifty plus stories in this year.
<v Speaker 3>Happy, you know, it's it's a grind. I'm not excited
<v Speaker 3>about my taxes, but uh, we're gonna get it done.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, we're we're live and alive and thriving. So
<v Speaker 3>it's it's nice to be able to come on here.
<v Speaker 3>It's nice to be able to do work for people
<v Speaker 3>at Rolling Stone the Guardian, and people still invite me
<v Speaker 3>places and yeah, it's just she's alive.
<v Speaker 1>Hell yeah. Yeah. The the term tax events has come
<v Speaker 1>come up more in my life this year than it
<v Speaker 1>ever has before. And I'm like, okay, well, I guess
<v Speaker 1>I'm have to figure this out. Maybe TurboTax is not
<v Speaker 1>going to actually cut it before. No, I'm gonna need
<v Speaker 1>a guy.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, a guy.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah yeah, yeah, especially now with you guys. That's gonna
<v Speaker 3>be fun. Well, it turns out you can write off
<v Speaker 3>a bunch of stuff apparently, I don't know. I'm going
<v Speaker 3>to teach you how to do tax fraude.
<v Speaker 1>No, no, yeah, we know about tax fraud. Oh my god. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>uh no either. I like all the tricks on TikTok
<v Speaker 1>that are mostly all just fraud. They're like, hey, just
<v Speaker 1>do some fraud against the government.
<v Speaker 3>You.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's how you save on your taxis. I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>all right, if you say so, Internet man, it's a
<v Speaker 1>good time. Uh huh oh yeah, listen, TikTok told me
<v Speaker 1>to do it for sure. Uh yeah, it's it's got
<v Speaker 1>to be a grind out there, but I do le. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I see your byline. I see you out there working
<v Speaker 1>and hustling. And it always makes me happy when you
<v Speaker 1>say you like you still get invited to events. Is
<v Speaker 1>that like you're still like leveraging all these old connections.
<v Speaker 1>People still want to have a listener content at their
<v Speaker 1>stuff and that's great.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, you know, like able to go to see
<v Speaker 3>the new the Halo reveal, and you know, still still
<v Speaker 3>getting invited to Games Calm. Through the Games Calm Ambassador program,
<v Speaker 3>I was able to go and have my flight covered
<v Speaker 3>and cover all this stuff for a bunch of different sites,
<v Speaker 3>So like, yeah, there's there's people out there who are
<v Speaker 3>incredibly supportive behind the scenes and in front of it,
<v Speaker 3>and uh yeah, it's it means a lot.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, still have still.
<v Speaker 3>Have lots of people inviting me places so much so
<v Speaker 3>that I just like I can't go to all of them,
<v Speaker 3>which is like, you know, what a what a great
<v Speaker 3>problem to have.
<v Speaker 2>So and I've traveled, I wrote it down. I mean
<v Speaker 2>I've been.
<v Speaker 3>I've been to La more times in the past like
<v Speaker 3>nine months than I like, oh my god, that flight
<v Speaker 3>and you know, Cologne in July, I was in Italy
<v Speaker 3>and April for Anno Pax Romana.
<v Speaker 2>Like, you know, it's cool.
<v Speaker 3>Because I'm not running or helping run a site, I
<v Speaker 3>have a little bit more wiggle room to be like, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I'll go to Italy, sure, exactly. Yes, it's like when Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it is amazing how much those just daily sort of
<v Speaker 1>requirements can get in the way of doing some of
<v Speaker 1>the more fun stuff for sure. All Right, you know what,
<v Speaker 1>let's explain ourselves. We're Giant Bomb Internet Video Game duficis
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<v Speaker 1>most weekdays, I Jeff Greb will help piece your gaming
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<v Speaker 1>timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we have a
<v Speaker 1>lot to get into, so let's start the morning mess
<v Speaker 1>with the first Super Mari Galaxy movie trailer, shows Bowser, Junior, Rosalina,
<v Speaker 1>and more. This is from Kenneth Shepherd at Kotaku and
<v Speaker 1>Dan Reikert. If you're listening at home, feel free to
<v Speaker 1>just hop in camera off. I do have a have
<v Speaker 1>a little quiz for you or a little guessing game.
<v Speaker 1>I want to see if he can guess who has
<v Speaker 1>been cast as Bowser Junior. I don't think he knows yet.
<v Speaker 1>He doesn't know. I don't think he knows yet. I'm
<v Speaker 1>very curious to see what he thinks. Uh, but we
<v Speaker 1>did get Rosalina is the voice actress Brie Larson, which
<v Speaker 1>they pointed out she's a Nintendo super fan something she's
<v Speaker 1>talked about a bunch.
<v Speaker 4>Before news by coming through. Hey look out. He has
<v Speaker 4>a film degree. He's our resident cinema file. Okay, Dan,
<v Speaker 4>I want you. I want you to hello, Hi, Alissa. Dan,
<v Speaker 4>turn your turn your camera off?
<v Speaker 1>Down? Yes, camera off? Okay, Yeah, there we go? Perfect?
<v Speaker 1>All right, Dan, who do you think? And I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>give you some hints. I'm gonna guide you because it
<v Speaker 1>doesn't it's just gonna be hard to guess. Who do
<v Speaker 1>you think is doing the voice for Bowser Junior? Just
<v Speaker 1>go throw someone off the top of your head to
<v Speaker 1>get started here.
<v Speaker 4>Well, I'm confused because I've been trying to avoid the
<v Speaker 4>Internet this morning because you told me to pop in
<v Speaker 4>and guess, and I did. Somewhere see the name Bree
<v Speaker 4>Larsen pop up. And I'm sitting here thinking like, would
<v Speaker 4>Bree Larson be fucking bowser.
<v Speaker 1>Bree Larson is Rosalina, So you're you're good.
<v Speaker 2>That's gender browser j.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, actually you know what Brie Larson is Rosaline? I
<v Speaker 1>get that, Okay, I'm trying to was it was good?
<v Speaker 1>She did like they'd give a little clip of each
<v Speaker 1>person's voice, and hers was really good for Rosaline. I
<v Speaker 1>thought that was excellent. Okay, let's see. I wanted my kids.
<v Speaker 4>Wait, let me guess just blind here first, Yes, go ahead, Jr.
<v Speaker 4>Is a child notoriously, and I'm trying to think of
<v Speaker 4>current famous children. What Stranger Things is big right now?
<v Speaker 4>So one of the Stranger Things kids.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, that's a fair guest. Now, keep in mind, a
<v Speaker 1>lot of times in movies, especially for animated films, they
<v Speaker 1>don't use children's voices for child characters. They that's a
<v Speaker 1>pretty good guess, I'm gonna say. Okay, let's see, let's
<v Speaker 1>give a hint here. This is someone David tells. Actually
<v Speaker 1>even better, that's actually pretty close. Uh. This is someone
<v Speaker 1>who let's let's see, he has he works in he
<v Speaker 1>works with Adam Sandler frequently.
<v Speaker 4>Oh not Grandma's Boy, right, It's not Grandma's not Rob
<v Speaker 4>Schneider is it?
<v Speaker 1>Tell me it's not Rob Sneer. It's not Schnider like, good, okay, good, okay.
<v Speaker 1>Now it's someone works with Adam Sandler. But he's not
<v Speaker 1>like in that crew of he's not that crew of
<v Speaker 1>Adam Sandler. Guys, it's not Steve Buscemi. Another, good guess, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>he's yeah, he's not traditionally an actor, although he's acting
<v Speaker 1>more frequently now, John Daly, John Daly's Okay, now you're
<v Speaker 1>moving further away from movies. He's more of a movie
<v Speaker 1>guy than a movie guy.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, just a comedian. Is it a sport? Is it
<v Speaker 4>awards adjacent?
<v Speaker 1>Man?
<v Speaker 4>He's a director? Oh shit, who just wait? It's not
<v Speaker 4>one of the Safety Brothers.
<v Speaker 2>Is it?
<v Speaker 1>No? No fucking way, are you? Are you serious? Dan
<v Speaker 1>Bowser Junior is Benny Safty? My god, I told Chuck's
<v Speaker 1>like only grub cares about it this much? Like no,
<v Speaker 1>this blew me away?
<v Speaker 4>Director of Uncut Jim's is Bowser Junior. That is Oh
<v Speaker 4>that's pretty good.
<v Speaker 1>I like it pretty They even had Jack Black like
<v Speaker 1>come out and introduce him in like Jack Black's like
<v Speaker 1>he's an Uncut gym. I'm like, well, that's weird and
<v Speaker 1>then he said, Benny Safty, I'm like, what what this happening?
<v Speaker 1>Right now?
<v Speaker 4>They did kind of break the seal with him being
<v Speaker 4>in happy Gilmore too of like you know, if it
<v Speaker 4>was this is the Smashing Machine director, right, this is
<v Speaker 4>the guy who won like the silver lioned can or whatever.
<v Speaker 1>Right wrote, directed edited the Smashing Machine, while also going
<v Speaker 1>into the booth to do Bowser Junior's.
<v Speaker 2>Voice from one too or is that the other one?
<v Speaker 1>Yes, he is the he's the guy in Oppenheimer.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, there's one layer of separation between the Rock and
<v Speaker 4>Bowser Junior.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, that's right, and really we shouldn't be surprised by
<v Speaker 1>that at this point.
<v Speaker 3>It is I don't think the Rock has any more
<v Speaker 3>than one layer of separation between anyone.
<v Speaker 1>And that's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah, okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>what do you think? What do you think Daniel will
<v Speaker 1>let you get out here?
<v Speaker 4>I mean that was the fun of the first one, right,
<v Speaker 4>was the cast and he's being like, what the fuck?
<v Speaker 4>Why is it these people? And this is very much
<v Speaker 4>in line with that, and uh, I think that's funny.
<v Speaker 1>I like that I did to Chris Pratt nearly killed
<v Speaker 1>me this one didn't nearly kill me, but I was
<v Speaker 1>still shocked by this to a certain degree.
<v Speaker 4>All Right, Dan, thank you so much, thank you for
<v Speaker 4>breaking the news. All Right, see it folks by it?
<v Speaker 1>Uh, well, We've got Dan's opinion on it. How do
<v Speaker 1>you feel about it all, Lissa.
