Randy Pitchford's Comments on Borderlands 4's Pricing

<v Speaker 1>You'll be go me bad. Hey everybody, welcome to game
<v Speaker 1>As Mornings with Me Jeff Grub, your host from giant
<v Speaker 1>bomb dot com. Thank you for tuning in. In this episode,
<v Speaker 1>we're gonna be talking about Randy Pitch for just jumping
<v Speaker 1>on a rake and how an old game was the
<v Speaker 1>best selling release last month. It's gonna be a good
<v Speaker 1>one because we have John Martin on the show. John,
<v Speaker 1>how are you doing.
<v Speaker 2>Jeff Grub, I'm doing fantastic. How are you doing this morning?
<v Speaker 1>Doing great? I'm glad we could get you on the show.
<v Speaker 1>We met at Pax. It was a good conversation. You
<v Speaker 1>witnessed me being dealt with by enforcers, as was my
<v Speaker 1>you know, as was my due of course. But I'm
<v Speaker 1>why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to everybody?
<v Speaker 1>Let up, everyone know, like what you're up to, where
<v Speaker 1>they can find you on the internet and all that stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Sure.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So hi everyone, I'm John. I've been making videos
<v Speaker 2>in my spare time for over a decade, basically built
<v Speaker 2>a career path to work in video games, work in
<v Speaker 2>video game marketing.
<v Speaker 3>I've done that for a few years now.
<v Speaker 2>I'm by myself, but still have that passion for video games,
<v Speaker 2>and yeah, I'm excited to get it to the news.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna pop in here real soon. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>how was your past did you enjoy it? Is that? Like,
<v Speaker 1>are you out on the East Coast? Was it easy
<v Speaker 1>to get to and everything for you?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>So I'm in the Boston area, so I've been going
<v Speaker 2>to EFFECT every year since twenty twelve. Yeah, it was
<v Speaker 2>a good one. Definitely a different vibe this year. You
<v Speaker 2>can kind of tell that there were a lot there
<v Speaker 2>was a lot of vacant space and there weren't as
<v Speaker 2>many big titles in recent years, which is, you know,
<v Speaker 2>understandable for the state of everything. But no, I had
<v Speaker 2>a really good time. It's always fun to meet up
<v Speaker 2>with people you talk to online. It's always great to
<v Speaker 2>meet up with, you know, people you look up to,
<v Speaker 2>like you guys and thank Yeah, it's just a awesome
<v Speaker 2>opportunity to talk to developers and learn about what's going on.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, did you spend any time in the like the
<v Speaker 1>press room, the media room, because that's like they have
<v Speaker 1>like a room there where media and journalists can work.
<v Speaker 1>And I used to spend a lot of time in there,
<v Speaker 1>and I haven't been in there in years, so it's
<v Speaker 1>just like, what's it like in there these days? But
<v Speaker 1>I know, did you go in there at all?
<v Speaker 2>I unfortunately didn't. I spent most of my time in
<v Speaker 2>the Packs arcade.
<v Speaker 1>Now that's no, that's a way better use of your time.
<v Speaker 1>Definitely do that. You know, I'm at a point with
<v Speaker 1>Packs where I don't know what I'm expecting from it
<v Speaker 1>in terms of video games. I think I got there
<v Speaker 1>and I was like, eh, you know, Nintendo's not showing
<v Speaker 1>off switch to here. Really, it's there's not much going on.
<v Speaker 1>That's fine. Packs is going to be able to do
<v Speaker 1>just like all right without that stuff because so many
<v Speaker 1>people come there just hang out with friends or do
<v Speaker 1>the events or play tabletop games. A huge tabletop section
<v Speaker 1>like always bigger than ever. But then I you know,
<v Speaker 1>I did see elden Ring Night Rain. They were like
<v Speaker 1>running demos for that or whatever. Maybe movie was a
<v Speaker 1>theater thing. I didn't go in there, but I just
<v Speaker 1>saw their little you know, conclid they had over there.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, oh, yeah, I guess big games can just
<v Speaker 1>show up at Packs. Now, You're right, in the past,
<v Speaker 1>there's been many more of those and bigger ones and
<v Speaker 1>they had booths that were even bigger than this night
<v Speaker 1>Rain one, which was kind of small all things considered.
<v Speaker 1>But uh, at this point, I'm a little surprised when
<v Speaker 1>big games show up at packs because it's just it
<v Speaker 1>feels like one of these things where a lot of developers,
<v Speaker 1>especially internationally, are just like, oh, I don't know if
<v Speaker 1>we can make use of this, or we're kind of
<v Speaker 1>afraid of spending money traveling around the world showing off
<v Speaker 1>the games. So yeah, I don't know, packs doesn't necessarily
<v Speaker 1>need those games anymore, right, because it's just this community
<v Speaker 1>thing at this point.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I think a big push this year was featuring
<v Speaker 2>more local game developers from the Boston area, which is
<v Speaker 2>always that's cool to get like meet up with those people,
<v Speaker 2>see where they're based out of. There's there's a fair
<v Speaker 2>amount of big studios in the Boston area and there's
<v Speaker 2>more and more even coming still, so it would be
<v Speaker 2>cool to see more of like you know, a Harmonics
<v Speaker 2>or whatever the creator of BioShock is doing. But like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I think like with the death of the indie megabooth,
<v Speaker 2>like there is a kind of stunting growth in terms
<v Speaker 2>of like discoverability, but there is still plenty of great games,
<v Speaker 2>plenty of alliance to stand in. Yeah, and there's some
<v Speaker 2>big games like I played Crimson Desert, which is that
<v Speaker 2>like a Black Desert MMO kind of game, single player thing,
<v Speaker 2>which was really cool and that was a whole experience
<v Speaker 2>but excellent.
<v Speaker 1>Well, let's explain ourselves and what we do here. We're
<v Speaker 1>Giant Bomb. You can go to giant bomb dot com
<v Speaker 1>slash join and help support this crew over here doing
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<v Speaker 1>as far as this show goes, most week days, I
<v Speaker 1>Jeff Grubb will help piece your gaming life back together.
<v Speaker 1>That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our
<v Speaker 1>own original reporting for all these topics, I'll get the
<v Speaker 1>input of a bona fide expert who will make me
<v Speaker 1>look smart. If you are watching live on twitch, welcome.
<v Speaker 1>You can always listen to the show later on podcast
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<v Speaker 1>feed on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch
<v Speaker 1>the show later and live on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right,
<v Speaker 1>we have a lot to get into, so let's start
<v Speaker 1>the show with Brandy Pitchford moves to justify comments that
<v Speaker 1>real fans would find a way and that's a quote
<v Speaker 1>to buy Borderlands for even if it costs eighty dollars.
<v Speaker 1>This is from Chris Scullion at EGC Gearbox Entertainment CEO.
<v Speaker 1>Brandy Pitchford has attempted to explain recent comments that quote
<v Speaker 1>true fans would quote find a way to buy Borderlands
<v Speaker 1>for if it ends up costing eighty dollars. Earlier this month,
<v Speaker 1>Pittford was asked by a follower on Twitter not to
<v Speaker 1>make the game eighty dollars, to which he replied that
<v Speaker 1>it was not his call. He then added, but if
<v Speaker 1>you're a real fan, you'll find a way to make
<v Speaker 1>it happen. My local game had star flight for Sega
<v Speaker 1>Genesis for eighty dollars in nineteen ninety one, when I
<v Speaker 1>was just out of high school, working minimum wage at
<v Speaker 1>an ice cream parlor and Pismo Beach, and I found
<v Speaker 1>a way to make it happen while walking both ways
<v Speaker 1>uphill in the snow with guns pointed at me. Apparently,
<v Speaker 1>Pitchford's comments were relatively unnoticed at the time, but have
<v Speaker 1>become more widespread this week, with some players criticizing the
<v Speaker 1>suggestion that players who can't afford the game aren't quote
<v Speaker 1>true fans. In a new post on Twitter, Pittford is
<v Speaker 1>linked to a video from a recent Borderlands for Q
<v Speaker 1>and A saying if you want the truth, here it is,
<v Speaker 1>and then basically in that video, John he says he
<v Speaker 1>doesn't know what the price is going to be still
<v Speaker 1>hasn't been decided, which at this point in time, I
<v Speaker 1>believe a little bit that they are like trying to
<v Speaker 1>see what they can get away with, but that to me,
<v Speaker 1>that means it could be eighty dollars. All this makes
<v Speaker 1>it sound very possible that it could be eighty dollars.
<v Speaker 1>I guess let's start before we get into Randy here.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think Borderlands for it could be worth not
<v Speaker 1>like that, John, if we do, you think Borderlands four
<v Speaker 1>can be worth eighty dollars to you?
