Astro Bot is More than Four Times the Size of Astro's Playroom

He'll be gon'll be bad. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do
this for June third, twenty twenty four. For the next hour or so,
let me help you sort through the world of video gaming on Game Mess
Mornings Live with Me Jeff Grubb today, take to Boss, got a little
snippy about GTA six coming to PC or maybe not, and Astrobot is what
gaming needs right now. But first please join me and welcoming today's co host
the Game Mess Mornings. It's Emma Fife. Everybody, Emma, how are
you doing. I'm you know, I'm good. It's a big week,
but uh, we're here this morning, and yeah, it's gonna be it's
gonna be great. It's gonna be a great time. We did it.
We got to this week. This week is when like, by the end
of this week we will be in la It'll all be happening. A week
from now, it'll be over basically, So I know, isn't that crazy?
It's crazy? And that's always like what I do in these moments when
I when I get stressed, when I start like getting in my head about
things i'd like spand the timeline right, I'm like think about how you're going
to feel about this moment a year from now, like two years from now,
you won't remember any of these specifics, and it's like, you know,
just be the big moments. So just make sure those big moments are
as good as they can be. And that's it. And it's like okay,
cool, yeah that it usually does really help. Oh, Dan ray
oh the game Sid's currently unavailable. Okay, what you called him? And
get on support and do that all day instead. I have recovered a little
bit if you, uh were wondering where Friday's episode was. I was sick.
I was. I woke up. I woke up feeling way sicker than
I thought I would, and it was it was like a full on like
sinus infection and everything like that. I got some you know, it was
it's easy to take care of your running the doctor. It got some antibiotics,
been on that for the last couple of days. Feeling a lot better
for for sure. But it was, you know, uh, we might
have overstated the responsibility that the game sent. And I swear the company did
not reach out. They really did not, or anything like that. But
it's like looking around like I had like a million sinus affections in the last
year and a half, and that was long before the game cent ever arrived
in my my home person. It's it's not a game scent related infection.
I don't think it helped, Okay, I'll say that. I think it
probably exacerbated the issue, you know, but that's just my my brain guessing.
I have no evidence to that other than what's written on the internet.
Yeah, listen, I feel good. I might. I'm like, I'm
not sounding I feel a lot better. So yeah, we'll get into it.
Well, we'll talk about some news and all that. But how are
you holding up, Emma, I'm good, Yeah, I'm great. This
is tomorrow we're doing. We're like packing gear, finishing packing gear. We
already started a little bit on Friday, and uh yeah Wednesday or we're getting
our cargo so we can finish up set peace shopping and transporting stuff. And
yeah, it's all. It's all happening, man, you know, it's
great. It's great. Well, we appreciate it. None of this is
possible without em everybody. It's what I keep saying, so thank you so
much. All right, let's explain what we do here most weekdays. I
Jeff Grubb 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 are watching live on twitch welcome, You can always listen to
the show later on podcast feeds by searching for Game Mess Mornings, or find
the RSS on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch the show later
with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we have
a lot to get into, so let's start the morning Mess with Take two
discuss this decision not to announce Grandfaft Auto six for PC. This is from
Tom Ivan at VGC, Rockstar owner Take two is discussed decision not to move
not to announce Grand Theft Auto six for PC. The first Grand Theft Auto
six trailer was released in December, confirming a planned twenty twenty five release date
for PS five, n Xbox Series X and S. During an interview at
a t D Cowen conference this week, which like you know, a financial
event or something like that, Take two CEO Strauss Zelmich was asked whether the
lack of a PC announcement was set in stone, or if the game could
be confirmed for the platform at a later date. I gotta say, this
response is like kind of snotty, like I'll ready here. He's like,
well, the lack of an announcement is not something or you know, he's
asked like, is it set in stone that it won't come to PC.
Well, the lack of an announcement is not something that could be set in
stone as near as I could tell, because the only thing that happens after
the lack of announcement is an announcement I suppose, or a continuing lack of
an announcement. I guess that could happen too. It doesn't seem to me
that either would be set in stone. And that transcription came from VGC shout
out to them. He went on to say, but Rockstar has an approach
to platforms which we've seen before, and they will make more announcements in due
time. I do believe that the right strategy for our business is to be
where the consumer is, and historically what this company has done is addressed consumers
anywhere that they are on any platform that makes sense, and that he added
over time. Now to me, this is basically him saying Rockstar is going
to do what they do, and what they've done is release a game four
consoles and then it comes to PC later and everyone just accepts it because it's
Rockstar. And that's what he's saying, right, That's exactly what they say.
I mean again, this is their model. This is always how it's
been in their history. They release it on console, six months to a
year later, it's also on PC. It's interesting from the perspective of we're
seeing a lot of companies making the shift to try to make their games more
widely available, or so says companies like example Square Enix, which we've talked
about on this show before. But yeah, I mean, but I don't
know Rockstar it's been it's been working for them. I guess like from my
perspective, is somebody who has historically been a console gamer as opposed to a
PC gamer. I feel like a lot of people who were console gamers have
like made that shift to PC and aren't necessarily updating their consoles but are instead
focused on their PC. So I wonder if yeah, there's like more of
a PC market than they're previously was right, So, I mean, I
that could have happened as well. Do you think that would like change Rockstar's
calculus. Do you think that they're worried about that or they're like, no,
this still what's best for us. No. I think that they're gonna
do this this time around, and if they struggle with any sort of console
sales, then they will make the shift for the future. They will expedite
getting JJ six onto PC. But I think that from their perspective right now,
they're like, this has always worked for us, so it's gonna work
again. Yeah, And like you know, do we have evidence to the
contry. We don't so, And frankly, what we have evidence for is
that this really works for them because you know, it hits the consoles and
then when they bring it to PC, it's not like other games where it's
like, Okay, now we're going to clean up the scraps on PC or
something like that, which you know is in every game. A lot of
games come out to PC a little bit later and there's fanfare, but with
the Rockstar games, there's one million percent fanpair to the point where it's almost
like a secondary launch. It's almost like it gets a whole other launch week
all over again. And there's that much more excitement, and doing it this
way kind of insures I think maximizes the chance of double dipping. Because there's
people who really want to play on PC. They probably have a console.
