Steam May Show Up on the Next Xbox

He'll be gon't be bad. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do
this for May twenty third, twenty twenty four. For the next hour or
so, let me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game Mess
Mornings Live with Me Jeff Grub. Today, one console brand just acquired another
console brand, Kinda, and PlayStation talks about its vision for the future.
But first, please join me and welcoming today's co host the Game Mess Mornings.
It's Jane Choa. Everybody, Jan how are you doing? I just
found out I'm going backpacking for the first time this weekend. Grub, Oh
boy, do you have a backpack ready to go? Do you have to
go get one? Do you have hiking boots? What's going on here?
I have? I have hiking shoes. This backpack showed up in my apartment
yesterday. Okay, it's like the game situation did, Like someone buys something
like you're gonna go hiking in your life is gonna change. Like do you
know who got the backpack for you? It's my partner's best friend's brother in
law's backpack that he doesn't use, so now it's temporarily mine. I bought
a Pooh shovel online. Right, apparently I have to bury that. You're
gonna have to make a little trine. Sure, you're gonna have to make
a little latrine. I have a jet boil, and now I have a
very thin but warm and light maybe an ultra light. Some would say sleeping
bag. Okay, okay, all right, this is exciting. I like
hiking. I don't know if I've ever well, in boy Scott's I definitely
have been something called backpacking, but as an adult, like on my own
deciding, making my own decisions, I don't know if I've done anything I
would refer to as backpacking. I just go for like day hikes, that
sort of thing. But it sounds exciting real quick. Do you ever think
about why why does the French have a word for the shithole latrine? Like
they were like, yeah, trene. It's a beautiful word referring to something
very obscene in my opinion, I don't know. I don't know why,
and why is that the word we chose for English? All right? Building
the latrene? I think about a latrines a lot because I was in boy
Scouts and everyone referred to every bathroom as latrine, latrine, yes, you
know, maybe maybe the French just dig a lot of holes. I've never
been to France, so I've never seen the French countryside. Maybe it's just
filled with boopholes, loopholes everywhere. Maybe. Uh so, do you have
a plan? Do you have like you know, uh, like waterproof socks?
Do you got you have like a little baggy full of full of snacks?
You're gonna bring what's happening here, crub? Those would have been good
ideas had I known about this earth there you have time, you have time,
jan you can get yourself do an rii or whatever they're called. I
bought uh a packet of tuna, and uh I thought, hey, you
know it's gonna be good, dehydrated food, A box of mashed potatoes.
M hm okay, yeah, listen, you have water in your mouth already,
Slavi. You just throw one of those things in there and just let
it sit for like five minutes. It turns into something delicious. Okay,
I'm I'm ready to And I told my partner this, and then she looked
at me and said, I think that's a little concerning. Maybe you should
talk to someone about that. And then I because I had said, hey,
I just want to keep walking until I fucking can't. Yeah, everything
just shuts down. Yeah totally. I went for my walk this morning and
I really needed it. Now, jan real quick, before we get into
the games. Here's your quiz. What do the letters and the word GORP
stand for? Do you know? Uh? Going outdoors? Really? Papa?
Okay, very close? Now, what if I told you each thing
refers to a food item. Granola, oatmeal, raisins, poat meal.
Yeah, basically poatmeal is another word for peanuts. Yes, exactly, granola,
oates, raisins, and peanuts. There you go, so you can
make this by poatmeal code. Everyone use my boatmeal code. All right,
everybody, we should explain what we do here. I guess most weekdays,
I Jeff Grub will help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking
news and maybe even some of our own original reporting. For all these topics,
I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who will make me look
smart. If you were watching live on twitch welcome, you can always listen
to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for game Mes Mornings, or
find the RSS on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch the show
later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we
have a lot to get into, so let's start the morning mess with Atari
acquires in Television brand. This is from salamano O Fra Kamatsu. Atari has
acquired the Intelevision brand and certain games from in Television Entertainment, the company announced
today in Television and entertain it will rebrand A continue its business of developing and
distributing the Amiko brand game console with a license from Atari to continue to distribute
new versions of the Intellivision games on the Amiko console. Through its purchase,
Atari aims to expand digital and physical distribution of legacy and television games, as
well as potentially create new games and explore brand and licensing opportunities. The first
in television home game console was released by MATEL Electronics in nineteen seventy nine and
sold an estimated five million units through nineteen ninety. Atari and A Television fought
what Atari calls the first console war in the late nineteen seventies. In early
nineteen eighties, and here's a quote, uniting Atari and A Television after forty
five years, ends the longest running console war in history. Set Atari subsidiary
Digital Clip Studio had Mike Mike Micah. Shout out to Mike Micah for putting
it down and telling it how it is. Let's see, Yeah, the
unite. This unite's former competitors and brings together fans of Atari and television and
the golden age of gaming. So yeah, listen, I like this.
I like where a Tari is at right now. Of Hey, we have
a bunch of old stuff. We're going to find a bunch of interesting ways
to bring that stuff back, whether that's just re releasing them, doing something
with digital eclips, where they're going to go in there and do one of
these documentary games which have all been fantastic, whether it's taking an old brand,
putting a spin on it making you feel like slightly more modern, or
doing something completely new with it as well. I'm a big fan of all
that stuff, and it seems like having more AMMO to draw on in terms
of having these old eyps is only going to benefit Atari's strategy here. The
one thing is like the Amiko console that Tommy Talla Erico is making for a
while, that's still a going concern. I don't get how that's gonna happen,
but hey, whatever. Yeah, I don't see an actual future where
the Amiko is readily available and is a product at all other than you know,
just joking and goofing about it. But Atari has been doing some solid
work, so maybe they could actually get it across the finish line. I
still don't completely agree with how this console has been marketed, but maybe they
can scale some things back and actually make it something fun to use. Yeah,
And I'm like, I know there's people who are like in the Amico
scene, people who are like always believed in this thing, and I'll be
interested to see, like what they think about all this at this point,
at the very least, just getting to a point where they sell that thing
and I can check it out as a curiosity. I would be interested in
that. But I beyond that, I don't see them supporting it much beyond
those those confines. I think what they would do is, yeah, it's
available, you could buy it. Whatever, here's a couple of games for
it, and now we're moving on to another project to capitalize on these on
these old brands and IP. I also don't like nothing immediately comes to mind
when I think what is in an television game. There are definitely are some,
but it's never something that I had a strong association with. I had
Cleekovision and a way to play a tory games on Cleecovision, and then in
television was the other one we didn't have. But even then it wasn't like,
oh, everyone's always talking about this in television game or something like that.