<v Speaker 2>To me, it's kind of a hard sell because Borderlands
<v Speaker 2>has always been a franchise that I associate with that
<v Speaker 2>multiplayer aspect. Getting an eighty dollars price tag is going
<v Speaker 2>to be a little bit more prohibitively expensive. Like during
<v Speaker 2>the pandemic, I had no intention of playing Borderlands three,
<v Speaker 2>like I'd kind of gotten my fill after the first
<v Speaker 2>and second, but that was a game that was already
<v Speaker 2>on the cheap. It was the middle of like twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty one. My friends needed something to do, and so
<v Speaker 2>I just picked up four copies. I can't see that
<v Speaker 2>situation really happening again this time around.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I don't know. What do you think about it?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? I mean I think you nailed it where it's like,
<v Speaker 1>this is the kind of game where it's not really
<v Speaker 1>just the price of the game, it's also either you know,
<v Speaker 1>like you said, gifting it to your friends or talking
<v Speaker 1>your friends into buying it as well. And like we've
<v Speaker 1>already built up all those arguments to try to convince
<v Speaker 1>them to to spend sixty dollars on a game and
<v Speaker 1>now more recently maybe seventy dollars here or there. This
<v Speaker 1>game comes at eighty dollars. It's like that's not even
<v Speaker 1>a fight worth having. Like I'm just not going to
<v Speaker 1>try to convince my friends to spend eighty dollars on
<v Speaker 1>this game, especially like knowing that I'm probably going to
<v Speaker 1>get it free through work or something like that. It
<v Speaker 1>just it just makes me feel bad. So, yeah, there's
<v Speaker 1>more to it than just quote true fans. And then
<v Speaker 1>you know Randy's saying that obviously he should have just
<v Speaker 1>not said anything right, like that was the right move here.
<v Speaker 1>He should have just shut the fuck up, Friday.
<v Speaker 2>I honestly don't know if it's in his DNA at
<v Speaker 2>this point. I feel like he is just a magic
<v Speaker 2>act and he's just revealing more and more layers of
<v Speaker 2>kind of someone out of touch, kind of someone who
<v Speaker 2>just doesn't really know the state of the industry right now.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, it's it's definitely a situation and a time
<v Speaker 2>where it is so up in the air, Like Mario
<v Speaker 2>cart Eid is so far the only eighty dollars game
<v Speaker 2>that we know about.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, right, that still is the only one.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Yeah, And I can't think of a world where
<v Speaker 2>Borderlands for is a game I'm going to go back
<v Speaker 2>to in the future. Mario Kart eight eighty dollars is
<v Speaker 2>a lot. I'm getting it fifty dollars with the switch
<v Speaker 2>to bundle, right, but it is kind of that forever
<v Speaker 2>game like Mario Kart eight we you included, like has
<v Speaker 2>survived for a decade and people are still having a
<v Speaker 2>great time with that. But like in the long term,
<v Speaker 2>I can just easily seeing people drop off halfway through
<v Speaker 2>the campaign and never come back to it. Like I
<v Speaker 2>don't really see a future and where that's you know, viable.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean it's uh, it really does just feel
<v Speaker 1>like these two worlds getting further apart, where you know,
<v Speaker 1>obviously this has come up a bunch of times, but
<v Speaker 1>Clare obscurit was fifty dollars, it's the best reviewed game
<v Speaker 1>of the year. I just raised my standing desk. I
<v Speaker 1>started lifting that up. That's crazy. Get my hand away
<v Speaker 1>from the button. Yeah, Like, there are games out there
<v Speaker 1>that do come out at a price that feels budget now,
<v Speaker 1>and they are so of the best games just period,
<v Speaker 1>no caveats, They're just some of the best games. And
<v Speaker 1>these bigger companies are in this situation where they're like, well,
<v Speaker 1>we've separated ourselves by making games bigger and more expensive,
<v Speaker 1>and look like that's the way that we get your attention.
<v Speaker 1>So we're going to justify getting your attention by charging
<v Speaker 1>you eighty dollars for it. And I just don't think
<v Speaker 1>they see them realize how they seem to be driving
<v Speaker 1>at a wall here, Like it's going to reach a
<v Speaker 1>point where people cannot, like you said, justify it anymore.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, the big part of that is Randy
<v Speaker 1>being out of touch, Like his story here is crazy, like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you've got starflight for Sega Genesis for eighty dollars. In
<v Speaker 1>the nineties, we'll work in minimum wage. Well, I mean
<v Speaker 1>minimum wage back then relative to what it is now
<v Speaker 1>a little bit different. Also, the cost of living for
<v Speaker 1>everything else was way lower than it is now. But
<v Speaker 1>people's rents were not fifty percent of their income, you know,
<v Speaker 1>things like that, like going too fast food was not
<v Speaker 1>a thirty five dollars endeavor for like two to three people.
<v Speaker 1>It was seven bucks or something like that. So the
<v Speaker 1>idea of an expensive cartridge to produce having to cost
<v Speaker 1>more so they could justify selling it at all was
<v Speaker 1>made way more sense. It's just not a fair comparison.
<v Speaker 1>It's completely out of touch. So he needs to just
<v Speaker 1>shut the book up and not go out there and
<v Speaker 1>say this stuff. And again, we don't know if this
<v Speaker 1>game is going to be eighty dollars, and maybe this
<v Speaker 1>is the kind of thing that causes them to be like, man,
<v Speaker 1>let's just back off, let's go seventy whatever, because like
<v Speaker 1>seventy still feels like them getting away with something. It
<v Speaker 1>hasn't been that long. So do you think that it's
<v Speaker 1>going to be contentious like this going forward as these
<v Speaker 1>other developers and publishers try to sneak up to eighty.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I think Microsoft might have done it the
<v Speaker 1>quote unquote right way by just being hey, later this year,
<v Speaker 1>some shit's gonna be eighty, and then like they rip
<v Speaker 1>off the band aid and then they could just stand back.
<v Speaker 1>Let people get mad now, and when those games come
<v Speaker 1>everyone and most people go, we knew they were going
<v Speaker 1>to do this. In this situation, it's like it feels
<v Speaker 1>like kind of the even though it's very similar. I
<v Speaker 1>hate this thing could be eighty. It just feels a
<v Speaker 1>lot worse because it's like, well, just tell us if
<v Speaker 1>it's going to be that price or not, so we
<v Speaker 1>can just get the conversation out of the way. Is
<v Speaker 1>it going to be like at a lot of rakes
<v Speaker 1>for a lot of these companies going forward as they
<v Speaker 1>try to raise the prices. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>And I think like the Xbox situation is very interesting
<v Speaker 2>because they kind of tacked that onto everything across the
<v Speaker 2>board having a price increase, so it was in a
<v Speaker 2>way kind of blanketed the muted effect of that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, the sooner we get to switch to when
<v Speaker 2>we start seeing what other eighty dollars games are, and
<v Speaker 2>when PlayStation probably inevitably raises the price as well, I
<v Speaker 2>think everything's going to be over looked over with like
<v Speaker 2>a magnifying glass really analyzing this. People have so many
<v Speaker 2>options right now to get eighty dollars worth of content
<v Speaker 2>or even more than that, just by you know, doing
<v Speaker 2>a Steam sale or even like Epic Game Store. They
<v Speaker 2>give you so much game for free. Yeah, and not
<v Speaker 2>even taking into account the free to play live service
<v Speaker 2>games that you can like play with your friends. You
<v Speaker 2>can just have a great time for very little uptake.
<v Speaker 2>And I mean, and that's not even taking into account
<v Speaker 2>like We don't even know how Borderlines e Borderlines four
<v Speaker 2>is going to be optimized. It could be an absolute
<v Speaker 2>dumpster fire, kind of like how Monster in or Wilds was.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, yeah, it's going to be a very very
<v Speaker 2>tough sell for a lot of these companies if you
<v Speaker 2>do not have one of those huge franchises that people
<v Speaker 2>just can't live without.
<v Speaker 1>I know a big part of this is just at
<v Speaker 1>these companies, they have insight into how we spend money,
<v Speaker 1>and they look over at games. They have a lot
<v Speaker 1>of micro transactions. Two K for sure knows how people
<v Speaker 1>spend money on like NBA two K, and they're looking
<v Speaker 1>at like, okay, people are spending twenty five dollars for
<v Speaker 1>one skin. If they're willing to do that, of course
<v Speaker 1>they're going to be willing to spend eighty dollars on
<v Speaker 1>a game. And it's just like, oh, you know, we
<v Speaker 1>don't connect those things at all, Like, first of all,
<v Speaker 1>I don't spend twenty five dollars on a skin. That's
<v Speaker 1>a different kind of person than I am, and probably
<v Speaker 1>a different kind of person then probably shows up for
<v Speaker 1>the bulk of Borderland sales. Maybe not entirely, Maybe there
<v Speaker 1>is quite a bit of overlap there. But even so,
<v Speaker 1>the people who are overlapping view those prices as two
<v Speaker 1>completely different things. The anchor for the price of a
<v Speaker 1>video game is this them spending their entire lives spending fifty,
<v Speaker 1>then sixty, and now seventy dollars on it, and then
<v Speaker 1>like getting used to like that one price for a
<v Speaker 1>very long time. It was fifty for forever, sixty forever,
<v Speaker 1>and now seventy four a couple of years. The people
<v Speaker 1>are making that comparison, They're not thinking like, oh, I
<v Speaker 1>easily spend two hundred and fifty dollars on micro transactions
<v Speaker 1>in Fortnite in a year, and that's one video game,
<v Speaker 1>So eighty dollars for another video game, that's nothing. No,
<v Speaker 1>no one is making that connection. But I bet internally
<v Speaker 1>they see it that way, and it's like, you guys
<v Speaker 1>are telling yourselves a story that doesn't really work. Also
<v Speaker 1>saw in chat my editorializing of what Randy said. He
<v Speaker 1>just ended at saying he worked minimum wage at an
<v Speaker 1>ice cream parlor at Pismo Beach and he found a
<v Speaker 1>way to make it happen. He didn't actually say this
<v Speaker 1>stuff about walking uphill both ways in the snow and
<v Speaker 1>getting shot at so I just clarify if that confused anybody.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's get onto this next story. April twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty five US video game market highlights from Sircana. This
<v Speaker 1>is from Matt Piscatella over at Circana. April twenty twenty five.