They'll many of them have a console. They might pick it up there and
then they're like, well, I want it on PC so I could do
role playing servers or mods or whatever else. So I just want to have
it in a maximum visual fidelity. So I'm going to buy it again.
And it works. Yeah, I mean, and this is the thing is
that I think now here's the thing. To play gg six on PC.
You are going to to have all of your specs fully up to date to
really handle the games at its full capacity. I'm guessing, but I think
it's a pretty educated guess. And however, that being said, GTA is
a game that lends itself so well to PC gaming because, like you said,
the role playing servers, the mods, all of which doesn't exist within
the console market. So you know, I think that they are going to
again see how this does. I'm very curious to see though, how GTA
six is going to run on a PC in general, because it is again
being made for those current generation consoles. So, for example, Balder's Gate
three was out on PC for a while. I had a lot of friends
who it was literally like completely blowing up their PCs. I had to bring
a hard drive over to my neighbor so he could attempt to recover things and
like get Balder's Gate up and running. So in that moment, I decided,
Okay, well my PC specs are not fully up to date. I'm
going to wait and play this on PS five. So it's a brave new
world out there. But I do think that the sales are going to be
affected more than rock Star and take to think. Yeah, I think that
they will have to roll with punches here, right right. I think there's
gonna be positive benefits to doing things this way. One is, you know,
you can focus on the console version, make it the best possible game
that you can. You can also do essentially a soft launch of gt Online
two whatever it looks like. They have not said a word about that.
We have no idea what it's going to look like. But assuming that there
is like a GTA Online two, they could do what is equivalent to a
major soft launch where it's like, yeah, there could some kinks at the
beginning there likely will be the console gamers might even like reject it at first,
but then you have a year to work on it, launch it on
PC again, and be like, and now here is the new season of
GTA online too, where we fixed everything. It's launching on PC, so
there's gonna be this huge influx of new players. And now if you have
it on console, you already have it there, come check back in.
We have cross play. Everyone's playing together, and it's way better than you
remember. You know, not, I'm sure they're going for the best possible
launch out of the gate, but but just it does just give them this
this massive opportunity to sort of reset the expectations for the first couple of years.
And like, you know, we're talking twenty twenty five for GTA six
and that's on consoles, so then twenty twenty six on PC, and then
by then, you know, we're very quickly after that we're talking about the
next Xbox. And again, honestly, the rumors right now it's the next
Xbox in twenty twenty six, so it could even like launch on there and
PC simultaneously, and then a year or two later PS six, and that
sets it up for the future. So they have like these major road like
the points on the road going forward where they can really just a roll with
everything. And in the meantime, if they do have a couple of things
where it's like it doesn't they do have to roll with the punches, it's
like, okay, yeah, that's fine, but your Rockstar you should be
able to figure that out right. It is interesting because it's almost a an
opposite approach to an early access situation. Most games are early access on PC,
but they almost get an opportunity to have that console be that one point
zero launch, and I'm with you that they're gonna make it as good as
they possibly can, but it does give them that opportunity to test on a
smaller audience, see how things are running. They'll figure out what people don't
like, and then when it comes out on PC and the next generational consoles,
it'll be just perfect. I'm sure, yep, And yeah, I
expect this to be just fine in the long run because it's GTA and it's
inevitable as a certain point. There's just people want that game to be good,
and they want it to be the game. And I think you know,
if your take two and your rockstar. You do whatever it takes to
make sure it gets to that point, even if it doesn't launch in that
state. And really, they've taken twelve years to get to the point where
it's like it probably will launch in a state that is completely respectable. So
totally all right here, let's move ahead to Sony says Astrobot is more than
four times the size of Astro's Playroom and it has no micro transactions. This
comes from Chris Scullion at VGC. Sony has shared more information about its upcoming
Astrobot platform er, including details on its size and micro transactions. Astrobot was
announced during a state of play presentation last week. Set for release on September
sixth, The game puts the titular hero in his first ever full sized non
VR adventure. In a Frequently Asked Questions section on the game's website, Sony
confirms that the game will be significantly larger than Astro's Playroom, the free game
included with every PS five console, which took around three hours to beat.
In response to a question asking if the game would be free like astros Playroom,
it replied no, Unlike Astro's Playroom, Astrobot is a standalone, full
sized adventure that offers over four times the world's three hundred bots to rescue and
dozens of new powers and features to discover. It also notes that there are
no in game purchases or micro transactions, saying no, each planet already has
plenty of coins to find and spend in the gotcha lab. Okay, so
one, this is all good news to me. I love hearing this.
I want the game to be described this way where it's a hey, it
is massive, and it's significantly bigger than what you've had before, and using
the phrase full sized adventure. Yeah it should be. And it sounds like
that's exactly what they're making. So good news. Like, in my opinion,
what do you think this says about the potential price for this thing?
I try to like DIALI same with people. Yes, I'm of the opinion.
And this is me being a huge astro mark. I am like just
in the bag for astro I want it to be seventy because I want them
to come out and say, this is a full sized adventure. This is
what a game can be. At seventy dollars, it could stand alongside the
last of the US just like anything else, that's what I want. And
yet if it was fifty, I'm not going to complain, but I don't
personally, I think they probably will launch it at seventy with the way they're
talking about it, but I won't be surprised if it's fifty dollars. Where
are you at? I'm on the seventy dollars train. And this is why
there are multiple people, particularly people who are more of the PC gamer variety,
who own PS fives and the only thing that they really love on their
PS five is Astro's playroom. Yeah, Astro is universally beloved, So why
wouldn't Sony try to capitalize on that by making a game that they feel is
worth that seventy dollars price tag and seeing if they can sell it at that
Because I'm telling you right now, people are going to pay seventy dollars for
this game. Yeah. So yeah, I really, I'm really pretty firmly
on the seventy dollars side. Yeah, I mean, I think this is
an opportunity for Sony to also be like to catch a wave here because you
know, this was a story from Friday, and again I was off,
but it was like a ninety nine percent. The ratio for likes to dislikes
for the Astrobot trailer on YouTube was ninety nine percent to one percent, and
then for Concord for one of the trailers. There's multiple trailers, but the
one trailer that got really hammered was like eighteen percent to eighty two percent,
and it was in favor of dislikes. They're like, look, it's hard
to make a big live service game. It's hard to make something that that
is going to have that appeal and make that work. This isn't about Concord.