<v Speaker 3>H I mean, I think it's great that it's it's
<v Speaker 3>Bree Larsen. I have not seen the Internet's reaction Bree Larsen,
<v Speaker 3>notoriously beloved by so many corners.
<v Speaker 2>Of the Internet. Curious to see what they say about that,
<v Speaker 2>but I do incredible.
<v Speaker 1>I do like think about like, oh, yeah, is like
<v Speaker 1>does Nintendo consider that? And of course they have people
<v Speaker 1>there that would like be like, hey, let's keep this
<v Speaker 1>in mind. But do they are they going to be
<v Speaker 1>able to handle it when it happens? Do they know
<v Speaker 1>what to do with these people? I think Nintendo's plan
<v Speaker 1>is just going to be completely ignore it, which you know,
<v Speaker 1>we've seen that not work great, like for stuff like
<v Speaker 1>Star Wars where it's like, man, it really feels like
<v Speaker 1>Lucas Film should come out here and protect some of
<v Speaker 1>these people who work on this stuff and say something.
<v Speaker 1>And we've also seen it be like Okay, yeah, they
<v Speaker 1>just ignore it and it fizzled out. I do wonder,
<v Speaker 1>like what the appetite is for that the grifters to
<v Speaker 1>be like, all right, let's get back on the pre
<v Speaker 1>Larsen beat, because it's like this one's like such, it's
<v Speaker 1>so like nothing because she's just playing a character that
<v Speaker 1>she should totally be playing.
<v Speaker 3>She hasn't like, you know, it's not just Rosselina and
<v Speaker 3>Peach in a movie and she's the star.
<v Speaker 2>Like, it's not any of that.
<v Speaker 3>It's just she's a character who's already a woman, who's
<v Speaker 3>just voicing and she has a great voice.
<v Speaker 2>So maybe they'll pick up on it at all.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, there's not but you know what they find it,
<v Speaker 3>so who knows. But the Benny Saftie, I didn't even recognize.
<v Speaker 2>His voice at first, I know me neither. Who is that?
<v Speaker 3>And I thought that they had just pitched up Jack
<v Speaker 3>Black again for a second, and then I went back
<v Speaker 3>and listened to it and I was like, oh away,
<v Speaker 3>oh shit, So that's I think it's awesome as I
<v Speaker 3>hope that with more characters that means there's less Chris
<v Speaker 3>Pratt voice. I'm just hoping that the galaxy means I
<v Speaker 3>can hear more people more often.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think that they will try to lean on
<v Speaker 1>the fact that the cast is getting bigger. I don't
<v Speaker 1>like I said, I don't know how much Nintendo is
<v Speaker 1>paying attention to like what is working for the Sonic movies,
<v Speaker 1>but they're not necessarily directly in charge of making all
<v Speaker 1>these decisions while they are financing the film, so they're
<v Speaker 1>more involved in some other ip holders. But this is
<v Speaker 1>still universal and illumination and they probably see hey over
<v Speaker 1>in the Sonic world. They just keep adding more characters
<v Speaker 1>from those games into these movies and it seems to
<v Speaker 1>get the audience super excited. So while this is clearly
<v Speaker 1>still going to be very focused on Mario, I thought
<v Speaker 1>they'll try to pull that off a little bit. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and then Yeah, I thought it looked good. I think
<v Speaker 1>that first movie was was was fine and serviceable, is
<v Speaker 1>kind of what I said on our talkover, and I
<v Speaker 1>think that this looks like it's at least going to
<v Speaker 1>be that again, with the chance to baby be a
<v Speaker 1>little bit better. I don't know, but I'm hopeful.
<v Speaker 3>I listen, I've actually genuinely let out a couple of laughs,
<v Speaker 3>So that's like him closing his tail in the door.
<v Speaker 2>I was like, ah, like that made me laugh.
<v Speaker 3>So and the first one, I think maybe it just
<v Speaker 3>felt a little bit like it was trying to establish
<v Speaker 3>I don't know that world and be really careful with
<v Speaker 3>it while stretching it in some interesting ways.
<v Speaker 2>I just feel like this one might be more fun
<v Speaker 2>and a little more free wheeling.
<v Speaker 3>So I'm I'm hopeful it's also just like Jack Black,
<v Speaker 3>less annoying, pitched up. I've heard Jack Black's voice a ton,
<v Speaker 3>I'm ready for slightly different, so I'm excited to see
<v Speaker 3>it in a different capacity.
<v Speaker 1>You're like, you're right, Like there's a good chance that
<v Speaker 1>the bulk of this movie will have Jack Black ass
<v Speaker 1>tiny bowser with the pitched up voice, and then I
<v Speaker 1>bet by the end he gets let loose and the
<v Speaker 1>third act is all chaos and stuff and he'll be back,
<v Speaker 1>maybe me pitched down because he'll be giant or something,
<v Speaker 1>who knows. But yeah, that's a little strange, but I'm
<v Speaker 1>okay with it because I feel the same way where
<v Speaker 1>it's like we've had a lot of Jack Black, Maybe
<v Speaker 1>try something a little different.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and it's Jack Black. They hire Jack Black to
<v Speaker 3>be Jack Black, so like obviously he's doing a little
<v Speaker 3>bit of a different thing with Bowser, but barely, you know,
<v Speaker 3>and he's in everything. So I think, yeah, I'm happy
<v Speaker 3>to I'm happy to see where they're going with it.
<v Speaker 3>And I just always love hearing Charlie Day as well,
<v Speaker 3>actual Italian Charlie Day, who is actually Italian playing Luigi.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm excited.
<v Speaker 3>And that's crazy for me to say, because I didn't
<v Speaker 3>really care about the first one, but this just seems
<v Speaker 3>like it's going to have more fun.
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to eat a really big edible and go
<v Speaker 2>see it, yes, the day after my birthday.
<v Speaker 1>Oh hell yeah, well happy birthday April second, you're saying, okay, yeah, yeah, hey,
<v Speaker 1>there we go, we got Yeah. I think that the
<v Speaker 1>movie will be harmless at the very least to the
<v Speaker 1>point where it's like, even if I'm not like watching
<v Speaker 1>that first movie all the time as a huge Mario fan,
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna go see this and I will come out
<v Speaker 1>of that theater be I'm like, yeah, cool, no harm,
<v Speaker 1>no foul. Maybe some stuff was really fun, and I'm
<v Speaker 1>like you, I'm hopeful that this one could be better
<v Speaker 1>in a lot of ways. Now, yeah, April third is
<v Speaker 1>when this movie is going to hit theaters, at least
<v Speaker 1>in North America. Nintendo it kind of did some stuff
<v Speaker 1>for Mario's fortieth anniversary this year. That stuff will bleed
<v Speaker 1>over into this into the movie a little bit. You know,
<v Speaker 1>they'll have Galaxy one and two on the switch ready
<v Speaker 1>to sell to people alongside this movie. That could like
<v Speaker 1>hit the synergy that they're always going for with these
<v Speaker 1>efforts now, these multimedia efforts. But do you think there's
<v Speaker 1>a chance they have even more? Do they have that
<v Speaker 1>next three D Mario ready to go for like the holidays,
<v Speaker 1>when the movie's hitting DVD and Blu ray in late
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty six or what. I don't know, what's your opinion.
<v Speaker 2>I wouldn't be surprised if they did.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, like the Switch to is still kind of light,
<v Speaker 3>I think in terms of titles, just from what you
<v Speaker 3>would expect for paying that much for something like that,
<v Speaker 3>And I wouldn't be surprised if they have something in
<v Speaker 3>the pocket for Yeah, brilliant to think that it would
<v Speaker 3>come out around DVD release and around the holidays. I
<v Speaker 3>think a big three D Mario is probably going to
<v Speaker 3>come next October November for sure.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I would welcome that, and I think there's a
<v Speaker 1>strong chance, you know, even if it takes them until
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty seven to get to it, they'll find ways
<v Speaker 1>to like be like, hey, you all still love those
<v Speaker 1>Mario movies. So they made a ton of money, remember this,
<v Speaker 1>But I think they want to try to have it
<v Speaker 1>for next year if it's possible. And they would have
<v Speaker 1>known for quite some time that this was coming, and
<v Speaker 1>I think they are because Nintendo is so involved in
<v Speaker 1>the financing the movies, and Miamotos so involved in producing
<v Speaker 1>the movies. I think they want to take every advantage
<v Speaker 1>of these opportunities. So we'll see. Yep, all right, next
<v Speaker 1>story here, This one I'm gonna ask for your on
<v Speaker 1>young stars of game development feel let down by the
<v Speaker 1>gaming oscars. This comes from alystamer Conte at The Guardian.
<v Speaker 1>Oh so, breakdown what's going on here. I thought that
<v Speaker 1>this story was one of those ones where it's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>all those fears I always had about this were exactly true,
<v Speaker 1>and at the same time hollering like, let's shout from
<v Speaker 1>the rooftops that this continues to happen every time, and
<v Speaker 1>it's it's always a risk when these big moneyed interest
<v Speaker 1>try to use people that are below them on the
<v Speaker 1>totem pole for whatever reason. So break down what this is,
<v Speaker 1>what happened here, and kind of what it means.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean, you know, the Future Class was announced
<v Speaker 3>in twenty twenty when Woke was in and Woke was cool,
<v Speaker 3>and it was meant to highlight the bright, bold and
<v Speaker 3>inclusive future of the video game industry.
<v Speaker 2>It's tied to the Game Awards. It's the Game Awards
<v Speaker 2>Future Class.
<v Speaker 3>It was fifty inductees every year across game development. You know,
<v Speaker 3>it could be narrative designers, it could be developers, it
<v Speaker 3>could be people making indie games. It could be people
<v Speaker 3>who run them on podcasts. It could be accessibility consultants,
<v Speaker 3>and the point of it was.
<v Speaker 2>To highlight them.
<v Speaker 3>They would get this sort of they'd be able to
<v Speaker 3>go to the Game Awards for free. Well, they got
<v Speaker 3>a ticket to the Game Awards for free, because you'll
<v Speaker 3>find out that they did not help them to get
<v Speaker 3>there for most years. And they would have you know,
<v Speaker 3>billing on the Game Awards website. They would get mentorship
<v Speaker 3>and career advancement opportunities. But from the jump it was
<v Speaker 3>very clear that this was kind of a hollow idea.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that was just.