<v Speaker 1>Total market projected US consumer spinning across video game hardware,
<v Speaker 1>content and accessories fell three percent when compared to a
<v Speaker 1>year ago, to four point one billion dollars overall year
<v Speaker 1>to date spending in the United States, that's what Circana
<v Speaker 1>tracks is down eight percent, which is pretty big. That's like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, I think last year Matt was predicting somewhere
<v Speaker 1>around that mark for the entire entirety of twenty twenty four,
<v Speaker 1>it ended up doing much better than that. It feels
<v Speaker 1>like some of that like Slack, is being let go
<v Speaker 1>this year, and at least through May, or excuse me,
<v Speaker 1>at least through April, we're eight percent behind where we
<v Speaker 1>were in twenty twenty four, and it doesn't look like
<v Speaker 1>they're There's a lot of games that could fix that,
<v Speaker 1>although of course switched to could change that story here
<v Speaker 1>very quickly. Best selling games of the month include The
<v Speaker 1>Elder Scrolls four Oblivion Remastered at number one. Forts Horizon five,
<v Speaker 1>which launched on PlayStation five, went up to number two
<v Speaker 1>after being forty two the month before MLB The Show
<v Speaker 1>at three, Minecraft at four, The movie right, that's the movie? Okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and The Assassin's Creed Shadows at five. Indiana Jones in
<v Speaker 1>the Great Circle, which launched on PS five as well,
<v Speaker 1>went up to number six, Call of Duty Black Ops
<v Speaker 1>six at seven, then WWEBA, NBA, and PGA Tour rounding
<v Speaker 1>out the top ten. I don't see if there's anything
<v Speaker 1>else interesting on this list worth calling out. No, but
<v Speaker 1>you know what's missing on the list is clerup Scare
<v Speaker 1>Expedition thirty three, which is because Kepler does not report
<v Speaker 1>their their digital sales to to the Circana. And you know,
<v Speaker 1>I think I'm pretty sure John, the game sold out right,
<v Speaker 1>the physical version, like people have been trying to get
<v Speaker 1>the physical version of Clarips and it's been sold out
<v Speaker 1>like since launch basically, so I bet they didn't print
<v Speaker 1>a ton of copies of that. They weren't sure if
<v Speaker 1>the game was really going to pop off the way
<v Speaker 1>it did, and when it did, it was mostly digital,
<v Speaker 1>it seems like, especially obviously on PC. So I think
<v Speaker 1>that's the reason this game is not on the list.
<v Speaker 1>The fiscal versions would have been tracked, digital versions wouldn't
<v Speaker 1>have been And it seems like the vast majority of
<v Speaker 1>people bought that game digitally because that's the only way
<v Speaker 1>they could find it. So that's why it's not on
<v Speaker 1>the list. Don't everyone freak out. I'm sure that game
<v Speaker 1>probably it probably would have been number two on this list.
<v Speaker 1>Is that What would that be your best guess? Because
<v Speaker 1>even you know, beating Forts rice and five, it seems
<v Speaker 1>like it had that many players.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean it was just a record breaking amount
<v Speaker 2>of sales just in those first couple of weeks alone.
<v Speaker 2>It's a fantastic game. I honestly think word of mouth,
<v Speaker 2>and as we get closer and closer to award season,
<v Speaker 2>people keep hearing this name potentially like another switch to edition.
<v Speaker 2>I'm assuming that'll happen. I think they made comments that
<v Speaker 2>kind of like heavily suggests that it's coming to but yeah, like,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, more and more people are getting the chance
<v Speaker 2>to play.
<v Speaker 3>It's at game pass.
<v Speaker 2>I know two weekends ago, I had a friend who
<v Speaker 2>was trying to find it diehard physical collector. I'm not
<v Speaker 2>super heavy on physical on Xbox theisation, but it Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it was just impossible to.
<v Speaker 3>Find that game.
<v Speaker 2>So I think in the coming weeks, in the coming months,
<v Speaker 2>just the groundswell from that game is going to prop
<v Speaker 2>it up. And regardless of how it does, I think
<v Speaker 2>it definitely exceeded the expectations of you know, their first game,
<v Speaker 2>Like they did a fantastic job and show.
<v Speaker 1>If I'm them, if I'm Kepler the publisher, and if
<v Speaker 1>I'm sand Falls at the name of the studio, if
<v Speaker 1>I'm them, like, yeah, do a new run of the
<v Speaker 1>fiscal games for sure, get get to work immediately on
<v Speaker 1>a big collector's edition, Like just do what Balderskate three did,
<v Speaker 1>which didn't really have a fiscal version upfront, but like
<v Speaker 1>a year later they put all the updates into one
<v Speaker 1>package and then they put put it into an awesome
<v Speaker 1>physical collector's edition. I think that would be that would
<v Speaker 1>be pretty cool. I think people would jump all over
<v Speaker 1>that because they have fallen in love with this game.
<v Speaker 1>I've been singing Claire Upscure, Baby, Claire Upscure, Claire Upscure,
<v Speaker 1>like just to myself NonStop for the last week, and
<v Speaker 1>I haven't played it in a week, so it's infectious.
<v Speaker 1>Let's see here. The Matt always does a good rundown
<v Speaker 1>of the things to know for many of the big
<v Speaker 1>games on the list. Let's go through that. The Elder
<v Speaker 1>Scrolls four Oblivion Remastered was the best selling game of
<v Speaker 1>the month, instantly becoming the third best selling game of
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty five year to date. It was the best
<v Speaker 1>selling title across each of PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms
<v Speaker 1>that year to date so far, Monster Hunter Wild's still
<v Speaker 1>number one, Assassin's Creed Shadows still number two. Shadows apparently
<v Speaker 1>just did what it needed to do in terms of
<v Speaker 1>that game, not what it needed to do to save
<v Speaker 1>you be soft, but it did very well. The Elder
<v Speaker 1>Scrolls four Oblivion Remastered sold more units in April twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty five than the Elder Scrolls four Oblivion achieved across
<v Speaker 1>its first fifteen months in market combined following its March
<v Speaker 1>two thousand and six debut, and generated more full game
<v Speaker 1>dollar sales than the originals first fourteen months combined. That's
<v Speaker 1>kind of nuts. That's like, I guess that just shows
<v Speaker 1>like sird gaming's just blown up right games so much
<v Speaker 1>bigger than it was in two thousand and six. That's
<v Speaker 1>one of the biggest explanations for this, Is that, correct,
<v Speaker 1>do you think?
<v Speaker 3>I think so.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's like this awesome point where people have
<v Speaker 2>been playing Elder Scrolls like for quite a lot while
<v Speaker 2>people have held up Oblivion as the pinnacle of the series.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's bad in more Wind, but I mean
<v Speaker 2>as soon as Skyrim came out, as soon as ESO
<v Speaker 2>came out, and you know, kind of like reworked itself
<v Speaker 2>into becoming a success. I think that franchise has only
<v Speaker 2>had like mythic tales about what Oblivion could be. And
<v Speaker 2>I think that remastered really did capture a lot of
<v Speaker 2>the imagination that was there. Maybe like there's a little
<v Speaker 2>bit of there's a little bit of like your brain
<v Speaker 2>is thinking, this is what the game was all those
<v Speaker 2>years ago, and we're at a great point for that.
<v Speaker 2>I think three sixty WEI and PS three nossalgia is
<v Speaker 2>kind of just starting.
<v Speaker 1>It's gonna hit hard, yeah, I like the game Cube
<v Speaker 1>was the big winner of the nostalgia for the previous
<v Speaker 1>generation before that, or for the two generations before that obviously.
<v Speaker 1>I think PS two just kind of defaulted in the
<v Speaker 1>generation there, but for that PS three Xbox three sixty
<v Speaker 1>and we I do think that like a lot of
<v Speaker 1>love is going to be thrown on the Xbox three
<v Speaker 1>sixty there. It seems like that's gonna have a real
<v Speaker 1>strong chance of kind of having the shine when people
<v Speaker 1>are looking back and feeling warm fuzzies about that era,
<v Speaker 1>it's like a lot of it's gonna be like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>playing on the three sixty was cool, and no one
<v Speaker 1>will remember the Red Ring and things like that. Forts
<v Speaker 1>Arise at five was the second best selling game of
<v Speaker 1>April following its debut on PlayStation five. Indiana Jones. We
<v Speaker 1>talked about that four of the top five and five
<v Speaker 1>of the top selling best selling games of the month
<v Speaker 1>on PlayStation platforms were published by Microsoft. I did notice this.
<v Speaker 1>I actually put the image here. So that's Elder Scrolls
<v Speaker 1>four at number one, Forts Arison five at number two,
<v Speaker 1>Indiana Jones, and The Great Circle at number four, Call
<v Speaker 1>of Duty Black Ops six at number five, and Minecraft
<v Speaker 1>at number seven, and then yeah, and then the rest
<v Speaker 1>of the games are like take two Ubisoft EA and
<v Speaker 1>then Sony has MLB The Show at number three. So uh,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I don't know what this says anymore, John?