That said, there's no reason that there's not interesting stories to be told
about those games, and this is the right group now to tell that stuff
that Mike Micah is you know right, there's there's a lot of people on
his team that fully understand the history of these games, and then even if
they don't, they know how to get to the people who have that history
and preserve it and keep it safe. And that includes like finding documents,
talking to the right people, shooting video. You know, Drew Scanlin I
think is still over at Digital Clips doing stuff like that. So it's like,
yeah, please go go tell those stories I didn't even know I wanted
to hear. So this is this is neat And do you think in forty
five years we get to a point where it's like PlayStation has bought the Xbox
brand as no one cares about those things anymore. I think those two brands
are going to obliterate themselves. Yeah that sounds right too, That sounds right.
They blinking White Guy has really come back in a big way. I've
seen that on TV a couple times in the last month. Oh yeah,
it's get the bag, Drew. Yeah, get paid Drew. Absolutely all
right, let's move along here. Digital Foundry says that Paper Mario the Thousand
Year Door on Switch runs at nine hundred P doted and six hundred sixty six
forty P in the handheld mode. This is from my Nintendo News. The
latest video game released tackled by the tech focused team at Digital Foundry is the
long awaited remake of Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door. The team has come
away reasonably impressed by what Nintendo has accomplished with the remake, despite it being
thirty frames per second as opposed to sixty frames per second like the original.
However, when it comes to frame rate, Digital says the Switch remake provides
a near locked thirty frames per second readout throughout our testing. Paper Mario the
Thousand Year Door runs at nine hundred P when played in doc mode and six
forty P when played in handheld mode, and then there's some excerpts from the
thing where they basically just say they did a really good job overall with the
technology of this port and Jan I'm getting to a point where I'm over the
thirty frames per second thing because it does look good enough, and having a
tech team like this go and look at it and be impressed. It's like,
Okay, if it's good enough for them, it's definitely gonna be good
enough for me. That they have like a sharper eye than even I do
when I'm looking at these things, and I'm happy to keep it that way.
I don't want to be so obsessed with visuals that every little thing bothers
me. There are, of course, a couple things that bother them,
but for the most part, it's like, no, they seem pretty happy
with this, and I don't fret about like six or forty p on a
handheld screen that's gonna look really sharp on seven inches. So overall, I'm
pretty excited about this. I'm glad that it came out really well. It's
your history with a thousand year door. I can't remember is this when you
played before non existence? Right? So I'm excited either way. Yes,
yeah, super excited to check this out again. Yeah, if the Digital
Foundry crew is completely fine and they think it's a competent port, then it's
going to be completely fine to someone's eyes like mine that are that are kind
of dumb at this point. Yeah, it's a bummer for sure that they
couldn't get it up to sixty frames per second. But at this point,
grub I agree. Especially I'm one of those people that's only going to play
this handheld and uh on that small of a screen and I'm still playing on
a base switch, not even in OL. It's which this is going to
be completely fine for my layman eyes. And also it's not like it is
a three D high fidelity game. It is like two D sprites or at
least like two D paper sprites moving around in a relatively not super detailed environment.
Yeah. Yeah, And I think the big thing for me was always
the timing in battles and how does that feel? And literally no one has
complained about that as far as I can tell you though, and so it's
like, okay, good news. And I think a big part of that
is the frame timing. With that Digital Foundery talks about it's consistent. You
know, thirty three point three milliseconds per frame, which is going to get
you thirty frames per second, and it's it's very consistent, which makes it
very predictable. So once you get the timing down, it's gonna work every
time in that same timing and it won't be weird. And it's like,
Okay, that's kind of that's not all I can ask for. You could
still ask for sixty frames per second. There's definitely an argument to say,
hey, it was sixty on GameCube, it should be sixty here. But
when I actually look at the end product itself, I'm not going like,
hey, how is this not sixty? Or why isn't this sixty? I'm
going no, this looks really good. So overall pretty excited, And this
is just me being excited to play thousand Year Door, which should be coming
out tonight. That's the game I'm looking for to most in this moment.