<v Speaker 3>Like what if we had inclosed slavity And then most
<v Speaker 3>of the people who were inducted had to do a
<v Speaker 3>lot of advocacy those first few years to be like
<v Speaker 3>this could be better. You know, a zoom call with
<v Speaker 3>Reggie Fezime is like great, but like what is that
<v Speaker 3>actually materially doing.
<v Speaker 2>For any of them?
<v Speaker 1>And that was when you say, the zoom call with
<v Speaker 1>Reggie Fezime that was being positioned as the mentorship or
<v Speaker 1>or what they were promising as mentorship.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and like they said, you know, they're like, wow,
<v Speaker 3>it was a great you know, it was really cool
<v Speaker 3>to get a chance to chat with him.
<v Speaker 2>But then afterwards, like what else happened? You know, like
<v Speaker 2>what do you get from that?
<v Speaker 3>And there wasn't any real like material mentorship opportunities. And
<v Speaker 3>then you know, they advocated for two years or so
<v Speaker 3>about you know, having more support both financially to get
<v Speaker 3>to LA for the Game Awards and also for the
<v Speaker 3>mentorship opportunities to actually be something other than just a
<v Speaker 3>zoom call with Phil Spencer, and they got that. In
<v Speaker 3>twenty twenty three, that class that was inducted did get
<v Speaker 3>to Knights at a hotel in LA did get flown
<v Speaker 3>there and they did have better mentorship opportunities, But at
<v Speaker 3>the same time, twenty twenty three was when the Game
<v Speaker 3>Awards Future Class wrote an open letter pushing for Jeff
<v Speaker 3>Keeley and the Game Awards to make some sort of
<v Speaker 3>statement about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the
<v Speaker 3>layoffs in the industry that were like rampant at that point.
<v Speaker 3>They were ignored and essentially they didn't do Future Class
<v Speaker 3>for twenty twenty four. Everyone was kind of like, what's
<v Speaker 3>going on, and they finally answered them in the discord
<v Speaker 3>that both Jeff Keelly and organizer Emily we were in
<v Speaker 3>last week, as reported by Game Developer, and they were like, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>we did our programming for twenty twenty four, it's done,
<v Speaker 3>and we're not announcing another cohort for twenty twenty five.
<v Speaker 3>Bye was essentially it. So I interviewed a bunch of
<v Speaker 3>them to get a kind of vibe, and it's exactly
<v Speaker 3>what you expected. You know, they felt like they were tokenized.
<v Speaker 3>A lot of them didn't realize that that Jeff was
<v Speaker 3>selling sponsorships for this, you know, sponsored by Old Spice,
<v Speaker 3>sponsored by Facebook Gaming, and they really feel like you know,
<v Speaker 3>when woke was cool and woke was hip five years ago,
<v Speaker 3>they were like, oh my god, give me the kids
<v Speaker 3>that we need, the marginalized folks. And Jeff needs to
<v Speaker 3>be like, look, well, why don't you advertise with us
<v Speaker 3>because we have marginalized people. And then now that the
<v Speaker 3>games industry is swinging like everything else back to the right,
<v Speaker 3>and it's not vogue anymore.
<v Speaker 2>It's just kind of been left by the wayside, and
<v Speaker 2>it's like, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Of course, it was always just when these are tokens
<v Speaker 1>that we are using, of course, but it's also like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, this is where criticism is useful. They can
<v Speaker 1>we can come out and say all that stuff that
<v Speaker 1>people were being cynical about was accurate and and and
<v Speaker 1>when we see this in the future, it's like we
<v Speaker 1>should be able to recognize it a little bit better
<v Speaker 1>because it happened here, and we have a point by point,
<v Speaker 1>beat by beat explanation of exactly what it was. The
<v Speaker 1>idea that he was selling is selling against this while
<v Speaker 1>not paying for people's travel until he got criticized, and
<v Speaker 1>now it's like suddenly like, well, guys, I want to
<v Speaker 1>do nice things for you, but you can't cost me money,
<v Speaker 1>and then it costs me money, and then you also
<v Speaker 1>can't cost me headaches with the Gaza thing. Of course
<v Speaker 1>it went away in that instance. It's as cynical as
<v Speaker 1>we always thought it thought it was so. So then,
<v Speaker 1>like my question is always like if this were to
<v Speaker 1>be like, if we were to have something like this
<v Speaker 1>for real, where would it really come from? How could
<v Speaker 1>it happen? Because you know, no shade did Jeff Keyty,
<v Speaker 1>Other than for all the things here that he deserves
<v Speaker 1>shade for, I don't think he's got it in him
<v Speaker 1>to do something like this for real.
<v Speaker 2>So I don't think he wants to.
<v Speaker 1>Does the industry have it in its guts to pull
<v Speaker 1>something like this off?
<v Speaker 2>I mean maybe it did.
<v Speaker 3>I think the craziest thing for me is seeing the
<v Speaker 3>chasm of difference between like the twenty twenty one Awards
<v Speaker 3>or the twenty twenty Awards. When they announced they had
<v Speaker 3>some video reel for some of the inductees, the honorees.
<v Speaker 3>They had a video reel for Collie Adams, the creator
<v Speaker 3>of the spawnees, and his was interspersed with clips from
<v Speaker 3>Black Lives Matter protests, and it was like, can you
<v Speaker 3>imagine if they aired that anything like that at the
<v Speaker 3>Game Awards this year, like anything, the No Kings protest anything,
<v Speaker 3>the protest against Ice like it what, like it would
<v Speaker 3>never happen. We were at Summer Games Rest and Ice
<v Speaker 3>was circling La like we just that is like the
<v Speaker 3>we've shifted so much in five years that the industry
<v Speaker 3>as a whole, like like Jeff, Jeff is part a
<v Speaker 3>huge part of this, and he's a taste maker in
<v Speaker 3>this space in a way that I personally think he
<v Speaker 3>maybe shouldn't have that much of a say in things.
<v Speaker 2>But you know that's just me being me. I think
<v Speaker 2>the industry can do it.
<v Speaker 3>The unfortunate reality is like it almost has to be
<v Speaker 3>the people who need to be highlighted working to do it,
<v Speaker 3>and that means there's more work for them. I could
<v Speaker 3>help put something together, but I don't have the appeal,
<v Speaker 3>the allure, the clout, the reach. So if the industry,
<v Speaker 3>which has now also as we've seen, been very very
<v Speaker 3>quiet in regarding harassment campaigns against its employees, regarding you know,
<v Speaker 3>anti woke nonsense, just like they were ten years ago,
<v Speaker 3>if that industry doesn't want to even you know, say hey,
<v Speaker 3>stop stop stop sending like adding fucking Rika Ishi and saying,
<v Speaker 3>you know, horrible crap to her. If they're just going
<v Speaker 3>to be quiet about stuff like that, I mean, how
<v Speaker 3>do we even know that they would go anywhere close
<v Speaker 3>to this? And it's not in vogue anymore, and DEI
<v Speaker 3>is getting punished by the government, so I don't know
<v Speaker 3>if it's something that they would even do. And that's
<v Speaker 3>what I think. It's like a huge bummer. Like even
<v Speaker 3>if it was hollow, which it was, the fact that
<v Speaker 3>it's like now officially been like we're not doing it anymore,
<v Speaker 3>it's just like the worst timing. It sucks so bad
<v Speaker 3>and it's a huge bummer. And they're also disappointed as
<v Speaker 3>a cohort. And there's no there's not even a place
<v Speaker 3>for anyone to go to see who was inducted into
<v Speaker 3>this because it's been removed from the website. It's like
<v Speaker 3>essentially erasing this entire thing from existence.
<v Speaker 2>It's a giant bummer.
<v Speaker 1>You know, you know what it reminds me of. It
<v Speaker 1>reminds me of Mark Andresen a few months ago. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>he said, and this is the thing I've mentioned a
<v Speaker 1>bunch on the show. People will be familiar with it,
<v Speaker 1>but it's always in my head, because it's one of
<v Speaker 1>the things to make me the most matter I've ever
<v Speaker 1>been in my life. He complained that the deal between
<v Speaker 1>billionaires and the media and the public was broken, and
<v Speaker 1>it's like, in the past, a billionaire can make a
<v Speaker 1>billion dollars by having a great idea, and then you
<v Speaker 1>donate some of that money, and everyone would applaud and
<v Speaker 1>laud these guys and say what heroes. And then somewhere
<v Speaker 1>along the line things broke down and people started criticizing
<v Speaker 1>billionaires even though they were giving away some of their money,
<v Speaker 1>and they wanted to bring back taxes and all this stuff,
<v Speaker 1>and that's just not acceptable. And I'm like, well, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>if I ever see you, it's on site, brother, I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna beat the shit out. Yeah. But beyond that, it's
<v Speaker 1>like this idea of like, okay, the idea that there's
<v Speaker 1>a deal there in place, and that we could sometimes
<v Speaker 1>get a little piece of that deal. Of hey, if
<v Speaker 1>we do this charitable thing, if we do this nice thing,
<v Speaker 1>some people will be able to ride in the wake
<v Speaker 1>of that and get something nice out of it, even
<v Speaker 1>if we all know it is part of a hollow
<v Speaker 1>scaffolding to hold up the wealth of just a few individuals.
<v Speaker 1>This is about making money for the game awards, for
<v Speaker 1>Jeff Keey, for the people involved in that business. Of
<v Speaker 1>course it is, but let's lead. I'm okay with faking
<v Speaker 1>it to a certain point if some people get some
<v Speaker 1>good things out of there, and it's like, oh no,
<v Speaker 1>the deal broke down because they decided to say, hey,
<v Speaker 1>we should maybe get a little bit more of that
<v Speaker 1>piece of this pie, and we want you to live
<v Speaker 1>up to some of our values. If you're saying that
<v Speaker 1>our values are important and worthy of being called out
<v Speaker 1>as these our beacons of light in a world that
<v Speaker 1>is relatively dark, when they say, well, let's shine the
<v Speaker 1>light on something that's very important to us, and you
<v Speaker 1>bulk at that and freak out, it's like, well, of course,
<v Speaker 1>the deal, as we knew, was always fake, but it's like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>I didn't know it was that fake, and it's very
<v Speaker 1>like disheartening.