It's about like, Okay, yeah, so you got to keep trying
those whatever, and people are going to have their their initial need or reaction
me included. But astro just seems universally beloved and something that everyone's going,
yeah, we want this, and so I think Sony needs to like jump
at this moment and say, oh, yeah, this is also what we
do. You always think of us as the sad Dad narrative, you know,
adventure games, and you think of us partnering with Squaring Ennis, with
big expensive games, and we're gonna keep doing that. Clearly, We're gonna
keep doing these things where possible. The screen ex things whatever. But but
we also can make something like Astro and this is also one of our marquee
games. And I think they should be like, hey, this is just
something slightly different that fills in the gap. It's something that's probably less expensive
to make, you know. It seems like it was quicker to come out
than a lot of other games. I feel like they should just be like,
yeah, we make family games as well. This is our mascot.
Let's jump on it. Do you think that that's what they're going to do
in this in this situation, well, I mean they would be absolutely morons
not to because literally, exactly as you said, everyone loves Astro. I
don't know anybody that's like Astro's playroom was pretty mid Like, everybody loves it.
It's the best integration of the dual Sense controller and all of it's far
because it's like other games, Oh boy, other games they really try to
ham fist that in there the way the ways they attempted in Final Fantasy seven
Rebirth. I was like, absolutely not. I just want to yeah yeah
yeah. But in Astro, it feels natural, it feels fun, and
this is an opportunity for PlayStation to have that mascot character that Crash Bandicoo just
didn't turn out to be, you know, yeah, right, yeah,
I mean, and there's been a lot of sort of false starts with that
stuff, and you know, and Sony I think has established themselves the same
way. You know, I'm not saying, but implying that they don't need
that mess character. And yet here we are with Astro clearly becoming that.
In chat I missed you said it here someone's oh yeah it was. Alex
A. Misery says there's no way it will sell more than Ratchet and Clink
Rift Apart, which, trying to remember it did like maybe a million,
two million, maybe three million in that range, and what I'm expecting from
Astro is three million ish three to four million, which would be I think
be pretty good. I would I hope that's good enough. But but yeah,
do you think it has the chance about doing Ratchet and Clinks? My
my take with Ratching and clink Rift Apart is very good game. I love
it. I think I gave it five stars when I was writing reviews for
games Beat. Sure I adore that game. It couldn't stop playing it.
And yet the sort of vibe I got from fans of the series. I'm
someone who's like kind of come to ratching Clink late vibes I got was like,
hey, it's more ratchet and Clink, and so we're kind of take
it or leave it, like, oh, okay, well listen, I
played it, and it's like one of the best things on the PlayStation five.
But whatever, I get it, people are gonna have different takes on
it. It does not seem like people are having those feelings about Astro.
Everyone's like, no, finally we're getting the real Astro game. Well,
and that's exactly what I was going to say, is that I think that
Astro has is almost nothing but unexplored territory. Yeah, and unexpanded upon gameplay
that we see in that prepack. So and you also have to think about
it from this perspective, and it's it's the model that I have said for
a while now that Xbox goes for with the Xbox, which is really a
machine that is to sell game pass. It is not to the reason the
hardware exists is to play game pass. It's not to sell games. It's
to sell game pass, which is why you have things like the Xbox Series
S, which is at that extremely affordable price point and is constantly on sale
because the idea is get the machine in the home and get the people on
game pass. Okay, so think of it this way. Astro was a
pre pack with the PlayStation five. There are so many people who, from
their perspective, haven't spent any money on Astro yet and have also gotten hooked
on Astro because of the fact that it comes with their PlayStation five. So
I think that this does have the potential to do a tremendous amount of sales,
and I could see it being in that range because you have to think
of it this way that there's a lot of people who are not into Ratchet
and Clank who are into Astro because again, it was just available to them
so back then. Yeah, right, That's what I'm hoping for, And
that's the sense I'm getting is that, no, I think we really are
in a moment with Astro. My assumption coming out of the state of play
was, well, that's great for me, that's great for the astro heads
out there, people who did spend eighty hours doing the speed run mode and
and breaking their hands playing that game. But you know, you know,
Concord's gonna be way bigger. And now I'm like, looking at it,
I'm like, I don't know, I don't know anymore. I'm starting to
get the sense that people are hungry for this in a way that they haven't
been in a while. And you know, I've been like superhero movies right
for so long. We're just like, that's all we're gonna get. That's
it, it's over. We're never gonna get another kind of movie ever.
Again, that's the only thing that makes money, it's the only thing that
the thing these companies care to invest in. And now here we are,
and that line of thinking seems absolutely absurd that we ever thought that, because
of course we were gonna come to the natural conclusion and move on for the
most part. And I think, right, yeah, well, and we're
like, especially in gaming, where I think novelty is such a primordial source
of the enjoyment from gaming, I think people are like, I've had enough
of these hero shooters. I don't I'm not even willing to give Concord a
chance. And you know that's you know, kind of shitty for Concord.
Whatever, well can we do about that? But turn back to astro Astro
say okay, well, how about this, and everyone's going, yes,
I will show up for this, And it's I think there is a bigger
opportunity here than I realized initially when when Astro was announced there, and I'm
just couldn't be happier about it. It's think it's just a good sign they
have a game hitting now, and I think what's going to happen is in
a couple of years when all these other studios at Microsoft closing down studios and
people not investing in making games anymore. It's like, hey, there was
a window of opportunity where you could have launched something that was different and you
were afraid to invest in games, and now you have nothing, and so
you missed that window. And now there's some other new train that has come
along that you need that you're going to try to catch up to and waste
a ton of money on that once again. So yeah, and I think
just Astro is going to be hitting at the exact right time. Yeah.