<v Speaker 1>To me, it just says obviously the thing we know
<v Speaker 1>console war over the future of publishing on all platforms
<v Speaker 1>feels like the obvious thing for not just Microsoft, but
<v Speaker 1>for everybody. And like Sony putting their games on Xbox,
<v Speaker 1>maybe that doesn't make us much sense. The audience is smaller,
<v Speaker 1>but you know, if the audience was bigger, it feels
<v Speaker 1>like it would be obvious to put it on there.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, I were just so far past all
<v Speaker 1>of the old ways of thinking about things that clearly
<v Speaker 1>this is the future. I don't know what else it says.
<v Speaker 1>Do you have any thoughts on this, John?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean, and you released a really good overview
<v Speaker 2>of Xbox's strategy. Microsoft strategy. That banking building up over
<v Speaker 2>the years, especially since we had those big Betheza and
<v Speaker 2>Activision Blizzard acquisitions, it's paying off. They're definitely more focused
<v Speaker 2>on the service aspect and just providing games wherever they can,
<v Speaker 2>you know, get their hands and get those discs in
<v Speaker 2>the door.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>For PlayStation it's kind of interesting because interesting. Yeah, I
<v Speaker 2>don't know if like having a Hell Divers would have
<v Speaker 2>really affected their you know, the the takeover of Hell
<v Speaker 2>Divers Too, Like, I think that game was the perfect
<v Speaker 2>success that a lot of PlayStation fans wanted it to be. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>And I don't know if bringing that to Xbox would
<v Speaker 2>have made a lot of sense. I don't know how
<v Speaker 2>much it costs to poured a game to a completely
<v Speaker 2>different platform, something that is like completely different than just
<v Speaker 2>pourting it to Steam where there's a lot of resources
<v Speaker 2>for that.
<v Speaker 1>I think Hell Divers Too could still end up on Xbox.
<v Speaker 1>That's the one that feels like it has just because
<v Speaker 1>and I think they would justify it as have someone
<v Speaker 1>else publish it like they've had happened with some of
<v Speaker 1>their other games, some of the smaller like PSPM Vida
<v Speaker 1>games that have been like made their way over to
<v Speaker 1>the Switch recently, those have been published externally even though
<v Speaker 1>they're still placed games, And it seems like a big
<v Speaker 1>part of that is that's just the cheap, cheapest way
<v Speaker 1>of doing it. But I could see the same thing
<v Speaker 1>helping with happening with Hell Divers, especially since that studio
<v Speaker 1>is announced, Like we're doing things on our own going forward.
<v Speaker 1>We're not going to go back and do the Sony
<v Speaker 1>thing again. And I think Sony could be like, well, let's,
<v Speaker 1>you know, let you kind of like start that off
<v Speaker 1>with Hell Divers, and that could also be their first
<v Speaker 1>step of like putting something on Xbox. I think it
<v Speaker 1>would be a really good fit. Maybe maybe doesn't make
<v Speaker 1>as much sense because Hell Divers two does feel like
<v Speaker 1>it was coming to a natural sort of fading away
<v Speaker 1>a conclusion, although I didn't include it in the in
<v Speaker 1>the headlines here, John, but apparently people are rushing back
<v Speaker 1>to that game because of the most recent update. Apparently
<v Speaker 1>it's hitting very hard. So who knows. Yeah, I'm happy
<v Speaker 1>to hear that, all right, So let's see here other
<v Speaker 1>things from Matt Piscatella. Call of Duty HQ led all
<v Speaker 1>titles in totally total US monthly active users across both
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation and Xbox, and then two titles saw strong and
<v Speaker 1>gains on PlayStation following their addition to PlayStation. Plus. That's
<v Speaker 1>RoboCop Rogue City, which jumped from one hundred and eleventh
<v Speaker 1>and PlayStation total monthly active users in March all the
<v Speaker 1>way up to eighth. And now that might oh man,
<v Speaker 1>only eighth, No, no, no, Getting into that top ten
<v Speaker 1>of most players on one of these consoles is really hard.
<v Speaker 1>I think Oblivion, which sold really well in the PlayStation,
<v Speaker 1>did not get into the top ten of most players
<v Speaker 1>on PlayStation. It did get get there on Xbox, but
<v Speaker 1>you know, game Pass helped that out. So it's like,
<v Speaker 1>with the help of game Pass it got up to
<v Speaker 1>like number five or four or something like that. Cracking
<v Speaker 1>the top ten is very difficult because some of these
<v Speaker 1>perennial games just have so many players all throughout the month.
<v Speaker 1>That so RoboCop breaking in there, that's a really cool thing.
<v Speaker 1>Let's see what else happened there. Texas Chainsaw Massacre jumped
<v Speaker 1>to number ten in April from three hundred and seventy five.
<v Speaker 1>So apparently getting into that PlayStation plus situation is a
<v Speaker 1>big boon to getting players to your game. So I'm
<v Speaker 1>glad that's working over there. Let's wrap up this story
<v Speaker 1>with the hardware numbers. Hardware spending fell by eight percent
<v Speaker 1>we could to a year ago. Notable that that's one
<v Speaker 1>hundred and eighty six million dollars, which is the lowest
<v Speaker 1>total spending on hardware in the United States since July
<v Speaker 1>of twenty twenty, which would have been right before the
<v Speaker 1>next gen consoles at that time. The current gen consoles
<v Speaker 1>now and right as the shock of COVID was really
<v Speaker 1>hitting where people were not spending money. You know, we
<v Speaker 1>eventually got to that point, John, right where people were
<v Speaker 1>like video games, that's the answer, we're all stuck inside,
<v Speaker 1>let's all play video games. That was not July twenty twenty.
<v Speaker 1>It took some time for that to really sink in
<v Speaker 1>that this was going to be really long term and
<v Speaker 1>we should find some entertainment. So, I mean, that's just
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation five and Xbox probably not exciting people in all
<v Speaker 1>too many ways, at least not new people to come
<v Speaker 1>in by the console, and then everyone else waiting for
<v Speaker 1>switch to right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, absolutely, I think PS five and Xbox series they're
<v Speaker 2>kind of in a I guess Xbox less so, but
<v Speaker 2>that's kind of Microsoft platform as a whole, just like
<v Speaker 2>putting their games everywhere.
<v Speaker 3>We're in this.
<v Speaker 2>Tough position where I feel like the PlayStation five exclusive
<v Speaker 2>games have kind of dried up, so there really isn't
<v Speaker 2>like a magnet game to bring people there, like obviously,
<v Speaker 2>I mean during the height of the pandemic, there wasn't
<v Speaker 2>like any of those launch titles. They weren't out yet.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, we don't have like that many games in
<v Speaker 2>this year besides ghosts Ushima and if Soros, like the
<v Speaker 2>next House Smart game does come out this or next year.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I mean the demand for consoles is definitely down.
<v Speaker 2>Switch To is probably going to be a humongous exception,
<v Speaker 2>but yeah, in terms of games, it is kind of
<v Speaker 2>looking a little dry because I think people are still
<v Speaker 2>getting out of the mindset of like, oh, we can
<v Speaker 2>launch this year. GTA six is here and we don't
<v Speaker 2>need to lay our games.
<v Speaker 3>I guess when do.
<v Speaker 1>You think about that? Yeah, I think the like the
<v Speaker 1>talk around what these companies have publicly has been so
<v Speaker 1>muted because of Grand Theft Auto. I think that's exactly right.
<v Speaker 1>And now that that's in twenty twenty six, does that
<v Speaker 1>change or is it too late? Was like have the
<v Speaker 1>trains already left the station on, Like, well, we should
<v Speaker 1>just launch in twenty twenty six. I would assume not,
<v Speaker 1>because a lot of people had to know that this
<v Speaker 1>was possible. In fact, I'm guessing a lot of these
<v Speaker 1>companies had a pretty good insight on a delay being possible,
<v Speaker 1>just because they're you know, corporate espionage, which is really
<v Speaker 1>just having friends of friends who work at Rockstar talk
<v Speaker 1>to each other and be like, just tell me what's
<v Speaker 1>going on, so we know what to do with our game,
<v Speaker 1>right networking, that's what it's called. So I imagine that
<v Speaker 1>we're probably going to get here into the Summer Game
<v Speaker 1>Fest season. And while I don't think there's going to
<v Speaker 1>be a lot of like really hot bangers on that
<v Speaker 1>show floor, just because that will be hard to like
<v Speaker 1>get up and running in a matter of weeks, now
<v Speaker 1>that you know what's happening with Grand Theft Auto, the
<v Speaker 1>announcements could actually find a way into that show and
<v Speaker 1>you know, the surrounding orbit of Summer Game Fest to
<v Speaker 1>fill out the rest of this year, and then you know,
<v Speaker 1>does that change the story on people buying consoles? I
<v Speaker 1>don't know, because those prices are going up, you know
<v Speaker 1>in PlayStation. They already went up on the Xbox, They're
<v Speaker 1>going up on the PlayStation. I think people that's going
<v Speaker 1>to scare off any who might have been like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>finally some of these other games are getting Out's cool. Well,
<v Speaker 1>now it's more expensive. And I was waiting to, like
<v Speaker 1>for a bunch of games that were going to be
<v Speaker 1>cheap to justify it because I'm price sensitive. This just
<v Speaker 1>boxes me out again. Yeah, maybe grand theft out of six,
<v Speaker 1>like it's the thing that breaks through that dam. But
<v Speaker 1>for now, I don't know. Huh. All right, let's take
<v Speaker 1>a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about
<v Speaker 1>plenty of more headlines. If you want the ad free version,
<v Speaker 1>go to giant bomb dot com slash join, which I
<v Speaker 1>think you might hear an ad about right now. This
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<v Speaker 1>Once again, that's giant bomb dot com slash Join. Become
<v Speaker 1>a member. Now, welcome back to Game Mess Mornings. I'm
<v Speaker 1>Jeff Grubb, that's John Martin. We're talking about video games,
<v Speaker 1>including Sinuous Saga, Helblay two coming to PS five this summer. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I mean the story of Oh an Xbox game, don't
<v Speaker 1>go into PlayStation That's not a story anymore. But do
<v Speaker 1>you think that, Yeah, it's just obvious at this point.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think help A two can find an audience
<v Speaker 1>on PlayStation five though? Because it I don't know. It
<v Speaker 1>just seems like it did it missed with its original launch?