I would be interested if some outlet out there, maybe the Homies, a
game spot, can do this, but if they can do a normal person
off the street, hey can you tell if this is sixty fps or thirty
fps or not? I feel like that'd be an interesting test to see For
this game in particular, I think people would have a very difficult time telling
totally or even bumping something down on the steam deck to like forty eight frames
or forty frames per second. I think that'd be an interesting You've put it
forty five frames per second on the steam deck, oh lad, with that
frame doubling, and very few people are going to be able to tell the
difference. I don't know. If I really see that, I mean side
by side, I probably would be able. Okay, this one is looking
smoother to me, although I can't really tell. But if you put them
a double blind where the person given to me doesn't know and I don't know,
and I see them isolated, I would probably have a very difficult time
knowing the difference between forty five and sixty. So diminish your return starts for
me around forty frames per second. For some people it starts like sixty and
higher. But definitely I could tell the difference between thirty and sixty most of
the time. And obviously this is something that just kind of gets in my
head a little bit for even a game like this, But I'm sure once
I have it, most that will be put aside, and I'll just be
happy to be playing this game. Just sounds like that's the case for most
people. And as long as the combat isn't affected at all, Right,
if you have built up that muscle memory over time because you're familiar with a
thousand year door and if you can't feel it, then I think that should
be completely fine, right, And it's the kind of thing like we know
that this can help in certain circumstances higher frame rates, even when you can't
see the frame rate difference anymore. It was you know, oh, the
eye is only refreshing so fast, but it's like you are actually getting more
information in like a three hundred frames per second monitor that is rendering out counterstrike
that fast. So when a person appears, like in a gap and a
door, you see them quickly, so that gives you a faster, faster
time to react. And I think that is the hope that that is not
a problem for this game, and it just shouldn't be. You should be
able to predict it and land those yumps because the jumps are happening, they
happen the same way every time. The animation is the same every time,
so you just want to like get used to it, and then once you
get used to it, you should be able to repeat it. So yep,
all right, let's go ahead to the next story here. Jess Corden
says one hundred percent Steam is on the next Xbox This is from Jonas Macki
at Game Reactor. We've known for a long time that Windows Central editor Jess
cordon has good contacts at Microsoft, and he's often been early with big scoops
about what the Xbox team in particular has going on. Now he's added again
it states that the next Xbox console will one hundred percent with one hundred percent
certainty support Steam. Well, this is probably speculation on his part rather than
something he knows for sure. One hundred percent is still automatically interesting. Having
Steam support for Xbox would mean that it would suddenly be possible to play games
like The Last of Us Part one, Horizon Forbidden West, and the recently
released Hell Divers two on Microsoft's console. Uh Jim, I also, I
think this is happening too, and I for me, it's like part of
this goes back to the way Microsoft globally is behaving with all of their technologies
and all their services and all their stores. And this goes back a couple
of years to Windows store being like, Hey, we'll let you bring any
payment processing thing you want to our store, and that being like, okay,
they're opening up that much that their own store on Windows will now accept
different payment processing. And I think that that is part of a larger strategy
of being like, we're going to be the open platform across the board,
and that will put us in a strong position going forward so that we can
then maybe make the argument that our platforms should be on or our stores should
be on other platforms as well. But in the meantime, they do have
to do something like this where if it's an Xbox and you're going to like
let people do what they want with it, and you're going to make it
more open, you do have to make Steam available to people because that's the
one they're gonna want. I'd have to ask you, though, do you
want to use Steam on your Xbox? I think I myself and probably not
in that that audience that would like to do that. But there's one hundred
percent an audience that has been a gaming audience that have only probably stuck to
consoles that know the word Steam. They know that it's a PC store and
would like to indulge in that store. I think it's interesting knowing that games
on Steam go on sale throughout the whole year and wind up getting like reduced
dramatically that I wonder how Microsoft would be anticipating that if something is available on
Steam and Xbox, if someone is just going to wind up picking it up
on Steam versus the Microsoft store. But does Xbox consider that a win already
because they're already on the platform with an Xbox. But this is this is
exciting at least for like console exclusive gamers out there that haven't picked up a
Steam deck or are too scared to dive into the world a PC gaming.
Yeah, and it's uh, I think we try to like figure out like,
okay, so what is Microsoft thinking here is the benefit? And it's
you know, I had, like I've said before, my tenfoil had conspiracy
theory about long term plans of this puts them in a strong position with regulators
so that they can make that argument that later down the line, Hey,
we have the store, the Xbox Gaming Store that has Call of Duty and
all these other things on it. People should be able to make purchases through
there. If they want even on a PlayStation that tinfoil hat. I think
that's so far away, and a million things could change between now and then.
So in the meantime, what is the immediate benefit? And I think
the argument would here here would probably be okay, one, this would keep
the Xbox hardware platform relevant and viable. Right. A good point here is,
yeah, Sony games come to PC, they come to Steam, and
then those things could just run on Xbox. So now all those games are
also on Xbox. So you know, you know, we get a PC.
But if you're fraid of get a PC, get an Xbox and it's
very powerful and it has a handheld version and all that stuff just works.
That only goes so far because I think a lot of people be like,
why wouldn't I still just get a PC that is more you know, modible
or whatever. I could do whatever I want with it. But I think
for for Xbox, it's also the kind of thing where you were saying,
once they get the game on the Xbox platform and they're on and they're in
the ecosystem, still the default in a lot of circumstances probably would be and
now I'm going to get this other thing and it's right here on this little
icon on the front page that takes me to the Xbox store. I'll just
get that there. And when this next big game pops off, everyone we're
already playing on our Xbox. Why don't we just go get it on the
Xbox and then we when we make micro transaction purchases, it's just defaulting to
Xbox getting that money. I st I think that makes some logical sense.
Do you think that that it's better than people not wanting to get Xboxes at
all anymore? Right? I think that's what the thinking might be. I
don't know, what do you think? Yeah? I like the more that
we we sect the situation, the more curious it seems is where the net
benefit is for Xbox, Like, is it enough that you get a fraction
of the micro transactions or transactions in general? Is it beneficial that they have
the gamers on an Xbox platform, Because at that point I'm thinking the art
I'm thinking Steam is the more beneficial side of this potential relationship, where all
right, well we got another place for people to buy games available on Steam
versus playing anything on Xbox, And does this kill game passes potential momentum?
In the future. I mean maybe, but it feels like the momentum is
already stalled for game Pass, so I guess you'll call a potential growth in
the future maybe. I think for Microsoft's point of view, they're thinking here
that more options for players is better and and those people that you know,
get an Xbox because now they hear they can use Steam on there, and
this will be an easier way to access Steam games. In their opinion,
Well, now there's more people on Xbox can that can maybe get game Pass.
But I don't I think that. You know, for a couple of
years there, we were saying it's all about game Pass, It's all about
game Pass, and I feel like that is now over that they are trying
to think of other strategies to go along with game Pass. So, yeah,
how does this work? I'm I don't know. There's that rumor going
around that is clearly false, but it was like, got people talking that,
oh, Microsoft is going to buy Steam for sixteen billion dollars or something
like that, And there's a million reasons why that story doesn't make any sense
at the moment, but you know, the price for sure that people were
arguing that, hey, well maybe that's sixteen billion dollars. Is Microsoft trying
to pay to get Steam on Xbox and said, well, they wouldn't need
to do that. Steam would be happy to put or Valve would be happy
to put Steam on Xbox because then they start a new place to get revenue.
And that's fine if you If Microsoft opens that up Valve, Valve will
put Steam on Xbox for free. Sure, so, and that does beg
the question in my opinion though, does Microsoft say, well, now that
you're on Xbox, do we get a cut of your sales? They probably
wouldn't be able to do that, right, I don't think they would be.