I mean, look, it is a top tier three D platformer. And
again, it's like they have established gameplay elements that really are unique to the
PlayStation five that make it a PlayStation five centric three D platforming experience in a
way that it cannot be on other console PC. So yeah, I mean
this is such a right to win for Sony And yeah at astro bought game
of the Year contender, shoot a Game of the Year contender. Yes,
And I won't be surprised if it's mine. I won't be surprised if it's
like if it's nominated for Game of the Year at like the Kiwis or something
like that. It's got a real shot and it's you know, if it
nails everything, it should be all right. Let's sit this next one PlayStation
VR two adapter for PC is going to launch on August seventh. This comes
from Sal Ramano at Gamatsu. Sony Interactive Entertainment will release an adapter enabling PlayStation
VR two to be used as a headset for virtuality supported PC games Slash SteamVR
on August seventh for sixty dollars at select retailers and PlayStation direct. The company
has announced will also need a compatibility or a commercially available DisplayPort cable sold separately
that is compatible with DisplayPort one point four, as well as a Steam account
PC and blah blah blah and all those other things as PlayStation VR two is
built specifically for PlayStation five. Some key features such as HDR, headset feedback,
I tracking, adapter triggers, and haptic feedback are not available when playing
on PC, although I bet once this thing gets plugged into a PC,
the community is gonna figure a lot of that stuff out. So I would
wouldn't. But you know, don't buy this thing for sixty dollars thinking that's
gonna happen. But I'm not too worried about all of it. This is
cool. I'm glad they're doing this. I'm not surprised that the adapter is
pretty expensive. Again, I think this is something they had to make specifically
just for this device. This is not like I'm sure a lot of it's
off the shelf, but there was definitely some engineering done for this thing to
make it work. I remember the person that got PSVR one working on the
PC looked at this is like it's possible. But boy, I don't know.
I'm gonna it's gonna be a lot of work to make this thing actually
happen. It's going to require a specific dogle. Well, here we are,
Sony made that thing. What do you think this does for PSVR too,
Emma, nothing. I just I kind of feel like, you know,
what are you doing PlayStation There's plenty of VR headsets already for the PC,
you know. I feel like if people want to do VR on PC,
then they're gonna not go for this option, which requires all this other
proprietary hardware, you know, and like, you know, not to be
like too reductive, but like sixty dollars, it's a decent amount of the
way to getting just saving up a getting a quest three, you know,
especially like this Black Friday where it's probably gonna be super affordable and discounted.
Yeah, And it's like, man, once you have that, then it's
it's not you know, xis doesn't match up to the PSVR two and I'm
here to tell you it doesn't really matter. It's good enough in most ways.
And then it's also wireless with Wi Fi six e, so it's like
you flawlessly can use Steam VR wirelessly wirelessly from another room. Yeah. I'm
just like, yeah, it's a tough sell for me. I imagine it's
gonna be a tough sell for most people. And then it also feels like,
well, you know, Sony doing this, what is the benefit for
them? The only benefit I could see him is we have a bunch of
PSVR twos in a warehouse. This will sell them maybe a little bit faster.
Other than that, it's not like they're gonna be porting the PlayStation VR
two games that they've made, which I don't really know how long that list
is, but I don't think it's even double digits. It's not like they're
gonna port those tow PC to sell them to a new audience. That's not
happening. Ye right, Well, it's like what PlayStation needs to do is
have the astro of the place of the psv R too, you know what
I mean, where it's like it feels like, oh, this is something
that was truly designed for this, that is making use of all the features
in a way that feels fun and organic and not ham fisted because we can.
It's not to have the psv R two be PC compatible. No,
yeah, I don't think so. Uh yeah, we'll see. I'll tell
you if you want to get one of these things, get them right away,
Get a dongle right away, because I don't think these things will be
up for sale for very long. No, this feels like a you know,
in the moment's solution, and when they're gone, they're probably gonna be
gone. But who knows. I like, I actually, you know,
I should ask because anyone in chat no is the the adapter to make PSVR
one work on PS five, which was free I think still available. I'd
be curious of that was the case. I doubt it, but if it
is, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this thing will be available for a long
time, especially since they're they're charging for it. But yeah, I would
be curious to try this, Emma, and that's it. I'd probably just
put it on one time and be like, Okay, it worked, that's
interesting and cool. Yeah bye, Yeah, all right, we're gonna take
a quick break when we get back. A lot more headlines to get into,
including what's happening with that new Asis rog ally X and a lot more
right after this. All right, we are back and as promised, and
I guess real quick, Bosh in chat says, you can still request that
adapter from Sony. Apparently, I wonder, Okay, interesting, I think
I lost mine. Maybe I'll request another one. I want to play.
I want to play Astros Rescue Mission because I never finished that. I'm like,
I should I should play that before the new one comes out. Yeah,
Asis rog ally X bull SPEC's revealed and it's up for pre order now.
This is from Darren Bontius at GameSpot. Preorders are now live for the
Asis rog ally X, which launches in July as a major revision to the
Windows PC gaming handheld introduced by Asis last year. This new version from Asus
looks set to address some of the problems from the original device, as it
has made several tweaks to its design. Well, the Steam Deck is still
seen as the go to gaming machine in the market. The Roger ally emerged
as a strong alternative things to its flexibility and powerful mobile technology packed inside of
an attractive frame. The rog Haga Alyx will be released on July twenty second,
and it is priced at eight hundred dollars. The ax ass has before
the Asus has addressed the criticism from ubers from users related to the twenty twenty
three model. It has upgraded the battery life, the RAM, the storage,
and a more ergonomically friendly chassis design, as well as improved cooling connectivity.
One of the big problems with the Roger was apparently the cooling thermal device
put all the heat right on top of the SD card and was just destroying
those things. So people weren't very easily able to you know, increase the
size of the storage and the device. Hey, these revisions sound pretty good
to me, and this is kind of where I want this market to be.