<v Speaker 2>Did it did the first not sell well? Or was
<v Speaker 2>it the critical hit?
<v Speaker 1>I think I think that's right. Maybe it's not. Maybe
<v Speaker 1>it's not one hundred percent correct. And I'm sure a
<v Speaker 1>lot of people just try it in game pass, uh,
<v Speaker 1>And I definitely got the sense that people, if they
<v Speaker 1>did play it, they moved on it from from on
<v Speaker 1>from it pretty quickly. I guess that's what I was
<v Speaker 1>getting at, is that it feels like the response to
<v Speaker 1>that was subtle at best, even though there's some people
<v Speaker 1>who are raving about the visuals. Do you think it
<v Speaker 1>can find a different audience on PlayStation five, like you
<v Speaker 1>know a lot of these other games from Microsoft have.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's a very interesting situation where it will
<v Speaker 2>appeal to more of the hardcore gaming audience, like people
<v Speaker 2>who really are valuing this game based on just the
<v Speaker 2>artistic value of it. I think it tackles a lot
<v Speaker 2>of very interesting themes in terms in terms of mass appeal,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know if this is the kind of a
<v Speaker 2>ninja theory game that a lot of people would be
<v Speaker 2>looking for. I think of like Devil May Cry, d
<v Speaker 2>MC Double May Cry, and I think of U, you know, uh,
<v Speaker 2>what's the game, uh, Journey to the the Journey to
<v Speaker 2>the West one on three sixty Enslaves or what was that?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Enslave Journey to the West is that?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, yeah, someone can correct us.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but yeah, it's very interesting.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I think it'll find some audience. I don't think
<v Speaker 2>it's gonna make a huge impact at all. Those games
<v Speaker 2>are going to hit like the right audience. People who
<v Speaker 2>I've been waiting for hell Blake because that was I mean,
<v Speaker 2>that was the last game that that they made, but
<v Speaker 2>also the last one that was still multiplatform. So there's
<v Speaker 2>probably a couple of people who have been holding on
<v Speaker 2>wanted to get those play station exclusive features. But besides that,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know how big of an impact it'll be.
<v Speaker 2>I'm excited for the success.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, and I think the very least giving more
<v Speaker 1>people a chance to play it is always going to
<v Speaker 1>be a good thing, and I, you know, my history
<v Speaker 1>with the help Blay two was I tried it. It
<v Speaker 1>just was super not for me. And then I, you know,
<v Speaker 1>everyone I talked to kind of felt the same way.
<v Speaker 1>So that could just be my orbit, but it definitely
<v Speaker 1>felt like a game that missed in terms of people
<v Speaker 1>like maybe getting excited about it because it's like, alwa,
<v Speaker 1>is this going to expand on the hell Blade idea?
<v Speaker 1>And then it didn't do that, and in some ways
<v Speaker 1>it felt more confined. But that was just my own
<v Speaker 1>personal critical response. All right, So let's get over here.
<v Speaker 1>Doom the Dark Age just hit three million players right away,
<v Speaker 1>and the majority of them are on game Pass. Apparently
<v Speaker 1>this is from Eddie McCoo at game Spot, but THAT'SA
<v Speaker 1>has announced that Doom the Dark Ages has become the
<v Speaker 1>Developer in Software's biggest launch in the company's thirty four
<v Speaker 1>year history dating back to nineteen ninety one. The game
<v Speaker 1>reached three million players and did so seven times faster
<v Speaker 1>than the Doom than Doom Maternal did. That's that did
<v Speaker 1>not share any sales numbers, however, nor do we know
<v Speaker 1>how much was spent on development, marketing, and other expenses
<v Speaker 1>also worth pointing out Do Maternal was not on game Pass,
<v Speaker 1>so that's going to be obviously, it's going to struggle
<v Speaker 1>to get to three million players in the same way
<v Speaker 1>that Doom the Dark Ages did. But a lot of
<v Speaker 1>people playing this game this this felt like a game
<v Speaker 1>that was a poster ChIL for game Pass. A lot
<v Speaker 1>of these games are like, it's on game Pass and
<v Speaker 1>then it still sells very well because people are like, well,
<v Speaker 1>I'll just I just want to play it where I
<v Speaker 1>want to play it, or I want to own it,
<v Speaker 1>and Doom the Dark Ages just felt like one where
<v Speaker 1>they were like, out and loud, just get this on
<v Speaker 1>game Pass, and it feels like that's what's happened here.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think there's any underlying like maybe this game
<v Speaker 1>actually isn't doing as well because it's just people trying
<v Speaker 1>it on game Pass and they're not buying it, or
<v Speaker 1>is this just the way things are now?
<v Speaker 3>I think it's a mix of both.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, Doom obviously is like a very historic franchise,
<v Speaker 2>but when I mean the first way we learned about
<v Speaker 2>this game's existence was just from the Activision Blizzard or no, sorry,
<v Speaker 2>the Bethesda. No, it was the Activision Blizzard lawsuit and
<v Speaker 2>they said something like Doom Year zero coming out soon.
<v Speaker 2>So there's been like a lot of for a lot
<v Speaker 2>of like big Doom fans like myself, Like there is
<v Speaker 2>such a heavy association with that game, pass like knowing, Oh,
<v Speaker 2>I'll have this great game. It's gonna come out, It's
<v Speaker 2>going to rock expectations. It's definitely interesting. It's a very
<v Speaker 2>interesting follow up to Eternal. But I and I think
<v Speaker 2>Eternal might have turned people off in a couple different ways.
<v Speaker 2>Came out at the like even at the like very
<v Speaker 2>beginning of the pandemic. I guess, so it didn't have
<v Speaker 2>that bump like we were talking about prior. But I
<v Speaker 2>honestly think that, yeah, it's definitely having an impact. I
<v Speaker 2>think Microsoft knows that, but I think also they know
<v Speaker 2>that it's a game that kind of speaks for itself.
<v Speaker 2>It's been around so long that it's kind of doomed
<v Speaker 2>not to fail. Well for the pun, I didn't mean that.
<v Speaker 1>Sorry, Yeah, it can help itself, but be not doomed,
<v Speaker 1>which is ironic for the game. People at Chat pointing
<v Speaker 1>out it was like number one on the sales chart
<v Speaker 1>on Steam, which is ranked by dollar sales, so like
<v Speaker 1>that's clearly a good sign. I think there were other
<v Speaker 1>people who are freaking out because the concurrent player numbers,
<v Speaker 1>which is a shady metric to begin with. I find
<v Speaker 1>it useful in some instances, but you know, for a
<v Speaker 1>single player game, it's not what it's not what matters
<v Speaker 1>for sure. But hey, like some single player games games
<v Speaker 1>come out, they get instantly to one hundred thousand, and
<v Speaker 1>that's not what Doom did. So I don't read into
<v Speaker 1>that how you will. I think what's happening here is
<v Speaker 1>this game is doing just fine, and I think I
<v Speaker 1>think the game it's weighted towards game pass in a
<v Speaker 1>really heavy way. That is not a problem for the game,
<v Speaker 1>not a problem for Microsoft. It is part of the plan,
<v Speaker 1>and and rankly, I think it's probably going to sell
<v Speaker 1>some game pass subscriptions, which is for as much as
<v Speaker 1>that's not their entire focus as it once was, it's
<v Speaker 1>still important to them. They still want to be growing
<v Speaker 1>all of their revenue streams. So yeah, it makes sense.
<v Speaker 1>Have you spend any time with Doom the Dark Ages,
<v Speaker 1>because I've been meaning to play it. I did a
<v Speaker 1>quick look with Dan and watched him play. It looks
<v Speaker 1>really good. I want to play more.
<v Speaker 2>I definitely want to play more. That is probably the
<v Speaker 2>most experience I got watching your quick look to it.
<v Speaker 2>There's just been too many games coming out right now.
<v Speaker 2>I've been playing through both blueprints, I've been playing through
<v Speaker 2>Expedition thirty three. I want to start Oblivion. I want
<v Speaker 2>to start so many games, and yet I keep coming
<v Speaker 2>back to like a Final Fantasy X. Expedition thirty three
<v Speaker 2>kind of just put me in the mood for a
<v Speaker 2>good jarrapy gee. But it's definitely a game I want
<v Speaker 2>to sink my teeth into when I have the time.
<v Speaker 3>It's there.
<v Speaker 2>I know people really like it. So have you gotten
<v Speaker 2>to the point where like the narrative really comes into
<v Speaker 2>play for Doom? I've heard I've heard some mixed things about.