<v Speaker 3>For me, incredibly and for the people who were involved
<v Speaker 3>in it, hugely disheartening.
<v Speaker 2>And there was so much.
<v Speaker 3>I had so many conversations and I was on such
<v Speaker 3>a tight word limit that I was like, oh my god,
<v Speaker 3>there's so much more in here that I may end
<v Speaker 3>up like posting more somewhere else, because it was just
<v Speaker 3>so many examples and so many instances of people just
<v Speaker 3>feeling they were very honored at this by At first,
<v Speaker 3>of course they were, you know, and just realizing over
<v Speaker 3>time that it was just like the it was just
<v Speaker 3>like Obama, the meme of Obama giving himself the Medal
<v Speaker 3>of Honor, but it was like Keeley giving it to him,
<v Speaker 3>like it just.
<v Speaker 2>They realized that they're like, oh my god, this is
<v Speaker 2>literally just for show.
<v Speaker 3>I mean that first year that they went to the
<v Speaker 3>Game Awards and they were sat behind the fucking camera
<v Speaker 3>riser and they were like, I I can't see anything
<v Speaker 3>like hello, and that you know, Keieley was having a
<v Speaker 3>party with influencers and industry members like a room over
<v Speaker 3>where they were all, well, is there like anyone who's
<v Speaker 3>gonna be like, oh my god.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, welcome. It's just transparent and it's a huge bummer.
<v Speaker 3>And you know, he claimed he didn't read the open letter,
<v Speaker 3>but I was told that, like, you know, because it
<v Speaker 3>wasn't sent his email, but it was in the discord.
<v Speaker 3>I was told that, like after they sent the open
<v Speaker 3>letter and the discord, he accidentally sent a like a
<v Speaker 3>blank voice note that was like a couple of seconds long.
<v Speaker 3>You obviously saw it, like what are you doing, dude?
<v Speaker 1>And like, I guess he was getting pretty pretty fussy
<v Speaker 1>when when some of the criticisms were being brought up,
<v Speaker 1>and yeah, you know.
<v Speaker 3>He had PR canned PR speak for a little bit there,
<v Speaker 3>and they did say we're listening to you and in
<v Speaker 3>certain aspects, and then I think, you know, there was
<v Speaker 3>some infighting from what I understand in that group regarding
<v Speaker 3>having conversations about Palestine, and I think once they kind
<v Speaker 3>of started pushing more and being like, you know, we
<v Speaker 3>sent you a letter and you ignored it, he was
<v Speaker 3>he started to get like visibly annoyed and visibly like
<v Speaker 3>you know, I like, essentially, why are you giving me
<v Speaker 3>all of this feedback? But then they did end the
<v Speaker 3>conversation and say like we'll get back to you, you know,
<v Speaker 3>like we're listening. And then they just didn't say or
<v Speaker 3>do anything for over a year and now it's gone.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean, you know, everyone knows what the game
<v Speaker 1>awards is. It is. It is cynical, and it's the
<v Speaker 1>kind of thing where it's like when I have that
<v Speaker 1>sort of natural default state of being a very cynical person.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, yeah, okay, I get it, let's do let's
<v Speaker 1>watch these commercials and make some money for the people
<v Speaker 1>who put this thing together. Whatever. When they present themselves
<v Speaker 1>though as these scions of raising other voices, though, it's say, well,
<v Speaker 1>you know what the other sho's going to drop there
<v Speaker 1>if you don't live up to that, because people will
<v Speaker 1>take that stuff seriously.
<v Speaker 3>That's why Dice and baft does are probably the better
<v Speaker 3>place to go if you want good representation of what's
<v Speaker 3>going on in the industry and actually see the people
<v Speaker 3>who work in the industry rather than you know, I
<v Speaker 3>believe you only get two tickets per per nomination as
<v Speaker 3>a as a developer, and then you have to buy more.
<v Speaker 1>So how much is the gate for that thing even
<v Speaker 1>really making?
<v Speaker 3>Let's so stupid, but I mean, you see there's reseller
<v Speaker 3>tickets at like one thousand dollars.
<v Speaker 1>I guess, yeah, I guess you're right. What I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>I have no desire to ever go to one again.
<v Speaker 1>I went to the first one that when it was
<v Speaker 1>the Game Awards and had a fun time because I
<v Speaker 1>got to see Cogi Condo play with Imagine Dragons. Was
<v Speaker 1>that real anyway. Yeah, I don't need to go again.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm like, that's my position for.
<v Speaker 2>You see everybody at the Jaws.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, exactly, that's it, all right, Let's go out and
<v Speaker 1>take a break. When we get back, plenty of more
<v Speaker 1>headlines to get to. We'll touch on what happened in
<v Speaker 1>that state of Plague Japan version yesterday, and more. If
<v Speaker 1>you want to skip out on these, Giant bomb dot
<v Speaker 1>Com slash joined, become a premium member AD free version
<v Speaker 1>of a video show, adre version of the audio show.
<v Speaker 1>There's a premium feeds for those. Otherwise we'll be right back. Jan.
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<v Speaker 1>Game As Mornings listener Conte Jeff Grub, let's get back
<v Speaker 1>into it, uh, everything that was announced during place Station
<v Speaker 1>State of Play Japan presentation from Chris calling at VGC.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if we need to go over everything.
<v Speaker 1>I have some like post show thoughts about this and
<v Speaker 1>kind of like very clearly, Oh, I could see what
<v Speaker 1>this was all about. But I want to ask you,
<v Speaker 1>is there anything from this rundown of games so you
<v Speaker 1>get a chance to watch this anything that stuck out
<v Speaker 1>of you. It was a lot of familiar stuff, stuff
<v Speaker 1>we had seen before. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean I think if there's anything really really
<v Speaker 3>big coming from like Japan, stuff like Japanese stuff at Sony,
<v Speaker 3>you're going to see it at the Game Awards. So
<v Speaker 3>I think some people were bummed that they didn't see
<v Speaker 3>a Final Fantasy remake in there, but I think if
<v Speaker 3>that's happening, it's going to happen there. Obviously was very
<v Speaker 3>clearly trying to like recenter everything around Japan right now
<v Speaker 3>and like focus that around what's going on out there.
<v Speaker 3>I think the Broken Lore stuff is cool. I love
<v Speaker 3>the idea of like a like a social media horror.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know why I would be so interested in that.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, it's weird. Yeah, that franchise has been apparently
<v Speaker 1>been around. I had never heard of Broken Lore.
<v Speaker 5>No.
<v Speaker 2>I had to look it up and I was like,
<v Speaker 2>what is this?
<v Speaker 3>And there's more than one and it's yeah, it's been
<v Speaker 3>a psychological thriller for a while.
<v Speaker 1>And then so there's two Broken Lore games coming out,
<v Speaker 1>Unfollow and a SIND. Unfollow is out January sixteenth, and
<v Speaker 1>then a Sind also got a trailer it's coming in
<v Speaker 1>summer twenty twenty sixth, so all right, cool, I'll check
<v Speaker 1>it out.
<v Speaker 2>I mean that was cool.
<v Speaker 3>And then obviously, you know, the big one is getting
<v Speaker 3>excited about more Night Rain stuff. But for me, like
<v Speaker 3>a lot of that was like almost like so fast
<v Speaker 3>that I was also like, what the what, Oh my god,
<v Speaker 3>there's so much stuff in there. I am actually excited
<v Speaker 3>about Tokyo Extreme Racer.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that was out in early access on Steam. Out
<v Speaker 1>played it earlier this year and was like, oh, there's
<v Speaker 1>there's something here. It's like I couldn't quite wrap my
<v Speaker 1>hand around the way I'm supposed to be like progressing
<v Speaker 1>in the game or whatever, but I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>I really like racing around these Tokyo highways though.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, yeah, I never played it in early access,
<v Speaker 3>and I've just been kind of like backed up like
<v Speaker 3>we all are, and I think, yeah, when it launches,
<v Speaker 3>when it launches in February next year, I'm think I'm
<v Speaker 3>gonna get on that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's probably the move. So yeah, the Night Rain DLC.
<v Speaker 1>Let's see, that's out December fourth. Oh my god, it's
<v Speaker 1>getting to be a busy day.
<v Speaker 3>And it will.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, it's gonna include additional Nightfarers, bosses, and more, and
<v Speaker 1>there was a pretty good trailer for it. The other
<v Speaker 1>thing I was going to point out was the Sonic
<v Speaker 1>DLC in pac Man World to repack this previously announced,
<v Speaker 1>but it was just weird to actually like see it
<v Speaker 1>Sonic running around and with pac Man in this game.
<v Speaker 1>Pac Man's in Sonic Racing Cross World as well. I think,
<v Speaker 1>is that right? Chat? Maybe it's not right, but so
<v Speaker 1>they must have had some some deal there, but Pacman
<v Speaker 1>World two was a lot of fun and it's weird
<v Speaker 1>to see Sonic in there anyway. A bunch of other
<v Speaker 1>announcements I guess common Rider in Super Robot Wars y,
<v Speaker 1>and there's a Monster Hunter Wild's title update. But really
<v Speaker 1>the thing is this next story, which is still from
<v Speaker 1>the State of Play. Sony announces cheaper japan exclusive PlayStation five.
<v Speaker 1>This is from Austin Manchester at Polygon, who has a
<v Speaker 1>powerful name. During Tuesday's State of Play showcase, Sony announced
<v Speaker 1>a Japanese language only PlayStation five to be sold in
<v Speaker 1>Japan for about three hundred and fifty seven dollars, which
<v Speaker 1>is a fifty five thousand yen that'll start on November
<v Speaker 1>twenty first, the digital edition PlayStation five currently retails for
<v Speaker 1>seventy two thousand, nine hundred and eighty en I, meaning
<v Speaker 1>the new price point is nearly twenty five percent cheaper.
<v Speaker 1>Japan's new PS five model will be region locked to
<v Speaker 1>Japan and will only work with a Japanese PlayStation account.