I don't need you know, there is a side of the handheld PC
gaming market and it's mostly companies from China that I have a lot of fondness
for. But they're like, our business model is to iterate really fast with
full products, Like we are going to put out one product that has like
a slight out keyboard, another one that has two screens. You know,
I in EO even like on the lower end Ambernick and they put out a
new one every couple of weeks, and I'm fine with that. But for
these bigger ones that are like five hundred dollars plus, uh, that's such
a big investment. I kind of like want things to cool off for a
couple of years, and that's exactly what they're doing here. This isn't going
to be a lot more powerful, but bigger battery life. Number one problem
with the Roger ally is it dies in about an hour no matter what,
So do that more ram more. You know, the cooler, easier to
hold, all that stuff sounds good to me. How are you feeling about
it? The look of it? I will say that it's uh, it's
it's expensive. Eight hundred dollars is a lot. Yeah, that's some That
is like in the range of what the like special edition steam Deck o led
was right, it was like right around there. So I'm not going to
be rushing out to pick this up myself. If it just wants to send
it, send it to us for a review, to gi Bomb, I'll
definitely try it out. But eight hundred dollars for revision. You know,
there's definitely been a lot of people who have been like, hey, the
steam Deck is great, but if you want to do this and this and
this easily, the Roger ally is the clear go to alternative. And there's
probably been a lot of people kind of waiting waiting this long. Well why
not go for the the new, bigger one that is going to be better
in just about every way. So it makes some sense. Sure, eight
hundred dollars is a lot of money. I would have to like get my
hands on it to know if it's just in any real way. Yeah,
because I was checking up on steam Deck and it's like, right now the
one terabytoled cells for six fifty Yeah, and I just I guess I would
need to see that the ally is really superior in performance quality. But at
the same time, I don't know. I'm I mostly like to play little
indie games on my PCs, so just a little steam Deck is great for
me. Yeah, even when I am playing Triple A games, you know,
yeah, it can run them a little bit better, but that battery
life is so bad that it really does bum me out. So I guess,
you know, I'm like, okay, So then the equation becomes is
extra battery life and extra performance worth eight hundred dollars And it's like, yeah,
I can have that conversation with myself, and I think a lot of
people will be like, yes, I'm going to go for it. But
it's not like some slam dunk. I don't think the value proposition now,
you know, uh, these things do get discounted prices. They totally you
know the w And it's the the market isn't like like so solid that like
when a new device comes out, you could see that the older models dropped
their price very quickly. That happened with the steam Deck, So I think
that like there's like a bottom waiting to fall out on these things. So
if you wait a little bit, I bet you you'll be able to get
a pretty decent deal on it. But as it stands on launch day,
like, I'm just I'm just not going to be lining up for this thing.
But a uh, I mean, if it was significantly more powerful and
had all these upgrades, that probably would win me over, how about you.
Yeah, I you know, I'm not completely put off this, Let's
put it that way. It's yeah, I mean, if it's got if
it's really running better than steam Deck and they improve that battery life, you
know, there's like I think this really does have a lot of potential,
is what I'm saying. And I'm I color me very interested, but the
eight hundred dollars price tag does give me some pause as of right now,
All right, let's go to what I think is a breaking story here.
Let me take a look at this. It's a VGC. Casually we'll do
breaking stories and things will get messy, so I'm gonna just double check this.
It's VGC, So let's go for it, all right, let's do
it. This is from Tom Ivan, who says Google employee reportedly behind a
number of leaked Nintendo announcements. A number of leaked Nintendo announcements originated from a
Google employee who access private videos in the switchmaker's YouTube account. That's according to
four h four Media, which is obtained in internal Google database tracking thousands of
potential privacy and security issues reported by employees between twenty thirteen and twenty eighteen.
The the include Google okay, I'm just like miswritten. These include Google accidentally
electing voice data from children, leaking the journeys and home addresses of carpool users,
and YouTube making recommendations based on video users that had deleted the video history.
In one case, a Google employee is said to have accessed to private
videos and Nintendo's YouTube account and leaked information ahead of the company's planned announcements.
An Eternal interview came to the conclusion that activity was non intentional. According to
the leaked report. At Google, employees can quickly flag potential product issues for
review by the relevant teams, the companies said in a statement to four h
four Media. When employees submits the flag, they suggest the priority level to
the reviewer. The reports obtained by four or four are over six years ago,
and our examples of these flags everyone was reviewed and resolved at the time.
In some cases, these employees flags turned out not to be issues at
all, or issues that employees found in third party services. And that's the
end of the quote. Nintudo recently confirmed that it will announce the next console
blah blah blah. Okay, So I think the story here is like several
years ago, someone was able to go to the account because of their access
to YouTube, were able to see private videos and then maybe sure that stuff,
assuming it was like not private or something like that. There's been this
rumor for a long time, Emma, that one of the weakers has access
to YouTube and that's where they've been getting all their information because they tend to
week stuff a couple of days beforehand. I've never fully bought into that because
it's like, if that was happening, that probably would have been shut down
some time ago. But it's clear at some point it did happen. But
it also sounds like something that YouTube was aware of and did shut down,
because the last time that this happened was twenty eighteen. Apparently just a weird
thing. Though. If I ran one of these companies, I would never
upload my videos though before they were like ready to be announced, because I
would be worried about this. Yeah. Look from the perspective of having something
uploaded ready to go, I get it, Like we want to manage our
media and have things automated so that we're not beholden to just you know,
being they're in real time to launch something. It's really nice to have work
life balance. But that being said, it's just not I don't know,
it's not secure enough. And the bigger you get, the more interest there
is in like crewing things up for you. I don't know much. Ye
I'm just I'm with you, is basically what I'd say. Yep, all
right, let's get back to these other headlines. Here we go, give
or to do? There we go. Final Fantasy seven remake Part three to
feature even more combat options. This from Alberto Garrido at Game Reactor. Although
Final Fantasy seven Rebirth is a masterpiece, at least in our opinion, it
doesn't seem to have achieved the sales success they were hoping for a score Enix,
and perhaps that's one of the reasons why they're now shifting the release strategy
towards multi platform releases. We don't know if this will also translate to the
third and final part of the Final Fantasy seven trilogy. What we do know
is that for the next installment, Combat director Tarrooki Indo wants to implement even
more freedom of action, which may mean more systems that blurred the line between
action and the hybrid system we've seen in the two remake installments so far.