Right, Well, yeah, because I'm trying to think what other devices
Steam is available on, but it's pretty much just PC's and Max PC's max
yep, yep, that's right. And like Apple isn't getting a cut out
of any transactions on like Mac games, right, You're right, No,
unless this is like a very specific deal broker through Microsoft. Right, where
do you think you get the whole Steam library grub or like a fraction of
it? I think you should. I think if Steam's on there, you
get the whole Steam library, because at the end of the day, the
next Xbox console is going to be a PC, just like the current Xbox
consoles, and there's no reason that everything shouldn't work. I think I haven't
really I haven't really thought that through fully. If there might be some exceptions,
but I think in general, the thrust of it will be every game
works on Xbox from the Steam library. So yeah, I don't think they
do some console I I mean, obviously there's some that require a keyboard and
mouse, but you could plug a keyboard and mouse into your Xbox now,
so everything would be like available to purchase, and if you want to find
ways to play it, that's up to you. I think it's how they
would present it. This definitely feels, though, though, like a potential
seismic shift in how gaming works going forward. Do you feel in any way
like this is maybe an overreaction for Microsoft, that this is, you know,
giving up the goat, This is you know you have you do have
an ecosystem that some people still want to buy into, and you control the
entire thing from top to bottom. You have the walled garden. It seems
rare and odd for one of these companies to give up their walled garden,
right, Yeah, this seems like an expensive quick fix that will take a
couple of years versus you know, what are our common criticism of Microsoft and
Xbox as of late, of them not really wanting to tend to the garden
as is, and yeah, they're just lowering the walls and just letting everyone
else in at this point, hoping to find that quick fixed solution of like,
okay, well, if we offer Steam to folks, then maybe that
is enough to convince the gaming audience to come back to Xbox or real least
stick with Xbox versus jumping over to PlayStation or getting a Steam deck or just
sticking with a switch. It doesn't hearing this news makes me doubtful or a
little bit nervous for Xbox's general future of like, okay, well, what
are you guys betting on at this point? Yeah, it makes me.
It does make me wonder like what is the vision here? And I think
it does go back to, okay, what do we know about the way
Microsoft operates, Well, it's a services company, and we know that they've
been trying to like be Xbox as a service for a while now, and
that was Game Pass. But now that they have Call of Duty and King
and all these other things. It could change a little bit. It still
will be game passed to a certain extent, but just being the platform through
which you make micro transaction purchases for Call of Duty or Candy Crusaga, depending
on what platform you're preferring there, They're like, Okay, if we can
control that that and have more of a cut on that on more platforms,
we stand to make a lot more money than if we just tried to grow
game pass. Actually, so, how can we build a world in which
the Microsoft Xbox gaming platform it goes along everywhere Call of Duty goes. So
you get Call of Duty and you go and you like go inside the game,
and then you open up the store inside the game and you go to
make a purchase. How do we make sure we get all of that money?
And that is to build a world in which the Xbox Store can be
on anything and it's just the default option when you boot up that game,
even on PlayStation and again, and it's a long term strategy, but I
do think that's the world they're trying to manufacture. And the challenge there,
obviously is there is such a long and arduous road between now and then and
now that they have to you know, pave with regulators that that would be
very complicated to pull off, but it seems to be I think they have
confidence that they can push regulators in the way that they want because they have
a history of doing that, and even despite the recent spat with the FTC
over the acquisition of Activision, Microsoft does have a pretty decent relationship with many
regulators around the world, especially in the unit in the United States, and
they're you know, they're not one of these companies that always comes up alongside
Facebook and Twitter and TikTok and Instagram that where they're like, oh, we
really are worried about what they're doing with our data. Microsoft often gets left
out of that from when these regulators bring them up. So it's like I
think they're like, we can maybe brute force this reality, and it's it's
actually the reality that these regulators keep telling us that they want devices that are
more open, more options for consumers, and they're like, well, we
could be that other option. I still it feels like a long way away.
So in the med this is where I keep going with Microsoft, every
decision, every strategy that they seem to be presenting to us and to their
investors, it's like, Okay, that is a long term vision. Yeah,
what about right now? Yeah? And you know that comes back to
just making good games. And they have the showcase coming up in a couple
of weeks. We'll get a good look at it. Then they can try
to tell their story at that and in that moment. But I feel like,
if they can't get the games together today, all this other stuff doesn't
matter right, right if they if they can't get the games together for this
upcoming Xbox showcase at SGF, is this like too far too gone in terms
of like a general gaming audience, Like how I can't I can't speculate enough
of like how do they get those people back if that audience has already lapsed
and jump ship. Yeah, I don't know if you do. Yeah,
I'm trying to think of like the most extremest like Xbox Console Warrior point of
view. And I feel like a lot of even a lot of those folks
at this point are burnt out about how the platform has kind of been mishandled
and and a lot of the IP is kind of just like fallen to the
wayside, Like is Gears six enough? Is Fable three enough? To bring
people in well, and let me ask you, I mean Cyrus Raven and
Chats is hell Blade though, and I don't know exactly how they mean that,
but you know, let me ask you now that we're a little bit
past hell Blade too, I know you didn't love it and clearly doesn't like
it I started it. I'm like kind of in what you guys were saying
where I'm like, I don't even know if I want to keep playing this
despite that the reviews are relatively positive. Do you think that game is doing
what it needed to do or or does it feel like, well, yeah,
it's a good game, but it's nowhere near enough, but I don't
know, good start? What do you think? I can't say that it's
a good start because I also don't see hell Blade two appealing to a wide
general audience in the same way because of the lack of brand recognition. Like
folks will flock to a God of War because they recognize the name God of
War from like the PS two era or even Uncharted to an extent, I
don't and the Last of Us, especially especially with a boom from the TV
show that I can't see folks like seeing a bus ad for hell Blade two
and thinking like, oh dang, I gotta see what send you was up
to. It just doesn't feel strong enough of an ip to for for like
a gaming audience to rally behind yep. And you know, I think if
it is one of many, it's you know, another brick sort of you're
as you're they're building up that that fort of here's a reason to stay within
the walls of Xbox. But as it is, where it's kind of standing
alone, and in this moment, it feels like something that's, oh yeah,
I mean, I guess I'll maybe I'll get around to that it's in
game pass. I don't know. It just doesn't seem to move. It
doesn't move me too much, and so I'm projecting I think a little bit
not like sure, who else would this move? And I completely acknowledge there
it appeals to like a good chunk of the folks that reviewed it out there
just doesn't appeal to me at all, But it does feel like it necessary.