<v Speaker 1>According to the Financial Times, Sony releasing a new PS
<v Speaker 1>five model exclusive to Japan isn't too dissimilar for when
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo released a Japanese language Nintendo Switch to console for
<v Speaker 1>about one hundred and thirty dollars cheaper than the base
<v Speaker 1>version globally, so it is exactly that this is the
<v Speaker 1>move of Hey, the global economic situation a little different
<v Speaker 1>than the Japanese economic situation the week, the end is
<v Speaker 1>very weak, all these other things. So if we were
<v Speaker 1>to sell the global system here, there's a chance that,
<v Speaker 1>for one, a lot of them will get purchased, bought
<v Speaker 1>up and sent to other countries if we made them cheaper.
<v Speaker 1>So we can't just do that. We need to find
<v Speaker 1>some to lock it down. We also don't want to
<v Speaker 1>region lock the games, so we're just going instead region
<v Speaker 1>locked the console itself. The only offer Japanese as a
<v Speaker 1>language and force people to have a Japanese account, and
<v Speaker 1>that will certainly reduce the amount of arbitrage selling that
<v Speaker 1>will happen here. And this is handy to a certain
<v Speaker 1>degree because Japan has certainly been dealing with a whiplash
<v Speaker 1>for their economy, where it's like for decades there it
<v Speaker 1>was stagnant, not a lot of growth. There was, there
<v Speaker 1>was deflation, and now in the last the last three years,
<v Speaker 1>last four years, it's been energy costs going way up,
<v Speaker 1>food costs going way up, and now those stagnant wages
<v Speaker 1>that weren't much of a problem when cost of living
<v Speaker 1>was low and was staying low for a very long time,
<v Speaker 1>they're starting to feel that. So in the factor into
<v Speaker 1>another story here in a second. But that means, hey,
<v Speaker 1>if we want to like like fertilize the home turf,
<v Speaker 1>if we want to make sure that people in Japan
<v Speaker 1>can engage with the our system, we need to offer
<v Speaker 1>them something like this. The notable thing here is Sony
<v Speaker 1>didn't seem very interested in trying to figure out some
<v Speaker 1>way to keep Japanese gamers involved in PlayStation up until
<v Speaker 1>this point, and now this feels like a shift, and
<v Speaker 1>I think that's what the whole state of play was
<v Speaker 1>about Alyssa is, Hey, let's sell people this system and
<v Speaker 1>build a state of play that sort of reminds people
<v Speaker 1>about all these games that are available on PlayStation and
<v Speaker 1>make it feel like a Japanese console again. So I
<v Speaker 1>guess my question to you would be, do you do
<v Speaker 1>you think that was successful? Do you think that they
<v Speaker 1>made a decent pitch to that audience.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, Japan has the third largest video game industry
<v Speaker 3>by revenue as of last year.
<v Speaker 1>So PlayStation has not been taking much advantage of that
<v Speaker 1>over the last year.
<v Speaker 2>It's actually going behind exactly.
<v Speaker 3>And that's on top of what you were just talking
<v Speaker 3>about with all these economic issues, right, So I think
<v Speaker 3>they are clearly going for a multi pronged approach of
<v Speaker 3>not only being like, hey, this is an entire state
<v Speaker 3>of play focused around you, and also yeah, you'll have
<v Speaker 3>that to this this console that you can probably better afford.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I guess the jury's out. I don't really pay.
<v Speaker 3>All that much attention to like a Japanese side of
<v Speaker 3>social media, so I don't know what the country has
<v Speaker 3>kind of you know, I've seen the web response, which
<v Speaker 3>is obviously weaves are excited, but.
<v Speaker 2>Like what about what about the people who.
<v Speaker 3>Are actually there, I mean the tariff situation and everything
<v Speaker 3>making it you know, more difficult for them to export
<v Speaker 3>stuff and like having to raise prices on that end.
<v Speaker 3>I think this is all really smart, and we've seen
<v Speaker 3>other companies who are kind of like we are. I
<v Speaker 3>think Squenix was saying recently, like we are trying to
<v Speaker 3>center ourselves more around our Asian market and like pull
<v Speaker 3>back from our US and European branches, and and I
<v Speaker 3>don't think it's surprising.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's interesting.
<v Speaker 3>To see that we're kind of recreating these islands and
<v Speaker 3>barriers again. But I think that's just what happens when
<v Speaker 3>when the economic situation is.
<v Speaker 1>What it is. Yeah, obviously the global open markets are
<v Speaker 1>in a weird low point right now, and not like
<v Speaker 1>in a way where it's like, well, at least protecting
<v Speaker 1>labor in other countries now, that's not happening. It's just
<v Speaker 1>weird for other reasons. So yeah, like buying things and
<v Speaker 1>selling things in Japan very different than buying and selling
<v Speaker 1>things in America and almost like mir opposites in a
<v Speaker 1>lot of ways, and so and you know, that's just
<v Speaker 1>those two countries they're still China to consider. I think
<v Speaker 1>people were seeing PS fives were selling pretty well in
<v Speaker 1>Japan and people are like looking into it. And I
<v Speaker 1>don't know if this was ever confirmed, but a lot
<v Speaker 1>of people speculated that many of those PS fives were
<v Speaker 1>being purchased and sent into China, and then similar stuff
<v Speaker 1>was happening with Switch, but especially with the PS five
<v Speaker 1>early on there so doing this and saying hey, we
<v Speaker 1>care about Japan again again, I think that's it's it's noteworthy,
<v Speaker 1>especially when you compare it to how Nintendo has done it.
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo did never did the thing where Sony was like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>we are our games need to be globally appealing, so
<v Speaker 1>we are going to kind of shift our focus away
<v Speaker 1>from Japan. We're moving our HQ from Tokyo to southern California.
<v Speaker 1>We're a global company now. And it's okay, yeah, that's fine.
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure you will still kind of have your Japanese games.
<v Speaker 1>And then they close Japan studios and they have not
<v Speaker 1>had that situation where it's like, oh, okay, yeah, but
<v Speaker 1>a game pops off in Japan still from PlayStation not really,
<v Speaker 1>And in the meantime, a Splatoon has become a cultural
<v Speaker 1>phenomenon in Japan. It is like not just a huge
<v Speaker 1>video game, but it's a huge thing in that country.
<v Speaker 1>Pickman four sold millions of copies in Japan, or at
<v Speaker 1>least a million plus. It did better than it's ever
<v Speaker 1>done before. It is like become another thing that's close
<v Speaker 1>to a cultural phenomenon, and it's like, okay, Pickman and
<v Speaker 1>Splatoon are are are really like they could survive just
<v Speaker 1>on the revenue they make from Japan. And I think
<v Speaker 1>Sony was assuming that audience didn't exist anymore. They were
<v Speaker 1>moving to mobile phones and they weren't going to be
<v Speaker 1>around to purchase these games, and now I think they
<v Speaker 1>regret sort of seating that territory. So I think this
<v Speaker 1>was a first step. I if it's going to work, though, Lissa, Right,
<v Speaker 1>it's got to be more than just hey, we're working.
<v Speaker 1>All these games are happening, and also here's a cheaper
<v Speaker 1>PF five. They kind of have to like make some
<v Speaker 1>games themselves that feel like they cater to Japan, and
<v Speaker 1>that would not be a bad idea because Japanese games
<v Speaker 1>appeal globally on their own, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean yeah, I think more things that are
<v Speaker 3>rooted in that culture more things that are being made
<v Speaker 3>there by Japanese teams. Yeah, absolutely, getting back into your
<v Speaker 3>roots and remembering that again, that is the third largest
<v Speaker 3>video game revenue, you know, the country with the largest
<v Speaker 3>video game revenue. Like you got to just remember where
<v Speaker 3>you came from, you know, go back to your roots, babes.
<v Speaker 2>And I think they realize that.
<v Speaker 3>And I think they also recognize that, like you, the
<v Speaker 3>situation here with consoles and and money and people having
<v Speaker 3>money to buy more things is going to change by
<v Speaker 3>the second. So maybe putting all your eggs in the
<v Speaker 3>US basket when we have a big, giant orange elephant
<v Speaker 3>stomping around and crushing them.
<v Speaker 2>Is probably not a good idea.
<v Speaker 3>So I hope they keep doing it because I think
<v Speaker 3>this stuff is fascinating as well. Like I think we
<v Speaker 3>far too often forget that, you know, the US isn't
<v Speaker 3>the only place that video games are are made and consumed,
<v Speaker 3>and there are giant global markets including China which is
<v Speaker 3>bigger than ours, that are buying video games, making video games,
<v Speaker 3>and caring about video games, and I think remembering that
<v Speaker 3>is really important.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you know, I'm sure this is just me being
<v Speaker 1>in my own own head about it. But I will
<v Speaker 1>say the feeling I have, without thinking about it too much,
<v Speaker 1>is when a game is made for American Americans and
<v Speaker 1>an American in an American audience, it usually is inherently
<v Speaker 1>less interesting to me. Like it just feels like the
<v Speaker 1>edges are sanded off and it's a generic, you know,
<v Speaker 1>buzz cut guy on the cover with a gun probably,
<v Speaker 1>and it's like, oh man, I just I think about
<v Speaker 1>and this is certainly selection biased, but I'll think about
<v Speaker 1>the incredible, incredible Crisis games or Mister Mosquito and Katamari
<v Speaker 1>Dimashi and just be like, where is that stuff? Give
<v Speaker 1>me weird Japanese games, and always put the discla. When
<v Speaker 1>I say weird Japanese, it's never a pejorative. It's always
<v Speaker 1>the best, most awesome, fucking shit. Give me the weird
<v Speaker 1>Japanese stuff because it's got so much more character.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, And I think, like, I don't know, I think
<v Speaker 3>about like just coffee Talk Tokyo too. I was very
<v Speaker 3>excited to see Yes, Yeah, And like I talked about
<v Speaker 3>this a while ago. I forget where I was. But
<v Speaker 3>it's like, when you know how the console wars are
<v Speaker 3>slowly we're not fighting them as much anymore. But like
<v Speaker 3>Xbox really kind of was like, we're the American system. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>we got master Chief here. We got a big dude.