<v Speaker 1>That, not really no. Yeah, Like I said, I like
<v Speaker 1>have booted it up once and haven't really played much
<v Speaker 1>of it at all. So yeah, that I think Dan
<v Speaker 1>got pretty deep into it. And Dan is pretty you know,
<v Speaker 1>allergic to that stuff, and he didn't have many terrible
<v Speaker 1>things to say about that. So I guess that gives
<v Speaker 1>me some hope for me personally, because for at least
<v Speaker 1>in terms of story, I line up with Dan pretty
<v Speaker 1>close on that stuff. But I don't know what have
<v Speaker 1>you heard, Like people just like it's too much story,
<v Speaker 1>too many cutscenes or something like that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I've I've definitely heard things along the line that
<v Speaker 2>it is kind of a little intrusive. And those were
<v Speaker 2>some of the elements from Eternal that I did have
<v Speaker 2>a little bit of a problem. It did was kind
<v Speaker 2>of a pace killer. I thought twenty sixteen did a
<v Speaker 2>great job of it reintroducing us, kind of establishing this
<v Speaker 2>this lore. But I mean, I don't really come to
<v Speaker 2>Doom for the huge lore. I do want to know
<v Speaker 2>more about what these dark ages and like how far
<v Speaker 2>in the past, Like what is this going to impact
<v Speaker 2>the gameplay? But yeah, it's it is kind of just
<v Speaker 2>like a hindrance from the moment's moment gameplay.
<v Speaker 3>I kind of come to Doom for.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I definitely think they struck the exact right balance
<v Speaker 1>and the right tone with Doom twenty sixteen. That's the
<v Speaker 1>kind of narrative I want. Here's someone talking to you
<v Speaker 1>an elevator and Doom guy punches the screen. That's perfect.
<v Speaker 1>That give me more of that. I don't think they
<v Speaker 1>did that. The Eternal definitely had a very different tone,
<v Speaker 1>and it sounds like this does as well, people in
<v Speaker 1>chatter saying it takes itself too seriously, which is not
<v Speaker 1>what I want from Doom. I wanted to know it's
<v Speaker 1>a metal album cover and play everything that way. All right,
<v Speaker 1>let's move on here. Anticipated game on Steam, Roadcraft is
<v Speaker 1>out now and off to a good start. This is
<v Speaker 1>one of my pet games. I'm a huge Roadcraft fan,
<v Speaker 1>already been playing it, but huge fan of this series
<v Speaker 1>that it spawned from mud Runners and snow Runners. This
<v Speaker 1>is from Blair Marnell at GameSpot Crafting games like Minecraft aside,
<v Speaker 1>the vast majority of video games seem to embrace destruction
<v Speaker 1>over creation. Saber Interactive's new title Roadcraft takes a different approach.
<v Speaker 1>This game puts players in control of sites that have
<v Speaker 1>already been devastated by natural disasters and lets them choose
<v Speaker 1>how they want to rebuild the area around them. Roadcraft
<v Speaker 1>is now out on Steam and currently at number thirty
<v Speaker 1>five on the platform was most played games, which just
<v Speaker 1>with just under thirty four thousand concurrent players. That's a
<v Speaker 1>very good start for a game considering the Triple A
<v Speaker 1>titles it's competing with. Yeah, this these games have an
<v Speaker 1>audience that like just show up for these games and
<v Speaker 1>they get long term support, you know, ten major updates,
<v Speaker 1>and people pay close attention to all of them because
<v Speaker 1>it's like this is the game they're playing. Roadcraft really
<v Speaker 1>seems like it has the potential to be you know,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know how to play long term. I think
<v Speaker 1>it's gonna be good long term, but at least in
<v Speaker 1>this moment, the first impression is very very good. It's
<v Speaker 1>they've really kind of nailed it in terms of making
<v Speaker 1>the loop make sense of just make a road, destroy
<v Speaker 1>some stuff that's in the way, go get the materials
<v Speaker 1>to make a different road, build a bridge. It's and
<v Speaker 1>then use all these different cool vehicles to accomplish that,
<v Speaker 1>these vehicles and these big machines. It's very satisfying. So
<v Speaker 1>I'm happy to see that this game is doing well.
<v Speaker 1>It's also the kind of game that does end up
<v Speaker 1>in game Pass eventually, which is when a lot of
<v Speaker 1>people finally try it, and I'm always happy for that.
<v Speaker 1>Then it's like easy to recommend because, like John, I
<v Speaker 1>have no idea if you would like this game, and
<v Speaker 1>I probably wouldn't even recommend it. But it's like I'll
<v Speaker 1>talk about it, and if you get excited by what
<v Speaker 1>I'm saying, I'm like, well, then you should play it.
<v Speaker 1>And if not, it's like, well, one day when it's
<v Speaker 1>free to you, you should try it, because I bet
<v Speaker 1>it could click still. But That's where I'm at with this.
<v Speaker 1>Are these kinds of games ever appealing to you?
<v Speaker 2>I always like messing around with it. Seems like it
<v Speaker 2>is kind of like a sandbox game. Definitely seems like
<v Speaker 2>being able to create a play area and the only
<v Speaker 2>limit is kind of your imagination. I'm definitely not the
<v Speaker 2>kind of person who would usually check this out, but
<v Speaker 2>I think there's a lot of credit there, like having
<v Speaker 2>game pass there to be able to try it. It
<v Speaker 2>is a really good thing, and I think, honestly, like
<v Speaker 2>this is kind of just like a microcosm of the
<v Speaker 2>bigger story that like Saber Interactive has really found multiple
<v Speaker 2>different niches that they're in, Like they're producing all of
<v Speaker 2>these games that are hitting really hard for a lot
<v Speaker 2>of people. So it's just kind of admirable in a
<v Speaker 2>situation where a lot of games are just getting canned
<v Speaker 2>for not really understanding what their audience wants, and Saber
<v Speaker 2>kind of gives it to them.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they it was the same that they did Space
<v Speaker 1>Marine two. Yeah, yeah, hammering games, right, And so they're
<v Speaker 1>just like all over the place, like all these different genres,
<v Speaker 1>and yet I don't think they're like none of their
<v Speaker 1>games are like flat out bad, and many of them
<v Speaker 1>are like good to like very good. And I include
<v Speaker 1>Space Marine two in there, and uh, mud Runners and
<v Speaker 1>snow Runners and all that stuff. Snow Runners was my
<v Speaker 1>game of the year that year. I really liked that game.
<v Speaker 1>So I remember, Yeah, so Saber has like found, You're right, found.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's not even a niche because it's in like
<v Speaker 1>several different niches, but it's definitely found a way to
<v Speaker 1>get games across the finish line. And they have a
<v Speaker 1>ton of projects. They're making that Jurrassic part game that
<v Speaker 1>Jeff Beckler thinks looks terrible, but the rest of us
<v Speaker 1>things looks pretty good. So I'm like, oh, man, they
<v Speaker 1>could pull off this stuff. I wonder what they're going
<v Speaker 1>to be able to do with that. So I'm at
<v Speaker 1>a point where anytime I hear Saber taking on a project,
<v Speaker 1>I get pretty excited. And you know, by all accounts,
<v Speaker 1>they are still working on that night so the Older
<v Speaker 1>Republic remake. For as much as Sony is not involved
<v Speaker 1>with that anymore, which is what I originally reported, they're
<v Speaker 1>still taking it on. And I'm like, I'm kind of
<v Speaker 1>like more excited by that. It's like, Man, this team
<v Speaker 1>just going after this ar tackling this massive thing. What
<v Speaker 1>could it possibly look like? I don't know. I guess
<v Speaker 1>maybe we'll find out eventually. I think there's a chance
<v Speaker 1>we see that game here pretty soon, I hope.
<v Speaker 3>So really I'm in a Star Wars mood right now.
<v Speaker 2>It's kind of just like, yeah, there was definitely a decline,
<v Speaker 2>but recently in recent years, I mean mostly driven by
<v Speaker 2>and Or. I've been watching this ILM documentary that they
<v Speaker 2>put on Disney.
<v Speaker 3>Really good, really cool.
<v Speaker 2>I think there's the second season now, so I'm excited
<v Speaker 2>to get into that.
<v Speaker 1>But that's when it talks about the early CGI. It's awesome.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's fantastic seeing the Creature Lab. It is just fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>Is Golden Age movie making is great?
<v Speaker 1>Yep, in a Star Wars mood as well, because and
<v Speaker 1>Or and like, I'm like, I'm going to go back
<v Speaker 1>to Outlaws for that DLC, And what I predicted is
<v Speaker 1>kind of happening. People are really coming around on Outlaws now.
<v Speaker 1>A big part of that is no one's trying to
<v Speaker 1>force themselves to play it anymore, so it's self selecting
<v Speaker 1>a little bit. The people who are most likely to
<v Speaker 1>enjoy Star Wars Outlaws are the ones playing it at
<v Speaker 1>this point. That's why the conversation has changed a little bit.