Meanwhile, director in Naoki Hamaguchi also added that the development team expects the final
installment of the trilogy to offer a quote different kind of gameplay experience to Final
Fantasy seven Remake and rebirth, and that the team hopes to complete development of
the game as soon as possible. You're my Final Fantasy expert, Emma,
how do you what's your initial reaction to all of that and how are you
feeling about it? It's one of the best things in Final Fantasy seven remakers.
Yeah, I agree, someone's play those games kind of not nearly as
much as most people. The one that I definitely did I find unassailable is
that combat is really fun. The combat rocks. It's so much fun,
and you know, I remember at E three and twenty nineteen going into the
Square Booth and playing the demo of Final Fantasy seven remake, wondering what are
they going to do with the combat because there's no way they're going to keep
it as your traditional turn based combat. They've got to do something. And
I was blown away. And it's even better in Rebirth with all the things
that they added, with the synergy attacks and whatnot. That was so much
fun. What is why why would you change the combat? That's not the
problem, you know, And that is like that is my reaction as well,
and that like there is a possibility here that they're like, well,
you know, we're going to add more options, but we're not going to
take anything away. Do you think they could like thread that needle? Yeah?
I mean I think they can, but I mean maybe I look,
I don't go on Twitter anymore. Are people asking for different combat options not
from seven? No, they're asking for that from sixteen, yes, but
they're not asking for that yes. So yeah, so it's like, what
are you going to do at an option that's more like sixteen? People don't
want that. They want more combat options than sixteen, not in seven.
Yeah. I think that. What really gets me here is that they want
to get out the third one quickly, like faster, and to me,
that says, okay, then take that combat system and just build a new
game around that. Don't change anything with the combat because you could save time
there because you have something that works really well that frankly you should probably be
you should take that combat system and basically put it in seventeen as well,
Like that could just be the combat system for the next couple of Final Fantasy
games. That game, yeah, it's it is really a perfect hybrid of
the you know, more action oriented RPG and still having the menus of a
turn based RPG. Like I yeah, I really really think they nailed the
combat and and look, they are in a good position to release this within
three years because a lot of the back end of the story in Final Fantasy
seven is retreading areas you've already been to. All of those areas are already
built. But yeah, I just I don't think the combats that y'all.
Uh, maybe maybe scale back on the mini games, Okay, there were
a few too many mandatory ones that you are not great, right, Just
take that energy and and apply it in ways that like are expressed in different
ways than just mini game right, like you know, you know what,
I'm like, you joined about a super or paper Mario the Thousand Year Door
right now, which is like the main game I'm playing, is each chapter
is very different and like gives you you know, it's you know, you're
still playing an RPG, You're still getting a lot of combat, but it's
like, you know, now you're solving this mystery at this this fighting facility
and things like that, and clearly Final Fantasy has a ton of examples of
that stuff, but it's like, you know, just I think that's what
people want more than just endless mini games. Now there she could still be
a lot of mini games. I know there's some fans amongst our ilk that
do really like this, some great minigames in that right, like Queen's Blood
keep going okay, Chocobo racing pretty fun. I don't think there were any
other mini games that I was like, this is awesome. I want to
keep doing this. The point here, though, is you want to get
I think they're right to want to get this next game out faster than even
what the weight between one and two, and especially the way from the announcement
to one and the the path towards saving time on that is not redoing the
combat. That's just not what needs to be done here. So, and
to be fair, they're not no one. No one said here we're redoing
the combat that. It's not how they're phrasing this. Even more freedom of
action is what they say. So what does that mean? That could be
interpreted in any number of ways. Maybe what we end up seeing is something
that's like, oh no, we just want to be able to people,
to be able to express themselves even more in this combat system that already exists.
And at that point, it's like, Okay, well, you know
you're just doing your job combat director of Final Fantasy seven, You like,
you're not going to just sit there like, well'm not going to add to
anything new. I get it. So we'll see. Yeah, yeah,
all right up next, Tomba Special Edition launches August first for PS five Switch
MPC and later for PS four. This is from sal Ramano at Gamatsu.
Tomba Special Edition we'll launch for PlayStation five Switch MPC on August first. This
is MVG is working on this friend of the show a shout out to him.
I'm excited about this as someone who has only ever played Tomba here and
there. I'm like, when I like boot up an emulator, I'm always
meant to play the State on OG PlayStation. It's like, wait, Tomba,
that game with the little like caveman d Yes, pink hare, the
pink care caveman guy. Yes, he's gone, whoa and he's back.
Everybody's got that pink care? Can you believe it? All? Incredible?
It's from nineteen ninety seven. It will feature enhanced graphics, new features like
the ability to save anywhere and rewind time. A museum with classic print advertisements.
Hell yes, original packaging and manuals, never before seen dev documents in
high res, original artwork. This is fun. This is one of those
games that I first remember like two point five D being mentioned a lot.
Now it was then we got mentioned before this, but it's like there was
that. I think it was a big part of the marketing for this because
at this point in nineteen ninety seven, PlayStation was still not like like Sony
was not secure enough to be like, we're okay with two D games,
so it had to be more than two D. So two point five D.
But Tomba always looked really cool to me. Yeah, it had that
three D graphics, but it was side scrolling right with the two D character
Yes, yeah, oh that's fun. I love that. Let's bring back
GAT while we're at it too. Yeah, why not listen if these crews
that go back and bring these games back, like in MVG is that's his
job. Basically he wants to just keep doing these for all these games.
I am so on board. Yeah, Pandemonium, let's go. Let's dig
in those PlayStation Pnemonium one and two collection. Let's go watch watch the characters
go from like cutsie and young to weirdly like Horny in the second one.