<v Speaker 3>He don't talk, he just shoot shit. And then and
<v Speaker 3>then Sony was like, for a while it was the
<v Speaker 3>Japanese thing. We were Japanese gaming. And then lately, I mean,
<v Speaker 3>the last things that we remember other than doing Ghost
<v Speaker 3>of Sushima and Ghost of Yoka, which are obviously not
<v Speaker 3>made in Japan, but we're you know, rooted in Japanese culture.
<v Speaker 3>So many of the things that have come out of
<v Speaker 3>Sony are like God of War and like, you know,
<v Speaker 3>the Last of Us or something, and you're.
<v Speaker 1>Just like, I think they clearly are globally appealing games
<v Speaker 1>that's sell very well huge, right, But I they there's
<v Speaker 1>something about the moment they'll kind of feel a little
<v Speaker 1>same to me. To me, and that's to my taste.
<v Speaker 3>Well because but they also narratively as well, they are
<v Speaker 3>kind of doing that that thing where it's like, couldn't
<v Speaker 3>this also be a movie? And it's like I just
<v Speaker 3>want to play something that makes no sense at first,
<v Speaker 3>and I'm just like what first?
<v Speaker 1>So that's unapologetic about it. It's oddities. Yeah, and now
<v Speaker 1>we're just doing sort of like, oh, it was better
<v Speaker 1>when these games existed. That that's because it was it was.
<v Speaker 1>I can't help it, all, right, let's stick with some
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation news. Sony declines to comment on PlayStation six plans
<v Speaker 1>and claims PS five is only in the middle of
<v Speaker 1>its life. This is from Andy Robinson at VGC. Sony
<v Speaker 1>was asked about PlayStation five's expected lifespan and its plan
<v Speaker 1>for a successor console during an earning's call on Tuesday,
<v Speaker 1>and response, Sony CFO Lynn Tao claimed that PlayStation five,
<v Speaker 1>which has now surpassed eighty four million sales, is only
<v Speaker 1>in the middle of its lifespan, citing the high number
<v Speaker 1>of active users who continue to play. There's also this
<v Speaker 1>this chart ALYSSA that just shows the PS five is
<v Speaker 1>on almost the exact same trajectory as the PS four.
<v Speaker 1>If there's any sort of lull compared to the PS four,
<v Speaker 1>it's in those years where supply was extremely constrained and
<v Speaker 1>production was hit by a number of things COVID and
<v Speaker 1>demand for all these components, and that was in like
<v Speaker 1>its second year. It looks like there, but since then
<v Speaker 1>it's rebounded and it's just like a smidge behind PSS
<v Speaker 1>four sale the PS five is, and so it's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and the PS four is what twelve thirteen years old? Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>so okay, so twelve years old, still an active system,
<v Speaker 1>still something that is used millions of times a day
<v Speaker 1>by millions of people, and say, okay, well that's that's
<v Speaker 1>the PS four. And I will always say the PS
<v Speaker 1>four in the Xbox One bad hardware, and yet those
<v Speaker 1>things are still sticking around. PS five is a future
<v Speaker 1>proofed console. PS five pro even more so. That thing's
<v Speaker 1>probably going to be around for a very long time.
<v Speaker 1>And now that Grand Theft Auto six has been delayed
<v Speaker 1>by another six months, kind of like really putting it
<v Speaker 1>to the very end of next year and if it
<v Speaker 1>even comes out. Still, I think they're like they were
<v Speaker 1>always triggering that as a canon event in the history,
<v Speaker 1>in the timeline of this console, where we'd like, and
<v Speaker 1>that's going to set up the last few years where
<v Speaker 1>we're really going to see a bump in sales. So
<v Speaker 1>we probably are in the middle of this console's life
<v Speaker 1>in a lot of key ways, right, Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I think PS three to PS four was like seven
<v Speaker 3>years and obviously the jump hardware wise, I don't think
<v Speaker 3>was nearly as great as between.
<v Speaker 2>Four and five.
<v Speaker 1>Clearly not.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, clearly not.
<v Speaker 3>And so I think if we're in the middle that's ten,
<v Speaker 3>then we're thinking it's a ten year console life cycle,
<v Speaker 3>and I think that's pretty expected. I think that that
<v Speaker 3>makes a ton of sense, because, like you're saying, with
<v Speaker 3>future proofing, what really more are you going to get
<v Speaker 3>out of something in the next couple of years? You know,
<v Speaker 3>what's really going to be so different that someone's going
<v Speaker 3>to shell out? I mean, at this point, if you
<v Speaker 3>think about prices with an ex console will probably be
<v Speaker 3>one thousand dollars, you know, eight hundred nine hundred dollars,
<v Speaker 3>you know, So like, if you're gonna make that big
<v Speaker 3>of a jump, what's the difference gonna be under the hood?
<v Speaker 3>Actually that people can materially because I'm also not someone
<v Speaker 3>who gives I do not give a shit about FPS
<v Speaker 3>or whatever draws it. I care that it looks good
<v Speaker 3>and it plays good, and like you, you won't find
<v Speaker 3>me looking at the little differences or turning it off
<v Speaker 3>to performance mode to the other to visual mode.
<v Speaker 2>I don't care about any of that stuff. I just
<v Speaker 2>care that it runs.
<v Speaker 3>It doesn't feel like it's gonna explode, and I don't
<v Speaker 3>have to move my games on and off of it
<v Speaker 3>because I have too many things on there. So I'm
<v Speaker 3>in a weird spot as a console person. I have
<v Speaker 3>both a Series X and a PS five, and I
<v Speaker 3>swap between them just because I prefer to play shooters
<v Speaker 3>with an Xbox controller. So like for me, I can't
<v Speaker 3>see anybody reasonably buying a new PlayStation in the next
<v Speaker 3>five plus years, Like it just doesn't make any sense.
<v Speaker 2>So I think, yeah, halfway makes sense.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and they will. I think they're gonna get real
<v Speaker 1>creative with this next generation, where it's going to be
<v Speaker 1>like if it could still pop pop off in twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty eight, I think, you know, I think that was
<v Speaker 1>the year they were saying. Maybe some people were saying
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty seven, but twenty twenty eight, twenty twenty nine,
<v Speaker 1>the systems could launch that. When they do, though, I
<v Speaker 1>think they will launch alongside and at least in Sony's case,
<v Speaker 1>a sort of reconfigured PlayStation five or PlayStation five Pro
<v Speaker 1>that will be the new base model for the next generation.
<v Speaker 1>They will just like they'll they'll scale everything down, they'll
<v Speaker 1>make it on the cheap and they'll be able to
<v Speaker 1>like have these old parts, old components, and they'll be
<v Speaker 1>able to make everything smaller and more energy efficient and
<v Speaker 1>use less cooling material, and it will be smaller. It's
<v Speaker 1>just gonna be.
<v Speaker 2>A very size would be huge, huge difference.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, that'll be and then just the cost for them
<v Speaker 1>to manufacture all that stuff will be dealt with, and
<v Speaker 1>it's going to be able to play every game that's released,
<v Speaker 1>because why would they make a PS six exclusive game.
<v Speaker 1>PS five exclusive games have almost have been you and
<v Speaker 1>far between, like really and in a lot of cases like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this looks like it probably could have ran on PS four.
<v Speaker 1>Now PS four again, the frame break would be bad.
<v Speaker 1>It's not going to be bad on the PS five
<v Speaker 1>because the limiting factor is time and money and no
<v Speaker 1>longer hardware. So yeah, I think that they are going
<v Speaker 1>to like take their time and slow play what the
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation six could be and in the meantime really make
<v Speaker 1>a lot of money from the PS five because it
<v Speaker 1>has been successful and there and there's not this urgency
<v Speaker 1>to move on from it. I don't see what that
<v Speaker 1>would be.
<v Speaker 2>No, one hundred percent, And I think like two things.
<v Speaker 3>One, I think obviously whatever comes out next. There is
<v Speaker 3>not going to be a disk drive.
<v Speaker 2>There's no way. Yeah, I'm with you, there's no way.
<v Speaker 1>There's no way they'll sell one externally to like, so
<v Speaker 1>they can bypass the argument from the audience and and
<v Speaker 1>be like, no, yeah, no, you.
<v Speaker 3>Still need a player games. You just got to buy
<v Speaker 3>this for one hundred and fifty dollars. You plug it
<v Speaker 3>in and it's fine, a big deal.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, they don't have to make a ton of
<v Speaker 1>them either. They just be like, it'll be like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>why can I get one of this?
<v Speaker 3>Oh people, H'm in Yeah exactly, Yeah, I know we're
<v Speaker 3>getting more. And I think also speaking to what like
<v Speaker 3>in terms of a rush or time frame, you know,
<v Speaker 3>the way that Xbox has been lately and the way
<v Speaker 3>that everything has shifted, I don't think Sony feels any.
<v Speaker 2>Pressure to have to try and compete with Xbox.
<v Speaker 3>I don't think they really did between PlayStation five and
<v Speaker 3>Series X in terms of hardware. I think I and
<v Speaker 3>especially now you know, they obviously came out around the
<v Speaker 3>same time because that's just the way we do things.
<v Speaker 3>They come on around the same time and everyone desies.
<v Speaker 3>But I think Xbox has made it so clear that
<v Speaker 3>they're like, this is an Xbox, and I'm an Xbox,
<v Speaker 3>and you're an Xbox, and you're and you're continuous glucose
<v Speaker 3>monitors and Xbox like that. That Sony is like we
<v Speaker 3>kind of just have like the rains to do what
<v Speaker 3>we want when we want. Here there's no pressure from
<v Speaker 3>other console makers really anymore.
<v Speaker 2>And I think that's gonna show.
<v Speaker 3>I think that'll give them more room to get kind
<v Speaker 3>of crazy and creative too with whatever comes out next.
<v Speaker 2>I want it to look cool.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, well, I am a fan of the weird looking
<v Speaker 1>PS five. I'll say that I hate it.
<v Speaker 3>I just do you like, like we're gonna go to
<v Speaker 3>throw back and sound like two old old men yelling
<v Speaker 3>at the sky.
<v Speaker 2>But like remember when everything was like a fun color
<v Speaker 2>and see through? I miss that?
<v Speaker 1>Oh oh yeah, no you're talking. I mean literally, I
<v Speaker 1>got the N sixty four or fantastic go on over here,
<v Speaker 1>like right down there, That's what I mean. Corner of it.