<v Speaker 1>But I think I still think that there's a an
<v Speaker 1>enthusiasm around that game that is well deserved because it's
<v Speaker 1>a better game than it got credit for. All Right,
<v Speaker 1>the last couple of stories here new prestige physical game
<v Speaker 1>label editions, and I think that's Capital Editions, that's what
<v Speaker 1>they're calling It promises to reinvent what it means to
<v Speaker 1>collect games. This is from Chris Scullion at VGC. A
<v Speaker 1>new collector's label focused on physical editions of games is
<v Speaker 1>launched today. The label, which is simply called Additions, is
<v Speaker 1>the work of Lost in cult and promises to reinvent
<v Speaker 1>what it means to collect games. Lost in CLT does
<v Speaker 1>like merchandise. I think they've done a lot of vinyl
<v Speaker 1>records for video games, soundtracks and things like that. Now
<v Speaker 1>they're getting into this physical collector's edition space, and the
<v Speaker 1>packaging looks phenomenal. It looks really good, John, I got
<v Speaker 1>the picture here. It has you know, it's not exactly
<v Speaker 1>Criterion Collection, but it feels like a video game Criterion
<v Speaker 1>Collection a little bit, with these slip cases that have
<v Speaker 1>a big, beautiful picture on it, and then you kind
<v Speaker 1>of take out the insert and it's like a kind
<v Speaker 1>of this thick booklet that has a bold color on
<v Speaker 1>it with the name on the spine, and it's probably numbered,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. It just looks fantastic. And that's for
<v Speaker 1>three games so far. And these things are going to
<v Speaker 1>be very limited, so people think these things look good,
<v Speaker 1>maybe you should move on them here very soon. Immortality
<v Speaker 1>for the PS five which is limited to fifteen hundred copies,
<v Speaker 1>the Excavation of Hobbs Barrow for Switch, which is limited
<v Speaker 1>to three thousand copies, And thank goodness you're here for
<v Speaker 1>PS five and Switch. PS five versions fifteen hundred copies.
<v Speaker 1>Switch version is three thousand copies. So yeah, again, I
<v Speaker 1>just think this looks fantastic. How how are you, like
<v Speaker 1>you said, you don't collect a lot of physical for
<v Speaker 1>PS five and Xbox? Do you collect for Switch? And
<v Speaker 1>are you someone who like goes the limited run games
<v Speaker 1>route or one of these small shops that put out
<v Speaker 1>these very stellar collections.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So when it comes to Switch, I just love a
<v Speaker 2>good cartridge. So a lot of my games on the
<v Speaker 2>original Switch have been physical for the most part. I
<v Speaker 2>really love collecting old games. I really love collecting like
<v Speaker 2>the Xbox PS two generation, Super Nintendo, all kinds of stuff.
<v Speaker 2>This does kind of appeal to me. It's kind of
<v Speaker 2>scary how much of it appeals to me, especially for
<v Speaker 2>something like Thank Goodness You're Here and Immortality, both fantastic games.
<v Speaker 2>I wish Immortality had a Switch kind of version. Maybe
<v Speaker 2>they're waiting for Switch to There's some tricks there that
<v Speaker 2>maybe the Switch can't handle. But I think this is
<v Speaker 2>a net good. I do like limited run games. I
<v Speaker 2>know in recent like past couple of weeks, there has
<v Speaker 2>been some kerfuffles. I know where there was one about
<v Speaker 2>the the latest Chante GBA release, and there's been some
<v Speaker 2>some goings on that I think there is. They're in
<v Speaker 2>a prime position addition to, you know, kind of make
<v Speaker 2>their mark, create this this soup uber like bougie collectors
<v Speaker 2>like that. Those pictures are gorgeous.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it really feels like, you know, I like the
<v Speaker 1>way video games look on a shelf, even though even
<v Speaker 1>if I'm not a collector myself, but I've heard the
<v Speaker 1>argument before and tend to agree with it that it's
<v Speaker 1>like video game shelves don't look as interesting or esthetically
<v Speaker 1>pleasing as like a bookshelf with a bunch of books
<v Speaker 1>that have all different shapes and colors and sizes, and
<v Speaker 1>and you could kind of organize it or whatever, kind
<v Speaker 1>of do a little visual flare to it to get
<v Speaker 1>the most out of that. And it's like, yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>get what you're saying there, and I do miss that
<v Speaker 1>if when I look at a video game shelf, this
<v Speaker 1>feels like it could introduce that idea, at least in
<v Speaker 1>terms of the variability of color and the materials and
<v Speaker 1>things like that. And then or if you turn it
<v Speaker 1>the other way where maybe the picture is facing out
<v Speaker 1>a little bit, it's like, well then it really is
<v Speaker 1>going to shine. It look very cool. So for me,
<v Speaker 1>video games are experiences. There are things that I play.
<v Speaker 1>That's why I collect digitally, you know, and not even
<v Speaker 1>collect I just I get the games digitally because they're
<v Speaker 1>just experiences to me for the most part, and then
<v Speaker 1>the physical object is something else, and I've sort of
<v Speaker 1>decided not to care about that when I see something
<v Speaker 1>like this, like, man, maybe I should that would be
<v Speaker 1>a fun thing to have.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the switch to generation is going to be kind
<v Speaker 2>of a little upsetting with the game view card nonsense,
<v Speaker 2>certain games having physicals. So I'm glad there are still
<v Speaker 2>people who are as passionate and who like creating this
<v Speaker 2>moment in time, this history that you know, people can collect,
<v Speaker 2>cherish and pass on.
<v Speaker 3>I think that's a really cool call.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, me too, And I'm glad there's like more companies
<v Speaker 1>getting into the space. It's definitely more than just limited
<v Speaker 1>run games. Already. There's a you know, I think it's
<v Speaker 1>Serenity Forge out in Colorado. We've talked to them before.
<v Speaker 1>They have a similar business, and there's other shops as well.
<v Speaker 1>But it's like that lost in CLT has this cachet,
<v Speaker 1>I think, and they clearly know what they're doing. They
<v Speaker 1>again in the packaging looks nice at least in pictures.
<v Speaker 1>We'll see how it is when it gets delivered. But
<v Speaker 1>it's nice to have some competition because it feels like
<v Speaker 1>this is going to be what's necessary for those people
<v Speaker 1>who want physical to continue, You're gonna need a lot
<v Speaker 1>of these smaller shops, all working in conjunction, just sort
<v Speaker 1>of pick up like if limited or games let something
<v Speaker 1>slip through the cracks like on one of these other
<v Speaker 1>places can pick that up and still make a physical version,
<v Speaker 1>and the people who really care can show up and
<v Speaker 1>get those destraining two. Depth says PS four to PS
<v Speaker 1>five upgrade is not exciting, just more efficient. This from
<v Speaker 1>Haley Williams at GameSpot. Really the headline is that story
<v Speaker 1>just saying that, like he's the chief technical officer and
<v Speaker 1>it's Aki Osakamoto over at Kojamin Productions, and the developer said,
<v Speaker 1>the difference between the PS four and the PS five
<v Speaker 1>isn't so great, but at least makes development more efficient.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think this is like a common sentiment among developers,
<v Speaker 1>And that's one of the reasons why this generation feels
<v Speaker 1>in many ways like it hasn't even really started or
<v Speaker 1>has been a long continuation of the PS four generation.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's very interesting because I feel like, yeah, like
<v Speaker 2>twenty sixteen onward, I feel like we kind of hit
<v Speaker 2>a point where everything is kind of just already super gorgeous,
<v Speaker 2>Like if you looked at Uncharted four today, it's still
<v Speaker 2>a gorgeous looking game that people slaved away on. And yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I think to an extent it has been that weird
<v Speaker 2>situation of it, paralleling kind of how like PC gaming
<v Speaker 2>has gone. There are multiple different skws, like no one
<v Speaker 2>can kind of figure out the baseline model to build
<v Speaker 2>a game around. I think these conversations happen all the time,
<v Speaker 2>whether it is to put games on PS four, PS five,
<v Speaker 2>or both. I know Capcom has put a lot of
<v Speaker 2>their games just on PS four. I think that's for
<v Speaker 2>an engine reason, but because it is acessible to everyone.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and second out of basically just he goes on
<v Speaker 1>to clarify a little bit, and he just says, the
<v Speaker 1>most obvious improvement from a technological point of view is
<v Speaker 1>the reduction in loading times. But to be honest, the
<v Speaker 1>difference between the two hardware systems isn't so great. It's
<v Speaker 1>more a case that on PS five there are more
<v Speaker 1>efficient ways of arriving to similar goals. So it's like,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, this is the feeling I think we mostly
<v Speaker 1>have had that these games from PS four to PS
<v Speaker 1>five are very similar to some like at some point
<v Speaker 1>for some of these games so similar similar that they
<v Speaker 1>just put out a PS four version and that's the
<v Speaker 1>PS five version as well. They're just like, well, we'll
<v Speaker 1>just put out PS four version, you'll just buy it
<v Speaker 1>on PS five. But it feel does feel like for
<v Speaker 1>the majority of games released, they are not trying a
<v Speaker 1>bunch of new ideas and new things and new even
<v Speaker 1>new visual tricks. The most part, it is same games
<v Speaker 1>as we've been getting for the last like ten years
<v Speaker 1>or so.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, all.
<v Speaker 1>Right, let's see your last story. Game Passes adding Metaphor, Refundasio,
<v Speaker 1>the Division two and more next week. This is from
<v Speaker 1>Andy Robinson at VGC. It's actually a pretty good club.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, game Pass is expensive, but they do they
<v Speaker 1>have been. It's better than it's ever been in terms
<v Speaker 1>of the offering. I don't know if it's better than
<v Speaker 1>it's ever been in terms of the deal and feeling
<v Speaker 1>like you're getting a lot for your money. But there's
<v Speaker 1>a lot of games on there getting added and have
<v Speaker 1>there have been since the beginning of this year. So
<v Speaker 1>Metaphor Refontasia will join game Pass Ultimate PC, game Pass
<v Speaker 1>and game Pass Standard for Cloud, PC and console. God,
<v Speaker 1>that's I'm not gonna say that every time. That's coming
<v Speaker 1>May twenty ninth, so next week, that's pretty good. Tails
<v Speaker 1>of Kenzera Zoo is joining tomorrow. Stalker two in Sinuous
<v Speaker 1>Saga helple A two will join game Pass Standard, which
<v Speaker 1>is like, remember they changed that, so not every game
<v Speaker 1>launches in there right away, they get added later. Tom
<v Speaker 1>Clancy's The Division two will come to game Pass Ultimate
<v Speaker 1>PC game Pass blah blah blah on May twenty seven,
<v Speaker 1>and Monster Trained two, which I think is a new
<v Speaker 1>release right, that's yeah, the next big Day one release. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>Monster Trained two will hit game Pass on on May
<v Speaker 1>twenty ninth, along with spray paint simulators, so not too bad.