Yep, the nineties were a great time everybody. Ye, Jan is a
huge Tamba mark, So well we'll let him play that on the side.
Everybody, watch your toes, stand back, let the man work. Hey
here, here's a game that has finally re emerged. Metal Slug Tactics launches
this fall for PS five Xbox Series, PS four Xbox One Switching PC,
also from Salamono Kamatsu. Basically, that's the story here, is like,
hey, we got to release date for this game. It is, let's
see it's coming June. Yeah, the PlayStation Oh yeah, they're just saying
this fall. Excuse me, but it will will be available for a limited
time for PC via Steam a demo from June tenth through the seventeenth as part
of the Steam Next Fest. So we are probably going to get a lot
more information about this game here in the next little bit. I think it's
got a Steam page now, so, yes, the Steam page now,
I'm looking at it. Yes, Metal Slow Tactics first period at like a
Nintendo Direct. I want to say, a long time ago it went dark
churtious this thanks to my boy MBS. Yes, S and K has a
major investment, if not outright owned by the Saudi government. So that's never
great. Yep, it's like, oh that sucks. But the people making
this game are just making the game. I don't know. I always liked
the look of it. Metal Silk Tactics is one of those ones where it's
like, yeah, it had been gone so long that I was like,
is that ever really going to come out? And so now here here we
go. H Have you ever played any of the Metal Slik games? I
believe played the arcade. Yeah, yeah, I'm certainly aware of their existence.
I have not played them. I like tactical RPGs a lot, so
definitely looking at this, I do like the look of it. It seems
fun and goofy, which is like, yeah, yeah, that's the energy
I like actually technical game, yeah, tactical wargame especially, like, yeah,
that's a good, good energy to go for. All Right, last
couple of stories here. There's a report that Take two is quietly shutting down
Private Division. This comes from Alex Hopley at Game Reactor. Take two has
been embroiled in a heap of cost cutting measures recently, after announcing that it
would be letting go around five percent of its workforce. We've seen the shuttering
of a couple of indie studios after the fact. According to a new report
from IgM, this is all a wider effort to quietly shut down Private Division.
Take to form this indie publishing label in twenty seventeen, but according to
the report, now there's nothing but a skeleton crew left. There is apparently
a potential buyer for the company, but we'll have to see if anything comes
of that. At the moment, it's not looking good for Private Division,
as it has also terminated its agreement with Bluebird Team to publish Project C yeah,
there's like, this is not the first time that in the history of
gaming where a major publisher starts up in indie publishing label yep. And then
and then it just slowly disintegrates over time. It just happens invariably because I
think the expectations are so out of whack, Like they this is the company
that bought Kerbal Space Program. Yeah, and they were gonna make Kerbal Space
Program too, and it got off to a shaky start and it was gonna
take years to get to a point where it was probably gonna be in good
shape and probably would have been selling as good as the original ever date,
if not better, it would have been a huge success. I can see
it in my head. It's like it just it just takes a long time.
And that's something like an indie studio dedicated to the game. They kind
of just can't help themselves but do that. A major company, though,
is like, Nah, that's not worth it. That's just the easiest thing
in the world to cut off our books and forget about it and move on
to the next thing and make another bet instead, because we just think that
it will have a better chance of succeeding, and so invariably we end up
in this situation with something like a private division. So it sucks. But
it's like, man, I just wish they wouldn't even try these things anymore,
because you just know how it's going to end. What do you think?
Well, it's interesting too, because don't they have a game that's they're
supposed to be publishing this year? Probably, you know, but yeah,
look, big publishers, just keep publishing your big games and let nice people
who care, who aren't just trying to create another arm of business, publish
the nice indie games. Yep, yeah, got Tales of the Shire?
Is that that that? The Hobbit Survival game? Is that what that is?
Yes? It looks like animal crossing but Hobbits, oh right, right,
right right? The farming animal crossing Hobbit game? All right? That
either is that or just came out or is about to come out, and
then yes, no. Rest for the Wicked is also the game that is
in early access that they have not fully released yet, but it's you know,
it's come out in early access. There's also an untitled action adventure game
from game Freak code named Project bloom uh, and then Eternal Eternal Strands from
Yellow Brick Games, the Moon Studios. Then going back to that real quick,
that was also part of this story where it's like, apparently Private Division
was going to do this big thing where they were going to collaborate in a
major way with Moon Studios, who are developers of Ori But right, but,
as as reported on Venture Beats several years ago, Dean did a huge
dive into that that studios had a lot of allegations of toxic behavior at the
top, especially like Mauller I can't remember his first name, uh, you
know, has Thomas Thomas Muller, thank you. There's been a lot of
alleged you know, verbal abuse and several other issues. You know. Again,
this is all allegend, but it's in that story, and then in
this ig and story they're like, yeah, all that's true and more again
alleged by several people who are apparently familiar with the situation. And the plan
apparently was for Private Division to be like, no, let's just bring in
Moon Studios and let them do everything, and it's say okay, and everyone
was like, no, we don't. We don't want to do that because
we don't trust these people, and we think that that would be a toxic.