<v Speaker 3>Too often, I'm hiding my consoles in my living room
<v Speaker 3>because I like having like, you know, a pretty living room,
<v Speaker 3>and I don't like as soon as you walk in
<v Speaker 3>the apartment it going gamer Like. I just need to
<v Speaker 3>like like take a second to realize, especially in New
<v Speaker 3>York City, I don't have any space to hide anything,
<v Speaker 3>and like the PlayStation five in the Xbox are just
<v Speaker 3>like these big honking giant things that take up my bookshelf.
<v Speaker 3>And I'm like, it'd be cool if it looked crazy.
<v Speaker 3>It'd be cool if it was actually having fun visually.
<v Speaker 3>That would make me feel so happy if you just
<v Speaker 3>went banana pancakes with the design.
<v Speaker 1>And maybe there is a chance for that, because if
<v Speaker 1>they are going to do this like reconfiguration of the
<v Speaker 1>PS five, one thing they could do if they want
<v Speaker 1>to like call it, you know, a PS six light
<v Speaker 1>and add some other like very tiny improvements. Well, the
<v Speaker 1>one way you could distract people from the fact that's
<v Speaker 1>basically a PS five again is here it is and
<v Speaker 1>fantastic colors or something like that. Let's go, let's go.
<v Speaker 1>I'm with you. The not feeling competition from from Xbox
<v Speaker 1>probably true. I wonder if like you know, there's leaks
<v Speaker 1>from this morning of like that those rumored valve stuff.
<v Speaker 1>It's like maybe with steam Os growing, there's a chance
<v Speaker 1>they could feel some competition from the PC side of things.
<v Speaker 1>But I don't know I think that they really are
<v Speaker 1>going to be in that situation where like, our competition
<v Speaker 1>is short form video YouTube shorts and TikTok and all
<v Speaker 1>this stuff, and they won't be paying attention to anyone else.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, And I have the rog the Xbox rog Lax,
<v Speaker 3>and that that thing is stupid.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm like, I like it.
<v Speaker 3>I'm having a great time with it most of the time.
<v Speaker 3>It is literally Windows Operating system to a point where
<v Speaker 3>like it just it just bricked everything redoing Armory create
<v Speaker 3>like in the middle of a Hades run.
<v Speaker 1>And I'm just true to the choir. Oh numb yep,
<v Speaker 1>she said at this time, everybody not me yep, Windows
<v Speaker 1>os get out here. Okay, last couple of stories here.
<v Speaker 1>Destiny Too falls short of Sony's expectations after Bungee acquisition.
<v Speaker 1>This is just another thing that they talked about in
<v Speaker 1>that earnings call where it's like, hey, yeah, we spent
<v Speaker 1>three point six billion dollars, it's not making as much
<v Speaker 1>as we thought it would and yeah, so we're reconsidering
<v Speaker 1>some things real quick. What's the future of Bungie under Sony.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I really am so sad about Destiny, man, Like
<v Speaker 3>I was such a Destiny Girl.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>I feel like Destiny's not going to be a thing
<v Speaker 3>in two years Max, Like it's just going to go.
<v Speaker 2>It's going to go the way of the Dodo.
<v Speaker 3>I think, although I don't know, like this splitting and
<v Speaker 3>having them working on Marathon and Marathon being such a
<v Speaker 3>lukewarm reception and all that stuff going on with the art.
<v Speaker 1>And they said Marathon is still going to becoming this
<v Speaker 1>fiscal year that means before March.
<v Speaker 3>Before March, yeah, which is crazy, and like it's just
<v Speaker 3>a huge bummer because Destiny two was at its peak.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I'm thinking my peak for where it was
<v Speaker 3>like beyond Light, which Queen that was to me like
<v Speaker 3>storytelling and content wise. I was like this, I'm a mama, mamma.
<v Speaker 3>I could eat that up all day.
<v Speaker 2>And like I understand why they shifted the way they
<v Speaker 2>did things.
<v Speaker 3>But with them, you know, tightening the reins on Bungee
<v Speaker 3>and Destiny, I think that we're gonna see a lot
<v Speaker 3>less coming out of Destiny, and then I think it's
<v Speaker 3>just going to be like nothing.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, they're.
<v Speaker 3>Already ceasing they're ceasing development in at Xbox, on Halo
<v Speaker 3>Infinite and you're just like, wait, you didn't even do anything,
<v Speaker 3>Like it's been four years, what do you mean? And
<v Speaker 3>so I just I am the unfortunate reality of the
<v Speaker 3>way that the video game industry is right now is
<v Speaker 3>like they are just the moment you dip them into
<v Speaker 3>the negative, they're looking to even if you make the money,
<v Speaker 3>they're still looking for ways to cut you out. So
<v Speaker 3>I don't think it's long for this world to quote Drifter.
<v Speaker 1>It's especially because you know that is an American studio.
<v Speaker 1>And we'll get to the last story here in a second.
<v Speaker 1>The comparison's there for costs of making the game are insane.
<v Speaker 1>Before we get to that, though, Art Dink announces Art
<v Speaker 1>Dink Game Lug catalog title ports for Switch and PC
<v Speaker 1>from Salamano Keamatsu Tail the Sun is coming to Switch. Everybody.
<v Speaker 1>This is a weird old game that I first learned
<v Speaker 1>about Alissa. I was reading my EGM as a little boy,
<v Speaker 1>and I always always, I always love the reviews where
<v Speaker 1>it's like that number is very low, let's see what's
<v Speaker 1>so bad about this game? And I think like Dan
<v Speaker 1>Schubers and gave this like one point five out of
<v Speaker 1>ten or something like that. On the EGM scale and
<v Speaker 1>I was just like, so it's stuck in my head foreveryone.
<v Speaker 1>That's one of the worst games of all time, this
<v Speaker 1>thing I had never played. And then Dan Record's like, no,
<v Speaker 1>that gives a lot of fun. He made me play it,
<v Speaker 1>and it's a lot of fun.
<v Speaker 3>It's a very word the sun, like the tribally kind
<v Speaker 3>of sun logo that looks like tribally Sun logo.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, you fight birds made out of pizza as a
<v Speaker 1>caveman until you get like powered up enough to take
<v Speaker 1>on mammoths. And if you get mammoths, you can use
<v Speaker 1>their resources to either upgrade your character or to build
<v Speaker 1>your bones spire to go climb to the sun. And
<v Speaker 1>then if you build your bones high enough, you can
<v Speaker 1>just go to the sun.
<v Speaker 3>And that's how you want to get your bones high enough.
<v Speaker 3>Is the best thing I've ever heard of my life.
<v Speaker 1>It's a beautiful thing. It's poetry in motion. It's poetry
<v Speaker 1>when you get to explain it as well. And now
<v Speaker 1>it's coming to the switch in pcvs Steam on December
<v Speaker 1>sixteenth in Japan. So hope, I mean it's on Steam
<v Speaker 1>right now. I think it. I don't think they have
<v Speaker 1>it like a translated version. I don't think you need
<v Speaker 1>that because it's a very simple game. But maybe there's
<v Speaker 1>no birds.
<v Speaker 2>What do you need to know about pizza birds?
<v Speaker 1>You know, you just need to know. You need to
<v Speaker 1>fucking kill them. They need to be Stamford, That's what
<v Speaker 1>you need to know. This is very exciting. They have
<v Speaker 1>their their other game, but I oh, yeah Argonauts. Oh
<v Speaker 1>Aquanauts Holiday, which I've never played, but this is the
<v Speaker 1>company that may doce in the Giant as well. I've
<v Speaker 1>always wanted to try that, so maybe I'll try Aquanots
<v Speaker 1>Holiday first.
<v Speaker 2>Like anything that.
<v Speaker 3>Brings back older games and ports and re releases them,
<v Speaker 3>I'm excited about.
<v Speaker 2>You know, we're losing the sacred texts and it's.
<v Speaker 1>Good that like we're in a place where it's like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>these things can can go to team, they can go
<v Speaker 1>to Switch and probably find an audience. People who like
<v Speaker 1>to buy video games are on those platforms, and I
<v Speaker 1>think people are like, we can make something happen here.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I love that.
<v Speaker 1>Sega is raising Japanese employees' salaries again, three years after
<v Speaker 1>its previous increase. This was from Chris going at VGC.
<v Speaker 1>As a result of this, changed the base salary, the
<v Speaker 1>new starting salary for university graduates joining SEGA will increase
<v Speaker 1>by ten percent from three hundred thousand and yen. I
<v Speaker 1>think this, Yeah, that's per month to three hundred and
<v Speaker 1>thirty thousand yen. So that's that ten percent increase. The
<v Speaker 1>conversion rate on that is this is per month nine
<v Speaker 1>hundred dollars to now two one hundred dollars. That is
<v Speaker 1>a really low number. Like you could not pay a
<v Speaker 1>developer on either coast of this country or in Chicago
<v Speaker 1>anything close to that. You'd have to We're talking, you
<v Speaker 1>have to increase that five times basically, Yeah, before you
<v Speaker 1>can kind of start a conversation with people.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, neither one of that is rent.
<v Speaker 1>For people exactly, Yes, just rent justice. So when I
<v Speaker 1>see like all these companies freaking out and closing studio,
<v Speaker 1>like no one's making games in the United States for
<v Speaker 1>the most part anymore, it's like, Oh, it's because they
<v Speaker 1>are comparing it globally to they can make it a
<v Speaker 1>lot of other places, And I think maybe this is
<v Speaker 1>something behind like the renewed interest from Sony in Japanese audiences.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, well, maybe if we make games in Japan
<v Speaker 1>more than anywhere else. We could save a lot of money,
<v Speaker 1>and they certainly could. But at the same time we
<v Speaker 1>talked about it in earlier, costs are going up in
<v Speaker 1>Japan now, like finally after many many years, they are
<v Speaker 1>going up in a lot of ways, and all these
<v Speaker 1>other factors aren't really changing, and the fact that wages
<v Speaker 1>have not changed in a very long time, like obviously
<v Speaker 1>you don't get to this number without it just being
<v Speaker 1>stagnant wages for years and years and years. Well, something
<v Speaker 1>has to has to move here, and it seems like
<v Speaker 1>we've heard the story a bunch of times now over
<v Speaker 1>the last couple of years, Japanese publisher raising their what
<v Speaker 1>they're paying their wages and what they're paying their employees.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, yeah, okay, maybe things are starting to kind
<v Speaker 1>of equalize there a little bit, but they're still a
<v Speaker 1>long way off. But always important to point out cost
<v Speaker 1>of living ent band significantly lower than it is in
<v Speaker 1>somewhere like the United States, so you can kind of
<v Speaker 1>live on this, although I think even ten years ago,
<v Speaker 1>three hundred and thirty thousand ye in a month would
<v Speaker 1>not be enough for most people still there. I think
<v Speaker 1>you were just kind of breaking up a little bit
<v Speaker 1>in the video wise, Oh okay, okay, I think we
<v Speaker 1>got you back up a little bit. I'm no, there
<v Speaker 1>we go okay. So either way, it's like a good sign.