<v Speaker 1>I did just get charged for game Pass Ultimate again
<v Speaker 1>and I'm like I should I should cancel that, and
<v Speaker 1>then I see things like this, My god, this is
<v Speaker 1>pretty decent, although probably won't play most of those games
<v Speaker 1>on my Xbox. John, where are you at with game
<v Speaker 1>Pass these days?
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, so I do have game Pass. I just
<v Speaker 2>built my first gaming PCA for a long time. This
<v Speaker 2>also the first generation. I actually just bought a Series
<v Speaker 2>X for the first time. I got it into the
<v Speaker 2>pandemic at a lot of people who were on game
<v Speaker 2>Pass who were playing, and I think there was some
<v Speaker 2>kind of like you kind of rent the Xbox for
<v Speaker 2>a while and then eventually you pay it off over time.
<v Speaker 2>Game Pass is a really good deal to say that,
<v Speaker 2>and continuing our conversation earlier, like games like Roadcraft are
<v Speaker 2>finding a new audience. I think Metaphor is going to
<v Speaker 2>be one that like finds a brand new audience, Like
<v Speaker 2>people who have heard really good things are looking forward
<v Speaker 2>to whatever Atlas is putting out next. I think it
<v Speaker 2>did a lot for Persona three and then yeah, like
<v Speaker 2>kind of unsung hits like I really loved Tales of
<v Speaker 2>Canzara is out. I think that is a really good
<v Speaker 2>game and people should like take a look at that.
<v Speaker 2>Not to mention like we were coming off of one
<v Speaker 2>of the most stacked aprils I can remember, especially for
<v Speaker 2>game Pass, and I mean to your credit, I also
<v Speaker 2>just got charged game Pass and it's going to go
<v Speaker 2>for another month and then we're gonna see what Xbox
<v Speaker 2>actually has in store at their showcase. So good point,
<v Speaker 2>they're hitting a really good cadence right now. I think
<v Speaker 2>it's a good deal, maybe not as good of the
<v Speaker 2>best deal in gaming that I think a lot of
<v Speaker 2>people were touting at the time. As we have, it's
<v Speaker 2>been getting a lot more complicated with all those tiers.
<v Speaker 2>I still forget the names. There's like core their stant
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, man.
<v Speaker 1>And if you don't want to get with the tiers,
<v Speaker 1>so you get the most most expensive one. It's twenty
<v Speaker 1>dollars a month, which that's a big round number. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's rough. I misspoke. Monster Trained two is out today.
<v Speaker 1>People in chatter like playing it right now, so yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I was looking at the May twenty nine date was
<v Speaker 1>for spray paint simulator. Monster Trained two out now I've
<v Speaker 1>not played Monster Train or what's the other one that
<v Speaker 1>everyone likes, Slay the Spire. I think that's a similar game.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not putting any of these. I'm wondering if I
<v Speaker 1>should just jump in with Monster Train two or go
<v Speaker 1>back to Slay the Spire. Feel free to let me
<v Speaker 1>know in chat. All right, that does it for the headlines.
<v Speaker 1>We have a poll question we need to get to.
<v Speaker 1>Let me pull that up right now as Jan gets
<v Speaker 1>it up for you all as well. You can go
<v Speaker 1>to YouTube dot com slash at giant Bomb, hit the
<v Speaker 1>community tab there find the poll questions. To vote yourself.
<v Speaker 1>Let's see here from earlier this week on Monday, do
<v Speaker 1>you think a game can be worth eighty dollars? Yes
<v Speaker 1>or no. We're gonna have a similar question today about borderlines. Specifically,
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna I have to vote to see the results here,
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna say, well, I didn't know. I haven't I
<v Speaker 1>haven't spent eighty dollars on a game yet I did
<v Speaker 1>the thing you did. I got Mario Kart World for
<v Speaker 1>fifty dollars. So I'm gonna say no until I am
<v Speaker 1>forced to say yes. And I'm in the minority here,
<v Speaker 1>thirty percent say no, seventy percent say yes. They think
<v Speaker 1>a game can be worth eighty dollars. Okay, yeah, hey,
<v Speaker 1>that's why it's eighty dollars everybody, If you seventy percent
<v Speaker 1>can be worth that, I think the problem it's just people.
<v Speaker 1>I think it would just be a truthful right, like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I can imagine a game being worth eighty dollars now.
<v Speaker 1>To be fair, I think in the past, John I
<v Speaker 1>did say that if Tears of the Kingdom was coming
<v Speaker 1>out and they wanted to charge me one hundred and
<v Speaker 1>fifty dollars, I would have easily just done that without thinking,
<v Speaker 1>so clearly I also agree. But there we go. We
<v Speaker 1>got a new poll question here in a second. I
<v Speaker 1>will get to that in a moment. Before we do that, though,
<v Speaker 1>John Martin wyt'ing to tell people where they can find
<v Speaker 1>you on the internet, what you have going on and
<v Speaker 1>all of that good stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Thank you so much.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, so you can find me at John Martin at
<v Speaker 2>policeguy dot com or whatever the excess thing I have.
<v Speaker 2>I'm about to be traveling. I'm also moving right now,
<v Speaker 2>so it's been kind of crazy. I do stream on Twitch.
<v Speaker 2>I do rate video essays. I'm looking forward to putting
<v Speaker 2>that out. I'm definitely going to be streaming the week
<v Speaker 2>of the switch to so you can check me out
<v Speaker 2>at high Score on YouTube, and you can also find
<v Speaker 2>me as high Scorer or jay man Xerius sixty.
<v Speaker 3>Five in the Giant Bomb chat.
<v Speaker 2>I'd love to talk to people, and I am excited
<v Speaker 2>for Rascal later today.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Rascal coming up. Let's do this poll question and
<v Speaker 1>we'll talk about what else we have happening. So new
<v Speaker 1>pole question, will you get Borderlands four at launch? If
<v Speaker 1>it's eighty dollars? So many of you say a game
<v Speaker 1>can be worth eighty dollars. Is Borderlands four going to
<v Speaker 1>be worth eighty dollars? Do you? We don't know if
<v Speaker 1>that's the price. That's why I said if, but yes
<v Speaker 1>or no, your options. We'll get the results and talk
<v Speaker 1>about that on Game mess Mornings here on Giant Bomb tomorrow.
<v Speaker 1>Speaking of Giant Bomb, as John said, Rascal Blight Club returns,
<v Speaker 1>Mike is gonna keep looking so cool everybody, You're just
<v Speaker 1>not gonna want to miss it. He also, this game's
<v Speaker 1>getting to him. This game is like, this game's really
<v Speaker 1>he was telling me last night. He's like, man, it's
<v Speaker 1>like a burden hanging over me that I got to
<v Speaker 1>go back and play that game. So I still think
<v Speaker 1>he's going to probably like finish that game and just
<v Speaker 1>a couple more episodes because he's still good at these games,
<v Speaker 1>even though hating it, but at least at the very
<v Speaker 1>least he's going to be miserable. So and then and
<v Speaker 1>then after that it's Dan's turn. So I'm like, I'm
<v Speaker 1>on cloud nine over here. This is the best. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>let's see what else do we have happening A quick
<v Speaker 1>or no, there should be a premiere happening on YouTube
<v Speaker 1>for the latest demo Derby. We recorded that yesterday o
<v Speaker 1>PM issue number fifty five. Look out for that. There's
<v Speaker 1>some really good bangers on that disc, so check that out.
<v Speaker 1>We had a really good time recording that and then
<v Speaker 1>voicemail Dump Truck. Tomorrow we'll have some more quick looks happening.
<v Speaker 1>We'll have upf on Friday. We're gonna be Mosquitos apparently.
<v Speaker 1>It's a Mosquito meets Evolve or mister Mosquito meets Evolve
<v Speaker 1>apparently is how this game works. So looking forward to
<v Speaker 1>playing that. Plenty more happening on Giant Bomb. If you
<v Speaker 1>want to support us, go to giant bomb dot com
<v Speaker 1>slash join. In the meantime, we'll be back with game
<v Speaker 1>this morning's tomorrow. John Martin, thank you so much for
<v Speaker 1>hanging out with me today and talking about video games. Man.
<v Speaker 1>I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you so much for happening. Man, this is the
<v Speaker 2>greatest Giant Bomb is the greatest community on Earth, and
<v Speaker 2>Rice happened to be a part of it.
<v Speaker 1>Thanks. I was real glad we could meet each other
<v Speaker 1>at PAX. I'm glad we could make this happen. We'll
<v Speaker 1>make it happen again in the meantime, thank you everybody
<v Speaker 1>for watching and listening. As John said, you're the best
<v Speaker 1>audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one,
<v Speaker 1>take care of yourself and goodbye.