Isn't necessarily picking up the baton from a previous game or passing it on
to another game to carry on a momentum of it at all. It just
kind of feels like it's just running its own race at this point where I
don't know where Xbox is headed to after Hell Blade two yep, yeah,
and me they're gonna do like again, they're gonna tell that story at this
Xbox showcase, so hearing a little bit. And then right after that they
have the Call of Duty direct that they previously called the redacted Direct. We'll
see, will see the tail they tell and in that moment, and I
think there's a chance there will be a lot of exciting games there, but
I don't know. It is very difficult to feel too wonderful about Xbox in
this moment, Like even like the cod audience, like all my friends that
do play Call of Duty, they're not on Xboxes. They've they've already gone
to PS five's because it's available there. And I don't see them jumping ship.
If they announced that the next Call of Duty is going to be Xbox
exclusive, yeah, I think they would. They can't do yes, Yeah,
I think they would just stick to the existing Call of Duty's out there,
which I don't know if that's still a win for Microsoft. Yeah,
I don't know. I mean I think that's where we need to be thinking
that maybe that is at this point, the wind condition seems to be people
playing Call of Duty anywhere, and that's and for for Xbox or as people
keep, you know, making this point of delineation, Microsoft Gaming, they
don't. They actually don't care where you play your games. And now that
also includes PS five and Call of Duty on PS five. So again they
keep claiming they're going to tell us a story about the reason Xbox is going
to matter going forward. That'll start with this showcase. It'll continue with hardware
announcements that they've promised for later this year, early next year. We'll see.
Okay, let's take a quick break when we get back. Sony had
a presentation last night. It was pretty buck wild, talk about their creative
entertainment vision. We'll get to that right after this. All right, we're
back, jan I got served up for the news here. The cherviamte has
totally taken hold of me, and I'm ready to talk about. Futuristic PlayStation
controllers shown as Sony presents its creative entertainment vision. This comes from Tom Ivan
at VGC. A futuristic PlayStation controller appears in a new video released by Sony
during the company's corporate strategy meeting yesterday use the annual event to define its creative
Entertainment Vision, which is like you know, capital letters, like a proper
noun. That's what they're calling the strategy, which it describes as its long
term vision for where it wants to be in ten years, with an eye
toward future technology advancement advancements. The video, which is viewable online, includes
a brief look at a futuristic game and controller being used to control a character
soaring through space and basically like the screen is like being projected into the air
and things like that. It's clearly just a proof of not even a proof
of concept. It's just you know, an idea of what the future could
look like. But this was part of an overall talk about how they are
viewing the future, and they spend a lot of time talking about all of
their different verticals music, movies, but also video games, and they said
the creative Entertainment vision, and this is how they described it is going to
be harnessing technology to unleash the creativity of creators around the world, transcending physical,
virtual, and time dimensions, connecting diverse people and value across boundaries to
foster vibrant communities and together with creators, creating exciting experiences, rich in narratives
that go beyond imagination, and spreading them as new touch points for Condo around
the world. Condo, I believe is the word for imagination or something like
that. But that was another big word that they used a bunch of times
where it's like, Sony's all about Condo. I watched this jen they talked
about gaming, not in very specific terms, but they would mention things like,
Hey, we have gaming, and they're like, the big thing there
is, you know, the game engines. We're doing technology with that stuff.
And then they would quickly shift to say, and we're taking those game
engines and we're doing basically the volume that ILM has right we have our own
volume called Torchlight, and we're using Unreal Engine to do that. And the
Sony overall seems very interested in I think like a lot of these corporations like
these across vertical synergies where they're like, hey, we just want to use
the power of gaming to fuel all of our other products. And I wonder
if that's like a potential source of a distraction for a company like PlayStation where
they have their own problems they need to solve. Not that they're massive problems.
They're a very successful brand. But do you feel like Sony overall has
a good idea of how to go forward without sort of diluting what PlayStation does
it. It's hard to say, greb like, I'm watching this now as
well. They're a little creative entertainment vision thing, and this is going to
further confuse the general audience as to how games are made. Oh yes,
I think there are folks out there that do assume we have Iron Man Tony
Stark technology where you're just dragging and dropping and drawing and suddenly you have a
Fortnite esque looking character made and ready to go. I really don't know what
any of this is saying yeah, like it definitely is like pompous, like
puffing themselves up, or investors trying to tell like a grand story. But
really a lot of it came down to okay, when they started talking about
specifics, it was AI buzzwords again and again like always, and then they
were like, hey, we have They spent like two minutes in a very
fast section. So the two minutes was a very long time for the section
talking about how we have these games, and we're going to make movies and
shows based on them like we have been because that's been that gets more people
caring about the games. And it's like, okay, yeah, we know
that's the strategy, but like that's where Sony seems to be at, where
it's just we want to maximize our return on our investment. And it wasn't
a lot of necessarily building new games or like new IP When they did talk
about that, they're like, we're fostering a new generation of creators in all
these different spaces. It's like, Okay, well, what does that really
mean. It doesn't really mean anything. But in the meantime, it's like
we have uncharted and we have all these other things where we are going to
make more movies and shows based on them. It does feel like, in
my opinion, the Sony Broader company is sort of like lost a little bit
and they keep like using PlayStation as their strong backbone to hold everything else up,
and PlayStation has been able to do that so far, but I don't
know how much longer it can last. Yeah, I don't know. Without
the software grub, I don't know where the direction is because the only hints
of games that we see other than their the like theoretical game that they are
building here, Ignition, which I don't think is the real thing, is
somehow grub The game that they show is Horizon. Yeah, uh huh.
Horizon is definitely popped up on the screen behind them a bunch of times.