<v Speaker 1>But also it's like this really kind of tells the
<v Speaker 1>difference between what these companies are thinking in a lot
<v Speaker 1>of territories and why they're so hesitant to invest in
<v Speaker 1>these big new games like to me this it says, Oh,
<v Speaker 1>that's why Perfect Dart got canceled because they were making
<v Speaker 1>it on the West Coast and it doesn't make any
<v Speaker 1>sense to make a game like that in their opinion anymore.
<v Speaker 1>It's a bummer.
<v Speaker 2>It's a huge bummer.
<v Speaker 3>And I think we see, you know, we're looking at
<v Speaker 3>other stuff where like the entry level jobs even that
<v Speaker 3>you get into the industry with they're they're gonna they're
<v Speaker 3>disappearing more and more. And when you look at a
<v Speaker 3>company that's considering like taking its QA and making it
<v Speaker 3>mostly AI. But twenty twenty seven, I think it's Squenex
<v Speaker 3>that said that you you run the risk of you know,
<v Speaker 3>a lot of companies will start to look at doing that,
<v Speaker 3>and not only will they start to look at doing
<v Speaker 3>their dev work outside of America, but they'll start to
<v Speaker 3>look at doing their dev work with computers instead of people,
<v Speaker 3>and all of that is concerning to me.
<v Speaker 2>I think raising raising the salary is great.
<v Speaker 3>You know, the cost of living in Japan, like I
<v Speaker 3>think you mentioned it has been going up so good, great, amazing,
<v Speaker 3>But it is the industry is at a really interesting
<v Speaker 3>point with paying its workers, paying for games. And what's
<v Speaker 3>crazy is like they're all still making like a decent
<v Speaker 3>amount of money. You know, like EA is selling potentially
<v Speaker 3>to a consortium of companies, but like EA and EA
<v Speaker 3>laid off like three thousand people over the last four years,
<v Speaker 3>but like you know, the EA presidents still rank it
<v Speaker 3>like raking in money. So it's at what point are
<v Speaker 3>we going to realize that, like the people at the
<v Speaker 3>heads of these companies are making plenty of money and
<v Speaker 3>maybe let's spread it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's it's a it's a broken system, and it's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>they're there, it's operating the way it's supposed to be
<v Speaker 1>and the way it's supposed to be as bad. Uh,
<v Speaker 1>And and so we're in a situation where a company
<v Speaker 1>can make a lot of money, but they don't have
<v Speaker 1>a clear pathway toward immediate growth media obvious growth, so
<v Speaker 1>they have no lies. They can kind of go tell
<v Speaker 1>their investors about what they're going to do next to
<v Speaker 1>make them returns on their investment. And so it's like,
<v Speaker 1>what are we left to do? Well, we cut jobs
<v Speaker 1>and we can sell ourselves to someone bigger, and that's
<v Speaker 1>that continues to be the two things that happen sort
<v Speaker 1>of no matter what. Fantastic. All right, that does it
<v Speaker 1>for the headlines. Let's uh, let's get on to the
<v Speaker 1>poll question from Wednesday and bring that up over here
<v Speaker 1>at giant bomb dot com slash or YouTube dot com
<v Speaker 1>Slash at Giant bombslash posts. Uh, let's see here. Oh,
<v Speaker 1>what do you want more? A new Crash Bandicoot platformer
<v Speaker 1>or a new Crash Team Racing. I think I actually
<v Speaker 1>do want a new Crash Team Racing a little bit more,
<v Speaker 1>as does thirty nine percent of respondents sixty one percent.
<v Speaker 1>When a new Crash Bandicoot platformer, I think that that
<v Speaker 1>Crash Team Racing Nitro Fuel sold significantly more than any
<v Speaker 1>Crash game before it. Yeah, so I think the general
<v Speaker 1>audience still really likes these cart racers. Something like ten
<v Speaker 1>million copies for that game, and the rumors are there
<v Speaker 1>could be a new one of those, and I would
<v Speaker 1>welcome it. But I do hope they get back to
<v Speaker 1>a Crash Bandicoot five because that fourth one, which again
<v Speaker 1>I know wasn't the real fourth one, but still they
<v Speaker 1>called it four, was very very good.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, I love Crash Bandicoot man. That was one of
<v Speaker 3>my first, like regularly played games on my PlayStation.
<v Speaker 2>Bring it back.
<v Speaker 1>He's a cool jortsman. I appreciate his style and his
<v Speaker 1>ways of doing things, in his way of yelling for it.
<v Speaker 2>Remember me with him during COVID with the mask on.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, beautiful thing. Just a real dumb character that I
<v Speaker 1>appreciate me too. We have a new poll question. We'll
<v Speaker 1>get to that here in a second. Before we do that, though,
<v Speaker 1>a listen er, conte, why don't you tell people where
<v Speaker 1>they can find you on the internet, what you have
<v Speaker 1>going on and all of that good stuff?
<v Speaker 2>Oh my gosh.
<v Speaker 3>Well, I'm Byeline's all over the place Guardian lately, which
<v Speaker 3>has been great. I'm on Blue Sky under my name
<v Speaker 3>technically like a little bit left over on the wasteland
<v Speaker 3>that is Twitter, but you don't need to go there.
<v Speaker 3>And yeah, I'm on Twitch, Twitch dot tv forward Slash.
<v Speaker 2>I'll listen. Merk. I stream Tuesdays and Thursdays.
<v Speaker 3>I think you guys rated me yesterday, which was huge,
<v Speaker 3>thank you. I just cover video game news and sometimes
<v Speaker 3>I play games and get very heated, so that's me.
<v Speaker 3>I have a Patreon as well. It's all linked in
<v Speaker 3>my bio on Blue Sky, so yeah, check it out.
<v Speaker 2>Support. We're supporting independent journalism here.
<v Speaker 3>Help me every sense of the word, because there's nothing
<v Speaker 3>really left anymore but to do that.
<v Speaker 2>So go support us and every way you can.
<v Speaker 1>It's all we got and I do appreciate that, well,
<v Speaker 1>you know, I do it, but it's awesome to see
<v Speaker 1>that there's people out there that want to ensure it
<v Speaker 1>continues to happen, and we're gonna we're gonna do our
<v Speaker 1>best to sort of re refill that excitement and hope
<v Speaker 1>that that can continue to happen for generations and more
<v Speaker 1>people can come in and say, oh yeah, there's an
<v Speaker 1>audience out there that will pay and kind of following
<v Speaker 1>all these footsteps like we have been. New poll question
<v Speaker 1>great PlayStation state of play Japan ABCD or lower. You know,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not expecting great things that people are always disappointed
<v Speaker 1>in state of place. I think this one again. They
<v Speaker 1>said it's for the Japanese audience, but you can watch
<v Speaker 1>too if you want. I bet the Japanese audience is
<v Speaker 1>feeling pretty stoked about being able to save a ton
<v Speaker 1>of money on a PlayStation five before Grand Theft Auto,
<v Speaker 1>which does sell well in Japan comes out. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>if you if it wasn't for you, though, feel free
<v Speaker 1>to grate it however you would. We'll get the results
<v Speaker 1>of that, talk about it on Game Mess Mornings here
<v Speaker 1>on Giant Bomb tomorrow. Speaking of Giant Bomb, after this show,
<v Speaker 1>we're going to be handling some business. But then later
<v Speaker 1>today is Blake Club. It's my turn again back on
<v Speaker 1>Blake Club. I don't know what I'm playing. They will
<v Speaker 1>reveal it. They did say that I should be ready
<v Speaker 1>to play a Nintendo or Sega handheld game. Sooo, my
<v Speaker 1>costume is right there. I haven't looked at it though, everybody,
<v Speaker 1>So I'll be getting dressed up, looking real dumb and
<v Speaker 1>playing a bad game. It's blighting round so hopefully it's short,
<v Speaker 1>but knowing these guys, it will be seventeen episodes of
<v Speaker 1>me playing whatever the hell this bullshit is. That'll be
<v Speaker 1>later today we have some other stuff popping off. Check
<v Speaker 1>out the websites. We will have some cool stuff from
<v Speaker 1>like Dan and Jan. We're traveling recently. You might be
<v Speaker 1>able to see the results of that. We have the
<v Speaker 1>Metroid Prime for Beyond a Backlayer. I went to go
<v Speaker 1>see that. Well. He'll be able to talk about it
<v Speaker 1>to a certain extent later this week. It's a lot
<v Speaker 1>of stuff happening on the website giant bomb dot com.
<v Speaker 1>Hell yeah, okay, I think that's going to do it. Alyssa,
<v Speaker 1>thank you so much for hanging out with me today
<v Speaker 1>and talking about video games. I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 2>I appreciate you. Thank you for having me. You guys
<v Speaker 2>are any time.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and I always tell people squeak wheel, Squeaky Wheel
<v Speaker 1>gets the grease. Let me know when you want to
<v Speaker 1>be on and we'll make it happen.
<v Speaker 2>I don't have a job, so just.
<v Speaker 1>Holler at you boy. Let's get you back on game
<v Speaker 1>this mornings. We love it, the audience loves it. Will
<v Speaker 1>make it happen more frequently. Thanks all right, Thank you
<v Speaker 1>all for watching and listening. You are the best audience
<v Speaker 1>in gaming. Until next time, have a good one. Take
<v Speaker 1>care of yourself. And goodbye