So yeah, private division falling apart, and Take two recently was like,
no, we didn't shut down these indie studios, and it's clear that
like maybe they're going to try to sell these things off in pieces or something
like that. But yeah, it's falling apart over there. Yuh, all
right, last story here. John Romero's autobiography to get two adaptations. This
is from Marid Dealers Sandri at Games Industry Dot is. John Romero's autobiography is
set to be adapted as a series and will also be the subject that be
documentary. As reported by Deadline, Doom Guy Life in First Person will become
a documentary directed by Rob McCullum, who's mainly known for twenty twenty three is
Mister Dress Up The Magic of Make Believe. The serious adaptation doesn't have a
director attached to it yet, but both projects will have Naomi Harvey serve as
executive producer via Golden Possum Productions. And I want to be in I want
to be in the I definitely want to be in the documentary. All right,
I should be one of the talking heads. I'll do that, John,
You get me in touch with all these people. But I also want
a cameo in the television series. I think that's the least that could happen
to me, after me having to play Dikatana raw Dog in it without any
fan patches. It's all I'm deserved, all right, I think you deserve
it. Grub. We'll start this campaign. I'll talk to some people,
I'll figure out who to who. I'm sure I can get to this Naomi
Harvey person. I will play young I'll play young John Romero. I'll be
little boy John Romero. I could be I could do that. You know,
they could use CGI to make me young or something. It'd be like,
yeah, why see even the cameo who doesn't look like himself. But
yeah, no, that that sounds good to me. But I really like
John Romero. I'll say that you played that Gaiton or whatever. I read
Masters of Doom recently and I'm gonna read Doom Guy next, and I just
he's just a gamer. He just is like the kind of cool kind of
gamers like I just want to play games. I want to make the games
I want to play. And I don't know, I got a lot of
respect for him. So I think that this is going to be a great
documentary. Yeah, I really yeah. Look, games history is a very
recent thing. Actually, video games in the grands game of the world have
not been around for that long, and the and largely a lot of games
history has been lost because there was no efforts being made to preserve it,
much as a lot of really early film does not exist anymore, because again,
like we didn't people weren't thinking exactly. So yeah, I mean,
like, look, this is this is great. Any any sort of attention
we can bring to people like John Ramiro, who are incredibly important to the
overall story of video games as part of the history of the world is great.
Yep. And it's like, you know, it kind of can't be
overstated how crucial their contributions to gaming. What was it was everything in the
nineties. It was a couple of du a couple of people in a small
studio just changing the world literally, So yeah, I want that story.
Well, then there's also a lot of drama between him and John Carmack.
It'll be a fun story. Yeah. Well, you know how many other
people licensed that doom engine. It's just fascinating. It started a bunch of
studios and career Raven software. There was a pre pack game in check serial,
Yeah, license for the do Mention, Yeah, the that Bible Adventure
game. Yeah. I would like that episode about like how that happened would
be fantastic. Yes, so very very cool stuff. I hope it comes
out and it is very good. All right, Let's get to the poll
question. This is from Thursday. How often do you turn on your PS
four for any reason? Four percent said they do it weekly, five percent
actually still do it daily, six percent at least turned in on monthly,
and then eighty four percent have said and that's a four point three thousand votes
I stopped using my PS four, So you know we're talking to fifteen percent
of people still turning on their PS four of our respondents people that are on
the Giant Bomb YouTube channel, And you know that is like a pretty big
number. Bets kind of I think what I would expect from like the typical
like lag effect of people moving on to the next console you talk to Sony
either, Like now, two percent of people using PSN every month are on
PS four, So that is going to be a vast majority of people who
would never listen to a show like this a much more casual audience, but
they are still spending money and they want to capture that. All right,
before we get to the next pole question, Emma, why don't you tell
people where they can find you what you have going on, all that good
stuff this week? You can find me producing live streams for Giant Bomb throughout
the entirety of Summer Games Fest. If you are in the Los Angeles area
or anywhere reasonably close by or just going to, or just can be just
want to be here, please come to our live show on Sunday, June
ninth a, eight o'clock pm at the bell Weather Theater. It's going to
be a lot of fun. We'd love to see your faces there, and
it's just yeah, it's going to be a really great time. But do
be sure to tune into all of the streams that we're gonna have for Giant
Bomb throughout the week, particularly our wonderful Giant Bomb at Night, led fearlessly
by Jeff Grub, who you see right here on your very screens. Please
make sure he's not talking at nobody. It's gonna be a really fun time
and we'll be after nobody. I don't care, Yeah exactly. We got
great people rolling through and yeah, it's gonna look, it's a ton of
work, but it's gonna be really, really fun. And I'm I am.
I am proud of what I know we are going to accomplish. So
be sure to check that out. That's that's what's going on with me this
week. It's gonna be a good time. Thank you so much for all
your help. Ebba literally would know if it's possible without you. Yep,
I think it's available now, still go check them out. Links will be
in chat. Links will be in the description. We go to ticketmaster dot
com search for Giant Bomb. It's June ninth at the Bell bell weatherton View.
Yeah, we get the name wrong every time. Bell Weather. That's
where it's at. Yeah, all right, new poll question. Let me
see, I'll scroll up here. You can just see it. How will
Sony price Concord. I know we talked about Astrobot, and I'm also very
curious about how they're going to price Concord. Something they have not confirmed yet
other than to say there will be pre orders, but that doesn't necessarily mean
it will be only have a price tag. Is it free but maybe with
paid early access? Is it around twenty to thirty, around forty to fifty
or around sixty to seventy dollars. I'll be interesting to see where most people
end up on this one. Vote however you want, with what you want
it to be, what you think it'll be, where you think it should
be, anything like that. We'll discuss the results on Wednesday on Game This
Morning's here on Giant Bomb speaking to Giant Bomb Tomorrow BombCast. Wednesday, we
will definitely have Blake well deal. We are supposed to have Blight Club,
and then after that all bets are off for traveling. On Thursday, there
will be content On Friday, we'll talk over the Kilis Summer Game Fest,
and then we're gonna go basically right into Giant Bomb at Night Friday Day one,
Night one. On Saturday, we'll have Night two, where we'll probably
be able to come. We'll bring a lot of stuff, we'll probably get
to play a lot of the things that got announced at the Summer Game Fest,
and then we'll come in. We'll talk about that on Saturday night,
and then of course once again Sunday night is the live show, Night three
of Giant Bomb at Night Live in Los Angeles. It's going to be a
really good time. Everybody the very least tune in watch. You're not gonna
want to miss the Shenanigans. I' booked a lot of cool guests. They're
all going to show up and make sure that you're very entertained. All right,
Emma, thank you so much for spinding today talking with me about video
games. I really appreciate it. You're so welcome. Always a pleasure.
Thank you all for watching. You're the best audience in gaming. Until next
time, have a good one, Take care of yourself. Goodbye bye.
Right to Black