I cannot wait for Horizon zero don to make the Roman reigns turn that after
years of having Horizon shoved down our throats, we actually finally like Horizons as
a wider They'll win us over. Eventually, they'll find I'm helping. I
mean, I want to be there. I want to I want to like
something. Yeah, I want to like something, but without the software there,
this creative entertainment vision video just feels a little soulless. Yes, because,
like I it, you were presenting a vision for something, but similar
to Microsoft, if I don't have anything in front of me now or prospects
in the near future, I can really get too excited. Yeah, and
I think your point about like misrepresenting how games are made, like they did
spend There was a long sizzle video where they're like, hey, we're going
to enable people to use AI to take their prompts and build their own stories
and shift them around in blocks, and then they hit a published button and
that'll make a movie, and then they get another button that'll turn it into
a video game, and then that's the game someone's going to be playing on
their PlayStation nine projectile or like you know, teleporting projectile the video game handheld
device. And it's okay, I know this is what people, the story
that you all are telling yourself like internally, is going to happen. What
evidence have you, like, go look at any time in history, any
sort of creative endeavor. What makes you think it's gonna work this way?
Of course it won't work this way. I kind of don't get why they
keep trying to tell that story. It does feel like they're trying to tell
the audience what they're going to want, versus just adapting to what the audience's
expectations and desires are right and what they're asking for, which is like you
know, awesome news stories told by people that are great at making these things
exactly and and I I feel like it's it's I'm getting very weary of these
non announcements of like yeah, okay, cool, and it's uh. I
was as I was watching this, it was very frequently they would shift away
from the technology and then they would talk about like the content itself, and
they're like, you know, ten minutes talking about how we are going to
make and more money off of all the all this anime and here's Lil nas
X and here's how we're going to make more money off of Lil nas X.
It's like, oh my god. It really is just blatant a corporation
saying we have acquired a creative entity or a creative project and now we,
as the corporation, will strip it for parts. And it's like, God,
it's bald faced, like this is they're just they admit it. They
admit that's what they're doing. And I then, as watching this, it's
like, Okay, well, what is the benefit to me as someone who
likes these things? And the pitch that these companies make is well, we
can take it further and do more with it, And a lot of times
I wonder it's like, well, it doesn't feel like you're doing that much
more with it. Really, you seem scared to do a lot more with
a lot of these things, So we'll see. And also like my my
confidence in some Sony hardware stuff is the falters slightly because of you know,
I don't see the PS five pro as something that I need to invest in
and get as soon as it comes out, and his ver two has been
completely forgotten about. They asked the that studio that was in charge of it,
and like, you know, the only interesting thing that PlayStation has come
out with hardware wise other than PS five is the PlayStation Portal. But I
can do a lot of that stuff on my existing Steam Deck. Yeah,
and you know, the portal isn't a useful device for playing anything on the
go at all. I'd be more interested if there was like a better PSP
yep. And I mean, and I could see how that fits into this
vision somewhat, But it also feels like, well, yeah, that's a
byproduct of this that doesn't feel like, hey, we have a goodea.
I don't know. The Steam Deck feels like it was born out of people
working at Valve saying we want to play games this way and this really matters
to us, and we're going to build a product that is ideal for this.
The presentation that Sony gave yesterday, it feels like a lot of corporate
fluff where they're like Okay, people need to now argue that work at Sony.
Here's how the product that we were already making fits into this new vision
you've just set out for us. And I don't know, that doesn't seem
like a good place to be in. It feels like that's what always leads
to something like a PSVR two, where it's like we're doing this anyhow,
here's how we can sort of make it make sense. Do you care?
People who run this company and they're like, you know, it's new hardware,
put it out, but we're not gonna give you the money to keep
investing in it like we did with PSVR one, and look where we're at
now with that. So yeah, I yeah, yeah, I don't know.
I see the controller that they have made and everything, huh, and
that just looks like it is going to annihilate my hands. Yeah, it's
a weird little thing. It's I don't know. It feels like it's got
like little circular buzz saws inside of it you can like shave your thumbs on.
I don't know. Yeah, it looks like folks that haven't seen the
image yet, it looks like two nunchucks with circle dials and then instead of
analog sticks. They're like, they look like LAVs on instead of analog sticks,
so they're just like little nubs. Yeah. Also, I just don't
see folks grub as of right now or even then in the near future adopting
having to to wear like a set of goggles or glasses to do this ar
reality that they're kind of proposing. Yeah, I think if that's what they're
going for, that is a long way away. And again, I feel
like these visions are set out by people who are like, Okay, we're
going to write down our prompts as executives, and we're gonna ask this team
of artists to create a video, you know, cgi video that explain,
you know, a render for it basically, and no one that's actually going
to engineer it was involved. Yeah, you know what, I because I've
been in meetings with a company that no longer exists where I had to sit
in a room and tape a meeting for four or five hours of all theory.
Yeah, and just it wasn't with any of the existing engineers. It
wasn't with anyone working on the existing product other than the folks at the top
and a comic book artist yep. So I think what we're like getting at
here is none of this stuff was ever even intended to be like this is
what they're really going to do. It is just a story they are telling
to investors. That's all any of this is. And so while we're having
this conversation that we're keeping that in mind, but it's also like, well,
okay, should we be taking you at your word? Here should be?
Is this division we should be trying to imagine coming down at us,
you know, in the future. And I think actually the actual answer to
that is also no, yeah, right, because if they're telling this story
to investors, like, what is the actual reality? Yeah, yep,
exactly, And I I think the reality in this moment is they don't know.
I think it's very easy to tell the story of here's where we imagine
ourselves in ten years. I think that's what this is. Actually the whole
reason by this, behind this entire effort that they made, is that they
can very easily pitch a world in which they've accomplished all of their greatest goals
in ten years. The path toward getting there is as confusing and shrouded in
mystery as ever, and it's not just for Sony. It's across the entire
like, you know, the technological space. A lot of these companies don't
know what's next, and Sony especially, I don't know why out of all
these people, you know, who I trust with our future Nintendo? Yeah,
I mean, because they're like, we don't know what's going to happen
in the future. Here's you want to game? Like, Okay, yeah,
sure, I'm showing up for a game that sounds great to me.
All right, let's move on here. As part of this, Neil Druckman
did an interview and he says the new Naughty Dog title could redefine mainstream percp
of gaming. This is from tom Ivean at VGC I'm Charted for and Last
of Us. Creative director Neil Druckman has said Naughty Dogs, the next title,
could redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming. The studio's parent company, Sony,
used its Corporate Strategy meeting on Thursday to present its Creative Entertainment Vision, which
it describes as its long term vision for where it wants to be in ten
years. In an interview published to coincide with today's event, Drugman was asked
to share details about a personal vision or dream project he wants to see realized.
I've been lucky to work on several dream projects, and I'm currently excited
about a new one, which is perhaps the most thrilling yet. There's a
growing appreciation for gaming that transcends all age groups, unlike when I was growing
up. This shift is highlighted by our venture into television with the Last of
Us, which I hoped would bring would bridge the gap between gamers and non
gamers. The show's success has spotlighted gaming, illustrating the rich, immersive experiences
it offers. The visibility excites me not only for our current project, but
the broader potential of gaming to captivate a global audience. I'm eager to see
how this new game resonates, especially following the success of the Last of Us,
as it could redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming. So not a lot there
in terms of what exactly he means by this. I think what he's getting
at, though, is I want people to take us seriously. It's that
old It's that old song and dance jam where it's like we want to be
taken seriously by the oscars or whatever, And boy, I just don't care
about that anymore personally, but that seems to be what he's saying. I
don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Yeah, I don't know. I don't
know what what Neil wants. Neil, you already have you like? Your
games are loved and appreciated by the gaming audience and even the general audience at
this point, What else do you want Neil to make a musical? Then?
Yeah, that's what Okay, a gaming musical with made with that prestige
gaming ideal behind it. Okay, I'd watch that. I'm not gonna play
it, but I'll watch it this way to Lynn, Miranda and Neil Druckman
meet. Okay, well, listen, don't oh no, the game since
going off as soon as he said that, Oh no, it's an omen.
Yeah. I am hopeful that he can accomplish all his gaming goals because
I'm afraid what would happen if he left gaming and might became a politician or
something. Oh boy? Yeah, yeah, don't keep picking games. I
don't know. I'm what what does Neil Truckman like other than his own games?
What do you like? Neil? Well, let me ask you so.
In a previous interview, within like the last year, I can't remember
what game like he was referencing at the plane. I think he was referencing
something specific, but he basically said, we've done very prescribed stories that have
been very set in stone, and that's been great. But maybe for our
next game, what we might do is create something that is more emergent and
has sort of stories told by the players and they can kind of do their
own thing and have more freedom. Do you think that he can like combine
these two ideas of mainstream prestige with a game that is more open, Neil,
just make a GTA then, yeah, make a Last of Us,
Breath of the Wild, last ok Store. Yeah, I think it was
elden Ring to test, thank you to test. Yeah, I'm pretty sure
it was elden Ring, where he's like, oh, yeah, we want,
we want maybe want to make something more along those lines. I feel
like Neil Druckman's style of storytelling, though, is very is so direct versus
how elden Ring handles its story. Because you know, someone that spent a
lot of time in elden Ring, I can't tell you what the fuck the
story is. Yeah, I mean I know what was happening there, but
like I've said before. The way I played that game is I'm just a
little guy, and I'm a little guy trying to survive here, and all
these big gods are around me doing their story and I'm just ducking my head,
plugging my ears and running away trying to live. So and this guy
is mad at me. Yeah, I don't know why, right, And
I'm glad I could play the game that way, And then I'm glad that
the story was also there for people who went to delve into it. I
just that feels a million miles away from the way they've made games so far
over at Naughty Dog. And I also don't I think if you are setting
out with the goal of redefining how the mainstream views video games. I mean,
I think the right answer to actually accomplish that is a game more like
Elder Ring, because we have that did do that. That game did accomplish
that. It was on TikTok, it was everywhere, everyone was playing it,
everyone was talking about it. But I don't know if that was the
goal at Frumsoft, right. I don't think it frum Soft they were ever
thinking this is going to make people think differently about games. They just made
the game they wanted to make right. And also I feel like Neil maybe
thinking of like that older audience that has that negative perception of games. Yes,
that are that That never was his target audience to begin with, because
I feel like the current gaming audience and gen Z Jen Alpha whatever already growing
up where games are completely fine and acceptable. Yeah, it feels like he's
getting bent out of shape over like maybe an older person saying like, I
don't play video games, They're not, it's just a Nintendo, when like
that audience is shrinking already, Like that audience is like going away. That
audience may not even go see Francis Ford Coppola's uh a Megalopolis generation defining Megalopolis,
That's right? And and like, I don't know, I see so
many people talking about The Last of Us, the game and the show in
the same breath where it's like, oh, this is amazing, this is
great, right, where I don't feel the need to to have to further
validate your existence and your medium further than you already have. Yeah, And
if it's if that's where it's coming from. Yeah, And I don't if
what he's getting at here is that he's tapped out the ability to get people
to pay attention to games by making this type of game, and now they're
going to do something very different. I think I agree with that because I
don't like, you know, how much further you can push the prestige narrative
driven game to be much different than it was in the last of Us Part
two. What you can do is you tell another great story that people like,
and that's fine, But I mean, I if the goal here is
to get like the Roger Eberts or people who think like Roger Ebert to to
pay attention and love gaming and respect it, I don't know. To me,
I think that's wrongheaded. Personally, Yeah, I feel like it's very
reductive of the media that that made you right, yeah, to to not
give it the same type of weight or feel like it isn't a valid form
of expression it did having that mentality rather than just like now games are sick
as fuck. Bro. Yeah, I don't know. I see like across
the Pond and you see stuff like Alan Wake two just really having like a
very clear and defined vision and like, damn, that's hella cool. And
then like mixing live action and gameplay together, and hey, we're talking about
musicals. There's a whole musical episode or level in Alan Wake two. Yeah,
I don't know. Maybe I would like kneeling the team to uh maybe
grub. Maybe it's time to bring Jack and Daxter back. Maybe Jack and
Daxter is the dark story that we've needed. If they do a Jack Yeah,
Jack and Daxter, that is like builds on all the technology they have,
but then and that frees them up to get away from telling the very
prescribed story. I think that that could have some potential. I would love
that. Uh real quick, we're not gonna dive deep in this story.
But there was another PlayStation executive, let's see. I think kissel a side
kizsel Bash, which is a powerful name that I love. He is the
head of product at PlayStation Studios. He basically said that he sees them going
from prioritizing graphics to prioritizing immersive narratives. It's like that also feels like,
isn't I feel like that's what you've been doing? Uh what do you mean
by immersive narratives? And I think what he ends up describing it's like,
well, actually, we're just gonna do more on that side. And the
graphics have gone about as far as they can go. It's okay, sure
I could see that to a certain extent, right cool, but it's like
it feels like, Okay, we get that, what's what's next? And
maybe we need to get over that as gamers a little bit where it's like
we've been so used to novelty for so long that when there suddenly is just
like, well, no, this is kind of what game is going to
be. For a little while, it's like, well, we're not used
to that, and my whole history of gaming is the next thing is coming.
It's going to change everything, and it's going to be like once once
a year, if like, and if not that, it's like once every
other year something new is going to completely change everything. And we're getting to
a play where gaming's mature, and so maybe that's not going to happen so
much anymore. So they do have to rely on, well, what's the
reasons that most humans come through these things? And while for many it's play,
and for a while there was visual fidelity and being blown away by the
technology, now it's like, well, we know we can connect to humans
with immersive stories, and I get that to a point, I just don't
get too excited about it. Yeah, it feels like the people at the
top for good that games are very specific medium that you play and kind of
experience and have to occasionally, no, for the most part, be an
active participant in as you were playing it. I don't know. I think
about like recent successes and Hogwarts legacy comes to mind of like, that's folks
that want to be in that world. They want to relive the magic of
like reading those books and put themselves into the robes of a Hogwarts student.
And like there's other audiences like Fortnite and Call of Duty that just want to
play those games and then do that. And I don't I don't know what
some people at Sony, I don't know what they're doing grub, I don't
know what they're doing other than potentially sniffing their own farts. Yeah, I
definitely that's how I feel too. Yeah, I get that sense where it's
like, Okay, you're impressed with yourselves, and that makes people think you
have the answer, and you have to sort of project that you do have
the answer. And the since I get across the board from most people in
gaming right now is no one has the answers, So you maybe don't act
that way, but you got to tell a story. This is the downside
of Microsoft not being as strong of a competitor. On the other side of
the fence is that Sony is like just freewheeling, right, Sony falls into
its hubris Right, Yeah, exactly, b Phil, get it, Come
on, dog, Yeah, get back in the fight. Yeah, all
right, what's up. We're gonna skiped. Un to this one, Nintendo
president revealed he's a huge fan of the Fire Emblem series. This is from
my Nintendo News. Nintendo's strategic RPG series, Fire Emblem has many fans throughout
the world, and one of those is Nintendo president Shuntaro for Akawa. The
news was revealed in an episode of the Kitt and Krista podcast, in which
Christa Gang described her story of meeting Nintendo's current president and finding out his enduring
love for the long running Fire Emblem franchise. He just loves Wi Fus.
So, I mean, listen, I think a president of Nintendo should love
the Fire Emblem Wi Fus. That's important. That's that's very important. I'm
glad that his ideals align with mine own. Yep, this probably doesn't mean
too much. Like I don't think this, like, oh, I love
fire and Blom, so we're gonna make eight more Fireblom games. But it
probably doesn't mean that, like they'll deny a game getting made in the Fireroom
series as well. So yeah, well we'll see how that all plays out.
Nintendo's still doing their Nintendo Direct in June. That fire on bloomerymake probably
should be there, maybe for a Kyleege should come out and announce it himself
if he loves it so much. I would like that. Okay, that
does it for the News. I got a pull question that we're going to
bring up. Let me see I got it right here or maybe right there.
There we go. Have you been into an arcade in the last year?
Let me refresh that and frame it up properly. There we go.
Okay, have you been to an arcade in the last year? Thirty four
percent said yes, sixty six percent said no. It's okay, about a
third of people I've been to an arcade. I think that's a pretty decent
number, all things considered, because really, if you have an arcade next
to you or near you, it's going to be like one of those mega
arcades like Dave and Busters, and those can either be depressing or they can
be you know, kind of expensive, like you've got to commit to a
day at Dave and Busters a little bit to get your money's worth there.
So I think a lot of people are like, well, maybe if there
is one next to me, I'm not going there all the time. So
the fact that a third of our audience is that's somewhat encouraging. Mostly mostly,
I'm hopeful that a company like roth Rolls can keep making arcade games because
they seem pretty good at it. Yeah, yeah, I can't. I
don't remember the last time I went to an arcade grub. That makes me
sad. Yeah, make an effort to get to one. Maybe at some
point one of these trips, we'll see if we go to the batting cages.
Maybe we go to a batting cages that hasn't arcade in it. All
right, We got a new poll question coming up in a second. Before
we do that, though, jan why don't we tell people where they can
find us on the internet what we have going on, all that good stuff.
You can find us a giant bomb dot com. Folks, if you're
hitting up the YouTube channel and are baffled as to like, I thought they
did stuff every single day, and you're right, we do. It's just
under the live tab. Everything is life to tape over there find all the
goodness there. There's a fun d light club that we did yesterday since Mike
Manati is out where Grub, myself and Dan played Mister Mosquito. Turns out
ps two games still hit, they hit, Still still bangers Grub. But
later today after this, about an hour after Game Mess raps, we'll be
doing another grab bag of miscellaneous things on Steam. Maybe we'll check out send
you with Saga. Yeah, folks at home voicemail dump Truck later today.
Another episode of Game Mess Mornings tomorrow, BCR tomorrow, as well as Unprofessional
Fridays where we will be checking out the co op in Elden Ring again.
I'm excited to get back to that for sure. Definitely tune in for all
of that. Thank you, jan Pull question for tomorrow. Got an episode
on Friday and where we will discuss would you want to use Steam on your
Xbox? Yes or no? Can vote on that, We'll talk about it
on Game Mess Mornings on Giant Bomb tomorrow. Jesse for Telly should be here
everybody for Gameless Morning Love. Get some young Elmo in your life. Yeah.
People mentioned that Armored Course six co op done by the same person.
Yeah, we'll do that. Well, we should do that eventually. That
would be a fun time. Yes, that would be a good time,
all right, Jan Thank you so much for spending today talking with me about
video games. Man, I really appreciate it. It's my favorite way to
start a Thursday. Thank you all for watching. You're the best audience in
gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take care of yourself
and get europed up.